The main focus of this stream is to improve your capacity in competition workouts and prepare for upcoming events. It has a more varied structure than the strength and engine streams.

Now that the Open and Quarterfinals are behind us and we’ve established some baselines in the test week, it’s time to look ahead to the upcoming competitions. Training on this stream will help you be ready and get ready for any competitions you might have coming up in the next 8-weeks.

You’ll do more competition style workouts and skill work on this stream than on the other ones. We’ve organised the sessions so that Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are higher intensity days while Mondays and Friday are lower intensity days, focused on building your skill, conditioning and strength base.

This kind of high/low organisation allows you to recover sufficiently between the sessions to hit the hard sessions with appropriate (high) intensity.

Strength training is organised around the main lifts (squat, hinge, upper body push/pull) with a little bit of accessory work fitted in. Our main focus on weightlifting will be developing your snatch technique and we’ll do a weekly dose of sports-specific lifting.

We’ll progress your capacity on the typical gymnastics movements (pull-ups, toes to bar, HSPU etc.) and barbell cycling in the skill sessions.

Monday

The biggest strength session of the week. Snatch primer focus on transition under the bar and complexes focused on improving the positions and pull off the floor. Main squats of the week: Heavy set for the day on back squat, followed by high rep back off sets.

Skill work to wrap up the session.

Tuesday

Competition workout. A key session for this stream, it’s play time but push yourself hard.

The session starts with overhead pressing and strict pull up/chin ups, followed by skill work before the main piece.

Wednesday

Active recovery / Rest day

Thursday

Longer, mixed-modality high-intensity intervals. Another weekly key session, hit these hard.

The rest of the session is lifting: Snatch balance + OHS to work speed under the bar and the receiving position. Clean and jerk complex with emphasis on front squats.

Friday

Higher rep deadlifts to start the session.

Long skill/base conditioning session with emphasis on basic gymnastics and barbell cycling. Focus on accumulating excellent repetitions and staying disciplined with the lower intensity between movements.

Saturday

Sports-specific lifting (think: heavier thrusters etc combined with another movement)

The 2nd competition workout of the week. Play time, this is a key session so challenge yourself.

Strength accessory circuit to finish the week off.

Sunday

Rest day

A key idea we want to cultivate in this training block is that hard training should be hard and easy training should be easy (and they both play a role in building your capacity in the sport).

If you’re only “kinda” going easy on the easier sessions, you’ll most likely end up not going hard enough when it counts. A good opportunity to learn this is to really push yourself on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays conditioning pieces for these 4-weeks. If you’ll do this, you’ll appreciate the lower intensity days in-between.

If you feel like you can always go hard, it likely means you’re never really pushing yourself.

For strength and skill, we are looking to simply put in quality work from one session to the next. Aim to build each week from the last one, whether by increasing the reps or weights (depending on the progression). Focus on accumulating excellent repetitions to lay a solid technical foundation for future training.

As your goal is to build your engine, you need to be able to hit the hard session hard and recover from them. This means eating enough overall and getting sufficient carbohydrate to fuel the high-intensity efforts. Having a carb drink at hand on Mondays and Thursdays especially might be a good idea.

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 can sleep more. Aim to be in bed before 11pm latest, and sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room. If you can, get out for a short (10-minute) walk soon after sunrise (before 10am is fine) and again around sunset. This will help set your circadian rhythm so it’ll be easier to go to bed early.

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

If you’re getting ready for a competition in the next 8-weeks, SPP is the best choice for you. It is also a good choice if you simply enjoy more varied training and doing competition style workouts more often.