RAIN!!!

It's raining, folks. The condition are quite undesirable and less-than safe. So we're canceling all evening session, but feel free to come inside of The Wooden Center and exercise or do whatever blows your hair back.

Have a great weekend!

Changes are coming

Premise:

From the start, the intent of ongoing BHIP was to be a strength and conditioning program that addresses an individual’s work capacity comprehensively utilizing time-tested fundamentals of strength training and metabolic conditioning applied to the daily demands of normal life. No gimmicks. No Hype.

In order to stimulate adaptations that strengthen and prepare the body and mind to compensate accordingly, we utilize overloads and intensities that sufficiently stress the neurological and physiological systems of the human body and thus effectively increase work capacity and general physical preparedness relative to daily demands.

In short, strength and conditioning makes a person more capable at addressing and dealing with the demands and rigors of daily life and more tolerant to adversities. With all other variables equally, a stronger person with a higher work capacity will be more productive.

 

Previous short comings:

Strength is the foundation of all training. At the very least, strength is injury prevention as a stronger body is more resilient. At most, strength is an awesome display of human potential. Strength is the only thing that our muscles are responsible for, at the end of the day. They contract and they relax. How hard they contract is how one’s strength is defined. But strength also cascades into the other facets of life and sport. And happiness.

 

This girl looks rather happy after dead lifting 512lbs while weighing 136 pounds.

In a way strength IS conditioning. A stronger person can endure more and produce more functional output before fatigue sets in then a less-strong individual. Suppose two people have to move televisions weighing 80lbs each. One person can maximally lift 100lbs. The other person can maximally lift 200lbs. The first person is carrying 80% of his max with every TV, while the second person is carrying a mere 40% of his max. Logically, the person carrying the greater percentage of his max will experience fatigue sooner and thus will succumb to that fatigue, regardless of how well conditioned he may be. The stronger person is also more resistant to fatigue in addition to being better resistant to injury.

Look how happy she is. Because she's so strong and doesn't get tired easily.

Conditioning is also dependent on strength. If the workout calls for a high volume of something like wall-ball shots or power cleans or something else that involves moving weights, the person who can move more weight quicker will experience the better conditioning effect, while the less-advantaged person will get bogged down by the weight or will be forced to use lighter weights with less overload effect and thus less effective conditioning.

Not too worried about Summer Krasinski's work capacity. She squats 200lbs 8 times and makes it look easy. She seems pretty content with that as well.

Unfortunately, the traditional layout of fitness programs is not conducive to strength training; only conditioning. The current format of constantly varied workout does produce a strengthening effect, but it is incidental and passive. True strength training requires a systematic approach involving incremental and progressive overload. Maintaining a scheduled routine, or a program, is integral to this type of training. Results have to be made and measured on a fixed periodic basis. This may mean adhering to a schedule for several weeks, or months; sometimes years; and for some, the rest of their lives.

 This is hard to do if not nearly impossible in a group format unless everyone involved shares this focus. Special dedicated time, space, equipment, and programming are required.

 

3/5 day model:

 

BHIP will soon be offered 5 days a week. BUT all members will be able to elect to go to a MAXIMUM of 3 workout sessions per week. This means that everyone can elect the focus and purpose of their exercising. One individual may want to focus on conditioning while another can focus primarily on strength training. Here’s how it will break down:

Monday – Strength; assistance work; or pick-a-lift; or a short optional complimentary met-con.

Tuesday – Met-cons: likely 3 different options. Team workouts; normal BHIP style stuff.

Wednesday – Strength; assistance lifts; optional lifts; optional short met-con

Thursday – Same as Tuesday.

Friday – Same as Monday and Wednesday.

 

So everyone can choose what to do with their time and how to invest their efforts. The workouts will be very similar if not identical to what everyone is already used to, except now, those who want to lift more instead of just get huffy and puffy can. Those who have no interest in lifting weights still have the option to completely sidestep that component. Anyone can still do the short met-con and forgo the lifting on MWF as well. But those who want to invest in strength will now have the potential with cycle strength training as much as they want rather than only once a week.

This will also decongest the class sizes and will make equipment utilization much easier. Hopefully this is welcome news to all of you as our popularity is causing a bit of swelling at the seams.

Again, we will soon be offering 5 workout sessions a week, of which you can select any 3. 3. Before you start emailing us about coming to all 5, please reread this a few times: 3. 3 sessions per week. Three. You get to pick 3. Choose 3. Choose 3 based on what you want to focus your efforts on.

Once we are underway with the strength options, I will introduce some strength training protocols. Essentially, the programming will be based on simple linear progression models. But some of you might be familiar with 5/3/1 style or something similar. You’ll have the option of following any protocol you like as long as it is safe and well-suited for you. I will be there along with other instructors to coach and help you perfect your lifts and achieve new benchmarks of fitness and work capacity. Hopefully many of you are excited about this. It will be fun.