Planned Variation but not Random
In the words of CrossFit HQ, “our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.”
Fitness is the result of good coaching, adequate recovery, proper nutrition and good programming. Whether you do CrossFit, weightlift or play a sport, your programming will decide your fitness. As CrossFitters (this can apply to sport specific athletes too) our fitness is results driven. If you are doing it right, you should see the results/gains you’re looking for. We also feel that since none of us are professionals, getting the results we desire should also be fun and enjoyable.
We program one workout a day. This workout should satisfy all of our athletes no matter their fitness level, age or gender. We do this so everyone can be included within our community and still be able to achieve their own personal goals. Our daily WODs are programmed with prescribed (Rx) weights and movements intended for our top athletes. We understand that the majority/all of our athletes are not “elite” across the board and can’t always do Rx weights/movements. All of you have strengths and weaknesses and we expect everyone to scale down movements to your own ability level and Rx movements that you are strong in. All of this is done with the intention of becoming good and strong at all of the movements and lifts that we do. We also feel that everyone is equal no matter your ability level. If the programming is good enough for our elite, why wouldn’t it be good enough for our beginners? All movements and weights can and should be scaled to your ability. Our coaches will always encourage, if not require, you to scale back and build skill/strength until you are ready to Rx. It is up to you to know your ability (drop the ego) and ask the coach how you can get better.
Cycling and Periodization
At the 307, our programming is based on many different factors. We focus on certain aspects of fitness more heavily during certain times of the year depending on our goals as a gym. This concept is called periodization. We have our year (roughly) split up into seasons: Offseason, Preseason, Inseason, and Postseason, with our season being “The Open.” Whether you participate in The Open or not, periodization breaks up your training program into phases that focus on different goals.
Within each season, we cycle our training. We break our training up into 6 week blocks. Each block will have specific purposes while always training general fitness as the overall goal of the training. We will spend 4-5 weeks of training our fitness while biasing towards certain movements or aspects of fitness ie. Gymnastics, Olympic, Strength etc. We then will program a week of more intense, leaderboard, hero, longer and more grueling workouts to test our progression from the previous weeks. Between each Block, we program a week called a “deload” week. This week will not necessarily be easier but it will give your bodies a break from the heavy, intense day-in and day-out grind. Due to the nature of the 307, our facility and our huge difference in ability levels and intentions of all our athletes, we also break each week down. If you look closely, you could notice that our strength always follows a progression and we always work on certain movements on certain days of the week. For our workout programming, we try to cycle each day between different durations, intensity levels and movements. A lot of the time you might see a movement from the strength portion also show up in that day’s workout. We feel that the best preparation for an intense workout that includes front squats for example is to work squats in the strength.
Consistency
In order to take full advantage of our programming, you need to have consistency. We do encourage you to have a regular schedule with designated days off. For some it’s impossible to be regular and consistent and others have the ability to be here 7 days a week. For those who are lucky enough to workout every day, we encourage you to take at least 2 days off a week. Sun is our scheduled recovery days, and we encourage you to select one other per week for recovery. Many people find the feel best when taking Thurs off or using it for active recovery (ie. Swimming, yoga, shooting hoops etc.).
Community Encouragement
We will always encourage people to challenge themselves. Our gym and our coaches will never encourage competitiveness within daily classes and can only hope that you’ll have the respect to do the same. Competition can develop among friends and can be a great way to motivate each other but never to discourage or embarrass. We are inspired by our top athletes’ abilities, but we are inspired daily by our intermediate and beginning athletes and their constant improvement and growth. We think it is important for all abilities of athletes to train together and inspire each other. We understand that CrossFit is a sport to some and just a way to stay fit for others. With that said, we love to see our athletes venture out and compete. We love seeing athletes push each other to become better day in and day out. No matter what your reasoning is for doing CrossFit, we will never judge you for your efforts, your consistency or your interest in other parts of the gym or other sports. CrossFit is by no means the only way to train.