First-timers rarely lose places because they're unfit. They lose them to a wall-ball standard they'd never been judged on, a second workout ninety minutes after the first, or a breakfast they'd never tried before. Almost all of that can be rehearsed in your own gym, so most of this plan is about rehearsal.
Pick the division you can move well in
Most comps offer scaled, intermediate and RX, and team events tend to split the same way. Read the standards for each one and be honest. If the RX workouts have muscle-ups and you've got one on a good day, you're in intermediate this time. Same goes for loads: if the listed thruster weight is something you can do for a triple when fresh, it's going to fall apart in a 21-15-9.
A simple test we like: row hard for a minute, then do five reps of every listed movement at the listed load. Anything that breaks down, drop a division. You'll finish every workout, get a real placing and come away wanting to do another one. Spending four minutes failing at a rig teaches you very little.
Weeks 1 to 4: build the base
Don't start doing competition workouts yet. The first month is about general capacity, four or five sessions a week, roughly like this:
- Two strength days. Back squat 5 sets of 5, Romanian deadlift 3 sets of 8, strict press 5 by 5 and pull-ups for 4 sets, stopping each set one rep short of failure. Add 2.5kg to the squat and press each week if the reps still look tidy.
- One long, easy engine session: 30 to 40 minutes on the rower, bike or a run at a pace where you could chat.
- One harder interval session, something like 6 rounds of 3 minutes on the rower at a pace you could hold for 20 minutes, with a minute off between.
- Ten minutes of skill work at the start of most sessions. Double-unders, toes-to-bar, handstand holds. Pick whatever your division needs and you dread the most.
If you're flat and sore by the third session of the week, cut something. Usually the interval session goes first.
Weeks 5 to 8: make it look like the comp
Now the sessions start to resemble the day. Two or three times a week, do a workout shaped like the ones you'll face: a short sprint of 4 to 7 minutes, something heavier, and a 15 to 20 minute chipper that punishes going out too fast. If the organiser has released the workouts, do each one properly once, then break it into parts and drill the bits that hurt.
The session people skip, and shouldn't, is the double. One Saturday in this block, do a competition-style workout, rest for 90 minutes, eat something, and do a second one. You'll find out how your legs feel second time round, and whether a cheese sandwich between events was a good idea. Much better to learn that at your own gym.
Keep one strength day and one easy engine session in each week so you don't lose what you built in the first month.
A week from the specific block
To make weeks 5 to 8 concrete, here's what one of them might look like for someone in an intermediate division with five sessions available:
- Monday: back squat 4 by 4 at a slightly heavier load than the base block, then a 6-minute sprint: 3 rounds of 15 calories on the bike and 12 hang power cleans at your division load.
- Tuesday: 35 minutes easy on the rower, then 10 minutes on whichever skill your division standards worry you most.
- Wednesday: rest.
- Thursday: a 15-minute chipper with your division's movements, done at the pace you'd want on the day. Note your splits.
- Saturday: the double. A 5-minute piece, 90 minutes off with food, then a heavier piece such as a 6-minute window to find a heavy clean and jerk.
It isn't a lot of volume. It doesn't need to be. The point of this block is to make the shapes familiar, not to squeeze in more fitness.
Train to the standard, every rep
At a comp a rep only counts if the judge sees it, and the no-reps are predictable. Wall balls that don't hit the target or don't get to full depth. Burpees where the chest hovers above the floor. Box jumps without full hip extension at the top. Pull-ups where the chin is level with the bar rather than over it.
Prop your phone up during a workout and watch it back as if you were judging. It's uncomfortable, and you'll see a handful of reps you'd have had called. Then do every rep in training to that standard. It's slower in the gym and quicker on the day, because a no-rep costs you the rep plus the one you have to do again.
Weeks 9 and 10: taper
In week nine, keep the intensity and trim the volume by about a quarter. In the final week, halve it. Two short sessions with a few efforts at competition pace is plenty, and nothing heavy or long in the last three days. We'd skip any kind of max-out or benchmark test that week. You won't get fitter in the last seven days, but you can easily arrive tired.
On the day
Get there early enough to find the warm-up area, your lanes and the toilets before you need any of them. Eat a breakfast you've eaten before training many times, two to three hours before your first heat. Between workouts, little and often: bananas, rice cakes, a sandwich, whatever sits well. Sip water all day rather than downing a bottle before each heat.
Warm up for 15 to 20 minutes before each workout and finish with a few reps of every movement at the actual load. Go to the briefing even if you think you know the workout. Standards often get clarified there.
Then hold back in the first workout. Nerves and adrenaline make the opening minute feel easy, and that's exactly when people blow up. Aim for about 90 per cent of what you think you can do, and finish faster than you started.
Afterwards, write down your scores, placings and the two things you'd change while they're still fresh. You'll want that note when you start planning the next one.