Next Training Cyle: APEX

One of my favorite parts about programming in cycles is that it forces us to do something we don't always make time for: stop and look backward before charging into the next thing.

It's easy to finish a retest week, immediately start thinking about the next training block, and completely forget to appreciate what just happened. Before we jump into our next cycle, Apex, I wanted to take a moment to say that you all crushed it and recognize the work everyone put into Terran.

Over the last seven weeks we've spent plenty of time under a barbell, logging miles on the run, sprinting through SkiErg intervals, building strength, and grinding through workouts that probably felt a little to a lotta uncomfortable at the time. Some days you hit a PR. Other days just showing up felt like the win. Both count.

Whether you completed every benchmark, just a couple, or simply stayed consistent with your attendance, you should be proud of the work you put in. Progress isn't always flashy, but consistency has a funny way of adding up over time.

Before we talk about where we're going next, I thought it would be fun to look back and ask a simple question.

Did Terran actually work?

Did Terran Work?

Numbers never tell the whole story, but they do help keep us honest. They remove a lot of the guesswork and let us evaluate whether the programming is actually doing what we intended it to do.

Below are the results from athletes who completed both the original test and the retest for each benchmark.

Deadlift

• Test Participants: 79

• Retest Participants: 66

• Comparable Athletes: 38

• 74% increased their deadlift

• Median Improvement: 10 lb

• Average Improvement: 9.2 lb

• Largest Improvement: 50 lb

• 84% either maintained or improved

The deadlift produced exactly the kind of progress we hope to see from an eight-week strength cycle. The typical athlete added around ten pounds to their lift, and nearly three out of every four returning athletes walked away stronger than where they started.

Strict Pull-Ups

• Test Participants: 62

• Retest Participants: 54

• Comparable Athletes: 33

• 88% improved

• Average Improvement: 2.1 reps

• Median Improvement: 2 reps

• Largest Improvement: 6 reps

• 94% maintained or improved

This was probably the biggest success story of the cycle.

We made strict pulling a consistent priority instead of something we only touched every few weeks, and the results reflected that. Nearly nine out of every ten athletes who completed both tests improved, which is exactly why we believe in committing to a progression and giving it enough time to work.

Terran Short

• Test Participants: 61

• Retest Participants: 64

• Comparable Athletes: 34

• 71% improved

• Median Improvement: 11 seconds

• Average Improvement: 9.6 seconds

• Largest Improvement: 50 seconds

Short workouts are often won or lost by pacing, execution, and having that dawg in em'. Seeing roughly seven out of ten athletes improve tells us that those small improvements in movement efficiency and conditioning really started to add up over the course of the cycle. Woof, woof.

Terran Medium

• Test Participants: 71

• Retest Participants: 59

• Comparable Athletes: 40

After reviewing athlete notes for everyone who reached the time cap, approximately 70% of comparable athletes improved.

This workout required a little more digging than the others because several athletes reached the 12-minute cap on both attempts, but their notes showed they had progressed significantly farther through the workout on the retest. Those notes allowed us to make much more meaningful comparisons than the raw score alone would have suggested.

Terran Long

• Test Participants: 84

• Retest Participants: 56

• Comparable Athletes: 38

• 71% improved

• Median Improvement: 31.5 seconds

• Average Improvement: 44.7 seconds

• Largest Improvement: 6 minutes 27 seconds

Longer workouts reward patience, pacing, and an aerobic engine that takes time to build. Seeing improvement rates nearly identical to our shorter conditioning tests tells me we made progress across multiple time domains, not just one.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm still convinced the Terran Long retest gave me self-induced seasonal allergies. As soon as that 100th wall ball hit the target, my nose started running and I spent the next day sneezing. All that... for roughly 20 seconds. Worth it.

Looking at everything together, one trend became pretty clear.

Across our strength tests, roughly 80% of comparable performances improved.

Across our conditioning tests, just over 70% improved.

No programming cycle is perfect, and there are always things we'll continue refining, but overall I'm incredibly pleased with what these numbers represent. More importantly, I hope they remind you that consistent effort really does pay off.

What You Told Me

Alongside the benchmark data, I also wanted to ask a different question:

What do you actually value most from our programming?

I put together a quick anonymous survey asking members to rank different aspects of our programming based on what matters most to them.

One quick note before we look at the results... I got a little duped by the free version of the survey software. We had 37 responses, but I later learned the free plan only allows the first 25 responses to count toward the final rankings. The remaining responses were essentially held in reserve unless I upgraded.

Would I have preferred all 37? Absolutely. That said, I still think 25 responses gives us a meaningful snapshot of our community's priorities. Before the next survey, I'll switch to a platform that lets us capture every response so we can work with an even larger sample.

Here's how those 25 responses ranked:

1. Performance

2. Strength

3. Exercise Experience (tied)

4. Aesthetics (tied)

5. Skill Development

What I found most encouraging wasn't that the survey told me what to program next. In reality, Apex was already taking shape before I ever sent the survey out. What I appreciated was seeing that the feedback from our members lined up so closely with the direction we were already heading. It's always reassuring when the coaching philosophy and the community's priorities point in the same direction.

One result that stood out to me, though, was seeing skill development finish last—and honestly, I understand why.

Most of us are balancing work, family, kids, responsibilities, and everything else life throws at us. We only have so much time and energy to invest in fitness each week. When someone asks what you want most out of your hour at the gym, it's completely understandable that getting stronger, improving your fitness, and performing better rise to the top.

That doesn't make skills unimportant.

In fact, they're often the bridge between where you are today and the results you're hoping to achieve. If you've ever found yourself frustrated because a workout called for toes-to-bar, handstand push-ups, muscle-ups, or another movement that forced you to scale, you've probably experienced firsthand how skill can become the limiting factor. Strength-only days are pretty straightforward. Conditioning-only days are pretty straightforward. But those classic CrossFit workouts that blend gymnastics, barbell work, and conditioning under fatigue are often where movement proficiency becomes the difference-maker.

So while skills may not have ranked at the top of the survey, they'll continue to be an important part of our programming because they're often the foundation that allows performance and strength to keep improving. In many ways, the things that ranked fifth are what help you continue progressing in the things that ranked first and second.

Next Cycle: APEX

That brings us to our next 7-week cycle.

I spent way too much time trying to come up with a cycle name that didn't sound like an energy drink or the latest Transformer.

I landed on Apex. I'd say I failed on both counts.

Still... I like the name.

Not because we're chasing perfection, but because we're chasing your next peak. The strongest you've been. The fittest you've been. The most capable version of yourself so far.

One change you'll notice is that we're simplifying our benchmark testing.

Instead of five separate tests, we'll focus on three. I want each benchmark to carry a little more weight, be easier to remember, and tell a clearer story about the progress you're making.

Test One

3RM Front Squat

Test Two

Max Strict Ring Dips

Last cycle we emphasized strict pulling and saw tremendous progress. This cycle we'll shift our benchmark focus toward pressing strength. That doesn't mean strict pull-ups disappear—they'll continue to be programmed consistently throughout the cycle because they're simply too important to neglect. We're just changing what we're measuring.

Test Three

7-Minute Benchmark

1000m / 900m Row

then

Ascending sets of:

3 Thrusters (75/55)

3 Burpee Over Bar

6...

9...

12...

15...

...until time expires.

Simple. Challenging. Repeatable.

What To Expect Each Week

Without spoiling every workout, here's the general rhythm of the week.

Monday will be our primary strength day, centered around front squat development and ring dip progressions, and sometimes paired with a shorter conditioning piece.

Tuesday shifts the focus to upper-body pulling, structural strength, gymnastics, and continued strict pull-up development. Even though they aren't being tested this cycle, strict pull-ups remain too valuable to leave behind.

Wednesday becomes our threshold-style conditioning day. Expect workouts in that uncomfortable middle ground where pacing, breathing, and movement efficiency matter just as much as raw fitness.

Thursday stays true to our HYROX focus with longer aerobic conditioning, running, machines, carries, and endurance work.

Friday will emphasize Olympic lifting, power development, and shorter mixed-modal workouts that keep us feeling athletic.

Saturday is still Saturday. Longer partner workouts, community, a little suffering, and hopefully a lot of laughs.

You'll also see an emphasis on barbell cycling proficiency throughout the cycle. It's not one of our benchmarks, but it's one of those qualities that quietly improves almost everything else we do. If Terran taught me anything, it's that consistent practice on a single focus can produce meaningful results. I'm excited to see what happens when we apply that same mindset here.

And yes... there will probably be a few more SkiErg sprints along the way. I still don't know what kind of dark magic that machine has, but somehow a hard sprint on it turns into your quads and abs feeling like they've been through completely different workouts. I expected my lungs to hurt. I wasn't expecting it to feel like death by 1,000 crunches.

What's Next 

The data from Terran gave us something more valuable than a handful of PRs—it gave us confidence that the programming is moving people in the right direction.

We'll build on what worked, continue refining what can be better, and keep doing what we've always tried to do at PUSH: help people become stronger, fitter, and more capable for whatever challenges come next.

Stay Dope.