Programming for the CrossFit Games Athlete Pt. III

By Jordan Feigenbaum MS, CSCS, HFS, USAW Club Coach, Starting Strength Coach

Ahhh, deload weeks…..the week(s) that EVERYONE hates (including me). In this installment I’m posting how I’m letting my athlete do a mini-deload. I call this a mini-deload because it’s not a full-on deload where we are transitioning to a new cycle. Rather, this deload is used to facilitate PR’s during the subsequent two weeks of training. Basically, during the previous three weeks we accumulated volume, intensity, and stress and now we need a mini recovery period to get fresh for the Realizationphase.

A lot of people claim that they feel weak and slow coming off a deload week. This is completely normal and also, this is the reason why we have two realization weeks coming up. The first week increases the intensity a bit and allows the athlete to get back in the swing of lifting heavy and training hard. The second realization week is for the athlete to set some big time PR’s!

So basically we’re taking everything back to 80%, adding in some GPP circuits for recovery, and some moderate intensity conditioning to get a lot of blood flow into the muscles and joints. Here is what it would look like:

Week 4 Cycle 1- Deload Week
1. Day 1
   1. Snatch up to 80% x 2 x 2
   2. Press up to 80% x 2  x 2
   3.  Assistance Circuit: 3 rounds x 15 of: pushups, pullups (strict), dips, DB curls
   4.  Row x 500m x 3 @ 1:40 pace
2. Day 2
   1.  Off
3. Day 3
   1.  Clean and Jerk up to 80% x 2 x 2
   2.  Back Squat up to 80% x 2 x 2
   3.  Assistance Circuit: 3 rounds x 10 of: Glute Ham raises, walking lunges (no weight), 1 minute plank, toes to bar
   4. Prowler walks x 100’ x 4
4. Day  4
   1.  Off
5. Day 5
   1. Snatch  x 1 x 5 up to 90% (no misses)
   2. Clean and Jerk x 1 x 5 up to 85% (no misses)
   3. Deadlift up to 80% x 2 x 2
   4. Assistance: 3 rounds of 15 kb swings, 25 reverse hypers, 15 body weight squats, 15 banded terminal knee extensions
   5. Prowler walks x 100’ x 4
6. Day 6
   1. Off
7. Day 7
   1.  Off