Alright, the sport program is not NEW, but we will be adding a few features to the program to ensure that it grows productively and with purpose.
In December we will be opening SPORT program coaching, which has been a missing feature of this program for quite some time. It started out as a program a select few who were interested in competing in CrossFit took part in and they trained together. As the program has grown in size it brings about the need for coaching and a bit more structure than in the past. The new coaching hours are;
10:30am-12:00pm
5:00-6:30pm
6:30-8:00pm
The 3 above times are the most popular training times of our athletes, so this is where we will begin to implement the SPORT program coached hours. Notice all classes are 1.5 hours in length as the training program requires longer sessions than one hour as the volume is slightly higher in many of the workouts than the typical CrossFit class.
Before I go any further – many ask what the SPORT program is?, Who is it for?, and How does it work?
What is the SPORT program? Simply put, the SPORT program is a program designed for the sport of CrossFit. I believe that CrossFit is in fact a sport, with a season, a schedule, and specific sport demands. Due of these specific demands it is necessary to train to meet these demands in a progressive and meaningful way, which is not always possible in a typical group class. I know some people disagree with this statement so let me elaborate. At Synergy Strength we have two streams of participating in the sport of Crossfit – recreationally (health and fitness) and competitively (sport), both of these streams allow for true fitness to be achieved, but at different degrees. Coach Glassman (founder of CrossFit) wrote in one of the very first articles CrossFit produced – “the needs of athletes differ by degree not kind” – we all need to squat, deadlift, press, run, row, etc. but at what degree we do this depends on our ambitions in life and in CrossFit as a sport. Some may have ambitions of staying healthy and fit, losing weight, continue to play with their grandchildren as they age, competing in Brutes division at the BCBD, etc. and all of these goals can be attained by following and attending the Health and Fitness Synergy Strength Program (H&F). For those interested in competing at a higher degree within the sport of CrossFit, not life, football, etc., but CrossFit than the SPORT program is best. Coach Glassman also spoke of the theoretical hierarchy of development of an athlete in the article “what is fitness” and this is exactly how Synergy Strengths programming exists – H&F is a foundational program which provides the needs of all looking to get fit and healthy. Metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, and weightlifting are the cornerstones of our program.
The SPORT program then takes these foundations and develops on top of them the needs of a competitive CrossFitter. The needs of a competitive crossfitter are; higher degrees of proficiency in weightlifting, gymnastics, and aerobic power. Still within this program exists scalability and development of these skills in a meaningful way, but the purpose and direction is slightly different based on the needs of the athletes. Like all sports, differing demands exist depending on what the goals of the participants are. Who is the SPORT program for? Anyone interested in taking part in the competitive aspects of the the sport of CrossFit. This does not mean that you have to be truly competitive on a global or even local scale, but your intent and passion speaks otherwise. If you have the passion and the desire to compete at a higher level in CrossFit (Beasts division at BCBD, the CF games Regionals, top 10 in CrossFit affiliate events etc.) than this program is for you. Many people believe that the SPORT program is a “better” program than the H&F program and this could not be further from the truth – they are just simply different based on needs. If your passion and ambition are there to train and commit to the sport of CrossFit then the SPORT program is ideal. In order to make the SPORT program work best you will have to commit to it – like anything else in life. So, How does the SPORT program work? The SPORT program follows the same periodization (phases) as the H&F program do, but it is a bit more detailed due to the expectation is that all athletes follow and complete 95%+ of the workouts (preferably 100%) and I dictate the rest and workout days that they follow. It is a flexible program based on your life and work schedule, but you are still required to complete the workouts properly. The basic requirements are;
– Follow all workouts and attempt to complete 95% of the workouts
– Work with a coach to change the schedule if necessary
– Attend only the SPORT program – it is not programmed to do additional workouts on top of the workouts already provided.
– Meet the physical requirements of the program (must talk to me in person) – you need 10 of 14 required skills. The skills are not insanely high, they are just there to ensure a base level of competency in gymnastics and strength work to meet the criteria to start progressing to other more advanced movements.
The program is designed to go through phases (prep 1, prep 2, and comp) which are broken down into specific demands of the sport within the qualities of skill, strength, energy systems, and movement progressions. Anyone who has ever trained a sport understands this – many programs I see in the CrossFit world have little to no progressions built in and are so varied that it is nearly impossible to reach the heights of capacity that you as an athlete are capable of. Clearly CrossFit does a wonderful job of getting people fit and improving their capacity with the constantly varied functional movements at high intensity approach, but do not be fooled into believing that this is the best way to prepare an athlete for competition in the quickest way with the lowest injury potential. For a beginner athlete a foundational approach like the following video from CrossFit HQ makes sense.
The above video makes so much sense and so little sense all at the same time (topic for another post). Constantly varied for a beginner is great as you will learn a tonne of new skills, and develop a broad spectrum of capacity to add to your fitness and you will have fun doing it. Functional movements – we all agree with this, why do forearm curls for your fitness when there are so many exercises that are more productive to performance, weight loss, improvement, and use of your time. High intensity – you will find few who agree with this more than myself, the base of our programs conditioning involves high intensity interval training – one of the best and fastest methods of training to produce optimal gains. Having said all of this, if you are following a program that entails that you compete on September 8th and you want to do your best – it makes a lot more sense to break your training into focused parts rather than simply following a constantly varied, functional movements at high intensity approach with a slot machine to make your workouts, which by the way not to far off how many crossfit programs are made…. trust me.
So the SPORT program takes the best of both worlds – the use of a well known and highly decorated approach to programming – periodization – and attaches it to high intensity functional movements. I suppose our method then becomes – intelligently designed, functional movements done at high intensity for the SPORT of CrossFit. An overview week of training in the PREP 1 phase might look like this to those who are interested;
Monday – OLY only (43% of the OLY volume)
Tuesday – Gymnastics Skills (skill development and acquisition time not metcon time) + mixed modal aerobic intervals with a gymnastics focus (1:1, work to rest ratio)
Wed – OLY (23% of the weekly OLY volume) + Anaerobic mono intervals (1:4 work to rest ratio)
Thursday – REST active recovery if possible
Friday – OLY (34% of weekly OLY volume) + muscular endurance/lactate management training
Saturday – Mixed Modal aerobic capacity intervals (1:1 work to rest ratio)
This program style would make the bulk of the developmental stage of training that we would build on, the focus would be strength development, skill acquisition, aerobic base and anaerobic power. From this we would develop more specific CrossFit competition strategies and energy systems (anaerobic endurance, aerobic power, lactic threshold, etc.). The point here is that the training is much more rigid, structured, and purposeful than most CrossFit programs and requires a higher level of commitment to adhere to.
Additional items for the SPORT program;
– you are allowed to train outside of the coached hours in the SPORT area of the new gym (of course you would not have coaching at these times though)
– you are able to add skill work and additional drills to the program upon request and on off days if necessary – this is a good way to bring up a lagging skill
In the new Synergy Strength facility we will have an entire area (larger than our current gym) dedicated to SPORT training only – if you are interested in being part of SPORT program please call me 979-9348 or email me chad@synergystrength.ca and we we can discuss in further detail.
