The leaves are already starting to change, the cooler months are coming, and for many who have been here for a while you know what that means. It means it’s time to put away the beer, nachos, and donuts and buckle down to hit it hard and get stronger and fitter. Getting stronger this time of year means a specific focus on Squatting, more specifically running through the always painful, but rewarding Hatch Squat Program.

A few weeks ago we finished out a 16 week cycle based off of Jim Wendlers 5-3-1 program. We saw some rather ridiculous PR’s, even from some that have been weight training for a while, and I think everybody that was consistent with the program and hit it hard saw some sort of progress. One of the biggest gripes of the program was just that, the program, it was repetitive, and some of you got tired of it, and some even really disliked it.

What I’m here to tell you is that unless you’ve never strength trained before, you need a regimented program of repetition of the same movement. It may be boring but that’s how you get stronger. Now if you absolutely don’t care about getting any stronger than you don’t need to follow anything like this, but if you have aspirations of continuing your climb up the ladder of strength, it requires repetition of movements, and lots of it. So please bare that in mind when you’re training, think of what your goal is and pick the programming that matches your goal. I’m not saying you can’t get stronger Squatting one day a week, you can, but for most who have been training for 1-2 years+ there needs to be more than that to make any significant change in strength.

That’s where the importance of a program comes in. Many have this idea of CrossFit being all these random movements and workouts thrown together. While you may find this true at a poor quality box where the owners/coach don’t know much about programming, at any quality facility you will not find that. There is a rhyme and a reason to everything, certain movements are placed in certain areas, at certain times, etc. etc. While it can be said that the Met-con’s are maybe a little random there is still a lot of thought that go into those. This all rings true for everything at CVCF, don’t think you are doing something completely random, generally everything has a purpose and a reason for being placed on the board with some sort of end goal in site.

Starting Monday, September 8th we will be once again starting the Hatch Squat Program. This is an awesome program, that many of our members have had huge success with and is a staple of my general programming structure for athletes (Dani has done this program 3 times in the last year). With that being said, like any program, it is repetitive, you will be Back Squatting and Front Squatting Monday and Friday for 12 weeks. This will encompass the strength work on those days for the Sport and Competition programming. This cycle through though we will be changing up things a bit for the Fitness programming. You will generally see just 1 day a week of Squatting, always Monday, and Fridays we will cycle through different mini-cycles encompassing Deadlifts, Single Leg Work, Sled Drags, and other movements, with less emphasis on % work and just having you do work! We are doing this one to keep things a little easier to follow for those that are new but also because many in there early stages of lifting don’t need a full on Squat program like Hatch for there first few months of training. There is more to be gained out of basic GPP (General Physical Preparedness) work. So come Monday, make sure you are ready to make a commitment to one road or the other if you are going to do Hatch you need to do it from the start, you can’t jump in half way. Think about where you are in your training, what your goals are, and whether or not you have the patience and commitment for 24 very similar Squat sessions. The Hatch program can be found HERE.

Remember, regardless of what you do it doesn’t matter, you are here for you, so come in, train hard, lift some heavy stuff, and have fun!