Hello Again! 

First of all, I want to say thank you to all of you for your effort and patience as we work out the kinks! I have been beyond impressed with each of you during the last six weeks as you have shown up and shown out. Seeing so many new PRs at the end of the squat cycle was immensely satisfying as a coach, and that speaks to the hard work you all put in and the commitment you’ve shown. 

However, the end of that six weeks means it’s time to mix things up a little. The CrossFit Open is looming large, so let’s get prepared! You’ll notice some change in how we approach the week, but I wanted to touch on some mainstays for the coming cycle. 

The Strength work for the coming weeks will focus on Deadlifts. There is, however, a little tweak to a traditional deadlift cycle. We are not going to spend our time trying to hit an all time max but will instead focus on the quality, speed, and efficiency of our movement. You’ll notice deadlifts will be programmed as clusters and AMRAPs, allowing athletes to move the bar with speed and precision. This should carry over into the open, building your confidence with moderately loaded bars in a fatigued setting. I have the utmost confidence this will lead to stronger pulls in the future, as well. 

We will be pairing our strength work with Power Output Intervals. The focus on these will be hard sprint repeats, allowing just enough time to recover before getting after your next round. Expect to see barbells, plyometrics, and sprint machine work pop up often!

One day of the week will focus on building Shoulder Endurance, encouraging athletes to hang on despite local muscle fatigue. You will see barbells, dumbbells, gymnastics, and body weight elements used to accomplish this goal. 

Expect to see Longer, Mixed-Modality workouts pop up in the middle of the week. These will be about pacing. One day of the week will focus on keeping the intensity relatively high, challenging athletes to create a plan and execute. Another day will be about refining our movement speed and quality while getting touches on movements we are likely to experience during the CrossFit Open. The second type of workout will often be of a slightly lesser intensity. 

Finally, for Fridays, athletes will be diving into tough, Open-Style Workouts. It is important to get acclimated to the intensity and structure of the open, so that when these workouts inevitably crop up, we know how to get after it!

To cap out the week, Partner Workouts are here to stay. This will be a chance to get touches on movements that were neglected during the week, making sure we all stay primed and prepped. 

Looking forward to the coming weeks! As always, the coaches and staff at CFI are truly grateful to have your trust and confidence! 

We are truly in it now,

WT and the CFI Staff

Hey All – 

As I’m sure you’re all aware the CrossFit Open is looming in the not-so-distant future! As a result, expect to see a few tweaks and trends in programming for the coming months. I wanted to sit down and lay out WHAT you can expect, and perhaps more importantly, WHY you’re going to see it. We won’t be hammering hard metcons day in and day out. Instead look for us to prepare your bodies for the contraction volume, skills and movements we expect you’ll run into during those infamous three to five weeks!

Strength… we know it, we love and we cannot live without it. So we will be diving into a couple of strength elements, the first of which is a squat cycle. Within the first week everyone will establish a 3RM on the back squat, and from there we will move into percentage work. 

The intent of this block is not only to build your absolute strength and confidence under the bar, but to also improve your endurance. As a result, you will notice a “joker set” at the end of each squat day where you have the opportunity to test your mettle against the metal. Get ready for a gut check! Expect to see these sessions paired with single leg work to eliminate any imbalances we may have developed over the years. 

Alongside back squats, athletes will be spending a day out of the week improving the quality and consistency of their olympic lifts. Weeks will alternate between snatch and clean and jerk work, keeping things simple and progressive. Athletes will have the chance to go heavy, but the intent is always to improve the quality! If the movement looks solid, the weights will follow. 

Skill… everyone’s favorite, right? Who doesn’t love the chance to flail wildly on the pull up bar or bang their heads on the ground over and over? While that’s all fine and dandy, the goal for these six weeks isn’t to train bad habits, no, our goal is to step back, and focus on building volume in these movements with proper mechanics!  Take a look at yourself this cycle, and if need be, take a step back so we can take ten steps forward down the line. Expect to see gymnastics and skills pop up in the metcons, where proper performance under fatigue will be the name of the game. 

Conditioning…  This cycle will be a chance to dabble in a variety of modalities, time domains and formats. Exposing you to a variety of new things only makes you feel more comfortable when the unknown does rear its ugly head. EMOMs, AMRAPs, Intervals, Chippers and all the things in between will make an appearance. These workouts will feature movements you will encounter during the open, because exposure now means less stress later on. Expect a few Open-style workouts, just to make sure you’re prepared!

Additionally, get ready for Fridays… They’re gonna be a treat!

While this doesn’t cover every last minute detail for the coming month plus, it does give you some insight into what we’re doing and why we’re doing it! Things change, and as they do we as coaches want to be sure we are offering you the things you need to be successful. If you’ve read this far, thank you. It must have been tough.

Looking forward to getting started!

WT and the Impulse Coaches

P.S. the themes for the workout titles are a little goofy. If you can guess them, maybe there’s something in it for you… maybe.