I have said before…
“We don’t work out here, we train the brain how to tell the body how to move” Now I also say “We train the brain how it feels to be strong/mobile/fast/powerful”

We all need a little brain training to get the most out our strength work outs. Every time you lift you should do so with intention and a goal. Getting stronger is a great goal. If you work to that end, you will be successful. If  you lift because someone told you to, well…you are missing out on the brain train.

Yesterday, we started a new strength cycle. We are doing a fairly easy to understand program. Its called Wendler 5/3/1. We’ll be doing a modified version to suit our needs. We chose this cycle this time for a few reasons.

1. It works well with CrossFit
2. It’s simple to execute and easy to maintain
3. It’s not too aggressive.

The Quick and Dirty…
We have a 4 week cycle based around 4 lifts. In this case it is the Squat, Press, Dead Lift and Front Squat. These lifts are trained at different rep schemes and percentages of your 1RM (which you tested last week) each week. The last set of each session is a Max Effort set. This means you will do a minimum of reps plus as many more as safely possible. These are the numbers  and reps that are recorded. Your goal during the cycle is not to increase or PR your load. The goal is to PR your reps. At the end of 3 weeks there is a deload week,then we’ll reevaluate the numbers and the new cycle starts with a freshly estimated 1RM.
These next 4 weeks are about getting serious about your strength. You will be surprised at what you can do as long as you work harder. You might also be shocked at how much fun it is!