The Taoists had a belief that all things exist in inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example, female-male, dark-light and old-young. (if you're a child of the 80's and 90's, be honest, did you think it was just a skateboarding logo on your stussy shirt?!).
These two opposites, yin and yang, balance each other. They attract and complement and, as their symbol illustrates, each side has at its core an element of the other (represented by the small dots).
For fitness, the balance could be found in anaerobic vs. aerobic, sustainable vs. unsustainable; the short term gain balanced with the long term priority of health.
For too long we've given ourselves an overabundance of high intensity (read: anaerobic, unsustainable, and short-term). The post-conditioning cortisol spike is undoubtedly a powerful metabolic response, but too many workouts miss the mark on long-term health because we aren't doing them in a sustainable way.
What we need is a program that would be designed with consistency and longevity in mind. We need a program that is a 180 from the growing trend we are seeing in fitness where 'more is better'. We need a program where the athlete could return, day after day, with the same output and rate of perceived exertion...for years.
We are excited to announce that we've designed just that:
Some definitions:
Health - maintaining a high level of fitness across the years of your life. (not just for 5!)
Conditioning - learning through the experience of training. Not just entertainment or randomness but progression that the body learns and adapts from.
Aerobic - literally, "with oxygen". As you'll see below, with the requirements of oxygen, it changes the level of intensity as well as the duration.
Mixed-modal - relying on the broad selection of exercise based on gymnastics (moving your body), weight-lifting (any extra resistance besides your body: kettlebells, dumbbells, etc), and obviously traditional cardio-respiratory movements (run, row, bike, ski, skip, etc)
Sustainable - in this context, a consistent pace and power output across the entire workout. This doesn't mean easy, however it takes the focus off 'having the fastest time' and places the priority on the 'most consistent pace' (again, not easy!).
As we said previously, this is a beautiful compliment to the high-intensity program you are doing thru crossfit, a bootcamp, or elsewhere. The change in priority and perspective also allow us to modify some variables:
The workouts will be designed progressively, which means we won't write the hardest variation in existence on the board. We'll start with simple exercises including cyclical activities, bodyweight isometrics and carries. When you demonstrate good muscle endurance on these activities, then we'll start to increase load and introduce eccentric and concentric activities. What this means is that ANYONE can start. No experience needed - no barrier of entry for non-members.
If no experience is needed, what IS needed is an understanding that with health and longevity in mind, we'll start slow, earn the right to progress to more challenging variations of movement.
Activities like plyometrics, barbell cycling, and other dynamic contractions are awesome and have a place in some of our other programs, but if the goal is longevity, we'll stick with absolute strength contractions that fall on the far left of the strength continuum.
We'll coach you every step of the way. We'll educate you on intent. We are masters in exercise selection and appropriate dose-response.
Details:
Starts June 1st.
Free for Cfdc members.
Drop-ins & non-members welcome.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday @ 9:30-10:30.
Keep up with us on IG and the newsletter for more details to unpack in the coming weeks!