Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog

Interval Training for Groups- There’s an app for that!

As many of you may already know, I am a big fan of Workout Muse and their custom interval training workout soundtracks. If you’ve watched FSC 3 you’ve seen Workout Muse in action

The music tells your clients or athletes exactly what to do with audio instructions so you, as the coach, can focus on coaching, motivating, and correcting instead of the low skill task of looking at your clock and counting.

I use the WM interval tracks for various aspects of our group training sessions including:

– 50-10 Flexibility Circuits: We use the following 10-exercise circuit for 50 seconds of static stretching and a brief 10-second rest and transition between movements:

1- Hamstrings (switch halfway)

2- Hip Flexors (switch halfway)

3- Hip Rotators (switch halfway)

4- Groin (switch halfway)

5- Box Hip Flexor (switch halfway)

6- Stretchmate Lat (switch halfway)

7- TrueStretch Pec

8- Wall Hip Rotator (switch halfway)

9- Wall Rectus (switch halfway)

10- Tennis Ball T-Spine

– 30-5 Mobility/Activation Circuits: We use the following 10-exercise circuit for 30 seconds of work and a short 5-second rest and transition between movements:

1- Lateral Squat (switch halfway)

2- Split Squat (switch halfway)

3- Rotational Squat (switch halfway)

4- Single-Leg Straight-Leg Deadlift

5- Valslide Hip Flexion

6- Stability Ball Hip Internal Rotation

7- Half-Kneeling Ankle Mobility

8- Seated T-Spine

9- Wall Slides

10- Push-up

– 30-5 Partner Circuit Training Circuits with a 35 lb Weight Plate: The exercises are arranged in a Peripheral Heart Action (PHA) sequence of lower body, upper push, upper pull, and core. Partner 1 goes for 30 seconds and then has 5 seconds to pass the weight plate to partner 2 and they keep going in this I go, you go format. The focus is max reps for the full 30 seconds while maintaining proper form and technique.

Again, the tracks let us focus on coaching and it’s like having an additional coach on staff to help you out during your training sessions- it basically makes your life easier and allows the sessions to run like clockwork.

But, I’m not going to lie… sometimes I would like to use my own music and/or my athletes make specific song requests.

That’s where the brand new iWorkout Muse PRO app for the iPhone and iPod Touch comes into play:

http://bit.ly/hPjgZQ

It allows you to build custom interval training workout music soundtracks mixed to your favorite music to automate your interval workouts.

iWorkout Muse PRO is the second generation response to countless customer requests for a bigger and better app allowing for even more custom interval workout music options than the original iWorkout Muse.

Some of the key upgrades and new features for iWorkout Muse PRO includes optional pre-workout and post-workout sections to allow for a warm-up and cool-down, multiple mini-workout options within the main workout to allow for multiple interval protocols and unique interval combinations for the advanced user, optional transition periods between different sections of the workout, phone vibration and sound effect options for go and stop markers, individual volume control for the music and audio instructions, selecting specific music for each section of the workout, seamless play, pause, stop, and skip forward/backward buttons, and much more.

I really think this will make you a better coach so at least be sure to check it out:

http://bit.ly/hPjgZQ

MB

PS- Coach Dos called the app “The best investment in fitness for less than 5 bucks.” You can learn more about it here:

http://bit.ly/hPjgZQ

This entry was posted on February 9, 2011 at 8:10 am and is filed under Core training, Fat Loss, Low Back Pain, Random Thoughts, Training, Training Females, Uncategorized, Youth Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.