Hey guys,

This next week we will be ending our current cycle.  We test the big clean complex Monday and Championship Helen Tuesday.  These tests are polar opposites, one being all barbell power, and the other being bodyweight endurance.  Ultimately, our goal is to develop well rounded fitness.  To do this, we need to measure endurance and strength so that we don’t trade one at expense of the other.

After this week, we test the CrossFit Total.  Thats max back squat, deadlift, and Press.  Our conditioning benchmark is “Revenge of the Sith.  This is an increasing rep scheme that ends when you can no longer complete the set in 1 minute.  We will retest those wods around the time of the Christmas party.  Between now and then, we are going to be working hard to improve our upper body strength, as well as bring back bulgarian split squats to improve posterior chain strength and balance people out.   We will be front squatting more than back squatting.  The reasons for this are several.  Front squats strengthen the core to a greater degree than back squats, they carryover more a lot of the movements we do in CrossFit, and they don’t tax the lower back as much as back squats.     That last part is important since we will be adding in more deadlifts and pulling.  On some weeks, we will front squat early in the week, and later that week do front squats with 2xKB. Kettlebells are fantastic for improving core strength and can be easily supersetted with other more movements.  Last year, we saw some spectacular progress at both gyms.  In some cases, people whom had come for years went up 50lbs on their deadlifts!  I am really excited to see how the cycle plays out this time around.