Any good business person will tell you that you can’t track that which you don’t test. Should fitness be any different?
Here at Beyond Strength Performance NOVA, we think not…
A few months ago we added the MYZONE heart rate training system to Beyond Strength Performance NOVA as a means to track and individualize our “finishers,” better control our “neural charge” training, and we are now (starting on Wednesday, November 6th) adding on “Metabolic Conditioning” classes.
What are these things, you ask?
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“Metabolic Conditioning” Class
This is the latest addition to the gym. This past week I attended the Results Fitness “Program Design Mastery” seminar in Santa Clarita, CA. While there were tons of things that I learned, some of the content was much needed reminders… One of those reminders sparked me to come back to implement conditioning classes. With most individuals, we’ve traditionally used “finishers” (read more about these below) at the end of our semi-private training sessions. Mike and Craig (Results’ program design team) talked about Alwyn Cosgrove’s fat loss hierarchy (if you have some free time, check that out here). In terms of exercise, research has proven the most effective training schedule to be as follows:
- Up to 3 hours available per week: Main focus should be on resistance training.
- Up to 5 hours available per week: Resistance training + high intensity interval training
- 5-6 hours available per week: First, off- really?! Lucky you… Okay, NOW you can add in some steady state aerobic training.
With that in mind, we have decided to add on two classes per week (6pm on Wednesday OR 6am on Thursday- more times will be added) of high intensity interval training. NO- the entire class will not be high intensity, but more so the middle portion. A typical class may look like the following:
- 10-15 minutes of warm-up
- 5-10 minutes of power training + core
- quick break
- 9 minutes of high intensity interval training (heart rate based)
- quick break
- 9 minutes of high intensity interval training (heart rate based)
- quick break
- 5 minutes of cool-down
The fact that the high intensity interval training is heart rate based scales it to each and every individual. We can regress/progress movements if need be, as well…
These classes are FREE for all members. We are very excited to see everyone accelerate their personal transformations with this new addition!
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“Neural Charge”
Neural charge training has been written about quite often in recent time. I’m really not sure where it came from, but it was first introduced to Todd Bumgardner and myself by Michael Ranfone, of Ranfone Training Sytems in Hamden, CT. It is great for recovery, as well as being useful to “wake up” the central nervous system.
Put simply, it is a few movements performed with maximum force/velocity/power, for low reps, followed by recovery to about 60% of maximum heart rate. For our purposes, we typically perform these sessions for a set amount of time (20-30 mins), once or twice a week. Your heart rate recovery will dictate the number of rounds you complete on a given day.
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“Finishers”
We wrote about this a while back on the blog, so I will just steal a snippet of that:
“Here’s a little food for thought- we could program based completely around heart rate response to exercise. For example, we’ve done the usual intervals with implements like the battling ropes for time. Let’s say I asked two different individuals to perform battling ropes for three sets of :20/:15 (work:rest). We pick those numbers because we believe that they will challenge the individuals for conditioning. However, do you think they will both respond the same from a heart rate perspective? No. If someone really well conditioned, and a “not-so-conditioned” individual do that same interval, it may be too easy for one, one may “dog” the intensity that they work at, it may be too much, etc… This type of training also teaches people to survive set times…
This is a huge flaw with traditional interval training, conditioning, CrossFit, etc… The individual is pushed, but is it right for them? But what if we programmed by heart rate? We could come up with a TON of alterations to the traditional interval.
- Variable/Fixed– 3 x 85%HRM/:30
- Fixed/Variable – 3 x :30/60%HRM (or a complex, completion of reps- then recover to 60%, repeat for rounds)
- Variable/Variable – 3 x 85%/60%
Now, within each of those examples we could alter volume and intensity, just like we do with lifting- BUT, now we can actually work off of concrete data (percentages). Even if you wanted to compete in something like, say CrossFit, we can progress your conditioning over the phases of a periodized program to get you ready. Now the individual will realize that if they work harder (i.e. the purpose of HIIT and EPOC) they will hit % goals faster. Now the individual will pay more attention to recovery techniques (i.e. sounds great for fighters/wrestlers between rounds) so they aren’t sitting on the sidelines waiting for their heart rate to come back down. NOW we can track improvements over time…”
Interested in learning more? Come in and check us out! You can start by filling out the FREE consultation form in the sidebar…
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