Summer is in full swing and we will be taking advantage of it with running, tire flips, and even some weighted carries. The more we can be outside the gym walls the better. If you really like the sound of this, pencil in a workout or two on the weekends this month. As at least one of the days will be outside! Along with enjoying the weather we will be getting to know the barbell very well, specifically with the clean in workouts (like the “Hulk” on August 8th) and the snatch in our lifting where we will be testing this at the end of the month .
A long term programming note is that we will be testing our benchmark workouts more often. Previously we would test them once a year. The reason for the switch is that we do not score our workouts daily. So it may be harder to see improvements, testing the same workout every 3-4 months will allow you to compare scores/times in a more realistic timeframe. These tests do not just mean the typical benchmark named workouts. We will also be adding in our own alchemy benchmarks as well as body weight benchmarks like max strict pull ups or push ups ( August 29th). Running, rowing and bike tests will also be there depending on the season. Now don’t worry there will still be some workouts that only show up once a year, workouts like “Murph” or “Eva” which is coming this August 23rd. Now doing these workouts to monitor improvement is all for nothing if you do not record it! You can keep track of all these things on Zen planner, if you do not know how to ask any coach to show you.