Training block overview - Competitor (Strength) - WK37-42/2025

The priority on this stream is to improve your weightlifting and help you get strong. If strength is your biggest limiting factor in competitions and you’re confident in your conditioning, this plan is a good choice for you.

This 6-week cycle focuses on general strength and builds towards heavy 5 back squat, 2-3RM (athlete choice) front squat, 3RM push press and 3-5RM strict dip/chin up (athlete choice). On weightlifting, we’ll build capacity with cluster sets on main lifts and on a hang power clean progression. Compared to other streams, there are more accessory lifts and supplementary strength/hypertrophy work in this one.

This plan also includes conditioning work (2 times a week) to help you maintain your fitness. There is skill work mixed in the strength sessions a few times a week.

- 5 training sessions (90 minutes to 2 hours), an optional additional base training/Z2 OR active recovery day and a full rest day (on Sundays)

- Weightlifting and strength work spread across five (5) training sessions.

- Two (2) conditioning sessions (sport-specific interval session and a competition workout)

Each week is organised based on the movements, repetitions and intensity to allow for sufficient recovery so that you can work with intent in each session.

The focus is on building the base with emphasis on specific work capacity and solid form on moderate weights. There will be few opportunities to lift heavier (especially on the snatch) but what we want is consistency.

Here are the progressions (from Wk1-Wk6) for the lifts:

- Alternating weeks of clusters (sets with short rests between the lifts) and “snakes-and-ladders” (building up each lift but going down every miss).

- Alternating weeks of 3-position CnJ and clusters (like with the snatch).

- Hang power clean progression for work capacity and sport-specific transfer.

The progressions in this block are focused on “general strength” in the 3-6 rep range for the main lifts, building towards 3-5RM lifts in the final week on push press, front squat, strict dip and chin up.

Most of the work should be “moderately hard”, challenging without missing lifts or needing to psyche yourself up excessively just to make it through.

Here are the progressions (from Wk1-Wk6) for main lifts in different movement patterns:

- Back squat top sets of H5, followed back-off sets and classic 5x5 progression (based on H5) on alternating weeks.

- Front squat 6-4-2s and 5-3-1 w/ back-off sets, building to 2s and 3s in wk5 before testing 2-3RM in the final week.

- Deadlifts alternate between higher rep romanian deadlifts and regular deadlift top set of H3/2 w/ back-off sets.

- Additional posterior chain work - Bulgarian split squats, box steps ups and a hip thrust progression.

- Push press - building to 3RM in the final week, working in the 3-5 rep range in the main progression. Close grip bench press as an assistance for this (and the dips)

- Strict dip / chin up - building to 3-5RM in the final week. Building from 6-8 range to heavier / lower reps as the training block progresses. Row variations as assistance to chin-ups.

- Accessory circuits focused on postural strength (holds and carries), bodybuilding and shoulder health.

Deload and testing in Week 6 - scaling back volume across lifts and accessories to consolidate adaptations and to test the lifts from main progressions.

The conditioning work in the Strength stream should not interfere with the lifting sessions. There’s a competition workout and either short or long intervals each week.

- The weekly competition workouts are an opportunity to practice pushing yourself, developing your movement capacity under fatigue and refining your pacing under intensity.

- The weekly sports-specific intervals start as 0:30/0:15, 0:40/0:20 and 1:00/0:30 micro-intervals before switching to longer ones in the second half of the block. As always these sessions are intended to be executed at high intensity and should be challenging but repeatable.

- Aerobic base session (optional, Wednesdays) of longer duration, lower to moderate intensity that improves mitochondrial density and capillarisation, which indirectly supports lactate clearance.

It’s important to note that each of these sessions should be done at prescribed intensities to stimulate the intended adaptations properly.

Learning and practising “Intensity control” (matching intensity/pace to session intent) is a key skill that will elevate the level of your training beyond merely “doing workouts.” It will allow you to make the most out of each session and ensure sufficient recovery from your training to continue to put in high-quality work.

The quality of your training is the quality of your repetitions. Aim to make every training session the best it can be. Focus on what’s within your control:

- Giving your best effort (this is not merely pushing as hard as you can each time but reflecting on the intent of the training session, then applying yourself to it).

- Doing the work (and not skipping skill pieces or other parts of training)

- Holding yourself to movement standards (establishing solid foundations for all upcoming training)

- Warming up / cooling down

- Sleeping well

- Fuelling sufficiently

The most important principles for strength training are specificity (you must do what you want to get better at), and progressive overload (training has to be hard enough (in frequency, volume, intensity) to create a need for adaptation. This also means training has to get harder over time.

The main driver for (strength) adaptations in this training block are consistency, progressive overload, volume and controlled intensity (to keep fatigue in check).

Your main job is to put in quality work from one session to the next ( = avoid pushing so hard in a single session that you won’t be able to complete another one). That being said, we want the sets to be challenging enough (follow the RIR guidance) to be considered working sets.

Aim to build on each week (or every other week, depending on the progression), increasing the reps or weights. Focus on accumulating high-quality (do the lifts with good form and fast speed) repetitions to lay a solid technical foundation for future training and competitions.

As your goal is to get stronger and put on some muscle mass, it’s a good idea to be in a slight caloric surplus in this training block. You’ll want to show up well-fuelled for the lifting sessions as even modest glycogen (stored sugar) depletion can lead to reduced session quality (which we don’t want).

A good sign that you could eat more to fuel your training is that you feel hungry. If you’re not sure, a few rough reference points for daily intake (if you’re into macros) could be:

Protein - 2.2g per kg (1 gram per lb) BW (bodyweight)

Fat - 25-30% of daily calories or 1g per kg (1g per lb) BW

Carbs - Remaining calories or 4+g per kg (1.8+g per lb) BW

Calories - 22 x BW in kg (or 10 x BW in lbs) x (1.5 to 1.8 as “activity multiplier”) + 100 to 200 cals (for surplus)

Remember that if you don’t eat enough, you won’t recover and get the results you want. If you need guidance, reach out to us.

The most important thing for your recovery will be to get enough (7.5-9 hours) sleep regularly. Your training (and results) will be better if you get more sleep. Aim to be in bed by 11 pm at the latest, and sleep in a cool, dark, and quiet room. If you can, get out for a short (10-minute) walk soon after sunrise (before 10 am is fine) and again around sunset. This will help set your circadian rhythm, making it easier to go to bed early.

All other recovery modalities will take a backseat to this. Implementing a 10- to 30-minute daily mobility routine, split between morning, training, and evening, will also likely pay off, both in the short and long term.