Front squat
1-1-1-1-1
3-3-3-3
5-5
The 4th Time
Hi Crew –
Quite a few of you have commented on the fact that we’ve done this workout every week for the past three weeks. We have, and it’s no mistake:).
I thought we’d take a moment to discuss briefly the way we program at Roots and the reason for doing this workout four weeks in a row.
At Roots, we follow the CrossFit mainsite on a 2 week delay. We, the coaches, are proud of the fact that we do this.
We do it for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we follow the mainsite because it is CrossFit, the one and only CrossFit, we are CrossFit, part of the CrossFit community, dot com, the mothership, the horse’s mouth, and it delivers a general physical preparedness program. Second, it keeps the coaches honest. Every coach, just like every athlete, whether they know and/or admit it or not, has biases in their own programming and what they think is best for their athletes. They like strength a bit more, they think gymnastics elements rate higher, they think that metcons are way cooler – or even worse, they’d rather not set out 12 sets of rings at 5:30am in the morning! The mainsite, well, it keeps us honest.
From there, our coaching efforts can ring true. We can develop the best class outline for the task at hand, incorporating skill, movements prep, mobility, and other fun elements.
On top of that mainsite template we add in our own programming on the mainsite rest days. On these days we program workouts, movements, and skills that we feel the shop, as a whole, is weak or needs improvement or additional exposure. Hence the front squat month long efforts.
The purpose of the front squat efforts is three-fold – 1. to give folks a one month period to acclimate, learn from, and go heavier on one specific lift, 2. to develop the mental fortitude to go heavier each week based on the previous week’s numbers, and 3. to work speed as a result of a new top end number.
Have you PR’ed your 1 rep or 3 rep max front squat over the past three weeks? Post to comments.
Yes! I think mainly because I was front squatting more often.
I PR’ed both times I did this workout! I definitely think the mental part was huge for me.
PR’ed each time! Big confidence booster.
Why not work overhead squats or an Olympic lift? It seems like most people have a pretty good handle on front squats, but could really benefit from working a more difficult movement.
Yes. PRs each time. Great for improving times of other WODs as well. Who doesn’t like squatting??
I think it was awesome. It was great to be able to have another attempt at something that I had failed at and then succeed at it. That was an amazing feeling. Because this Crossfit thing isn’t a short term thing for me/us, they’ll be another opportunity for another 4 week cycle of something that will be another movement, maybe an Olympic lift or overhead squat, who knows? But we’ll get to practice that for several weeks. Love it.