Seasonal or “periodized” fitness programming is a more effective, sustainable way to train.
The concept of “periodization” – intentionally changing the parameters of your training at strategic intervals – comes from the world of sports.
Hockey players, swimmers, gymnasts and virtually every other kind of athlete train very differently in the weeks leading up to major competitions (like playoffs or the Olympics) than they do at the beginning of their season.
But periodized training isn’t just for professionals. It’s incredibly useful for everyday athletes (the general population) too because all bodies adapt.
Whether you’re brand new to exercise or a life-long gym-goer, your body responds (i.e. becomes more fit) to a change in training.
If you perform the same workouts at the same intensity week after week (like many foreign fitness brands tend to offer), it won’t take long before your fitness plateaus.
As is true in many areas of life, only change begets change!
So that’s what we do: we change the primary focus training stimulus of our programming every 13 weeks or “season”
Winter (January, February, March) emphasizes Hypertrophy (add muscle mass)
Spring (April, May, June) emphasizes Aerobic Conditioning (use fat as fuel)
Summer (July, August, September) Power & Athleticism (expand and improve skill set)
Fall (October, November, December) Pure Strength (ignite and increase capacity)
But seasonal programming doesn’t just increase the upside of training for our members, it also prevents overtraining, injury and other potential downsides.
Training as hard as you can every single workout does NOT lead to better outcomes.
The best outcomes are the result of consistent training over long periods of time.
That becomes harder to do when you’re permanently exhausted or repeatedly injured.
Planned periods of higher and lower training stress can give your body opportunities to recover, adapt and be able to do more total work than you were before: you will have a new “hard”.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have specific athletic aspirations. Purposeful progression is incredibly beneficial for people who simply want to feel healthier, happier and more capable.
Regardless of your training reasons, you’re better off training in seasons.
But there is one other unique reason for our seasonal programming:
Life in Canada is seasonal.
We want to be outside – swimming and paddle boarding up at the cottage – all summer.
And when winter hits, we’re back in the city sheltering from the cold in a hot yoga class.
So it only made sense when we set out to build the next great Canadian fitness enterprise that our programming would reflect the seasonal lifestyle of the Canadians we serve. (Another thing foreign franchise fitness brands don’t, won’t and probably can’t do.)
It’s important to mention that the change in weekly programming is not drastic!
We know there is a fine line between too much and too little change for most people.
Our members enjoy variety in their workouts because boredom makes consistently doing hard work for years harder than it has to be. Change keeps it interesting!
Our members also enjoy not having to think too hard about the workout structure, how to move through the room or how to correctly perform different movements. Which means some familiarity (less change) is a good thing.
Wednesday is the only day of the week when programming is completely different from one season to the next. Programming for the other six days remains focused on either ‘strength’ or ‘conditioning’, but with more exercise choices that reflect the current season (for example more cleans, snatches and split jerks during Power and Athleticism, more skipping and shuttle sprints during Aerobic Conditioning.)
A little, strategic change goes a long way.
Experience it for yourself, create an account and try us today!
