Program Design/Sample Classes
HIIT Cycling With a Side of Strength
A well-rounded program includes cardio and resistance training, so how do you bridge the gap? Try HIIT cycling with strength.
Boost Intensity With a Body-Weight Ladder Workout
If you’re looking for a way to improve endurance and fitness without equipment, this body-weight ladder workout is a perfect option.
Mobility Workout
Adding a mobility workout to the cooldown may kickstart the parasympathetic nervous system. Try the following sequence.
Sample Class: Song-Mapping for Kickboxing
To keep this kickboxing workout with song-mapping simple to instruct, each song has different patterns for the verse, chorus and bridge.
Fit to Travel: Exercises for Seniors
Programming exercises for seniors is more important than ever, especially now that travel is opening up again, but your clients may not have kept up with their workouts over this last year. Here are some great ways to prepare your active agers for more adventure.
Sample Class: Park Workout
Take your boot camp class outside with this simple plug-and-play park workout, a mix of high-intensity cardio and lower-intensity resistance.
Sample Class: Slam It!
This exercise class utilizes sand bells, sandbags or slam balls and incorporates elements of strength, agility, core work and mobility.
Sample Class: Quick Conditioning Circuits
This quick conditioning circuit class includes all the ingredients necessary to help people reach their fitness goals, cycling between strength and cardio.
Indoor Rowing Recovery
Indoor rowing is having a well-deserved moment. It’s both low-impact and intense, and no matter which brand of machine your facility uses, a well-instructed experience will fatigue the same muscles and make participants glad they showed up. While it may be low-impact, rowing does include repeated spinal flexion and hip and knee extension; it’s therefore important to weave in stretches that counteract imbalances.
Sample Class: Band Blast!
If you want to keep participants engaged and challenged, this high-energy class will do the trick. Break out the exercise bands and add targeted strength moves to high-intensity intervals. This format includes three phases, each consisting of one Tabata round followed by four resistance exercises. Bands are safe, easy to use and portable, making this a great class to offer in any location.
Sample Class: Barre Fight
When the graceful world of barre meets the athleticism of kickboxing, the results are hot! This in-demand fusion class provides the best of both worlds and appeals to a wide audience.
Sample Class: Seated Exercises for Older Adults
Older adults are more susceptible to deficits in cardiovascular fitness, muscle mass, strength and power, which may ultimately lead to losses in physical function. The following chair-based format focuses on improving outcomes for older participants, especially those who may need the support of a chair during exercise. Ready, Set, Sit! offers the variety of three 15-minute training segments (cardiovascular, high intensity and strength/power), while targeting important components that boost overall function.
Resist the Twist: Core Stabilization Postures
One of the many benefits of yoga is that it requires a “proximal to distal” approach. A strong core (proximal) is central to developing mobility and strength in the extremities (distal). Many yoga poses require spinal stabilization rather than flexion and are safe and beneficial for a wide range of abilities. The following three traditional stabilization postures have the added challenge of asymmetrical appendage movement, which requires the core to work harder to resist rotation.
Complex Training: Pairing for Power
If you work with athletes, you’ve likely run into the challenge of how to incorporate power components into their already-packed training schedules. Whether you’re working with a clutch outfielder, a center or a lineman, your client’s athletic skills need refinement, and power is one aspect that requires attention. Trainers typically program resistance training to develop strength and plyometric drills to improve speed.
Sample Class: Every Minute on the Minute
If you enjoy teaching (and doing) high-intensity classes, this workout is for you! The “every minute on the minute” (EMOM) protocol is fun, fast-moving and challenging. You start a predetermined number of reps at the top of a minute and rest for the time you have left until the next minute begins.
Gamify the Fitness Class Cooldown
There are 5 minutes left in your class, the energy is high, and everyone is sweating and having a great time. As you wrap up the last set, participants cheer and exchange high-fives to celebrate another awesome workout. You turn the music down to prepare for the cooldown, then you look up—and notice that people are packing up and leaving.
Sample Class: Tabata for Every Rider
This indoor cycling routine introduces Tabata-inspired intervals that provide a great workout for both beginner and advanced cyclists.
Try Different Plank Variations in Your Class
Forearm plank, side plank, plank with hip dips—all are group exercise favorites. The plank is one of the most familiar and effective choices for core work, and it’s an easy addition. However, how many times can you program that same old plank? Fortunately, with a little creativity, a basic plank can be amazingly versatile. Just add simple movements and a little resistance to make an already challenging move even more interesting and effective.
Sample Class: EMOM Workout
If you enjoy teaching high-intensity classes, this fun, fast-moving and challenging EMOM workout is for you!
Using Anti-Rotation to Coach Rotation
When you watch someone hit a golf ball, throw a punch or simply retrieve groceries from the car, it’s evident that human movement occurs in all three planes of motion. A review of basic core anatomy—major muscles attached to the trunk, above the ischial tuberosity and below the superior aspect of the sternum—reveals that 87.5% of the core muscles are oriented either diagonally or horizontally, and one action that these muscles perform is rotation (Santana 2000).