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We are in our final week of the Achilles Cycle. With that we are pushing a lot of our 1RM Tests to our test phase / transition week in the week to follow, which also lines up with the week of the Games. The hope is that we can get some fun and excitement built out around the week of the Games and have athletes testing along with the best athletes in the world. However this week does start us off in our testing phase with the 1RM Clean and Jerk on Monday and then rolls into some fun things coming down the pike with the Partitioned Standard on Friday as well as some heavy percentage on our Front Squat that is meant to prime and top off the system going into test week. This week’s focus shifts between challenging our weightlifting on Monday to more of a skill focus on Tuesday, then into more sustained aerobic output with a posterior chain implemented Wednesday. On Thursday, we shift the focus to absolute strength work with our Front Squat progression before finishing off the week on Friday with our test workout “The Partitioned Standard”. Our weekend rounds out with a fun member of the Month WOD Steve with a triplet of Wall walks, Rope climbs and heavy cleans

This week we have a good mix of workouts and are getting into the final 2 weeks of the cycle here, which means things should be progressing nicely and our percentages are going up. We will be starting off the week with our Split Jerk progression, along with a challenging triplet of Double Unders, Dumbbell Snatches, and Lateral Burpees over the Dumbbells. The focus for Monday is more on speed and mechanics throughout the entire day with the triplet entailing a time domain of around 11-15 minutes. On Tuesday, we shift the focus to a more strength based day with a Back Squat focused strength EMOM that also includes L-Sit Pull-Ups and Contralateral Box Step-Ups. The focus here will be around bracing and getting heavy on the Back Squats. Wednesday circles us around to a long mixed monostructural workout centered at building our lactate endurance. Thursday we move back around to a more strength / skill based focus day with a Handstand Walk to start off with and work into a triplet of Kettlebell Swings, High Box Jumps, and a “Wall Walk Complex”. We also have the option to finish the day with quality strength accessories. On Friday, we will move into an Oly focused day with our Snatch progression as we are moving into the final sessions leading towards our 1RM test. We will combine this with a challenging couplet of Overhead Squats and Toe to Bar to round out some quality work to finish the day. The weekend will lead us with another fun two part segment with a couple couplets of Ring Muscle-Ups and Burpee Box Jumps, followed by Deadlifts and Burpee Box Jumps. The focus here will be on some skill work to start the day and then getting into the fun. Sunday brings the focus back to strength development with a quality strength EMOM and accessory work meant to be done directly after in the class setting to finish off the Week before heading into our final week of the cycle!

We are now into Week 4 of the PRVN Achilles Cycle. With that, our progressions will get a little heavier, we will get more specific to the specific goals of the cycle and you will see slight shifts in workout style as we increase the density a bit in the final 3 weeks here towards test week. A note that our testing phase will be the week leading into the Games and the week of the Games and we will be implementing classic CrossFit Benchmarks as well as some key workouts from years past that are specific to PRVN. I will have a little write-up on the flow and style of these two weeks, but last year we all had a lot of fun with some good Benchmark testing and refocus before going back into a longer 10 week cycle to follow, starting the 12th of August. 

This week will start things off with a Heavy Front Squat single at 92% as we move towards establishing a 1RM at the end of the cycle. We will hit a fun and challenging couplet of Burpee Pull-Ups and multiple squatting movements as the conditioning piece paired with the heavy Front Squat day. On Tuesday we will tackle some interval conditioning, targeting upper body density. Wednesday we will move things into a very simple and effective day with some Heavy Squat Cleans before circling into an EMOM couple of Thruster and Toe to Bar, targeting midline stamina. Thursday brings us around to our Push Press progression building to a heavy 4 on the day before hitting a fun E3MOM x 4 workout with the goal of completing with minimal rest between sets. Then Friday finishes off the work week with a Leg Stamina chipper centered around running endurance and pacing. 

We will start the weekend off with a pumpy style partner triplet in a very classic CrossFit format that should get athletes jamming into the weekend. Then we will finish things off with a barbell conditioning focused workout of Power Cleans, Deadlifts, GHD Sit-Ups and Bar Facing Burpees. 

As always our competitor work is meant to line-up and mesh with the current weekly programming. We build this off our PRVN Compete track and build a cohesive week that targets all components of our fitness in order to keep athletes progressing and moving towards their goals with local comps, qualifiers, or even Semifinals and the Games. The structure of how to tackle your day is written in and adjusted to usually suit 2 training sessions built around managing work / life challenges.

We are now getting into Week 3 of the Achilles Cycle, which means we are already 3 weeks through this cycle and ready to tackle increased loading as we keep building our progressions. You will start to really notice a theme here through this cycle with alternating weeks on focused progressions here as we are now tackling the Front Squat progression again as well as the Split Jerk progression we hit on Week 1. We will be working into a fun variation on the Snatch today with some touch and go reps from 5 down to 1 with the goal of increasing loads up to near 90% today. This will be a great addition to and progression as we move towards 1RM’s at the end of the cycle. The flow of the week has us working a good amount in the 10-15 minute time domain this week, however we did place in some long work on Tuesday, hard interval 1:1 work on Thursday and Saturday, and a sprint workout Sunday. 

Special Workout Notes: 

We are re-testing a workout from a long time back with “Karabel on Monday. This is a fun combo of two benchmark workouts to make for a very fun and steady leg stamina workout. Tuesday’s long AMRAP is separated into 2 rotating stations done back to back with no rest and an extra focus on midline stamina and gymnastics density. Our workout on Wednesday has us really focused on posterior chain work and you will definitely be feeling your glutes going into Thursday. Thursday’s workout is meant to be high capacity and chasing the pain a bit here with the workout “Sham Pain”. Friday has the focus shift a bit to more of an anaerobic barbell conditioning workout that gives us shades of “Fran”. Saturday brings us around to a very simple partner workout where we will rotate full rounds with the goal of chasing the intensity and working to finish each round as fast as possible without regard to the next one your will have to do. On Sunday, we finish things off with some odd object strength work and a sprint couplet of pump!. 

Have fun this week and get after it!

We are now in Week 2 of the PRVN Achilles Cycle. The focus again will be on development of a 1RM Snatch, 1RM Clean and Jerk, 1RM Front Squat and 1RM Push Press during this time period as we have shifted our focus from the development of the Big 3 lifts of the Back Squat, Deadlift, and Strict Press. This week ties that together with the implementation of some Squat Clean work and barbell conditioning Monday, followed by our Push Press progression on Tuesday, and adding in a second Squat day with some added volume with the Back Squat on Friday. We are coupling that Back Squat with some heavier Deadlifts in the conditioning piece as added posterior chain work to beef up the body and keep our hinging pattern strong. 

Dumbbell Hang Split Snatch: 

• We will be alternating feet while keeping the Dumbbell in one arm for the prescribed reps. The dumbbell should start between the legs at hip height. 
• Extend through the hips keeping the Dumbbell close to the body and as the dumbbell passes the midline of the body jump to a split stance and punch the dumbbell overhead. We will keep the focus on a strong lockout position and active shoulders. Recover both feet back to center before dropping the dumbbell back to the hip and then proceeding to do the next rep, jumping to split with the alternate feet. 

Extra Cardio and bodybuilding programming

Pump

Welcome to the Achilles Cycle!

This 6 week cycle will begin to transition all of our raw power development in the big lifts and power variation weightlifting from “Zeus Cycle”’ into more technical and positional focused strength in the full snatch, full clean, and jerk. 

Programming Approach: Throughout this cycle you will see a high focus on the front squat and on weightlifting percentages. We’ve built an incredible foundation of strength and explosiveness, and now it’s time to fold it into its most direct applications in the snatch and clean & jerk. You will see isolated weightlifting sessions throughout the course of this cycle with the ideal of rotating between the Snatch and Clean + Jerk Bi-Weekly, but also with some specific Jerk sessions, Overhead Squat and/or Snatch Balance sessions in order to make sure we are really developing our positions and technique in a well rounded manner. We will also be doing isolated gymnastics skill sessions to develop comfort with higher skill movements, in addition to bodybuilding and strict gymnastics work twice per week in our accessories or within the strength pieces in order to improve our raw gymnastics capacity and structural strength. 

Our challenge for you guys is to use this cycle as a time of refinement in the two major lifts, and to focus on hitting crisp and consistent percentages with your weightlifting each week. We will also continue plyometric & agility work to improve overall athleticism, hip extension, and body control. Our conditioning pieces will have a bias towards interval style work in order to refine and develop multiple aspects of our fitness. The goal throughout each week and the cycle is to keep things well rounded from short intense style sprint workouts to long grindy chipper style workouts. 

Programming Goals:

-Establish a new 1RM Front Squat, Clean & Jerk, and Snatch

-Build a base of strength and technique with skilled gymnastics movements

-Improve power & threshold output in interval style workouts and monostructural work

We are now in our transition week and with this week we are taking the loads off for the most part by not going for any major strength progressions this week, however the plan is to hit some fun finishers throughout the week that all target different body parts and have athletes getting a nice little pump to finish the day. We are keeping things simple and mimicking some workouts that were just recently programmed for the CrossFit Games Semifinals.. The goal is to bring some fun into the gym this week by providing a little different style with a bigger focus on conditioning workouts and a functional pump finisher each day. 

Who doesn’t like a BICEP CURL finisher!!

Also please note Lilys 3 WOD fundraiser kicks off at 9am on Saturday

We end the week with our annual Hero WOD Murph. If this is your first attempt at this WOD please chat to a coach for your best approach to safely and effectively tackle this high volume workout.

We commence deload week this week. However as usual there will be an uptick in metcon volume. Kicking off Monday public holiday with an 8am Class only. We finish off the week with our member of the Month WOD Jade