The Arttu Summer 2014 Strength Cycle

After the The Arttu Winter 2013 Strength Cycle yielding modest gains in strength numbers, and the open over, it's time to embark on the 1st of 3 more strength cycles up to Christmas.

The target is to get 5kg on the backsquat per cycle and achieve bodyweight (80kg) snatch before the year ends.

Strength training 3 days a week, with a Sunday snatch/clean and jerk weightlifting session.
Strength training will begin with an olympic lift, then finish with back squats.
Back squats will vary from heavy low rep to build strength, to medium weight medium rep, to light weight high rep to build muscle.
Every 4th week is a deload week.

Beginning stats on 20140420 (Sunday)

Back squat 114kg Snatch 74kg Clean 97kg Jerk 91kg
Clean and Jerk 87kg Deadlift 145kg
Bench 88kg OHS 101kg Press 62kg Front squat 102kg Weighted pull-up 26kg and weighted dip 38kg

End stats on 20140719 (Saturday) after 12 weeks.

Back squat 121kg (+6kg) Snatch 75kg (+1kg) Clean 100kg (+3kg) Jerk ??kg
Clean and Jerk 90kg (+3kg) Deadlift 1??kg
Bench ??kg OHS 101kg Press 58kg (-4kg) Front squat 1??kg Weighted pull-up ??kg and weighted dip ??kg

Kie's Predictions for the Crossfit Open 2014

After my predictions for the 2012 Crossfit Open two years ago, and my predictions for 2013, I'll have a shot at predicting what to expect this year. I am a crossfitter who is a fan of all the games dating all the way back, and know all the open and regional workouts. Again, this is just for fun:

Prediction Workout 14.1 -

7min AMRAP
Hand release push-ups
Double unders
Wall Ball
3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 / 18 / 21

Reason:
There's a ladder every year.

Like all years it's all inclusive, everyone get's some of their $20 worth.
Ladder format has never been applied to more than a couplet.

Prediction Workout 14.2 - 

10min AMRAP 

Grace + Isabel

Reason: Beginners will remain included but struggle with Grace, average guys will struggle with Isabel, and it's a met-con for the elite. Good way to separate things out on week 2. One barbell makes it logistically easy and everyone knows the benchmarks.

Prediction Workout 14.3 -   

10min AMRAP of:
60 Bar-facing burpees
30 Overhead squats 55kg
10 Muscle-ups

Reason:
This is the comparison workout for 2014.
3 years of difference so HQ can brag about how everyone is getting stronger etc.
Overhead squats have had too much of a hiatus.
There has to be a workout in the format of 13.3 with a horrible buy-in, some skill, then fatigued muscle-ups.

Prediction Workout 14.4 - 

18min AMRAP
9 Toes-to-bar
12 Sumo DL Highpull 100lb
15 Backsquat 100lb

Reason:
There's usually a long one.
A controversial movement for 2014 - "That barbell wasn't up to clavicle!"

Prediction Workout 14.5 - 

EMOM

7 Thruster 100lb
7 Chest-to-bar

Score is number of reps up to their incomplete round.

Reason:
Last workout is always 100lb thrusters and CTB in some combination.
Not sure if this is the right guess because some elite guys will go forever.

Comments:

1. Overhead squats haven't been in since 2011. They weren't in 2013 either, that's too long.

2. 2012 and 2013 tested the heavy snatch, this year is likely to be the year of the heavy clean & jerk and snatch will only be used in a light power form if it's in.

3. Pistols and HSPU might come up, but they didn't last year after I worked on them so I'll leave them alone and have healthier knees for it.
4. There was so much controversy/hassle with box jumps last year I reckon they'll leave them alone this year.

5. I'll update this post after the open with the actual workouts and a review.

Update - Here are the actual WODs

14.1

14.2

14.3

14.4

13.5

What the 2014 CF open would look like if I planned it:

14.1

AMRAP 5

1 muscle-up

500 OHS at 90kg from the floor

14.2

10 minutes to find
1RM Hang snatch

14.3
30min AMRAP
row

14.4
10 minutes to find
1RM back of neck split jerk

14.5
One arm dumbbell snatch ladder

The Arttu Winter 2013 Strength Cycle

I'm following Arttu's strength cycle to the letter, doing no other work in the gym. I'll go in the gym, do the menu, and get out to rest/recover. The only other things I'll do myself is mobilise before, stretch after, eat clean and sleep well. I've no idea what he has in store, and that's the best way if I'm going to follow blindly. All I know is that we'll do it until Christmas, then test maxes again.

Pre Cycle (3 weeks)
Before we start focusing on increasing strength, I want to know your strength goals, where are you looking to be at and what kind of weights you wanna be throwing up? Also what is your biggest weakness (as in what is your weakest lift)?

Let's spend the next few weeks finding your PR's on all the big lifts and movements.

Back squat, front squat, deadlift, clean, snatch, OHS, press, bench, weighted dips and chins. I want these spread in to a span of 2 weeks or even 3 weeks, I want you to wake up in the morning and have the feeling that today I can lift some heavy sh*t! You have to be physically and mentally ready when hitting your 1 rep maxes. Once we find your 1 rep maxes then will start to focus on increasing those numbers and attacking your weaker points. The way I want you to divide them (whatever day you start on): Day 1: Back squat Day 2: Snatch Day 3: Clean Day 4: Deadlift & Bench Day 5: OHS Day 6: Press Day 7: Front squat Day 8: Weighted chins and dips This does not mean to go 8 days straight I want you to have at least 1 rest day in between. Result

Day 1: Back squat 110kg Day 2: Snatch 73kg Day 3: Clean 92kg Day 4: Deadlift 145kg & Bench 88kg Day 5: OHS 95kg Day 6: Press 62kg Day 7: Front squat 92kg Day 8: Weighted pull-up 26kg and weighted dip 40kg

Week 1
Plan is to take the 1RM numbers found in the 3 week pre-cycle and work on building lifts at 85% of that. Increasing numbers until 10 reps at 85% of pre-cycle 1RM is accomplished.

Irrelevant to the strength goal, but so as not to lose all cardiovascular ability. There will be short, 4-8min met-cons thrown in.

Day 1: 3 Pos Clean 70%/75%/78%/78%, 3-3-3-3 Jerk 3-3-3 FS
Day 2: Hang Pwr Snatch 55%/65%/75%, Snatch Pull 80/85/90, OHS 3x5, Snatch Press 4x5
Day 3: Clean 55%/65/75/85, Spl Jrk 75/80/85, Clean Dead 80/85/90, HPwr clean 5x10
Day 4: 20 min met-con

Week 2

Day 1: Hng Sq Snatch 65%~85%, Hang Sq Clean, BS 80%~90%
Day 2: Pwr CL/FS 65~85%, Clean Dead 5x3, Spl Jrk 65~85%
Day 3: Pwr Sn+3OHS 55~65%, Cl Hi Pull 3x2, Sn Pu-press 3x3, BS 90% 1x5

Week 3

Day 1: Sn Pull + Sn Hi Pull + Pwr Sn 55~65%, Pwr Sn x2x4, Sn Dead 3x3, BS 70~90%x2
Day 2: Long Met-con
Day 3: Cl+2 jerk 65~75%, FS 85% 2x5, Good Mornings 30%(BS) 8x4
Day 4: Long Met-con
Day 5: Pwr Sn 75% 1x8, Pwr Cl 75% 1x8, OHS 65~75% 3x4, Bent O Rows 40%(dead) 4x4

Week 4 - deload week
Plan this week is to not go above 55% of maxes and to do all eccentric movements fast. fast out of the hole, fast bar movement off shoulders etc.
Day 1: Push Press 55%, Met-con Day 2: 3 Pos clean 55%, Push Jerk 55%, FS 55%, Met-con Day 3: 3 Pos snatch 55%, Snatch Pull 55%, OHS 55%

Donnie Shankle Seminar Lifting

Day 1: Snatch 69kg Day 2: Clean & Jerk 83kg PR

Week 5

Day 1: Snatch, C&J, back extensions 5x10 Day 2: Snatch, OHS 1RM, Good Morning 4x10 Day 3: Snatch, C&J, BS, Snatch Dead


UPDATE

It was a massive undertaking to write all exercises and weights and sets on here as well as on my BTWB page.

All together this cycle lasted for 3 weeks pre-cycle and then 13 weeks, here are the results.

Results

Back squat 114kg Snatch 74kg Clean 97kg Deadlift 145kg & Bench 88kg OHS 101kg Press 62kg Front squat 102kg Weighted pull-up 26kg and weighted dip 38kg

Gains

Back squat 4kg Snatch 1kg Clean 5kg Deadlift untested & Bench untested OHS 6kg Press -3kg Front squat 10kg Weighted pull-up untested and weighted dip -2kg

Yama's Pull Up Progession

Size On for Korea

As of today I weight in at just under 78kg, 14% bodyfat.
The workouts for Korea have been released and the Chikara Nokorimonos team will not make it past day one due to the requirement of 6 muscle ups for the women. So there's one thing left to really gun for and that's event #2


Event #2 is 3 rep max overhead squat with the barbell taken from the deck.

The Target

Size on 12kg up to 90kg in 22 days.

The thinking behind this exercise is bigger people move more weight.

The Plan

Eat 4,000 calories on training days paleo and whey shakes post workout and during the day, casein before bed.
On non training days skip breakfast and eat a normal 1,800 paleo calories.
Plenty of sleep
No met-cons
Creatine
Reps schemes in singles or triples.
Sundays: Rest
Mondays: Rest
Tuesdays: OHS test, C&J test
Wednesdays: Rest
Thursdays: Jerk practice
Fridays: Front Squat 5x3
Saturdays: Deadlift 5x3

Typical Eating Day

coming soon.

2013/05/09 Starting Stats

Clean and Jerk: 82kg
OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 85kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 80kg
Weight: 78kg
BF: 14%


2013/05/14 Week 1 Stats

OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 85kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 80kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 80kg
Weight: 81kg
BF: 14.9%


2013/05/21 Week 2 Stats

Clean and Jerk: ??kg
OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 95kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 90kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 82kg
Weight: 83kg
BF: 15.5%


2013/05/28 Week 3 Stats

Clean and Jerk: ??kg
OHS 1 rep max off the rack: 95kg
OHS 3 reps max off the rack: 90kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 84kg
Weight: 83kg
BF: 15.9%


2013/05/31 Competition Stats

Clean and Jerk: ??kg
OHS 3 rep max off the deck: 84kg
OHS 2 rep max off the deck: 89kg
Weight: 84kg
BF: 16%


*** 2013/06/03 UPDATE ***

Okay so it's just after Regionals and my experiment was a failure.
My target was to put on 12kg but I only managed 6kg. My lifts did go up but not to the 100kg that I was hoping. What I learned was that it's a longer and more gradual process and you can't fast-track getting fat.

I managed to put on 5kg in the first week, then seemed to plateau. Also I wasn't very diligent in getting 5,000 calories in on lifting days. It's a lot of hard work to remember to eat breakfast, chug protein post workout, as a mid-morning snack, after lunch etc.

I also changed my technique from clean and jerk, to clean and dip-drive-pop-head-under to get the barbell to back rack. So I stopped practicing the clean and jerk hence no results there.

Next Step

Putting on a lot of weight fast to lift more weight fast was a quick fix to lift more at Regionals. Now that's done I need to get back to work on the real holes which are flexibility, rack receiving confidence, and proper 1st pull technique off the floor.

Time to go back to paleo with some basic liftting. I expect a slow decline back to around 78kg/13% bodyfat by August.

Kie's prediction for the Crossfit Open 2013

After my predictions for the 2012 Crossfit Open last year, I'll have a shot at predicting what to expect this year. I am a crossfitter who is a fan of all the games dating all the way back, and know all the open and regional workouts. Again, this is just for fun:









Prediction Workout 13.1 -
7mins AMRAP
Wall balls

Reason: It's all inclusive, crossfit is taking everyone's $20 so they'd piss too many people off if they put pull-ups in the first week and loads of newbie's and girls would lose interest straight off. Everyone can do wall balls and programming burpees again would be too ridiculous. Just as likely to be another single modality that everyone can do. In the rules we might even see a 6" target for wheelchair users

Prediction Workout 13.2 - 

10min AMRAP 

Clean and Jerk 40kgx30, 75kgx30, 100kgx30, 120kgx30

Reason: Everyone loved the snatch WOD 12.2 last year, it brought about loads of PRs and gyms went crazy. Can't do it again and we haven't had a clean and jerk workout since Open 11.2. Rich and Dan to demonstrate face to face.

Prediction Workout 13.3 -   

18min AMRAP

5 Wall climbers, 

9 grasshoppers, 

14 SDHP@40kg

Reason: There has to be an 18-20 minute AMRAP gasser with 3 different modalities in it. The above 3 could be changed for box jumps, wall balls, push-ups, toes-to-bar, K2E, hang cleans, cleans, light deadlifts. Also SDHPs are in the judges course.

Prediction Workout 13.4 - 

12min AMRAP

150 Knees-to-elbows

50 Jump over box

30 Muscle Ups

Reason: Following on from 11.4 and 12.4 there has to be a 10 minute nightmare followed by a 2 minute nightmare to suck all energy out of you so that you fail that muscle up. Big guns will cruise into a 2nd round, fit guys will re-do the WOD in the hope of getting to the muscle up, mediocre guys will get significantly less reps separating the league table clearly. Also Knees-to-elbows are in the judges course.

Prediction Workout 13.5 - 

7min AMRAP

Chest-to-bar Fran Ladder

Reason: There has to be away to compare to last year, that's what crossfit is all about: Timing workouts and measuring against last time to see how much you've improved. Saying that though, you could choose any of the 2012 Open workouts to use as a comparison. I'll go with this one because the results will give people the opportunity to compare 3 years.

Comments:

1. I wanted to put in overhead squats because they haven't been in since 2011. But I like them too much and that has to cloud my judgement.

2. I wish my wrist didn't hurt, otherwise I'd be hammering my heavy Clean and Jerk efficiency.

3. I wish my wrist didn't hurt, otherwise I'd be hammering thrusters.

4. I've been working on wall balls.

5. I've been working on chest-to-bars

6. I've been working on HSPU & Pistols just in case but I hope they don't come up because I'm sh*t at them (most say these are Regionals only exercises, but other than running and concept 2 rower, you can't count anything out that can be filmed continuously and all garage gyms will have equipment for).

Some say kettlebells will make an appearance this year, but they haven't yet so I steered clear of them. Wouldn't be surprised if they popped up though: 13.1 7min of 1.5 pood? KBS in 13.3? 150 KBS in 13.4?
7. Double unders should be in there, they are bound to come up. But where do they fit into my prediction?
8. I'll update this post after the open with the actual workouts and a review.

Update - Here are the actual WODs

13.1

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 17 minutes of:
40 Burpees
75 pound Snatch, 30 reps
30 Burpees
135 pound Snatch, 30 reps
20 Burpees
165 pound Snatch, 30 reps
10 burpees
210 pound Snatch, as many reps as possible

13.2

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
115 pound Shoulder to overhead, 5 reps
115 pound Deadlift, 10 reps
15 Box jumps, 24" box

13.3

Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 mins of: 

150 Wall Balls, 20/14 lbs, 10/9 ft 

90 Double Unders 

30 Muscle Ups 

13.4

As many reps in 7 mins as you can of:
3 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
3 Toes To Bars
6 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
6 Toes To Bars
9 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
9 Toes To Bars
12 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
12 Toes To Bars
15 Clean & Jerks, 135/95 lbs
15 Toes To Bars

13.5

AMReps in 4 mins:
15 Thrusters, 100 lbs | 15 reps
15 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups | 15 reps
15 Thrusters, 100 lbs | 15 reps
15 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups | 15 rep
15 Thrusters, 100 lbs | 15 reps
15 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups | 15 rep

Kie's prediction for the Crossfit Open 2012

This is just a prediction for fun

*** Post 2012 Open Update ***
Updated with actual WODs and comments

Prediction Workout 12.1
10 min AMRAP of:
15 toes to bar
25 push-ups
35 box jumps

Equivalent Workout 12.3
Complete as many rounds as possible in 18 mins of:
15 Box Jumps, 24/20 in
12 Push Press, 115/75 lbs
9 Toes To Bars

Comment: My 12.1 and the actual 12.3 are fairly close.

Prediction Workout 12.2
15 min AMRAP of:
10 one arm dumbbell snatch
20 kettlebell swings 1.5 pood

Equivalent 12.1
As many reps as possible in 7 mins of:
Burpee

This workout begins from the standing position. The Athlete will move from flat on the ground to touching an object with both hands that is 6 inches above their max reach. Score is total reps completed in 7 minutes.

Comment: Nobody saw that coming, totally different from anything I predicted.

Prediction Workout 12.3
5min AMRAP of:
Snatch 60kg

Equivalent Actual Workout 12.2
Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
30 Snatch (M 75 / F 45 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 135 / F 75 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 165 / F 100 lbs)
Max Rep Snatch (M 210 / F 120 lbs)

Comment: Similar on the sticking snatch weight, glad I trained heavy on snatches.

Prediction Workout 12.4
10min AMRAP of:
100 double unders
30 overhead squat 50kg
10 muscle ups

Equivalent Actual Workout 12.4
12.4 record: 148, 240
Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 mins of:
150 Wall Balls, 20/14 lbs, 10/9 ft
90 Double Unders
30 Muscle Ups

Comment: So I was right that there would be a similar hard trek with the best getting to muscle ups to separate themselves from the pack. The actual 12.4 is a much cooler WOD than my prediction.
Prediction Workout 12.5
20min AMRAP of:
10 pull-ups
10 wall balls
10 plyo-push-ups
10 Jumping alternating lunges
10 double unders

Equivalent 12.5 record: 39, 48
Complete as many rounds as possible in 7 mins of:
3 Thrusters, 100 lbs
3 Pull Up (Chest To Bar)s
6....

Comment: Yeah, cool to compare to last year. I was way out with a final chipper style AMRAP. Is that an oxymoron?

Conclusion

I'd say 

prediction 12.1 maps to actual 12.3, 

prediction 12.4 maps to actual 12.4 and 

prediction 12.3 maps to actual 12.2

Not bad for a first try , looking forward to 2013 to try again.