How are we already over halfway through the year?!
Ending June with the very big Hero Workout, “Hotshots 19”, was the perfect culmination of the long duration bias that our workouts took this month! This bias towards long duration (21:00+) took form in many different avenues from heavy in monostructural movements to high volume bodyweight, including the chronologically convenient and absolute legend of a Hero and Hero Workout, “Murph”, a true community classic that we include year in and year out on Memorial Day.
Our NCFIT favorite workout, “Death Row”, came in towards the end to test our ability to keep our foot on the gas while keeping oxygen in our lungs! Along with our increased time domains we also wove in specific and strategic accessory, cooldown, mobility, and finisher sessions into the mix. June was a blast with some classics, but we are really bringing the heat in July!
July is a big month for us in and we have a lot to get to and through! At the beginning of this year, we went through our bi-annual Baseline Workouts, our version of measurable and repeatable tests of fitness. July sees the retest for the final time this year, buckle up!
On the Strength side of things, last year we used a pseudo Wendler cycle with a 6-4-2 approach, this year and for the next 9 weeks we are going to go with the original 5-3-1 method. The optimal use of loading for this cycle is by using the “Training Max” that is 90% of the Heavy 1-Rep we build to in Week 1 of 9. This 90% will be the number we base our percentage work off of for the cycle. During week 5, our second cycle of 5-3-1 begins with an increase to the Training Max, roughly 5-10# than we used in the first cycle. Our 3 main lifts that we will be using this go around is the Back Squat/Deadlift/Shoulder Press.
In the workout department, we are taking a hard 180 in our focuses for these next two months as we saw longer, monostructural focused workouts (21:00+) a couple times a week in May/June. In July/August we are going to be hitting some FAST all out effort sprint workouts 2x/ week, experiencing the “redline” will be familiar by the end!
July/Aug Wendler Cycle
Week 1 of 9 (6/28) – Heavy 1-Rep Test (Use 90% as Training Max)
Week 2 of 9 (7/5) – 3×5 (@65%-75%-85%)
Week 3 of 9 (7/12) – 3×3 (@70%-80%-90%)
Week 4 of 9 (7/19) – 1×5/1×3/1×1+ (@75%-85%-95%)
Week 5 of 9 (7/26) – 3×5 (Increase Training Max) (@65%-75%-85%)
Week 6 of 9 (8/2) – 3×3 (@70%-80%-90%)
Week 7 of 9 (8/9) – 1×5/1×3/1×1+ (@75%-85%-95%)
Week 8 of 9 (8/16) – 3×5 (@40%-50%-60%)
Week 9 of 9 (8/23) – Heavy 1-Rep Retest
