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

The primary goal of this stream is to develop your sport-specific work capacity and help you stay prepared for upcoming competitions this late summer/early autumn.

In this 6-week cycle, we’ll work on your running with interference/fatigue (we’ll build towards a 1600m Run → 4000m Bike → 1600m Run test in the final week), movement capacity, sport-specific conditioning, gymnastics/barbell capacity, and practice with plenty of competition workouts.

Lifting focus is 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.

This program is designed to cover a broad range of adaptations. If you want to focus more on either your conditioning (engine stream) or weightlifting/strength (strength stream), choose one of our more specialised streams.

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

- Four (4) main conditioning sessions (1 sport-specific interval sessions, 1 run/bike session and 2 weekly competition workout sessions)

- Weekly skill / gymnastics work

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

Each week is organised based on the movements, repetitions and intensity to allow for sufficient recovery for you to work hard in each session (but due to the high-intensity nature of sports-specific training in our sport, the fatigue is likely to accumulate more over the weeks than in the strength/engine streams).

Most of the training in this stream is at a fairly high intensity, so you must be diligent with your rest, recovery and nutrition.

The primary focus for this stream is to keep you competition-ready and to develop your sports-specific work capacity.

- The weekly competition workouts offer an opportunity to practice pushing yourself, develop your movement capacity under fatigue, and refine your pacing under intensity.

- The run-bike-run sessions build towards a 1600m Run - 4000m Bike - 1600m Run test on the final week. The idea is to practice and develop your ability to run even splits, even with the bike in-between. Interval durations progress over the weeks.

- 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.

- (optional on Wednesdays) Aerobic base sessions of longer duration, lower to moderate intensity that improve mitochondrial density and capillarization, 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 main focus here is to maintain your lifts while focusing on improving on competition workouts. 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).

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.

- Push press - building to 3RM in the final week, working in the 3-5 rep range in the main progression.

- 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 for upper back strength.

- Accessory circuits focused on postural strength (holds and carries) 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.

We’ll continue with barbell cycling and gymnastics capacity work, building from the previous training block.

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

Exposure to competition workouts will help you develop your tactical skills (making and executing plans) as well as improve your movement skills in a high-intensity context.

For each conditioning interval, it’s important that you hit them with the intended intensity. If you go too hard on the 1st interval in a session, your intensity will drop too much later in the session. If you go too easy, your output and heart rate won’t get high enough to stimulate the intended adaptations.

For strength and skill, we aim to consistently put in high-quality work from one session to the next. Aim to build on each week's progress, whether by increasing the reps or weights (depending on the progression). Focus on accumulating excellent repetitions to lay a solid foundation of strength and technical capacity.

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

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 (body weight) in kg (or 10 x BW in lbs) x (1.5 to 1.8 as “activity multiplier”)

Remember that if you don’t eat enough, you won’t recover and get the results you want.

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.