The Fundamentals Program is an essential part of the journey at Defy. If a person is looking to join our group program then a variation of this program is key to their success.
The program is 12 weeks long and is designed so that members continue on with our regular group program once they have completed it. Think of it like an introduction to everything that we do here:
- Personal Training
- Group Classes
- Nutrition Coaching
Everyone who joins the program comes from different fitness backgrounds. We have some people who haven’t worked out for years, some cardio junkies and some people who are more experienced in the functional fitness style of training.
Many members have similar goals but each person has a unique reason as to why they have those goals. If we help you achieve your goals then we help you Get Better At Life – and that’s our goal!
The fundamentals program caters to everyone. There are several versions of the program that can be tailored to each individual, their experience and their goals.
Everyone starts off with some Personal Training. For the newbies, this helps to bring them into the gym at their own pace, it’s less intimidating and much safer for everyone. Those with experience get the benefit of having a coach’s eyes on them to improve any inefficiencies they have developed in their movements. Everyone also gets to see where they are on our Level System…
This system was designed to give people an idea of where they are on their fitness journey. It is composed of four different categories; weightlifting (strength), gymnastics (bodyweight), metabolic conditioning (cardio) and our benchmark workouts, which combine all three of the previous listed. Each category has 4-5 tests within. This system also allows members to set performance related goals to get to the next level.
After a couple of weeks of these Personal Training sessions, members then move into a mix of PT and classes, with most of the training being with the group. We call this our hybrid training and experience level will determine the frequency of PT sessions during this part (something we would discuss in our initial meeting, the No Sweat Intro). In this phase members get the benefit of training with the group and feeding off their energy, but also get to work with a coach 1:1 to work on anything they are struggling with. This could be a new movement they’ve just learned in the class or something they want to work on personally, like a pull up!
During this phase, we also offer some nutrition guidance. Nutrition can be very complicated but it should be made as simple as possible to be successful long term. We like to try to build a habit based approach initially. Work on the low hanging fruit; protein, water & sleep. If everyone got enough of all of these, they would make progress towards a lot of their body composition goals. Building good habits is key to long term success. If needed we can go deeper with our nutrition coach – the extra accountability here is often key.
The final part of the program is to check in on the progress made at the 12 week mark. We can re-test the InBody scan (which is done at the start and shows how much muscle & body fat each person has). A lot of people want to lose weight or “tone”, which really means lose some body fat and gain some muscle – the InBody machine can measure this which is why it’s better than just a scale.
We also want to see what progress has been made performance wise. While having less body fat and more muscle is great for health & confidence, we love to see people increase the output of their bodies. Running faster, squatting heavier and jumping higher, all contribute to being a more functional human being.
This program is ever evolving and has changed a lot since we introduced it in 2019. The most current version has produced some incredible results in just 12 weeks. But it’s just the start to what should be a life of functional fitness to be able to live the best life possible.
Want to learn more? Send me an email at info@defytoronto.com