We are moving on to 4-week training blocks. Each block is part of a longer 12-week cycle with progressions building through the full cycle. While each plan (SPP, strength, engine) have their own emphasis, they are also designed to work together, so you can transition from one to another after each block.
​
This will give you even more freedom to structure your training to work on your limiters while being able to follow the key conditioning, skill and strength progressions. For best results, we recommend you stay with one plan for 8 to 12-weeks. 

This training block runs for 4-weeks. You will have 10 training sessions/week. We are starting to converge the strength, conditioning and skill progressions towards the upcoming season starting in October. 

We are going to focus on working off from the solid foundations built in the previous blocks on the strength and engine streams while the SPP stream is designed to keep you competition ready with it’s regular “Game day” practice.

Here are the typical week schedules for each stream (there will be some variation from week to week on these as we move through the training block):

WL = Weightlifting
​STR = Strength work
​SPP(C) = Sport specific workouts
​SPP(S) = Skill work/practice
​SPP(SF) = Gymnastics fundamentals (strength, position, mobility)
​COND(SPP) = Sports specific conditioning intervals
​COND = Monostructural (run, row etc.) conditioning intervals

Here’s a short overview of the purpose of each plan:

Engine - We are focused on developing your aerobic power, aerobic capacity, breathing, muscular endurance, and resilience. In short, we are building you a bigger, more efficient engine (and teach you how to use it) to make you capable of enduring gruelling workouts in competitions and in training.

Strength - We are focused on developing your strength and building more muscle mass so that you can handle those heavy weights both in competitions and in day-to-day training.

SPP - We are focused on your competition readiness. If you already have a strong base, have a competition that is approaching and/or want to get in as much practice as possible on competition style events then this plan is for you.

Remember that each plan has all the components to be a complete program. 

Next section will give you some more detail on each plan.

Each week, you’ll have two (2) sports specific (SPP) interval sessions, one (1) long mixed interval session, one (1) running interval session and one (1) competition style conditioning session. We’ll continue to build from the previous block:

VO2max intervals (SPP) - These are 4/3-minute (2-minute recovery), and 5/6-minute (3-minute recovery) high intensity intervals to develop your aerobic capacity and power (your ability to sustain high work output for longer). On week 1, we’ll test your current 2km Row time and use this to individualise your paces as we integrate more rowing into these sessions.

Long (threshold) Intervals (mixed) - We are shifting to lower overall volume here as the intensity increases. These are still developing your muscle endurance (by improving their ability to utilise oxygen) to build your capacity in longer workouts. This progression becomes more Open specific in each upcoming block.

Running Intervals - We continue with 6 to 7-minute intervals, working at your threshold, to improve your aerobic capacity, progressing from the previous training block. We will use your results from the 3km TT at the end of previous block to adjust paces. 

Competition style - “Classic metcons”, these will give you a taste of competition workouts and help you integrate the work you’re doing in the other sessions.

In this block, we’ll return to basics: snatch with clean and jerk for the foundation of the training. The 3rd session of the week focuses on hang snatch variations, building from top down in positions.

Snatch - 3s and 2s w/ pauses, build towards singles on the 3rd week and mixed rep schemes on the final week of the block.

Clean and jerk - Slightly more emphasis on the cleans w/ 2+1 (2 cleans + 1 jerk) on weeks 1 + 3, regular doubles on week 2 and singles on the final week of the block.

Hang snatch - Moving from above the knee, to the knee and finally below the knee to reinforce positions and 2nd pull mechanics.

Squat - Building base with longer sets on the back squats on Mondays and Saturdays. Paused front squats on Thurdays to develop strength from the bottom as a base for upcoming work.

Deadlift - Bigger ranges both in reps/set and %s with increasing volume of sets and intensity across the weeks. 

Lunge - No lunges in this block to focus on squats, these will be back in the upcoming blocks.

Upper body push - Push press on Mondays with a skill focused volume progression. Seated strict press (Thursday) and Bench press (Saturday) to continue building a strong base. 

Upper body pull - Pull ups (Saturday), single arm DB rotational rows (Monday) and barbell bent over rows (Thursday) for a wide base of pulling strength

Circuits - We have new accessory work circuits for you to develop unilateral strength and trunk stability to support the main lifts.

The conditioning sessions offer opportunities for skill practice under low, moderate and high intensities. In addition, there is a weekly session dedicated to gymnastics fundamentals (strength, mobility and positions/shapes) and a sports specific skill session with barbell cycling skills, muscle endurance and capacity work.

You can expect more frequency and volume on weightlifting and other strength work relative to other plans.

In this block, we’ll return to basics: snatch with clean and jerk for the foundation of the training. The 3rd session of the week focuses on hang snatch variations, building from top down in positions. The assistance work will be snatch balances, snatch pulls and additional work on the split jerk.

Snatch - 3s and 2s w/ pauses, build towards singles on the 3rd week and mixed rep schemes on the final week of the block.

Clean and jerk - Slightly more emphasis on the cleans w/ 2+1 (2 cleans + 1 jerk) on weeks 1 + 3, regular doubles on week 2 and singles on the final week of the block.

Hang snatch - Moving from above the knee, to the knee and finally below the knee to reinforce positions and 2nd pull mechanics.

Snatch pull → Continuing from paused and floating variations in the last block, we are moving to full snatch pulls to Improve posture and awareness through the 1st and 2nd pull.

3-POS snatch balance / Snatch balance → We continue for 2-weeks of each snatch balance variation to develop your strength and precision in the receiving positions 

With similar squat progression as on the other streams, strength stream stands apart with two (2) dedicated strength sessions which allows us to get in more volume in the program. 

Squat - Building base with longer sets on the back squats on Mondays and Saturdays. Paused front squats on Thurdays to develop strength from the bottom as a base for upcoming work.

Deadlift - Bigger ranges both in reps/set and %s with increasing volume of sets and intensity across the weeks. 

Lunge - Instead of lunges, we’ll be doing box step ups on Tuesdays as the single leg variation in this block. The sets will reduce in reps and build up in intensity across the weeks.

Upper body push - Push press on Tuesdays with a skill focused volume progression. Seated strict press and Bench press are found in the same session (Friday) for a more consolidated training stimulus.

Upper body pull - Single arm DB rotational rows (Tuesday), Pull ups and barbell bent over rows (Friday), again to consolidate training stresses as we build a wide base of pulling strength.

Circuits - We have new accessory work circuits for you to develop unilateral strength and trunk stability to support the main lifts.

Each week, you’ll have one (1) sports specific (SPP) interval session, one (1) long interval session and one (1) competition style conditioning session. This is to maintain your conditioning and sport practice while focusing on your strength.

VO2max intervals (SPP) - These are 4/3-minute (2-minute recovery), and 5/6-minute (3-minute recovery) high intensity intervals to develop your aerobic capacity and power (your ability to sustain high work output for longer). On week 1, we’ll test your current 2km Row time and use this to individualise your paces as we integrate more rowing into these sessions.

Long (threshold) Intervals (mixed) - We are shifting to lower overall volume here as the intensity increases. These are still developing your muscle endurance (by improving their ability to utilise oxygen) to build your capacity in longer workouts. This progression becomes more Open specific in each upcoming block.

Competition style - “Classic metcons”, these will give you a taste of competition workouts and help you integrate the work you’re doing in the other sessions.

The conditioning sessions offer opportunities for skill practice under low, moderate and high intensities. In addition, there is a weekly session dedicated to gymnastics fundamentals (strength, mobility and positions/shapes) and a sports specific skill session with barbell cycling skills, muscle endurance and capacity work.

We are continuing this feature on the SPP plan. “Gameday” is your weekly opportunity to get a bigger dose of competition style workouts in. More than that, it’s purpose is to give you a chance to practice competing (proper warm-ups, cool-downs, fuelling and recovery, as well as planning strategy for events). For this block, we are alternating the Gameday with a more skill focused 1st session, every other Saturday.

If you have a competition approaching or just want to take this to another level, you'll get someone to judge you in event and set them up in general as if it would be in a competition.

Each week, you’ll have one (1) sports specific (SPP) interval sessions, one (1) long mixed interval session, and one (1) competition style conditioning session as well as the Game day (see above) on Saturdays. 

VO2max intervals (SPP) - These are 4/3-minute (2-minute recovery), and 5/6-minute (3-minute recovery) high intensity intervals to develop your aerobic capacity and power (your ability to sustain high work output for longer). On week 1, we’ll test your current 2km Row time and use this to individualise your paces as we integrate more rowing into these sessions.

Long (threshold) Intervals (mixed) - We are shifting to lower overall volume here as the intensity increases. These are still developing your muscle endurance (by improving their ability to utilise oxygen) to build your capacity in longer workouts. This progression becomes more Open specific in each upcoming block.

Competition style - “Classic metcons”, these will give you a taste of competition workouts and help you integrate the work you’re doing in the other sessions.

Running Intervals (NEW) - We are bringing in the 6 to 7-minute running intervals from the Engine plan. We’ll be using these to work on your threshold to improve your aerobic capacity. We will use your results from the 3km TT at the end of previous block to adjust paces. These will alternate with Friday skill sessions for every other week with an option of doing them weekly.

In this block, we’ll return to basics: snatch with clean and jerk for the foundation of the training. The 3rd session of the week focuses on hang snatch variations, building from top down in positions.

Snatch - 3s and 2s w/ pauses, build towards singles on the 3rd week and mixed rep schemes on the final week of the block.

Clean and jerk - Slightly more emphasis on the cleans w/ 2+1 (2 cleans + 1 jerk) on weeks 1 + 3, regular doubles on week 2 and singles on the final week of the block.

Hang snatch - Moving from above the knee, to the knee and finally below the knee to reinforce positions and 2nd pull mechanics.

Additionally, the Game day events can feature weightlifting and strength based events.

Squat - We’ll be building your base with sets of 5 and 6 on the back squats on Mondays. We use paused front squats on Fridays to develop strength from the bottom without adding too much volume for you to be able to hit the Gamedays hard on Saturdays!

Deadlift - Bigger ranges both in reps/set and %s with increasing volume of sets and intensity across the weeks. 

Lunge - Unlike the other two (engine/strength) streams we won’t be doing the highest volume back squat sets (to make sure you can recover from the other sessions) in this block. Instead, there will be a front rack walking lunge progression as a more sports specific way of incorporating single leg work in to your weeks.

Upper body push - Push press on Mondays with a skill focused volume progression. Seated strict press (Thursday) and Bench press (Friday) to continue building a strong base. 

Upper body pull - Pull ups (Friday), single arm DB rotational rows (Monday) and barbell bent over rows (Thursday) for a wide base of pulling strength

Circuits - We have new accessory work circuits for you to develop unilateral strength and trunk stability to support the main lifts.

The conditioning sessions offer opportunities for skill practice under low, moderate and high intensities. In addition, there is a weekly session dedicated to gymnastics fundamentals (strength, mobility and positions/shapes) and a sports specific skill session with barbell cycling skills, muscle endurance and capacity work.

Hope you found this article helpful for your training!

Let us know if you have any questions about this training block and we'll update the article with additional information.