Fitness: 3×5 linear progression
If possible, add weight to last week’s exposure. It’s normal to miss reps this late into the cycle, aim for 3-5 reps per work set.
Performance: 5/3/1 Five week
65%x5
75%x5
85%x5+
Increase your training max by five lbs.
e7/8
_____________________
Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
10 Dumbbell Squat Snatches 75/55
50 Double-Unders
DB Snatch:
Priotitize movement quality, but note that the intention for this workout is to use a Heavy dumbbell. The Rx loads are no joke!
If you’re comfortable with the DB Snatch Alternate arms each rep, if you don’t feel very comfortable with it yet perform 5 on each arm in sequence. Pull from below the knee if you can’t set your back off the floor.
Double-Unders:
Double Unders should be completed in about a minute or so per round. Scale the volume down to if needed. The single under substitute is 150 reps.
Post workout results to comments.
Rich Froning and James Hobart perform today’s metcon.
Rich: 9 Rounds + 2 Snatches
James: 7 Rounds + 10 Snatches
- Happy birthdays to Alex C, Tori P and Megan R!
- CFSBKer Sonya C‘s father was recently in a car accident, the family set up a Caring Bridge in case anyone wants to see how he is doing, and show their support. Get well soon, Alan!
Last Change to sign up for Strength Cycle
Want to get really freakin strong? Here are the last remaining open cycles for Coach Jeremy’s Starting Strength program!
A cycle: Beginners, 7pm Mon/Wed and 6pm Fri | Monday July 20th-Friday Sept 11th
B cycle: Intermediate, 7pm Tues/Thurs and 10am Sun | Tuesday July 21st-Sunday Sept 13th
E cycle: Late mornining, all levels, 10am Mon/Thurs | Monday July 20th – Thursday Sept 10th
The Sophomore Slump
by Noah Abbott
It’s inevitable. At some time during this great journey that is Crossfit, things are going to get tough. Your strength numbers stop shooting up, and your metcon times stop plummeting down. At a certain point what Mark Rippetoe calls the “Beginner Effect” wears off, and you are now faced with the daunting prospect that each gain, each skill mastered, and each second shaved will be done so at the cost of a considerable investment of time, focus, and will.
Often, concurrent with this realization, you will look around and think “why isn’t this happening to anyone else!” The guy you share a squat rack with has added 40 pounds to his squat this exposure, while you’ve risked an aneurysm to add 15! The girl you did foundations with just hit 100 consecutive double unders, and you approach the jump rope like its an anaconda looking to wrap you up and eat you! You thought you were great at this stuff, and all of a sudden it feels like you barely deserve to wear the ol’ skull and crossbones and call yourself a CFSBKer.
For many, this phenomenon occurs somewhere between 6 and 18 months into an athlete’s development, although it can certainly happen sooner or later, depending on your previous training history. Often times this double edged revelation- That a) shit is gonna be hard, and b)that on the giant Crossfit spectrum your abilities rate closer to Jason Schwartzman’s than Jason Khalipa’s- results in a drop of motivation, general malaise, and sometimes a loss of CrossFaith.
Congratulations! You are now a Crossfit Sophopmore, and experiencing your first Sophomore Slump! At this time it may be meritorious to examine the roots of the word Sophomore. Although commonly used to refer to the second year of high school or college instruction, it derives its name from the greek sophisma, which means “acquired skill, clever device, method” which was further derived from sophos, meaning “wise or skilled.” Previously you made gains randomly, almost accidentally, and every lift or metcon was a PR. Now, as a Sophomore, you must practice sophisma and train methodically and with greater perspective to ensure continued success.
Redefine Goals and Timeframes
At the start of your Crossfit career, goals were short-term challenges and triumphs. Kicking up to a handstand, one (or ten, or twenty) push-ups or pull-ups, squatting to depth- these were things that you could identify, work on for a relatively short amount of time, and achieve. For further development as a Sophomore, a redefinition of goals is necessary.
Previously, we planned forward to achieving a goal. “I want to squat 200 pounds by the end of the month.” Looking forward, I challenge you to plan backwards. Identify your goal, figure out how many training days you can allot per week or month to work on it, and set a long enough timeframe that you will be able to keep progressing slowly and steadily towards success. Make sure to start submaximally (using weight/reps/etc lower than your current max) to make sure you have room to grow. The more you can delay hitting the ceiling of your current ability, the more room your ability will have to grow. By starting low, aiming high, and giving themselves ample time to grow Smart Sophomores avoid Ceilings (I think I just made up a new saying!).
Perspective
Even with perfect planning, great focus, and sustained intensity, some movements,workouts, or even time/weight modalities (Grace vs Murph) will always seem to crush us. Mobility, diet, sleep, injury history- all of these things blend into potent cocktails that besiege the fledgling (and intermediate, and expert) Crossfitter. Instead of getting frustrated why not try and re-frame the problem:
First, embrace every exposure to them as an opportunity to practice perfectly and gather experience and insight about a difficult adversary. Relish in attacking your weaknesses, and try your best to attend days when those weaknesses are programmed, or program them yourself during open gym days.
Second, actively try to maintain perspective about what Crossfit means in your life and your personal reasons for why you keep showing up to a funky old warehouse to get sweaty. Aside from the infinitesimal percentage of elite, competitive Crossfit athletes, most of us come to the gym for reasons that all fall under the umbrella of “Improving Quality of Life.” Increasing work capacity, being able to participate in new and challenging activities, looking better naked- all of these are broad, life-oriented goals that we work towards every single time we come to the gym, whether its a day when we hit a PR or where we bail on every set.
Last, remember what a great privilege it is that you have a life that allows you to spend a nice chunk of time each week picking up heavy stuff, running, jumping, and making yourself Mas Sexy (and I mean that in the broadest sense of the Spanglish malaproprism). There are a vast number of people out there too overworked, underpaid, untrained, ignorant or otherwise unable to do the things we take for granted. Your worst day at the gym is better than a day sitting on the couch mainlining Pringles.
Just Show Up
Which brings me to my last point and word of advice during slumps, Sophomoric or otherwise. JUST SHOW UP. Every day you are in the gym working is a day you are improving, even when it doesn’t feel that way. Tangible increases in strength or speed are important, but so are intangible gains in familiarity with movements and a greater understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. Broadening your knowledge and confidence is just as worthwhile an endeavor as broadening your back and thighs. Sometimes you will surprise yourself with gains you make when you feel like you are standing still. Plus, your friends want to see you, sweat with you, and laugh with you, and, if you don’t show up, your coaches will have nothing to do but compare deadlift scars and throw chalk at each other.
A Long Crossfit Road
Hopefully after reading this, some of you will feel rejuvenated, and apply these humble tools to break out of the funk you are currently in. Although this article deals with the concept of a Sophomore Slump, rest assured there are Junior Slumps, Senior Slumps, and a wealth of postgraduate, doctoral, and extracurricular opportunities in Slump Science as well. Now you have the weapons to fight back. Redefine your goals and adjust your timeframes to allow steady progress towards said goals. Strive to maintain perspective and always reflect on what Crossfit means to you, why you do it. Most importantly, even when it’s tough, find value in simply stepping into the ring. So equipped, all of these Slumps will be just small road bumps on a long road. Trust me, one day you’ll look back at this stuff, and laugh.
Terrific article Noah, thank you. Last cycle, my running joke was that it would finally be the cycle where "I learned to love the front squat" – and in fact, the truth was that coming in each week with a light-hearted and warmer attitude toward front squatting, instead of entering with dread and a "stuck" mentality, really did help me make much bigger strides.
In thrilling news, 60# press 3×5 today, not only a major PR for me (last cycle I finished at 53#), but the bar went up and down so easily, save the 5th press of the 3rd set which got grindy. So aiming for an even higher PR next week!
WOD 5 rds at 25#. Got very very light headed during jump roping, I think from the heat. Ick.
First day of strength cycle. I'm glad I was finally able to get in on a strength cycle that fits my tight schedule and I'm excited to gain all the gainz. I'm also glad to not be doing a metcon with the weather like this.
Back squat: 195x5x3. These were low bar, which I haven't done in a while. It's going to take a little getting used to.
Press: 105x5x3. This felt heavier today than I would have expected this weight to feel. I'm going to chalk it up to having not lifted last week.
Deadlift: 235x5x1. These felt fine. I've missed deadlifting and I'm looking forward to piling weight onto my deadlift.
6am.
Press: 3×5 @ 125 moved pretty well for this far into the cycle. Some layback on the later reps.
WOD: Couldn't organize full squats with my ankle flexibility, so did db power snatch @ 65#. Subbed 100 single unders and got 4 rounds.
Heat definitely played a part in this workout.
I just want to say thank you to Coach Margie (and the rest of the tough ladies + Artie) for an amazing 8 weeks of fun, hard work, and serious gains during what was my first (and not to be last!) Strength Cycle.
First, it was like being on the most pleasurable cruise ship, where luxury means you have anywhere from 30-50mins to work up to and complete your warm-up and work set lifts (vs normal class time 15mins). Heaven. Pure. Heaven.
Second, holy smokes the gains that can be made in that time!! I've never really taken my lifts super-seriously, which meant not only was I never really pushing myself, I also never really learned (or, I should say, retained via consistency) all the little details of performing these standard lifts. At a "pixie" weight class, I'm pretty darn psyched to share these numbers:
Squat: 1RM at 185# (from 135#)
Press at 87.5# (from 75#)
DeadLift at 200# (from 155#)
…And I was recently in West Palm Beach at The Crossfit Squad (#1 in the SE Region during the Open this year) for a drop-in workout. I feel pretty dang proud to say I not only held my own, but also topped the leaderboard for men and women during the MetCon and managed to pull a new 1RM Bench Press at 100# (from 75#). TOTALLY have Margie and the Strength Cycle to thank for both my performance, and, new found confidence with these lifts; I feel stronger, am stronger, and I can even levitate! (…still reading? good.) 😉
In all seriousness, Margie is an amazing, patient, smart, and super fun coach who pushes you beyond where you think you and your chicken legs can go. I am so grateful.
Strength Cycle. Try it. Do it.
Kathryn!!! That's amazing! Congrats lady!!! We're going to miss you this cycle.
6am. Felt a little sore this morning after yesterday's high volume partner work out. Press: 90×5, 105×5, 120×7. Metcon: 4 rounds + 12 db squat snatches @ 45#. This is a fun movement, nice to do something new. Much easier to organize at heavier weights and learning how to counterbalance with my free arm. It is all about getting the DB overhead in a good position, then the squat is easy. Double unders were not super on point today, all rounds mostly two sets of 30/20.
Sweaty Volume Day this afternoon…
Squat
300x5x5
One more of these days to go, will go up to 305.
Bench
215x6x5
Down in volume from 205x8x5 last week. The last rep of each set was slow. Will go 225x4x5 next week before the meet.
I was going to do a 20 min row after lifting but this took about 90 minutes and I was drained.
I try to not double post but… I just weighed in at 184.5, down from 193.5 on 7/6 and only 2# over my 83kg weight class for the USAPL meet on 8/1. Feeling good!
12 noon with Fox and Ro. Added another 5# to my training max on the press, which brought it to 82#. My real 1RM is 80#, so I am in heavy territory here. Managed to squeeze out 6 reps at 70# today. Then the performance WOD with a 35# DB and 50 double unders. PSA to the people who are coming in to do this one tonight: a one armed dumbell squat snatch is WAY different than a one armed dumbell power snatch. I've used 35# for power snatches in the past and it's not a problem. Having to do a full overhead squat is a completely different ball game and I found it hard as f**k. Should have gone with 25# and attempted more rounds (ended up with 3 rounds + 2 snatches). Very hard to organize for me: heels coming off the floor, arm wavering off to the side, slow turnaround. Hard workout!
7am class:
Press 59# 3X3. Glad I went down to three reps because I left feeling successful unlike last week. (sophomore slump!?!?)
WOD: Power snatches @25#. The full squat was insanely hard!. Single unders with a few DU attempts for 1:00 each round.
Great read. July marks my twelfth month of crossfitting; I may be hitting the so-called sophomore slump, so this article was super reinvigorating.
A one year anniversary is definitely an opportune time to redefine goals and recommit to reveling in the privilege of coming to the gym every day. The 'just show up' mantra is so important- even on the darkest days of self-loathing where even taking a step out of bed is hard, I've never left the gym with regret or frustration from coming in and working out. Even if my workout goes terribly, the endorphin rush and social element always makes up for a lack of PR or other negative feelings. We're so lucky to have a supportive, productive place to turn rather than the couch & jar of pringles (/wild turkey…)!
Looking forward to seeing what happens in the next twelve months. (I'm also super excited about the anti-gravity class on Tuesdays to provide an opportunity to work on skills I want to improve, but am often just too tired to work on after class!). I'm really glad this article encouraged me to think about where I want to go from here with crossfit and with life in general. Thanks!!
Performance Press:
65%x5 @ 50#
75%x5 @ 55#
85% x6 @65#
Didn't realize I was supposed to add 5# to my training max the last three weeks. Ro broke it down and explained how it works. I was calculating my weights correctly- just repeated the same weights three weeks in a row since I didn't add the 5#. That explains why I hit all my weights last week, even after taking 8 days off! I won't end up where I would have on press, but that's ok…next time!
Fitness WOD: Power snatches with a 35# DB and 25 DUs (including attempts). 4 rounds +20. Power snatches were great. Double unders were terrible and slowed me down. The squat snatches looked pretty brutal.
Great article, Noah. Your advice to "just show up" for me was one of my biggest obstacles. I was once known for skipping days with certain lifts….or not doing any CF for weeks or even months at at time. I've been extremely consistent for a full year now, and despite not having many new PRs, I am definitely stronger and more confident!
great numbers and thanks for the note, katheryn. Also great to hear everyone who dug Noah's article!
Thanks Charlie and David 🙂
Charlie, it was so inspiring to see you work so hard these last few months — Good luck with your competition next month!