Derrick Price

If she has only a 6kg ViPR, then I would suggest power-based exercises, perhaps in a tilt pattern based on her capabilities. Your shuffle drill is ideal because she can move quickly. The other drills can work so long as she works with speed so she needs to have good motor efficiency.

Duration is not a good marker, here’s why. Let’s say I go for a jog at Mod intensity (sub-threshold). At the 10-min mark, I’m starting to fatigue and my body shifts to more anaerobic energy (high intensity). Would this be considered a High Intensity bout of exercise? No, it’s SISS and then fatigue set in which created the high-intensity response. Thus, I was only able to sustain SISS with a jog for 10-min. Continued training will boost my endurance and should be able to tolerate longer duration before fatigue sets in.

Intensity should be driven by the amount of force introduced in the body. Force = Mass x Acceleration…i.e. Load and Speed.  Duration will dictate which energy systems are most dominant. If your goal is to use a 60s Work Intervals, You’ll create Long Duration Waves and expected Intensity would be at a RPE=8. 30s Work Intervals (Short Duration Waves) have an expected RPE of 9. 20s or Less (Spike waves) is Maximum RPE/Effort (because ATP-PCr only lasts that long!).

With your client in her current state, she may not be ready for High Intensity (i.e. to move with high force profiles)…and that is ok! Threshold Work in SIIT is challenging too and this interval you created might be classified in the SIIT quadrant rather than HIIT based on how she responds to the movements.

Thanks for sharing Amy! My first thought when working with someone who often has little energy, is that you’ll want to keep the dosage of high intensity stress low. In other words, one HIIT working block of 10 minutes is very sufficient for this individual. Short, quick hitter workouts may be in order! That includes minimizing the warm-up time as they only have so much available energy and willpower.

My other rec is to consider whether your exercise selection in the resistance training portion would yield a high-intensity response. The mass or speed need to be relatively high so something to be aware of is how your client will respond and be ready to make adjustments accordingly if you want a HIIT response. Otherwise it will be SIIT!

Nothing wrong with sticking to Linear training to get some HIIT done. Arguably the best quadrants for HIIT considering the high amount of force you can introduce in these mechanical quadrants which is needed to truly get any HIIT benefits. My only wonder is 10 reps of your exercises in the first working block. I might try and go heavier with less reps (3-6) to create a greater high-intensity response and get some nice peaks and valleys. Well done Shannon, super simple but very effective and reproducible!

Great protocol here Kevin. Your exercises match the need for high intensity and your descriptions were key for me to understand the intent of how to go about the session. Really well done!

Think of rock climbers and what happens to their hands/forearms from prolonged hanging on a rock wall

Asha you must be going crazy…you posted two different sessions last week. Johnny responded to your first one!

As for this week, you’re lucky, I have some extra time today. My only suggestion is I’m not a fan of long static holds. It can create ischemia in the tissues. We recommend holds between 3-5 seconds and to allow for muscles to turn on and off!

Well done Bre…my only suggestion is to monitor how much on-ground work you have in your workout and make sure your clients enjoy (or find benefit) in this position. With 2 different crawls, a push up and a plank drag, it might be a bit much for some folks but I’ll leave it to you as you best know your clients!

Hey Kevin, the link you shared takes me to an entire program and I can’t tell what day to select to see your SIIT based session.

Great work Cindy! Your session matches your intention and it’s understood from my end. My only suggestion would be to modify the tempo of the Straddles (your first Mod intensity exercise). If done fast, especially with someone who may be a bit deconditioned, this can be a pretty intense exercise to perform in a fast manner. To make it more moderate intensity and to maximize their technique, I would add a 2-3 second pause with each jump forward so they become aware of their posture at end range after moving ballistically and the extra pause will slow it down so they stay aerobic. Ideally you wouldn’t want the client to lose their breath with the exercise if they are in SIIT as being breathless would indicate Anaerobic/High Intensity.

Plus, love Calm the Farm as it sounds great in my head when I say it with an Aussie or New England accent 😉

Hey Lee, I would definitely create two different sessions for different capabilities of clients. Save each as a template labelled Novice, Intermediate etc. Then just copy the template you want to use for a client and erase terms such as Novice, Intermediate etc as it doesn’t feel good if your trainer is labelling you based on your capabilities. Its just a term you can use internally to help you organize your content!

Ummm, so Eugene, who is your client and do they want to be my new best friend!? 😉

Regarding your Walking program, be mindful that if your client is performing intervals of hills, they may undulate between Moderate and Low Intensity so that would create more of a SIIT effect.

The challenge with SISS is how long can the client sustain their specific intensity walk before the body starts to experience fatigue. That becomes a true indication of endurance within a specific metabolic quadrant (in this case SISS).

So my recommendation is you select the exact RPE you want them to perform. 3-6 is too vague (3 is Low intensity, and 6 is moderate). If you want, one day can be dedicated to an intensity of 3. And see how long they can walk at a 3. On another day, the challenge is to sustain a 6. And see how long they can last at that effort. You can then progress both.

SISS is all about improving their aerobic efficiency. People who are not efficient tend to drift and rely on their anaerobic systems which is not sustainable when you’re looking to play 2 4-hour rounds of golf a day!

Nice combination of the various types of Movement Strength in your circuit Annie. I would classify this as a WBI SISS Circuit with a Cyclical finish. I bet this would look great on Program Builder 😉

Love the specificity here Shirley as well as how you matched the exercise selection to the desired low-intensity experience while considering the physical limitations and emotional state of the client. Only a veteran coach could whip something like this up,  Well done!

This is quality Andy…so valuable that I see this working for most cross country teams. Very thorough and thoughtful, well done!

Nice session Lisa, really good intent! A couple of thoughts from my perspective:

1) You mentioned this session is Whole Body Integrated with DB’s, ViPR’s and bodyweight…However, the first exercise in your circuit is a Lat Pulldown. For me, this is a bit confusing as I’m not sure how this fits the intent of your session. You’ll want to make sure to mention in the coach’s notes how you want your client to perform this as I’m assuming they don’t have access to a Lat Pulldown machine and maybe you have some thoughts on modifying this exercise to make it more WBI?

2) Love the Dubstep Flow. Question is does your client know how to perform this? If not, I would break up the flow into 3 distinct exercises so they can perform each component separately. Otherwise, they may be spending too much time trying to figure it out, get frustrated and also drop in heart rate. I usually leave Flows for sessions where coaching is required and/or you’re dedicating an entire working block to it (See Johnny’s community workout this week!).

Thanks Lisa, great work!

Nice little session here Pat. Love the use of many multiplanar movements to offset the highly linear nature of cycling. It will help create buy-in for the client to train subthreshold!

Perfect Ronald, very easy to understand and great exercise selection. Super simple and I like how you stuck with one tool for the duration of the workout. So easy to organize for your client in any environment they choose. Well done!

Hi Amy, great questions.

1) Absolutely! Just go high rep (20+) or a specific duration (1min or more per exercise if the weight is very light)

2) Typically, yes, ViPR PRO if used as intended, would be more WBI. Now, there’s nothing stopping you from doing biceps curls and shoulder presses if that’s what is needed for PHA. It all comes down to HOW you execute a movement pattern.

Hey Asha, the difference between 15 and 20s rest periods in a SISS format is pretty negligible.  15-20 seconds is what I would say to be maximum rest in a SISS circuit. If the client has to rest longer, I’d say your exercise selection may be too difficult!

You nailed it Nicole! Your session matches your intent perfectly. Really well done #hivefive

Nice work Allana, one thing I wanted to mention is to make sure your session description and block description clearly describes how long each AMRAP is for. It will help cut down emails/texts from your clients 😉

Gabor, excellent work brother! I love how you grasped the concept of alternating a tool-based strength exercise with a bodyweight drill that can be considered a dynamic stretch and relative strength.  Nice work with your video content as well!

You’ll want to make sure you coach the idea of using light loads and slow movements as some of these drills can be fatiguing, otherwise I think this is a good routine. Very simple and easy to interpret, excellent job!

Love these expectations Tammer, welcome back!

Welcome back hermano!!

Great to have your perspective as always Bee, welcome back!