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 5 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) shorter sports specific (SPP) interval sessions, one (1) longer mixed interval session, one (1) rowing interval session and one (1) competition style conditioning session. We’ll continue to build on the same themes as in 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). 

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.

Rowing Intervals - These are 6 to 7-minute intervals working at your threshold and will develop your aerobic capacity. Your paces will be based on the 2km TT on week 1.

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 blocks weightlifting, we’ll return to the basics: snatch with clean and jerk for the foundation of the training. 

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.

Squat - We use paused front squats on every other Monday to develop strength and posture from the bottom and build your base with sets of 5 and 6 on the back squats weekly on Thursdays. 

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

Lunge - Front rack reverse lunges alternate with the paused front squats on Mondays to keep single leg work in the plan.

Upper body push - Push press on Saturdays with a skill focused volume progression, complemented with tempo strict dips on Mondays

Upper body pull - Tempo pull ups (Mondays) and single arm DB rotational rows (Thursdays) for a base of pulling strength

Circuits - We have some 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, parts of the weekly training are dedicated to developing the fundamentals of strength, mobility and positions for gymnastics, as well as specific skill work with barbell cycling skills, muscle endurance and capacity work.

Optional sessions: Additional gymnastics fundamentals session you can include in your training.

You can expect more frequency and volume on weightlifting and other strength training 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.

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.

Each week, you’ll have one (1) sports specific (SPP) interval session, and one (1) competition style conditioning session. This is to maintain your conditioning and sport practice while focusing on your strength. Make sure to also do the active recovery sessions to integrate a bit more base conditioning into your weeks.

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). 

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.

Similar to Engine plan with an optional gymnastics fundamentals session you can include in your training.
​

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). 

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 Engine and SPP plans will share the same weightlifting and strength work in this block with movements spread slightly differently across the weeks.

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.

Squat - We use paused front squats on every other Monday to develop strength and posture from the bottom and build your base with sets of 5 and 6 on the back squats weekly on Wednesdays. 

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

Lunge - Front rack reverse lunges alternate with the paused front squats on Mondays to keep single leg work in the plan.

Upper body push - Push press on Fridays with a skill focused volume progression, complemented with tempo strict dips on Mondays

Upper body pull - Tempo pull ups (Mondays) and single arm DB rotational rows (Wednesdays) for a base of pulling strength

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

Similar to Engine plan with an optional gymnastics fundamentals session you can include in your training.

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.