1. What if I’ve never done all or some of these lifts before? Will I be able to learn them in 8 weeks?
Yes. We had 9 individuals of all different levels and experiences learn and improve their lifts within the 8 weeks and successfully perform on event day. Most of the participants had never done a kettlebell snatch in their life and yet they were all able to withstand the 5 minute snatch test.
2. How many days of strength training can I expect?
The strength training aspect will have 3 days in total. Two days will be semi-private sessions with your coach. Day 3 will be a group workout on Saturdays at 7am. Yes, this is early! Good news is you will have your entire day ahead of you once we knock this high-energy workout out for the day!
3. Will everyone be following the same program?
Yes. Every athlete will have the same program to ensure that we all remain on the same page for our training. There may be slight tweaks here and there for the individual depending on where they are thus far in these lifts, but the overall goal is to keep everyone on track so that Saturday group workouts flow for everyone. It is imperative that you make sure to get your two semi-private sessions in each week so that you do not fall behind in your training.
4. Will this program make me “bulky”?
Rest assured, training for the Tactical Strength Challenge will not leave you looking like the Hulk! This is strength training that will help you to reach your fitness goals of the Deadlift, Snatch and Chin Up or Pullup. I can speak from my own experiences that this training has helped me gain more confidence in myself and what my body is capable of doing and I have no doubt that if you ask one of the participants from the fall, they will tell you the same thing!
5. Will I get calluses? How do I keep my hands from ripping?
Truth is, yes. You very well may develop callused hands. That comes with the territory. These 3 movements are all grip intensive and building calluses will only help you in the long run. Of the 9 athletes we had complete in the fall, several of them did rip their hands and ZERO of them said they weren’t coming back for that reason. You’re moving heavy weights and training frequently. The reward of pushing yourself will far outweigh your rough hands. I promise!
6. Can I take regular classes during this training or do strength work on other days?
Here’s where listening to your coach comes into play. You will each have a program designed specifically for you for the 8 weeks of training. I prescribe it, as is, because that’s all we all want you doing. If I felt you needed to add more strength training in, I would have written a 4-day program, but this is not the case. 3 days of strength training is all we want from you, with 2-3 days of either steady state or anti-glycolytic work (which we’ll go over as the training approaches) and the rest days are THE. MOST. IMPORTANT. The secret sauce to making progress and doing your best during these 8 weeks is in the recovery days. Allowing your body to fully rest is where you’re going to have the most growth and progress.
7. What is the private session for?
Each participant will have one private session with me to work on Snatch technique. This is to be scheduled by you within the first 4 weeks of training. During this hour, we will work on improving your form and breaking down the movement so that you can have the remaining 4 weeks to really hone in on the skill.
8. What does competition day look like?
The morning of the competition we will ask you to arrive by 8am. This will leave an hour to sign in, warm up and go over the rules. The introduction and first lift will begin at approximately 9am. We encourage all friends, family and additional Aspire members to come and cheer everyone on! This event is supposed to be fun as we will celebrate afterwards (location TBD). The movements will be performed as follows: Deadlift, Chin Up hold or Pullups, Kettlebell Snatches. Each event will be performed by all participants before moving on, with 15 minutes rest in between the next event. Scores will be submitted by the end of the day and can take up to two weeks to be finalized by Strong First.