Sunday 9.04.11

A portion of my old training log

This week Brad and I were discussing our training, The Compound's programming, and different fitness goals, which are normal conversations during the few times we are able to work out together.  I have been pretty consistent with logging my workouts on http://www.noscrolls.com/ the last few years.  However, I was still performing lifts or completing workouts that I thought were PR's only to go home pull out an old Excel spreadsheet and find better scores on it.  It turns out, although most of my numbers are better than ever, due to changes in goals, injuries, work schedules, etc, there are individual places I find are weaker.  When I consult my excel sheet prior to workouts, I find I can easily match or even beat those scores within a few attempts.

We attempt to get members at The Compound to blog or otherwise record your training every day. I used to be meticulous at it, even writing down exact numbers for warm ups and how I felt before and/ or after a workout.  Even if no one was reading my logs, I still felt like I was being held accountable. It kept me working hard, and it kept me honest to the goals I set.   It also allowed me to look back at months and years even of training and look at improvements or trends in the programming.  This I feel helped me become better at coaching as well.

Many of you still aren't recording your scores and when workouts with percantages of max weights come up, many of us are just guessing or doing what someone else is doing.  I think we can all get more worthwhile training if we are better at recording our efforts.

Brad and I decided we would start online training logs for our workouts for a few reasons:  1) To better track our individual progress.  2)  To show our improvement in new skills so we can improve our ability to coach them.  3) To show members of The Compound different examples of workout logs so they can do them for themselves.

Our training will be different at times than some of the workouts we see at The Compound and we are often asked about why we do a different workout.  There are several reasons we may do different workouts:

• Goals.  My goal is to hit a 1700 CF Football Total at a weight of 215 (20 # lighter than now), so maintaining strength is my goal right now and my workouts reflect that.
• Higher Volume.  We lift and workout to larger volumes than most people as we have been doing this training for many years and our bodies are able to withstand the intensity.
• Learn new skills.  As Coaches, it is our job to learn and improve ourselves so we can help you all become fitter.  So we add much more skill work than is possible in class sessions.
• Try out workouts and movements prior to the classes.  Most, if not all of the workouts, or exercise combinations, are attempted prior to programming them to the class.  This helps us determine which movements go well together, which time domains work better, and scaling options can be determined for different levels.Most of our training can be thought of as trial runs for what works, and the best of those trials will be brought to The Compound.  Think of us as the lab rats across the street at Genentech, and you guys get to take the completed, perfected medicine at the right dose. 

Our blogs will be linked here with the list of Links in the "Friends" section.  A couple will be linked there in a day or two and hopefully some other coaches will join in as well so you can see many different sample trainings. 

So if you choose to, you can follow along to see what may be in your workout future or just see our progress. cc