The underlying drive of Trident Athletics comes from my many years as a Navy SEAL. In SEAL teams there is no such thing as failure; you just keep doing it until you get it right and then you continue to practice it the right way. Just like with the SEAL teams, Trident Athletics is set on producing the best CrossFit training around no matter what effort is required.
CrossFit is an ambiguous term. Many people interpret it with what I would call a “marathon approach,” whereas at Trident Athletics in Tacoma, Washington, we approach it as if it were a “100 meter sprint.” In the marathon approach, you find something pathetically easy and just keep adding reps. The 100 meter sprint approach is to put the maximum force into the ground in minimal time. There is no number of 135 pound power cleans that will equal one at 315 pounds.
CrossFit’s slogan was “redefining fitness.” We are redefining CrossFit: weightlifting, sprinting, and basic gymnastics, coupled with structural balance guided by Poliquin Principals.
As long as you understand the basic elements of reps, sets, rest intervals, tempo, exercise selection, and exercise sequencing, you can get your athlete to do the work that needs to be done in creative and different ways.
For example, in our programs we will vary rest intervals in order to apply a specific type of overload to the body. Shorter rest intervals will cause more metabolic stress for fat loss and muscle building, whereas longer rest intervals will allow more of a focus on strength building. Another variation is to break up sets in a “cluster” style in order to be able to lift more weight or produce greater power per repetition.
Say your last workout looked like this:
A1. Chin Ups, 10 sets, 5 reps, 2111 tempo, 90 sec rest
A2. Standing Press 10 sets, 5 reps, 2010 tempo, 90 sec rest
35 min total
Keep challenging yourself to shorten the rest intervals to complete the same workout using the same load, movement pattern, and tempo in less time. This is one more way to challenge different personality types to get better, stronger, and faster.
How We Incorporate Assessment & Goals Into CrossFit
People come to Trident Athletics and trust in us, as you trust in your doctor. If you take the giant responsibility of people’s health, fitness, and wellbeing into your hands, you need every tool available. This is where injury prevention and structural balance come into play. It is our responsibility as coaches to help clients balance strength throughout the whole body to prevent injury, while maximizing performance.
When a new client comes to Trident Athletics for CrossFit, they go through a three session introductory course. First, we teach the fundamentals of squatting, pulling & pushing. Then we perform a modified structural balance test and BioSignature assessment. Finally, we end each session with a Benchmark CrossFit workout designed to test different energy systems. An energy system test we use is to have a client do a rowing machine test for distance using three 30-second sprints with 3 minutes rest.
With this data we determine a realistic body composition or performance goal for our clients at a 90-day follow-up assessment. This is a measureable outcome. People will always rise to the occasion presented; it is our job to present them with this occasion.
What makes us different than any other CrossFit gym is the structure and implementation of our program. We develop a long-term idea of what the program will look like. Then, we create logical progressions from workout to workout, making sure we use various movement patterns by frequently changing exercises in order to avoid injuries.
How Trident CrossFit Differs From The CrossFit Community
Another thing we do that often surprises people in the CrossFit community is that we repeat tasks quite frequently. When you learn any new skill, you need multiple exposures to develop that skill. Strength is no different.
To strengthen the body you must overload it again and again, stringing together a series of workouts. It requires patience and a belief in the system. For example, we use strength ratios learned in the PICP Level 2 course between the lifts to determine where there is a strength deficit in our clients. If a client has a deadlift 1RM that is 140 percent of their back squat, we would emphasize the back squat in training until it was 125 percent of the deadlift.
The key to our success is what we call “grinding.” We train mental toughness by grinding through pain every day no matter what the body tells us. The SEAL team mindset and motivation will always be present at Trident Athletics. Pain only exists in the brain.