With January solidifying your movement and tech, this months programming is shifting gears to bring you a powerful blend of Powerbuilding and Metabolic Conditioning. Whether you’re looking to build strength, improve muscular endurance, or cut a bit of fat, this month’s Lift It Up, Sweat It Up, and Tone It Up sessions are designed to cover all your bases.
Here’s what you can expect in each session and how to get the most out of your training this month:
This month’s Lift It Up sessions will focus on progressive overload, time under tension, and compound movements to maximize your strength.
Why We Use RPE, % and Back-Off Sets
- RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) ensures that you’re training at the right intensity without overreaching. If a set is at an RPE 8, it means you should have about 2 reps left in the tank. This keeps training productive while avoiding burnout.
- Percentage-Based Work (% of 1RM) allows you to build strength systematically by working within structured intensity zones to elicit specific adaptations, whether it’s hypertrophy, strength, or endurance.
- Back-Off Sets help reinforce technique, improve muscular endurance, and allow for volume accumulation without excessive fatigue. Dropping the weight by 10-20% after a heavy set ensures you maintain high-quality reps, reinforcing movement patterns and stimulating hypertrophy.
What The Body Will Experience
Expect your heavier sets to feel challenging but controlled. You should leave your hardest sets feeling like you could push a little more but without compromising form. Back-off sets should feel slightly easier, allowing for better execution and endurance.
What You Will Gain
- Increased Strength: The progressive overload approach builds raw power in major lifts.
- Muscle Growth: Controlled eccentric phases and high-tension work will enhance muscle tone, size and durability.
- Improved Lifting Efficiency: Strength gains translate into improved movement mechanics, which carry over to all fitness goals.
Our Sweat It Up sessions are designed to improve cardiovascular efficiency and muscular endurance. Expect high-intensity circuits, chipper-style workouts, and short rest intervals.
How We Designed It To Help Weight Loss & Toning:
- Caloric Burn: High-intensity workouts create a significant calorie deficit, helping with fat loss.
- Afterburn Effect (EPOC): Metabolic conditioning keeps your metabolism elevated for hours post-workout, increasing total calorie expenditure.
- Muscle Retention While Leaning Out: Unlike steady-state cardio, these workouts help maintain lean muscle mass while promoting fat loss, leading to a toned and athletic physique.
- Increased Work Capacity: You’ll be able to train harder for longer, improving overall performance across all training modalities.
Best Approach: Pace yourself in early rounds and push hard in the final phase to maximise conditioning adaptations. Monitor your heart rate and breathing to ensure you’re hitting the right intensity zones.
Tone It Up integrates controlled movements with high-volume sets, utilising resistance, tempo work, and functional patterns for muscle activation and endurance. Each week, one session will expand on Sweat It Up by incorporating metabolic elements, while the other session will build on Lift It Up with functional movement and mobility work.
Why We Combine MetCon & Functional Strength:
- MetCon Focused Session: This workout enhances endurance while reinforcing muscle activation and movement control under fatigue. It bridges the gap between conditioning and strength training, reinforcing both aspects for body composition improvements.
- Functional Patterns & Mobility Session: This session builds strength in fundamental movement patterns, correcting imbalances and increasing mobility. It’s designed to support heavy lifting days, prevent injury, and improve movement efficiency.
What You Will Feel:
- Expect to challenge your endurance and muscular stamina in one session, feeling a combination of cardio and strength fatigue.
- The functional strength session should feel like controlled effort, with focus on range of motion, core engagement, and stability.
What You'll Gain:
- Improved Muscle Definition: Combining strength with conditioning enhances muscle tone and overall aesthetics.
- Greater Core Strength & Stability: Strengthening fundamental movement patterns improves posture, lifting performance, and injury prevention.
- Increased Mobility & Control: Enhancing joint mobility and movement quality allows for better performance in heavy lifts and endurance workouts.
5 Tips to Maximise Your Training This Month
- Master Your Breathing: Control your breath during strength movements and pace your breathing in conditioning work. This will enhance core control and the ability to better regulate your nervous system
- Dial in Recovery: Prioritise mobility, hydration, and nutrition for optimal session performance. Spend time on the rollers before and after sessions. 1min will go a long way.
- Adjust Your Intensity: Push hard, but stay within the prescribed RPE to ensure progression without burnout. Speak to the coaches to make sure you are working in these prescriptions as well.
- Track Your Progress: Log weights, reps, and conditioning benchmarks to measure improvement. If you are not assessing you are guessing!
- Plan Your Week: Set up a weekly strategy, especially if you are still making a 2025 routine. This is as simple as every Saturday or Sunday spending 10mins to plan out your week. If you havn’t trained much recently, start simple with 1-2 sessions and look to grow in the future.
What Results Can You Expect?
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Increased strength and power output from progressive overload in Lift It Up.
Better movement efficiency and injury prevention from functional strength and mobility work.This is a month of adaptation, growth, and pushing limits. Whether you’re in it for strength, endurance, or a bit of both, February is about showing up, putting in the work, and seeing results. |
