Programming

At HIGHBAR CrossFit & Athletic Performance, programming is our top priority, second to safe training. It is our duty to provide our clients with well structured programming that will allow them to achieve their goals and continue training throughout their life with minimal risk of injury. We teach our clients how to become self sufficient in order to maximize their time spent in class.

HIghbar CrossFit Coaches with MMA Fighter and Olympian Sara McMann

While embracing the concept of General Physical Preparedness using constantly varied, functional movements, at high intensities, we believe in a strength program that is structured, calculated, and measurable. We have integrated several systems into our programming that will allow our clients to move in the same direction over the long term. It will also call on consistent training that will allow our clients to focus on specific goals over given periods of time, which will maximize efficacy, and attention to detail.

We teach our clients how to become self sufficient in order to maximize their time spent in class. A mindful athlete is a thinker who knows their physical and mental boundaries. They record progress and they understand that their results directly correlate with their actions inside and outside of our gym. By developing self sufficient and mindful athletes we will continue to set the bar higher and move forward together.

Why we’ve removed Olympic Weightlifting

At Highbar CrossFit we do not integrate Olympic Weightlifting into our circuit training. Olympic Weightlifting (includes the clean and jerk, and snatch) is a tool to improve true anaerobic capacity and all out explosiveness, not cardiovascular or muscular endurance. Learning how to perform Olympic weightlifting properly requires a great deal of practice and observation. One cannot simply pick up a barbell, perform “30 Clean and Jerks for time”, and expect to refine their technique. It has been said that it takes thousands of reps to perfect the clean & jerk, and snatch, and once achieved, that many reps with perfect technique to master them.

Many CrossFit programs fail to recognize that exercises are tools used to reach specific goals. To use them for any other reason then their purpose is a waste of time at best, and increases the participant’s risk of injury.

CrossFit’s main purpose is to improve general physical preparedness using many forms of exercise. However, this does not mean that a program should be constructed of day-to-day workouts that mash up different techniques into constantly varied circuit training. This is thoughtless programming, and again, we are violating the purpose of these tools.

In our program, we replace Olympic weightlifting (in circuit training) with conditioning tools that mimic the Olympic lifts such as dumbbell snatches and dumbbell squat cleans. This allows us to preserve the movements by being explosive, while being less restricted and not loading the spine with significant amounts of weight for high repetition. That being said, our members practice their Olympic weightlifting in a controlled strength-training environment that allows them to slow down to focus on technique and proper rest.