CrossFit, DISTRICT – We’re back!

We are just 4 days out from reopening the doors to our home from home and we cannot wait to see all your faces … mainly mid workout when you’re regretting your choice of weight for the first set of front squats!

It’s been a long year for all of us, we have all come so far as a community and for us the highlight once again has been the CrossFit Open.

During this time it reminded us of the good old times, albeit from zoom! We still saw you all come out in big numbers to compete and to support each other. After a year of struggle and uncertainty of whether or not we would be here at the end of it our CrossFit community came together and picked us up!

CrossFit is who we are at our core and it is what we do best and I can’t wait to get started again! I know there are some of us who may have liked the choice in rep schemes from the pre-lockdown training plan, but i can assure you we will reach your goals within our CrossFit programming, you can simply speak to your coaching team in class to find out the best way to use your training to move you there.

I’m now going to hand you over to the nutty professor below for a quick brief on your first few weeks of training, I’ll see you soon!

Back in the GAME (…GYM).

I am sure you are all as excited as I am to finally get back training in the gym this Monday (12^th). It has been a long time coming! As much as I know the majority of you (myself included) will be wanting to chuck a heavy barbell round, hit PR’s and grind out some long, enduring metcon’s, we need to be smart into introducing ourselves back into some of the movement patterns, will most likely have not be able to do over the past few months.

Firstly, let’s quickly debunk some myths with regards to time off training etc. (particularly strength training). If your foundational strength is already pretty good, the chances of you ‘losing your strength’ (unless it’s from a medical/injury point of view), will be very minimal. Now, I am not saying you can come back and hit near to your lifetime PR in the first week, but it will be more introducing you back under load and familiarising your body to the movement pattern again. Once strength is gained to a specific level, your body generally will be able to work around that level (±10%), even if you haven’t been able to load a lot during the past few months. See strength training a bit more of linear pathway. Now let’s compare this to aerobic/metabolic training (which I am sure we are pretty familiar with now, over this past few months). This is generally more undulating. If you have a bit of time off from it, your capacity/tolerance for this may drop a bit and that first session back may feel like your lungs are about to explode. But, unlike strength training it is pretty easy to build it back up to a decent level after some time off (2-3weeks). Anyway, so even of me waffling, I just wanted to paint the picture for what to expect over the next month…

We are going to look to act in a pre/off-season style manner. Fairly GPP. Reintroduction of the main compound lifts (Squat, Bench, Deadlift and Strict Press). The volume will generally be higher (don’t worry this is common in off-season training), but the intensity (load), will be light. Again, we are training the movement pattern and reintroducing stimulus gradually. In terms of the Olympic Lifting, which I know the majority cannot wait to get back to. This will act in a similar concept in terms of low intensity. Looking at reinforcing technical positions of each lift and re-programming that neuromuscular system. However, this will also look to be tested a little under fatigue too, with some EMOM-style workouts, to help mixing lifting (low intensity), with some basic mono-structural cardio. Gymnastics will be reintroduced from a strict only point of view, again reintroducing the movement as well as building strength through the entire range of motion.

Finally for the style of the metcons … we are back to good old CrossFit programming! So variation, simplicity, as well as fun are key here. However, we again need to be smart in moving load (whether that is a barbell, DB or KB) under fatigue. So, some longer (mixed modal) workouts will be introduced weekly, to get used to moving through varied movements, under fatigue for relatively long periods. But, just to reiterate, no one will be lifting crazy heavy in metcons over this next 4-weeks, as again we want to treat it as that off-season mentality (low intensity/higher volume). Gradually, as we move throughout these 4 weeks, some of the workouts will increase in intensity and complexity. 

All in all, all of us at DISTRICT look forward to having you all back in the gym and seeing everyone crushing the workouts (in-person!!). Roll on the 12^th!