Deload Week Overview

Our goal for the next week is to shift our focus from doing the most weight or work and concentrate on movement quality, movement efficiency, and regaining some structural balance. I’m going to challenge all of our athletes to think like a gymnast or figure skater for the next two weeks (yeah you heard that right). Sports that are judged on the fluidity and beauty of their movement, not the amount or intensity of work that is done. It’s extra important for those of you that just took on the open and/or the COA challenge to let yourself recover and rejuvenate emotionally during the coming weeks. Athletes commonly take a 2-4 week break from training after the conclusion of a season. While I’m not suggesting you completely stop coming to the gym I do recommend a period of time where there is no pressure or “stakes” to your training, allowing for a fun and relaxed approach to training, hence our deload week.

This week will contain three basic strength focused days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Two aerobic conditioning days (Tuesday and Thursday)  and 1 team focused conditioning day (Saturday). Training sessions will be designed to apply quality volume in a less fatigued state, and focus primarily on unilateral variations of exercises. Each day will also include mobility and corrective exercise work to start and finish each session.

Our definition of fitness is often defined by doing the most work across the largest variety of modes and times. While these are obviously very important we’d also like to include being resilient to injury, being healthy, and efficient with movement as equally important aspects of fitness. From here we will move into a testing week to start our next 6 week phase of training that will culminate in a retest week at the end of the cycle.

–Coach Wes