Same Same, But Different (Specialised Variety)
BEHIND THE SCENES OF OUR VSC PROGRAMMING
At Valkyrie Gym, our programming generally consists of movements that qualify as being “high value”.
As most of our members value being healthy, moving well and getting strong (in 35 minutes or less) it’s important that our programming reflects this through and through.
The only downside about working towards some of these movements it that it takes a lot more time, practice and sometimes frustration when learning something a high degree of skill!
And the movements that we’ve selected for this years The Valkyrie Strength Challenge most deffiently fall into the “high skill, high reward” category.
The events this year are:
The Barbell Deadlift
The Flexed-Arm Hang or Chin-up/ Pull-up
and The Kettlebell Snatch
As Principle Coach and program writer at Valkyrie, I’m often faced with the challenge of appropriating these exercise for the “non-gym folk” population, so that they can grow into them over time and become the best athlete they can be.
We want our members to enjoy the process of learning challenging exercises without the burnout due to time spent with them.
The trick is use something we call “specialised variety”…
SAME SAME, BUT DIFFERENT
If we we’re all robots, we’d be able to tolerate training the same lifts, week after week, without complaint.
But alas, we’re only human and even bench pressing gets old after a while!
Back in the late 19th and early 20th century, coaches and exercise scientist noticed this with their athletes too.
After months of hitting the same lifts over and over again, their athletes would either stall out with their gains or lose the motivation to continue on with consistent training.
However, instead of pushing on with the same old boring lifts, they adopted this concept of “specialised variety” and started to add movements that were “same same, but different”.
The progress was immediate and these athletes quickly broke through their plateaus.
Specialised Variety has the same undertones as “same same but different” and in the weight room it can make all the difference when we’re trying to work towards our strength goals.
Especially if you’re new to this stuff and thrive on a little bit of variety.
It’s a simple idea but it’s now a staple “lever” I pull and push within our programming here at Valkyrie too.
THE VSC IN PLAY
At the start of this year, I was given the challenge of preparing our member base for The VSC without burning them out.
And with this idea of “Specialised Variety” in mind, this is exactly how I did it.
Let’s take one the most challenging lifts in The VSC…The Pull-up.
It’s probably everyone’s least favourite lift and the training required to hit your first pull-up is an absolute slog, making this a perfect candiate to be creative with the programming.
That being said, it’s such a game-changer for upper body and abdominal strength that we can’t afford to neglect it.
Here’s what it looked like within our programming through this year, with this one skill (pull-up) and the concept of “Specialised Variety”:
Weeks 1-12: Big focus on horizontal pulling like “Kettlebell Rows”, increasing the reps and sets as weeks progressed building foundational strength.
Weeks 13-18: Shifting from Rows to vertical pulls like “Jack Knife Chin-up”
Weeks: 19-24: Keeping things vertical but offering another varitaion of the same thing with gymnastics rings (same same, but different)
Weeks: 25-30: Back to “Jack Knife Chin-ups” + a progression to bar work and more skill specific work with chin-ups
Now, it’s important to remember that we need repetition of any skill to improve it (we wouldn’t make much progress is we changed things up too frequently).
LET’S GET PERSONAL
After writing all of this, I’m now getting very excited for our upcoming VSC and for all the wins on the day!
Also, did you know that our VSC programs are entirely personalised for each member?
Learn more about the event itself here!
