A good fitness program is one that is planned out in advance. It should have a clear focus, some goals, direction and the ability to see if it’s working (test/retest).
When you’re new to fitness, you can do almost anything and you’ll make progress. Squat 5 days a week and your squat will get better, randomly pick a workout off the internet, do it and you’ll get fitter…
Until it doesn’t work anymore. You could plateau, get injured or worse – get bored and quit!
That’s where a good program comes into play. A good program will be varied enough to not repeat things too closely together but have enough repetition to make progress in specific areas. It should cover the basics often to build a big foundation but also introduce some odd movements to challenge new stimulus and keep things fun & interesting.
Programs designed for individuals based on individual goals, strengths, weaknesses & injuries will always yield the fastest results specific to the person but group programs can be very effective too, as long as they follow the guidelines mentioned above.
It is very common for gyms to outsource their programming – why? because it saves time and money. There are large fitness companies who produce really great programs with resources for coach development, class planning etc and many gyms will use them. Producing quality programs takes time and costs money.
We’ve always done things in house at Defy. It’s always been the job of the Head Coach to oversee our programs and I feel like this is a key ingredient because as great as the programs are that gyms can subscribe to – they aren’t made for my members, for my gym, with the equipment we have.
When designing a group program you obviously can’t cater to every individuals personal goals but you can program for the demographic that is in your gym. We know all our members goals and we can create 3-4 avatars that people fit into and design programs for them.
All that to say, programming is important to make progress and to me it’s even more important that we do it ourselves for our people.
So this is our 2025 program overview:
- At the end of 2024 we started preparing for the LIFT OFF event. This included a modified version of the Russian Squat program for our big lifts to maximize strength gain. This went through Jan and into Feb where we had 118 Personal Bests set over 3 lifts from 41 of our people. Safe to say this was a huge success.
- On Feb 10th we started a 4 week mini-cycle to add more unilateral movements (single arm/leg) to balance out from left to right after a long time pushing heavy weights. There’s been some maintenance in the squat, bench and deadlift while working on some of our Level System Tests – hanging, rowing and Viking Helen
- Starting March 10th we will be ramping up our conditioning for the DefyFit Challenge. This 5 week cycle will see our strength work transition into more strength endurance training while working on building our pull up strength. All the fun DefyFit Challenge movements will be included so everyone is at their best to set some records here. There’s also some prep to get ready for more Olympic Lifting which is in the next cycle
- On April 14th, we move into Phase two for the year. Fresh from testing the DefyFit Challenge workout, this will be a 6 week cycle with some focus on Olympic Lifting, front squats and box jumps. All the fun power movements! There will also be running intervals to test some 400m and mile run times! Carrying on from the previous cycle will be a big focus on pull up strength and variations around that.
- On May 26th, there will be a very short 3 week cycle where we take all of our running intervals and use that to prepare for the impossible mile! Our Olympic Lifting will get more complex by adding more variations together. Our pull up strength work will transition into some kipping foundations and will be test the dreaded 7min of burpees again!
- Then we go into the longest cycle of the year, which will take us from phase 2 to phase 3. From June 16th, we have 9 weeks focussing on building some big aerobic engines! Expect to see some longer conditioning work in this cycle along with more unilateral strength work and back to the powerlifting movements. This will be a great time to test one of our favourites; Kelly, while the weather is great and we will also be getting plenty of double under practice.
- From the 18th August, we have 4 weeks until the biggest event of the year – The Defiant Games. Expect more partner workouts during the week so you can build the chemistry with your partner and get ready to crush The Games! This will be a period where we retest the 400m and mile from earlier in the year and do some speed work with our big lifts.
- After The Defiant Games, starting on Sept 15th, we will be doing 2-3RMs in the Olympic Lifts and building our anaerobic capacity with lots of short intense workouts and intervals. This 8 week cycle will take us into phase 4 and will feature more double under practice and also testing our dips from the Level System. It will be time to start prepping for Chad which will be coming in November – 1000 step ups!
- Our final cycle of the year will be another 8 week long piece. This will feature more general strength training, higher volume gymnastics work and some of the foundational level system tests. Leading up to the holiday season we will see more partner workouts, our annual 12 days of Christmas workout and a time to have a little less structure
As you can see, a lot of planning has gone into the year to ensure we are creating functional members, focussing on all the different aspects that makes someone bulletproof in the modern day world.
Thanks to our Head Coach, Xochil, who has created a great plan for the year and all of our coaches who help to deliver this plan by providing excellent coaching in their classes.
