Baseline Training Phase 1 – 2021

So you’ve just about got your affiliate through the 2021 Open. Some of your athletes (and probably you) are thrilled the stress of it is over and are ready to return to “normal training”, and many have a renewed motivation to work on the things that crushed them over the last 3 weeks (except for wall walks, no one wants to work on those). There are even a handful of your athletes who plan to participate in the Online Quarterfinals in a couple of weeks, and maybe even a few Masters or Teens looking towards the Age Group Qualifier. 

But for most, school’s out for the summer, and athletes are looking for a reset and a direction to point their training. As an affiliate, you should be reassessing your program, identifying trends in your athletes for deficiencies, and re-orienting the direction you want this coming year’s training to go. While all of this may sound Open/competition-centric, remember that we are in the business of making our members fitter and healthier for life, and to become fitter and healthier our athletes should be as proficient at as many physical tasks as possible. 

For Team Misfit, we will be getting back to some of the basics while still attacking the foundation of overall fitness – general physical preparedness. If you’re a subscriber, you can look forward to the return of test and retest weeks and structured strength work (BACK SQUATS ARE COMING). We’ve taken a lot of lessons learned from you all as well as our own experience and are looking forward to seeing some awesome progress in our Baseline Training Phase 1. While we say this at the start of each training phase (because we mean it), we really mean that this upcoming phase is the single best time all year to get on board with a new program. Read on to learn more about our Baseline Testing Weeks and Baseline Training Phase 1.

Baseline Testing Weeks

2 weeks, Weeks of April 5th and April 12th

While these two weeks aren’t technically part of Baseline-1, they are a terrific time to get some preliminary data from your athletes on their current fitness levels (also a great time to start Misfit Affiliate and adjust to the programming). These 2 weeks will consist of more than 10 classic benchmarks, tests, and some TMF originals that are both familiar to athletes and are great data points for athletes to have. Things like Fran, CrossFit Total, 5k Run, 100 Calorie Assault Bike, and more will all be part of these weeks and are also great opportunities to rearrange the names on those benchmark whiteboards many of you have hanging in your gym. Athletes will use the Back Squat portion of the CrossFit Total as their 1RM for the squat program in the Baseline-1 Phase.

Baseline Training Phase 1

7 weeks, April 19th – June 5th (Test week begins April 19th)

Our first full training phase will focus on a couple fundamental components of fitness including strict pulling strength, back squatting, and some basic conditioning work in the form of running, rowing, biking of all durations. 

• Back Squat: everyone loves to know what the back squat cycle is going to look like, and we’re pretty excited about it. Once a week the programming’s lift-only day will consist of 7 working sets of heavy back squats, followed by various high power output exercises like box jumps, sprints, and more. We’ve taken some of the science behind “Post Activation Potentiation” and modified it to be both more GPP-centric and logistically friendly for a one hour class. If done correctly, a solid warm up plus ample rest will make this a terrific class and tons of fun to coach and participate in. You can expect instructions on what percentage athletes should start and shoot to finish the day at, with the ultimate goal of PRing their 1RM back squat in the second to last week of the Phase. 
• Strict Pull Ups: so you’ve got athletes who can squat a house, but can they pull their own bodyweight over the pull up bar? You and I know the value of an athlete being able to move their own bodyweight, so let’s make sure we’re communicating to members that strength isn’t just found in a barbell. Strict pull ups may be the ultimate upper body exercise, and can provide a good segue into reminding athletes that in many cases, poor bodyweight strength isn’t always about strength, but about nutritional habits, sleep, bodyweight, and lean body mass. 
• Conditioning: the bread and butter of a well rounded CrossFit program. We’ll provide you with plenty of CrossFit metcons and intervals, and will also be sneaking in some old school intervals in the form of running/sprinting, biking, and rowing repeats. While this may be the shortest paragraph, it will always provide athletes with the best bang for their buck when scaled appropriately and attacked at the appropriate intensity. 

We’re excited. Summer is coming (for those of us who are finally thawing out), COVID is becoming more and more manageable, and our society is gradually starting to understand the importance of physical fitness and health, which means it’s a great time to be a CrossFit gym. We hope you all not only use our training as a way to get your athletes fitter than ever, but to help you rally the people in your cities, towns, and communities with the message of “come to us, we can help”. People need affiliates now more than ever, we just have to get the word out!

-Hunter, Sherb, and Team Misfit

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