What’s Happening in February

We are still working our way through Phase 1 of the “fire-breathing” Chimera Cycle. Chimera was a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature in Greek mythology. And we are feeling the heat! If you are curious as to how we are going to escape this cycle alive, here’s the game plan. According to Greek mythology, the hero Bellerophon was responsible for slaying Chimera. He did so with a large block of lead stuck to the end of his spear. Nothing Bellerophon tried would pierce Chimera’s resilient armor.  He lobbed that lump of lead right into Chimera’s gaping mouth and the fire melted the lead just enough to lodge it in her throat. Chimera suffocated on the lead as it cooled. Moral of the story? Pack on some more lead. Lift heavy! That, my friends, is how we’ll escape this cycle. And just in time for the CrossFit Open and Quarterfinals!  

Speaking of the Open, your teams have been picked for the 2024 CrossFit Open. We have four teams: RhiEnergizers, The LepreConors, Grateful DeadLifts, and Not Fast Just Furious. Your team captains will be reaching out shortly with information for you. The Open is an opportunity for us to have fun and measure how far we’ve come in our fitness journey each year. 

Upon completing the Open we will head into Phase 2 of the Chimera Cycle. Phase 2 of training will run from February 26th until April 21st. It will be 7 weeks of progressive training, then 1 deload week prior to the CrossFit Quarterfinals. During this Phase we will complete both the Open & Quarterfinals.

The strength portion of the Chimera Cycle focuses on the back squat, bench press, strict press, and deadlift. We’re utilizing a 5-3-1 progression format with the aim of targeting and testing your 5-rep Max. Building our global strength and increasing time under tension bulletproofs the body, increases metabolism, and provides a potent stimulus for increased neuromuscular efficiency and mechanics.

The conditioning portion of the Chimera Cycle focuses on workouts in the time domain of 8-15 minutes, which is what the majority of Open workouts tend to target. These workouts have added complexity and challenges as the workout progresses. This means more weight ladders, or higher skill gymnastics movements towards the end of a workout.

The gymnastics portion of the Chimera Cycle focus on progressions for movements that tend to pop up and create bottlenecks in the Open workouts. These are generally high skill movements or larger volume pieces of high skill gymnastics like Chest to Bar Pull-ups, Handstand Push-ups, Handstand Walks, Toes-to-Bar, and both Ring and Bar Muscle-Ups.

Thank you to all who participated in the gymnastics workshop. We hope it was helpful for you and added value to your training. All athletes were provided with some helpful feedback and useful skills to implement for improving muscle-up skills. Our next workshop will focus on all things Jump Rope. From single unders to crossovers, there’s something for everyone! Saturday, February 17th, 2024.