The main priority for this stream is building you a bigger, more efficient engine in time for the Open 2022 (and beyond).

We will continue training using a similar structure as in the previous block:

- 10 training sessions (90-minutes to 2-hours), an active recovery day and a full rest day (on Sunday’s)

- Five (5) main conditioning sessions (long EMOM(s), short high-intensity intervals, Row/machine intervals, longer base aerobic piece and a weekly competition workout)

- Weekly skill sessions (on Friday’s)

- Weightlifting and strength work spread across four (4) training sessions.

We’ve organised the conditioning so that the highest intensity work is done before rest days (or an easier training day). There is never more than 2 days of intense conditioning in a row to ensure that you’re ready to hit the hard training sessions HARD and to leave room for you to adapt to the intended training stimulus.

The conditioning work from this block will flow directly into our progressions in the Open Camp.

Strength training is organised around the main lifts (squat, deadlift, upper body push/pull) with accessory work fitted in to support your progress. Weightlifting is balanced fairly evenly across snatch, clean, and jerk, building from more technique focused work in the previous block. You’ll be doing a (different) clean and jerk complex each week to build your capacity under load. These will be “fun” and guaranteed to challenge you.

The skill sessions continue to develop key gymnastics, DB and barbell capacity and movement skills for the season (details below).

Overall these next weeks will help ensure you have a solid base of conditioning when we start our final Open Preparation camp on January 3rd. Lay that foundation now and you can reap the benefits on the game day!

You may change the order of sessions on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday so that you do the conditioning 1st (as wanted, to make sure you’ll hit these hard).

Monday

Session #1 - Longer EMOMs at threshold (hard sustainable) pace. These should be done at an intensity that is repeatable across the session.

Session #2 - Weightlifting with split jerk variations (paused/regular) and snatch waves. Volume squat session of the week.

Tuesday

Session #1 - You’ll start these sessions with a heavy double (H2) on the deadlift in WK1, then deficit deadlifts to build your strength off the floor for the next 3-weeks. Seated strict press, combined with strict pull ups or legless rope climbs, horizontal pressing (DB bench/strict dip) and horizontal rowing variations.

Session #2 - Hard, high-intensity sport-specific intervals. We’ll alternate between short (60-70s intervals) and 3 to 5-minute intervals over the next 7-weeks. This is a key session of the week, push yourself hard!

Wednesday

Active recovery / Rest day

Thursday

Session #1 - You’ll start with a secondary snatch exercise for the week (Hang snatch + OHS or snatch balance), focused on positions and transition under the bar. % based Clean and jerk then heavier (if you so choose) squats of the week. Assistance circuit.

Session #2 - Row/machine intervals. We’ll start and end this progression with our 11-step 500m Row ladder (which is both challenging training and a great way to learn about pacing on the rower). The in-between weeks are a mix of row only and row mixed with other machines intervals. Another key session: Show up ready to do WORK.

Friday

Session #1 - Skill session.

The themes of this 4-week skill block are: 1) Continue to Improve your overhead mobility, 2) Lighter barbell cycling with a focus on EXCELLENT positions and rhythm, 3) develop your HS holds/walk and wall walk in preparation for the Open, 4) Practice key DB skills, 5) Cyclical gymnastics mixed with machines to challenge/develop your capacity, and 6) tempo gymnastics to continue to improve your capacity on strict and kipping movements.

Session #2 - Lower intensity aerobic base building session.

Saturday

Session #1 - Weekly Clean and jerk complex (starting with the Bella Complex from Rogue Invitational). Additional upper body push (Bench press) and vertical pull variations. Assistance circuit.

Session #2 - Competition workout of the week. The final high-intensity session of the week, play time, push yourself. Our philosophy is that these competition workouts should be done at your best effort like you would in a competition.

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 engine).

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. 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. IF you feel like you’re not quite recovering sufficiently, try taking a full rest day on Wednesday (rather than active recovery) and reading the recovery section below.

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 carbohydrates to fuel the high-intensity efforts. Having a carb drink at hand for training sessions and re-fuelling as soon as possible after 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 in kg (or 10 x BW in lbs) x (1.7 to 2 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 11 pm latest, and sleep in a cool, dark, 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 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 looking to build a bigger engine for the upcoming 2022 season then this is the best choice for you. You will do enough strength and skill work to be ready for competitions/qualifiers but if you have a major event coming up within the next 7-weeks, you might want to choose the SPP stream instead.