JOURNAL

May '23 Programme

by tom MCADAM
26/04/23

Programme Overview

Monday Force

Full body strength: pause deadlifts, pause bench press, gorilla rows, assistance & core work

Tuesday Energy

30:30 intervals (row, ski, bike) in various combinations and formats

Wednesday Work

Gymnastics skill practice (HSPU / ring muscle up) + EMOM or metcon

Thursday Force

Full body strength: pause squats, pause overhead press, pause ring pull-ups, assistance & core work.

Friday Energy

Varied workouts involving running, ergs and functional movements

Saturday Work

As usual - longer, harder partner workouts

Sunday Force

Full body strength: pause front squats, DB single arm overhead press, Jefferson curls, bridge work, gun show, core work.

Sunday RUN CLUB

5km run around Victoria Park

Force Programme:

Having worked through a block of slow eccentrics we're now moving on to work on pauses in all the main lifts and movements. This involves taking the exercises to their weakest point and holding that position for a certain amount of time. Deadlifts will be pauses just off the floor, squats just above your bottom position, bench presses just off the chest, overhead presses just off the shoulders... you get the idea!

Pause work is hard but we love it for 3 main reasons:

1. Working on pauses can be an effective way to increase your 1 rep maxes because you're specifically strengthening the points in the lifts where you are weakest. These are, for obvious reasons, often the points where you fail your heaviest lifts.

2. Pauses are a great way to build strength and lean muscle without overly taxing the nervous system or joints. If you keep hammering heavier and heavier squats, deadlifts and presses, you'll eventually encounter joint pain, niggles and general systemic fatigue. Pause work allows these systems to recover while you continue to get stronger.

3. Pauses are an effective way to build postural / core strength. You'll feel muscles that you often don't feel doing these exercises: lots of lower back, abs, mid-upper back and lats. This will help your general health and performance and make you more resilient!

As with the eccentrics, the pauses will start longer with lighter weights. As we progress, the pauses will get shorter while the weights increase. It's super important not to push the weights here. Focus on good positions. It will be hard enough, trust us. The percentages are just a guide. For some of you, these numbers will be too high.

Energy programme:

In the Energy programme, we're coming off a tough block where we did a lot of short highly intense sprints. For this next block, we're changing gears a bit and playing around with a classic aerobic interval set up: the 30:30.

The 30:30, as the name suggests, involves working for 30 seconds and resting for 30 seconds. In week 1, we'll be doing 10 rounds of 30:30 on each of row, ski and bike for a total of 30 intervals.

30:30 intervals allow you to work at a fairly high intensity while still requiring you to pick a pace that you can recover from. They're a great way to build endurance and improve your VO2 max.

The goal here would be to work at the fastest speeds / splits you can while keeping the same pace for all rounds on each machine. Across the month, as we vary the format, the hope is that you can edge your splits up a bit.

Judging the pace on these intervals can be quite challenging. It's fast but at the same time there are a lot of intervals so endurance is required. We've put together some rough starting targets based on different levels. These are just a guide and ideally you should go by feel and adjust to your own ability:

Advanced (m) - 150m row / 135m ski / 300m bike

Advanced (f) - 135m row / 120m ski / 270m bike

Intermediate (m) - 135m row / 120m ski / 270m bike

Intermediate (f) - 120m row / 100m ski / 250m bike

Novice (m) - 120m row / 100m ski / 250m bike

Novice (f) - 100m row / 90m ski / 225m bike

WORK PROGRAMME:

In the Work programme, we're sticking with lots of gymnastics skill work. This has proved to be very popular and we're seeing great progress.

This month we'll be mixing between continuing to work on inversions / handstand push ups and hanging work (toes to bar and pull-ups). We'll also be introducing some classes working towards strict ring muscle ups.

Remember that we build these skills all the way from the ground up so don't feel like you need to be a gymnast to attend these classes! If you've never been upside down, you can still come. If you're nowhere near a pull-up, you can still come. We'll get you there!

These skills workshops will be followed by either a skill-focussed EMOM (every minute on the minute) where we continue to practice OR a conditioning piece / metcon.

The key with these skills is consistency. Keep coming week to week and you'll see amazing progress!

Week 1:

Monday Force

A. Pause deadlift - 3x5 with 3s pause just off floor @65-70% of your 1RM / a little heavier than last week

B1. Pause bench press - 3x5 with 3s pause just off chest @65-70% of your 1RM / a little heavier than last week

B2. Gorilla rows - 3x8/8

D1. DB reverse lunges - 3x8/8

D2. Push ups - 3x10-20

D3. Straight arm plank - 3x30s

Tuesday Energy

3 rounds:

30s row / 30s rest

30s ski / 30s rest

30s bike / 30s rest

30s row / 30s rest

30s ski / 30s rest

30s bike / 30s rest

30s row / 30s rest

30s ski / 30s rest

30s bike / 30s rest

Rest 1 minute

The aim here would be to improve your average splits from last week. Rotating between the different ergs rather than staying put for 10 rounds should allow you to push the intensity higher. There are also only 27 rather than 30 intervals!

Here are some rough targets for each interval:

Advanced (m) - 150m row / 135m ski / 300m bike

Advanced (f) - 135m row / 120m ski / 270m bike

Intermediate (m) - 135m row / 120m ski / 270m bike

Intermediate (f) - 120m row / 100m ski / 250m bike

Novice (m) - 120m row / 100m ski / 250m bike

Novice (f) - 100m row / 90m ski / 225m bike

As always, the aim is to maintain consistent splits throughout the whole workout. Try to feel this out!