Misfit Podcast
Misfit Athletics provides information and programming to competitive Crossfit athletes of all levels.
Misfit Podcast
Off-Season Block 2: Building Strength for the Long Game - E.354
The long-awaited Off-Season Block 2 program launches May 26th, bringing exciting changes to Misfit Athletics' programming structure and delivery platforms.
We're thrilled to announce three new subscription tiers tailored to different athlete needs: Pro ($69/month) for elite athletes with two daily sessions and direct coach access through Telegram; Comp ($49/month) bundling Hatchet, Masters, and GPP together for maximum flexibility; and standalone GPP ($29/month) for busy professionals seeking general fitness. Additionally, we're expanding beyond Fitter to offer programming through Strivee, giving athletes their choice of platforms.
The cornerstone of Off-Season Block 2 is the Texas Method back squat program, proven to add 20-40 pounds to your 5RM over nine weeks when approached strategically. The program balances Olympic lifting technique work through tempo pull cleans and positional snatches with heavy pressing and supplementary strength work. For athletes following the conditioning bias track, expect structured zone 2 training and multi-gear conditioning pieces designed to develop proper pacing.
This program continues our emphasis on C2 bike training and running – essential tools for developing the metabolic capacities needed at the highest levels of competition. We're structuring conditioning sessions to help athletes understand and implement the Gears Matrix concept, creating consistency in intensity across varying time domains.
Perhaps most inspiring is the continued success of our Hatchet program, with athletes qualifying for semifinals three years running while balancing full-time careers. This demonstrates that following the appropriate program for your situation can lead to remarkable results without requiring a professional's schedule.
Ready to make meaningful improvements during this critical off-season period? Visit misfitathetics.com to select your program and start building the foundation for next year's competitive success.
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Good morning, misfits. You are tuning into a special edition Misfit podcast Off-season block number two gets started next Monday, may 26th. So we're going to take a deep dive into what's going to be in that program. What you can expect, we will spend 99% of the time waxing poetically about the Texas method back squat program Hunter. We've got. We've got some some, some good housekeeping, some good announcements and then some changes to programming structures and potentially the, the app we use that you know, to communicate. So we got all kinds of good stuff um, going on. So, for housekeeping, right now, um, we are in.
Speaker 2:I would say if hunter's battle with Amazon is at 10, we're at like a five with trying to get our Apple podcasts merged with all the other ones. So, if you're listening, the thing that sucks about this, honestly, guys, is I am telling people on the podcast that have already figured this out. The people who haven't figured out will not fucking hear me. But there is a new Apple podcast, um, misfit podcast. You'll, you'll reckon. If you search for it, you'll recognize the? Um, the logo and all that stuff and all of the episodes are in there. Um, so that still exists. Everything's good to go with YouTube and Spotify and we're working to get those merged back together. But if anybody complains to you, like they've complained to me, you can let them know that they can research and resubscribe. But obviously losing all of our subscribers and all of our reviews isn't the greatest thing in the world.
Speaker 2:The t-shirts and hoodies long awaited Many, many questions, people posting these I'm wearing the T right now. If you're watching on YouTube, this is our new logo. We have three colors. Two of the colors are pretty low quantities. Made those that we had kind of a mix for people to compete in, so make sure you go in and get those. And then we have the hoodie that everyone's been asking for since Erica posted herself in the hoodie a couple of times. Sharpentheaxecocom. That stuff is live now.
Speaker 2:I tried to crack a joke to give the people in Discord a hint yesterday that it was live and it seemed like maybe half the people got the joke, because a couple people were like so when can we get these? Just go to the website, guys, you'll find them for sure. And then, before we jump into this, could actually be a good selling point for a lot of the stuff that we're going to talk about. Year number three in a row that an athlete following the Hatchet program has qualified for semifinals. That's an important topic. If you're new to the podcast, new to the program, because we offer a program called MFT that is going to be called Pro Moving Forward. That is very much for people that don't have jobs for the most part or coach a couple hours of class, that sort of of thing, side gigs. Um, they do two sessions a day and they are competing at the semifinals and crossfit games level they are pros.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hit the nail on the head. Uh, we're being, we're not, we're being, um, very straightforward with the naming of that and the descriptions and the storefronts that you'll see. Um, so I I skipped over Lindsay Hoffman. Congratulations, going to syndicate crown. Um, quite an accomplishment. We talk all the time about the progression of the sport and how fit people are getting. So, um, to you know to for her to be working her job and following hatchet and um, you know she jumped onto some of the semifinals prep. Yeah, yep, been with Misfit for a long time. Just really fucking cool to see. So, congratulations to her. And just a shout out to this idea that you get out of the programming what you put into it. So, if it's not appropriate for you or not appropriate for what you've got going on in your life or where you're at in your journey, hatchet has gotten someone to semifinals three years in a row. Um, so it is entirely possible for it that the onus to be put on you, hatch. It's a fantastic program. We put a lot of eggs into that basket, um, in terms of you know of how much time and effort we put into programming it. So, yeah, follow Hatchet, unless it should be very obvious which program that you should follow.
Speaker 2:Next announcement is we are going to we're not moving, we are adding another programming partner. Not moving, we are adding another programming partner so you will be able to, in the future, sign up for Misfit Athletics programming or competitive programming on either Fitter or Strivee. We had some athletes come on board that have used Strivee in the past and really liked it and connected us with them. We've been working with them recently. So you guys keep an eye on social media, um, you'll be able to check that out. But basically, another programming platform, um, and that'll kind of lead me now into um, some of the stuff with how the subscriptions are going to change and and I'll do this part, these first two parts, sort of as housekeeping, and then we'll hit you guys a little entertainment before we talk about off season two.
Speaker 2:So when you go let's say that you want to switch to Strivee or you're checking out our program for the first time you're going to see three subscription options. Number one is going to be pro. That's going to be $69 a month and you are going to have two sessions a day and they're going to be marked out as two sessions a day and you are going to have two sessions a day and they're going to be marked out as two sessions a day, and you're going to be added to a private telegram group with myself, with the other pros, with some of our other coaches and things like video review, things like changing certain things around about your program or adding in a weakness template. You're going to have direct access to me within that group and this is born out of A sort of hinted at a decent amount of people follow the program that probably don't need to, aren't quite at that point, aren't quite at that point and I also, just with the changes in the season, with when you're going to do a competition peaking phase and deload and do all these different things. If you're a professional, you need access to a coach and I know that remote coaching is not financially feasible for a lot of people. So that's where this comes in and I'm excited for the group. That's where this comes in and I'm excited for the group. I'm excited to help people with video review and I will say now at the beginning of this, that the price of it will move around as supply and demand requires. We're not going to want 100, 200 athletes in there. I don't think the experience will be fantastic. Things like Hatchet Pro, masters, pro could be possible down the road for people that are looking for that in between. But we're going to pilot this idea within just the professional athlete because I really just don't think that going it alone with that level of aspiration is the right thing. So, remote coaching or pro.
Speaker 2:Your second option is going to be comp. Comp is a request from I don't know half of you guys over the last few years, based on what we used to do, and comp is going to have Hatchet, masters and GPP in it, all bundled together. So when you sign up for comp you're going to be able to get all three programs. That will be available again in both um, fitter and strivy and that will be 49. Um. And last but definitely not least, you can sign up for GPP as a standalone program for for 29. So those are your three options there.
Speaker 2:Gpp very much like busy professional parents like I want to be healthy, strong, fit, 60 to 90 minutes a day, that kind of thing. That program's for you. And then the cool thing about signing up for comp is like you think about sometimes, maybe the like 35 to 39 masters or some of the monsters in the 40 to 44 division. Do I want to be following hatchet? Do I want to be following masters? I'm going on vacation. I want access to GPP. I'd like to take a month off of competing and follow GPP to try and get healthy, whatever it is like. That's what's what's really cool about that program and, again, I think people have been asking for that for a while. So those are the three offerings that you're going to see.
Speaker 2:We're going to do a little bit more of a slow, soft rollout with this. So there will be a point where, if you stay subscribed to Hatchet or masters or mft, that your programming will say, hey, you're on the wrong program, you need to go sign up for the right program. But we're not going to like rug pull everybody and make them figure out how to do that immediately. So keep your eyes out for that. We'll have messages, discord. We'll send emails to make sure that you guys know what's going on there. I don't know if you have any thoughts or comments on that. Hunter, I was going to jump into the Telegram thing next.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, I think that this is kind of like probably a long time coming, based on the number of times that we sit on the podcast telling athletes what program they should be following. The podcast telling athletes what program they should be following. Um, there is a three to five year period in which the line between someone who is like your every somewhat everyday gym goer, does open gym, does a competitor program, might have a chance to qualify for the next level and like might not, they still might be better off following hatchet or a really good affiliate program with a really good affiliate. Like affiliate and coaches, um, I would say we are like I don't know. It could, it could go in the other direction, depending on where the sport itself goes. But we we are.
Speaker 1:We have trended, I think, past the point in the sport in which you can be like a weekend warrior and qualify for a high level of competition, and there's just too many. And when I say high level, I mean like semi-finalist push knocking on the the crossfit games door, which is the what, who the mft program is for, and we're simply just the sport has done what any and all professional sports do is go from a program that you are able to execute really, really well and who the fuck knows. We started this whole conversation off with look another year where a hatchet athlete qualifies for semifinals because a reasonable goal for you. I can't think of a better program than the Hatchet program. I think MFT is going to ask too much of you as far as a time commitment, intensity level and, quite honestly, a fitness level that if you're not at the semifinals level, you by definition just don't have yet. So follow Hatchet.
Speaker 2:Please, all right. So we have had quite a few administrative struggles with Discord. I don't think Discord is built for exactly what we're trying to do. I don't think Discord is built for exactly what we're trying to do. I happen to be taking an online course that uses Telegram, and I think it's probably a better solution. One of the big things that is helpful on Telegram is you can send full length videos, so that's why I mentioned that the pro private group will be on Telegram, no matter what. I think we should probably move all of the groups over, and the way that I want to do it is to test it out by sending the invite link Once I figure out how to use it, sending the invite link to the like Discord VIPs, the people that post on a very regular basis, um to all the different channels and just see what your opinion is.
Speaker 2:Um. I. I personally think it's easier to use. It's very much set up like a whatsapp, like an I message, like that kind of thing, um, and I really just think it's going to be a better solution for us. But I, I want to um. You know people struggle with change Um, and also we cook up ideas. You know, on the business side. Sometimes that don't play the way that we think that they might in reality. So, um, we're going to do a little soft launch of of telegram, um, get some feedback on that and then get those links out to everybody moving forward. Holy smokes, that's a lot of housekeeping boys Life chat.
Speaker 2:What's good, what's going on?
Speaker 1:Fuck Amazon, God damn it. So I'm I like to say that I'm on my last leg.
Speaker 2:That's why we kicked off Apple Podcasts. Probably they don't dare or they love it.
Speaker 1:I'm wondering, if I threaten Amazon via a public podcast, if I'll get any attention or just get, I don't know probably arrested.
Speaker 2:Or an envelope with some kind of Russian gas in it or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah so maybe I'll, uh, we'll, we'll abstain from that for this week. I'll save that for a future week. But uh, yeah, man, I have, uh, I've gone the route of send out a detailed, like, essentially timeline of what occurred and why. You're an idiot. Um, not you, specifically, the whoever's if you work for amazon, you, you specifically, um. But uh, dude, it's just been such a fucking, such a goat rodeo.
Speaker 1:I still have 12 playstation controllers and a brand new apple watch sitting in the original amazon boxes and packaging in my living room and I I'm like, hey, I want to give you your $2,000 worth of purchases that I didn't make. I legitimately want to in exchange for me giving you more money. I can't even fathom what individual in this mythical Amazon investigations division reads that email and is like you know, we'd really like to help, but I think we're going to go with the individuals that hacked your account. I'm sorry, we just really feel like that is a more productive use of our time. I know that you've been a customer that purchases.
Speaker 1:Your order history shows shower caps and water filters and some golf gloves and then a couple of teas and stuff like that and while it is slightly suspicious that you ordered 12 PlayStation 5 controllers and an Apple Watch, and then, magically, your account got shut off. We just can't really piece this together and therefore we do not want any more of your business, despite having spent thousands of dollars and having an Amazon credit card in your name. It just doesn't match up for us. So, yeah, we're going to go in another direction here. That is what Amazon has told me in canned responses canned responses I just looked up.
Speaker 3:does Amazon suck on Google? And it says strong customer service. Amazon is known for its customer friendly return policies and efficient customer service. That is a lot.
Speaker 1:Building the world's most customer centric company is one of their taglines.
Speaker 2:It's just until you get past a point of how do I just admit you love playstation controllers and this can be over dude, can I buy the apple watch off you?
Speaker 1:I feel like I need one yeah, I'll fucking, I'll sell it to you at a discount. Hear that amazon yeah, I'm selling it at a discount, I'll return it. I'll return, happily return it. Just give me the opportunity to give you more money. That's all I'm asking for. I know that's a lot, that's a big exchange, but no, I'll rest my case there. On a more positive note. I do have a putter in the mail and I really think it's going to move from the manufacturer specifically.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's really what's going to push me over the edge here, cause I'm a you need one.
Speaker 2:You need to be one of those dweebs with like the 40 foot tall putter. I need to see you out there with that thing up against your fucking. I can't, honestly.
Speaker 1:I can't even bring myself to practice with one at golf and ski like I just look at it and I'm like I don't. I don't think I can even pretend to be shopping for this broomstick um no, it's like it's, it's like.
Speaker 2:To me it would be like warm weather gear for snowboarding. That's just a little too like. Nah, I'm gonna look like I ski once a year. I can't be doing this. Yeah, I can't. I can't put this on. I'm sorry, I'd rather be cold yeah, I had a.
Speaker 1:Uh, I had a golf round. It was a tournament so otherwise I would have not played, but it was. It was the other weekend when it just absolutely dumped on saturday, um, and your boy was out there fucking thunder, fucking through the puddles on the greens and there was so much standing water but I was like fuck, I'm not like, this is raining too hard to wear normal clothes and be like any semblance of dry and not freezing. I had to dump three hundred dollars on two garments at dick's sporting goods, like the morning of, and I'm like no, like get fucked the next day. We're back to dick's sporting goods. Be like yeah, no, I just I don't like it.
Speaker 1:I canceled. I don't like it yeah, not into it.
Speaker 2:Why is it wet?
Speaker 1:I was walking around in the rain yeah, it's fine reindeer any other stupid questions here.
Speaker 2:Take this back I was actually going to ask the listeners during spring about that kind of clothing, because exploring the woods and puddles with my son during end of winter, early spring in regular clothes is not awesome. So I was going to be like what's the? What's the play here? What kind of like pants do you buy? Or do you just buy the like? I should have just bought like like knee-high boots. I remember having those as a kid.
Speaker 1:I feel like those are the move for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What are they called?
Speaker 2:But even then your legs get soaked.
Speaker 1:What kind of puddles are you walking through, guy?
Speaker 2:Well, if it's raining.
Speaker 1:He doesn't care if it's raining, he doesn't care that doesn't make any difference to him like if you got like his range suit is incredible enough, it's like eight sizes too big, so he looks like the michelin man. Yeah, yep what do we got seb? What are we looking malbon, the fuck, did you just call me?
Speaker 2:that's the hipster golf clothes. Those are super popular right now. That's Jason Day.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that is Jason Day.
Speaker 2:That's right, these are the guys that did the collab with Larry David and I really wanted to buy some stuff and then I saw the price and I was like, yeah no, I think they make the coolest clothes, but I mean I could see Hunter rocking this outfit for $328. It's a rain jacket. It's pretty fresh. I was going to say that outfit's not.
Speaker 3:And it's not stolen valor, because he clearly served, so you can wear camo. If I wore this, I would be a fraud.
Speaker 2:My parents are from Northern Maine. I can wear camo.
Speaker 1:That looks like a piece of art that some dipshit would sell for like 3.2 million dollars ona I'm sure they can probably pull 3.2 million dollars of of uh revenue. So what's that jacket? Why is he wearing? This. I can see you're rocking it's only 250 dollars.
Speaker 2:How much are the?
Speaker 1:pants. That's terrible. That ain't it, that is not it yeah, but I was also like I finished that round of golf and I was like this, actually this, these garments actually worked super well. It was just super thin waterproof layers. But I'm like also, if it's pissing this badly out, am I actually gonna play golf voluntarily, right?
Speaker 2:this wasn't a an event my beef with waterproof stuff is how it traps the heat.
Speaker 2:It's brutal yeah, it's so bad, like I've got a. I've got a waterproof jacket and I get so fucking hot and wearing it and I know that a lot of them have like the zippers and stuff but kind of defeats the purpose of being waterproof. Yeah, so I uh like for I would say, the first year, year and a half of Carter's life, I played music for him like all the time and I made a playlist called reactions of every song that he liked as like an infant. So anytime I just walk over, hit the plus add to add to reactions playlist.
Speaker 1:And we have a new one right now.
Speaker 2:If he reacted, yeah, if he danced if he tried to sing, if he like, a lot of times, if someone had a really good voice when he was an infant, he'd be like mesmerized. He would just stop and be like it's like angel singing to me singing to me, um. Now, as a two-year-old um, he screams different song at the top of his lungs if you don't play the right music. So there's a new playlist that is much shorter, that rotates pretty quickly through his favorites. But I started again just last week playing him random music and he does say different song a lot like. He probably said it a hundred times this morning. But, um, I was at this time dealing with yeah, for real, I was dealing with um, one of my dogs dealing with hank, and the song changed um and it's.
Speaker 2:You guys may or may not know the name of the song, but I think I don't know if we're. When do we get copyright? Can we do like the first five seconds of a song? Seb, yeah, which song? Uh, pull up award tour by a tribe called quest. Let's see if you guys recognize the beat can you hear that?
Speaker 2:nope, I think you have to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you have to share it, but still nothing nothing nah let me share it, but still nothing, nothing, nah, let me share it real quick.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we'll be able to play it. Anyways, a war tour by Tribe Called Quest. Comes on, he's in his high chair and I look over and if you're watching on YouTube he has his. Comes on, he's in his high chair and I look over and if you're watching on YouTube he has his head down. He's going like this, just vibing, just like jamming, and it's like a very classic old school hip hop beat. So like the hipster in me is just like, yeah, my fucking kid gets it. This kid just gets it and he does love um cannot kick it by tribe called quest. That's one of his favorite songs.
Speaker 2:He just yells kick it kick it, kick it all right, bud, I'll play, kick it um, but that song that was like a proud dad moment. So I'm rebuilding the new playlist. I just have to go through a lot of duds like a lot of duds.
Speaker 1:All the playlists scream yeah we go, we it's.
Speaker 2:It's a lot to get through it, um, but it's fun and it's cool to like like he knows the name. He knows the names of all the beatles, um, he claims his favorite beetle is ringo. No one's favorite beetle is ringo, but he? Um likes to say the name ringo.
Speaker 2:Yeah I was gonna say it's gotta be just a role, and then yeah, and then he talks about how he plays the drums, which so it's like more like he can remember. So, yeah, there are rumors that he didn't play the drums on those songs, by the way. That's like a deep internet conspiracy that, like all studio, he like fit the bill of like adding another, like beetle, like looks wise, and some dude came out and said that he was the studio drummer on, like all of their albums.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if that's true or not yeah, okay, we are 25 minutes into this podcast and should probably talk about off-season block number two, um. So if you sign up for pro, you don't get any damn choices about whether you're following a strength bias program or a conditioning bias program. Because you are following a strength and conditioning bias program, those choices are made for you. Volumes higher, some of the skill work is higher all that good stuff. But the majority of what we're going to talk about in this podcast for hatchet applies to pro very specifically as well. The we've talked about this ad nauseum. We end up doing it two full times a year, every year. So we won't spend too much time on it. But we do get new subscribers, we do get new listeners. So we're going to talk a little bit about the strength versus conditioning bias.
Speaker 2:When you go into the program, your instructions for the day are going to say if you want to follow the strength bias program, do these pieces. If you want to follow the conditioning bias program, do these pieces pieces. If you want to follow the conditioning bias program, do these pieces. Um, the cool thing is one strength and one conditioning lines up the same every day. So we still get the community aspect. You can still go into you know discord or telegram, whatever it is, and communicate with your fellow misfits about this lift and this conditioning piece, Um, but then the other lift and other conditioning piece, you sort of split off and do your own thing, Um, and that just harkens back to no one size fits all program is going to work for for athletes, and something that we've stood by for a very long time at Misfit Athletics.
Speaker 2:This time of year, though, you are deciding, you're looking at your open scores, Maybe you're even looking at your online semifinal scores and asking yourself did my engine hold me back or did my strength hold me back? And then one really important thing that both Hunter and Paige brought up the last time that we talked about this that I thought was interesting was like what's going to, at this point in the year, get you to train hard as well? If you are, if you know that you should follow the conditioning bias track, but that you're not going to make it nine weeks on it, right now, at this point in the year, you know you're going to like keep your head down and work on the strength bias track. That could be something that you can take in that you take into consideration. We are a ways away from you know.
Speaker 2:There's like one thing that we're gonna have to figure out in this entire landscape and we'll let it play out for for a year or so. But maybe we are talking about you're getting ready for the next World Fitness Project, qualifier, that sort of thing. So that's definitely part of the conversation here. But again, it's straightforward for so many athletes which one needs more work, right like?
Speaker 1:yeah, I was actually it's not that complicated I think one, one important point is like, again, you, you, when you hear strength bias or conditioning bias, don't like think of this, as you're swinging all the way to one direction or the other. It is a. It is just that it's a bias.
Speaker 1:It means like one piece a day is either this or that 60, 40, the the bias that you're going to do right, you're still going to. If you're doing a conditioning bias, you're still going to lift Um, and if you're doing a strength bias, you're still going to do conditioning Um. My question for you is what if I am? What if I class? What if I'm not sure, I guess. What if I think to myself like I'm, like I'm actually reasonably strong, I don't, I don't necessarily have a singular hole. Like my strength is reasonably good, my conditioning is reasonably good, I just generally need to get fitter, um, or you know, I just kind of fall somewhere in the middle. What would you, what advice would you give to that person?
Speaker 2:I have two answers middle. What would you, what advice would you give to that person? Two answers the first answer is conditioning it. It's just that if you watched, go watch event one of the wfp and do the math on what those run splits were and tell me that doing strict press instead of your zone to run or your yeah, exactly, um. So that's my first answer.
Speaker 2:My second answer is and I'm gonna put my foot in my mouth, but it's, it's the do I do what I want um, people have messaged me on one on in a one-on-one format and asked me the same question and I've actually given them a hybrid version where three days like like tell me what your best lifts and your worst lifts are, and some of them I gave like, okay, on day one, day three, day three and day five, you're going to do the strength bias track and on these other days you're going to do this conditioning bias track. I don't recommend doing that by yourself. We know what the progressions are over the course of the nine weeks. We don't show you those things. So feel free to shoot me a message and I can help you with that. But those would be my two answers.
Speaker 2:The conditioning track, just, you know, we'll talk about the strength bias additions and they are a bit more sports, specific this time around um than os1, but they're kind of specific and conditioning is not. Conditioning is short, medium, long power output, anaerobic, aerobic zone to like like those things are there. So those would be my. Those would be my two answers, I think.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you're like to your point about no, you can't see the progressions from week to be week, you don't. You just don't see that far ahead of time. But in in general, like the same lifts occur on the same day and in a very similar structure, right? Yeah, the offseason blocks are very structured like you see strict press on monday, like you're gonna, or on day one, you're gonna see strict press every day one for the nine weeks.
Speaker 1:You're gonna see that back squat every day so you can to your point. I know you just said, don't? You probably don't want to do that by yourself. But yeah, let's say you completely ignore everything we say, except the one thing we told you not to do. You could realize that the same lifts occur on the same days each week. So it's like, okay, it turns out like the tuesday and thursday lifting days are less of a concern for me. So I bias conditioning on certain days and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I do recommend I was just going to say I think it's also a good point that you said like so there is a, there is a way that a coach especially, could help you create a hybrid version.
Speaker 1:What that also tells me is that, like it's a little bit less important that you do things in the exact order, that they are written maybe even from a day-to-day basis, and that you are collectively getting the appropriate daily volume in. So if you're, like I do, a lift, conditioning and skill sort of person, like it's it's acceptable for you to move that like okay, well, this day I'm actually going to flip flop a day from a piece from a previous day and do that here, something like that. Like there's a chance you'll bump into a couple like a minor, like you know, movement redundancy of some sort. The point being is like it's very possible to like I missed the day one metcon. I'm gonna do it on tuesday. It's not, it's not the end of the world, it's, it's a it's more. The program is more about and any good crossfit program is about just kind of getting the work in, as far as long as you're not kind of like doubling down or tripling down on, like over-correcting or doing too much work or too little work on a given day.
Speaker 2:Yes, um, okay, sorry, my screen disappeared. There we go.
Speaker 2:We're back Um. So one one thing that that you can do to to make this program work a lot better for you is to do a little bit of like kind of the educational pieces. Um say the the best athletes in this sport are students of the game. Um. Go read the the gears matrix article on misfit athleticscom, and we can. We can post this on social, we can throw it up in discord, um, and once you read it, realize that the programming in this phase is entirely different. So the and I. The good thing is, I get these questions from people and they're the kind of questions I want people reaching out to me to ask. So they're like okay. So I read the article. I downloaded the gears matrix, and these windows and rest periods are not what's in that spreadsheet.
Speaker 2:So in the off season, what we do is we take those same workouts and we chop them up into smaller pieces to ensure intensity and to make sure that your body can get used to the level of volume, um.
Speaker 2:So an example would be if you're going to do four rounds of six minutes um with two minutes rest of six minutes, um with two minutes rest, maybe we do eight rounds of three minutes with one minute rest, um, so it's the over the entire window.
Speaker 2:It's the exact same amount of work, it's the exact same amount of rest. But we find, especially with athletes who are either incredibly aerobic, they struggle at the higher gears, um with with maintaining intensity for that kind of 90 seconds on um four minutes off, or the athletes that crush, that typically you know, two by 15 minutes rest, one minute is. It's tough, it's different, um, and it's honestly not always capacity related, it's athlete IQ related, it's like mentally very challenging and you have to develop, you know, the right tricks mentally Like. I did the two by 15 rest one minute the other day and I watched TV during the first 15 minute section and held the exact pace that I was supposed to, and then during that one minute rest period, I turned the lights off, I turned the TV off, I put my headphones in, I turned the volume all the way up and it was like this 15 minutes is different.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have to like, and I still had the nice heart rate spike there, but there's just this insinuation of like yeah if you're going to, and the funny thing is there really isn't even a dip during the minute, cause, like I'm turning the light off, I'm drinking water, like, like that sort of thing. It's basically 30 minutes straight with a little bit of a mental check-in, but when you break those things up you can start to develop. You know the the mindset that you need. So maybe those are seven and a half minutes broken up and there's 30 seconds rest. So these progressions are continuing from off season one into off season two and there's notes within the program that says compare this session to the previous session.
Speaker 2:And we're basically trying to get you ready for phase one, to be ready to jump in and know exactly what gears you're supposed to use for phase one, phase two and phase three. I'll say it again it's running bike season. They're just like the level of fuck your legs, fuck your quads that exists in the sport of CrossFit makes the C2 bike a very important tool for competitors who use it properly. Um, and then like, go, just go, listen to the off season one podcast and listen to us talk about running for for 20 minutes. We don't need to do that again, um, but it's just such a fantastic way to express and develop your fitness, kind of, you know, on both sides. Um, so we continue that, basically, and I have gotten tagged by a few people that have done the 90 minute runs and the 90 minute bike sessions, and that makes me very happy because that's the kind of shit that's going to move the needle.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:All right, um, let's talk about strength work. So these first four lifts that we're going to talk about here, that is not correct, go away. First four lifts we're going to talk about here are what everyone is going to do every single week, and the first one is the Texas method back squat, back squat. Um, this is a back squat program I I think of, like, I think of the sardicore and uh dune, the like hired guns and they have the like the dude up in the thing going like like that's me to mark ripito, um is up there, which I probably shouldn't say.
Speaker 2:yeah, exactly, which I probably shouldn't say yeah, exactly which I probably shouldn't say in the CrossFit community, but we can just. We could just take his program. Thanks, mark. Um, all right. So Texas method back squat is real simple. On Monday you do a five rep max back squat and on Friday you do five sets of five and 90% of the five rep max that you got on Monday. Do not attempt to do five by five at 90% of your one rep max. That either is not your one rep max or it's going to go very poorly, like very, very poorly. So we're doing this for nine weeks.
Speaker 2:Nine weeks is a long time to do Texas method and what does that mean? That means that you should probably hit what you think is your true five rep max somewhere between week four and week six and then add five to 10 pounds to that every single week. That is for an athlete with a bit of mileage. There are athletes who are newer that haven't done this before, um, that can add five pounds a week plus for nine weeks, like when. When I would do it, I would drop volume outside of it. So that's part of the reason why it worked so well, um, but I was able to add 10 pounds a week for for quite a while, um, so just keep that in mind. We want your five rep max to be 20 to 40 pounds higher by week nine. That is the goal, um, and people really don't do a good job with giving themselves runway on these sorts of things. We'll talk about it related to other parts of the program.
Speaker 2:Um, it this, just this, just like we've done, being opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of, like, one rep max strength versus his muscle endurance and like it's heavy enough and weighted properly enough that his one rep max goes up and it's 25 heavy reps for someone like myself, which makes my muscle endurance go up and to be able to craft something that brings both of those to the table not only works for two different people, it does both things for both people. If you can have a program that increases your muscle endurance and your one rep max strength, simultaneously, put it back in the program over and over, and over and over.
Speaker 1:I mean, since that's kind of the goal of CrossFit, it seems to make sense that that squad program is in there yeah, absolutely warm up properly for your five rep max please.
Speaker 2:That's a really big one. Make sure that you're taking the time. Do not be afraid of high rep squats with an empty barbell. Really grease the groove. Check in on. Okay, this feels a little bit off. I'm going to go open. My hips, my ankles are tight today, my low back is weird. Let me get into the glutes.
Speaker 2:Like, take the time to warm up for this and then do not carry over your subjective opinion of the squats week to week. Every time, every new session that you have is a new session and you will be blown away by the fact that one random week the five by five is easy and one week it's impossible, and that the weights are heavier in the weeks that it's easy and lighter in the weeks that it's impossible. Like that will change. So do your best to not bring that into the conversation mentally every time that you go in Um, there's, there's a like. That's part of the reason why it works too right, Like you're. The first few times you're doing it, You're like. This, like a true five by five at 90% of fiber max is a session. It's a real session. You know you notice a difference in your HRV. If you don't refuel and you try to go do a conditioning piece, you're going to notice a difference there. Um, so part of what's happening is you're adapting to the stimulus, which is why it could be easier when it's heavier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1:to go back to your first point about just kind of the progression, so you have nine opportunities for a five rep max right, and if the expectation or the goal is to add five pounds per week like and let's say you are successful with that, right, that is automatically 45 pounds added to your your five rep max, which, like, if some of you think about, especially if you've been doing this for a long time, if you think about like, for me, 40 more pounds on my five rep max is like that, like I I don't know what world I'm living in.
Speaker 1:That would be a wonderful world. I'd love to live in that world, but it's not this world that I'm not going to add 45 pounds to my five rep max from week one to week five 20 pounds. That'd be a huge win for me and I'd be like, yeah, I'd be stoked on that. And so you kind of have to plan. Don't be the person who you know. I even personally like anytime we do this at the affiliate and we do this once a year for affiliate athletes it's like I love for my first few weeks of that, especially if it's going to be a seven, eight week program, first couple of weeks, like make those feel so like good and fast and give yourself that runway, um, so that, like you said, wait, moving well and moving fast will make you stronger at submaximal weights.
Speaker 2:What the fuck are you talking about?
Speaker 1:I'm making shit up now, okay, um, now I know you're making stuff up and and, like you said, like hitting your true five rep max three to four weeks into the program. That that is kind of the runway that we're talking about. It's like it gives you, it builds you up some stamina, builds you up a little bit of endurance like man. The first that saturday and sunday after your first five by five on friday is like holy fuck, and I got two days to turn around and turn that into a new five rep max. Like it's a lot, especially initially.
Speaker 1:So I really like making that first week, that first five rep max, like this is a technique, five rep max Like it still should be hard, it still should be difficult. You should still, you know, have to belt up, gear yourself up a little bit for it. But if it's like like I if I, if I, was under that bar for a quarter of a second longer, it would have stapled me to the floor Then, like you might've that might be a little bit too much, you know. And if that happens, like maybe it's 80 or 85% of your five rep max that you start with, again, you just want to give yourself that runway. It's such an effective program If you, if you give yourself that a little bit of that runway. And the other point that you made I really like is like people so often I would say even more so in the five by five days they're like this feels like crap, and then it's like your fourth set. You're like oh man, that felt so good.
Speaker 2:It's like it's like when people say pistols got easier as the workout went on it's like yeah, yeah, you warmed up, congratulations.
Speaker 1:You use the first half of the warm-up as your workout, as your warm-up. Um, same same thing with the Texas method, the squat. You can't expect every session you go into Like, if you're listening to this, like, when have you ever, like, started warming up and 100% of your body feels like loose and ready to roll? It's, you know, almost never. Same thing with the squat. Me personally, like I'll warm up with the empty bar. Me, personally, like I'll warm up with the empty bar. I'll warm up with, you know, 135 and then maybe it's either 185 or 225. But I have a weight where it's like, if this doesn't feel good, I'm not gonna add weight to it. I think people just kind of automatically defer to like that was a warm-up set felt kind of shitty. Whatever, let me add some weight and it'll feel better. It's like, whatever, let me add some weight and it'll feel better. It's like what in God? Like, oh, you mean that 185 felt terrible, so one to 25 is going to feel better. Like you, out of your goddamn mind, like, do a set. Hip feels a little junky. Okay, we floss the hip. You do a pigeon pose. You do something to make it move better.
Speaker 1:Do set of squats now still doesn't feel great. Go back, reassess it. Unrack the same weight. Do a couple squats. Okay, now that feels good, now I can add weight. I I like, like, make sure that your body is firing on all cylinders at that kind of lighter threshold weight. Once you feel good about that, that's when, like, okay, now I'll continue building up to. You know, my first five by five for first, uh, you know first set of five weight. But don't don't let the first two or three warm-up sets or sets be warm-up sets. It's like this is five working sets yeah, yeah I do.
Speaker 2:I know this is, you know the in terms of my muscle fiber type, a little bit easier for me, but typically what I do. Let's say that my five by five is at three, 15. I do a double at like three 20 or three 25 before my five by five and I try to stand the second one up as fast as I can. Like I'll do the first one. It's not tempo or anything, but it's very controlled because you can't speed five by five at nine. You know what I mean. Like that's not going to be a thing. So I make sure that it feels good, make sure that the bounce feels okay. And then the second one I try to lift. Like it's a one rep max and that tells me a lot about where I'm going to be at at that point. But like it takes a lot to build up to be able to do that double with where I'm at, like that sort of thing. And then I try to be careful with this because I know Hunter and I are both numbers guys, but if you draw nine boxes and you put your goal weight at the end, you can really figure out where your current five rep max is, like that sort of thing and I really do typically put mine in the middle. So if I'm doing this for nine weeks on week five, I will have my like this is what I think I can currently do 365 pounds, I will subtract by five to the left and I will add five to the right. You know, again, if you're you're not as experienced, maybe you're adding 10 every once in a while if you feel great, but like, that's how I do that, um, and I think things are a little bit easier when they're kind of planned out like that. So something to keep in mind. But you know, if this is your first time through, you might have to do a little experimenting. Um, all right.
Speaker 2:So if you followed off season one, you did the tempo pull snatch. We are moving on to the tempo pull clean. You are basically taking the barbell from the floor, um, through the first pull through, you know, into the second pull, um, very slow, really taking your time, like if some, if a coach said stop, you could stop, hold, hold that position, that sort of thing. And then second and the third pull, you know, extension into pulling under the barbell, moving your feet. You are being aggressive and we work through a progression there. That's, you know, pretty standard in terms of higher rep, lower weight, and then work our way down to lower rep and higher weight, and then work our way down to lower rep and higher weight.
Speaker 2:This is just the kind of thing where you're checking in on your ability to move while doing things like the Texas Method Back Squat to get yourself stronger. They will come back together, if both done properly, to get you a much better clean. You can also understand something about the Olympic lifts in that the dynamic start is reserved for a really high skill level or for an athlete that's actually not really that strong, that's relying on like catapulting themselves and hoping they can get to a certain point. Um, there are definitely athletes out there who could one rep max more with a tempo pull, because they actually end up in a decent position positions yeah, um, positional snatch uh, just what it sounds like.
Speaker 2:We're working through the hang positions on the snatch, very similar to what we did with the clean um. Same concept here we're. We're making sure that the technical aspects um are where we need them to be within the Olympic lifts, while doing the Texas method back squat. And then, last but not least, is the heavy bench press A lot of pressing in the off season, really trying to develop that musculature. We're thinking about planes of pressing planes, of pulling healthy, strong shoulders upper back, all of that stuff. So we're just sort of continuing down that road. A little bit. Anything to add to any of that stuff, hunter, before we talk about how we're supplementing the strength bias.
Speaker 1:I'll just do one more touch back on the Texas Method back squat. We talked about the program being really good for someone who's a little bit more, maybe, endurance oriented, someone who's a little bit more power oriented. It works really well for everybody. It also works exceptionally well if you're somebody who's trying to, or the intent of the Texas method back squat is to develop lower body strength in a way that translates to being competitive in the sport of fitness. And in order to be competitive in the sport of fitness, we have a couple of movements like the clean, like the snatch, whatever that we want the squat to translate to.
Speaker 1:So if your back squat sucks, if your mobility is trash, if you've got a crazy wide stance and it's a low bar back squat type thing, whatever, whatever the reason may be that your squat just isn't like outstanding, it is a movement worth making, outstanding and you can like really move the needle with a five by five.
Speaker 1:If you say like I'm gonna, you know, establish a five rep max with, like this new back squat that I'm working on a little bit more, you know, maybe it's more upright, I'm finally gonna bring my feet, you know, in a little bit, or I'm gonna finally move them out a little bit.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna finally do the thing that I know that I need to do to make this squat a little bit more functional in the context of CrossFit, in the sport of fitness, and it's a really good um, this is a really good program for that, where you can actually and you don't be surprised if, like, by the end of the nine weeks, you know, your five rep max actually surpasses what you know you previously squatted with maybe less than optimal form. It's not like you go re-go you, it's not like you reset to ground zero. If you try to retool a movement like that's not how it works. So it's also a great time to, like, if you are that person who just you is, toes the line on depth, if you, you know you you're always like pitched a little bit forward with your torso, whatever the, whatever the the mechanical deficiency is like this is a great time to retool that a little bit. Um, and don't be surprised if your strength actually is still better by the end of the phase just because of how well it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the one of the things that we'll do in you know I'll do in a like a training camp or working with an athlete one-on-one is show them a picture of the bottom of their back squat um, the bottom of their catch in a clean and then their setup position at the barbell in a clean and even a snatch and there's a. The skill transfer is like you can overlay those things and it's like holy shit, those all three of them look the same. You know if you're moving really well. So it explains why we would use this tool so frequently. That has basically no place in the sport, or pretty close to no place in the sport. It just makes all of those positions significantly stronger, significantly stronger.
Speaker 2:So the strength bias program this time around we've got a lot of strength base. That happened in OS1, that is happening, that is going into OS2. And you're going to kind of see some of the connections here. So if you followed that program, you probably got a lot of strict pressing in. We've gone over to doing a bit more of the bench press within this phase, but we have heavy, strict pressing. So you did volume and speed work, now we are going into heavy. It's the kind of thing where we need that momentum going into the heavy, because it is such an incredibly static movement. It's a kind of movement where, like your progression can just get stuck a little bit faster than it would if you were able to recruit more musculature or be more dynamic or, you know, have a hip extension attached to the movement. That sort of thing.
Speaker 2:We are also doing the bottoms up snatch pull, something that we've used in the past, something that I use with a lot of athletes to try to get them to figure out how to use their legs in the first and second pull of the snatch, something that doesn't happen as often in the CrossFit space, because we do so much power snatch, we do so much bend and snap that people think that the only way for them to move a barbell is via leverage, and the best lifters in the world have leverage and extension. So they get out over the bar, the torso whips up, but then they jump and become vertical, which is, you know, at a heavy weight is an incredibly impressive skill to be able to do. But I find that forcing an athlete to learn how to do that here instead of in the snatch is easier than forcing the bottoms up, snatch if that makes sense and really quickly sit down at the bottom of a squat like as low as you can possibly go, put your hands on the barbell and then pull up into tension. That is a bottoms up start. Some athletes already do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the other benefit to a bottoms up start, aside from teaching the athlete to use their legs, is it also forces you or hopefully forces you, and if not you should focus on it to put your upper back in a in a good, like stable, position.
Speaker 1:The bottoms up snatch is going to allow you to probably at some point snatch, pull more than you are physically capable of snatching, like the, the rigidity in your torso and the ability to kind of retain extension in your thoracic spine, so that's like the keeping your chest up, shoulders back sort of cue um is super important. We see athletes whose legs and back, you know, far outweigh the strength of their shoulders and their torso and their scapulae and their ability to kind of pull and stabilize that, that, that chest, into a good position. If you start in a position where your shoulders are rolled forward, they're slumped forward like there's no you know, possible way that you are going to hit that triple extension and then turn over and then magically create this beautiful upright torso position in either the snatch or the clean. So um, learning how to set your upper back in a good position is another benefit to the bottoms up snatch pole and and clean pole, once we, once we get there uh, we've got bench press, speed work.
Speaker 2:Um, this is going to sound incredibly counterintuitive, but I consider speed work to be the zone two of strength work. Now, one of them's really slow and one of them's really fast, so that can make it confusing. But essentially, when we are giving you guys these heaping piles of volume, we have to find ways to insert more volume without trashing your energy stores. Zone two does that by, basically, we're multiplying the amount of time spent at the intensity and that gives us you know the adaptation score, as you will so crazy high intensity. We can lower the time domain. We get really good adaptation. If we're going to go really slow, we got to go longer. It's like when they say they do studies on the cold tub. You can get in that bad boy at like 55 degrees. You're just going to stay in there for like six or seven minutes. It's actually worse by the way. It sucks, but things like that. So with the speed work, essentially we can say we're going to do a lot of reps here. With the bench press, the recommendation from the old school conjugate method is eight sets of three and essentially what you're doing is you are tricking your body into thinking you're lifting more weight by you bringing the part of the equation, basically the other side of the equation, to create power. So if we're looking at mass times, acceleration is our force production. Then a lot of times the mass is what's going to really move the needle on the M moves the F. Now we need to bring the A, we have to bring the acceleration here to trick our bodies into thinking that's happening without that loading. And it's not just the central nervous system, it's structurally as well, Like the bench press specifically, I've done a ton of pressing recently and I press in all different planes and I press in all different grips.
Speaker 2:So neutral, pronated, all of that stuff. And the thing that is the most challenging on my upper body is the typical bench press, right, because we're essentially asking to internally rotate a little bit by turning our hands in that direction and laying down on our back. So what that does is, if I'm not in a really great position, maybe the shoulder is sort of pulled out a little bit and we get a little bit of grinding there. So we want to be doing this correctly, of course, but a lot of strain when it comes to the bench press. So if I want to bias that I need to be able to bring in.
Speaker 2:Something like this, it's real simple Lower the bar under control, press it up as fast as possible. Like this, it's real simple Lower the bar under control, press it up as fast as possible. If you can, you know, bring the level of focus needed to do eight sets of three the way that I just described. It will move the needle on your pressing and if not, it'll move the needle probably because it's 24 reps, but not anywhere near as much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Intent really really matters in this session. You could easily just go through the motions and do eight sets of three and it would basically just be a waste of your time. Um minus like super minor adaptation um pressing the weight as fast as you can off your chest is the key. It's also not like three reps for time, right. It's like lower the bar under control, press the individual. That is one thing that people get wrong about the speed work yeah, it's for time, right.
Speaker 2:It's like lower the bar under control, press the individual that is one thing that people get wrong about the speed work yeah, it's just like they.
Speaker 1:It's like three, touch and go as fast as possible, and they're like west side will, will do that. But you're not a power lifter. Um, that's a kind of different format, gpp format, that they're kind of using, so like if you're finding that it's easy. It's like it's easy in the sense that the M is small, right, the loading isn't maximal, but like you should feel by the end of that, by that sixth, seventh, eighth set, you should feel like a bit of a noticeable decline in your ability to generate force. Like if you, if you're more.
Speaker 2:You have to bring much more effort to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to bring the effort up a little bit so like really make, make those last few sets. You're not going to fail a set. It's more about like holy shit, I can actually feel myself slowing down and assuming that's a result because you were going really fast early on.
Speaker 2:That that should be what happens in these sessions yeah, and the the reason why we give the instruction that we do versus west side is because a CrossFitter is more likely to have so much acceleration in the wrong direction that it takes too much effort to turn around and go back up. Those dudes are so fucking tight that even like getting to the bottom is like a whole thing.
Speaker 2:So, it's easier for them to turn around and go in the other direction. So that's the thing that you should pay attention to in terms of how tempo it is Like. If you really need to go slow to then go up fast, great, If you can bring it down a little bit quicker and not feel like you really are like changing direction and go back up, it can be a little bit faster, but the way down is not really doing a whole lot for you. Um, and I find that that CrossFit athletes just their mobility is just so much different that sometimes that lower position isn't as tight as it is for some of the meatheads that can just, you know, crank the bar up and down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, we have some touch and go power snatch. So, if you're paying attention here, we essentially could have really high end strength with the bottoms up snatch pull. We have technique work with the positional snatch and then we have the sort of muscle endurance, cross-fitty, overreaching sets of the touch and go power snatch. Combine those with Texas method and we're getting somewhere in terms of, like the strength progressions all coming back together. It's very similar, if you did OS one, to the touch and go power clean. So you should have a good idea of what the feel is.
Speaker 2:Again, stuff like this is challenging because percentages are. We give you a range but the stuff could fall outside of that range. Like the range is just there to help guide you a little bit. Um. So just keep in mind that this session is very personalized because there's also the the skill aspect to it. Right, are you bringing the bar back down and slamming it into your hip and then going out around your knee before you power snatch again? That's not the same as someone who's straight down from overhead skip the hip, knee bends once the barbell passes it. That sort of thing. I think people like these too. I think people think they're fun, which is funny because they're.
Speaker 2:They're definitely harder, but I think people like a little touch and go work yeah, I mean honestly like've.
Speaker 1:I've done a couple of these sessions, uh, if I'm either short on time or just it looks fun and it is like it's a nice. It's a good blend of like strength and conditioning work a little bit. Like 11 and nine power snatches Like that's, that's, that's, that's, those are CrossFit numbers Right, and then being able to flush a little bit on the rower in between um makes, I think, you it feels like it feels like I've accomplished a lot in that session and for a gpp athlete like myself, like that's important, but it you know, like knowing what your threshold is for touch and go weights in the power, only movements, I think is a.
Speaker 1:It's a necessary skill for, yeah, eating in the sport.
Speaker 2:So I think there's an intensity is freedom element. There too, you can get really inside your head when you're weightlifting. It's just so much different than crossfit and touch and go requires so much focus that you can get into your body and just kind of do the work, and I think that that is a welcome difference from having to lock in on individual reps all the time of like a highly technical movement. Last but not least, you will Texas method back, squat tempo, pull clean and then, if you're on the strength bias, you will do heavy power cleans. So we're bringing it all together.
Speaker 2:I almost always have a heavy power clean in a program where we only do deadlifting and workout. I want to make sure that I am once again. The power clean brings acceleration to the pulling, which makes us stronger. The deadlift typically adds a little bit more mass, makes us stronger. So we're making sure we're pulling heavy off of the floor and the weight will be lower than a deadlift, but there will be some speed attached to it and that sort of rounds out the entire ecosystem here of getting people stronger. I wonder if because we spend so much time selling the strength bias program on this podcast.
Speaker 2:We get like way more people doing that program just hard.
Speaker 1:It's like there's so many technical elements to talk about to make sure people are getting the most out of it, and the conditioning is very much like pace it properly do the conditioning. This is what the sport is about.
Speaker 2:It's a lot harder to talk about that than texas method but, all right, we're going to be quick on the accessory work. Um, the difference between the way this is done in the offseason versus like a phase one is that the accessory is the same every single week. We want people to be able to progress and accessory work honestly, very similarly to the Texas method, like week one, should be a fucking joke. The weight that you choose, the rep scheme that you choose, the band that you choose, the footing that you choose on a ring row, that sort of thing. All of that stuff should be very smooth. And we're adding two and a half pounds, five pounds, one rep, you know, a lighter band, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Um, it is made, the program is made for you to follow the accessories, but we never follow the accessories. Um, in order to skip a conditioning piece, to skip a skill that we want to work on. It's important, but if you don't have the time to do it, you have to understand the hierarchy. This is not a weightlifting program. The GPP element has to be brought into this from the conditioning side. So you can think about it sort of like the skill, like make sure that you the the accessory is attached to the lift as kind of the one A and one B to tell you, hey, I'm not great at this lift, I should probably do this accessory. Or you look at the accessory and you're like that's the kind of thing that's probably good injury prevention for me, like that's what we're looking for and we want you to be able to follow it on a consistent basis.
Speaker 2:Throwing in a random accessory here and there doesn't do a whole lot and I'd rather someone just like take more time to warm up, cool down and do their mobility than to like choose seven accessories over the course of nine weeks that correlate to nothing, um, so sort of like that. And there are people who have the time to do it and fantastic, it's really good. And my athletes that really, really make these huge progressions over the course of a season almost all of them are in on the accessory work level that held kettlebells over their head for literally hours over the course of the year are feeling a little bit better about that now. Yes, they are. Um, they told me how boring it was. They even sent me videos to bore the shit out of me of them just standing there with kettlebells. But, like you know, it worked and we'll take it.
Speaker 1:so something to keep in mind 70 pound dumbbells over your head with ghd sit-ups and a semifinal accessory session. These motherfuckers are doing it for time.
Speaker 2:Very true, all right, we're going to jump into the skill work, just like off season one. We are going to ask you to choose one to three of these and follow the progression for nine weeks, from start to finish. So say the movements. First progression for nine weeks, from start to finish. So say the movements. First we have muscle ups, handstand walk, bar, muscle up toe to bar, and then variations of handstand pushup Based on where you're at in the sport, how much time you have to train and what your weaknesses are. You're going to choose one to three of those things and follow them for the entire phase every single time that they pop up. For the muscle-ups, we're going to do misfit sets, four smooth sets followed by one max set. If your max set is twice as big as your smooth set or more, you add reps the following week.
Speaker 2:Handstand walk progression is very straightforward. There are going to be little AMRAPs where we're going to increase how far you're walking unbroken in each AMRAP. So let's say it was AMRAP one minute times three 20 foot handstand walk You're going to walk 20 feet, kick down, kick back up, walk 20 feet. You can do as many times as you can, and then you're going to do 25 feet and then 30 feet and so on. This allows us to ask for the same session for two very different athletes, like can an athlete walk back and forth for a minute straight? Like that's pretty challenging to do. Can an athlete get one in a minute? Can an athlete get two in a minute? Can an?
Speaker 2:athlete get three in a minute, Like that's how we can. You know you can sort of personalize that for yourself Bar, muscle up volume sets, six, even sets. We're just going to ride that through. Once again, give yourself runway. I could probably do six, Okay. Then you should probably start at like three or four and try to get to the point at the end of the phase where you can do seven, eight or nine. That would be pretty cool, but it requires you to have some humility at the beginning. Total bar misfit sets Once again, four smooth sets, one max sets, finish Um. And then we are following the exact same progression of the strict handstand pushup deficit, handstand pushup kipping, handstand pushup um through the course of the phase where you're basically just trying to continue to make it a little bit further within those progressions. Choose one to three, Stick with it, Give yourself runway. You will be better at the movements.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't have a whole lot to add to that. You'll see the instructions weekly as well. Like this is you know exactly what you're saying the four smooth sets, one max set. This progression will rotate for the next nine weeks. Whatever, just pay attention to the instructions.
Speaker 2:All right, we affectionately refer to monostructural conditioning as bitch work at Misfit Athletics For everyone. You will have a power output bias on the c2 bike real special, real special. Fill those legs up with blood and then the blood will never leave. You'll get compartment syndrome and you'll have to go to the hospital and they'll cut your legs open. Just kidding, it does feel that way, though. We had an athlete who yelled I have compartment syndrome after a bike sprint once. So we just have to bring that up, cody, please. Um, and then you'll rotate on other machines. Um, so you know, maybe half of the sessions that you do for power output will be on the c2 bike and the other half will be on just a rotation of echo, ski row, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:Um, you're going to see two bike zone two on your active rest days. Once again, we have that 45 to 90 minute window. We want you guys to go longer than you normally would, but we understand that that doesn't fit into everyone's schedule. So there is a you know sort of an explanation of this that you'll see. That's in there. But these windows are 45 to 90 minutes long, um, and the more volume that you get in zone two, the more effective it is. Essentially, that's kind of how that works.
Speaker 2:Um, there will be anaerobic work weekly. Uh, once again, not going to change, um, run and bike season season, um, so you're going to do plenty of that. And then an even mix of other machines outside of that. So say, two-thirds of it are running bike, the other third is a rotation. Same thing goes for your aerobic work, um, so you just, you know, run bike row, run bike ski, run bike, echo, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:And we talked about the progressions at the beginning of this podcast. But again, just try to pay close attention to what you had for scores in OS one, because that will give you a lot of really good information on OS two, if you are new to the program round one of every single one of these workouts, you should be a hundred% positive about the pace. And then I use the projected finish screen on the C2 monitors and if I got 664 meters, I try to get at least 665 or 666, that sort of thing. And then, when you get to the end, make sure you note your average pace and that is how you begin to build your gears matrix. Do not like, don't consider it a test to figure out what that is like. Give yourself, you know, back off a little bit to start.
Speaker 1:You can push, you can drag your average down, that sort of thing, and then use the average the next time you do that same gear yeah, I think the only thing I'll add on the bitch work is that the first two things we talked about are the power output, c2 bike bias and then the zone to C2 bike, and you can think about that.
Speaker 1:You can replace C2 bike with any machine and understand that.
Speaker 1:Those are kind of the two ends of the spectrum as far as, like, I'm going as hard as humanly possible and then you know in the power stuff and then I'm going as probably as slow as I'm ever going to go on this machine in the zone to work um, and then everything else we just talked about or drew just talked about after that falls somewhere in the middle right, and so understanding kind of filling in the gaps between this is the hardest I can possibly go on this machine. This is the slowest that I will likely ever go, knowing what know your effort level in all the areas in between using the gears matrix, for example, is how we would, you know, actually record that and and denote the data. But also the fact that you're going to see the same thing weekly with just like minor progressions, should allow you know, kind of in um, suggest what sort of pace you need to be holding. So make sure you're referencing previous weeks so that you can actually make informed decisions about how hard you're going.
Speaker 2:That's how you make progression on the machines like that and I build the phase based on you being able to take the next step, not just in the progressions but the gears. So, like whenever I restart a program and bias, I start at third gear for aerobic and fourth gear for anaerobic, and then I go slower in one direction and faster in the other direction. So I go from fourth gear to fifth gear. I know that it's going to be between one and three seconds per 500 meter slash. You know 1000 meter split on the bike, um, so that's how. That's what Hunter's talking about in terms of like use that information, not just okay, it's fourth gear and that was fourth gear Again, I'm going to use it but also fourth gear to fifth gear. I know that I'm going to be in that same ballpark and just aim for my average to be a little bit faster.
Speaker 1:The same idea that you'd used on your, your five by five back squat example. Right, it's like. Here's the middle, I can go. I you know, to the right of this I'm going to add five pounds to the left of this. It's five pounds less. You do the exact same thing with like okay, it's a seven minute, seven minute row. Well, I know my seven minute row is about my 2k pace. I can go up here if it goes to 9, 10, 11, 12 minutes and I can go faster if it's three, five, six minutes yeah, I mean, it's a meathead creating a program to try to make the fittest person on earth it's what it is like, like I know that that that sort of information helps people.
Speaker 2:Your your bitch, work fact, the conditioning bias additions. There will be a zone to run on monday or day one, depending on what your day one is. Same idea 45 to 90 minute windows, depending on how much time you have, and then the other bitch work pieces that we do on the conditioning bias and our multi-gear aerobic and anaerobic workouts. Um, and it's essentially forced. Negative splits is what it is. We start typically at the slower gear and we work towards the faster gear and we're showing you like I want negative splits for a lot of my athletes within a single gear, um, but if they're not good at doing that, I give them multi-gear workouts first. So it's like all right, we're going to do fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth within this workout and the rest is going to increase and the window is going to go down. It's going to be very obvious how you should do that, um. So if you are doing a conditioning bias, there is an implication that maybe you're not either as fit as you need to be or as good at pacing as you need to be, and this is the way that I've learned in remote coaching. To force negative splits is to give different gears as you go, no different than 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 in a squat, that sort of thing in a squat, that sort of thing, correct?
Speaker 2:Um, we have some pretty deep notes here on the met cons and intervals. It says stimulus exclamation point. That is the only bullet point on met cons and intervals. Um, the reason it says that is because this time of year we are focusing a little bit more. It should be pretty obvious, based on this podcast, that we've talked about strength ad nauseum, monostructural conditioning, skill work, accessory work. When you go to do sports-specific stuff, we want it to be real straightforward, like when we're in the programming meeting. If the format of it's a little weird, if we're like this might be too many reps, this might take us outside of the time domain, we back it off a little bit. And if you think that that's a cop out, think again and just do the workouts that are simpler, especially if we're mean enough to make them an AMRAP. That's when you get some real intensity but we just don't want the workouts to.
Speaker 2:You know we don't. We're not going to drop you in the desert on the muscle endurance workouts, like we would, you know, at a different time in the year, that sort of thing. So they're short, they're medium, they're long, Some of them for time, some of them are AMRAPs, some of them are EMOMs. They're cardio gas, muscle endurance stimulus, and they just rotate through and we make sure that they hit a stimulus for a broader group of people than a workout might in, you know, like a competition prep or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I just always. I pretty much. There are very few instances where I would air an athlete on the side of going heavier or higher skill and slower. It's almost like the blanket recommendation for basically everyone is like, if you're on the fence about modifying a weight, modifying a skill, modifying a number of reps or whatever, air on the side of a version of a workout that forces you to move fast and complete the work as quickly as possible or do more work in less time, right, it's not impressive to say I did the workout as prescribed and we're nowhere near the intended stimulus. Your score is at the very bottom of the leaderboard by, you know, 20% compared to the next person. It's irrelevant. Your body doesn't know that. That was quote RX. It just knows that that's the volume of work that it did. Here's the adaptation that you receive. If you do more work in less time, your body will elicit a broader and better adaptation. Err on the side of faster.
Speaker 2:True. So that is off-season block number two. In a nutshell, we are essentially continuing down the path of like I really like to sell the idea that the athletes that make it further in the competition season do not have as much time as you to improve, and this is the only way that you're going to catch them. Um is to take advantage of that time, and I know that that's really challenging to wrap your mind around. Like, I got to basically train year round to get to the, to the place that they're at, but they did that in order to get to where they're at. So you're basically just at a different point in your career and being able to, like, dive into.
Speaker 2:Two thirds of your training is segmented and one third of it is sports specific. You can move the needle on things that you need to and then, when phase one hits and everyone's back on the same program, you're in a place that's very different from them. Like, they went out and expressed their fitness. They, you know, did a bunch of deloading. You know they did these really. You know challenging peaking phases. You know a lot of them had to do two of them. That's how you catch up, because if it's just one to one. If you're training the exact same way, is that athlete that's better than you. They're eliciting, you know, a different adaptation because of how hard they can go. So use the time, take the time to go in and do it now so that you can, you know, make up ground on who you're trying to make up ground on, or the athlete that's in the same position as you that is not taking this time of year as seriously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, if you know you, what, what happens to you in March, april, may this time of year is largely a result of what happened to you in Mayune july of last year. So, just setting yourself up, if you're, if you're somebody who you know gets through the open, whatever stage of competition you're at, and you're looking to your left and your right, you're saying god, like where, what, what am I missing, what am I doing wrong or whatever it's like you ask, look at those athletes and and say what, what were they doing at this time last year, did they? You know, we talk about the runway for Texas Method, like you're currently on the runway for the 2026 season, and how you choose to approach that will largely impact your results eight, 12 months from now.
Speaker 2:True, can we do it? Yeah, boy. Thank you for tuning tuning into another episode of the misfit podcast off season block two. Get started monday, may 26. Keep your eye on social media link and bios all that good stuff. To get signed up, um, either on strivyter. Um, if you made it this far and you are looking for affiliate programming, you can head to team misfitcom. Click on sign up now. Get a two week free trial. Free trial is fixed on sugar wad correct.
Speaker 2:Yes, correct, hey um free trial 14 day free trial on sugar wad, but team misfitcom. Click on sign up. Now you're going to have options for your programming partners there. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1:Later.