Scaling

When we have to change a workout from what's written, it's sometimes viewed as a "lesser" version but proper scaling is simply prescribing the right dose for you in that moment. In this episode we discuss strategies and mental frameworks for scaling your workouts to get the best stimulus for you, right where you are. 

Transcript

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Are you ready for the third attempt to record this episode? Is this take three? This is take three of the same episode. Of the same episode. The first time we wang it, we were winging it. We winged it, we winged it, uh, and that was in here. Oh no. There's condensation over there on the other side of your computer. Do you see it? It's 'cause of this. Is that a problem? It's fine. Okay. Anyway, um, the first time we winged it and we were very unsure about the quality of the episode, and then I think the. File was corrupted. Mm-hmm. And so then we were going to record it again in California and the sound was terrible. Yeah. We were in a very cool looking room and it was very small, but it was also like concrete floor and echoy. Yeah, very echoy. Yeah. The acoustic sucked. I'm glad we tried it though. Yeah. Um, yeah, I feel a little more prepared 'cause we've had this conversation a few times, but we also have this conversation. Every single day, so it really should be hard to talk about scaling. Scaling. Okay. Where do you wanna start? Well, I would like to start with a 90 day check-in that I had with somebody just yesterday. Okay. I actually have a few things to say about it, but the most important takeaway from that conversation was this is one of the biggest parts of our job. Hmm. And so at one point you and I were talking about how apologetic people can be at times, uh, because they're needing our help to figure out what the appropriate scaling will be for them. And there are many ways to scale any given movement, which is awesome. Um, but people feel like they're inconveniencing us when they're asking for clarity. And I said, no. This is the most important part of my job. This is actually one of my favorite parts of my job. This is what allows me to keep my skills sharp and to be able to work with all kinds of people, with all kinds of bodies, limitations, experience, whatever. So scaling is. The way mm-hmm. Uh, in our work. And so just know that that is, that is part of being a part of this gym. The obstacle is the way scaling is the way. Yeah. Uh, so I. Would like to start with a story. 'cause I also was ignorant on scaling when I first started. Who are you calling? Ignorant. So, um, uh, myself, so when I very first started, I've told this story before in a different podcast, so sorry if you've heard this before, but it's relevant. I, my very first CrossFit workout was the Filthy 50 and being just a personal trainer from the regular, like kind of global gym environment world, I did not. Understand that the workout was intended for a very high level of fitness and then. Can be scaled appropriately down or up for your specific level of fitness. And so I just read the list and went for it. Speaking of, can I read what that list is? Yeah. The filthy 50 is 10 exercises, 50 reps each, which are Yes. And for time? Yeah, it's for time. Oh gosh. So you start a clock, don't get any ideas. And so, uh, 50 box jumps, 24 and 20 inches. 50 jumping pull-ups, 50 kettlebell swings. Measured in pos, uh, 50 walking lunch steps, 50 knees to elbows, 50 push presses, 50 back extensions, 50 wall ball shots, 50 burpees and 50 double unders. Yeah. Which even now, even now, looking at that list, it is a little sucky, but like, there's jumping pull-ups instead of regular prescribe, you know, normally prescribed pull-ups and there's, and hopefully walking lunges. Like total Un un, yeah. Total, right? Every step counts. So it, I don't know. I looked at that list and I thought, well, that doesn't seem too difficult. Um, but it took me at that, at that level of my life, it took me an hour and 15 minutes, and I was by myself. So I didn't, I had nobody to reel me in and be like, you know, this is not really what this was intended to. Do as far as stimulus, I thought it was just a slog to get through. So when I started, you know, bumping up against a wall with the wall balls, 50 wall balls, it's no joke. Sounds like the sticky spot. Um, uh, I was also shocked at the cardio demands of jumping pull-ups, to be honest. 'cause I Oh yeah. Not to be underestimate. Probably the first time I ever did those. And so, uh, if you do 'em right, they're. They, they can rack up some intensity. Anyway, point being, that workout should probably be done by someone who's, uh, fit enough to do that, as prescribed in 30. 35 minutes, maybe like allowable 40. Um, and it took me an hour and 15 minutes. And so, because I just kept stopping to try to breathe and not throw up. And obviously that's not the stimulus that, that workout, the throwing up isn't what you Yeah. That's not what you wanted. That's not the, uh. The whole point of the workout. So I guess my, my, uh, my bottom line here is if you are scaling, you're gonna get the stimulus that's intended. So scaling is not some sort of, uh, moral failing or some sort of, oh, I'm not good enough to do this. Workout or punishment. Not feel like sometimes when I urge people to scale, they think I am being mean, being mean, or like punishing them or saying, I don't believe in you. Not the case or saying you're not good enough somehow. The thing that's the thing is that we just have a, like a broader scope. We've worked with hundreds, if not thousands of people at this point combined that we know better in terms of what you could maybe expect after the fact. Mm-hmm. Or also just to remind you like you're gonna get another chance to do it. Yeah. There's a, if you don't like go prescribe today, doesn't mean you're never gonna go prescribed, ever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're playing a long game here. There's no negative aspect of scaling, I guess is what we're trying to say. There's no negativity involved. It's just trying to, uh, manipulate the program to be specifically what you need as an individual. Yes. Full stop. That's really all it is. Yes. And it really is the way. To build more capacity. We don't anticipate anybody coming into our gym being able to do like, pull-ups on their first day, and that's in their very first workout. So, you know, for our newer members in the last year plus, um, we have an onboarding process where the first workout is the baseline and that ends with 10 pull-ups, and that's often. The movement that gets kind of like the worried faces of like, I don't think I could do that. And I say, no worries. Not important that you come in being able to do these skills, but I want you to know that they're possible. Mm-hmm. So I'm not gonna take that away. I'm not, we're not gonna take that off the menu just because you can't do it. We want you to know that you can build to this. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I tell people all the time when they're doing their on-ramp sessions with us, these introductory sessions that we do for all the new people, uh. We intentionally program workouts that we know new people probably are not gonna be able to do. And it's, yeah, close to bar. It's an opportunity. Yeah, it's an opportunity for us to showcase how we scale to meet the needs of an individual in a class scenario, so that when you're working one-on-one with us, you can learn what that means. And then when you get to class, you understand that nearly everyone in the room is scaling at some point. Yeah, at most workouts. And if not all workouts, then somebody's scaling sometimes, like nobody hits RX every time they come into the gym. I would say very rarely. Yeah. There's actually a no on here that says, um, that scaling is the norm and prescribed, or RX is meant to be the exception. And I think that's really important for everybody to take to heart scaling is how we're gonna do things in here. So I guess get used to it, you know? You know, on any given day we're doing like five or six different things. And what I love about. CrossFit or the methodology of CrossFit is that everybody finds out what they're really good at, but people also find out what they suck at too. Mm-hmm. And you're gonna do both. And so unless you have the mistaken idea that you're good at everything, like you're gonna scale. Mm-hmm. And you might find in any given workout that there's gonna be something that you can do really well as written. Or maybe you can do it as written for fewer reps. That's something I talk about a lot with, um, some of our more experienced members on kind of higher ticket skills, um, or, you know, on the things that you really suck at. Like, let's take this opportunity to become better at it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's, uh, one other aspect of scaling. I'd like to just. Bring up before we get, I'd like to actually talk about how to scale too, like different ways of scaling. Uh, but one concept that might help with this is that scale. If you think of what scaling the word means outside of a fitness context, it's a scale. It's like a measurement of, of what we're doing. And it's, if you look at something that's on a scale that means. Usually that scale goes back and it goes forward. Mm-hmm. So there are some times in, especially in more mature gyms, and what I mean by that is they've been around for years, or they have members in them who have been doing this type of training for years, like 10 years. Um, often those individuals might come in and see something that's as prescribed on the board and scale it up. They might add more weight. Mm-hmm. More reps, et cetera. And so, um. Scaling is not a one way street. Scaling just means modifying the workout to meet your individual needs. Totally. Um, yesterday was actually a really good example of a workout where I saw a lot of scaling up. We don't see it often, and even when we do, I find that it's a very few amount of people taking the opportunity. But I had so many people ask on our last workout, which I'm not sure when this will be published, but just to jog everybody's memory, it was four rounds for time. Um, oh my gosh. What was it? Kettlebell deadlifts. 10 kettle, uh, kettlebell deadlifts. 12 goblet squats. Are you thinking one before that? Oh, this is Aaron wrap. I'm sorry. I'm thinking Friday's workout. This was Wednesday. Thursday's workout. Sorry. So Wednesday's workout was 12 minutes as many reps as possible in 12 minutes of six pull-ups. Six pull-ups, 12 pushups. 12 pushups, and 18 walking lunges. Is that it? Yeah. Okay. And, uh, some people elected to grab dumbbells for their walking lunges. Is that what you're, that that's what you were going for? Yeah. Lot. Yeah. Where, where did we go? Uh, yeah. A lot of people asked if they could add dumbbells, and I was like, absolutely. Yeah, I was so happy to see it. Uh, lunges are one of those things that I just try to forewarn everybody, like. I don't care who you are, you're gonna feel these. Yeah. You're gonna feel 'em. Yeah. And so it was really nice to see, uh, not only that, the people who chose to add dumbbells. They stuck with them. Mm-hmm. I didn't see anybody put them down after they chose, which means that that was an appropriate scaling option for them if they were able to continuously perform that movement Well. Yep. And that's the point that I was just trying to come up with is that, sorry. No, that's fine. If you're gonna scale up. While we're on this topic, topic, let's just talk about effective scaling. So if your workout is short duration, I would say 12 minutes is pretty short duration workout 12 or less is kind. That's kind of that sweet spot of high intensity. Um, and it's an amrap, meaning as many rounds as possible. The whole idea with that is to get high volume, high cardio, intensity workout, uh, muscle stamina and cardiovascular. Endurance. So, uh, all of those stimuluses are what? Is intended with that workout. So if somebody were to grab weights for their lunges, I would say that either one of two things needs to be true. One, they can add the weight and it does not slow them down. Meaning they would've gotten just as many rounds with the weight as without, but they just needed that at little extra stimulus. Otherwise it kind of felt too easy. Um, so if they're stopping to shake out their legs every time they put the dumbbells down. They're getting less rounds than they would have, so it may not have been as an appropriate scaling option for somebody who, in other words, they got a worse score by scaling up or at least dramatically worse. Uh, the second thing that could be true though is that that person has a goal of adding muscle and wanting to work with more of a strength bias, in which case. You're still gonna get somewhat of a cardio benefit outta that workout, even if it does slow you down. And if you're having to kind of break up your lunges into like, sets of six or to 10 and then like a little shake out and continue to go with weight, uh, that is gonna be biased toward a little bit more of a hypertrophy or muscle building workout for that individual's goals. Yeah, so there's two ways that that is appropriate. When it's not appropriate is when ego gets involved and it's like, I just want to add weight, 'cause walking launches are too easy and then they end up, or 'cause whoever I am. Next to, you know, doing it, so I should do it too. And so then as a result, you get half the score that you would have. Then you're just like me with the filthy 50. It's just not the stimulus that was intended for the workout. And so you're just kind of like, you really diminished your own results by doing that. I would like to take a moment to talk about the strength versus cardio bias because that is actually something that's on the table. All the time that I don't think people know about. Um, there are some workouts that I think we've had that were more obvious, um, in terms of. That being a choice. Maybe it was something barbell related, and I would say something like, you know, consider this percentage of your best deadlift if you're wanting to make this more of a strength workout. But just know that that's probably gonna be compromising the cardio output you get. Or if you'd like it to be more of a cardio output. Like let's just make this deadlift real light and stick with all 12 reps or whatever. Mm-hmm. So we might not always present that because. You might have noticed that when it comes to any given workout, we could dissect it forever about the millions of ways that we can go around it, but we are trying to work with a, a, a template for many different bodies in the room, and we wanna get you guys moving. Moving well and moving soon. Getting the most out of your hour. Right? An hour and a half. You know's what the whole point of this podcast is so we can really dissect the things that we wish we had time to talk about in class. Yeah. And so we have had some members who are either student athletes who have a very particular goal for, you know, their upcoming season, or we've got, um, members who. Uh, you know, just want to go about our programming in a very particular way for their particular goals. And so, you know, that's something that I would really encourage you to think about. Um, you know, if you've been with us for a while, maybe didn't have a concrete goal other than wanting to be fitter than you were when you started. Um. And so just know that that's what progress reviews are really useful for is if you have been kind of having a hunch of what your priorities are or maybe what you enjoy more. Um, you know, you won't take movements completely off the table unless it's an injury that's keeping you from doing it. I think working the areas that you suck at is very important, right? Unlocks a lot for each person. Mm-hmm. Um, but just know that we are happy to work with you if that's something that you care about. Yeah. Um, I feel like I'm kind of a cautionary tale in that regard. Um, when I got my first trainer, I was in high school. Um, it was before I started weightlifting with my dad. Um, it was before we all lived together, so my mom got me a trainer at the local 24 Hour Fitness that was right next to my high school. Um, I hate to admit, but I feel like I have to, or else I'll live with guilt, um, that I skipped a lot of my sessions. But I remember when they sat me down, they kinda had three different pathways of where they take their, uh, personal. Training clients. One was a strength route, one was a conditioning route and one was something else. Stability. Stability, you think? Yeah, they're big on the NASM model there. Oh, okay. So National Academy of Sports Medicine. So yeah, so I was 14 or 15, and I remember this really specifically where I said, oh, lifting weight sounds really cool. However, I was a really out of shape teenager, and so they kind of chose that route for me of what I. Should be prioritizing, which was, um, cardiovascular conditioning. Mm-hmm. And so we did lots and lots of ladder drills, which is probably why I didn't show up very much. 'cause I didn't really get to do any of the things that I was excited to do. And so my fitness journey really took off when I got to start training with my dad, which was all things strength and barbell. So I got to get. You know, finally into an arena where I felt confident and interested and, you know, finally something that my body was good at. But then when I joined CrossFit a little bit later, um, my boyfriend at the time was doing online CrossFit and then went to a CrossFit gym, and then I started to go to, um, I was really, uh, swept away by the idea of being one of the RX athletes. And so, you know that that's who all the cool kids were. It was a much like long time established gym, um, that there were some really hulked out people there, you know, competing at the games at the time, you know, it was smaller time than it is now, but still they were considered elite within that group of people. And so. You know, even though I had finally the opportunity to apply the strength that really intrigued me, I still was doing, you know, CrossFit workouts that required a certain level of stamina that I just didn't have. And unfortunately, I really stunted my progression as an athlete by trying to prioritize prescribed movements skills, weights. Uh, and I sure got stronger, but I also got injured. Um, and also my endurance didn't really improve. Yeah, it's kind of ironic that, uh, people think that scaling is holding you back, but not scaling will actually hold you back. It's um, oh yeah. It's just a little bit of like trying to skip the steps of any successful. Journey. Like if you try to shortcut to the end, you're likely to go slower than someone who actually just takes the step at a time and actually gets the work done and, and lays that foundation, um, on your way to learning. So there's probably a skilled deficiency too, it in that era for you that you didn't, that you weren't even aware of, you know? Well, I know the culprit for sure. It was kipping, pullups. Ha ha ha. Um, kipping, pullups, um, you know. Kipping is a very demanding skill. Hashtag uh, kipping workshop. Yeah. We've got a kipping workshop coming up and um, you know, kipping is not inherently dangerous. It's just a matter of scaling and dosing it appropriately. Mm-hmm. And for me, I was not doing so, um, you know, rather than either shaving down the amount of reps that I was doing per workout or maybe, you know, swallowing some pride and working on. Bands longer or strict pull-ups or like whatever could have increased those, um, those points of performance. Uh, I just kind of tried to do what I could and basically just survived through the workouts. I was always last, I felt okay about it because I was like doing what the big boys were doing, but. It took me many, many years and mostly through my coaching experience, not my athletic experience, to see how much that approach really does hold people back. And there is something that you see in lots of CrossFit gyms, which is a, an ego check at the door, almost like a coat check, uh, like leave your ego outside because this is a place of learning. This is a place of moving well, and it's usually us that are in our own way. Of really reaching our potential. Mm-hmm. Because we have this expectation of ourselves or this misunderstanding of what we're trying to achieve in this gym. Mm-hmm. So, you know, let's set that record straight. I don't care, you know, where your high tiered skills end up, or what weight you end up lifting if you're doing it safely, doing it well. Um, and getting fitter all the while, like I couldn't be happier. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, there's an enjoyment factor there too that I think if you can put pride to the side and scale, knowing that it's just the best thing for you. Yeah. That it also makes the work a little more enjoyable because when you're on the struggle bus and you're just, you can't eek out one more rep of that thing because you bit off more than you can chew. It's really demoralizing and I see some people who. Tend, I love that they wanna push themselves. I love that spirit of wanting to push themselves, but then they also kinda like shake their head at themselves like, I'm failing the whole workout. And it's like, no, dude. Like you just, you went too hot out of the gate. You know? Or that, or that kind of thing. And it's like learning to pace yourself actually could make it a little more enjoyable too. That might be a really, you don't have to suffer every workout. Yeah. That might be a really good thing to just be, uh, reminded of. You know, when you're doing a workout in our gym, if you find yourself getting like frustrated or like pissed off, that's a good ping that this might have been scaled differently. Yeah. Don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we want it to feel challenging. Challenging and pissed off are really different things. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And it's okay. We're all gonna bump up against that experience at one point or another because. You know, we've got such a, an array of movements that pop up here and there, and so sometimes we just try something new, uh, or try that next step and then it might still not work out. But the hope is that, you know, we're not pushing too far to the point where we're injured, but if we're a little annoyed by it or upset with ourselves, um, you know, next time it comes around. Remind yourself of that. Mm-hmm. I really like the notes feature. I just gonna say that's what your app is for. Yeah, you can, yeah. I feel like people really under, under utilize the notes section in our workout. Um, I, I over utilize them. Do you? Yeah. Well, the tricky thing is, is that if you're putting it in circuit notes. Unless you repeat that exact workout, you're not gonna get those notes. But we do know that there is a higher potential of remembering those things by writing it down. Mm-hmm. Or by typing it out, I guess, in this case. So if you really suffered in a particular area, or you know, with those 12 pushups the other day. I made it a point to say that if you're doing all 12 pushups every single time, you went too easy on yourselves. Yeah, yeah. We do want you to kind of have to work for it at some point. Yeah. So I did make it a point in some of my classes if I saw that, to be like, alright, if you got all 12 pushups this time around for, you know, unbroken, every round, write yourself a note so that next time we make it harder mm-hmm. Uh, or challenge yourselves more. Yeah. You know, that's the thing about scaling is that it really does take experience. And data and different combinations to really get a good grasp at where you are in any particular skill. Mm-hmm. It takes a while to learn how to scale appropriately. I was just gonna say, I think we need to cover that before we get to any further into the podcast. Let's cover what, let's cover how two scales. So this is something that we go over with our coaches, um, and it's something that is taught at CrossFit level ones and level Twos and probably many other certifications that are out there of how to scale a workout. So I just want to give some frameworks on some of the ways that we scale and in my world the difference between scaling and modifying because they're different. Those, so to be honest, are a little tangled in my head. So the way I look at it is scaling a workout is scaling the volume, weight, or intensity to match your fitness level overall or maybe your skill level. So it's kind of like your scale as an athlete, where you are today and what stimulus stimulus you need for that day. Modifying is when I take somebody who has a meniscus tear off of jump rope. And put them on a bike. I have modified that workout to suit their need because of a contraindication of what they call it. So it's an injury. Something is wrong. Sure. That will prevent them from safely performing that movement. I'm gonna swap that movement out completely. So could we make that, could we say that substitution and modifying or synonymous, um. Uh, not, it doesn't always have Modifying is on the road. Substitution. Yeah. Substitution is a way to modify. There's other ways to modify. For instance, sometimes I'll have some of the folks in my rat pack do what I call, uh, seated heel taps. So you just sit down on a bench and just tap your heels on the floor. And then the next progression up from that might be to stand and hold onto an upright. On the, the squat rack and tap your heels gently, like pain-free. If that's pain-free, you can go to assisted hops, which are like jumping up on the, the ball of the foot and trying to perform soft, quiet landings. Okay. Um, these are all modifications from a jump rope, but we're, we're not really substituting it. It's still jumping. Sure. So we're kind of in a, on a scaling road there. See they all kind of blur into each other. I have one kind of fixed in my mind that I'd like to clarify so I can just let it go. But could pushups be a modification for burpees modification? Yeah. Or, okay. And I guess scaling option as well, so like. One can be the other. So often if I, you know, if I find somebody who's being challenged by the range of motion of a burpee mm-hmm. And the plyometric element of a burpee or a back issue. Yeah. Or yeah. Yeah. Any of those things. Uh, I offer up a pushup, you know, if we wanna take out the complexity of this movement or the jumpy nature of the movement. Mm-hmm. Um, or the, you know, range of standing all the way to, to the floor. You know, let's work with a pushup today. Mm-hmm. Let's kind of pull back on the intensity. Would that be considered a modification instead of a scale? I think so, I think, I guess sometimes it depends on the context because like for instance, that's why they're all used interchangeably. Yeah. Because, uh, for instance, uh, if my intention with the burpee was just to throw something in there for intensity purposes, 'cause sometimes there are, sometimes when movements are very well planned, like I will often pair up, uh, toes to bar and kettlebell swings. 'cause to me they're like opposing. Movements, almost like a push pull for your hips. Mm-hmm. One is closing your hips, uh, and with the toes to bar, and one is opening your hips with the kettlebell swing, and so you get this sort of, um, opposing. Forces here that that can compliment each other. Sometimes though, a movement is just put in there because it's like, we want to get your heart rate, like we want to get you there. We want get you into that like filler flower. Well, it's not filler, it's, it's, I want to get you in that like zone four sprinty kind of feeling cardio and burpees will do it. So every time. So maybe I'm not looking for a pushing exercise. I guess that's what I'm saying is that sometimes burpees may be there for a pushing exercise, in which case. Pushups would be an appropriate scaling option, but if the stimulus was to just really jack their heart rate, my preference might be to do like jump squats or jump rope or jumping jacks or something that's gonna like really get you moving quick. Whereas pushups might be a little bit of a slog for some people. So it depends on the stimulus of the workout, whether that's like a substitution modification 'cause of an injury, or if you're just trying to dial back the intended stimulus. Sure. It also depends sometimes. When it comes to any given movement, there's so many ways to, uh, to scale it, uh, forward or backward. Um, a lot of times I will put kind of guardrails on like, here are like a few choices for, um. Pullups, let's say, uh, because one reason two is also the amount of equipment and space we have. Mm-hmm. Sometime or, and the time. Yeah. Right. We don't have the time to go over like the 10 different ways you can do pullups. But the hope is, is that you hang with us long enough to learn a good handful of them. Yeah. You build those so that you can use them all. Yeah. When it's appropriate. Right. Use your. More demanding varieties for when we've got fewer reps. Use your more reliable varieties. When we've got a bunch of reps, you know when you put like 20 pull-ups, I'm like, don't put yourself here today. I want those pulls to be. Pretty reliable and pretty consistent. Mm-hmm. So I, we know that a lot of you are starting to build that awareness, but we'll always be here to remind you. Mm-hmm. So let's talk about some of the frameworks for scaling. 'cause I think this can really help with athletes as well as coaches. I have a little list. Okay, good. I'm, I was just gonna say we should have prepared for this. I think we can wing it because we've been doing this long enough, but we might forget and just leave something out, so, sure. I'm glad that you have notes. But the one that I would, the, the kind of the easiest low hanging fruit one that you see is just like, well, you scale the weight down. So if it's supposed to be a 54, uh, kilo kettlebell, one and a half pos. Uh, oh, sorry. I just said 55. Oh my gosh. Why did you, I said, I said, oh, you're saying pounds. Sorry. 24 kilos, 55 pounds, one and a half. Pos. Can you tell us about POS real quick? Because, uh, pood is a Russian measurement, uh, for weight and kettlebells originate from Russia. So 16 kilos, which is 35 pounds is one Pood, POOD. And if you, that doesn't sound very Russian. It is. I guess that, I think, I think that's where it comes from. Um, excuse me. So yeah, if you, uh, well, so weight probably falls into, I was gonna make a poo joke, but I guess I'll just, okay. Maybe put it in the show notes. Um, I wrote scaling for skill Stimulus. Injury and work capacity. Okay, so those are not, not limited to, there's, there's like a whole phrasing. There's a whole phrasing around that that I'm forgetting. I'm not sure where you're headed with that, but like there are probably more that I'm just not thinking of. Yeah, so those are. Reasons to scale or like the, the, um, your intention with the scaling? Right. Okay. What I'm talking about is like, you want the message of scaling frameworks of how to scale. Yeah. So the obvious one is like scaling the weight down. Okay. The second most obvious one is scaling the volume down. So when I did the filthy 50, um, what does that mean? Our batteries getting down. Uh oh. Uh, when I scaled the. When I didn't scale the filthy 50, uh, one easy way to do that is to do the dirty 30. So you just like, oh, you do 30 instead of 50. So you're scaling the volume down. Uh, another way to scale is if it's Fran and there's pull-ups. Maybe you do banded pull-ups, maybe you do ring rows, maybe you do a body row, maybe you do a banded standing banded row. Like you can continue to scale the, the, the skill level down. Um, so what are some other. Scaling methods that you would build a framework. A range of motion is one of them. Like taking it back to that burpee. Mm-hmm. Um, I really want people to get that plyometric output, um, from that movement, like you were saying. We wanna be able to bring that intensity up high when, when it's intended to be in the workout that way. And so a lot of people can get a lot more oomph or fire behind them if we're doing a burpee to a box. Instead of the floor. Yep. It really changes the pace in which they're getting that work done. Mm-hmm. And sometimes in that day, I'm gonna prioritize the pace over getting all the way down. And getting all the way up. Yeah. Yeah. Great example. Um, I teach a lot of people, uh, who may have had a history of back issues to deadlift from an elevated surface so they're not deadlifting from the floor. Mm-hmm. They'll deadlift from their knees first, feel confident and strong and consistent in their movement. And then we can, and that could be because of. Injury. Mm-hmm. Or, um, what should I, or even like skill level, even skill level. Um, in my case, coaching some of the folks in their seventies, eighties, it could even be a balance issue. Maybe it's they get a little dizzy when they bend over kind of thing. A balance issue or just like an anatomical difference. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. We have to account for those all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Most definitely. Other ways, weight range of motion, volume. Volume. Mm-hmm. Volume's an important one and we've. Goodness. Honestly, I feel like I'm like, this is the first gym that I've ever worked at te he, um, that has ever offered that up. Yeah. Um, I've worked in many gyms and I've never seen that offered. Yeah, it's weird. Um, there's different ways to approach volume two, uh, because not just knocking off reps, but sometimes knocking off frequency. So you're kind of lowering intensity based on the person's needs. So I'll give you an example. Okay. If we had that 12 minute amra that we were talking about the other day, it's 12 minutes straight of just going through that circuit as many times as you can. But it might be appropriate for some people to start with, like every two minutes or every. Let, let's just bring it back even further. Every four minutes, do one round, do one round of that, and then just rest. Oh, and then in another, are you talking about what I just did the other day and then in another four minutes do another round? Well, similar, but we, we can talk about that in a second. Okay. But I'm just talking about maybe you're not conditioned enough to go through, um, conditioned enough to go through 12 minutes straight. Um, but with the re proper rest periods, you can get a similar stimulation that is, uh, appropriate for you. Um. Okay, so how does that feed into what I just did the other day with one of our student athletes? Yeah, so in your case, uh, it was almost like, uh, you weren't scaling for conditioning reasons or scaling down. It was more of a sports specific stimulus. Yeah. So this person, what's their sport again, I forget this track. They've got track coming up, their student athletes, some sort of jumping. Uh, hurdles. Oh yeah, hurdles. Yeah. Yeah. I, I was thinking it was hurdles. Um, and so you go ahead and explain what you had them do. 'cause I was just telling somebody about this the other day, but you were the one that was there. Well, I have to say that I was, I actually premeditated on it a little while beforehand and I just feel like sometimes when people's goals are really, really clear, like say for student athletes, it makes it a lot easier for me to quickly. Make adjustments to a workout to suit those needs. So this workout that we had, um, the 12 minutes of the pull-ups, the pushups and the lunges, um, I was thinking about in sprinting domains or sprinting time domains a minute or less. And so rather than kind of slowly working through a slog of exercises or, you know, a lot of times in fixed timeframes like am wraps, I'm often suggesting. You know, establish a pace and stick with it. You know, I would rather see consistent work from you or work that even increases in pace rather than like dropping off a cliff, you know, halfway through. Um, those are really great stimulus teaching moments. Um, and so for this particular athlete, I wanted to make sure that they were getting that sprinting stimulus instead, because that's what they came here to develop, is to feel really strong at the end of a really high intensity sprint. And so what we did instead is rather than working continuously for 12 minutes, um, we identified what his, um, skill level was in pull-ups, and he has full range. Uh, strict pull-ups. And so we landed on just doing one each time just so that it was dialed in. Uh, pushups were looking really great too, so we maintained the 12 pushups and then we changed the lunges to. A more plyometric version called Split Jumps, where you essentially jump from a staggered lunge up and then back down into the next one and just kind of popping off the floor. Mm-hmm. Um, decelerating on the way down so that you're not like crapping out your knees, but getting that really strong jump each time. And rather than working for 12 minutes straight, we decided to work every three minutes on the minute. So he got four rounds of really intense sprints and we actually timed each round how long it took. Oh, nice. Yeah. So, um, first round was just kind of like, get your feet wet. Second round was the fastest and we increased a little bit, um, you know, within a few seconds on the next ones. But this. Is a way of scaling or modifying the workout, uh, in a way that is most productive for him, where he's at and where he's planning to go. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we're doing all the same things that we would do with anybody else. We test out the movements. Is this feeling okay? Let's make sure this is looking good. Find your focal points. You know, uh, we, we take those steps with everybody, even if your workouts look totally different. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, I love that and I think, uh, if you consider scaling as refining the prescription so that it's the right dose for you, uh, and take into consideration that. Example of working with an athlete who's wanting to be more competitive. And so you modified the, the workout, you scaled the workout to be more appropriate for the stimulus that he needed. Mm-hmm. To be more competitive. Uh, hopefully that gives people a little bit more permission to be like, oh, I, I also want to be, you know, more fit, leaner, stronger, whatever. From the level that I am at right now. And so if we scale the workout, quote unquote down, if we're scaling it down, um, it's not something to feel bad about or ashamed about or that you're inconveniencing your coach or anything like that. It's that you're, you're getting the prescription that is right for you to get the results that you're looking for. Yeah. Just like that competitive athlete. Yeah, and I think that's also a really good example of so many of others in our gym who are doing other things. Other than just coming to us. Yeah, they're on competitive teams or they are skiing every weekend. Like we have to consider how we set ourselves up in workouts to um. Essentially do all of those things well, right? Like if you're destroying yourself in the gym and then whatever you're doing on the weekend out on the slopes or whatever is like going to garbage. Like we have to figure out how to make those things work together. Like we've got some. People who like to do running races and they have to prepare for those, uh, during this time for upcoming spring races. And so if they're destroying themselves in the gym all the time and their running capacity starts to tank, then we're not dosing it correctly. Mm-hmm. So it definitely takes some trial and error. Your body adapts and, um. You have to kinda see how things unfold for a little while to know, but just know that we're here as a resource to help you do that well. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and if anything, that's like one of my favorite things to do. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of the fun little puzzle part of our job. Mm-hmm. Like we get to solve problems Yes. All day long. Yes. That's what we do. And so it is the part, uh, one of the parts of our job that we actually enjoy, um, because it's the, it's sort of the intellectual part of our job that gets to challenge us and see how creative we can be on one hand, but also not. Being creative for creative's sake, but trying to be solution oriented to find the most effective stimulus for you, not just some weird little substitution, totally as needed. Um, I just thought of another scaling thing before we sign off here. Uh, we were talking about weight and volume, um, intensity, frequency, that kinda thing. Uh, tempo is another one. Uh, sometimes just slowing your ass down can really make an exercise a lot more effective. So if, yeah. Sometimes we'll give you more work as a scaling option. Absolutely. You know? Yeah. Slowing down can be more intense, but you maintain better control. So if the coach is seeing movement patterns that we would like to improve upon, sometimes slowing you down is just a way to get you to train that. Yeah. It's also really great for other stimulus. Tendons and connective tissue Totally. And all kinds of stuff like that. Um, but you actually make a good point. Sometimes scaling. Down too far is actually more dangerous than scaling up. So the other day I was mentioning this with those kettlebell deadlifts, if the kettlebell deadlift is too light and you're doing, you know, 10 reps for time, people can get really sloppy with four or eight kilos that they would not get away with. With 16 kilos. Mm-hmm. Or whatever. It doesn't matter what the kilos are. You get what I'm saying? The scale of it, if you get too light sometimes it just, it gives you too much freedom to like run off the rail, move however Yeah. To run off the rails. Yeah. 'cause you can manhandle that weight. Yeah. And another time I see that is if we have pull-ups that are, sorry pushups that are, uh. Uh, many reps in a particular amount of time. Uh, an AM rep, in other words. Yeah, like last week's workout. Um, if people are scaling their pushups too easy, like you were saying, and they're just like going straight through 'em, imagine doing. 75 to a hundred easy pushups versus 40 challenging pushups. The 40 challenging pushups might leave you less sore and debilitated than doing the 75 or 80 easy ones. 'cause you're just getting so many reps. So sometimes I see people scale too easy and they're actually beating themselves up worse than if they would've just challenged themselves a little bit and then it slowed their role. So, right. And you were talking about tempo as a way of. Um, improving quality of movement too, and if the Yeah, if that stimulus is too easy, I'm gonna assume that you're just banging 'em out and you don't have to think about anything. Yeah. Yeah. We want you to really find the sweet spot in any given movement where you are able to be conscious about it. Mm-hmm. Um, but also feel like it's productive for you. Yeah. And we'll try to give you parameters around that too. You and I both, um, when we're coaching, we tend to try to give people some ranges to shoot for. Mm-hmm. So for instance, if we're doing a circuit where you're doing a minute in each and you've got 20 seconds to transition to the next station, and we go through five stations, I usually tell people like, I want you to just get 15 pushups in this first minute. Yeah, if you're getting more than that, you're probably scaled too easy. And if you're getting far less than that, you probably need to scale. Um, but 15 is a good sweet spot because you're gonna go through the circuit five times. Mm-hmm. And five times 15 is 75 pushups. Yeah. That's plenty for this workout. Um, so think about that as far as like where do you set that bar for your incline pushup, or how, how are you modifying that pushup so that you're not doing. 30, 40, 50 in your first round, and then the wheels fall off by round three. Well, and something to also take into account is that even the parameters that you and I will set, those are not specific to every person. Right. You know, we're, we're needing to speak in general terms because we're working with. 10 of y'all at a time, what's gonna be right for me is not gonna be right for Laurel. Mm-hmm. What's right for Laurel isn't gonna be right for Michael. Mm-hmm. And on and on and on and on. But that's the beauty of what we're doing here, is that we are all on a long road of learning our bodies better learning where we push and where we pull. I always like to use like the workout example that you just gave of multiple rounds of like a circuit. I always say, alright, now that we've gone through each round or each movement, you're probably getting a good idea of where you're feeling strong and where you're feeling weak, where you feel like you can push and where you need to pull back. That's what this program is all about. Not only learning to move your body in every way that it can productively, but um, knowing how to, uh, increase. Increase your strength in those movements or improve your abilities and know, know where to push, where to pull back. Mm-hmm. Because it changes all the time. It's a moving target. Yes, for sure. That's why I feel like I'd like to leave off is, uh, another Cody that I used to work alongside Cody Looney. Um, still a fabulous coach, uh, up in Washington. Uh, he had a phrasing that has really stuck with me that I'm sure many of you have heard me say. And that's lift for today. It doesn't, it's just not just about weightlifting of course, but it's moving for today. What am I doing well today? What am I feeling up for today? Like you said, that's a moving target. Mm-hmm. What I did before winter break is probably not what I can do today. Mm-hmm. Or what I did when I was 25 is probably not what I can do today. Um. So it's just important to get used to taking that temperature with yourselves. Mm-hmm. You know, there is that readiness score and train heroic that can sort of facilitate that thinking. But it's important for you to listen to your body, know where to make, uh, good scaling choices. Uh, and we're here to help facilitate that every time. Yeah. So use us. Yeah, we're here for it. All right. Take three. What'd you think? Uh, we did All right. I don't know, with the exception of the video. Yeah, I'd say that went very well. Yeah, my phone didn't charge last night Damnit, and I knew that, but I forgot, so. So we'll have some really great stills and maybe even some. Teaser clip. Yes. As a result, yes. And just so that you know what we're talking about when you listen to this, we started a video feed, but it crapped out on us. But we are working on the technology to get a video version of this podcast going. So, uh, in case you wanna watch us fumble instead of just hearing us. Mm-hmm. Should we sign off? Yeah, I think so. We'll see you guys in the gym. Thanks for this. Yeah.