Latest / Misfit Podcast / New Misfit Affiliate Phase: Phase 1 / Basecamp - E.411

Transcript

New Misfit Affiliate Phase: Phase 1 / Basecamp - E.411 · Misfit Podcast

• @misfitcoach: Good morning, Misfits. You are tuning into a special edition Misfit podcast Monday, August 17th. Misfit affiliate phase one, also known as Basecamp, gets started. We have a seven-week long phase, and we're gonna go over what is in that phase in detail in this podcast, along with announcing and going over our new leveling and class plans that are a part of our programming. so we'll we'll do kind of a deep dive into that. The housekeeping portion is coming up, but if you are an affiliate owner, please listen to this first portion for sure. we got our two-week free trials, StreamFit, Sugar Wad, and Push Press, or you can email me directly, coach at MissFitAthletics.com. I can send you those two weeks. We can set up a time to chat to to have a call and talk about our programming. But if you are a previous person who has followed if your gym has followed Misfit affiliate in the past, I will give you a one month free trial to check out the leveling and the class plans and get a really good idea of what this all looks like. And that would be the kind of thing where keep your eyes out for an email with with how to sign up for that. But also you can email me directly coach at misfit athletics.com. So either way you get to take a look at the programming, you get to take a look at what the leveling and class plans look like. And in this podcast, we will discuss all of that good stuff. Before we get started, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by GorillaMind. You can head to GorillaMind.com forward slash misfit or use the code word misfit at checkout. really just Just on that that same grind as always, rely pretty heavily on the energy drinks and pre-workout, whether it's the STEM and non-STEM, post-workout is always the Gorilla Mind whey protein with the Gorilla Mind Intra. I get protein, I get carbs, I get creatine, I get electrolytes, and it tastes pretty damn good. So you can save on the best supplements in the game and support the show. by going to gorilla mind.com forward slash misfit or using the code word misfit at checkout. All right. Hunter, page, what's up? @paige_semenza: Going on. Hunter: Sup y'all. @misfitcoach: We have here's how we're gonna do this. We got, I'm gonna go over the weekly structure. We're gonna talk about why this phase is called base camp, and then we'll get into the leveling and class plan. So, weekly structure, what you can expect over the course of these seven weeks. you're gonna have a heavy front squat or heavy Olympic lift every week as kind of a standalone piece. and that's going to be our strength base. We have a toast to bar bias. You're gonna alternate weeks between doing, and we're talking about how we're testing this as well. Alternate weeks between doing Toast Bar as a standalone gymnastic strength session, and then we put it into the workouts. We alternate back and forth. That's gonna be our our gymnastics space. As always, we can't cruise through this and just talk to you guys about the specifics without saying that like conditioning with clear intent, basically every single day. is the bread and butter of Misfit affiliate. So that's always going to be in there. we are still running one to two times a week. And we are still going to take a few minutes to talk about why we're doing that and why that's great. And then there's always engine class Sundays sort of as that day seven that's put in now that the engine program has been incorporated into the kind of weekly structure. So Base Camp. this is a double meaning type situation. So phase one, if you do like misfit athletics history, you go back to when this was just just started as a competitive programming thing. Phase one has always been a big deal, just as like a line in the sand of we are trending towards the quote unquote 2027 season with our programming. And while that means significantly less. in like real terms at the affiliate level, it's still something where we can help develop a narrative. We can talk to the members about things like making that transition from, you know, bench press and deadlift and back squat being the bias with the strict pulling to hey, now we're gonna do something a little bit more complicated with the front squat and the toes to bar, that sort of deal. and then also for us, having the leveling and the class plans be something that was asked for for a long time. And having this be, you know, that that start date, Monday, August 17th be the start date for those things kind of brings everything back together. And Basecamp itself is just reiterating that concept that no matter who they are in your gym, your members are all trying to climb the same mountain. We just might be at different starting points. We might be at different elevations as we're making our way up, but we are attempting. to have, you know, one community or one class or one program get people sort of trending in that right direction. so it's kind of a beginning, both for members, you know, and Misfit affiliate in general with having the class plans and stuff in there. so let's let's start with the leveling. we have been asked to do leveling for a while. So to define it. when you see your programming now, you will have the workout of the day, which is going to be level one, and then a scaling option for that workout, which is going to be level two. And then we take it down one level further, which is further scaling. and the level three crowd can be your somebody that's starting new or somebody that's, you know, trying to lose a bunch of weight, or someone who's, you know, on you know, further down that spectrum of being deconditioned or, you know, can't get into safe positions hanging from the pull-up bar, get upside down, etc. Things of that nature. And I think we pushed against it in the past because we don't want our program to be plug and play at affiliates. What goes on inside of CrossFit affiliates is extremely important to us in the idea that our program could just kind of be written on the board and then the coach puts their hands up and backs up and just says, like, well, there it is. You know, like unfortunately we've all been to gyms where there's a coach that maybe is more of like a hall monitor than a coach. so we want coaches to be working the floor and scaling with individual people, which is why we've always delivered the scaling notes. But with the leveling, our hope Is that you get 10 instances per week of peeking into the minds of the people doing your program. So we want you to use that information to think about how you are going to scale. Like, I never thought about it that way, or wow, we never like we always just reduce the weight or the gymnastics reps. We never knock down the distance of the monostructural element or the burpee number or something to that effect. So we want you guys to think through it like, these are cool ideas, but for this specific person, I need to develop that a little bit more. So Hunter, I don't know, you know, we you and I have talked about this quite a few times over the years. Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and I'm interested to to hear what you think about how you would want affiliates to use this. Hunter: Yeah, I think I think of it as like i part of what the leveling does and if we if assuming that this gets presented to athletes as well, like so I d I guess it probably also depends on how a an affiliate like presents it. If a if a @misfitcoach: Correct. Yeah. Hunter: if it's just like level one is on the whiteboard, but then like internally the coach kinda has off in their pocket like level two, level three, or if it's like, hey athletes, like Here's level one version, here's two, here's three. The benefit to that I would say is like, well, athletes can now kind of self-select themselves. They can, they can do the they can do 70% of the conversation that the coach should have with every athlete in class, kind of on their own. They're like, okay, like 70% 70% of my workout today exists in level two. I just need a coach to help dial me in on like one or two of these movements because what the way that I would want this spread. presented is like, you know, here's the RX version, level one. If we need to modify, here are some kind of ideas. Level two is maybe your your experienced CrossFitter, but has either regular scaling needs or knows that they need scaling for some reason. And then they can look they can look down and they're probably slot themselves maybe somewhere between level one and level two, or level two happens to be like the right thing for them. And what you kind of alluded to level three, I think of that more as like I have a workout in my back pocket for someone who it almost doesn't matter what their workout is because I just need them to move for the given duration of time that we're after. because @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. Hunter: we've talked a lot about that too, as far as like, @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: you know, does it does it matter that the workout is scaled stimulus-wise perfectly for someone who's deconditioned, right? If it's like if the workout's a a muscle overload, workout of muscle ups and front squats, you know, is it imperative that a deconditioned athlete has the muscle overload stimulus of a squat and a pull and a push? And it's the answer like for me, the answer is no. It's like we want to make it similar. We want them to be doing generally the same thing as people, things as people to kind of get them on the road towards those movements with the understanding that literally any movement that is in the realm of a similar workout to this person is gonna work. And it's also we've we've joked about this too. It's like it for the beginner, like every fucking CrossFit workout's a gas tank workout. It could say cardio @paige_semenza: Hm. Hunter: on the board, it could say gas on the board, it could say muscle overload on the workout. If you've never done CrossFit before, every fucking workout's a gas tank workout. So it becomes a matter of the coach scaling to like let's find the safe, the correct, the correct loading that allows the movements to be safe. not only in round one, but in, you know, round five. but the leveling here now kind of provides at least like a roadmap for either the more your more experienced non-RX athletes to like help self select them and kind of do a bit of the scaling on their own. And then for the level three folks, it's more of like, hey, I've got a the coach has like I've got a template in my pocket. And no, turns out this very deconditioned person is actually They can get themselves upside down. For whatever reason, they're great at getting upside down. So we don't need to scale this to a dumbbell strict press, but you know, the rest of the kind of the level three template, so to speak, fits really nicely for this person. And, you know, it's kind of like the scorecards in the open where the beginner version, it's like the weight is not specified, right? It's like pick a pick a loading that's appropriate for this human, which is where obviously the coach needs to be like chimed into cued into what that what that person needs. So the I think, yeah, what you said is that that was always the big pushback for for us. It's like I d I just don't want I don't want to be doing your coach's jobs for you. Kyle is Kyle's, you know, he's the one, the L four in the house writing some of these most of these lessons. All of these lessons, not most of them, all the lesson plans. you know, like he He is not the co just because it was written there doesn't mean the class is now good, right? It still requires the human @misfitcoach: Right. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: coach to be doing the thing correctly. @misfitcoach: I think that's a really important designation between the levels that I hadn't thought of is having the levels from level one to level two is transferring intent to a larger group of people. like this is what we're trying to accomplish and these are the ways that we can get someone who's not ready for level one today to do it. But then level three is not really that at all. level three, if if we do our job and we have variance in movements and stimulus and time domains, like they're gonna have the moments where they feel the cardio thing, where they finally pace something and then they can just move on to the next thing. They're gonna have rep schemes where they're like, I have to put this down because my legs hurt. You know what I mean? They're they're gonna have and gas stimulus, that's check, check, check. Like we're just gonna get that in that situation. But that's an interesting way to think about it because stimulus and intent and all of those things, I think, for a new athlete are baked into like a varied experience, essentially. Hunter: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I think that No, I don't yeah, I think that totally. @misfitcoach: Paige, do you have any history with leveling? @paige_semenza: I mean, so we used to do like like Watafy would have like Rx, Rx plus. but as far as like scaling, no. most of my experience comes from like when we would do on ramps and a new person would come in, like, you know, our owner, like Kalina would like, Hey, this person's new, like, you know, this is how I'd scale them, so on and so forth. So like, you know, I've kind of learned it as I've gone. but I think the hard part with like I could see why there's pushback because it's like when it comes to levels, it's like you can just you you'll have athletes that are just gonna be like, well I'm always a level two athlete, right? Like they're gonna identify themselves as A, B, or C or whatever it is. And it's like that's not the point of it. So I think the way that it's delivered in class becomes really, really important. and like you guys were saying, like this isn't to do the coach's job, right? It's not like you're gonna go plug something in ChatGPT and it's done for you. It's like This is actually a really good way. Like if you have coaches that wanna learn and develop. Yeah, right. Like if you have coaches @misfitcoach: Kyle GPT. @paige_semenza: that you're truly, like genuinely want to develop them as coaches, like you can like this is a perfect just having the structure, I think can really help and especially like building a coach's confidence where maybe they're not super confident. like the lesson plans. I think they're gonna get you you're gonna get so much out of this again if you deliver it the right way. so @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: I think that that's really, really important. but I mean I I like it. I like I like the idea of like, you know, the level three, just having that in the back pocket if you have an athlete come in that maybe is brand new who's never been in before and you don't have those on ripping, that just that overwhelming feeling as a coach of hearing like, Hey, this person just walked in the door, you know. So I I like that that you have that preparation already in play. Hunter: Yeah, I'll I'll add two things to that. The what you said about the athletes kind of page always slotting themselves into like, well, I'm I'm a level two athlete, right? It's like that that is super easy. You can you can any coach or owner can think about their members and be like, Yep, @paige_semenza: Mm. Hunter: this athlete has despite the fact that they've been here for ten years, you know, just they're they they still scale most workouts. It's not you know, we're not necessarily assuming that athletes will go from beginner to capable of the RX workouts like throughout their tenure, like they may never get there and that's totally fine. @paige_semenza: Right. Hunter: But like you said, how many conversations do you have with somebody who's like, you know, it's like they're they're thinking the the workout the prescribed weight is 135 ninety five and it's just automatically like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go I'm gonna go seventy five. And it's @paige_semenza: Mm. Hunter: like it's like okay, like you're you're saying it's not ninety-five, but it's definitely seventy five, like eighty five, like eighty? @paige_semenza: Right. Hunter: Like we got change plates for a reason. Like we don't need convenient plate math or numbers to to dictate our weight. And so you could easily get someone pigeonholed into like, you know, hey, hey, you know, seventy-five might be too light, ninety five's too heavy. Like, what if we actually do like eighty-five and and try to like bridge the gap that way? so yeah, trying to avoid that pitfall of letting athletes just permanently slot themselves into like a comfort zone, if the workout's appropriate for obviously great. But if not Like, you know, you s that's that's where the coach needs to step in and be like, @paige_semenza: Right. Hunter: You sandbaggin' son of a bitch. Like, I know what you're up to. @paige_semenza: Ha ha ha Hunter: the other the other thing that I that I think could be really helpful for gyms, especially if you don't have an on-ramp program, you get someone new who signs up to class, you hopefully have like some sort of welcome email flow, and you're like, Hey Paige, for the first month I want you to always look at the level three workout. That's your workout. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: Assume that that is your workout unless a coach tells you otherwise. You give a new person kind of a level of comfort of like, they've got they they've a they've accounted for the fact that I'm brand new and I'm not the same person. And now I don't, you know, there's I don't necessarily need to go up to the coach and get this crazy personalized workout every time, even though they might not even like they might not even understand like what that. kind of like can do to a coach and like their process and their flow @paige_semenza: Right. Hunter: during on the floor. but if nothing else, it gives them a a really easy avenue to be like, hey beginner, like level three, you're level three for the first month. And you could theoretically do like, yep. And if things go well, it's like, congratulations, you've graduated to level two, and you know, level two is kind of your baseline, and then we can scale from there. So that could be a really @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. Hunter: easy way to like onboard new people into your affiliate if you don't have @paige_semenza: Yeah, that's great. Hunter: an an onboarding kind of program. @paige_semenza: Yeah, I think that just shows a level of care from like, you know, obviously you program for the best, scale for the rest, right? So you're always thinking about the best, but you're showing that level of care for those that are brand new and obviously they wanna feel welcomed when they walk in the doors. @misfitcoach: I've had the the pleasure and opportunity to speak with a handful of Misfit affiliate owners over the last month talking about this topic. And one of the things that came to mind when you were talking, Hunter, is there was one gym that had a masters like like Okay, this is the workout of the day. This is the master's workout of the day. Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and they have a huge master's cohort, and like the master's @paige_semenza: Awesome. @misfitcoach: leaderboard is a thing, like, and their athletes @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: get excited about it. And you s you have these conversations with with different coaches, and of course, just how life works. You have an opinion on something, then you get perspective. on maybe just a different way to look at it. and that can be really helpful. But the question was, can you tell me what the master's weight is on say this workout specifically? And that's one of those ones where like my head starts to twitch a little bit because that concept of overreaching is what can truly make a difference when you do it the right amount of times and in the right way. So like Yeah, maybe when I'm remote coaching someone like Justin Lasala and it's like like I'm gonna toggle back and forth between hatchet weights and masters weights because yeah, he's a Hunter: Right. @misfitcoach: masters athlete. We've to be really careful with like just just the load and the volume and all that. But if Justin can do the 115 pound thrusters that the young guns are doing that are going to semifinals, when they give him That's 75 or 85 or 95 pounds, look out, right? And Hunter: Right. @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: I think the difference is what helps in training doesn't need to line up with because their question was like, hey, if this was an open workout, what would the weight be? And it's like Hunter: Right. @misfitcoach: getting someone better at 75 pound thrusters. is actually done quite a bit quicker with 95 pound thrusters than it or 45 pound thrusters. You know what I mean? We work above Hunter: Sure, yeah. Yeah, right. @misfitcoach: it, we work below it, we work in line with it, we do all of that. So that's that's one of the ways where to me it's like, yeah, we're giving you now almost these brackets around these weights and rep schemes, but there's room in between. And then the other thing that that came to mind while I was having these conversations is you have a gym with the culture of leveling. And to us, that's like, come on, like, why isn't the coach out there on the floor, you know, going through and doing this? And you're speaking with someone that you can tell is a very good coach and a very thoughtful coach. And it's just something that has developed with them. Maybe it's something that they started or they were with a different programming, you know, company or whatever it was. And that's just the members are used to in their culture. They see that. And then we get into some of the more personalized scaling. so that definitely helped me with wanting to push this forward with talking with coaches. It's like, yeah, we use it, but it's not like cut and dry. It's like Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: we're setting the tone for the discussions we're about to have within our class. So we only post the level one, but then the level two and three are on the board and people can see it. And then it's like were you thinking this or this? So again, you know, maybe you got a huge class, maybe you're just used to getting slammed, you know, with a ton of people in every class and it helps move some of those conversations along a little bit quicker. @paige_semenza: Mm. Hunter: Yeah. I think I always I I personally more of a personality thing than anything, think of it from the like how are people gonna game this or fuck this up? Rather than the like, you know, it's like, okay, so now coaches aren't gonna like scale people individually. Athletes are just gonna self select into like the easier thing and then they're not gonna try and then they're not gonna get fit and they're gonna cancel my gym and I'm gonna die. Or it's like, No, you could actually like, hey, here's the levels Executing this well means like, hey, let's I'm take a look, see where you think you slot in, you and I have a conversation before the workout. And just exactly like you said, that that that could be a huge difference maker for someone who's like it could also provide a little bit of like a like an anchor for an athlete of like, okay, I've been at level two for this long, but I've slowly, slowly started to creep in and add s maybe some of the weights from level one or the skills from level one, and then like A year and a half later, it's like, wow, now like seventy-five percent of the time I'm doing level one versus where last year I was doing twenty-five percent of the time I was only doing or you know, only twenty five percent of the time I was doing level one and they can see progress there. So, you know, I think it it really it it all comes down to how you, the affiliate owner and coach, execute it. If it is just like slap it up on the whiteboard and choose your own adventure and see in an hour, like I mean we can't help you then anyway. It's like that your that your n your gym's probably not long for this world. But like if you execute it well, I think it could be a super helpful tool. @misfitcoach: Yeah, for sure. so that's the leveling where the idea came from. A lot of the idea came from from you guys, you know, affiliate owners and coaches listening to this, and then how it's developed over time and what we're trying to accomplish with it. As always, feedback is feedback is encouraged for sure. because I think different coaches would look at this, you know, potentially with a different eye. so I'll be, you know, happy to have more of those conversations and and talk with with Misfit affiliate owners and coaches about this. moving on to the class plans. So, man, this is one of those like back in my day things. You you just y you know, you you let it rip and you @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: at first CrossFit classes usually range from fifty to seventy minutes w when I got started. And Hunter: Ha ha ha. @paige_semenza: Hey. @misfitcoach: listen, it was in my garage and it was probably like ninety bucks a month. and I guess inflation adjusted. That's probably still the same. But somewhere along the way, the culture of class plans came out. you would see, you know you know, CrossFit HQ, red shirt employees kind of posting their, you know, timeline for class. And I think I think it had like a calming effect on the community. It was like, I can not fly by the seat of my pants and there's a way to do this where you can essentially give yourself ongoing feedback as a coach every day. And I think some coaches I would definitely be the kind of coach where a class plan would make more sense to me in like shorter form. Like I'd have a couple of anchors for myself. Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and then there are coaches that are super detailed and it helps them think through how they're going to deliver something on a more detailed basis. so what's cool about the way that we're delivering these is basically, and to To let you guys know, so Misfit Jim Portland, head coach, Kyle Pinkham, CrossFit Level Four, these are his class plans. and you have he basically looks at this and he has a start time and an end time for a particular thing that gives you the duration on the side and it sort of works you through the class in like a chronological order based on timing. and then the categories that he has that will be toggled kind of on or off. depending on the programming, are whiteboard brief, general warm-up, specific warm-up, strength work, gymnastics strength, workout prep, workout, which is typically going to be, you know, kind of your workout of the day, and then cool down. and again, the hope for us here is that this is being delivered to you in a way where you're like, this is how an L4 coach is thinking about structuring their class. What information does that give you to help you run your class still in a way that works for you. That's the reason why I brought up what would work for me personally. Like, okay, we think this is going to take this amount of time. Like again, having those anchors for somebody like me, I'm always going to be ready to teach the thing. I'm not always going to be ready to know what fucking time it is. so like the the organization and the structure @paige_semenza: We know. @misfitcoach: of it is what are you talking about, Paige? Come on. the @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: organization and the structure of it would be very important to me. And then the specific details in there would be the kind of thing where it's like, no, no, no, let me cook. Like that kind of thing. And Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: again, I've worked with so I mean I've probably at this point worked with at least a hundred coaches over the years. And what I one of the best lessons that I've learned from working with so many coaches is that like they all have these little things that they're like really good at on their own. that you can pull from. So you get away from like the young man's game of like this is how you coach, to being like, wow, look at all these different ways that you can coach, different ways that you can educate yourself, learn, all of that good stuff. So again, exactly what you get from it, I think will be dependent on each coach. And in an absolute perfect world, you are printing out a blank one of these and filling your own in. as opposed to or you could print it and mark it up. you know, you can make changes to it, that sort of thing. but every single day moving forward has a class plan that outlines the way that Kyle is thinking through delivering that class. and you know, I've gone through all of them and there's some there's some really good information in there. And again, it's a perspective from a different coach. So there could be some Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: some nuggets in there that you could really pull from him. Hunter: I think just like the leveling thing, this is it's all about how the information gets used. Again, if you if you're the coach, you open up the lesson plan and are just like, Okay, here we go. Like line one says do this. All right, athletes, like @paige_semenza: Okay. Hunter: do this. Like you're gonna have bad time. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: one of the many reasons that I like I I I don't love the class plan like thing is that like well Maybe I have a gigantic class at five PM and like five people at three thirty PM and it makes no sense for me to run this plan for the twenty people. It makes perfect sense for this one. If I don't have the brain power to like make that adjustment, then you know, you you still have to be able to come up with your own plan and your own adjustment. the the other element is like a every Every affiliate does things differently as far as how they set like some affiliates will have their entire floor like set up starting at the 5 a.m. class. And it's like every single class is gonna look, smell, and feel exactly the same. We like that that might not be the case at other affiliates. Might dip be dictated by how big the class is. Do you again is your equipment set up ahead of time, or do you make your 20 athletes go into the line of boxes and everybody grabs their own box and walks it onto the floor and then asks the coach where it's supposed to go and all of a sudden like five minutes of your entire hour have just evaporated because of, you know, just a super small logistical thing that you didn't @paige_semenza: Logistics. Yeah. Hunter: really think about. you know, where's the bathroom break? How long did the bathroom break take? Why'd it take six extra minutes? Because everybody decided as soon as you grabbed a remote that it was time to go to the bathroom. and then again, just like the the more maybe the more less logistical, more technical element of like, okay, I have a group of I have a f small class of highly experienced athletes. Are we gonna do this like super kind of not to insult like the class plan, but is this gonna be a level one style warm up where I teach everybody how to deadlift as if they've never done this before? Or do I have five experienced athletes where I can like Hey guys, you know what we're gonna do today? We're gonna warm up with some like deficit deadlifts because I know every single one of you sucks at driving with your legs. So let's warm up this way. I already know how you move. I know what's gonna happen here, so let's do something a little bit different. If you're just going by the class plan, you might never get those opportunities to do that. Or, you know, but by the other side of the coin, maybe the class plan provides you with something that you didn't think about before and you can implement it, but it all comes down to, you know. you it's all a read between the lines sort of thing here. If you just read off the teleprompter, i it's it's probably gonna not go very good. @misfitcoach: Hunter, what is what is the quote you always drop about planning? Hunter: if you I don't know. @misfitcoach: Some th it's it's like it's something to the effect of the like planning is everything, the plan is nothing. Hunter: planning the planning is everything the plan is nothing, planning is everything. @misfitcoach: Yeah. And I think creating a class plan or reading one is the exercise in and of itself. It's not Hunter: Yes. @misfitcoach: a strict blueprint for what you're doing. You are preparing @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: yourself to coach a class and think through like, hey, if it's not my strong suit to in the moment decide which thing we're gonna do, I need to have it in my head of what my options are and then I'm gonna go look at who's gonna be in the class. And that sort of thing. Hunter: Right. @misfitcoach: so the way that you think about preparing yourself for a class and being ready for a class, and I think it's probably different for us because we were always, okay, we're planning out this whole phase and we're writing the workout and we're talking about it. We're already a few layers deeper going @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: into that day, not just with our experience and tenure as coaches, but also specifically with this program. Like, I remember this one, we were shooting for this many rounds. We're thinking this, this is the stimulus here. Whereas as, you know, an affiliate coach, you know, a lot of them are part-time, you know, have probably have a lot of other stuff going on. When you go to get yourself into that headspace, this can be a really useful exercise. I'm gonna go read Kyle's class plan. I'm gonna, you know, sort of make my own notes. And again, I'm gonna tailor it to the actual class that I'm doing. And I don't think there's many gyms out there now that don't have like a sign up model. you know, I think post COVID every single gym is like you sign up for class and it's made everybody's lives a lot well, it's made people's lives easier for specific reasons and then not for other reasons, but we don't need to get into that. Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: so that's where my mind goes specifically. Like I would enjoy pulling this bad boy up the night before and reading through it and be like, that's a that's a good idea there and like wow, it's actually kind of, you know, we don't we do not jam our classes with stuff. But we do make sure that there are days that have gymnastic strength and then a workout or strength and then a workout, that sort of thing. And it's like I gotta be ready for these sorts of things. and again, someone who thinks from a different perspective very specifically than me, I think it would be helpful to read the way that they're thinking about this from like an organizational standpoint. Hunter: Yeah, I mean I I'm just thinking about our our coaching staff, whereas like Kyle actually like it it would not surprise me if I went back and like watched a class of him like, no, he actually did literally everything that @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. Hunter: he wrote in the class plan. He's a he's a that's that's how he works, that's how he pro s he still writes his own class plans for that in that same manner. And then swing it to the other perspective. We got Mark, for example. more in line with like you drew. Mark's like, okay, got the general idea. Yep. I know what I'm gonna do. @misfitcoach: Couple of meatheads. Hunter: Also, I need to light someone on fire as part of my class @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: plan in order to get everybody fired up. So I'm gonna slot that in right here ish. @misfitcoach: He watches the Herb Brooks speech before instead of reading a class plan. Yeah. Hunter: Right, yeah. So but it works and it's like that's that's him taking like and and you know, I've we've talked before and like every once in a while he'll ti take a nugget and be like, Yeah, I've never thought about it that way before and we do the same thing with him, but the yeah, there's just understanding where coaches are at with with that sort of thing and understanding that it's not a this is not like meant to be followed step by step with zero deviation. You know, it's it's a It's a plan, but @misfitcoach: And you hinted at it while you were talking. It was so important to me that we didn't artificially manufacture these. So I went to Kyle and I was like, Go grab your notebook and take some pictures for me of the way that you're prepping for class. And we just talked about like how could we deliver a very similar message? And like he has his own shorthand. so He's got these little bullet points that don't have sentences attached to them. So he's figuring out how would I write this out to explain it to another person. And really the only difference now is he has the pleasure of writing four or five weeks of class plans within a few week period of time versus doing them more kind of on a daily basis. So these were something that he was already doing and using effectively. And that was really important to me. Like we can't, we cannot like There wouldn't be anything worse than like hunter eye. writing a class plan because someone said we had to. I can't even imagine how long it would take when I'm doing something that I like don't want to do. It's it's fucking grinding out here. so Hunter: You need to do that, Drew. You should do that for a month, just see what happens. Yeah, that would be tough. @misfitcoach: that part was really important to me because it is again a useful effective tool that a coach is already using as a part of their structure. So you guys are actually getting what Kyle is using, something that he was already doing for himself. Hunter: Yeah. I think @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: w one other element I wanna add, I don't wanna keep going crazy long, Drew, but the like it p keep in mind like Kyle does not know what your affiliate looks like, what equipment you have available to you, what sort of like how quickly you know, what the general vibe is of the class. And my example for that is like, okay, well, here I've I've Coached the this class two times today. I've ran the exact same class plan. I've got a really big class. It's a different kind of vibe coming up in my next group. Like, I'm gonna do something different in the general warmup. We're gonna grab tennis c tennis balls and we're gonna work on like agility and coordination type stuff as part of our warmup because it just happens to fit in this day. It like writing all of that sort of thing out for another affiliate to maybe do or do not do. is way less realistic. So you also have to keep in mind, Kyle, he's we're we're probably not going like way fucking outside the box with like, hey, you got some sandbags? Great. Make your athletes do like an 800 meter sandbag carry as their warm up. just like get some get some loading on their frame. They move their body. It's something that we don't do often. I got the sandbags out because I was just moving them from the corner here. So you know what? We're gonna fucking use them and I'm gonna do something completely different. the class plan is not necessarily going to think for you about like that creativity element. Is it a day where, you know, does is the warm up well, Kyle's gonna assume that you're gonna do things in the order written. You know what? Five PM is pissing me off today. Motherfuckers, you're doing Metcon first. Like enjoy your back squats afterward, you know, that sort of thing. But I I wanna have that flexibility and y we we @misfitcoach: Yeah. Hunter: want, you know, there there's a certain there are certain constraints that get put on when you're writing a plan for an unknown number of people at an unknown gym with unknown athletes and unknown capabilities. So there there's a there's a level of genericness to the to some of the stuff. I'm not saying that they're generic warm-ups, but I it's just more of like, hey, don't forget to mix in like weird shit, f something you find on Instagram that might be cool for your affiliates and stuff like that. @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. Hunter: It doesn't need to be one by ten RDL into one by ten deadlift from the knee to the hip every time, you know what I mean? @paige_semenza: Yeah. I mean I think like you're saying too, every gym is different, right? It's a snowflake, everybody every coach has a different way of coaching, but like seeing the way somebody who's gone through the level four and has that experience is really, really valuable. and there's always I I'm sure you can look at each one and take s take some sort of nugget away. but the other way that I was thinking about this, like as you guys are talking, I'm like, this is a lot like our athlete IQ. We talk about athlete IQ all the time. Like this is your coach IQ. Like, write up a class plan and see like go back and review it. Like if you are still developing as a coach, you have something now black and white written on paper that you can be like, Did I follow according to plan? Where did I go off script? did I need to go off script? Or like, am I executing in a way that is like proper time management and does it fit in with like my own uniqueness to coaching. So I just feel like there's a lot of things that you can do with writing a class plan as far as like, you know, learning what works for you and what doesn't as well. Hunter: I think that's a that's also another good point is that like you can write down a plan that looks good on paper, you can execute the plan exactly on paper and then y I can look around at my athletes and be like, Nobody's fucking ready for the intensity of this workout. Like I we did the thing, we prepped them like on paper, we did all the things correct, but like it th I I did it too slowly, there wasn't enough to like keep the athlete like keep their body temperature warm. It's it's fucking cold in here. They you know, they weren't moving around a whole lot. And it turns out that even though this plan was executed perfectly, peop the it the the d the warm up didn't serve the intended purpose of elevate core temperature, get joints lubricated, get heart rates up, be ready for intensity. Even though I did all I did all the things, but like again, there's nuance to it. Like @paige_semenza: Right. Hunter: Did and and and and w what that comes down to is are you the on the coach paying attention to like the index card of like, well, this is the next thing, or can you like, okay, this is the next thing, but I'm looking at everybody, they're like, People are moving really poorly, like they don't @paige_semenza: Mm. Hunter: nobody's awake, nobody's paying at like what do I what do I need to audible on the fly in order to make this like to get this train back on the tracks? So, @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: again, it just all goes down to it's a it's a template, it's you know There is a teleprompter, but you're allowed to not be Ron Burgundy with it. @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: Ha. @misfitcoach: Education, information, perspective, not like blueprint basically. Hunter: Yes. Perfect. Yep. @misfitcoach: All right, let's get into the actual nuts and bolts of the next seven weeks here with this phase. So heavy days. the way that we do things at Misfit Affiliate for the most part is you're gonna have a bias on a particular lift. and that is going to show up in so we have front squat for this phase, weeks One, three, five, and seven have heavy front squats as a standalone you know, sort of just traditional strength work. and then weeks two, four, and six, we put those heavy front squats into workouts. and the really cool thing about it is we have found at the affiliate level that we get better just sort of adherence. And, you know, when we do the test retest models, they work better when we do it in this way versus the just, you know, every Wednesday it's this, and then maybe members are missing certain days, or maybe members are skipping because they're bored. there are probably a bunch of different reasons why. It works a little bit better. But so we have just those alternating weeks of out of the workout, into the workout. And in this phase specifically, the in-between weeks have what we consider our GPP lift rotation. just a bit more of providing variance through which lifts we're doing, what percentages we're doing, how many reps, how many sets, all of that good stuff. And I believe all three weeks of that in phase one. are a variation of an Olympic lift. So we're really kind of making that transition from a bit more traditional quote unquote slow strength squat bench deadlift to front squat and then being more dynamic with the power clean, with the squat snatch, things of that nature. Now here's a question. This is something that has been a topic of conversation at Misfit Athletics for a long time. How much of front squatting is skill versus strength? @paige_semenza: Hm. @misfitcoach: And I will lump mobility into skill because the position that you are able to get into often is a barrier to entry for performing the skill. Hunter: Yeah, my my argument is it's when you it you we we always had that argument but didn't it was like where does mobility fall into that? For me it's it's it's at @misfitcoach: Yes, exactly. Right. Hunter: at the affiliate level, that is the thing. it's it's @misfitcoach: Yep. Agreed. Hunter: the it's it's the mobility component to it. It's like, you know, the reason that we do the @misfitcoach: I can't really teach you the skill of front squatting if you can't do it. Yeah. Hunter: Right. It's like and yeah, exactly. It's like this the skill the skill is dependent on your ability to get into the positions. Your ability to get into the positions is dependent on your mobility. so I think that but we also know that like weightlifting is the best mobility that you can do. You could spend you can do your static stretches, you can do your pliability, you can do your mobility wad, whatever it is, but unless you are like putting yourself in the positions that you are trying to improve, you're not going to improve those positions. So yeah, I think at the affiliate level it all comes down to, you know, are you somebody who sits at a computer all day? So your your upper your upper back is just naturally in a a bit of a, you know, rounded position. It's gonna make it really hard to to keep the bar over your heels and it's you know, or the middle of your foot and the middle of your hips and it's it's just gonna come forward on you. So that yeah, the pretty simple answer for me is the the mobility component is the limiter there. @paige_semenza: Yeah. I mean I agree. Especially at the affiliate level, right? Like, I mean you Like it you're talking about competition, it's like, all right, you're you're gonna spend a lot more time doing these things. You're gonna spend a lot more time in in positions and your activation work and it's like at the affiliate level, for the most part you got sixty to seventy five minutes a day with somebody. So if you're if you're not g like if you don't have access to those positions, well you you gotta spend time somewhere. Right? So like I agree. I think the mobility is is Gonna come first, for sure. Hunter: I think it opens up @misfitcoach: And one go ahead, Hunter. Hunter: I I just think it it also opens it's it provides an opportunity for a coach to talk about l you know, again, depends on how deep you want to get into the weeds in this stuff, but when you know, I'm @misfitcoach: Deep. Hunter: talking to an athlete, yeah, d exactly. It's like @misfitcoach: Yeah. Hunter: the we've I you know, I talked to it's funny though, 'cause we were just finishing up the back squat phase. Last week we were talking with some people on back squatting and I had I had one athlete where I made a super small change, which was like Hey, the bar is sitting like on top of your traps directly under like your cervical spine. I want you to move the bar down so it's like it's still on your shoulders, but it's at the base of your traps instead of like sitting on top of your traps. So I've effectively just moved the bar a little bit lower down their body. What they don't understand is that I've also moved it backward slightly. So that it it's not, it's not only it's not only lower, but it's slightly further back behind them. And that provides them with a little bit more of kind of flexibility as far as like it, you know, for a lot of affiliate athletes, it's not realistic to squat, to back squat with a super upright torso. so moving that bar down, we don't we don't go as far as like a low bar squat. And that it it's helpful to talk to athletes like, think about the extremes. Okay, I put the bar all the way on your traps, I put the bar. on your shoulder blades, a low bar squat. What what do those two positions force you to do? Well if the bar is super low on my scaps, like I need to stick my butt back further, which means my torso needs to be pitched a little bit more forward. And to the athlete, it's like, well, this feels really different. And then as a coach, it's like, this is where if you want the athlete wants to hear me talk gloriously about the differences between the squats, like You can explain to them like, hey, well, we've moved the bars, you know, the the center of gravity is now different, which means your positioning's gonna be different. by the way, like because your body proportions are this, it actually makes more sense for your squat to look a little bit more like this and to put the bar in this spot on your back versus this spot. The front squat's the same thing. You can have that conversation about to an athlete about like, hey, why is it that My back squat feels so comfortable, my front squat doesn't. Or there's people who are in the complete opposite where it's like, why the fuck is my back squat basically the same as my front squat? It's like, well, here's here's a couple of reasons. Like your body proportions, your mobility, where you know, where you derive your strength from in like the muscles in your body. Like you're maybe you're more of a quad dominant lifter. And the fact that you have good mobility means that your front squat is proportionally way easier than a back squat which might require more posterior chain strength. so you can start to have these conversations about like, hey, this is this is why we do these movements versus like certainly we could make you back squat and lift a lot more weight, but here's the utility in a front squat. Here's the value in it. Here, by the way, it also translates to this movement or that movement. But all of this stuff kind of provides you as the coach with an opportunity to explain to athletes who want to listen like This is you know, big picture. This is why CrossFit works. There's little nuances here that over a long enough period of time actually make a difference in your fitness. by the way, your front rack sucks. Let's improve that. @misfitcoach: Yeah. The it's funny, I think when when you're talking, I was thinking about the way we deliver squat mechanics. I think in the CrossFit community is largely related to an air squat. And a lot of what we are doing manipulates what happens within your hips and the bottom half, we'll call it the bottom half of your spine. and then when I Talk to other coaches or we're doing a training camp and I explain that like the shoulder joint and what's happening in the top half of your back is actually very kind of similar in terms of the way that you can manipulate it. Like you can see the light bulb moment kind of go off. And it's one of those things where like If you have history with squatting, you kind of know what your squat pattern is like. So I think you can move the needle more with the upper body in the front squat than you can the lower body, especially if you are also doing things like back squats as part of your program. And it's like, Hunter: Yeah, for sure. @misfitcoach: if I can stack my you know, my mid back all the way up through my C spine, then I can move a lot of weight. And of course It's challenging at the affiliate level because you have to know who's allowed to have one finger on the bar and who you're getting real Hunter: Ha ha ha. @misfitcoach: annoying with and saying, hey, like we talk about @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: big toe and heel down, knee outside of the foot. We actually have an exactly similar version here where big toe and heel are your thumb being wrapped. And then instead of your knee going out, it's your elbow going in. And it's like we can trace from the hand down to the elbow and back into the shoulder. And so many people are so obsessed with trying to get their elbows up and get into like a potentially overextended, not strong position. And it's like actually, if you wind them in and up once again, you can create a situation where the muscles in your upper back feel like safe to be actually on. Like imagine your upper back being engaged during a front squat versus like holding Hunter: Yeah, yeah. @paige_semenza: Crazy. @misfitcoach: on for dear life, that sort of thing. So obviously I'm coming from a world where I'm almost always trying to optimize for like how much can you front squat, then therefore how much can you clean? So you have to know where you need to be with that athlete in the moment. But I find too many coaches are so locked in on squat mechanics that they forget that the front rack with a heavy load is something that you can manipulate just as much, if not more, than the lower half. Hunter: Yeah, and I mean you can also the way that an athlete front squats probably gives you more just a a better look into their overall capability compared not @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. @misfitcoach: Mm-hmm. Hunter: not necessarily strength wise, but right it's like someone could back squat a house but they their upper their or their front rack position is is one of these guys, you know, you you @misfitcoach: Yeah. Hunter: you can learn a lot about an athlete and be like, okay, I see what's I see what's going on here and then that can inform how you modify them in the future or th talk to them about like improvements. It's like, hey man, you're you're clearly not lacking in squat strength, but like and even your even your your wrists, you know, your wrists don't hurt you when you front squat, but your elbows are way down. It's like, well, like, what do you do? You you work at a desk all day? Yeah, here here's why. Like those shoulder blades are are not are not moving in any of the directions that they're supposed to. And @misfitcoach: They're glued. Hunter: like that's your they're just fucking glued down with Elmer's school glue. you know, h here's actually the thing. The thing that is gonna improve your front squat is not front squatting. It's like, dear, take this lacrosse ball, hold on to that for a little while, get get close with it. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: Yep. And listen, I can tell you as y you can cosplay as a strong person if you can figure out how to front squat correctly. Okay. Hunter: Ha ha ha. @misfitcoach: I'm just putting that out there, right? Like there are lifts. Hunter: Does it does have that advantage. @misfitcoach: There are lifts where you just you're not playing with the big boys, but then ask them to get into a front rack and you can pretend that you're as strong as them for a whole phase. It's fantastic. Hunter: S @misfitcoach: All right, let's talk about the gymnastics bias. We've got the total bar here. Same concept, standalone gymnastics strength sessions, whatever you want to call them, skill sessions, alternate with in workout sessions, with the total bar. And I I don't want to skip ahead, but the idea of Everything that's happening within a total bar makes it such an awesome movement for a programmer and a coach to use to bias. And one of the ways that we can look at that is we just spent two phases really, you know, nailing down the strict pulling. And what you need to do in a strict pull-up. to maximize how well like how how successful you're gonna be within them and within the program, when it comes to your grip and your upper back and even your midline and the position that you're in so that you're not kind of swinging all over the place translates so well. as a progression from that to the actual total bar itself. And I think the athletes that really bought in to try to to advance their strict pulling are gonna notice a much bigger difference. I don't think that's always something, a connection that's made with the athletes themselves. but man, when you're when your grip and your upper back and your midline are where they need to be you notice massive differences in your capacity within toas to bar, which are the kind of movement which can, you know, if you don't like you're not good at it can stop you dead in your tracks pretty damn quickly. @paige_semenza: Yeah. I was just gonna say, like eventually you're gonna, you know, ten fresh toes to bar versus being able to repeatedly do them under fatigue, like it's just a different you know, you're I you're gonna see two different skills there. So seeing @misfitcoach: yeah. @paige_semenza: all the strict pulling kinda, you know, go into this phase I think will be a really big eye opener for a lot of people. @misfitcoach: Yeah, for sure. And with the total bar itself to to like double down on that. Again, grip, upper back, really getting back behind the bar. there's a lot of, you know, kind of proprioception there. There's a lot of, you know, that skill element of it's like the barrier to entry isn't super high. But once you get your toes to bar, there's a l so much that can be done to refine them. Like anytime I get a new remote client, it's like, yeah, I love total bar. And it's like We could get you to like total bar even more. Watch this. Hunter: Ha ha ha. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: You know what I mean? Like get to a point, and then you, you know, you get the the video of the set of fifty, and you're like, there it is. There it is. That's when grip and back and midline come together with you actually moving well. so to me, it's a really cool sweet spot at the affiliate level for like it's gonna move the needle for fitness, we're gonna get the grip going, we're gonna get the upper back going, we're gonna get the midline going. So we're tackling a bunch of stuff at once. It actually is pretty high skill, but you can get get the hang of it without the like super high barrier to entry. so it's it's one of my it might be my favorite pulling movement from a programming standpoint, a coaching standpoint at the affiliate level. Hunter: Yeah, definitely has an accessibility element for everybody that I think is it's Yeah. Yeah. We @misfitcoach: But it's not easy, right? It's not like it's not super simple. Yeah. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: can we can make it hard. But yeah, the grip, the I think the transition from the strict pulling into that, the the grip thing is huge, not on not from exclusively from just a like you want to get be quote good at CrossFit, but there's a just such a important fitness element to having to being able to like grip. hold on to something for an extended period of time and then it just translates so well to some of the things that we do and you can hold on to a bar for longer, you can hold on to a barbell, a pull up bar, a dumbbells or kettlebells when you're doing step ups or farmers carries and shit like that. It just opens up a lot of opportunity for fitness. @paige_semenza: Yeah, like you Yeah, like you don't solve getting better at toes to bar by doing more toes to bar necessarily, right? Like all these other movements play into it. Hunter: Right, true. @paige_semenza: The grip strength of the all the strict pulling that they did. So @misfitcoach: Yeah, and that's for me been, you know, side tangent here, really eye-opening for me personally, is like the thing currently that is holding my strength back more than anything else is my grip endurance. because I've gotten to the point where I do a ton of accessory work and I can't I can't say do 120 or 130 pounds for my, you know, bigger sets of of lap pull downs because my grip fails. Like I can't catch. my grip strength up to how strong my back is. I can't catch my grip strength up, you know, to the point where even, you know, some certain shoulder or tricep exercises, like I can tell while I'm doing it, like the greatest point of failure is these tendons right here are just Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: singing while I'm trying to do it. @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: And I'm like, God, I could put a crazy amount of weight on for this exercise. if I could hold on to, you know, whatever, 130 pounds for and I'm doing like 50, 60 reps, I'm doing a lot over the course of a workout, but like I keep my all of the other muscle groups keep surpassing my grip over and over. And and like I could get significantly stronger if I take the time to do the actual grip work. Hunter: Yeah. this is a a side tangent to the side tangent is like @paige_semenza: Hmm. Hunter: that's a super under like probably under I don't know what the term is under thought of reason why it's like people like your elbow hurts, your shoulder hurts. It's like we've got @misfitcoach: yeah. Hunter: all of these tools in a CrossFit @paige_semenza: Fix your grip. Hunter: gym. It's funny, we talk like someone in our one of our group or like chats in our s in the app that we use is like, Hey, I've got I've got grips. They're this size, free to whoever wants them. And it's like someone is just like, I want Like my grip stinks. And I'm like, I I pop in there, I'm like, hot take, it's not your grips, it's your grip, you know? And it's like, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: Yeah. Hunter: got, like, man, we got we've got these tools. We don't wanna I don't wanna dissuade somebody from using a tool that's helpful, but in that instance, it's like Man, some of the grips that we have nowadays you can you flop that thing over a pull up bar and and your grip is not only not a factor, but it's like not even used. @misfitcoach: I've heard the chocolates, the new chocolate grips are like you can literally just hang on to a pull-up bar all day long with no grip strength. That sounds terrible for your joints. @paige_semenza: Glue. Hunter: They're just fucking glue and it's like, okay, good for you, but like yeah, it's like @paige_semenza: Right. Hunter: you're you're you're the the first thing in the chain of command is like is not strong enough to do the thing that you want to do. It's like I have an idea, a hundred butterfly @misfitcoach: Yeah. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: pull ups, my grip can't take it, but my shoulders definitely can. It's like get your fucking grip stronger, folks. @misfitcoach: Yeah, I I've unfortunately the only like I've only had minor we'll call it like adjacent rhabdo adjacent moments Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and the ones where I get talked into doing like a 10 round workout that's got 10 pull-ups in each round, and my grips are perfectly fine with holding me on for 10 pull-ups. And I can tell in the moment, like I really should come down right now. I really for the sake of the next ninety-six hours, @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I should really come off the pull-up bar. Am I going Hunter: Yeah yeah. Dude. @misfitcoach: to come off the pull-up bar? You know? You know, I'm racing someone. I got those are the best. Hunter: We Chris Chris brought these in. They're man, back in the day, three @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: hundred and fifty pounds of resistance. Like I like barely fucking close this thing. @misfitcoach: I do I do drop sets with those bad boys every week. So I do as many as I can at the heaviest and then I rest and then I do as many as I can at the next one and I go all the way down the line and I've got my little Hunter: I'm gonna got f @misfitcoach: fucking spreadsheet that's like I finally got six at this weight. Hunter: Yeah. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: The lightest one Chris brought in, I I can like barely I can't I can't cl correct. No, you can't squeeze any of them. I think I'm gonna put I think I might put on a wall, @misfitcoach: so he didn't bring any of the ones in that you can actually just like hammer out. Hunter: like put just set one like a whole like one on each one and label them like like you probably can't, you definitely can't, don't even bother. Like @paige_semenza: Ha ha Hunter: this is hilarious. Like it just @misfitcoach: You know who can do all of those? My dad. Yeah. Yeah. He I Hunter: Yeah, that checks out. That checks out. Again. @misfitcoach: I swear to God, he does like secret forearm work like that no one knows about. Like he's in the shadows. He's just doing wrist curls all day Hunter: He might I hope so. T @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: with like hundreds. But yeah, he just literally just what's wrong? Why is this hard? Damn it. Yeah. Hunter: Just got a fucking bucket of rice in his l in his right at his bedstand. He's just like reading book in one hand, got his hand below it in the other, just digging for rice. @misfitcoach: I believe it. @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: all right. Hunter: See it. @misfitcoach: conditioning. Guess what? Four to six days a week of conditioning. Hunter: Are we doing that still? @paige_semenza: Crazy. @misfitcoach: and we are keeping that running, keeping that running bias going here. Plenty of variants running, rowing, biking, burpees, double unders, all of the monostructural elements. But while we can with the weather in North America. we are going to put more running that doesn't have like a machine substitution sort of alongside it there. running is one of those things where exposure itself is so incredibly important. And one of the reasons we know this is because we I live in I live in a tropical climate now. but I'll I'll pretend I don't just for a second here. We get to experience that thing every year where you're in shape and you feel good and you get that first that first, you know, maybe some four hundreds or five hundreds or dare I say eight hundreds come out and you're not in running shape. And part of that's athlete IQ, part of that is, you know, getting your ankles and your Achilles and your knees and your hips kind of, you know, back into that whole world. but exposure. to that moving your body through space is so important and moves the needle every time for every person at every level. Whereas you can park yourself on a machine if you're of the right size or fitness level and you can get by with maybe gaming the system a little bit on some of these machines that we use. You ain't gaming shit when you're out there pounding the pavement. so when we can do it, we will continue to do it. you know, sort of on that at least once a week type schedule. and of course we're going to continue to do that and gyms, you know, will have the option to swap in machines when they need to. But I just think it's really important to always reiterate that having a running culture at your gym will move the needle on, you know, just the fitness level that your athletes have, whether they like it or not. Hunter: Yeah, I I think it's also really easy for people to coaches to you know, you you might have athletes who have legitimate reasons why they can't currently or historically haven't run. and this isn't to say that, you know, if someone's someone has an injury, don't make run. Someone comes in and is just like, I just can't run. It's like you can't run y like you did to be clear, you did park your car and you walked into the gym, right? So you can walk, correct? It's like, well, yeah. It's like, okay. Can you can you jog across the gym for me real quick? It's like, just go jog to the door. It's like 50 feet. It's like, okay. So you can jog 50 feet. It's like, hear me out. Like, jog there and jog back. Like go touch the door and come back. And all of a sudden it's like, okay. So like you are ambulatory, right? And so are we are we nervous about like the difference between walking and like walking faster? Or is it like Is it like legitimately run it? It's like there's there's a there's a whole spectrum between I'm walking around the mall and I'm running five by four hundred meters during Nancy. And like there is a way to bridge that gap. We've done I've done that more recently. We've had a lot of folks who are like in that category where it's like maybe they're a little bit older, they've got junky knees, they got junky hips or whatever, and it's like, well, you you also haven't When's the last time you ran? It was like ten years ago. It's like, yeah, no no one like got it. @paige_semenza: Mm. Hunter: You don't run, but like you walk, right? If you had to run, you could. So hear me out. Like, let's do it in very controlled measured doses. And that might be like, hey, it's a four hundred meter run. Great. You're gonna run fifty of those meters before you go on the bike. I've had done a lot of like sled pushing for people. It's like, okay, you can't run. Well, you can you can walk with a sled, right? So like, okay, walk with the sled. Get people moving on their own two feet and try to like bridge the gap between, you know, w what what is it? Is it like that you just don't like the word run? Is it the total distance that's making you nervous? Is it a legitimate injury? Is it just I haven't done this in a while? But there's lots of ways to bridge the gap in that volume, or in the like, you know, in in the movement, if it's a volume thing, it's like, okay, we're just gonna run like a little bit. And then you can get on a machine. And next time we run a little bit more, maybe maybe you run in the warmups when we're when we're warming up and there's running and then we put you on a machine in the workout. But it can't be barring a legitimate significant injury. It's like, I just don't run. It's like, bitch, like, are @misfitcoach: Yeah. Hunter: you a human being? Like, yeah, @paige_semenza: I'm just a level two athlete. Hunter: like, good, got it, heard. @misfitcoach: Label yourself as much as possible. See if you can box yourself in. Yeah. Hunter: Level two's workout is a ten K run today, got it. @paige_semenza: Right. @misfitcoach: All right. the other two things that we'll we'll address here fairly quickly before the end of this podcast. Number one, reminder to potential new people on Misfit affiliate and then to our coaches that may be don't always open their inbox on their email. the engine class is now day seven, officially day seven of every week. So it's gonna be an engine class on Sundays. really popular class, really popular way to end the week or kind of transition into the beginning of the week. I at Misfitch in Portland, that that class is always packed. And it's really just at the end of the day, a way for athletes to come in on the weekend, get nice and sweaty and typically a little bit of a kind of a longer duration type workout. low to no skill, you know, lighter weights, things of that nature. you know, the kind of thing where a bunch of people Mai keeps poking her head in the window there. Hunter: Well @misfitcoach: a bunch of people that, you know, can just come in and and get after it on Sundays. so that that's the kind of workout where like traditionally I just think on the weekends, things like the big group class, you know, where you're partnering up on Saturdays and then potentially a, you know, a long medium to slow slog on Sundays, is is something that members enjoy. probably a little bit of just kind of a change up from what they're doing all week also. It's @paige_semenza: Mm. @misfitcoach: probably one of the reasons why they like it. but that's gonna be day seven every single week in the in the kind of just in line with the programming. And then another thing that you're gonna see you know, five days a week every week is the competitor extra. and the competitor extra is What I feel is a retention tool in gyms. If you end up with a gym that has an open gym culture, where people come in and they follow this company's program and that company's program, your retention of those members, there isn't really going to be a like super strong connection between, you know, them and your gym. So if they find out that there's another gym that's cheaper, that is a twenty four hour, they get their own access, they don't have to sign up. If that barrier to entry changes, then there's a good chance that you don't Have them as a member anymore because they don't get the coaching, they don't get the community, the camaraderie, all that good stuff. So with the competitor extra, you can say, of course, we hope that it's for a competitor, but volume junkies exist. They're people too. they're gonna come to your gym, you're gonna have some of them and they're gonna want some extra stuff to do. And at least we can make sure that it's structured and varied within that. And in terms of continuing on our year-long priorities with the competitor extra. I am all in on making them rowing monsters. So if your gen pop is is in there running one to two times a week, then we're hoping your competitors are also rowing, probably with also with the programming. It's gonna be two to three times a week. and we're gonna transition throughout the year with some rotations of zone two to aerobic work to anaerobic work to power output. Then we'll kind of transition back through. And it's not sexy and it's not the easiest thing to sell. but it will move the needle in a pretty big way. alongside that, we're still transitioning through the different ways that we know how to help affiliate athletes with technique in their Olympic lifts. they're gonna get stronger, they're gonna get fitter in the affiliate class, and of course, their technique is going to improve with the Olympic lifts, but if they really wanna. double and triple down on that if it's a weakness. we're making that a priority. and then last but not least here is just the long, slow gymnastics progressions. We're doing, you know, you're pulling gymnastics, you're pressing gymnastics, and we're doing similar sessions sprinkled throughout the weeks over the course of the year. And with a level of patience, we can get athletes from sets of 10 toes to bar to sets of 12 to sets of 15. And it's just kind of that long, slow linear progression over the course of the year. So those are the things that we're focusing on alongside alongside some strength endurance stuff. And I think it's a really good complement to the program and a really good way to get athletes to stay in classes and then add that extra to turn it into a c more competitive programming afterwards. All right. Last but not least, @paige_semenza: Get real fit on it. @misfitcoach: coaches are people too. Who wants to go first? What do we got going on in the world? @paige_semenza: I was in Florida this weekend with my family and it's been a busy summer. That's all I gotta say. It's been a a fun, busy summer. we have Asbury Park games coming up, so we have a bunch of teams from our gym going there. I'll go and spectate and wear my coach's hat and see which friends need emotional support. So it'll be fun. Hunter: All of @misfitcoach: Noise. @paige_semenza: Pretty much. @misfitcoach: Carter incidentally has been speaking like a bank robber recently. and not just a bank robber, but like in the tone or in the like wording Hunter: Sick. I love that phase of childhood, criminal. @paige_semenza: Criminal. @misfitcoach: that a potential bank robber don't nobody move, is really just @paige_semenza: Ha ha ha. @misfitcoach: the crossover of toddler English to what a bank robber would say. And he even says freeze sometimes, but it's basically like he doesn't want to go to bed, get in the tub, go to, you know, sit, get in his high chair @paige_semenza: Rebel. @misfitcoach: for dinner. So the the thing that worked forever was would you like to go get in your chair or do you want me to set a timer? And then when the timer, when Alexa goes off with the timer, psychologically, I guess it's someone else telling him he needs to get in his chair. So he will adhere Hunter: Right. @misfitcoach: to the rules. Now he doesn't, he's like, you know, he knows that if he says another timer, I'm just gonna say no. so he goes to his spots where I have to like really work to get to him. You know, he's pretty good at like, we're gonna run around this coffee table 50 times. and starts yelling, don't nobody move. And Maya and I try so hard to like, cause when we laugh at him and he's really pissed, that doesn't usually go over all that well. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: All right, yeah. For you. @misfitcoach: so we're trying so hard, like we flash each other a look. And I'm like, this kid sounds like a bank robber. Like Yeah, right? I mean, yes, we are. We are one hundred percent being held up. Yeah. I know Hunter: We we being held up right now? You are, yeah, you are for sure. Being been been getting held up for the last three years. @paige_semenza: Yeah. We're hungry. @misfitcoach: everyone already knows this. Terrible twos, not really a thing. Three year olds are a crazy breed. Two year olds @paige_semenza: Yeah. @misfitcoach: are pun not intended, child's play. Like you could do you grab the two-year-old. He ain't going anywhere. Three-year-old boy. My goodness. You better be ready. You better be ready to rock. Don't nobody move. Hunter: Damn. That's incredible. Don't know what you freeze. That's awesome. @misfitcoach: So good. Yep. Yep. Hunter: yep, the hunter's handicap update. We're back under eight, down to seven seven point five. Yep, had a good weekend, finally hit. Sh @misfitcoach: Ooooo Yep. I didn't know they did decimals. Hunter: yeah, yep. Goto. There's a long there's a long way to go between like seven and then six. Even @misfitcoach: Yep. Gotta have the decimals. Yeah. Mm. Hunter: even bigger jump between one and zero. yep, managed personal best is now seventy five. So we like that. Playing some played some decent golf. Played good golf this weekend, which means the next ten to fourteen days are gonna make me want to jump off a bridge, which I'm hoping will time out right for our club championship in like two weeks @paige_semenza: Nice. Hunter: for me to be like back on the rebound of of back into @misfitcoach: Okay. The ebbs and flows. Are they predictable? Hunter: to good golf. they're predictable in the sense that if you play well you're almost certain to play like dog shit next. So I I did the yeah, I had a bad @misfitcoach: How long can you be on a roll? Not long? Hunter: so far so far three rounds appears to be the the the biggest role. Yeah, this the Friday, @misfitcoach: okay. All right. Hunter: Saturday, Sunday of this week was good, so we'll s we'll see. But yeah, golf, golf golf is golfing, gym is gymming, the misfits are fucking @paige_semenza: Misfitting. Hunter: every single one of these fucking goobers. I hope they're listening. Love all. @paige_semenza: Yeah. Hunter: Fucking kill all of at the same time. @misfitcoach: Ha ha ha. @paige_semenza: Ha ha ha Hunter: They're perfect. @misfitcoach: that's so good. I had a I had a call with a prospective Hunter: Yep. No. It really is. They know. @paige_semenza: So relatable. @misfitcoach: remote client and he's making the connection in his head of his narrative is like I suck. He's also a golfer. I think he shoots Hunter: Ooh. @misfitcoach: regularly, like in the low seventies. And he's like, Hunter: Damn. @misfitcoach: I don't know if you know anything about golf, but like I think I suck at golf, but like Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: I shot a seventy-two or something like that. And I was like Well, I broke fifty once on nine holes. So I think I can wrap my mind around what it would take potentially to shoot a 72. Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: and that never ever ever being a realistic thing. So if that's you sucking, then it probably means that we need to talk about like your inner voice a little bit more than Hunter: Right. @misfitcoach: whether you suck at crossfitting golf or not. Hunter: Yeah. If he golfs and does CrossFit then you've got an avenue to talk about the inner voice for sure. Yeah. So @misfitcoach: Right? yeah. god. That was that's like the reason I quit golf. No one was ever having fun, and all they talked about was how much they loved it. It's like, well, why is your Hunter: Yeah, it's terrible. @misfitcoach: driver in the marsh? Why is @paige_semenza: Mm-hmm. Hunter: Ha ha. @misfitcoach: your driver in the cattails? Why is it miserable golfing with you? Because you're a psycho. Like, Hunter: Yeah. @misfitcoach: what do you mean? How is it the best? Like, I'm not following what's going on here. It's like a masochist. Hunter: And that's the worst. Yeah. Yeah, no, and it is it is truly like Yeah, there there's just no end to it. It's you're you get a little bit better and it's one of those things where it's like you don't get you don't get better so rapidly that you can be like, you know what? Like it was only like two months ago that I was shooting in the nineties and now I'm shooting in the seventies. It's like it's so painstaking that like that the distance between when you were actually bad to now is like you you kind of forget about it. It's just like it's just like any s any @paige_semenza: Mm. Hunter: sport where it's like I'm just terrible at this. It's like, well, compared to when you started, @misfitcoach: And I Hunter: you're very good, but @misfitcoach: in relative fitness, all I'm doing all day is watching telegram and fitter scores pump through that I could never get myself to do. My body's not gonna do that. I need I need Hunter: Right. And they're all terrible at CrossFit. @misfitcoach: some some special hormones and to quit my job to be able to hit those times. So same thing in fitness, right? Like, yeah, I've knocked four seconds off my first gear split and I'm still ten seconds slower than this person. Like, this sucks. I suck at this. Yep. Hunter: Yeah. Yeah. @misfitcoach: Damn it. It's all relative. All right. We do it. Hunter: Che yeah. @paige_semenza: We did it. @misfitcoach: Thank you for tuning into another episode of the Misfit Podcast. You can head to misfitathletics.com. We're all under one website now. There's no teammisfit.com. Click on the old affiliate programming button and you can get signed up for your two-week free trial at StreamFit, SugarWad, or PushPress, or you can email me directly, coach at misfitathletics.com. I will send you the program and we can chat about it. If you are a former Misfit affiliate, member, gym, affiliate, et cetera. I will give you an entire one month for free so that you can figure out whether the leveling and class plans is something that's going to work well at your affiliate. Thank you to Gorilla Mind for sponsoring this episode of the podcast, GorillaMind.com forward slash Misfit or use the code word misfit at checkout. You save on the best supplements in the game and we get a kickback to help support the show. See you guys next week.