What's the stimulus?

- Don't miss the target - 

Have you ever wondered how hard you should be going at the gym everyday?  Each day at Mossy Creek Fitness workouts focus on a specific stimulus, these targets are intended to help you grow and develop into a healthier version of yourself.  Some days we are tempted to make our focus being at the top of the WODIFY Leaderboard. Competition is fun, but it isn't our primary target.

Our programming is built around three stimuli.  

The first level is practice. During workouts focused around this stimuli, your weight selection should range around 60% or less of your max, and your intensity is low. Stimuli in this realm will help you build high quality and efficient movement patterns. This focus will ensure that you prepare for each rep thoroughly.  By working in this range, you will build solid foundations that will translate to the higher stimulus levels and ensure you keep those effective patterns when the body begins to tire.

The second level is training. In this stimuli range, you will increase loading, increase intensity and use the movement patterns that you formed during training. This is the area that most workouts will be conducted in. It isn’t the competition level, but you are also not sitting back and keeping your heart rate low. By creating an effective blend of practice and training, you will build solid movement patterns that are able to be kept and performed efficiently, even under fatigue.

The third and final level is competition, or all out war. Competition day has arrived and it is time to put your practice and training to the test.  In the competition stimulus, your intensity is maxed out, loading is high and the heart rate is nearing maximum capacity. This is the day you take the leaderboard.  Watching the leaderboard and competing for the top position everyday will keep you from finding the inefficiencies in your set-up, and minimize your ability to train those muscular systems along with the movement patterns.  Furthermore, attempting to compete everyday will inhibit your body from being able to recover as it should, and will increase the risk of burnout, fatigue, and future injuries.
If you’re ever confused about the intended stimulus of a workout, or you’re not sure how to scale the workout to hit the intended stimulus always ask your coach.

Let’s keep practicing and training so that we are prepared to compete when the time comes!