Happy Sunday OS Fam!
Hope you’re using the day to get your mind, body and spirit right for another awesome week!
Here is the “what, who, when, where, how, why and FAQs” for the Power Building Program, week one of which is now live for those with the 24/7 unlimited open gym membership option under the “power building” section of the drop down menu under “workouts” in your Wodify app.
I’m still working on our CrossFit programming for the week, and Coach Phil will have your separate weekly preview email coming out later today about that.
1) What is Power Building?
Power Building is a hybrid training philosophy combining the best of power lifting with bodybuilding.Power lifting is as a sport that focuses on the bench press, the back squat and the deadlift (either conventional or sumo). Powerlifting as a training style focuses on training your muscles, bones and nervous system to be able to lift as much weight as possible. This is accomplished primarily through through heavier weights and lower repetition ranges. Bodybuilding as a sport is about building lean muscle mass, symmetry and aesthetics. Bodybuilding as a training style is focused primarily on muscle hypertrophy. Muscle hypertrophy just means muscle growth. Muscle growth typically occurs from either adding mechanical stress (like heavy weights in the powerlifting) or via metabolic stress (that “burn” or “pump”) that you feel with higher rep sets in the 5-30 rep range. With our Power Building Program, you will have 5 training days per week. You can pick any days you want, but the suggested days are M-T-Th-F-Sa (Wednesday and Sunday rest or active recovery days). Days 1 & 2 are power focused days–one for upper and one for lower, emphasizing heavier lifts and building strength. Days 3, 4 and 5 are hypertrophy focused days with more moderate weights and medium to higher rep ranges, emphasizing well rounded muscular growth and development. These will be longer workouts due to the volume and the rest required between sets (1-5 min of rest depending on day/exercise). The workouts/movements are less complicated than a lot of the more complex skills that we work in CrossFit workouts, but that doesn’t make them physically easier. You will see the same workouts each week for 4 week blocks before I will change them up, which will allow you to focus on progressive overload–adding a little bit of weight each week if possible to the same movements as you get stronger and more proficient with the movements. One of the most significant differences between CrossFit and this program is the consistent structure. If you love structure, then you’ll love this. If you prefer the novelty and constant variance of CrossFit then you’ll likely still prefer our CrossFit classes.
2) Who is this for?
This is for anyone that wants to prioritize building strength and lean muscle mass in a straight forward, simple, effective and consistent way. Anyone with our 24/7 Unlimited Open Gym membership is welcome to follow this program. Maybe you want a change of pace from CrossFit classes or simply to focus on strength for a few months? This could be for you. Keep in mind, in order to build and grow muscle, you have to be eating appropriately. If you don’t know how, we recommended seeing us about getting on a personalized nutrition coaching program.
3) When will we do this?
With the 24/7 Open Gym membership, you may do this anytime! The workouts are too long and not designed to be done in a way that makes them fit well into a class setting. My recommendation is for people to get together in small “training crews” of 2-4 people–people with similar goals, training styles and schedule availability to push each other and hold each other accountable through the workouts. I will have one morning 2 hour block and one evening 2 hour block each week when I or one of our other coaches will be doing the Barbell Club workouts ourselves. For week one, I will be there Monday 5-7am and Tuesday 5-7pm. During those blocks of time, we will be able to answer programming questions, check your form, etc. We will have an Ohio Strength Barbell Club Facebook group (I will post this link in the workout warm up in Wodify) where you can seek partners for your training crews, post videos for technique analysis, questions, discuss upcoming meets, events, etc. I am also going to be starting a weekly zoom lunch break “office hours” for the whole gym (not just the barbell club) where people can pop in to ask any high level questions that they may have that are appropriate for a group setting. For this week, that zoom call will be 12pm Thursday. I will send out the zoom link later this week.
4) Where are we able to do the program?
You’re able to do the workouts anywhere in the gym that makes sense. Class still has priority for space and equipment and we have to be considerate of not distracting the coaches and folks in class, which is why we now have the accessory room (where the red rig is located) for people to use as much as possible when doing Barbell Club or any other non class activities during classes. If you want to do something that you are worried might conflict with class, just talk with the coach and we are always down to discuss the best course of action to make sure things run smoothly in terms of timing etc.
5) How do I follow the workout?
Open your Ohio Strength Wodify app -> click the workout tab at the bottom -> click the drop down menu in the top left and select power building. The warm up & cool down – we have the same suggested, general, full body warm up and activation sequence and cool down programmed each day. If you’re not sure how you want to warm up, this will definitely cover all of your bases, but you’re welcome to add/subtract and modify it as you see fit based upon your individual needs–But don’t skip the warm up–healthy and successful athletes warm up and cool down, even if you don’t think that you need to! Rest time – On the power days, you will want to take 2-5 minutes rest between multi-jointed movement (like a back squat or a bench press) working sets and 1-2 min of rest for the single joint movement (like a bicep curl or leg extension) working sets. Just rest as needed for any build up sets. Build up sets don’t count toward the prescribed work. On the hypertrophy days, you’ll want to take 1-2 min rest on the multi jointed movements and simply rest as needed for the single jointed movements. Rep ranges – the rep ranges are your guide for how much weight to use. As an example, if a set calls for 3-5 reps and you can achieve 5 then increase the weight on your next set. If you are stuck at 3-4 then stay at that weight on your next set and if you fall below 3 then you should reduce the load on your next set. This way you always know if you’re using the right weight and when to go up or down. In week one of a block, you’ll be estimating a little bit to figure out your working weights and then building upon that in weeks 2-4 since you’ll see the same movements for 4 weeks at a time. You should definitely record your weights in Wodify so that you can reference them in the following weeks. Since you will see a much more limited set of movements than in CrossFit and see them more frequently over the course of a training block, you’ll see gains much more quickly in those specific areas.
6) Why are we offering this in addition to our CrossFit classes?
As you’ve noticed, our name is Ohio Strength – Home of CrossFit Italian Village. Strength has always been one of the most prominent parts of our name, brand and mission. It has taken us a number of years to get to this point in which we have the capacity to add these new offerings, but it has always been a part of my plan to not just be a CrossFit gym, but to be a well rounded health and fitness community. We strive to create healthier and more resilient people, and CrossFit is just one tool in our tool belt toward that end. Some people may never want to do CrossFit or they might want a change of pace from CrossFit at some point in their training lifetime, and we want to be able to support those people in their life long fitness journeys via other tried and true methods of strength training, conditioning, nutrition, mindset, recovery coaching and other health mentorship.
As with anything new, I expect questions, learning, adjustments, trial and error – so please let me know what questions you might have!
So excited to get this going for you all!
Yours in Health,
Ryan – Owner of Ohio Strength