Now that the annual Memorial Day Murph Challenge is behind us by a few weeks, it’s time to turn the corner to a new focus for the summer 2022 Aevitas Training cycle! Expect to see some innovative, challenging, and FUN new movements as we spend more time outside over the warmer months! You gotta enjoy the weather while you have it, right?!

Keep reading to learn the focus points of our strength, skill, and conditioning themes for the next few months.

Strength Work

This cycle’s strength work will have a focus in Speed-Strength, Odd Object Strength, and of course we’ll keep hitting “General” Strength benchmarks along the way

Speed-Strength

Objective: Use accommodating resistance and explosive reps to build speed at lighter weights.

Details: “Speed Strength” work is learning how to move lighter loads faster. This will lay the ground work for strength-speed, and eventually maximal strength down the road. For this component, the test/retest will be a 1 Rep Max Power Clean. The goal is that if you are able to move lighter loads faster through practice, you should be able to transfer that strength and speed into an explosive push and quick turnover in the Power Clean.

Odd Object Strength Work

Objective: The goal with odd object work is to use strongman implements like sleds (pull/push), tires, sandbags, weighted carries, kegs, stones, etc. to build a “grittier” strength base that should carry over to real-world strength more directly than the barbell.

Details: Historically, we have switched to a lot of odd-object in the off-season. This is common in other power/strength related sports. They also are much more outdoor friendly, and a fun break from our more traditional strength work. The test/retest for the Odd Object Strength work will be simple: 100ft Max Reverse Sled Drag (oof!)

General Strength

Objective: Of course, we will still have plenty of barbell work throughout this training cycle, so don’t worry – you won’t completely forget everything you’ve been working so hard on during your time at Aevitas! Loads will be relatively low, but volume and intensity (duration) will be higher than normal to coincide with our stamina-building objective.

Details: Looking at some good ol’ fashioned barbell basics here! You will see a strong technical element during our general strength work, and we’ll keep the loads to more productive working ranges, rather than all-out max effort. One of the main goals with this cycle is to rebuild some of our pulling patterns and bar/body mechanics post-Murph.  Girl WOD “Linda” will be our test/retest for this component of the cycle.

Skill

The skill work you see within this training cycle will have Weightlifting, Gymnastics, and Odd Object components

Weightlifting Skill Base

Objective: Plain and simple, the goal here is to build more core competency with the Snatch and C&J.

Details: Similar to the “General Strength” element above, we’re looking at skill work and technique above heavy loads for this portion of the training cycle focus. Better basics means better lifts! Along with the Power Clean test/retest above, this element will also work in a Snatch test of some kind.

Gymnastics Skill Base

Objective:  Again, keeping this one simple: the goal is to improve consistency and proficiency of CF gymnastics movements.

Details: After biasing heavily towards pull-ups and push-ups for Murph prep, we’ll be putting some work into the basics handstands, pistols, T2B, etc. The goal is to learn and practice better habits before we start ratcheting up volume and intensity in the fall. The emphasis here will be teaching the movement through drills and instruction then allowing the time and space for practice without an unproductive amount of fatigue.

Odd Object

Objective: Have we mentioned we’re working with odd objects this training cycle?! The goal in terms of skill work here is to improve mental grit and achieve more robust functional fitness.

Details: In parallel to the odd object strength work, we will also see one odd object conditioning piece come up regularly during this cycle. Odd object conditioning will build more well-rounded functional capacity for athletes looking to apply their fitness outside of the gym. The real world doesn’t come with convenient handles so we’re going to work with more objects that don’t have them.

Conditioning

Get ready to work HARD for your conditioning during this training cycle, as we focus on Stamina and throw a few conditioning benchmarks your way!

Stamina

Objective: Somewhere between “engine building” and “gas tank” lies stamina. We want to improve the top end of work capacity that is possible in mid- to long-duration MetCons. We will build up to Eva at the end of the cycle.

Details: Typically, CrossFit does a good job of building short- and moderate-duration stamina (2-14 min) . Stamina is defined as your ability to sustain near maximal output for a given duration. Since Murph helped us lay a decent cardio, respiratory, and muscular endurance base, going after some moderate- to long-term stamina is a next natural step. Building more stamina will help us sustain higher training loads and volumes when we move into more sport specific training in the fall. Warning: these are going to hurt. A workout like Eva comes to mind for long duration stamina (30-40 min). Moderate duration stamina would be something more like Kalsu or Macho Man (15-22 min).

This is the part of the program we are most excited (and a bit nervous!) about!