How We Approach The Opens

Today’s blog post is 100% dedicated to what Deep Performance’s training plan looks like in preparation for, and through, the Opens. I know many of you are curious what days I’m going to plan the Opens workouts for and how we are going to be prepping for them. I’ve also been asked by a couple of you what it would look like if you had to repeat a work out considering the shift from the final day moving to Monday. I am basing all of this information on the premise that most of you are gearing up for the Opens as your major competition. Hopefully, those of you who are guaranteed to make regionals are following a plan preparing you to Peak for regionals. My deep performance blog is designed to peek you for the Opens. For those of you that make it to regionals off of this program; we will set up for a different training plan to prepare you for regionals. The next 10 weeks will be solely focused on reaching your maximum potential in the Opens.
Here’s the basic lay down: the Open workout will be performed for the first and only programmed time on the blog on Fridays. This is the day after the Open workout is released and the day after a rest day. This seems like the smartest decision as many of you will want to get a crack at the workout sooner rather than later on the off chance that you need to repeat it. There will still be some strength and skill work posted that day. My suggestion, if possible, is that you complete it after you complete the Opens workouts. It will not be extensive or overly-taxing, but on the assumption that the program works and you make it to regionals, you cannot afford to forgo the strength work and skill work.
Saturday’s work will include some squatting and some pretty taxing strength work. The conditioning on Saturday will be high-intensity with high rest intervals. Obviously, Sunday we will take a rest day. Saturday and Sunday are designed to help you continue to get stronger, but also encourage rest a bit in case you need to repeat the Opens work out on Monday. On Monday I will program a normal standard strength and skill workout. The conditioning ,however, will be of the same format, time domain, and intensity level as the Opens workout. Should you need to repeat it this would be the day to repeat it and clearly report your score before 5 PM that afternoon.
Tuesday and Wednesdays will be your typical training day with lifting, squatting, skill work, and a longer conditioning piece on Wednesday. I believe these days are absolutely necessary work and should be taken very seriously if you plan to compete at Regionals. Far too often athletes will take too many days off and rest too much during the Opens in order to create what they believe to be the best situation for performance in the Opens workouts. Not only is this hurtful to your overall fitness over the course of five weeks, but it will prevent you from being at your best should you make it to Regionals.
I know there are going to be many of you who want to know my opinion on repeating workouts. My opinion is very simple. Crossfit HQ is giving us the opportunity to repeat them and we would be stupid to not at least consider the opportunity. There are many high-level Regional and Games-level athletes that I will recommend to never repeat workouts. Though, I will have some of them repeat workouts in attempt to get them in the first heat for Regionals. For the rest of us normal humans, it may be necessary to repeat a workout in order to climb up into that top 30. Seeing that CrossFit headquarters has given us the chance to redo the workouts, we might as well plan on needing to if we are fighting for a spot in the Regional. I will say, however, that completing a Opens workout everyday for five days straight likely is detrimental to your fitness and probably will become injurious at some point. Two completions of the same work out in one week is more than enough. Three is certainly pushing it, but I could see that necessity on potentially the last week of the Opens. Any more than that not only is hurtful but is just downright boring.
I hope this gives you some vision of what we are planning to do through the Opens. We will begin adjusting your body to this style of training starting this week so that when the Opens hit, your body is fully adapted. The squat cycle we are going to complete is one of the lesser volume cycles I use, but does peak in volume a couple different places. I will adjust the squatting as needed to best prepare you for success in the Opens.
The season is here ladies and gentlemen. All of the work we’ve done throughout the year for most of you was to prepare you for right now. If there is a time to take sleep, food, and recovery very seriously, now is that time. Eat clean, make sure you are getting a minimum of eight hours of sleep, and take care of your body as best possible. I can’t wait to see the results in 10 weeks.
“Maximum Non-Lethal Dose”