Edward Blanch

This past holiday week, we completed our third strength cycle over the past 3 months. As with all of those cycles, we have seen great improvements in strength and power.   The whiteboard was filled with PR stars and we couldn’t be more impressed!

We know how important building strength is to building our fitness, particularly as we get older. We are going continue focusing on building our strength and power over these next 3 months, once again focusing on a push, pull, and squat movement pattern.  For the first month, our focus will be on front squats, push jerks, and deadlifts. We will follow that up with back squats, strict press, and snatches. And will conclude by rolling back to our most recent cycle of overhead squats, bench press, and cleans. 

We are making some changes to our strength protocols to offer a different stimulus to our athletes.  

Instead of working on 5 sets using the same weight, we are lowering the volume moving to 3 working sets. We are also increasing the rest interval to 3 minutes instead of 3 minutes enable us more time to recover. By decreasing the volume, we want to correspond by raising the intensity by increasing the weight on the bar. You will be given a general percentage as an estimate of what the first of set. That is a general prescription and you can alter it slightly depending on how you are feeling the day. After you hit that first set, you have the remaining time to rest before hitting the second set. You can now add more weight, take it away, or stay at the same weight. We are allowing you to accommodate that load depending on the strength levels of that day. After the second set, you will be able make any adjustments for the final set.

A couple of hints and notes to get the most out of this strength cycle. Be sure that your first of the three sets is challenging.  Having done the past strength cycles, you should have more notes to work off of to determine a load that makes sense for you.

The opening percentages given to you should be a good marker of where you should start for your first set. We want to be sure that we get 3 solid sets at a challenging weight. 

 Every day is different, some days you are going to feel super strong, and some days not as much. Give what you have for that particular day and know that it will help you get stronger in the long run.

Finally, be sure to record your scores in Wodify, including notes on how you built up to your final lift.

We are so impressed with the gym this past cycle and are excited to see what you have in store for us now.

Ken looking jacked!