HOW TO PROGRAM FOR A FITNESS BOOTCAMP 

How do you keep your athletes/clients excited? How do you keep them hungry? How do you keep them coming back? There are many ways actually, but one way can be be done with (excellent) program variation. Athletes/Client’s don’t want to go to the same ole class every day and do the same ole thing, they want to be challenged. They want to see what their bodies can do. They want to see and feel the changes. (Side note: you can do body comps on athletes to track this. You can find a PDF sheet and a how to video in THIS post). Yes, you can repeat certain movements and repeat benchmarks to track progress but they don’t want to come in and do the same thing over and over. They will get bored and leave.

Programming is an art. Some of my fellow coaches have said they feel like scientist when they write program, some have described it as creating music. Writing/Creating good, consistent programming takes time and trial and error. To this day sometimes I program something for an athlete and mid workout it is a complete cluster and they don’t get the response I’m looking for. I have been with my clients/athletes long enough to have a good laugh and move on, but make a mental note to not pair those together again. You can only “wing it” for so long before it starts to show. If you are new to the game, join a class/bootcamp and learn what the coach is doing. See what pairs well and what doesn’t. Talk to the instructor/coach about why he/she programmed certain movements. You are also a good way to test “things”. Write something up and then do YOUR programming and see how you feel. If you want to experiment on your own, here is something that could help.

Below are three different models I like to use when programming classes. If it is a 3/wk client/class I like to use all of them (1/day). If it is a 2x/wk class/client/athlete then pick 🙂 These models were designed for hour long classes.

Warm Up = suggested warm up HERE

Connectors = balance exercises, ab work, balance drills, midline stabilizers, etc.

Cool Down = suggested cool down video HERE (opt 1) or HERE (opt 2)

Model #3

10 min Warm Up
15 min Workout
5 min Connector
7 min Workout
5 min Connector
10 min Cool Down

Another thing that I mentioned earlier is that of benchmarks. HERE are a few that I have used in the past. I would begin by mapping out your benchmarks for whatever time frame you are looking at (1 year, 6 mths, quarter, etc) then write your programming around those. If they are not “training” for anything specific at least they have the option to train to improve their benchmark. Hint: training for a benchmark doesn’t mean you ONLY do the movements of the benchmark.

If you are using Volume 1 or Volume 2 of Living Amped’s 4 week Bootcamp Program, ALLLLLLL of this is already thought out for you. You just download the volume, familiarize yourself with the movements (movement videos available HERE), and coach. PS Volume 1 is free…because I like you 🙂

When I go to my in home client 1x a week, I use this style programming:

Warm Up
Strength Workout (EMOM, E90sec, combos, etc)
Connector (ab work, balance exercise, midline stabilizers, etc)
Conditioning/Metcon (anything to get and keep their heart rate up for a period of time 7-20mins)
Cool Down

I write their workout in Evernote and email it to them before I leave their house and they are suppose to repeat that workout (or one from the past) 1-2 times before I see them again.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions…I’m open to hearing them all! Just remember your #1 goal is to keep your athletes safe, #2 should be to create a darn good environment. You are in the PEOPLE business, not the FITNESS business.