Programming Corner: Power Endurance Phase

Writeup provided by DekaComp

Duration: Mon, Oct 3, 20221:00 PM Sun - Dec 18, 20222:00 PM

POWER ENDURANCE PHASE

FORCE - VOLUME - SPEED

Welcome to the Deka Comp Power Endurance Training Phase, where we will follow our Base Strength, Weightlifting, & Gymnastics Phases with a focus on max force production over multiple occurrences and broad time ranges. This is arguably the most important training style for a CrossFitter as most competition workouts are designed to test the athlete’s upper limits of their capacity in multiple ways. It is important, however, to remember that this is a training phase and should be treated as such, this is not a competition. 

In the previous phases we separated the important elements of CrossFit competition in order to build a nice base for the season. Base strength polarized all elements of building all things strength: power, strength, hypertrophy, strength endurance, Aerobic base and practice in the 10 general physical skills. The weightlifting phase followed and refined the strength developed. Then we took you through a short Gymnastics phase with a barbell cycling focus at weightlifting percentages, we also prepped your squat for power with controlled eccentrics in this phase. Now we enter our final phase before our fitness phase. Since we spent a long time building a strong and capable foundation, we should be able to build your capacity ceiling very high. Entering our Power Endurance Phase, we will now work towards high intensity; speed/force per rep. 

Progression

This is an intensity & speed per rep progression. So overall you will notice a linear progression in the percentages week to week but you will also notice that we will ask you to explode with speed on all major lifts. You will also notice speed-strength and strength-speed sessions. These will be fundamental to supporting your ability to produce force in the major lifts. Technically it is an accessory but will not feel like your typical accessory. Both combine speed and strength elements in supportive and in contrasting methods but with different priorities. 

It is imperative that competitive athletes develop both strength-speed and speed-strength because together they are considered the essential elements of power. Since the ability to produce maximal power over long efforts is a key determinant in the performance of CrossFit, optimizing an athlete’s power endurance production is of great importance.  

Strength + Speed = Power x Total Volume = Power endurance

Speed-strength @ 30-60%

Prioritizing speed over strength, here you need to be moving a light percentage with the intention of creating as much force as possible and you will actually see the implement (barbell) move with acceleration.

Strength-speed @ 70-90%

Prioritizes strength over speed, here you need to have the same intention of max force in the rep, but you will not see the implement (barbell) move with speed as much as you do with speed strength. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Below is an example of the weekly schedule as is stands for the Perform Track. Class will follow this cycle with some changes in the schedule of each pieces so that your members can touch base on the different elements no matter what day they come to workout. This means that on some days, perform and class tracks won’t align. We understand this can complicate things slightly for any athletes trying to complete the perform track but we feel this is the best way for your members to see progress while still getting variety.

Example Weekly Schedule

In order to introduce variance, we will rotate the daily training every other week. So week 1 will begin with day 1 with weightlifting, whereas week 2 will begin day 1 with gymnastics, we will follow this trend throughout the week. This variance will help to drive adaptation in the best way for our purposes in this phase.

Monday

Snatch, Strength-speed + power endurance + Progressive Intensity Interval Metcon + Accessory + Tempo Conditioning

Tuesday

Gymnastics Pulling OR Pushing focused Power session + Gymnastics Strength endurance +  Short round amrap metcon + Movement conditioning + Accessory

Wednesday

Clean + speed-strength endurance + Weightlifting Accessory + Short Multiple Amrap Interval Metcon + Accessory + Anaerobic Threshold Conditioning

Thursday

Active Recovery Day

Friday

Jerk + Strength-speed + power endurance emom + Accessory + Short fast interval metcon + Accessory

Saturday

Gymnastics Pulling OR Pushing focused Power session + Gymnastics Power Endurance + Odd object + Accessory + Long low impact Metcon + Accessory + Anaerobic Conditioning 

Sunday

Rest Day

Other Training Modalities

Weightlifting

We will continue a weightlifting progression focused on high percentages and mainly on hip extension in order to support our power endurance phase. We will use snatch and clean & jerk sessions to create our highest potential for pure power. As these lifts are the best for us to use that combine speed and strength. 

Squat: Our squat progression will rotate between Back squat and Front squat and also be used within the Speed-strength and strength-speed sessions. 

Gymnastics

We will focus on gymnastics Max low rep capacity but over multiple rounds in order to sustain volume. You will see many high level gymnastics with high force potential paired with other elements to add the endurance stimulus.

Metcon

Our metcons will need to be very interval based. This is a great tool for forcing higher speeds and rep cycling then we may be capable of in the moment. But for the most part this will be more balanced than in the past in order to get ready for the fitnes phase where we will prioritize the Metcon. 

Note: These are daily focuses and may not fall on that exact day of the week. We will mix this up in order for the cycle to not be too redundant.

Power Conditioning

This is where we will specifically target power endurance and hit your maximum force capacity from different angles. This will also include the speed-strength and strength-speed sessions. 

Accessories

Focused mainly on, strength endurance, power, speed, as well as joint and tendon health in the following areas of the body:

Midline/Core

Shoulders- Vertical and horizontal push/pull

Hips/Knees

post chain- Lower/Upper.

Conditioning

We will actually have some short conditioning sessions 3x/week in order to train anaerobic threshold capacity. This is important for building your speed and endurance. You can view this as the contrast to the weightlifting sessions.