Most group fitness programs do not test fitness. I’m talking about your large franchise style gyms. These places usually consist of random workouts each day, designed for people to work at whatever pace allows them to get a sweat on and leave the gym feeling like they did something. I like to call this “exercising”
And it’s needed for some people. In fact, most people start here and have great success with exercising. It’s better than doing nothing and can be completely fine as part of a bigger fitness routine.
Eventually though, with this method, there will be a stall in progress (especially if this is the majority of what you do for fitness). As with anything in life, the more random, the less focussed results. If during the work day I’m flopping between emails, social media and paying bills, I usually get a lot less done than if I focus on one thing at a time.
It’s the same with fitness. An even less productive form of “exercising” is when you go to the gym alone; start on the treadmill, do a few sets of 10 reps on each machine then finish on the stepper. Then do the same thing each time you go to the gym.
This is why “training” is better than “exercise”.
When you’re training you have structure, there’s a plan and there are metrics to track. This is why testing fitness matters for everyone if you want to get the best results. You have to have a period of testing to be as able to see and measure progress.
If you’re currently exercising (doing random stuff each day), have a think about how your fitness has improved over the last 6 months. “Feeling better” isn’t a great measurement for this. You need some hard data. Can you run faster, can you lift heavier? By how much? In your last workout, what was your result? If you repeated that in 2 months, do you have something to compare against?
The truth is, most people don’t. And another truth may be that people don’t really care or want to track all that stuff which is totally understandable.
That’s why we do it for our members at Defy. We track something in every single workout that is done. Our Personal Training members have their own profile in our coaching software where we can build programs and enter results. Our group members have their results added to a separate database after each group class.
Every 12 weeks, PT and group members have 2-4 focussed areas they are working on. The group program has common areas of focus while PT members have specific ones to them.
We also have the Level System…
The Defy Athletic Level System mimics the belt system that has been around for years in the martial arts world. Everyone would know that a white belt is someone who is a beginner and a black belt would be a person not to pick a bar fight with.
But when it comes to fitness, there isn’t really a universal measurement of “being fit”, so we created one. We have 7 different levels, levels 1-3 are for the majority of people, 4-5 are for the very fit and 6-7 are for the fire breathers. We only have a few people who are focussing on anything above level 3. I’d argue you’d be in the top 10-15% of the population if you can do everything in Level 3.
Testing fitness matters for everyone to guide and focus the training around achieving a result. In our group program, for instance, we have periods that are slightly more strength focussed, some that are skills focussed and others that are more endurance based.
By definition, functional fitness requires us to be good at all areas of fitness, to be strong, enduring, skillful, mobile etc. This will help us lead a better life overall. But, to make significant progress in any area, we need to test current abilities, then spend more time focussing on that and re-test to see the progress.
Random exercise will get random results. You can still get fit, improve health and it’s better than doing nothing. But if you’re going to invest time, effort and finances – why wouldn’t you train?