May & June RevoFit Programming – Pick Your Adventure!

This time of year, programming for group classes in Missoula is tricky. We strive to serve our member base as best we can, however, some of you are deep in Marathon prep or biking during wildflower as much as possible and some of you are trying to stay on the gains train. 

This program gives you the option to do either depending on your own goals. The trick is the medicine – or poison – is in the dose. 

In addition to reading about our current RevoFit programming, I’d encourage you to check out the emails (and upcoming blog posts) about how to approach your overall volume as summer approaches and we all get out on the trails more and juggle our gym time with our outdoor adventures.

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Day 1 — Strength Is A Skill, Hone It Or It Dulls

As the seasons change, so do our priorities in and out of the gym. As far as training goes, that means focusing on different aspects of fitness over the course of the year. 

As someone who has coached active adults and athletes for over a decade, I’ve noticed a pattern that we’ve attempted to mitigate for our members as seasons change. A lot of athletes (If you bike or run all summer, you’re an athlete) work hard all winter to build strength, then watch it slowly slip away once the trails open up.

Long runs and big bike days are catabolic by nature — they burn through muscle tissue as fuel, especially as volume climbs and fueling gets more difficult. Without a dedicated strength stimulus in the mix, you can lose not only strength but tissue integrity over a summer and spend the fall trying to earn it back. 

The problem is, without the reps, you will likely need to start from scratch in the fall as opposed to jumping right back into a strength program. 

Day 1 is designed to prevent that. We’re keeping the volume moderate and the compound movements concise so that you can be as efficient in the gym as possible. Studies show that you don’t need a lot of lifting volume to maintain strength while you’re in season. You need enough intensity and consistency. One focused strength session a week can hold on to the neurological and structural adaptations you’ve built, keep your connective tissue resilient, and support bone density at a time when your training priorities are elsewhere.

The movement choices here are also deliberate. Cyclists spend a lot of time in a slouched position and living in external rotation. Runner’s often live in extension and anterior tilt outside the gym. These positions aren’t inherently bad, but you really want the ability to get out of them or you risk overuse injury. It’s just the nature of the activities. We’ll help with movements that help strengthen what you need and give you the ability to reposition when needed.

Are you more concerned with the gains train rather than outdoor endurance sports? No problem. Instead of approaching this program at 65-75% of max effort, this rep scheme can double as a very effective strength program with a classic 5 rep scheme that has been used to maximize strength gains in the strength and condition world for decades. 

Let it rip.

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Day 2 — Plyometrics and Power Endurance – Gravity Can Wreck You If You Let It

Missoula is not flat. If you’re a gravel or mountain biker you likely know this well, it’s tough to warm up with every trailhead that starts going uphill immediately. 

And what goes up, must come down.

Which is why I’m going to quickly remind you of high school physics for a moment – Force = Mass x Acceleration. Everything we do outside of the gym is heavily affected by gravity.

Descending is hard on the body in a way that’s different from climbing. When you’re going downhill, gravity is adding to your bodyweight, and your muscles and tendons have to absorb all of that force repeatedly, stride after stride. This is true whether you’re running downhill, hiking with a pack, or riding a bike. 

The ability to do that without your quads blowing up, your knees taking a beating, or your lower back getting destroyed is a trainable quality. Which is why plyometrics are so important. Day 2 starts with running form warm-ups before moving into plyometrics built around deceleration and force absorption. These aren’t just basic box jumps. They’re designed to train your tissue to eccentrically (lengthening under load) in a fluid, athletic way while controlling your body and speed in space. Very different from controlling a barbell or reformer.

After our athletic plyometrics blocks, we’ll move on to High Intensity Continuous Training (HICT) which targets power endurance: your ability to keep generating power output even as fatigue accumulates. 

Once you’ve already accumulated some fatigue from plyometrics, we’ll target these qualities and energy systems to improve your medium to long term power output. The intention is to train your body to maintain quality movement when it’s already working hard, which is exactly what the second half of a long climb or a tough trail demands.

HICT is a sweatfest but it shouldn’t wreck you, so this should pair well with your training week.

HICT also is extremely effective conditioning for body composition – It can help skyrocket your mitochondria and glycolytic systems to be more efficient so you can get shredded for summertime on the river.

Win-win.

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Day 3 — High Resistance Intervals: Highly Versatile Conditioning 

Our conditioning day is another fun one and not nearly as difficult as the last couple Day 3’s from our previous training blocks. However, it offers some very beneficial outcomes if you’re consistent with it.

Day 3 will start with ladder and hurdle drills paired with partner med ball work. As Coach Bobby pointed out in our team meeting – Ladders are very beneficial for people of all ages because they help us maintain rhythm, coordination, and spatial awareness. Things often neglected in the gym. Plus, they’re fun. 

These matter more than people give them credit for, especially for trail runners navigating uneven terrain.

Then we’re moving on to High Resistance Interval sprints. Another Joel Jamieson special.

HRI sprints are short, high-effort bursts on the bike, rower, or ski erg with full recovery between efforts. 

Again, these fit perfectly in our programming this year because your effort level will dictate what you’re working on.

If you push to maximal effort for the 8-15 second bursts, they become a genuine performance stimulus, driving improvements in power output and alactic capacity. This helps train the “burst” in your power output when you want to rev the engine. 

If you scale it back about 15%, the same workout can double as a recovery and up-regulating day — what Joel Jamieson calls a “stim day” — that increases blood flow, clears out metabolic fatigue and byproducts, and leaves you feeling more ready for your next outdoor session than when you walked in. It can literally jumpstart your recovery. So if you’ve been accumulating more mileage, particularly running, this type of workout (with is moderate effort and low impact since you’re on machines) can give you a real boost heading into the weekend. Presumably, many of you have longer efforts planned on the weekends, and this workout can actually help you feel better prior to those adventures.

If you’ve already been ramping up mileage and the legs feel heavy, don’t skip Day 3. Scale it. Use it to recover. The structure supports that just as well as it supports pushing hard.

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What This Block Is Really About

Ultimately, real programming is heavily context dependent. For a group model, this allows you the flexibility to adjust our group workouts to better fit your needs.

As I often remind myself and my coaches, true coaching is in the debrief and the communication. It should be a collaborative process. So if you have any questions about how to manage your efforts both in and out of the gym, do no be shy to ask lots of questions. That’s what we’re here for.

We’ve put the structure in place. Your coaches are here to help you navigate it. Show up, tell them where you’re at, and let the program do its job.

See you on the floor.