The Tier Three Fitness Competitors Program (Part 4)

Now the intensity begins.  So far in our year long cycle we’ve seen some heavy weights, and intense reps.  This cycle will focus on ramping up the total volume of metabolic conditioning.  The goal, crushing your previous fitness goals.  Keep reading to see the next 8 week installment in our competitors programming, all 100% free.  

Jumping into the Program 

This is the perfect time to start the competitors program, as we’ve are now switching gears into a new style of training.  We are going to maintain our strength and convert it into the results we really want, better scores in our WODs and metabolic conditioning workouts.  

Part 4 Program Goals 

1. Accustom the body to higher volumes of metabolic training 
2. Improve barbell efficiency in higher rep ranges 
3. Drive metabolic adaptation to increase work capacity

Who is This Plan For?

This plan is for athletes that take their performance seriously.  Ideally they should be at least to the intermediate phase of their training, or better.

This program is a solid general plan for those looking to take their performance to the next level, but it won’t address everyone’s particular weaknesses.  For that you should learn how to create your own custom functional fitness program.  

Part 4

You will notice that for this cycle we have maintained our heavy weights, but we’ve reduced the total workload for the strength portion.  Now, don’t go chasing waterfalls, because we’ve moved that workload into an extra metabolic conditioning piece.  

Click Here to Download Part 4 of the Competitors Program

Ideally this program should be 5 days per week, two sessions per day. I understand that many of us, myself included don’t have that kind of time so you can do this amount of work in one session, but it will take you around 90 minutes or so.  

If you like awesome nerd science, and want to get more programs sent right to you, then click here to join the Tier Three Team.   If you don’t, I bet you wear cutoff jean jackets everywhere.

Each day of this program is one vertical column.  The colors are meant to denote an AM and PM sessions.  Pro tip: if you are doing this in one session try to take about 10min of rest between each block.  

You can see that week 3 is our heaviest of the cycle, right before the deload.  I’ve found that three hard weeks of training is about all you need before you deload.  Remember that the deload is where you really reap the benefits of all your hard work.  

This week is much lower in overall volume, but we still keep the intensity pretty high.  This is key to maintain your strength, and efficiency with the moves, but it gives the body much less overall tissue to repair which is what actually creates the change in your muscles etc.  

Remember all of this hard work will be for naught if you don’t eat like an athlete, or recover like one.  

Cycle 2 

You’ll notice that this cycle is fairly different from a strength training perspective.  We will be working to a lot of technical maxes.  This means the heaviest weight you can move with 99% percent perfect form.  I expect the bar to really move slowly through the sticking point, but you need to choose a load that keeps you from deviating too much in form. 

This means no round back on the deadlift, no stripper squats, and no crazy laybacks on overhead presses.  

We are still keeping the metabolic conditioning and the WODs as they were previously.  It’s important to note that these really are the main effort.  Previously we had focused on strength, but now we really need to put that on the back burner, and start to bring a lot of intensity to our WODs.  

As expected weights are increasing and the WODs/Metcons are increasing in difficulty.  I expect that unless the there is a listed effort requirement, i.e 80% effort, then the WODs should be done with max effort.  

This is the most intense week, just like last cycle.  Really hang in their because you will get a nice deload in just a few days.  

This is going to be our final deload for normal programming.  It will take us right up until the beginning of February.  From there we will start our competition season programming where we focus almost exclusively on doing well in your fitness competition.  

Parting Thoughts 

This program is a lot of work, and it isn’t for everyone, but for those that can persevere this will push their overall fitness higher than it’s ever been. 

I think it’s important to emphasize that as we edge closer to your personal performance envelope that you continue to pay attention to the basics, of nutrition, sleep, and recovery. 

This is a great program, but if you don’t eat enough food, or if you are sleeping 6 hours per night, then you are just throwing your gains down the toilet. 

If you’re doing this program you are an experienced athlete and you should understand that the basics must be there before you can hope to progress further.  

As always if you have any question, put them in the comments section where I can answer them quickly.  Now get out there and train!

If you’ve finished this program then move onto part 5

If you enjoy hard training and want even more info than we can include here then check out the ebook!

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