The first thing to understand about CrossFit programing is: there is no such thing as a perfect program. An effective program allows the athlete, with the correct amount of work to rest ratio, to become stronger and faster at the same time. At the end of the day, all I am worried about is: are my athletes getting stronger and faster?
The program would look different if I was honing in on just one person to attack their weaknesses and build on their strengths. However, this is not the case at CFBTS.
I take into consideration three different time frames, which are commonly known as microcycles, mesocycles and macrocycles.
Macrocycle – Long-term outlook.
Mesocycle – Twelve-week outlook.
Microcycle – One-week outlook.
The long-term outlook is exponential growth in strength and speed. The twelve-week outlook becomes more focused on a particular weakness seen throughout the community. The focus is to strengthen the weakness while preserving the overall strengths. Lastly, the one-week outlook is the most intricate process, which is what I want to talk about today.
How It Works
It takes an immense amount of time to develop just one week of our program. I have a few charts to help walk you through the process.
Step 1: Analyze Prior Week – Sunday
Analyze the prior week and incorporate some or all of the movements and modalities into the next week. Figure 1.0, shown below, is my work from Week 2 of our current cycle. This is one of three pages used for analysis. I then jot down the missing pieces onto my first draft of the following weeks cycle, which is seen on the top of Figure 2.1.
Figure 1.1Step 2: First Draft – Sunday and/or Monday
Get some coffee and a pair of headphones and prepare for the first of many long nights. Figure 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 show you the process from start to finish. Figure 2.1 shows a relatively good amount of work and at first glance it seems like a good week. I don’t recall exactly why I hated it but it leads to Step 3.
Figure 2.1Step 3: Revise – Tuesday and/or Wednesday
Figure 2.2 shows my attempt at a second draft. I do recall this miniscule amount of work taking me about an hour. Mostly, just stared at the page.
Figure 2.2Step 4: Revise/Finalize – Before Friday Evening
Figure 2.3 shows what I actually decided on. Four strength/metcons came from figure 2.1, three strength/metcons came from figure 2.2 and five strength/metcons came from a third draft.
Figure 2.3Thank God for the third draft because a CFBTS benchmark was born: For Time, 21-15-9, Thruster/Assault Bike Calories
Step 5: Wodify – Friday or Saturday Evening
Transfer final draft to wodify and most likely make minor changes.
Step 6: Daily
Also shown on Figure 2.3 is the analysis of each workout. I do not go into great depth because my analysis sheet does that for me, but I like to know if I was correct in the amount of reps or time frame the athletes would achieve. I miss the mark here sometimes and that truly bothers me all day.
Step 7:
It’s Sunday – See Step 1 and Repeat
Lastly
After I do this process 12 times, CFBTS has a baseline to help me analyze our athletes as they gain strength and speed. Our last twelve-week cycle was a unanimous…SUCCESS!
—Jay Vigilante
