FRI: August Programming Prep

August will be based upon the following cycle.

MONDAY: Clean & Jerks
TUESDAY: Varied
WEDNESDAY: Varied Barbell Lift
THURSDAY: Varied
FRIDAY: BB Lunges

Primary Lifts

Absolute Strength: Barbell Lunges

While not a traditional absolute strength movement, the focus on the eccentrics and the ensuing muscle damage that will occur makes it skew the absolute side of things.

We will do a few different variations of lunges this month. 

  • Trunk Stability
    • Load should match what is a challenge while maintaining full brace/upright trunk.
    • Back and Front Racked – Hard focus on lat stabilization.
  • Balance
    • Working at weight that looks to even out the differences from R/L rather than allowing compensation on the stronger side.
  • Mind/Muscle Connection
    • Stability/Strength/Balance
      • Unilateral strength aids to bilateral strength, igniting smaller muscles, stabilizers, and forcing us to learn about where weaknesses lie. 
  • Easy Mental Cues:
    • “Lats.”
      • Reminder to maintain full stability on the bar, pushing into it.
    • “Control the descent.”
      • Don’t allow your knee to slam into the floor. The eccentric is where we build strength and stability in the lunge.
    • “Push through the heel.”
      • Front Foot- we see a lot in the toes, keep the heel grounded for greater posterior engagement.
    • “Step Wide.”
      • No tightrope.
    • “Brace.”
      • Under fatigue is more challenging so encourage slower movement.

Strength-Speed: Clean and Jerks

This is a great opportunity to bring the strength work of the last three months into this full lift. We will start with Power Clean and Jerks and progress from there. 

  • Move Your Feet
    • Both elements of the clean and jerk, feet will move to catch and need to be reset!
  • Meet the Bar
    • For the “Active catch” meet the bar with the shoulders and fast elbows to avoid crashing and maintain tension/speed.
  • Adjust Grip
    • If your Jerk grip is wider than your clean grip, pop the bar up and make the adjustment needed.
  • Finish
    • Clean
      • Stand up RIGHT away out of the bottom position.
    • Jerk
      • Once the arms are locked, hold trunk stability and extend the hips for full recovery *Split- stay stable and get the feet under the bar.

Easy Mental Cues:

  • “Chest Up”
    • To catch more vertically/avoid hips shooting up.
  • “Push”
    • To encourage the hips meeting the bar and pushing it up the body.
  • “Speed”
    • Because these are speed based lifts.
  • “Glutes”
    • To remind firing/accelerating the bar with the hips in the Jerk.
  • “Punch”
    • For more solid/engaged elbows (eliminating rebound).
  • “Head Through”
    • Commitment.

August PPBs

  • Strength Endurance 5: 5′ Max Distance Row (Monday)
  • Lactate Threshold 1

This is the second time we have performed these in this calendar year, and a great opportunity to set or look back at some benchmarks in your PPT app.

-Julianne

Friday, 7.27.18

First, for Strength.
5 Push or Split Jerks @ 60-80%
8 Slow KB Dead Bugs
Every 4’ For 16’ (x4)
—-
Then. For Conditioning
w/a partner
A: 3 Hell Trots
100m Run
B: Rest
(x12’)

Advanced: 1R Jerk + “Hell’s Bells”