Here at Vegvisir we program for making fitter athletes through a process called “periodization.”

In short this means that we program in a way that works with the central nervous system with a sort of ratchet effect on strength and conditioning numbers while taking into account your fatigue levels in order to promote the highest chance for fitness gains.

We execute this by performing 6-12 week cycles that prepare athletes for gains in predetermined areas. During these cycles we slowly increase loading and intensity based on our previous 1 rep maxes and test MetCons.

(To read more in depth about periodization, I highly recommend reading “Periodization” by Tudor Bompa or future posts that we will make here.)

The cycle we just completed was the “Valkyrie Cycle” which took 8 weeks to complete from Mid-Late August to Mid October.

In this cycle we focused on:

• Squat Strength

  • Measured primarily with the 1 Rep Max Back Squat

• Pulling Strength

  • Measured with 1 Rep Max Deadlift and a combination of in house Pull-Up based MetCons as well as “Jackie” and “Fran” which were made by CrossFit Inc.

• Explosive Strength

  • Measured with 1 Rep Max Height Box Jump as well as if athletes went up a scale during MetCons over the duration of the cycle.

• Comfort w/ Complex Barbell Movements (Snatch and Clean and Jerk)

  • Measured with the 1 Rep Max Snatch and Clean & Jerk.

• Increasing gymnastic abilities in longer sets:

  • Measured with MetCons such as “Diane”, “Jackie”, “Fran”, and “Tour De Nancy”

The results we achieved were:

• Back Squats:

  • Avg. PR: 29.6 Lbs (Whole)/23.0 Lbs (3+ Months Vegvisir CF Experience)

  • Weight Added to Gym Total: 800 Lbs

• Snatch:

  • Avg. PR: 15.3 (Whole)/13.9 Lbs (3+ Months Vegvisir CF Experience)

  • Weight Added to Gym Total: 245 Lbs

• Clean and Jerk:

  • Avg. PR: 15.3 Lbs (Whole)/12.8 Lbs (3+ Months Vegvisir CF Experience)

  • Weight Added to Gym Total: 305 Lbs

• Deadlift:

  • Avg. PR: 47.0 Lbs (Whole)/32.1 Lbs (3+ Months Vegvisir CF Experience)

  • Weight Added to Gym Total: 1035 Lbs

• MetCons

  • “Jackie”

    • Avg. PR: 50.2 Seconds

    • Athletes went up 1+ Scale: 16

  • “Fran”

    • Avg. PR: 28.6 Seconds

    • Athletes went up 1+ Scale: 17

  • “Diane”

    • Avg. PR: 64.5 Seconds

    • Athletes went up 1+ Scale: 17

  • “Tour De Nancy”

    • Avg. PR: 117.8 Seconds

    • Athletes went up 1+ Scale: 15

*“Average PR” Stat is based off of athletes who had previous scores for the workouts tested.

**Athletes had to have either gone up in difficulty or load based on baseline from previous Testing Week.

Some things to note from this Cycle:

• Average number of classes athletes attended per week: 3.1

  • Athletes with 1.8+ average weekly attendance saw at least 1 PR.

  • Athletes with 3+ average weekly attendance saw at least 4 PRs.

• A common trend repeated itself: Strength gains are higher in newer athletes.

• Movements athletes most commonly improved on:

  • Pull Ups

    • Most Common Improvement: Reduction of Bands used.

  • Handstand Push Ups:

    • Most Common Improvement: More unbroken reps/less sets used during MetCons

  • Box Jumps:

    • Most Common Improvement: 8 athletes graduated to the Rx scale on Boxes.

Conclusion:

This cycle was successful and worked on different aspects of lifting for all athletes. For the novice lifters we saw huge strength gains and for athletes with more experience, 3 months to 2 years, we saw sizable strength gains as well. For athletes who have 2+ years experience we saw a lower average increase, about 10-20 lbs depending on the lift, with sizable increases in volume tolerance in relation to their 1 rep maxes. This result showed itself primarily in the tests of “Diane” and “Tour De Nancy” with times either dropping tremendously or athletes being able to beat old scores while using a higher weight.

While programming matters to creating fitter athletes, it’s only part of a larger whole. The hard work everyone puts into their training, sleep, recovery practices, and nutrition result in these amazing improvements.

Congratulations to all athletes who were a part of this cycle. Your hard work paid off and you have the numbers to prove it. Keep training hard and we look forward to seeing what we all can accomplish during the Holiday Cycle!