Drills for Drills

Lately the both of us have been doing our due diligence before our studio opens to keep ourselves abreast of trends and styles in the group class exercise community. We have been attending classes and visiting facilities to "get a lay of the land" so to speak. We feel it is beneficial to see how others structure their programs, cue their clients, and execute their overall training strategies in a group format so that we may get a better sense of how to keep our studio running optimally. We have realized many great qualities in these facilities when it comes to atmosphere, culture, attendance and instruction, however we have also found one unfortunate commonality amongst many establishments: workouts and programs are not being planned ahead of time. Randomized workouts are being improvised on the spot and fragmented exercise selection and improper progression may not be ultimately obvious by the untrained eye, however for us it is blatant. So it begs the question what is the goal?? Are you doing drills just for the sake of doing drills?

The group class format is obviously very different from one-on-one training in that results and individualized success is more unpredictable so you cannot control your variables as tightly as you might on an individual basis, but that doesn't mean proper programming should be done away with altogether. Our goal is to have a clear and concise game plan for each class that offers balanced exercise selection, proper warm up and cool down procedure, adequate implementation of intensity, modification options to accommodate all participants, and finally, sensible exercise parings. By having a plan for each class we are aiming to provide you with a variety of classes throughout the week so that you can schedule your strength workouts, endurance workouts, metabolic workouts and regenerative workouts throughout the week. As a result, you can train more thus ensuring results, but have less risk of over training.

In our opinion, the beauty of offering small group classes is that our clients are given the best opportunity for success. If they only have to pay about $20 per class instead of $75 per session, as is often the case with private training, they can now afford to see us 3-5x per week rather than 1-2x per week, thereby giving clients the proper tools and time to achieve their goals. Results require training hard, but also smart as well. Offering a greater diversity of "response" classes (meaning what the training effect will be ie. strength, endurance, power, etc.) will ultimately allow clients to place themselves in continuous adaptation and therefore, continued results. It is our belief that a committed client is an informed one. Understanding your weekly workout schedule, how it works to keep you on track, and the benefits you receive from each visit is powerful stuff! Everything needs to make sense in the overall scheme of things. So don't just do drills for the sake of doing drills, make every workout count so that you can accelerate the process of reaching your goals.