Today, I want to share one of my favorite tactics to use during large group training formats. What’s that you ask? Straight Sets is exactly what I’m talking about. Straight sets for those of you that may not know what I’m talking about, or using different terminology, is performing each exercise back-to-back for 3-4 straight sets.
Why do I like this method? That’s a good question, so let me explain. Using stright sets really lets your clients feel that “burn” and get extremely fatigued. This is great. Our clients are always looking to get smashed and leave feeling like they really got their a$$ kicked. Using straight sets tends to give them a pretty solid butt whoopin’.
However, even though your clients may leave feeling that way, I look at the entire training session as a coach to ensure this method meets my standards of quality vs. quantity. Straight sets do more than just kick your clients butt during the workout. Let me elaborate on what I’m seeing as a coach. Here’s a list of benefits from using straight sets:
- Keeps the group organized and eliminates chaos from having people move all over from station to station.
- Increases in form. Clients have the time to really learn and feel each exercise. This method is great for any fitness level. It gives beginners time to learn the movement while pushing your more advanced clients to that point of technical failure (usually ends up in drop sets and unloaded versions)
- Great for a hypertrophy phase. With most of our clients wanting to improve body compostion, this is another great quality.
- Clients LOVE them!
Those are a few of the highlights of WHY I like using straight sets in my programming. I usually use them during hypertrophy phases, but also like them when we see a large influx of new clients coming in at once. A few times a year, the fitness industry is hoppin’. New Year’s Resolutions, Back to School, Running Groupon or other DOD sites, Transformation Contests, and other methods of marketing can really increase leads within your business. Using straight sets allows each new member really learn the exercise being performed, so they leave with a sense of success and accomplishment. This is a great way to help improve your sales as well. It’s much easier to have someone stick with your program if you can improve their successes while eliminating most of their failures.
If you’re not using straight sets, give them a shot. I love them, and plan to keep them a staple of my program. Don’t get me wrong, I love my circuit formats, supersets, tri-sets, etc… I just wanted to shed some light on the straight set format. Personally, I don’t think we use this training format enough. Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you.
If you’re currently using straight sets, or see the value in them, please leave a comment below. We would love to know why YOU like them as well. Even if you don’t like them, we would still love to hear that as well 🙂