Those of you who occasionally visit the Catalyst Athletics website when you have no better way to occupy your time at work have likely noticed the introduction of a daily workout. This new WOD has been the subject of enough inquiries to warrant an article addressing the most common questions and the predictable subsequent ones.

The Origins

Ultimately credit goes to Greg and Lauren Glassman of CrossFit for, as far as I’m aware, creating the Workout of the Day concept when they began posting theirs in 2000. This quickly resulted in the development of a widespread but intimate community that continues to grow at an increasingly rapid pace. Then, about two and a half years ago, my coach, Mike Burgener, began posting his workouts, which of course focus entirely on the Olympic lifts.

In the last year or so, I’ve received a continuously increasing number of emails, phone calls, and questions at seminars regarding the integration of Olympic weightlifting with CrossFit to a degree beyond what is offered by the official CrossFit.com prescription. Similarly, I also receive questions regarding the maintenance of a baseline of metabolic conditioning during strength and power training from athletes who are disgusted by my own transformation into a gelatinous mouth-breather in dire need of extended sunlight exposure.

The summation of these events and circumstances motivated me finally—after a couple years of resistance to Robb Wolf’s suggestion—to begin posting daily workouts. Typing emails gets me out of breath, and I finally recognized a distinctive approach to workouts that was being covered by neither CrossFit nor Coach Burgener—essentially a hybrid of the two. That is, a workout of the day that intends primarily to improve Olympic weightlifting performance and strength while not entirely neglecting metabolic conditioning.


The Point

As described immediately previously, the intent of the Catalyst Athletics WOD is to deliver improvements in the snatch and clean & jerk both in terms of weight and technique, increases in basic strength, and while maintaining a reasonable conditioning baseline. The programming is influenced primarily by Mike Burgener in the realm of the Olympic lifts, Mark Rippetoe in the slow lifts, and Greg Glassman in the metabolic conditioning. Candidates for the CA WOD are CrossFitters interested in spending some time developing greater strength and Olympic lifting proficiency before returning to pure CrossFitting; athletes concerned primarily with strength and power but with a need or desire to not be fat slobs; and CrossFitters who may be interested in trying a weightlifting competition or two.



The Programming

The programming for the CA WOD is planned in fair detail for long periods of time. While the metabolic conditioning portions of workouts are varied greatly, they are not random, as they conform very intentionally to the surrounding training to be at best complementary and at worst minimally disruptive.

17-week macrocycles have been created with alternating 4-week mesocycles focusing primarily on either basic strength (strength cycle) or Olympic-lift-specific strength (Bulgarian cycle), finalized by a week of serious rest in preparation for the next macrocycle.

Scheduling

We train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; Thursday and Sunday are rest days. This provides five days of weekly training with a nearly even spacing of rest days, but heavier front-loading to aid in better recovery near the end of the week as fatigue is accumulating.

Strength Cycles

Weeks 1-4 and 9-12 are strength cycles emphasizing the development of basic strength while improving technical proficiency in the snatch and clean & jerk. This is accomplished through the use of the big lifts such as variations of the squat, deadlift, press and pull-ups, along with technical drills such as 3-position lifts, muscle-lifts, tall-lifts, and classic lift variant complexes. Because I obviously am unable to address each athlete’s weaknesses individually, all the bases are covered equally in terms of technique work. Athletes may choose to make substitutions to better suit their particular needs.

These cycles are ambitious in their progression of loading over the first 3 weeks—while most athletes appear to handle this length of increases, some will find 2 weeks is enough to bring them to a point of overreaching. In these cases, some modifications must be made to accommodate each individual’s abilities; for example, the athlete may choose to reduce the volume of some or all of the training during week 2 by reducing sets while maintaining the prescribed loading. The fourth week is tapered primarily in volume and secondarily in loading in preparation for attempting new records in the snatch, clean & jerk, and either the back squat, front squat or deadlift. This tapering also provides a chance to recover for the subsequent Bulgarian cycle.

Volume is considerably higher during these cycles than in the Bulgarian cycles, but repetitions are kept between 1-3 in order to encourage strength gains with minimal mass gain. Athletes interested in gaining weight may experiment with different rep ranges (such as 5-6) during this cycle, then dramatically slow weight gain or simply maintain gained weight during the subsequent 4-week Bulgarian cycle.

On Saturdays during this cycle, athletes will always attempt to hit a maximal snatch and clean & jerk. During the first three weeks, and in particular weeks two and three, it will be unlikely athletes make any new records because of the fatigue from the strength training. The primary objective during these cycles, however, is basic strength improvement, and for its sake we can temporarily compromise the ability to snatch and clean & jerk at record weights. The fourth week of the cycle should, if the athlete manages recovery well and makes any necessary alterations to the training, allow new records to be made. Failure to make new records is indicative of inadequate recovery, and modifications to the training, greater recovery efforts, or a combination of the two are advised.

Bulgarian Cycles

Weeks 5-8 and 13-16 are Bulgarian-style cycles developing the athlete’s technical proficiency with the classic lifts and his or her ability to manage frequent heavy lifting. The programming of these cycles is based on Mike Burgener’s 6-week Bulgarian program.

Initially, these cycles will prove extremely difficult for athletes without prior experience with training of such a nature. These individuals will find themselves unusually fatigued—both physically and mentally—slow, and abounding with aching joints. Modifications will be necessary in the first cycle to allow the athlete a chance to adapt to this kind of training and prevent complete neurological burnout or joint injuries. By the next occurrence of the Bulgarian cycle, the athlete will be able to handle it considerably better and require little if any divergence from prescription.

Once adapted to the unique stress of this training approach, the athlete will find he or she is able to train at surprisingly high intensities very frequently, and that his or her technical consistency will improve dramatically among repetitions and across the range of loads.

The key to this frequent heavy training, which will rarely be loaded less than 80%, is extremely low volume. The lifts are performed for singles only, and a decreasing number of sets as the intensity increases. The exercises will be reduced almost entirely to nothing more than the snatch, clean & jerk, and front squat—occasional technical drills will accompany the class lifts, but only at light loads and low volume.

The loading is of primary importance in these cycles. That being the case, athletes are advised to modify the programming first by reducing the number of sets performed at the maximal weight for the day before reducing the loading, which should be done only after a reduction in volume does not solve the recovery problem. If loading must be reduced, begin by dropping the weights on the light days of the week 10-20%.

Metabolic Conditioning

CrossFit-style metabolic conditioning is included on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays during normal weeks; this schedule is modified during the final week of each mesocycle to accommodate peaking for the final testing day. These workouts in general follow a medium-heavy-light schedule—medium on Tuesdays to get in some fanny-waxing without disrupting Wednesday’s potent strength training load, heavy on Wednesdays for some serious wienie-shrinking that can be recovered from on the subsequent rest day, and light on Fridays to maintain metabolic AKP without taxing the athlete too much for Saturday’s training.

These workouts are varied to a large extent, but are by no means random. Exercises are selected in consideration of both the demands and effects of surrounding strength training; that is, both redundancy and disruption are avoided as much as possible. Duration is kept brief—typically in the 5-10 minute range if performed as expected—again to minimize disruption with the strength training.

When making modifications to the training due to an inability to recover adequately, these metabolic workouts should be the first target of volume reduction. Rounds can be reduced, reps can be reduced, and/or time limits can be imposed irrespective of prescribed rounds. During weeks of unusual recovery difficulty or accumulated fatigue, entire workouts may be dropped if necessary.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately it’s impossible to deliver a perfect training program for an unknown number of unfamiliar individuals. Attempts have been made to create a program that produces excellent results without being wholly out of reach for anyone. That said, some degree and nature of modifications will likely be necessary for every single participant. Understand the principles and purpose, experiment and evaluate, and alter the training to best suit your needs. And of course, keep posting your training results, questions, comments, concerns and suggestions on the Catalyst Athletics site.