Our new strength block – “BACK to BASICS” – will kick off in Functional Fitness from January 13th.  It’s in essence a seven week strength build (well, eight if you count what we’ve planned for the week commencing January 6th)  followed by a 3-week deload where we’ll reset the emphasis towards conditioning…so it’s ten weeks in total.

This cycle will include multiple strength lifts to help athletes develop a well-rounded foundation. Our power lifts will concentrate on grunt work and stability training, aiming to improve activation, control, and bar path. Athletes will be encouraged to slow down their lifts with tempo work, perform dead-stop/pause exercises, and incorporate more posterior-dominant movements. We want athletes to start with lighter weights and build up while maintaining quality and consistency across all sets. Being the new year, this cycle is also an excellent opportunity for newer athletes to begin and progress while building strength and confidence. 

The first seven weeks of the cycle will feature a gradual progression in building strength and skill. In week eight, we will transition into a three-week maintenance phase where we will begin to bump the conditioning workload up with some longer metcons and generally changing our stimulus moving into training block 2.