The Training Plan Sherpa - THE BASECAMP - JAN 2018 ISSUE 01
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The
JAN 2018
ISSUE 01
YOUR GUIDE TO A SUCCESSFUL
Training
Plan
Sherpa
OPEN
THE BASECAMP
HOW TO PREPARE FOR
YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH
THE OPEN
The 2018 season is nearly upon us!
You have been training hard for months, chipping away at your strengths and weaknesses,
turning them into opportunities for this year's Open. With just a few more weeks until the
announcement of 18.1 on the February 22nd, we want to help you make the most out of your
remaining time.
While the foundations have already been laid, there is still much you can do both in and out of
training, to ensure your success this year. Our guide (together with our other content through
the Open) is your ‘sherpa’ to help you climb to your absolute peak performance in the 2018
Open.
For now, we are still at the “Basecamp” phase. The next few weeks are your opportunity to gather
resources and to prepare yourself for the long 5-week climb through the 2018 Open.
In this edition,
your Open Sherpa will guide you on: What is a sherpa anyway?
Training Sherpas are highly regarded as elite
Preparation and logistics mountaineers and experts in their local
Mindset and mental toughness area. They were immeasurably valuable to
Recovery early explorers of the Himalayan region,
Nutrition serving as guides at the extreme altitudes of
the peaks and passes in the region,
Thank you for being here, particularly for expeditions to climb Mount
Everest.
Jami Tikkanen
Head coach
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 2
Contents 3-4 TRAINING What should you be focused on for the last weeks leading to The Open? 5-6 LOGISTICS AND PREPARATION Avoid last minute stress by planning your logistics before The Open. 7 MINDSET AND MENTAL TOUGHNESS Building self-image and self-belief through your daily "Success Journal". 8-11 RECOVERY Make sure your mind and body feel fresh for the full five weeks of competition and training. 12-16 NUTRITION Establish your fundamentals for successful fueling through The Open (and beyond). JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 2
With the competition only a few weeks
away, your training time is best spent on
addressing your performance limiters
and doing work that looks like the Open
(look back to previous years events):
- Weightlifting, gymnastics and other
sports specific skills with reduced rest,
higher heart rate and under fatigue.
- Practising Open style scenarios with
common movement combinations
(especially those that are challenging to
you).
- Doing conditioning intervals specific to
improving your capacity in workout
durations we often see in the Open (8 to
20-minutes).
- Practising previous Open events
(mimic the competition environment as
closely as possible, including judging,
filming etc.).
- Solving your range of motion limiters
(such as poor overhead position,
especially considering the dumbbells are
likely featured in this year's Open again).
- Fine-tuning movement efficiency and
breathing
Training If you have identified movement
limiters (such as the inability to perform
typical Open movement like a muscle up
or double-unders), and haven’t yet begun
We hope you have been working hard serious work on these, there is still some
(and smart) in the past weeks and months time to make a difference.
leading to this moment. You should be
feeling somewhat tired from the Finally, you want to balance this hard
workload but still ready to put in few work out with some recovery/ low-
more weeks of quality training before intensity session (see recovery section).
letting yourself adapt and recover before
to the Open. Now is the time to subtract Unsure how to put this all together
anything non-essential from your
on your own? The Training Plan has
schedule so that you can focus your
energy on high-quality work specific to you covered - join today to get
your goals. started.
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 3
IMPROVE YOUR
TRAINING
"HYGIENE"
To make the most out of your Warm up
training sessions and to recover
optimally between them, it is 1. 5 minutes of breath work (see
essential that your routine includes breathing section later in this guide)
three things:
2. 5 to 10 minutes of progressively
1. proper warm-ups (to prepare harder (start easy) Assault bike / row
your cardiorespiratory and nervous / ski erg, rotate through as wanted,
systems) make sure that by the end of it you
are sweaty and breathing hard
2. movement prep (to ensure full
and safe range of motion) 3. 5 to 10 minutes of specific range
of motion prep in form of a
3. cooldowns (to return your body dynamic movement flow
to rest and begin the adaptation
process) 4. Specific movement warm up in
the context of your training session
You might be surprised that the (grooving in technique, building up
warm-up can take up to 30-40 load, going through movement
minutes of your session. You might progressions etc.)
need less, you might need more and
we appreciate that time constraints Cooling down can be as simple as
might make this challenging. Do doing 5 minutes of Assault bike,
what you can today to get started rowing or ski erg while you wait for
with proper preparation for your your heart rate to come down,
sessions. followed by 5 to 15 minutes of active
mobility work to restore your range
If you are not used to warming up, of motion and good movement
try the following simple template to patterns.
get introduced to the concept.
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 4
Logistics and Preparation
Know the rules Make sure you have access to a gym
If you are going to play the game, it is best Does your gym have the necessary
you know the rules. equipment or do you need a backup plan in case
something unusual comes up?
- Read the official rulebook at The
CrossFit® Games site What time will you have access to the gym to
perform your workout? If it’s not your usual
– Read the drug testing policy at the training time, perhaps you should be doing some
CrossFit® Games site to ensure that none workouts at that time now to get used to it.
of the supplements you are taking are
banned or that you have a Therapeutic Use Filming your workouts
Exemption (TUE) where appropriate.
Remember, you, and only you, are Do you have a YouTube account to upload
responsible for what you are putting in your video? Do you know how to set up your
your body. account so that you can upload long videos
(15+ mins)?
- Take the judges course (especially if you
are helping others in The Open). Think about how you will do the filming and
what equipment you need.
- Make sure your judge has taken the
course. Most importantly
In fact, why not organise a Judge’s Course Remember to sign up for the Open.
Party right now, where everyone can bring
some food, and help each other through any
tricky videos of the course?
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 5
Useful Links Read the Official Rulebook - https://games.crossfit.com/rules/open Read the Drug testing policy - https://games.crossfit.com/drug-policy Take the Judges course - https://oc.crossfit.com/course?id=13 Open a YouTube account - https://accounts.google.com/SignUpWithoutGmail ?service=youtube Learn to upload 15+ min YouTube videos - https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/71673 ?hl=en-GB Sign up for the Open - https://games.crossfit.com/register/athlete JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 6
The process
Mindset and At the end of your training session or day,
review what happened in training and
Mental answer the following three questions:
1. What three things did you do well today
Toughness that you can be proud of?
This can be surprisingly hard at first as we
As you approach The Open (or any major have a tendency to focus excessively on our
competition), it is easy to start questioning failures and inadequacies rather than our
yourself, your readiness to compete and accomplishments. Remember, this is exactly
your worthiness as an athlete. what you are learning to overcome.
These thoughts will eat away at your self- 2. Based on today's performance, what's one
image and self-belief, two major thing you know you can improve on next
determinants of your mental toughness. time?
Success Journal This is your opportunity. Choose one, be
specific and make sure it something that is
One effective way to beat self-doubt is to within your control.
keep a “success journal” of your training
sessions and days. It's a place to record your 3. What's one thing that you can do to move
small victories, lessons learned and towards this improvement now or in your
(concrete) plans for a better you. next training session?
The success journal systematically builds While we hope you are already working on
the skill of believing in your own abilities your mindset as part of your daily practice,
and helps you focus on specific actions for there is still a lot you can do to take control
improvement. It will become your anchor of your success in The Open.
for the inevitable storms during the Open.
Start by creating your first entry in your
success journal today!
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 7
Recovery
The Open represents the longest
competition period in most athletes training
year. Entering the season feeling fresh and
ready, both physically and mentally, is
essential for your success (and wellbeing for
that matter).
The key to better recovery is to appreciate
the work you have done. Avoid the
temptation to cram in a year's worth of
training in the next few weeks. Rather,
listen to how your body is feeling and focus
on the quality of the work you're putting in
(see training).
In the next few pages, you can find other
recovery tips we suggest for you to follow.
SLEEP
Why sleep?
Your body recovers its neurotransmitters,
repletes energy sources, repairs tissues,
renews immune system, releases growth-
hormone, etc. all during your sleep.
Insufficient (in quality or quantity) sleep
means reduced brain, physical and immune
function. Not enough sleep = poor
performance and reduced ability to adapt to
training stimulus (never mind poor health).
Quite simply, great athletes sleep well, and
you should too.
How much sleep should you get?
Most adults need 7.5 – 8.5 hours of sleep a
night (most includes you unless you have a
very rare genetic variant DEC2). Some
research (together with anecdotal evidence)
indicates that sleeping up to 10hrs can lead
to an additional increase in sports
performance.
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 8
G E T A G O O D N I G H T ' S
S L E E P
SLEEP IN A COOL ROOM NO ELECTRONICS IN YOUR
BEDROOM
Sleeping in cool temperature
(15 – 19*C / 60 – 67*F) makes it Unplug any electronics with lights,
easier to fall asleep and improves turn your phone on “airplane” mode
sleep quality. and keep the TV in the living room.
SLEEP ON A COMFORTABLE
SLEEP IN AS DARK A ROOM AS
MATTRESS (AND WITH A GREAT
POSSIBLE (PITCH BLACK)
PILLOW)
Exposure to light reduces melatonin
One of the best investments you can
and increases cortisol secretion, make (consider how many hours a day
leading to increased alertness you spend in bed). A quick and less
(difficulty falling asleep), poor sleep expensive solution is to buy good foam
quality and poor recovery at night. (5 cm) and cluster mattress toppers to
Black-out curtains are an investment add layers to your current setup. These
you won’t regret. will provide support and adjust to your
body shape so you can sleep better at
PROTECT YOUR EYES FROM night.
BLUE LIGHT IN THE EVENING
Do your research and find the ideal
Blue light before sleep reduces sleeping surface for you.
melatonin (see: sleep in dark) and
activates melanopsin, which can WASH YOUR SHEETS, DUVET, AND
PILLOW COVERS (AT HIGH
mess with your circadian rhythms.
TEMPERATURES) WEEKLY
Use an app such as F.lux
You don’t want to be sleeping with
(https://justgetflux.com/) and
dust mites, do you?
consider wearing blue light blocking
glasses when watching TV at night.
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 9BREATHE
FUNCTIONAL INHALE/EXHALE DIAPHRAGM AWARENESS DRILL
Breathing is a potent tool
TEST
to down-regulate your 1. Lie supine (on your back) on the
1. Standing up, take as long an inhale floor with your feet elevated against a
sympathetic nervous (breath in) through your nose as wall or on a box.
system and enhance your possible. Time how long you can make
this inhale last. 2. Place one hand on your abdomen,
recovery. the other on your chest
2. Repeat step 1, this time focusing on
exhale (breath out). Once again, time 3. Close your eyes and take a few deep
A simple way to begin how long you can make your exhale breaths in. Ask yourself “where is the
last. movement happening primarily?
cultivating your Where does it start, abdomen or
breathing practise is to Note that you want to perform these tests chest?”.
without preparation (any excessive breath
develop your awareness in or out), starting from your normal A “normal” pattern would be initiation
of your respiratory breathing pattern. of movement in the abdomen, followed
by a raising of the chest
diaphragm and your If either your inhalation or exhalation
(or both) takes less than 5 seconds it is 4. Now place your hands on the sides of
respiratory
likely that your respiratory your ribcage. Ask yourself “How much
biochemistry. While this biochemistry has significant room for movement am I getting on my sides? Is
improvement and might be impairing the movement symmetrical or
might sound fancy, the your recovery. asymmetrical?”
practise itself can be
We would like to see both of these in You can expect some differences right to
simple. the 30+ seconds range for “normal” left due to your liver (on the right side) but
people and closer to 60 seconds for should feel movement on both sides.
athletes. This indicates a level of
control of your diaphragm and You can increase your awareness of the
functionality of your respiratory breathing pattern by applying pressure on
biochemistry. the area that is not moving or is moving
very little (e.g. your abdomen or side of the
ribcage).
After trying these out for the first time, you can integrate them both into your
evening routine (diaphragm drill first, followed by the functional inhale / exhale).
This will take about 5 minutes of your time and will go a long way to improving
your sympathetic down-regulation and recovery.
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 10ACTIVE
RECOVERY
It is common in our sport for athletes
to miss the opportunity to speed their
recovery and develop their aerobic
system with low intensity work.
A simple way to speed up your recovery
and improve your conditioning is to
add 1 or 2 weekly 30 to 60 minute
sessions of low intensity (HR between
110- 140bpm, moving at a pace that you
could maintain for few hours if
needed).
Use light load barbell movements and
gymnastics at relatively low repetitions,
combined with monostructural
modalities, such as rowing or assault
bike. This helps maintain your
breathing pattern and heart rate within
EAT AND HYDRATE control to make the most out of these
sessions.
Getting sufficient energy (calories),
For extra credit, breathe in through
macro (protein, carbohydrates and fat)
your nose only to practise tolerance to
and micronutrients (vitamins and
air hunger (sense of lack of air in the
minerals) are essential for your
workouts). You can breathe out through
recovery and adaptation.
the mouth as needed (but see if you can
breathe out through your nose as well).
Remember to replenish the water you
lost during training by drinking to
thirst and adding a pinch of sea salt to
your drinks a few times a day. If you
train in a hot climate you might need to
increase the amount of fluid you
consume. Stepping on a scale before
and after training allows you to
estimate the amount of fluids lost and
can be used to increase the accuracy of
your re-hydration strategy.
See the nutrition section of this guide for
more details on optimising your food
intake.
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 11Nutrition
While your overall training volume
may dial down somewhat as we
approach the Open, your intensity
will still be high. So you should
continue to eat normally. If anything,
a decrease in activity, will further
ensure you are consuming sufficient
energy and nutrients from your
normal intake.
After these basic needs are met, we then
What is a normal consider that;
intake? You need enough carbohydrate to
recover quickly from workouts/events,
Sure, it’s a little different for everyone. and to fuel longer ones. An average
But, everyone at least agrees on the training day will likely require between 2-
basics, and so that is where we always 4 grams/kg (0.9-1.8 grams/lb), up to as
start. Not with numbers but with high as 7+ grams/kg (3.1+ grams/lb) for a
principles. heavy training day or competition.
You need enough energy to fuel bodily Matching energy, carbohydrate and fat
functions, daily activities, and exercise. intake to our genetics, goals and daily
We start with a base requirement that activity level, allows us to not only
you can work out with a calculator such as optimise performance but health and
one at bottom of this page. body composition as well. This gives you
a starting template, but then you need to
You need adequate protein to figure out how you respond individually
repair/build muscle and maintain the and adjust as needed. This just takes time
quality of every cell in the body. Research and attention.
suggests 1.7-2.5 grams/kg body weight
(0.8-1.1 grams/lbs body weight). Supporting all of the above with proven
supplements lets us access the final 1% of
You need sufficient fat and performance and health. Nutritional
micronutrients to keep your body management of injury slots in here too.
functioning at peak health. 1 gram/kg
(0.45 grams/lb) of fat is a minimum, up to To track the energy and macronutrient
2.5 grams/kg (1.1 grams/lb) for those who content of your food, you can use an app
perform better on low/moderate like MyFitnessPal (link below).
carbohydrate intake. Micronutrients =
veggies, eat as many as you can without
affecting the necessary energy intake.
Calorie calculator: http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
MyFitnessPal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 12Now, these calculations are only going to be
as accurate as your input, and the database
output. Between the two, you can easily be
off by 10-20%. But with practice, you can get
a pretty good idea of where you are at on a
daily basis, and then evaluate intake against
performance.
Are you managing fatigue through the day?
Are you performing well?
Do you constantly suffer from unexplained
aches and pains?
Is your body composition staying stable,
getting worse, or improving?
What are your hunger levels like?
Evaluate the results each week, and make
adjustments based on them. Keep tweaking,
keep improving
Protein Carbohydrates
Once we’ve covered our basic energy They have long been the athlete’s
intake, adequate protein intake is friend. Readily available and fast
the next most important topic. Our burning fuel to power moderate to
muscles, our bones, our skin, our high intensity activity, as well as
hair, basically every cell is made of speeding the recovery from those
protein, or more accurately, amino activities.
acids, which are the building blocks
of protein. Most sports nutrition data comes
from the endurance world, with
We need to constantly rebuild, carbohydrate recommendations on
repair and replenish aging and the very high side.
damaged cells, and a constant supply
of protein lets us do that. The demands of fitness
competitions and training are
Post workout protein is essential to trending towards a higher, more
optimise recovery. Ensure you eat a endurance-like, volume, but the
sufficient serving within 2 hours of constant variance of both exercises
your training, if not sooner. and training volumes, plus
individual responses to food, mean
you may have to experiment to find
what’s best for you.
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 13Fat Vegetables
From a performance perspective, we Rounding our intake of healthy, real food out,
know that carbohydrate will improve are the vegetables, which are rich in
performance. But we also know how antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fibre, and
important fat is for our health, phytonutrients to maximise health.
management of inflammation and This means veggies, while not directly
production of hormones. On average, contributing to performance, will keep our
for every 10 food diaries we see, more immune systems healthy enough to fend off
than half of them show less than infection during periods of high volume
optimal amounts of fat. training, speed recovery, and ensure processes
such as digestion, nerve signal conduction and
A good starting point is 1g/kg (0.45 energy production are optimised.
grams/lb). There is a general consensus
that this is a healthy amount to ensure Vegetables tend to be very very low in energy,
all bodily processes that utilise fat will and although officially a carbohydrate, contain
operate effectively. So for our very few of those too. The exception being
hypothetical 85kg (187lb) male athlete, starchy carbs such as potato, sweet potato, yams,
that is 85 grams per day. Or for a 60kg turnips etc. From a performance standpoint,
(132lb) female athlete, 60 grams per veggies can sometimes displace the
day. carbohydrates necessary for fuelling and
recovering from training and competition. From
Athletes who feel they perform better a health standpoint, too many carbs get in the
on lower to moderate carbohydrate, way of veggies! We need to find a balance here.
should increase their intake of fat-
based food sources to balance their One option to increase your vegetable/micronutrient
total energy intake, which may be 100- intake without having to chew for hours is to make green
smoothies.
180/80-120 grams of fat for our
example male/female athletes
Here's two great recipes to try:
respectively. https://youtu.be/Ys86ZgjQQYg
https://youtu.be/JLQ63y5aTpo
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 14 Alternatively, a high quality greens powder is another easy
way to increase your intake.Gut health The research is beginning to understand more than ever now, the importance of gut health. What happens in your gut can have knock-on effects in so many areas of your body through sickness and inflammation. Did you know that over 90% of our serotonin is produced by gut bacteria? Eating the right foods can have a powerful effect on gut health and associated health problems. So how do we ensure our gut is functioning optimally? Be aware of the potential negative effects of consuming too much grains and processed oils. Eat plenty of fibrous vegetables Eat and drink fermented foods such as kimchi, bone broth, sauerkraut, kombucha and fermented dairy (yoghurt, kefir, cheese) Take a probiotic supplement Look for brands that contain strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium at 8 billion/dose. Manage your stress levels Yes, that horrible feeling in your stomach when you let stuff get to you is not just psychological!! Get more sleep A no brainer right? JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 15
SUPPLEMENTS
Remember that there are still only really three supplements that have consistently
been shown to significantly improve performance,
Carbohydrate / Caffeine / Creatine (monohydrate)
Creatine Caffeine
This molecule buffers ATP (our Everyone’s favourite stimulant,
energy currency) to increase power caffeine increases power output,
output and prevent fatigue, thus it is boosts anaerobic endurance, and may
highly recommended. A loading decrease fatigue from a neural
phase is unnecessary and in fact, may perspective.
cause cramping and water retention.
Dose at 2-6 milligrams/kg (0.9/2.7
Take 5-10 grams of creatine mg/lb) bodyweight depending on
monohydrate per day from now until tolerance. The actual amount of coffee
the end of the Open. Post workout depends on the brewing process.
will likely ensure the best absorption,
but any time that is practical is fine. Also, while pre-workout drinks are
An extra dose the day of an Open another source of caffeine, be sure to
workout may help. check for banned substances against
the CrossFit Games Drug Testing
Carbohydrate Policy.
Quite simply, it’s a fuel. Eat more = do Other supplements you might
more. Of course that’s not exactly the consider
science, but consumption of carbs
before and after training should be Fish oil
standard practice. The amount eaten Zinc
before tends to vary based on genetics Magnesium
and preference. After workouts, Vitamin C
anywhere from 40-100 grams Glutamine
depending on the volume of training, Curcumin
usually paired up at a 4:1 ratio with
protein, eg. 60 grams CHO: 15 grams
PRO.
More information on creatine: https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/
More information on caffeine: https://examine.com/supplements/caffeine/
JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 1 | 16"If we are intentional about what we repeatedly do, we can
practise who we want to become, and through practice, we can
become who we want be." - Eric Greitens
THANK YOU FOR READING THE 1ST ISSUE
OF THE TRAINING PLAN SHERPA
We appreciate your time and @thetrainingplan
hope you found the
information in The Training The Training Plan
Plan "Sherpa" useful.
@TTrainingPlan
We wish you the best of
success in The 2018 Open!
info@thetrainingplan.co
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