Robin Lyons breakdown from consult, assessment to prescription when starting a new client….

Female Client
Age: 34
Occupation: Gym owner and coach
Reason Hiring A Coach: wants to train specifically for CrossFit to be more competitive in the sport, Likes to learn and know the “why”
Athletic Back ground: Competitive Gymnast High school, Olympic Lifting and CrossFit most resent no stricture.
CF Experience: Opens finish 500’s 2016

Current Lifestyle Routine –Monday thru Saturday → adheres 50% of time.
Coaches 5:30 am -8am
Trains 9:30am -100am
12pm-1:30 –Break/ Lunch
2-3pm –Conditioning
4:30- 7:30pm Coaching
9:30pm bed

Sleeps 6-8 hours → not consistent.
Nutrition: Colitis  (type of IBS) → need to look into more under the hood to identify more cause to IBS.

Assessment Phase: She was run thru a 2 week assessment phase that I have outlined for athletes looking to be competitive in CF. I personally compound a battery of fitness assessments that I believe will expose the Truth to where an athlete sits and will expose the priorities that need attention.

Results of Assessment:  I’m going to pick just a few main weaknesses that will be touched on in the first phases of her design.

A) Lower Body FS/BS
Back Squat #315
Front Squat #250
Ratio: FS is showing to only be 71% of BS

–→ want to move that closer to 85% especially for the sport she is training for-→ The Front Squat depends more on Quads and Core.  So more work on quads and core strengthening drills for this lady!

B) Upper Body Press/Pull
Shoulder press #125
WCU 180# (includes bwt)
Ratio: Press to Pull is 69%

→ want the press to be closer to 65%, so she is showing a stronger press ability than pull.   This small imbalance can be attributed to weakness in flexors of the arm  or lats in general-→ either way these athlete needs more pulling and arm flexor exercises in program for the offseason.

C) Battery Test:
AMRAP 8min@ 90% of Clean max
17 reps completed

–→ for the sport of fitness this is a simple test that tells the coach so much in one shot. FIRST you see the athletes exposure and experience in heavy barbell pieces that demand a combination of knowing oneself and grit.  Typically we want to see higher level performer achieve 35+ reps in most of our battery tests. For this athlete she expressed the strength to do reps, but was missing the engine to recovery between the rep, which converted into misses throughout the test.  Also since she has never done the test the pacing was amateur at best , she needs exposure/practice with percentage based barbell pieces in controlled setting first.  To support her recovery more map 10 work will be build into her week.

Although this is ONLY 3 tests of of the 15 given you can see how useful it can be to determine direction and focus for the athlete on top of training you need to also remember the life coaching pieces mentioned up front. 

Main coaching points I left her with after our follow up conversation post assessment:

1) Consistency in schedule: work, relationship and training is what she values so those 3 things need to be CONSISITANT in her day to day.  My job is to hold her to it when she gets off track- which can happen with gym owners

2) Training Intensity: For a “busy” athlete, intensity is earned not given.  Athletes who want to train harder need to understand that every hard session they need to give back 2 recovery sessions.   So if their schedule allows them to do THREE hard sessions /week then I am assuming they can add in 4-6 easier sessions  that week. If that is impossible with life, work etc. then guess what, goals need to adjust.

Since she wants to be competitive locally as a goal first we will progressively build in intensity as she builds aerobic capacity and resilience thru good life practice.

Phase 1 Split

Monday – OFF
Tuesday
AM: 30min cyclical Map 10 / PM: FS + Clean % Single Leg + upper Vert Pull + Core + Map 7
Wednesday
AM: aerobic mixed Map 10  PM: Bend + Snatch Positional+ ME + Map 4 Cyclical
Thursday – OFF
Friday
AM: Row intervals  PM: FS + Snatch positional + Vert Press + Structural +core
Saturday
AM: Dyn Pulling+ Horz Pull + SL + CF grinder ME skill based
Sunday
AM: Longer effort aerobic

Hope this shines some light on things for some of  you.

Im available for chats in more details surrounding assessment and design for all you coaches and athletes who would like to talk about your specifics.

Email me-  robin@opexfit.com
Follow me on Instagram- @coachlyons1