To scale or not to scale…
First of all, we are not talking about an actual scale used to weigh yourself. We are referring to modifying workouts appropriately. If you are new to HIIT workouts, they can seem intimidating. These intense workouts are often written with a certain fitness level in mind, but any workout can be scaled. Scaling is modifying a workout to fit your personal fitness level. The most important thing to remember, is this process is not meant to make a workout easier. In fact, it often adds to the competitive nature of HIIT style workouts because it evens the playing field for all fitness levels.
Two factors to take into account when scaling are the individuals’ fitness level and the type of stimulus provided during each particular workout. Is it a workout that causes a lot of muscle fatigue? A long, steady state of hard work that lasts for 30 plus minutes? Is it a heavy and fast paced workout?
Take my workout today for example. My wife and I did this together.
17 min AMRAP With a vest
Run 200m
3 rope climbs to 15 ft
I completed this workout… But if I truly expected my wife to workout with me, I had to scale it for her. Side note, she is new to the workout world. She brought our 5 beautiful kids into this world, works night shift at our local hospital… and no, that’s not how we met!… And she has finally allowed me the pleasure of coaching her in the gym. Some days her workout consists of chasing kids around and keeping our house running smooth. But today, we set aside enough time to work out together. This is the workout I scaled for her…
17 min AMRAP
15 calories on the bike
9 DB rows each arm
I know, I know… 15 calories. Why not just run? For her, running in the cold is a deal breaker and I’d like to keep my workout and life partner happy! Happy wife, happy life, right?
How did I settle on these changes? First, I want to make sure it is still competitive. That allows both people to feed off each other and be pushed to work harder. Second, I follow a conversion chart when changing between movements, like running and biking. The echo bike is similar to a weighted vest… it feels as though you are moving slower through the motions. The conversion for meters to calories on the bike is 200m to 15 cal. With the rope climb, I know my wife is not ready to do this yet, so I chose a motion that would involve similar muscle groups but fits better into her current capabilities. If someone is able to do pullups, the typical sub for rope climbs is 3 strict pull-ups or 3 towel pull-ups. But for her, I decided on DB rows. I wanted to make sure she was able to complete the workout instead of spending her time resting and frustrated. After all that, I only beat her by 6 reps. She’s pretty competitive, so she wasn’t very happy about losing this one.
When you scale a workout, be sure to pay attention to what movements are causing you to scale in the first place. I often keep a log of these movements and incorporate them into future warm-ups. For me, handstand pushups and ring muscle-ups are movements that I struggle with. I try not to include these in my actual workouts, but will often practice them during my warm up. This allows me to push myself in a controlled way. Putting highly skilled movements that you aren’t proficient at in a fast-paced workout can be a recipe for injury. We will talk more about warming up another day… Stay tuned!
In the fire service, we move heavy loads across various distances, whether it’s pulling hose or lifting victims/patients. When scaling workouts for the firehouse specifically, we try to incorporate these demands as much as possible. Farmers carry, box step ups and stair climbs are just a few things you might see. All of these movements can be tailored to any fitness levels by simply changing the weight or distance associated with each movement. Be sure to subscribe so you catch our future blog posts where we will be talking about functional movements for the fire service.
Here at twenty4forty8, we believe in the power of fitness. It is great for physical and mental health and is imperative to the job we are expected to perform. We want to provide you with the tools you need to get these workouts in! Attached you’ll find a free PDF… print it out, keep it with you or hang it up in your gym area. The conversions and substitutions are here so that your workout isn’t limited to the equipment you have on hand. There are a variety of ways to substitute and scale each workout. Be sure to check out our comments on social media where we include substitutions, scaling options and weight suggestions for all our workouts. Be on the lookout for our beginner ebook that will be available soon… we are still adjusting a few things and look forward to hearing from you about anything you’d like to see, or how basic you’d like this next ebook to be!
