The Top 5 Things To Consider With Group Training

I would like to share an experience I had recently that both humbled and inspired me.

A little while ago, I attended and competed in the Crossfit Games in Brisbane. For those of you who do not know, Crossfit is essentially a combination of basic Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics and strength exercises and once a year and on special occasions, they stage a competition called the Crossfit Games. Being the competitive animal and foolhardy male I am, I decided to jump straight into the open competition, which is reserved for their elite participants. In the first event, although I would guess I was stronger than other competitors, my muscular endurance was simply insufficient and I am shamed to say I could not finish the set workout in the allocated time. That is the humbling part. The inspiring element was the exhaustion I pushed myself into competing in a group. Basically I thought someone had sprayed my throat with a chilli sauce and it would not stop burning for 30 minutes. This was about the same amount of time it took for me to realize I was not asthmatic and my heart rate could return to normal. The other inspiring part was the intense desire I now have to better not only my previous efforts, but also everyone else’s performance. Here are five things you should consider when deciding to train with a partner, under a coach or if you think you are game enough to have a dig at ‘true‘ group training.

1) Everyone Needs A Coach (Or At Least A Partner)

Without a doubt, everyone needs a coach, trainer or partner if they want to make true progress in a gym or sport setting. Even elite athletes, who know their sport and training inside out, need coaches to help motivate, guide and direct their training. Perhaps if Federer had kept coach Tony Roche on board, he would still be sitting on top of the tennis world rankings. There are numerous studies that reinforce this. In commercial gym settings, it has been found that only a measly 18% of people who enter a gym achieve their fitness & exercise goals. Pretty uninspiring eh? But when you take into account that a massive 16 out of the 18% used trainers or coaches, you have a clear direction on how to get the results you want. Another study that was conducted by the U.S. army at their West Point Military Academy, showed that cadets that trained with partners had a 58% greater increase in strength compared to the non-partnered training group. Morale of the story – having a training partner is the next best thing behind having a coach or a trainer.

2) Invest Your Time Wisely

If you are going to invest your time into group training, I strongly suggest you make sure you are not wasting your time with inefficient methods for getting the results you want. For most people entering the gym, their main goal is to lose fat or to look better nekid. In this case, excessive running and group exercise classes may be used for enjoyment and are definitely better than nothing but can be quite time inefficient for losing fat. Dr. Art De Vany says it best in this case.

‘I never put in the miles or time on a treadmill. It's boring and worthless. Look at joggers and distance runners. They aren't slender, they simply have no muscle mass. They're weak, they can't generate power, and in spite of their slender appearance, joggers aren't lean. The average body fat content of jogging club members was 22% in one study. Anything above 13% is deleterious.’

Now if you are wondering Dr. De Vany is 6’1”, 95kg and around 7-8% body fat. Not bad at all. When I mention he also happens to be 71 years old, it becomes exceptional doesn’t it? Now if your goal is fat loss, I would suggest you and your partner or group choose big ‘bang for buck’ exercises like deadlifts, squats, chins, dips and presses. Throw some weight on the bar, get stuck in and see what happens to your body. I guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised. If you do not know how to complete these exercises competently, get a qualified strength coach to run you through what you need to look for and safety considerations.

3) Choosing Your Coach, Partner or Tribe

There is a fine art to choosing which ‘tribe’ you would like to belong to. The same goes for picking a coach or training partner. Basically, they have to be dependable, motivate you and if they do not walk their talk, I would not bother.

For instance, if I go into a dietician or nutritionist’s office for a consultation and he or she looks like they could inhale a dozen Krispy Kreme’s in world record time, I definitely would not pay for their advice.

Another thing to be wary of, which I have learnt from former Cronulla Sharks strength coach Scotty Krywulycz, is to make sure your coach, partner or ‘tribe’ are not ‘energy vampires’. You shouldn’t be drained being around these people, they should inspire you and push you to greater heights. The next thing to consider when choosing your ‘tribe’ is how to train. This relates to what you want to get out of your training and also what you enjoy doing. For instance, if you are participating in something you enjoy or get real benefit from you are much more likely to continue on with it and make real progress. So if you want huge hamstrings, take up sprint training. Desire a muscular neck, start wrestling or grappling. If shoulder development and massive lats do it for you, get on the rings and train like a gymnast.

4) Competition is an Excellent Motivator

I absolutely love competition. Without it, we probably would not have had anyone break the 4 minute mile, get to the South Pole, the Moon or the top of Mt Everest. For instance, without Spitz’s effort at the Munich Olympics, would Michael Phelps been able to even consider reaching eight gold medals in Beijing? From my experience, males do best when competing with other males. After each strength test I have done, every male wants to know where he ranks compared to the general population. This point was also rammed home to me when I was trying to recover from my aforementioned ‘asthma’ attack at the Crossfit Games. I just pushed a lot harder than what I normally would of in training due to the competition aspect. Most females on the other hand seem to do best when emphasis is based on competing with their previous efforts rather than against each other. Of course, these are just observations and are by no means science based, but I would suggest if you are male, make every session as much of a competition as possible. If female, emphasize self-improvement and self- competition rather than how ‘Jane can smash me in chin ups and her butt looks so much better than mine.’

5) Less is Better

The optimal number I have found for group training is always between 2 to 4 trainees per coach. Anymore than four, the coach or trainer is hard pressed to monitor and give accurate feedback when they are trying to view and note all the trainees. Also the larger the group the more equipment is needed and the more rest periods are harder and harder to monitor accurately. If you are training for strength or functional hypertrophy, groups of three work very well. While one athlete lifts, the two others spot and cycle in and out with minimal time wastage. For maximal strength work, groups of four can be used quite efficiently to keep the rest period long enough for adequate recovery between sets. With hypertrophy or muscular endurance, partnered sessions are the go here. These sessions would work like this – one trainee lifts, the other spots and they interchange immediately as soon as soon as the set is finished.

To finish off, here is a brutal yet great idea for your next partnered or group session. Pick a weight you can normally do for 12-15 reps in two ‘big bang for buck’ exercises that use different muscle groups like a squat and
dip. Do as many as you can of one exercise then move to the second with minimal rest, do as many as you can of the second exercise and repeat the cycle. Now the session finishes when you have completed 100 reps of each exercise.