Hey Everyone,

Just a quick “here’s what’s about to happen” message for all things Functional Fitness over the next 9-weeks.  Our current cycle will finish up next week (July 15th – testing week for our current block with Front Squat and Overhead Press) then we will be heading into our new block which is based on the Wendler 5-3-1 cycle.  This cycle will primarily be focussed on TWO (2) primary lifts (Deadlift and Back Squat) and each week will also see a Bench Press variant AND an upper body Pull day.  In addition, we will go back to cycling between barbell power snatch and barbell clean and jerk from week to week to both build/maintain our skills in those lifts (so hard earned earlier in the year) as well as continuing to develop our work capacity.

In simple terms, the Wendler program will kick off with a testing week (July 22nd) and we will use our performances in that testing as the base weight for the remainder of this cycle.  So PER-LEEEESE, remember to record your numbers in FitBox and let’s set ourselves up to follow the program and maximise our outcomes!

Once our baseline is determined, we will kick off each lifting set with a 10-rep activation set before moving through the traditional Wendler 5-3-1 cycle.  What I’m hoping for is we have a predictable program model where everyone participating clearly understands what their “build” should look like and we have a clear goal of a 10-15% strength gain over the 9-weeks of the program…I know that sounds like a lot but if we maintain focus and stick to the plan I’m sure we can all do it!

Now I have mentioned we will also be doing some Olympic variants (once per week – alternating between Power Snatch and Clean and Jerk) and these will NOT be following the same Wendler style cycle.  Instead of outright strength gains, our aims will simply be to follow a simple linear progression (2.5kgs to 5kgs per week) and increasing weight ONLY when each athlete is comfortable and confident with their movement.  As I noted in the intro, this is about maintaining form and function and increasing our ability to maintain form as load increases…aka – moving BETTER whilst achieving marginal strength increases.

What else?  Well – we will NOT be following the same Wendler cycle for Bench Press and Upper body pull efforts.  Instead we will be doing a simple 5x 5 for our bench and continuing to build our work capacity on what seems to be everyone’s favorite lift!  I know that I really benefited from the incline bench with negatives that we completed 2x training blocks ago…whilst I was tempted to insert another primal variant I think just keeping it ‘SIMPLE’ is the best plan for our development right now.  In addition we will be doing 2x Upper pull circuits – alternating from week to week – focussed on build power and strength in our lats, traps and delts.

It all kind of looks like this:

Cheers Team – See you in the gym,

Michael.