Coach’s Notes

Starting Monday, July 13, you’ll see a shift in our workouts at CrossFit Undeniable. We’ll be bringing the programming back in-house, and we’re incredibly excited about the benefits this will offer to our coaches and athletes.

We began to outsource our programming at CrossFit Undeniable two years ago, initially starting with Train for the Win and then moving to NCFIT. Many gyms outsource their programming, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing either. Programming workouts is a skill that takes time to develop, and it often makes sense to pay professionals to program for you.

In our case, we relied on external programming so we could devote more time on other aspects of running the gym. Both programs were effective. But during and since returning from quarantine, both Zach and I had time to reflect on where we want to head as an organization and the type of training we believe in.

We believe good programming embraces:

• GPP training. “General physical preparedness” is a cornerstone of CrossFit training. This means we don’t specialize in a single area but strive to make constant progress across the 10 general physical skills.
• Varied, not random. CrossFit programming is often mis-represented as being “random.” In actuality, it’s not random at all; it’s varied. This means you’ll encounter a variety of rep ranges, time domains, intensities, and modalities across a given week.
• Effectiveness. Meaning, it causes favorable adaptations as measured against repeatable tests, benchmarks, and body metrics.
• Heavy days. It takes time to truly go heavy on a given day. Heavy days require a thorough warm-up, adequate time for building up in weight, and time to rest between sets. This is difficult to achieve when combining strength and metcon days.
• Single element days. Some days should be spent on a single modality whether that’s weightlifting, gymnastics, or “cardio” elements like running and rowing. These single-focus days are often where you see the most progress and finally breakdown barriers (first pull-up or muscle-up, etc).
• Adequate time in a class setting. Coaches need adequate time in an hour-long class to actually coach participants. When a class is packed full of content, coaches have little time to help athletes with progressions and cues.
• Fun! Okay, maybe it’s not always “fun” to tackle 400m repeats or Fran, but good programming does reduce boredom and keep you coming in regularly. We want you training consistently 4-5 days per week!

Next week, we’ll be elaborating more on specifically how we lay out the programming on a quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis. Our weekly previews will also begin to include more specifics on the focus of particular workouts so you know the exact intention behind any particular day.

The workouts are already in Triib for next week so go have a peek. As always, we’re open to any feedback. Just drop us a note at info@crossfitundeniable.com!