Hey Old Cityzens!
Oh, man! What a week! How are your shoulders and upper body feeling after last week? What a doozy, eh?
I want to talk about the programming for a bit this week.
First off, we love feedback about the programming – good, bad, and all the in between. Sometimes workouts run long, aren’t as long as we thought they would be, or just mess you up. Let us know what you think! Feeding off of that – our goal is not to mess you up. Our goal is to help you get in a good hour of work, get stronger, and maybe learn something along the way. Workouts aren’t programmed to crush you, but to challenge you. Scaling is ALWAYS an option, and sometimes the best option. I’ll mention last Friday’s workout as a good example. How many of you used a lighter weight but were still hauling ass to finish under 5 minutes. I definitely was!! Never be ashamed to scale the weight/reps/round/movement because you’ll still get in a good workout. Following workouts like Friday’s (and Thursday, and Wednesday..) make sure you’re still moving after you leave the gym. Use the other 23 hours in the day to improve yourself – get adequate sleep, stay hydrated, walk, fuel your body with good food, do some extra mobility work at home, etc. The hour in the gym is just the tip of the iceberg. So if a have “a shoulder thing”, talk with your coach(es) on what you can do before/during/after class to make it better.
One thing you’ll notice the next 6 weeks is a little change in the programming with strength workouts, switching to Rate of Perceived Exertion, or RPE Scale. This will be similar to what we’ve already been doing if we say heavy 8/5/3 where we might say ‘feel like you can do 2-4 more reps’. If you aren’t already tracking your workouts, start a logbook (a simple notebook works fine), and keep track of your workout times, weights, and even how you feel going into the workout (stress level, sleep, have you eaten enough). This will help you better regulate how heavy to go on the strength days, and even in the workouts.
What do you say.. up for the challenge??
On that note, I’ll stop yappin’ and let’s see what’s coming up this week..
Monday – Deadlifts with a new intensity scale. Triplet with hand release push ups and KB swings.
Tuesday – Dbl KB or DB press and a “Cindy-esque” pull/push/squat workout.
Wednesday – Partner workout with power cleans and front squats while partner 2 ‘holds down the fort’.
Thursday – Back squats and some double unders and dumbbell thrusters. This is gonna be a good one 😀
Friday – Double strength working on cycling power cleans and jerks, and them some booty work with RDLs. Have some fun with curls and tricep stuff, too.
Saturday – Long workout with some bike sprints, wall walks, and toes to bar. Get nasty! Gym-nasty 😉
Sunday – Open gym + Gainz Club + WODTrain + HeroWOD + Yoga
Let’s have another great week!
-Jen