We divide the training on The Training Plan into 4-week training blocks that are parts of longer 12-week cycles with structured progressions through each cycle. 

On the Foundations plan, we offer a core program and various different optional sessions. This give you the opportunity to bias your training to eliminate your limiters and to work towards your goals. For best results, we recommend you stay with one option for at least 4-weeks.

Each week consists of 4 training sessions, one optional session, one full rest day and one active recovery day. If needed, you can even choose to do multiple optional sessions each week (as long as you can recover). 

You can think of the 4-week blocks in the 12-week cycle as follows:

1) Base - WKs 1 to 4

2) Build - WKs 5 to 8

3) Integration - WKs 9 to 12

Each of these blocks builds on one another without being dependent on each other (while progressive, you don’t have to have done the Base block to start on the Build block. There is always another 12-week cycle after this one).

Our philosophy is to first create what can be called a Minimum Viable Program (MVP) that covers the key areas of training for our sport to ensure that you’re always making progress on the fundamentals. You can then use the optional sessions to bias your training in your desired direction.

Once we are happy with the MVP, and confident that it alone would help you make significant progress in your training, we add in the final touches (a sprinkle of fairy dust, a few unicorn tears and sometimes a dragon tooth or two). These are based on our on-going research of training methods both within and outside of our sport to bring in new ideas and concepts into our programs.

We have four (4) types of conditioning sessions available in this block. With multiple options you can choose to adjust the session #4 conditioning (from 30:15s) to another session if it better suits your needs.

These long conditioning sessions help build your aerobic base conditioning. We are teaching your body to operate at higher fuel efficiency as we develop your aerobic fitness. This allows you to go longer, recover faster and handle heavier training loads.

If you’re using an HR monitor, the target for these sessions is time spent on Z2. The effort should feel almost too easy to a point where you could hold a conversation or maintain nose breathing for the duration of the session. 

During exercise, your muscles utilise lactate as fuel. As the intensity reaches a certain threshold, the mitochondria in the muscles can no longer keep up with the lactate production and we’ll start to see rising levels of lactate in the blood. This threshold is considered to be a marker of intensity that is sustainable only for a limited amount of time. 

The LT intervals help increase your work capacity at this threshold by developing your ability to transport the lactate from the fast-twitch fibers to slow-twitch fibers where it can be cleared (which is supported by the Aero sessions).

The pace for these sessions is “comfortably hard” or “tough sustainable”. You’re working hard but the pace is sustainable well beyond the interval length. Your breathing will get louder through the sets (especially the exhale as your body is trying to control the CO2 levels).

These sessions are a blend between the aerobic and lactate threshold intervals. You’re developing your aerobic base and ability to work at, then recover from your threshold. 

The pace is a mix of easy with nose breathing (aero) and tough, sustainable efforts (LT). Your goal is to return back to aero pace and breathing (nose) as soon as you can after the harder efforts.

These short “30:15” intervals have been getting a lot of attention in the research over the last 5-years for their success in improving well-trained athletes VO2max and work capacity at LT. We’ll be working through different variations through this and the following 4-week block. 

The key physiological driver for adaptations in these sessions is time spent at HR > 90%VO2max (meaning your HR should and will be high). You can think of the pace as “repeatable/recoverable red zone”. These sessions will be challenging but you should leave knowing that you could have done one more interval in each set if needed.

As we are in the Base 4-week block, the emphasis on strength training is more on accumulating high quality repetitions rather than lifting heaviest weights possible.

The main sessions cover the fundamentals: snatch and clean & jerk variations, back squat and deadlift. You can use the optional strength sessions to bias your strength training to anything from upper or lower body to strong(wo)man work to more weightlifting as needed. 

The skill sessions for these 4-weeks will focus on developing your barbell cycling and exploring the overhead squat (optional sessions) in detail to give you more tools for competitions and workouts. You will also get a chance to improve your muscle ups as well as your capacity in typical competition movements such as wall balls, toes to bar and burpees. 

The sport specific conditioning sessions are structured so that you get to put your work from the skill sessions to a test, especially in the last 2-weeks of the block.

The gymnastics will focus on the ring muscle-ups for 2-weeks, then on the handstand push-ups for 2-weeks (as well as other fundamental gymnastics work alongside these). 

Here is the week schedule for this block (this will be the same across the weeks)

WL = Weightlifting
​STR = Strength work
​SPP(C) = Sport specific workouts
​SPP(S) = Skill work/practice
​COND(SPP) = Sports specific 30:15 HIT intervals