With great enthusiasm I announced in June a new series of posts on this site where I publish the results from the group classes at 626 and any insights gleaned from the direction of the training. So, without further ado, I give you the results from the most recent 6-week, train-test block.
The Results
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double Leg | Back Squat 1RM | 232 lbs | 217 lbs |
| Front Squat 1RM | 201 lbs | 187 lbs | |
| Front / Back Squat | 86.6% | 86.2% |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Leg | Split Squat 8RM | 37 lbs per hand | 33 lbs per hand |
| % Unloaded | 6% | 8.3% | |
| Split Squat Load x 3 | 111 | 98 |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Body Pushing | Dip 1RM (male) | 68 lbs | 64 lbs |
| Dip * 3 (male) | 204 lbs | 193 lbs | |
| Dip 1RM (female) | 26 lbs | 13 lbs | |
| Dip * 5 (female) | 130 lbs | 65 lbs | |
| % Unloaded | 33% | 30% |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Body Pulling | Pull up 1RM (male) | 36 lbs | 40 lbs |
| Pull up * 3 (male) | 108 lbs | 120 lbs | |
| Pull up 1RM (female) | 19 lbs | 13 lbs | |
| Pull up * 5 (female) | 93 lbs | 65 lbs | |
| % Unloaded | 27% | 37% |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bending | Sorensen Max Hold | 1:35 | 1:37 |
| Deadlift 1RM (male) | 301 lbs | 305 lbs | |
| Deadlift / 1.25 (male) | 241 lbs | 244 lbs | |
| Deadlift 1RM (female) | 223 lbs | 208 lbs | |
| Deadlift * 1.0 (female) | 223 lbs | 208 lbs | |
| Deadlift 1RM (gym ave.) | 276 lbs | 282 lbs | |
| Deadlift / Back Squat | 119% | 130% | |
| Power Clean 1RM | 143 lbs | 139 lbs | |
| Power Clean / Back Squat | 62% | 64% | |
| Power Snatch 1RM | 108 lbs | 100 lbs | |
| Power Snatch / Back Squat | 47% | 46% |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | Side Bridge Hold (to 90s) | 1:26 | 1:23 |
| Tabata Sit-ups | 8.4 sit-ups | 8.3 sit-ups |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work Capacity | Alactic (30s Row) | 151m | 146m |
| Lactic Power (400m Run) | 1:21 | 1:22 | |
| Lactic Endurance (4min AMRAP) | 30 burpees | 27 burpees | |
| Aerobic (20min AMRAP) | 246 reps | 301 reps |
Wait… what?
There are a couple tests where the results improved, but by in large, the numbers in the tables above indicate a massive failure on our part to improve member fitness. So what happened? Should we just close up shop?
Initially, these results caught me off guard. We take our program and what we offer to our members very seriously. I knew there had to be a problem in the numbers though, during our testing week the whiteboard looked like the picture below most days. All of those green letters say “PR.” So what’s the deal?
Well, I mentioned in my last results post, my statistics tabulation system was imperfect and something I intended to improve upon over time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time over the previous 6-weeks to look into that, so I was hoping to get by with tabulating the results as I did last time.
The problem was that we had an in house competition the weekend after our testing week. Approximately 25% of the gym participated in this event (which was super fun by the way). Most of those that participated were more advanced athletes, and to maximize their performance at the competition, many of them didn’t participate in the full week of testing.
The absence of these members ended up biasing the data, giving the appearance that the gym got weaker as a whole. What really happened though, was that the stronger athletes were on the bench and the newer athletes were out there crushing their PRs. So it turns out we didn’t fail after all… phew!!!
Fixed it!
Ultimately, I had to go back and correct the data analysis so that only athletes for which I have both June and July test data on were considered. This re-tabulation is part of why it took me a bit longer to get these results published. Here are the corrected numbers.
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double Leg | Back Squat 1RM | 227 lbs | 237 lbs |
| Front Squat 1RM | 190 lbs | 196 lbs | |
| Front / Back Squat | 83.7% | 82.7% |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Leg | Split Squat 8RM | 34 lbs per hand | 36 lbs per hand |
| % Unloaded | TBD | TBD | |
| Split Squat Load x 3 | 102 | 108 |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Body Pushing | Dip 1RM (male) | 70 lbs | 62 lbs |
| Dip * 3 (male) | 210 lbs | 186 lbs | |
| Dip 1RM (female) | 20 lbs | 18 lbs | |
| Dip * 5 (female) | 100 lbs | 90 lbs | |
| % Unloaded | TBD | TBD |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Body Pulling | Pull up 1RM (male) | 35 lbs | 36 lbs |
| Pull up * 3 (male) | 105 lbs | 108 lbs | |
| Pull up 1RM (female) | 8 lbs | 5 lbs | |
| Pull up * 5 (female) | 40 lbs | 25 lbs | |
| % Unloaded | TBD | TBD |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bending | Sorensen Max Hold | 1:35 | 1:44 |
| Deadlift 1RM (male) | 298 lbs | 302 lbs | |
| Deadlift / 1.25 (male) | 238 lbs | 242 lbs | |
| Deadlift 1RM (female) | 193 lbs | 209 lbs | |
| Deadlift * 1.0 (female) | 193 lbs | 209 lbs | |
| Deadlift 1RM (gym ave.) | 275 lbs | 282 lbs | |
| Deadlift / Back Squat | 122% | 119% | |
| Power Clean 1RM | 128 lbs | 131 lbs | |
| Power Clean / Back Squat | 56% | 55% | |
| Power Snatch 1RM | 99 lbs | 103 lbs | |
| Power Snatch / Back Squat | 44% | 43% |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | Side Bridge Hold (to 90s) | 1:21 | 1:26 |
| Tabata Sit-ups | 8.1 sit-ups | 8.8 sit-ups |
| Theme | Movement | 6/2/2014 (averages) | 7/14/2014 (averages) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work Capacity | Alactic (30s Row) | 143m | 149m |
| Lactic Power (400m Run) | 1:18 | 1:16 | |
| Lactic Endurance (4min AMRAP) | 29 burpees | 30 burpees | |
| Aerobic (20min AMRAP) | 268 reps | 293 reps |
Discussion
All of this makes sense of course. In fact, a number of readers emailed me as soon as I published the results in June suggesting that I modify the stats tabulation in just this way. I hesitated because it adds some complication to the way I track results on my end, but the importance of this step is clear and thus all results moving forward will be tabulated in this fashion.
Those with a keen eye may have noticed that the corrected pushing and pulling numbers still decreased. I’m not going to worry too much about this because my dataset was very small on that particular day of testing (due to those resting for the competition). Sample size is an important statistical factor, so I’m thinking in future posts I’ll include that too.
Bob Dylan is a Bad Ass
In the June post I made some comments regarding minor training tweaks and trying to understand how those might influence the results. Since the method for tabulation has changed though, it isn’t worthwhile attempting to compare the results above to those from June and make inferences on training techniques.
It is a bummer to not be able to draw conclusions about the training, but this is all still highly experimental right now. However, I’m optimistic that after a couple more testing blocks, we’ll have developed sufficient confidence in our statistics and at that point, be able to start using them to shape the program for the group classes.
This is all very exciting to me… hopefully there are others out there find it interesting too. Certainly if you have any suggestions on improving the tabulation of results, please let me know in the comments below.
