The gym has been staying busy lately, with soccer and volleyball seasons coming to an end most of our high school athletes are back in the gym training hard in preparation for winter and fall sports. Concord High School track star Grace had mentioned that her hamstrings have been really tight lately, so we took her through a super secret stretch that only takes about a minute to do. As you can see after one “set” there was marked improvement. This kid is one of our hardest working clients, and has a very bright future!
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A big congratulations to Concord High Volleyball players and Arkitect members Lauren Hatch and Caitlyn Shea on being co-MVPs for Concord high Volleyball this year. Lauren also won the prestigious division 1 “Player of the Year” award. Nice work ladies!
We’ve been playing around with planking variations lately, and programmed in two great variations this week: The tapping plank, and the body saw! Big shout out to Dawn and Anik for giving us demos on these. Traditional planks are a great exercise, but past the beginner level they aren’t enough. Holding a plank for long periods of time isn’t practical, or really even that beneficial, so it’s important to find ways to add an extra challenge.
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Kelsey’s D10 Decathlon training continued, here is some awesome footage of her proving herself with the football throw. We’re also incorporating much more lateral movement into her program which will help with the 20 yard shuttle.
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The fantastic folks at Performance Health came by to teach our clients about functional breathing. I know I personally learned a lot, and I hope everyone else did too! Thank you to Doctor Coulombe, Coapland and King for all of their help and assistance!
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Mackenzie’s progress has been steady leading up to the American Open, and I’m confident we’re going to be seeing some personal bests from her on the competition platform. In training she’s been unstoppable, recently hitting a 94kg snatch (1kg PR), and a personal best triple in the front squat with 137kg aka 300lbs!
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Newest team member “the mystery cat lifter” hit a nice seasonal best of 51kg in the snatch
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Coach Kat hit a nice personal best in the snatch for a set of 3 with 65kg, which is impressive at such a high percentage of her one rep max!
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Steph’s technique has continued to improve at a steady rate, and it shows as her numbers continue to climb. She hit a clean and jerk personal best with 59kg, which is more than her body weight! She also made a big increase in her 1rm deadlift hitting 110kg for a new personal record! She’s on fire! She’s also had some really nice things to say about Arkitect lately.
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Allyson, aka “the local fave” aka “Brat” has been steadily improving in all areas. She hit a new personal best in the back squat with 117kg, and did an amazing snatch double at 55kg, which is crazy considering her 1 rep max is only 58!
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Last but certainly not least, Carly has officially dug into her new high volume program. After a dominating performance taking home the gold and smashing some records along the way at the USAPL State Championships, she’s already back in the gym looking to improve on her next performance. Many people may be wondering why so many reps for an athlete who’s sport only requires them to lift one at a time…the answer is simple: Periodization! When approaching a competition, a lifter is lifting very heavy loads for low reps, which is the skill most specific to their sport. Now that we don’t have a competition approaching for a while, it gives us a chance to work on other elements of strength. Not only is this a good chance of pace for the athlete’s body, but it also helps to focus the athlete on new challenges.
