True fitness, in our view, requires a very wide range of abilities. Marathoners who cannot do 100 push-ups are not fit. Weightlifters who cannot run three miles are not fit. We seek the broad inclusive fitness of a Navy SEAL: we want to be able to climb mountains with heavy packs, to sprint up stairs or dash a half mile for help, to pick up heavy things, carry them, or put them overhead, to pull ourselves up and over objects. That level of fitness is a lofty goal to strive for, let alone achieve, particularly as we age. But that’s what we want for ourselves, and that’s the way we train. It may or may not be what you want for yourself.
To work towards this vision of broad inclusive fitness, we train broadly and inclusively. We lift weights to get stronger, faster, and more powerful. We do high-intensity conditioning to improve our anaerobic and short-term work capacity. And we do longer, slower conditioning to improve our aerobic capacity and stamina.
And we train each of those areas – strength, work capacity, and stamina – using a broad, inclusive set of movements. We do pull-ups, push-ups, and burpees. We run, row, and jump rope. We move barbells, dumbbells, and medicine balls.
It’s not that the running is for stamina and the barbells are for strength. It’s more sophisticated than that. Sprinting stairs develops strength and power. Doing shuttle-sprint intervals improves short-duration work capacity. Going for a long run improves our endurance. One movement, running, is implemented in different ways to improve different aspects of fitness. Heavy deadlifts in sets of three build strength. Moderately heavy deadlifts (coupled with overhead press) in sets of 21, 15, and 9 – and performed as fast as possible! – build work capacity. Doing lighter deadlifts in sets of 15, 14, 13, down to 1 as part of a 45-minute workout with lots of other movements builds stamina. One movement implemented in different ways to improve different aspects of fitness.
So how have we structured our classes and why?
First, we assume that you can do monostructural stamina training on your own. You can ride a bike, or go for a walk, run, or row at a steady pace for 20 minutes to an hour without us being there to watch or encourage you. That’s why our classes focus on strength training and high-intensity conditioning.
You’re doing strength work and high-intensity conditioning with us three days per week, but we assume that you’re doing two or three days of something else. Maybe you’re running, maybe you’re playing Ultimate, or maybe you’re just walking your dog for 45 minutes every day. If you’re doing nothing, just realize that we, in our classes, are NOT doing much stamina work. Michelle and I do a lot of running in our own training, and I would encourage everyone to at least walk three times per week.
We alternate the lifts (squat, overhead press, and pulling on one day; power cleans, deadlifts, and bench press on the other day) so that all of the important movements get trained, and so that you have adequate time to recover between efforts. Our high-intensity conditioning sessions (“metcons”, short for metabolic conditioning) are thoughtfully programmed to provide you a wide-range of stimuli to force a wide-range of adaptations. We mix gymnastic, body-weight movements with weightlifting and monostructural movements. Sometimes they’re couplets (burpees and deadlifts), sometimes they’re triplets (rowing, swings, squats), sometimes they’re single movements (150 wall-balls, anyone?). Sometimes they are task-limited: do this amount of work, then you’re done. Sometimes they are time-limited: work as hard as you can for this amount of time, then stop. Sometimes they are really heavy or really fast and hence very short. Sometimes they’re lighter and longer. Sometimes we give you rest during the training so that you can go harder during the work intervals (shuttle sprints, Tabatas).
There’s both a science and an art to programming the metcons, but we try to expose you to constantly varied stimuli to keep things fresh psychologically and to force broad physical adaptations.
Throw in the warm-ups, some agility work, lots of skill and technique coaching, occasionally chats about nutrition (which we should do more of!), *tons* of encouragement and well-earned praise, and that’s what we offer.
Now that you’re clear on our goals and what we’re offering and why, we want you to think about how our classes fit in with your particular fitness goals. Some of you have recently completed half-marathon runs, some of you are thinking of competing in triathlons. If you want to focus on running or biking or even training for a long trek, you might want to bias your training towards that goal. For instance, it might be better for you to dedicate yourself to serious running three or four days per week, and do our class just twice per week. (We already have two athletes who are doing this.) If you need help planning your training beyond our class, just let us know. We’re happy to offer advice.
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