Phase 1 kicks us off in 2025!  In 2024 we improved our strength, our power, our speed, and our endurance.  This year we are going to continue to make improvements in our general fitness.  Those of you just recommitting to your fitness to start off the year, you are timing it right.

Phase 1 is the first small part of our larger annual cycle, which consists of 4 different phases.  Phase 1 is where we like to start to set us up for success throughout the year.  That is not to say that people cannot get great benefits from starting later in the year.  However, those that commit throughout the whole year get the full benefits of a periodized training program.  If this is your first full year with us, awesome.  It is a lot of fun.  

What is a periodized program?  If you have done CrossFit, or bootcamp fitness programs in the past, the concept of periodization programming may be new to you.  If you have trained for a sport, you may have heard of it before.  What is it?  Well, the formal definition from the National Strength and Conditioning Association is: “a theoretical and practical construct that allows for the systematic, sequential, and integrative programming of training interventions into mutually dependent periods of time in order to induce specific physiological adaptations that underpin performance outcomes.” …which is about as clear as mud.

Essentially periodization is a way to program for strength and conditioning where you manipulate various training interventions (like reps, sets, exercise selection, work to rest ratios, etc) to improve certain training adaptations before others.  This does make logical sense.  If an athlete is trying to get a ring muscle up, they may want to just jump on the rings and try it.  However, an athlete may not have the strength to perform the movement.  Perhaps they don’t even have enough strength to perform a pull-up or dip.  The first step would be to develop that strength by increasing the size of the muscles involved in the movement and to improve their ability to use that muscle.  Once they have the strength for the movement, they will need to make sure they are able to use that muscle quickly enough to perform the muscle up.  This means the muscle needs to be sufficiently powerful, so they need to train at higher velocities to improve that power.  Finally, they may get their first muscle up.    

For the above example, the periodized approach may focus training first on hypertrophy of the muscles involved in the movement, then strength of those muscles, and finally, the power of those muscles.  When power is trained, the exercises involved will be very specific to the muscle up they are trying to achieve.    

The benefits of a periodized approach is not only improvements in attaining particular performance goals, but also it can reduce the potential for overuse injuries.  Overuse injuries occur when we do not recover from our training stimulus.  A periodized approach means that we do not train the same way throughout the year.  Instead we are changing up some very fundamental things.  The way we train hypertrophy and the way we train power are very different.  That difference is good because it reduces the chance for overtraining.  Another reason for reduced injury is because we prepare the body for the next phase by training the phase before it.  Think of training hypertrophy and strength in the beginning as a way to safeguard the body from injuries when we start training power.  

If you are still with me, cool.  Let’s talk about Phase 1 for 2025.  Phase 1 will be a “foundational/hypertrophy preparatory phase”.  We will be working on making sure our bodies are able to handle the training program to come and building up to a volume of training that will work to increase the size of our muscles.  In particular we will be working on improving our range of motion for each of our joints, strengthening our tendons, improving our ability to decelerate in our foundational movements, and improving our ability to stabilize our spines in various positions.  To achieve this we will be emphasizing the eccentric phase of our exercises in our strength portion of our classes for the first four weeks before progressing to higher volume hypertrophy work, working on unilateral movement patterns, and playing with various isometric exercises.  Conditioning workouts will be biased towards moderate to higher repetitions, with lighter loads, and limited rest.  This is a 12-week training phase that will , and will be setting up our hypertrophy and muscular endurance phase to come.  

Phase 1:  Tentative Schedule

WEEK 1:

Monday:

• Primary: Tempo Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Alternating Shoulder Press

Tuesday:

• Primary: Pull Ups

• Secondary:  Lunges

Wednesday:  NO CLASSES

Thursday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Friday:

• Primary: Tempo Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Alternating Shoulder Press

Saturday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Lunges

WEEK 2:

Monday: 

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Renegade Rows

Tuesday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Tempo Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Alternating Shoulder Press

Thursday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Lunges

Friday:

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Renegade Rows

Saturday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

WEEK 3:

Monday:

• Primary: Tempo Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Alternating Shoulder Press

Tuesday:

• Primary: Pull Ups

• Secondary:  Lunges

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Deadlifts

• Secondary: Renegade Rows

Thursday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Friday:

• Primary: Tempo Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Alternating Shoulder Press

Saturday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Lunges

WEEK 4:

Monday: 

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Renegade Rows

Tuesday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Tempo Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Alternating Shoulder Press

Thursday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Lunges

Friday:

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Renegade Rows

Saturday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

WEEK 5:

Monday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Shoulder Press

Tuesday:

• Primary: Pull Ups

• Secondary:  Bulgarian Split Squats

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Deadlifts

• Secondary: Beastmakers

Thursday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Friday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Shoulder Press

Saturday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

WEEK 6:

Monday: 

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Beastmakers

Tuesday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Shoulder Press

Thursday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

Friday:

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Beastmakers

Saturday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

WEEK 7:

Monday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Shoulder Press

Tuesday:

• Primary: Pull Ups

• Secondary:  Bulgarian Split Squats

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Deadlifts

• Secondary: Beastmakers

Thursday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Friday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Shoulder Press

Saturday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

WEEK 8:

Monday: 

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Beastmakers

Tuesday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: DB Shoulder Press

Thursday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

Friday:

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Beastmakers

Saturday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

WEEK 9:

Monday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: Shoulder Press

Tuesday:

• Primary: Chest to Bar Pull Ups

• Secondary:  Bulgarian Split Squats

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Deadlifts

• Secondary: Sandbag Pulls

Thursday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Friday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: Shoulder Press

Saturday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

WEEK 8:

Monday: 

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Sandbag Pulls

Tuesday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: Shoulder Press

Thursday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

Friday:

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Sandbag Pulls

Saturday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

WEEK 11:

Monday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: Shoulder Press

Tuesday:

• Primary: Chest to Bar Pull Ups

• Secondary:  Bulgarian Split Squats

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Deadlifts

• Secondary: Sandbag Pulls

Thursday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Friday:

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: Shoulder Press

Saturday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

WEEK 12: TEST WEEK

Monday: 

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Sandbag Pulls

Tuesday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March

Wednesday: 

• Primary: Back Squat

• Secondary: Shoulder Press

Thursday:

• Primary: Weighted Pull Ups

• Secondary: Bulgarian Split Squats

Friday:

• Primary: Deadlift

• Secondary: Sandbag Pulls

Saturday:

• Primary: Bench Press

• Secondary: DB Death March