Announcement! Volume, it comes with a cost!

Hello Nation!

Just a couple of announcements. This will be a long one!

First, If you’ve probably noticed, there were some emails being sent to everyone(who has an active membership) asking them to fill up a new profile account. This is because in the coming days/weeks, we will be transferring from Wodify to a new gym management software with a better check in procedure. There will still be a mobile app where you can reserve slots. But We will soon have a tablet setup at the reception desk where you guys can check in prior to entering the WOD floor. Logging of scores will be manually written on the glass board since it fosters a better community and it promotes friendly banter/competition between members. If you are tracking your lifts, wod scores, etc, you can still do so at your own via a WOD journal notebook or your note app from your phone. :)

Second, This is regarding our box programming for everyone. Starting July, I will be changing the focus of the programming to a more General Physical Preparedness Approach instead of being strength biased.

What does this mean?
Our classes will change in structure. There will still be days with Strength + Metcon but we will be focusing more on Warmup -> Specific Warmup -> Workout Prep -> Workout -> Cooldown structure. This means there will be more time for us, coaches, to actually 'coach' and not just be workout facilitators trying to fit everything in 60 minutes. And this will reduce the risk of injuries for you guys as well. Injuries happen but we should avoid it if we can.

A Strength + Metcon Session is Too Full for Proper Strength Work
With this type of workout, you're faced with a choice: hold back in the strength piece, so you're not dead on the floor when it's time for the metcon, or sacrifice your metcon score for a good effort in the strength piece. People usually choose to give their intensity to their strength, so barbell lovers will throw everything they have at the strength piece and give whatever they have leftover to the metcon. Vice versa for the cardio lovers. The result is the same for both groups: no one gives either piece 100% effort. And as you all have known by now, I am a bigbeliever in intensity OVER volume. That’s how I program for the competitive athletes here in Subtero. I have learned the hard way that more VOLUME is not the answer to get fit.

Because we program for General Physical Preparedness, we have only one true focus mostdays. To give you a better picture of how this works, here’s the general breakdown of a class:

Custom Warmup

Every warmup is built specifically for the day's workout so that your body's muscles and joints are more prepared for the work. This piece is always coach-led, it changes from day-to-day, and sometimes it includes a game.

Workout Prep

In this part of a class, you'll review each moving piece of the lifts/movements and determine scales or substitutions. Depending on the day, this piece could also include skill or technique work for the associated movements, or loading schemes to prepare for a heavy day.

Workout Brief

Coaches will explain the "why" or focus of the workout, and then give you personalized tips and strategies so that you can develop a plan of attack.

Workout

Each workout offers 3 levels of difficulty (Competitor, RXD, and Fitness) so that everyone, nomatter how long they’ve been doing CrossFit, or how fit they are, can get a quality workout thatmeets their needs and abilities.
Warm Down

Some days will end with mobilizing or an optional finisher.
It’s true that there are different components to a session, but those pieces are not all workouts in themselves. There is one workout and then all the other pieces are built around it, to support it.

When a session has a singular focus, instead of multiple workouts, there is simply more time, which translates to more coaching and more time for practicing and learning new skills, complex movements or body maintenance.

If you want to read more,

Here are some More Advanced Resources:
Volume, It Comes At A Cost. Chris Spealler’s blog.
An Open Letter to the Big Dogs. The CrossFit Journal.
An Open Letter to the Met-Heads. The CrossFit Journal.
A Deft Dose of Volume. The CrossFit Journal.

But, I Like Lifting Every Day

Maybe lifting is pretty much your favorite thing in the gym. It’s fun for you, and you don’t relish the idea of missing out on your daily dose of barbell. I’m not going to lie, the switch to the new program is going to be tough for you the first few weeks, maybe even the first month. Lifting is your strength, and with that removed from the daily schedule, you will be forced to confront your weaknesses (running, gymnastics, etc.) more often. Because you no longer start each and every session with a strength piece,you won’t get that great confidence boost before beginning an intense metcon, andthat might sour your mood. Please hear me out before you panic.

First, facing your weaknesses head-on is an absolute necessity if you want to see hugegains across the board. It won’t be a super fun process to face those weaknesses, butthe leaps in ability you will experience, and the feeling of hitting a goal you thought wasimpossible feels AWESOME. It’s totally normal to resist working on our weaknesses. Many of us come to CrossFit because we cannot be trusted to work on theseweaknesses ourselves. When solo, we go to the gym and work on what we’re alreadygood at. This is why group classes and the accountability of a class are so helpful to most people. By removing the daily strength piece on some days, I’m making you dostuff you don’t like to do as often more often. And so I get why that might bum you out. But I’m asking that you trust the process.

If just want to lift for the fun of it, not because you feel it’s essential for getting strong,I suggest you ask a coach to offer you a little extra barbell work to do before/afterregular classes. Because we totally get that maybe you’re not craving extra lifting because you feel it’s necessary for getting strong, you just have fun lifting and youwant to do it several times a week. That’s fair. Talk to anyone of the coaches!

Cool, I’ll Just Skip the Strength Day(You hate lifting)

The barbell lovers will try to skip running days because they’ll say, “Oh, I can do that at home.” They won’t of course. But you, you’ll skip deadlift day. Because you don’t feel like you’ve worked out unless you’re dead on the floor, lying in a puddle of your ownsweat, breathing as though you’ve just barely escaped a grizzly.

You probably don't truly understand how to lift yet :-), which is the real reason youdon’t show up to lift. After a maximum effort on the barbell, people who know how tolift are absolutely spent. They have nothing left to give. They immediately go home andtake a nap. You likely won’t experience that because you don’t put in maximal effort on strength days. The same way a lifter might jog when they’re supposed to sprint, youavoid safe, heavy loads that would really challenge your central nervous system and cause some real athletic adaptation. But you have to get over this hump and face your weakness if you want to be truly fit.

So when a strength day comes up, you need to focus, you need to take those days very seriously, and you need to hit that workout as hard as you possibly can. That's how you get big, safe gains in strength without losing capacity in other areas. Pure strength dayswon’t happen often, but if they do, please bring you’re a game!

So to summarize,

The real problem here is intensity. Barbell fans will jog instead of sprint. Cardio peeps will lift a moderate load instead of a heavy load. Both groups leave different workouts feeling they have something left in the tank.

“Be impressed by intensity, not by volume.”• Gregg Glassman, founder of CrossFit

So what is intensity? Scientifically speaking, intensity is defined as power: force multiplied by distance, then divided by time. In other words: Intensity is doing work fast.

Intensity is also relative to someone's physical and psychological tolerances. Athletes should be looking to get to the limits of their ability and push that boundary. It's about pushing for 11 deadlifts when you had planned on doing 10, or driving a bit harder in the 200 when you typically use it to rest. Coaches should help athletes find these areas to push in and then hold their hand through it daily.

So if you ever leave a workout feeling like it “wasn’t enough,” it’s generally because youdid not perform the workout with proper intensity. Having more in the tank is not evidence that a strength + metcon model was more effective or a better workout. It is evidence that you did not experience the benefits of putting a true effort into the workout. It falls to the coach to help you with this.

So that’s it! That was a lot of words. Hopefully you guys will like what I have in stored for you. I will be always open to suggestions, feedbacks, ideas though. So if you have questions/reactions, message me right a way. As your head coach, it is my mission to help YOU reach your fitness goal SAFELY, and EFFICIENTLY. Thank you!

Cheers!
Ac
Head Coach
CF-L2