One Ton Challenge Strategy
Set yourself up to exceed your goals during the One Ton Challenge
The One Ton Challenge is fast approaching. By the time this is posted, we will be less than two weeks out from the date with destiny. On Jan 30th and 31st, San Diego Athletics is hosting a one-of-a-kind sporting competition. Each athlete will work to establish a ONE REP MAX in the Deadlift, Squat, Bench, Clean, Snatch, and “Shoulder to overhead.” The total weights combined for your top lift of each will determine your “Super Total.” Your Super Total divided by your bodyweight will provide your “Power Index,” and the power index will enter you into drawings for prizes.
Strategy Overview
There are a number of different factors that can influence your success in this event. On the top of the list is strategy. What I mean by that, is how exactly to approach your lifts, in regards to the order in which you perform the lifts, but also the way in which you complete your build-up sets. This sport is unique, in that it combines the slow lifts with the explosive Olympic lifting movements. You will want to work to ensure you minimize the total number of lifts needed to find a max, while also performing the lifts in an order that is optimal. Furthermore, it is within the rules that you can perform any of the lifts multiple times throughout the course of the two-day event.
In most cases, you will want to try and perform the exercises that will tax you the least in the earlier part of the competition so that you can have enough energy and focus left for the more debilitating movements. By performing the lighter and least taxing lifts on Day 1, you could theoretically come back and start Day 2 with the same lifts, prior to embarking on the heavier lifts.
To be clear, NONE of these lifts are “light” or “non-taxing.” I am merely providing a categorization as some lifts will tax you substantially more. It works out well that the least taxing lifts also happen to be the most complicated – The snatch, clean, and “shoulder to overhead.” When I did this challenge in October 2015, I had a terrible Snatch day, but since I was smart with my strategy, I was able to come back on Day 2, start with the Snatch, and make a weight that was 18 lbs heavier than my day 1 weight.
Down to the Details
Starting out Day 1, my best advice is to start with Snatch. Give it your best shot, and once you miss a couple times, move on to the Clean. This is a natural progression, because the clean is going to be a bit heavier than the snatch. You can avoid having to do multiple ramp-up sets. Essentially, hit a couple light cleans to warmup the catch position, and then immediately start at a weight that is equal to or higher than your top snatch. Minimizing volume is going to be one of the key points to success.
Within the nature of this progression, it would make sense to then continue into the Deadlift after the clean – However, I highly recommend against this. The smartest approach would be to save the Deadlift for the absolute last lift, because it will create the most CNS fatigue and will also contribute to making you more sore than any other lift. Furthermore, If you performed the Deadlift on Day 1, it would extremely difficult to perform optimally on any other movement the next day (aside from maybe Bench). But any exercise requiring a strong and stable lumbar support will be compromised. There is another important element about the Deadlift that is different than all other lifts: The deadlift is oftentimes a matter of mind over matter. If you know you have to set an 8 pound Deadlift PR to make the Club, all you gotta do is tell yourself to pick it up.
After completing Snatch and Clean first thing on Day 1, you have a couple different options:
If you are 100% happy with your Snatch and Clean numbers, and you have no thought of repeating either the next day, than you have a choice of performing 1-3 additional movements (Squat, Bench, Shoulder to overhead). In most cases, I would still recommend against doing the Squat, because it will tax the posterior chain much like the Deadlift will (though not quite to the same extent).
If you think you might want to repeat one of the Olympic lifts, I encourage you to save your legs, and avoid the one-rep max squat for day 1. Feel free to move onto Jerk or Bench. Following this strategy, you would theoretically be able to come back and repeat any of the 4 movements the next day.
As you enter into Day 2, you know you will have to complete the Deadlift. You will also have whatever lifts you didn’t do on Day 1, plus any of the lifts which you might want to repeat. Keep in mind that you still want the deadlift to be last. As you work through Day 2, get all the Olympic lifts done first. The Bench is kind of a different type of lift, in that you could probably perform it wherever you want (except maybe after the Shoulder to overhead, due to the strain on the shoulder girdle). So, after repeating any of the Oly lifts, move on to the Back Squat, and finish with the Deadlift.
I understand that many CrossFit athletes consistently perform Squats before Oly lifting, or perform Deadlifts, and then do a conditioning piece with Snatches, etc… But you definitely wouldn’t see someone performing a heavy deadlift and then try to max snatch. Furthermore, much of the training that competitive CF athletes do is geared toward enhancing their ability to achieve success in non-optimal conditions. In the One Ton Challenge, I want to provide you with the tools to optimize your performance, not to prove that you can still perform well in non-optimal conditions.
The final piece on the strategy front, is in regards to what I mentioned earlier; minimizing volume during ramp-up sets. This is why I advise to perform the clean right after the snatch. Clearly, it is vital that you warm-up the movement patterns, so I am not telling you to ignore the necessary mobility, or light-weight work. If you have a max snatch of 275, you can spend all the time in the world with an empty bar or 95-135 lbs. Once you reach about 50% of your max, we will start monitoring reps and volume a bit.
When performing snatches, I personally really like to do one power snatch, then one squat snatch at each weight. This reminds me to pull aggressively under the bar. I do the same with Power Cleans building up to a squat clean. This happens to be my personal preference. Each person has theirs. So, I will perform my 2 reps this way, until I can no longer Power Snatch. Then I will only perform 1 rep, and it will be a full snatch. If I can work all the way from 135 to my top lift in 10 reps or less, that is a win. Try to take a similar approach with each lift.
