Two for two Friend!
That's right. 2-months finished. Two workouts finished. Right on track with my 2018 goals. Now I have missed workouts and I'm practicing the mantra, "I don't miss workouts", so that's not ideal, but I built in extra workout times on Sat & Sun, so I could get up to 4 or 5 strength workouts in a week if needed. And I needed them. Feeling good and grateful. Now to start the 3rd workout card of the year.
Organic vs. Conventional, Free Range vs. Cage Free, CYBBC vs. Orange Theory & Barry's Boot Camp
At the end of the day it's most important to do something vs. not.
Training is better than exercise, but exercising is better than doing nothing.
Eating organic produce most would agree is better than eating conventional produce, but eating conventional produce is better than eating no produce.
Most would agree eating Free Range eggs are better than cage free eggs, but eating eggs for breakfast is better than eating processed cereals for breakfast.
Change Your Body Boot Camps vs. Orange Theory Fitness and Barry's Boot Camps Training with CYBBC obviously trumps training with one of these chains, but training with one of these chains is better than not training, not training on a plan or worse not exercising.
From time to time my clients recommend I try something out to see how other people do things, and I recently tried Orange Theory Fitness.
Here's what I loved. - It was fun.
- It was fast.
- I got a great workout.
- It was different.
- It had great music and surround sound.
- They use top of the line equipment: treadmills, water rowers, TRX's, DB's, Reebok Steps & more.
- They're technology is cutting edge (tv's with the exercise demos built in, heart rate monitors, head sets).
- It's a polished business model.
- They're branding was awesome.
- It felt a little like a night club with the mirrors, dim lights, loud music and fun vibe.
- The workout was thoughtful: interval strength & conditioning, downward pyramids, hypertrophy rep ranges, circuits, total body movements.
- I got around 36 minutes of cardio.
- Lots of treadmills and rowing machines. They're either built for 26 people to train at a time or 46 people to train at a time. I can't remember.
- Pretty affordable with lots of different options: monthly vs packages, unlimited days / week vs. 2 or 1 day per week.
- They warmed you up & cooled you down.
- High Five everyone upon entry.
- Had different levels for treadmill runs.
- Addressed alternatives for pain and injury parts before class started with new participants.
- Heart rate monitors with real time stats on big screen was cool.
- Bleach wipes are provided and everyone wipes down their equipment at the end.
- 7 Day Schedule, starting as early as 5:30am and last class around 8 or 8:30pm most days.
- Lots of locations.
- Didn't have to bring equipment. Just show up.
- I'd support my family and friends training there if that's what they chose and if they asked, I'd provide them with the missing ingredients so they could be safe in the moment and successful long term.
Here's what I didn't like - Workout might be 21st century, but warm up is definitely 20th century.
- Warm up = run or bike for 3minutes
- No rolling, no stretching, no correctives, no dynamic flexibility, no muscle activation, ...
- This means you either roll out of bed or come from sitting @ work, sit in your car and then have a 50% chance of sitting down to warm up or run on a non-ideal posture (tight & shortened muscles of the feet, calves, hamstrings, quads, hips, chest and weak and soft muscles of the shoulders, glutes and upper backs with a forward sagging head).
- Felt more cage free than free range.
- Lack of warm up made me feel my feet, calves, low back & shoulders in not a good way.
- Great workout for strength & conditioning coaches (me), 20-something healthy joint and bodies and people that already know what they're doing.
- Less great for 30-60 y/o who sit or stand too much and don't have a nice balance of each.
- Beach muscles are great, but posture muscles keep you training longer.
- Many people in the 30-60 age demographic should not do overhead pressing.
- Repeated trunk flexion crunches for abs, which has it's place, but is very 20th century.
- No partner training. It was group training, by isolated. Everyone was in their own silo.
- It was dark vs. bright. The idea is cool, but the injury risk is stupid. Barry's did this too.
- It smelled like sweat, which on 1 hand is super cool and another, not cool.
- Lying on the ground vs. a mat.
- No farmers carries. This is important as people in my program are probably starting to learn.
- No rolling.
- No mini bands.
- No medicine balls wall throws.
- No hurdles.
- No power training.
- No speed, agility & quickness training (running on a treadmill with insufficient rest is not speed training).
- No single leg strength training (want to run faster & reduce injury risk, train on 1-leg).
- No pull up bars.
- Couldn't hear coach well even though he had a headset mic. (If you train with me, can you hear me?).
- It's a program about body composition, but not really health or performance.
- There is lots of real world applications to the benefits of training (regular training helps you to get strong, fit & lean, with great stamina), but there are increased health risks (muscle & joint injury, heart strain) and false performance training (you do sprint and you do run and you do lift weights, but it's always with insufficient recovery; most sports you sprint and then rest: track, football, hockey, baseball, fighting, soccer, tennis, golf, skiing, ...).
- And there's no me. There's no Mike Alves, writing the programs.
- There's no program tracking (hello, what gets measured gets managed).
- There's no Mike Alves leading the workouts.
- There's no tracking of progress aka measurements.
- Are there strategy session goal setting calls?
- Are they members or clients?
- Do the members or clients have access to the coaches outside of the training?
- Is there an orientation to ramp up new people or do they throw them in with the wolves?
- What's their nutrition plan? Is there a nutrition plan?
- Is there a community or is the community the fact that everyone has a membership there?
All in all it's a good program. I'd recommend it. It's fun. It's pretty safe. It's effective for body transformations. It's ideal for 20 somethings who have good joint health and haven't yet accumulated the posture challenges that come with a more layered and full life. It's pretty affordable and very flexible.
It's also not named CHANGE YOUR BODY Boot Camps, nor does it offer or have the tagline of Group PERSONAL TRAINING for HEALTH, Body Transformation and PERFORMANCE (for busy people).
Thank you Mike C and Emily P for the suggestion. I'm grateful for the recommendation.
Pasture-Raised Portuguese Man,
Mike Alves
p.s. if you want convenience and a plan to follow when you're on, consider our Personalized Treadmill Workshop on Sat, March 10 @ Gym Source. Sign up before it's sold out.
p.p.s. if you want a free range activity to do with young people aged 6 and up, we've got a Cabot Family Boot Camp on, Sat, March 24 from 7:30-8:30am. Get your workout and play with your kid. Sign up here.
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