Thursday 100826

John set the EmerFit record in last weekend’s Warrior Dash with a time of 28:36 putting him 131st out of over 5,000 participants. Also, a special thank to Jenni L for taking most of the photos on Saturday!

News

• Remember no Suffer on Saturday this week or next due to the Colorado Open and the Labor Day weekend, respectively. The gym will also be closed on Labor Day.
• Come cheer John G., Ali, and Deisel on this weekend at the Colorado Open. Workouts and heat announcements will be announced Friday at noon.
• New T-Shirts are in! If your pre-ordered one or just want to get one now Kristi can help you out.
• We are extending the application deadline for the EmerFit Weightlifting and CrossFit Team to the end of the day Monday. Apply by posting a comment to this blog post. The deadline was extended to give some interested people the chance to watch the Colorado Open before deciding if they want to participate.

The Next Cycle, Special Programs, and The Team

I wanted to share some thoughts about your choices for training programs starting in September. More details about the next cycle will continue to be announced over the next week. Next week will be a transition week and the new cycle will officially start on the Tuesday after Labor Day. After listening to your feedback and giving it probably too much thought we will be changing the focus slightly during the next cycle.

So as a bit of a reminder and to share some new details the more significant changes for the next cycle will be:

• Elimination of the ABC format which means that CrossFit Classes will be more group oriented and instructor led with everyone doing the same warm-up and workout. Most classes will also include a strength or skill section and there may be some variety in what each of your are doing during that portion of class.
• We will be programming a 6 week cycle beginning with a 3-week skill and strength microcycle, followed by a 2 week work capacity and stamina cycle, and finally a transition and testing week. In September the skill and strength work will be focused on the front squat, deadlift, barbell clean, and kettlebell snatch.
• We will continue to have a number of Open Coaching sessions surrounding each CrossFit class. The Open Coaching sessions allow additional times for your to complete the days training, make-up a session that you really wanted to do, or complete your own Special Program.

Some of you may notice a change in the above description and a previous announcement. We have decided to focus on the barbell clean instead of the snatch. We will still be working on kettlebell snatches. The reason for the change is beyond the scope of this post but it has to do with the everyday functionality of the snatch compared to the clean and common shoulder mobility issues amongst many EmerFitters. If you’d like more on that topic post a comment and I’ll do another blog post about the snatch.

With all that said I wanted to address some common questions and I think its easiest to do that in a FAQ format. I’ll post answers to one or two common questions of the next few days. If you have programming questions post them to the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

1. What if I liked the strength cycle and want to keep doing that?

The short answer is to talk with a coach about your options. In most cases we will recommend that you try the new cycle for 2-6 weeks before deciding whether to stick with the regular program or choose something more specialized.

We are finding that people fall into two broad categories when it comes to their training:

Category 1: I prefer to train with a group, be told what to do, and have regular opportunity for friendly competition. I want to get better overall but I have no specific goals.

Category 2: I prefer to train individually or with a partner. I like to be able to ask questions and have some supervision but enjoy going at my own speed. I have specific short-term and long-term goals.

Obviously, you need not stay in the same category overtime. And there is the possibly of a hybrid of these two categories, a sort of 2′ where you mostly train in Open Coaching but like to catch the occasional Class.

Its important to give this categorization some thought when considering how you want to train. If you think you have some specific goals but you a really motivated by the community and social aspects of class you might convince yourself to try a Special Program only to find you get bored or lose your motivation to train.

What category you fall in also depends on the rest of your life and priorities outside of the gym. If other projects at work or home require a lot of self-motivation and responsibility you might find Class to be the better option because you can just show up and do what you’re told.