The Street Parking Recipe. Building the Perfect Flavor for Each and Every Workout...
Effective programming can be thought of almost like a recipe…there are a number of key ingredients that each play an important role in the overall outcome of the final product. Different combinations and amounts of each ingredient can produce different results. Workout programming works the same way! Each workout we build has key ingredients, and each workout has an intent that we want you to work toward being able to understand so that you can effectively choose proper weights, substitutions, and get the most out of it. We want you to know there is a “why” behind everything workout we create!
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THE IMPORTANT INGREDIENTS FOR BUILDING A GREAT WORKOUT:
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START WITH A DESIRED STIMULUS FOR EACH OF THE FOLLOWING:
Each workout MUST have a GOAL.
Total Time - How long the ENTIRE workout will/should take.
Total WORK Time - Will the goal be short intervals with breaks? Steady movement throughout? One short blaster?
Level of OVERALL Intensity - You can't have a goal of a 20 Min workout that allows the person to move the whole time AND a goal of training high levels of overall intensity. This is where we consider which energy pathway we are aiming to train.
Movement Functions and Range of Motion we Need to Train - Squatting, Deadlifting, Lungeing, Running, Jumping - all lower body - all different movement functions. All things we need to build in.
Loading - Is our goal heavy, light, medium? Training more strength, stamina, or a little strength endurance with moderate loading?
Total Reps - Usually with a heavier workout you will do fewer total reps than a workout with lighter weight.
Movement Combinations - How will the movements we have chosen affect each other as we move through the workout?
Psychological Factors - Where will we break down in this workout MENTALLY? What will we learn, and how should we prepare for it?
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ENERGY PATHWAYS
Everything we do, not just fitness related, but also our daily life and even bodily functions require energy. We source the energy for ALL of it through one of three energy pathways…the phosphocreatine pathway, the glycolytic pathway, or the aerobic pathway.
The phosphocreatine pathway is where energy is sourced for anything that is a 100% all out max effort, like a 100m sprint or a one rep max deadlift. This would be anything that if you tried to sustain that level of effort outside of ten seconds or one rep, you wouldn’t be able to. This pathway uses creatine phosphate as fuel. A lot of you are probably familiar with or have heard of athletes taking creatine and that’s to help with this type of energy output because your body can only produce and store so much of it.
There are hormonal benefits of training this way such as increased testosterone, which builds muscle, and the nervous system benefit of your body learning to recruit all of your muscle fibers at once.
The nervous systems of most untrained people are not able to function this way, so once they begin training here they may notice themselves getting stronger without gaining a lot of new muscle because their body is simply just learning to function more effectively.
The glycolytic pathway, which uses glucose as its primary fuel, is where you are training at roughly 70% of what you’re capable of. This would be something like a running pace you could keep for up to two minutes, but not any longer. Sprint repeats, high intensity interval training, even some programs like P90x, anything that requires large bursts of energy over a longer (but still unsustainable outside of 2-3 min) period of time uses energy from this pathway.
Of all 3 - this pathway is the MOST bang for your buck. This is because there will be some carryover to the phosphocreatine pathway with muscle and strength gain, but there will also be some carry over into the third energy pathway which is the aerobic pathway where there are huge benefits for body fat loss, and heart and lung function. If you could choose one of the 3 to spend most of your time - this is it.
The aerobic pathway is what you may have been heard called the “fat burning zone.” This is where you are functioning at 40% of your capability and activity here can be sustained for as long as you have fuel and water to keep you moving. We live our daily lives in this pathway. Brain function, heart function, even just sitting and reading this is aerobic.
The benefits of training here is that fat is burned for fuel, and it’s great for heart and lung function.
We do need to remember though that DURING the actual workout is when the fat is burned when training here, unlike training in the glycolytic pathway which uses glucose as its primary fuel during the workout but can continue to burn fat for up to 24 hours AFTER the workout is over.
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TOTAL TIME
Some work outs are programmed as say, five or ten rounds for time. Others are programmed as maybe an 18-minute straight AMRAP (As Many Rounds and Reps as Possible in 18 Min), and then there are those short three-minute AMRAPS with a minute or two of rest in between or any workout with 2-5 min of work with built in rest.
Every one of these types of options has a specific intent. Often they will coincide specifically with the energy pathways themselves. When multiple three-minute AMRAPS are programmed (for example) the goal is for you to push really hard to hit or come close to that 70% effort window using the glycolytic pathway rather than pacing at the lower intensity 40% aerobic pathway because it’s a short amount of time and you know rest is coming. Usually when you see something like an 18-minute AMRAP - before you even start the work out you’ll probably start planning your pacing to allow you to keep moving the entire time. At least that is what we hope.
With shorter work times and intervals with built in rest the intensity will be much higher. With longer work times you’re likely to pace yourself at a lower intensity level and move at a rate that you can sustain for longer periods of time.
BODY PARTS AND MOVEMENT FUNCTIONS
We use full body movements in the way your body is designed to move. If you come from a background of muscle isolation, it may feel like you’re using your whole body all of the time with the movements we program.
Our bodies are designed to work as one whole unit. When we train them this way - the outcome is both aesthetically pleasing AND creates balance across all of the joints for longevity and coordination.
We like to think of movements in terms of function, not necessarily a targeted body part. For example, with upper body movements you can have a pull or a push function. Both a pull up and push up are upper body movements but they have completely different functions. An example of this with the lower body is a squat versus a deadlift. One is a squat function, the other is a pull from the ground.
We want to make sure we are training all functions, but also want to train different planes of movement as well. Different planes of movement for say, an upper body push, would be a push press where you are pushing up over your head, versus a push up which is a pushing your body up horizontally, or a dip which is pressing down to bring your body up. We want to make sure we balance your joints and muscles to work all of these planes and functions.
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REP RANGES AND LOAD
Being able to do one heavy deadlift well is a completely different beast than being able to do 100 deadlifts of a light or moderate weight in a row. Even though it's technically working the same muscle groups - the demand on the muscle groups moves from power and strength to stamina. The energy pathway is different. We’ve seen many times a powerlifter who has a heavy one rep max but zero stamina to do more than 10-15 reps at a time. We want to train in both. Not only for the general needs of LIFE but because we want to be efficient in many movements across the energy pathways.
There are many benefits to being super strong - but it's also important to have stamina to go longer or do more reps. Rep ranges will be different depending on the goal of each workout. We consider how many reps you are able to do in a row with the certain weight. If the workout is MEANT to be heavy - the reps will be lower for that movement per round. If the workout is meant to be light and train stamina - the weight will be lighter and overall reps and reps in a row will probably be higher as well.
We never program anything just because it’s hard, but workouts can also absolutely be psychological. Six reps of a movement is psychologically different than five. Five is that number we are all comfortable with but six might mess with our mind.
People who have been doing these types of workouts long enough know that the more simple a workout looks on paper - the more it's going to hurt. There is a psychological component there and they know they are going to need to really dig deep and push through.
We believe that a big mistake many programmers make with the psychological component is constantly programming "hero" type workouts - or super long workouts with a bunch of reps of a bunch of movements in a row just to make the workout long and arduous. Too often, this is being done just because they think that LONG means hard and must be the most effective.
Those aren’t as mentally tough OR as overall effective as say, the 100 back squats for time, every minute on the minute stopping to do three devils presses (a workout programmed just a little while back). That example is a super simple work out. The goal time was under 10 min. And it's completely your decision if you are going make it take eight minutes or twelve minutes based on how hard you’re going to push through on the squats.
Another example is a workout like 10 rounds, each round in a 2 minute window, of 200 meter run, 6 deadlifts, 15 air squats. You get rest but it’s all based on how hard you push each round. If you come out too hot in the beginning you’ll learn a lot about your pacing. You really learn to push and how to pace in workouts like these so it’s hitting that psychological factor as WELL as pushing the intensity we need to hit that 70% effort window we want to spend most of our time in.
We love the idea that we can develop psychological strength just as much as physical strength from pushing through the workouts to develop that attitude of, “If I can do this, I can do anything!”
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MOVEMENT COMBINATIONS
Sometimes we want to do a wall walk and a push press together because we’re trying to blast your shoulders on purpose. Sometimes we want a wall walk and a deadlift together so you’re more rested when you go back to the wall walk, you won’t need to take as many breaks and it’s not so much of a shoulder blaster but more of a full body effort.
We always think about how different movements affect each other and the combinations are always made on purpose. We MUST pay attention to this when programming workouts so that we’ll know how long it’s going to take you and how much rest you’ll need between them. This is the only way to truly know we are hitting the desired stimulus.
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EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT.
CHOOSING THE PROPER VERSION, SUBS AND SCALES TO REACH DESIRED STIMULUS IS KEY TO YOUR RESULTS
How do you know if you are getting the proper stimulus? How do you know if you are doing the workout "right" and using the right ingredients for YOU?! By reading through all of the info we provide to you with each and every workout. Check out the GOAL TIME or GOAL ROUNDS and assess your ability to meet those goals. Choose the appropriate version (A, B, C or SHIFT) based on equipment you have. Lower the weight or modify the gymnastics movement if you need to in order to meet the goals written for how many you should be able to do in a row - or how long one round should take.
Going RX or RX+ and having it take you WAY longer than the goal time is NOT a better workout. All that means is that you had to rest A LOT. Rest = lower intensity. Lower intensity (unless that was the goal of the workout in the first place) = less results.
If you are injured or rehabbing from an injury, are pregnant/postpartum - read through all of the options for modifications and subs/scales. Pick what allows YOU to hit the goal times/rounds but will keep you moving safely.
If you still have ANY questions whatsoever - put them up on the Facebook Group or ask them in a comment in the DM of the video post on IG. We WILL answer them for you. We are your coaches. That is what we are here for!
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There is a lot more than meets the eye to thoughtful, effective programming. These ingredients are always considered for EVERY workout we program, as is our unique Street Parking community. Everyone is on different schedules with access to different equipment, working at different ability levels, and resting on different days. Sometimes we need to get more creative with our programming to take all of that into consideration. In the end our goal is for everyone to get the most out of each workout as possible, to keep things fun, keep things exciting, and keep you all motivated to keep pushing the consistency and be the best that you can be.
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