Hey 150 BayFit Fam!
June is Here!
To aid in your summer shred goals, we've got a brand new workout cycle brought to you by Coaches Jared and Rommel.
During this cycle, we'll cover some familiar exercises in a different way. The main two concepts this cycle will be tempo and Rate of Perceived Exertion, or RPE.
Almost all strength portions will be done at a pre-planned tempo, which will force you to check your ego at the door. The weights may seem light compared to your usual maxes, but no less daunting. Using tempo will allow us to upgrade our muscular strength gains at the same time as building strength in our ligaments and tendons, which grow at a much slower rate than our muscles. This has the added benefit of decreased risk of injury. Also, tempo allows us to really focus on our form due to time and submax loads.
The tempo works hand in hand with RPE, so let's discuss. In simple terms, your RPE refers to how hard you think you’re pushing yourself during exercise. It’s subjective, which means that you decide how hard you feel you’re working during physical activity. For example, if you're doing a set of 5 at an RPE of 7, your set should feel difficult, but not killer. A set of 5 at RPE 10 would be the max set you could do for 5. If it's easier to think of in percentages, you should be fine, but the benefit of RPE is it allows for days when you don't feel 100% to ease off, or days when you feel great, to kick it up a notch.
We'll start with a baseline test week to test the lifts that we didn't cover in our last cycle, as well as a few fan favorite crossfit MetCons, all of which we will repeat at the end of the program. The only way to measure your progress is repeatable results. After that is where the real fun begins.
The 1st cycle will last 6-weeks, followed by a changeup for the 6-weeks so the programming doesn't get stale. And within the cycle, the movements will vary week to week for a little more variety. As an example, our upper-body push-pull focus days will alternate regular back squat one week with 1 1/4 bench the next. Those will stay consistent throughout the respective cycle.
Lastly, our MetCons will generally have a cardio machine as part of the workout, so get ready to hate the assault bike even more. Thursday's workouts are meant to be an active recovery day, but don't let it fool you: they'll be very grindy, so make sure you're listening to your body and not overdo it.
We really hope you enjoy the summer programming and look forward to working with you on your journey of fitness. See ya at the box.
