By Sean Chua
Sadly, summer has come and gone. As we all know in DC, we usually skip right over fall and head straight to winter.
I wanted to take a moment to write about the upcoming quarter’s programming and getting the most out of your time at the gym. The next quarter’s programming focus will be bodyweight: pushing, pulling and the all-mighty core work. Think handstand push-ups, ring rows, and hollow holds! We’ll be bringing back similar progressions to the pull-up progression in between our strength sets. As always, the progressions will be scalable to your skill level! This is another great opportunity to work on pull ups (getting them if you don’t have them, and getting more of them if you do). I’ve also heard through the grape-vine (Sean and Erin told me I could tell you guys) that with the back carriage house being completed in a couple weeks comes a couple ropes for us to climb. Bodyweight might be the focus, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be taking a break on strength.
You’ll see slight adjustments to the strength progressions to allow for a bit more volume. Strength sets will still follow the week of 5’s and 3’s that you’ve gotten used to. The difference is the load will consist of 1-2 warm-up sets then sets of 5 at 75% (as opposed to 5 @ 55%, 5 @ 65%, then 5 @ 75%) of your 1 rep max for the week of 5’s, sets of 3 at 85% of your 1 rep max for the week of 3’s and the 5, 3, 1+ scheme that you know and love for that heavy week. The primary lifts will be back squats, deadlifts, and strict presses. Don’t worry barbell addicts; you will still see Olympic lifts in the workout and for strength!
That does it for programming, but I wanted to take this opportunity to also talk about making the most out of your hour in class! Are you “just not feeling it” today or your wrist has been bothering you? Let your coach know! Don’t know what we mean or understand how to “stay tight!” or “keep that bar close!” as the coaches cue you? Tell us! Great communication between coach and athlete will help you get the most out of Old City CrossFit!
Great communication also involves listening and remembering your coaches’ cues, possibly even writing them down in that journal or word document that you use to record all of your benchmark workout times and 1 rep maxes. If that journal or word document doesn’t currently exist then you will need to remedy that immediately!
Lastly, I want everyone to keep up the amazing work! It’s hard to believe that Old City’s 1 year anniversary is coming up so soon, but what an amazing year it’s been so far. As a coach, it’s been great to see people’s personal goals being achieved from first muscle-ups or pull-ups to weight-loss goals. As an athlete, I’ve PR’ed every lift and all my maximum repetitions since joining Old City CrossFit last October. I look forward to continuing improving all of you and myself in the years to come!
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You can find Sean Chua working out at the 7am class or coaching most nights after 6 pm. Sean is also the purveyor of the Old City CrossFit Gymnastics program.
