Periodized Training For The Intermediate CrossFit Athlete

Periodized Training For The Intermediate CrossFit Athlete

Every year around February the CrossFit community is abuzz with talk of the CrossFit Open. This 5-week event is the first of three stages that ultimately crowns the “fittest” men and women alive. When the Open was first introduced in 2011 it was more of a community fitness event. Everyone of all skill levels was encouraged to participate and although some harder movements would appear (i.e., muscle-ups), they would generally appear towards the end of the 5 Open workouts enabling most people to get several scores in before being “eliminated.” Fast forward to present day and the Open is truly a competitive sporting event, but one that still tries to integrate all members of the CrossFit community. This shift in emphasis towards competition was inevitable as every year new challenges must be created to tease out who is the Fittest on Earth. It was therefore only a matter of time before the Open became significantly more challenging.

What we see now is an Open that requires significantly higher levels of conditioning, skill and strength. This is true even for the scaled versions of the workouts. At the same time we are seeing interest and participation in the Open steadily increasing every year. This can become problematic as the pressure or desire to perform well in the Open is often at odds with the long-game of CrossFit training for health and fitness; every year the Open comes around and may tempt CossFitters to tackle weights, movements, and training volume that they simply are not yet ready for. So, what can be done?

One solution is to bias and cycle aspects of your training at different times of the year leading up to the Open. In sports this is known as Periodization – a systematic planning of your training so that you are in the best possible shape for your target competition each year. In the rest of this article I will detail a plan for periodizing your training leading up to the Open.

Who This Plan Is For
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I want to emphasize up front that this programming is not for everyone. In particular, this programming is NOT for:

• Beginner CrossFitters (less than 6 months of experience). If you are a beginner, you should not periodize your CrossFit training.
• Those only interested in health & fitness. No matter your experience level, if your focus is only on health & fitness (the long-game) and don’t have a desire to compete or perform well in competition, there is no need to periodize your CrossFit training.

The above said, periodization is an option for Intermediate CrossFitters with an eye on the Open, especially those that feel like they are falling behind every year. Intermediate CrossFitters are familiar with all the movements in CrossFit, but are generally lacking in one or more of:

• Strength.
• Technical skills for moving efficiently/safely.
• Stamina to complete larger sets successfully.

As it turns out, the above areas of weakness/concern are directly tested in the Open. This is why many Intermediate CrossFit athletes underperform (or can’t perform) in the Open.
 
The Year At A Glance
 
A possible yearly breakdown for periodized Intermediate CrossFit training might look like this:

Note the blocks listed above represent the training emphasis for each of those months. As will be detailed below, they don’t necessarily indicate that only those types of training will be performed.
 
The Blocks In Detail
 
April-May: Strength: In April the Open has come to a close and summer has not yet begun. This is the perfect time to focus your training on getting stronger. The vast majority of Intermediate CrossFitters are nowhere near their strength potential – they are still Novices for strength. This is readily apparent if they take several cycles of linear progression strength training as detailed in the Starting Strength method. The gains they can make are striking. Just ask anyone who has done a cycle (check out my Client Success Stories for specific examples).

June-August: CrossFit: For a CrossFitter, actually doing CrossFit as much as possible is important, so there is a 3-month block here where you will just focus on CrossFit training. I’ve placed this large block of CrossFit training during the summer months because it is during these 3 months that people are most active and “outside.†Vacations, sports, and laying on the beach are popular activities during these months and CrossFit training will enable you to look your leanest (abs for the beach) while giving you flexibility to train in a variety of locations on different days should your schedule vary due to summer activities.

September-October: Strength: After summer I recommend returning to strength once again. You will likely need several 8-week cycles to exhaust all of your Novice strength gains and placing a second one right after beach season is perfect. If this is not your first strength cycle, small amounts of conditioning can be integrated into your strength programming.

November-December: Speed Strength (Olympic Lifting): The Olympic Lifts (clean & jerk and the snatch) are staple movements in CrossFit; they appear in every Open and are extremely technical. Technical movements require constant practice in order to maintain proficiency and while you will have been practicing them in CrossFit during the summer, it will benefit you greatly to focus on your form and efficiency as the Open nears. Thus, during this winter block enrolling in a dedicated Olympic Lifting cycle is highly recommended. Slightly more conditioning can and should be added during this time.

January: CrossFit (Weaknesses): A month before the Open you should be immersed 100% into CrossFit training and it is time to take stock and focus heavily on your biggest weaknesses. You should have a serious eye on what you need to improve for The Open and plan how you will work on those elements. Perhaps it’s double under proficiency, or squatting stamina, or your kipping skill. Whatever your biggest weaknesses are, make sure you target classes that train them and put in extra time on your own to round things out.

February-March: CrossFit Open: The event you have been training for has arrived. The focus now should be on doing whatever is necessary to perform at your best during each of the Open workouts. This means monitoring your nutrition, sleep, stress, and training volume closely.
 
Common Questions
 
Why is there so much strength work? Strength is emphasized more than once because it takes a very long time to develop and affects nearly every aspect of performance in The Open. For example, although pull-ups, chest-to-bar pull-ups, ring muscle-ups, and bar muscle-ups require skill, if you don’t have the pre-requisite strength, the skills won’t get you very far (and you actually could get injured if you attempt them without the necessary strength). In addition, the stronger you are, the less fatigued you will be from a given weight. For example, imagine how light 95lb thrusters will feel if your squat and press 1RMs are 355lbs and 150lbs, respectively versus if they were only 255lbs and 125lbs.
 
Should I always be doing cycles with barbell lifts (i.e., the Starting Strength method) during my strength blocks? What about other types of strength work? You should definitely make the major barbell lifts a priority until you obtain all of your novice strength gains. This is the most efficient way to build overall strength. I offer these strength cycles as both small group classes and through remote, online coaching. Once you have run your Novice strength gains out, you can add in specific/positional strength work.
 
Do I have to do strength blocks twice a year to start and then keep doing them year after year? Not necessarily. Two blocks are suggested to accelerate the process and help you get your Novice strength gains quicker. You can just use one block per year – the process will just be slower. Once you have all your Novice strength gains, you can switch to once a year blocks or even remove the strength blocks entirely, opting instead to spread your strength work out more evenly across the April-December months. If you choose this latter option, you will need to be mindful of how you integrate strength work into your regular CrossFit programming so as to maintain it adequately.
 
Won’t I lose my conditioning with two strength blocks and a weightlifting block during the year? I noted above that you won’t always be removing conditioning during strength and weightlifting blocks. However, it will be noticeably less prominent during these blocks. Try and take your very first strength cycle in April-May. You shouldn’t be doing any extra conditioning, sports, or outside activity during this first cycle and yes your conditioning will drop somewhat, but for the rest of the year you will be able to train & develop your metabolic conditioning in some fashion.
 
Can you explain in more detail how this training & development of my metabolic conditioning will happen? Assuming you begin with your first strength cycle in April as a rank Novice the progression will look like this:

• As a rank novice (first time) taking a strength cycle in April you should not be doing other outside activity. The program will demand all of your recovery potential outside of lifting. Your conditioning will drop slightly, but getting strong is worth it (your 80-year-old self will thank you).
• When summer follows you will ramp up conditioning extensively and will see improvements beyond the levels you had before your first strength cycle.
• In September, since you are no longer a rank novice taking strength cycle (you have one cycle under your belt), you can probably get away with one day of conditioning a week. This will help you maintain more of your conditioning.
• In October, as you move to Olympic Lifting, you will be able to do even more conditioning on a regular basis, but you should stay away from movements that mimic/overlap with the class lifts and you should limit the time domains of your conditioning pieces to 5-15 min (high intensity, low volume).
• Finally, when January comes around, you are back to CrossFit full steam with about 1.5 months of focused preparation for The Open.

The more strength cycles you have under your belt, the more conditioning you can safely work into strength cycle blocks, so looking at the big picture you are simply making a few small, early sacrifices for greater long-term performance gains.
 
Am I supposed to only be working on my weaknesses during January? Is that enough time? January is just a month for you to focus on weaknesses as they stand at that time of year – with the Open right around the corner. You can and should be working on weaknesses throughout the year. The strength blocks as written are helping you with one of your weaknesses, but you can work on others. For example, if you need to develop/improve your double unders, they can be practiced on a regular basis, if pull-ups are a weakness, you can work those into your strength program, if your overhead flexibility is lacking, that can be improved on a regular basis as well, and so on.
 
Do I have to complete the blocks in the exact monthly order you have listed them above? Not at all. Every athlete is different in both their skill level, training goals, personal responsibilities, etc. Invariably you will have to adjust the above plan in some way. The purpose of this article was to introduce you to the periodization concept and give an example of how it can be applied. If you need further assistance in developing a plan that works for you, just drop me a line. I will be happy to help.