Programming Corner: Olympic Weightlifting Phase
Post courtesy of Deka Comp
Phase duration: Mon, Jul 17, 20234:30 PM Sun, Sep 10, 20235:30 PM
WEIGHTLIFTING PHASE: 8 WEEKS, JULY 17TH TO SEPT 10TH
Become one with the barbell!
Welcome to the Deka Comp Weightlifting phase, where we will follow our Base Strength Phase with a focus on the Snatch and Clean & Jerk. The Base strength phase was very polarizing with the 10 general physical skills, we worked a lot on all of them individually. You should notice the focus here is stepping towards blending these components together, with our macro goal at the end of the year during the fitness phase, to blend them together almost completely.
Our main goal will be to increase capacity for intensity in the two lifts. We have lined up our phases this way for two reasons:
1. Sharpen the “strength blade”
After building strength with a focus on application of force there are no two better lifts that can display it and transfer it like the snatch and Clean & jerk. Therefore, this weightlifting phase is not only meant to focus on the two lifts but have the two lifts facilitate more explosive force that your body is capable of translating from the base strength phase.
2. Specificity
If we are going to be specific in our sport about anything, getting better at these two lifts is crucial because they are extremely common and routinely included in workouts and translate to overall better power output.
Note: this training phase will be largely focused on weightlifting, but this is a focus and a bias. This means our goal to stay varied will have our classes touching base on more lifting without neglecting other modalities and components.
Perform Progression
This is an intensity progression. So overall you will notice a linear progression in the percentages week to week.
You will notice two waves of progression, where we focus on linear intensity progression for the first wave, then a volume progression where we cycle back on the intensity and build it back up again using complexes. We will divide the week into 3 sessions: A snatch day, a clean and jerk day, and a combination day; where the combination day is always focused on intensity and the others are focused on driving up intensity through higher volume.
You will notice A LOT of weightlifting accessory. These are drills and will mainly be positional pulling and overhead strength/mobility drills that become progressively more athletic, and therefore challenging, as the weeks go on.
Class Progression
We will make sure our classes include the linear progression every week but this may be on different days of the week. This means we can have athletes who are on set schedule touch base on the key elements of this phase but i also means some athlete may not be able to follow the progression so linearly, depending on their schedule.
What will be different this year is that the PERFORM programming schedule WILL NOT ALIGN with the class schedule. We will do our best to stay true to the metcons of the day but this will sometimes not be possible. We made this decision to help class members with set training schedules touch base on different movements. Below we’ve outlined the Perform schedule for the next 8 weeks as well as the class schedule for the next 8 weeks.
Weekly Schedule (Perform)
Monday: Volume Snatch OR Clean & Jerk session + Metcon (Strength endurance stamina- triplet/couplet) + Accessories
Tuesday: Gymnastics Pulling OR Pushing focused session + Metcon (Anaerobic Threshold- high intensity) + Accessory + Power Conditioning
Wednesday: Volume Snatch OR Clean & Jerk session + Metcon (Aerobic Threshold- Longer intervals) + Accessory
Thursday: Active Recovery Day
Friday: Intensity Snatch + Clean & Jerk + Squat + Metcon (Speed intervals) + Accessories + Power Conditioning
Saturday: Gymnastics Conditioning + Gymnastics accessory + Metcon (Long endurance focused) + Odd Object/Conditioning (Power focused) + Accessories
Sunday: Rest Day
Weekly Schedule (Class)
This schedule is an outline of what the strength focuses will be (part A)
Week 1, Test week: Monday Snatch, Tuesday Gymnastics, Wednesday Clean and Jerk, Thursday Pull, Friday Squat
Week 2: Monday Gymnastics, Tuesday Clean and Jerk, Wednesday Squat, Thursday Snatch, Friday Gymnastics,
Week 3: Monday Squat, Tuesday Gymnastics, Wednesday Clean and jerk, Thursday Gymnastics, Friday Snatch
Week 4: Monday Clean and Jerk, Tuesday Squat, Wednesday Snatch, Thursday Hang clean, Friday Squat
Week 5: Monday Snatch, Tuesday gymnastics, Wednesday clean and Jerk, Thursday pull, Friday gymnastics
Week 6: Monday Gymnastics, Tuesday Clean and Jerk, Wednesday Squat, Thursday Snatch, Friday clean and jerk
Week 7: Monday Squat, Tuesday Gymnastics, Wednesday Clean and jerk, Thursday Gymnastics, Friday Snatch
Week 8: Test week
OTHER TRAINING MODALITIES
Gymnastics
We will focus on gymnastics capacity within the weightlifting focus because this is a CrossFit program and we need to be balanced. Gymnastics will be present 1-2 times/week as a part A section for strength & power. There will also be gymnastics in our metcons but we will reduce some volume on certain movements to avoid overuse on the shoulders since the snatch and clean and jerk are both present every week and have a big demand on the shoulders.
Metcon
Our metcons will need to be dialed back on heavy percentage intensity for the CNS, especially on the weightlifting days. Metcons will vary in time but we will make sure to keep the time frame under control to allow for proper teaching of the weightlifting movements.
Extra/ Accessories
The classes will remain a two part class schedule. The extra/accessories will vary between normal accessories designed to target specific muscle groups and weightlifting pieces from the perform programming for those who want to get more weightlifting specific training in.
Accessories will focus on hypertrophy, strength endurance, power, speed, as well as joint and tendon health in the following areas of the body:
Midline/Core
Shoulders- Vertical and horizontal push/pull
Hips/Knees
post chain- Lower/Upper.