Coaches Corner August 2022

It is easy to get caught up in the busyness of the season and forget, or unintentionally neglect remaining diligent in keeping up with routines that are less fun. But just a friendly reminder, that this too shall pass, and you will be exactly where you put yourself when it is time to collect the fallout from the season's festivities. This is not a recrimination, or some doom and gloom message about sinners burning in a lake of fire for eternity…More just a sticky note on the mirror saying that keeping your eye on the prize, whatever that is for you, will pay big dividends for when you are able to really dive back into the rat race of annihilating obstacles and crushing the distance that separates surviving from thriving.

Build - During this block, we are doing a couple of different styles of strength days. One of these will be focusing on single limb exercises. The other is working between bodyweight gymnastic straight arm strength and other various holds to build grip strength, promote shoulder health and make all around more formidable human beings.

Build + Grind - One day per week. EMOM style strength and cardio. Find weights that are hard but doable for you. There are 6 sets per exercise, use the first 1 or 2 rounds to feel out the weights, then settle in with a loading plan that leaves no option for your body but to grow and adapt.

Charge - Accelerations, instead of doing these on the track (I wish we had one out the door), we will be doing these on the Erg’s. Slow too fast. These are slightly different than having a prescribed distance, instead we will be using time as a parameter, and we want distinct differences in effort throughout each rep. For instance, the first effort should be at 40-50%, then roughly 65-70%, then 80-85% and lastly a full “sprint” at 90-95%. The last sprint should be just below all out. We want to be able to repeat each acceleration, so even though we are saying “sprint”, it is just below 100% effort.

Grind - Stations, complexes and cardio.

Sustain - Longer interval aerobic training. Doing a lot of different exercises, using a couple of varying modalities. These repeat efforts are a great time to focus on being consistent and learning where your own personal limitations are. Start slow and settle into a hard but sustainable pace. One day has longer time domains, see how the level of perceived exertion changes from day to day. Do you need to slow down depending on how long you are doing something? Do you have a default level of effort that you apply to all exercise across the board? Will you go faster if the work time is less? The importance might be mute, or it might not. But if how you do anything, is how you do everything, then erroring on all things mattering seems to be the best prevention to sucking at life.

Cool Down - Groin, glute and guns.

Josh