Functional Circle II

The Functional Circle Class last semester was a blast. As I explained in my blog post “New Directions“ I had some challenges to overcome, but everything went quite fine and the participants were satisfied. What I learned from teaching this class was that even with very limited equippment it is possible to challenge 10-15 people in one session. My focus was to achieve high movement quality, before letting people lift heavy weights. That's why I put a focus on mobility and controlled mobility, further on in a second part on core and joint stability. Within a few sessions, movement quality improved very quickly. This was quite impressive and surprised me a lot.

As the weather got better and temperatures became warmer, the wish of training outside got stronger. I was open for this idea, even though there were some challenges to overcome. It was not possible to use the equipment the way I wanted to: there were limited possibilities to hang or set things properly and someof the stuff available couldn't be used outdoors at all. After easter break I came up with a new concept. Still, I oriented myself on the Human Movements, so Push, Pull and Core Training built a stable part of the plan. After squats, I wanted to do lunges, because I needed some more time to figure out how to get the people to hip hinge perfectly with the equipment and time I had available.

So the final plan was:

Mobility:

Pull Over

Spiderman Walkout
T-Spine Rotation
Squat to Stand
Lunge Matrix
Cook Hip Lift

Stability:
Halo
Theraband Hip Hinge and Row
Seratus Push Up
Monster Walks
Alternating Arm Leg Raise
Superband Bycicles

Strength:

1) Triset
Inch Worm
Lunge
Band resisted Mountain Climber

2) Triset
Theraband Push
TYI Rows
Side Plank

To train coordination we did a series of different throwing, catching and running exercises with a ball, to also get the cardiovascular system started.

The participants of the class stayed the same throughout the whole time. What they achieved in movement quality in the first sessions benefited them a lot later on. They learned new exercises even more quickly which allowed them to train more intensively. Also, their focus became totally different. In the beginning everyone wanted to be exhausted as much and as quickly as possible. So they went through the strength part very sloppy to be able to do more and more reps. But soon the participants realized that the more effort they put into the strength part, the more benefit they got out of the whole class. Still, everyone was exhausted after class, even more than before.

Now the next year of Functional Circle starts and a new plan is being designed. This time focusing on the hip hinge. The hip hinge is a complex movement pattern and I find it difficult to teach. But building a lot of regressions into the two warm up circles is the perfect way to make the hip hinge clearer to the people. But that's another story to tell in a different post following soon.