Client Spotlight: Sue B & Susan D

One of our clients, Sue, came to us with limited mobility in her shoulder and rear lats due to a past injury. Sue joined us for a 6-week small group program, training at our facility twice per week. We have been focusing on overall strength development, improved cardiovascular conditioning, and flexbility over the past 6 weeks. Well on Tuesday, Sue showed us that she was able to bend her arm behind her back and stretch around her waist to the other side. She was barely able to bend her elbow behind her when she started working with us! Sue has shared with us that she is feeling much better now that she is training with us and watching her diet. She is truly an inspiration, and we feel honored to have her as part of the Underground family. Keep up the great work, Sue!

Susan D is also one of our clients. Susan came to us in late March of this year with a foot injury and a cast. As her foot healed, we worked on improving her strength, mobility, and endurance with her healthy limbs :-) Susan recently had her cast removed. She has experienced strength gains and improved muscle tone while working with us. She has been able to overcome adversity and never let her injury get in the way of working hard. Susan is such a joy to have at the Underground and her "can do" attitude is excellent. Keep up the great work, Susan!!!

AoS Vintage Providence is HERE!!

I posted about 2 weeks ago raving about having had the opportunity to try the Vintage Providence workout when I attended the AoS certification training weekend. Well, the wait is over...it's finally here! Head on over to the AoS store to get a copy! The Vintage Providence workout was nothing short of amazing! The Vintage twist really put a new spin on an old favorite (i.e. Providence). It was absolutely incredible.

If you love the original Providence, the Vintage version will continue to challenge you and make you fall in love with the workout all over again. It's an entirely new workout with a few familiar elements. The workout uses kettlebells, vintage dumbbells, and vintage barbells. You must experience it for yourself! Even if you don't have the vintage dumbbells & barbells, I am going to give it a shot with regular dumbbells, bodybars, and possibly a lighter women's oly bar. Vintage Providence is being released as a downloadable 60-minute work-along workout. It will come with downloads for your computer, iPhone, iPod, and Blackberry.

Keep training hard! Head on over to the AoS store to get a copy! I'll definitely be adding this workout to my personal workout library.

Here is the trailer:

Tonight's Challenge: Deck of Cards + Tabata

Tonight we took some of our clients through the infamous deck of cards workout. This particular class is in its final week of a 6-week conditioning program, and we wanted to bump up the metabolic intensity for the final 2 workouts. Tonight was deck of cards + tabata; let's see what Friday will bring :-).

Here was today's workout in case anybody wants to give it a shot. If you've never done a deck of cards session, it's a dynamic, fun workout. Here's how to get the job done:

Exercise Assignment: Assign 1 exercise per suit OR 2 exercises per color. We like choosing 1 exercise per suit (for 4 exercises total).
Getting it Done: Deal the deck one card at a time, doing the number on the card for reps of the given exercise.
o Face cards (Jack, Queen, King): 10 reps
o Aces: 11 reps
o Jokers: 1:00 Rest (more advanced exercisers can take shorter rest)
Try to get thru the entire deck ASAP,with good quality & form.

HEARTS TRX SQUAT JUMPS

CLUBS KB SWINGS

DIAMONDS KB PRESSES

SPADES SWISS BALL CRUNCHES

Our client tonight finished the entire deck in 30:06 - an excellent time!
We finished it off with 1 tabata round (20s work:10s active recovery) intervals.

• Four Rounds of Plank
• Four Rounds of H2H swings

Outstanding performance, Sonia!!! :-) Incredible job over the past 6 weeks!!

TRX Suspension Training Elements Workshop - Well done!

Tonight we gave a closed session TRX Elements workshop that lasted 1.5 hours. The participants did an outstanding job and have had their eyes opened to the beauty of suspension training & bodyweight exercises. They are anxiously awaiting the integration of more suspension training drills into our weekly circuits. Great job to the ladies who were invited to attend!

If you are interested in learning about suspension training and the TRX, please contact us to set-up an Elements intro session. 1x1 rate is $65. Small groups of 2-4 can be accommodated for $50 per person. We typically like to hold this session outdoors to show the true versatility of the TRX, but we can also come to you or hold the session in our private facility.

Art of Strength (AoS) Continuing Education Training Weekend

We just returned from a trip to Providence, RI for the long awaited AoS training & certification weekend. I still have to complete my test for official certification with the required 16kg kettlebell weight, but the weekend was incredible! Despite my injured elbow, I was still able to work hard. I also derived a great deal of coaching techniques to bring back home for our ATXU clients! It was an excellent compliment to the kettlebell workshop that we had last week, as I can now continue to progress our clients through progressively challenging circuit training sessions. I have alot of goodies up my sleeve :-)

We received education in the following areas: ropes gone wild, bandit loops (similar to TRX), kettlebells of course, vintage strength training, & tabata implementations.

Here are a few photos of the weekend:

AoS Certification Weekend

We're heading off to Seekonk, MA for the AoS Certification weekend. We have been looking forward to this opportunity for over a year, so we are full of excitement about the weekend ahead. We'll post pictures & updates as we go along :-)

Now, off to finish packing...