You can now create your own workout programs on Recess! This feature is great for crossfit gyms, personal training, or anyone that wants to easily create workout templates that they can share with clients or use to collect exercise progress overtime.
The Workout Programming feature consists of 3 elements. The high-level concept of Programming is straightforward, however, we have enabled the feature to have many variations and customizations, that really give you an endless way to create programs.
It is difficult to cover all aspects of Programming in this article, so we will be supplementing it with videos.
This article covers:
How to Create a Program
Step 1 - Turning on the Feature
Go to Tools > Profile > Settings and toggle on Programming
There is a second option to allow clients who have not booked the session to be able to see the Program before booking
Step 2 - Creating a Program
Go to Tools > Programming
Click the yellow "+" button
Name your Program
Note: There is no need to click "Save" yet
Creating a Card
Now we need to create our "Templates" or sometimes called "Cards" which make up the Program (we will eventually only call these cards).
Think of each card as part of the Program. E.g, the "Warm Up" is a card. Then "Round 1" might be a card comprised of 3 exercises.
At first, the Template will look black and be unnamed. This is where the fun begins
Click Configure
Name: This is what the client sees
Internal Name: We recommend naming the Card something that is descriptive so you can find it again later. For example, May 25th Upper Body Warm Up
Type: You may leave this blank or choose the type of workout the exercises will follow
AMRAP - as many rounds as possible. You'd enter just the exercises the class does and then you'd add a "Time cap" to set how long the AMRAP will last
For Reps - this will turn off the timer on part of the client facing view and tell them the number of reps to do.
Max Reps - inside the client view they will see a # which indicates max reps, and can add how many they complete
EMOM and Capped do not do anything as of yet.
Pattern: This is useful for doing ladders or builds.
Example: I want the class to row in increments of 100 up to 500 then back down. I'd enter in: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100. The system will then duplicate the exercise (described later) automatically in those increments.
Time Cap: This sets a timer in the Player view that will count down.
Number of Rounds: This will duplicate the exercises in the card for easy client-tracking purposes.
When done, click "Done"
Now we need to add the exercises to the card. Let's have our first card be the Warm Up.
Fill in the fields for the first exercise. The second box defines the quantity in the first box
Add the quantity, Pattern, and then Exercise
The exercises come from a database of +1,500 that we subscribe to. If you don't see what you need, ask us and we will work on adding it!
Note: Don't forget to add in some rest! Rest is considered an exercise and should be added similarly.
In our example, the Warm Up card has 3 exercises. Click "Add a New Exercise" and repeat the above steps
Once you are all done creating your Card, you can add another Card by clicking "Create a New Template" or "Search to add a card".
Adding Modifications
If you want clients to have the option to modify an exercise, click the "+" under "New Option
Enter in the details for the modification and that's it!
Clients will see the option on the board if you display it in class. In the app, they can click the exercise and toggle to the modification which will save that for them in their performance tracking.
View the Program
Once you are done creating and/or adding Cards, you can easily preview the Program
Scroll to the top and click "Show Preview"
There are 4 views
Board - this is the view you will show in class later
Preview - similar to the board and is shown in the class on the app as a preview
Score - a great way to quickly see all of the Cards and Exercises together.
Note: If you did Pattern or Multiple Rounds, you can see how the system builds it out
Player - this is the Client view. When they go to the app and click "Workout" and "Start" this is the view they will see.
IMPORTANT: Program is Locked
Once a Program is used as part of a class and client's track their performance, you can no longer edit it. This is because editing it would impact the performance tracking.
Instead, when you go to edit, you can "Create a New Version". This duplicates the Program.
When you create a new version, the individual cards may still be locked. You can use old cards as-is, or create a new version or create brand new cards.
More tips on creating Cards
How to Add a Program to a Class
Navigate to the class
Click the edit icon
Click "More Details"
Search for the Workout Program
Click Save
How to Display the Program in Class
Click the 3 dots next to the class and "View Board"
Hover your mouse under "Tools" and click the left arrow to hide the nav bar
You can adjust the size of the font by pressing the add/subtract buttons in the top right-hand corner
Bonus! If you want to check-in clients, you don't have to leave the screen. Click the black "Show Checkin" button
Using Programming with the Playground
The one downside in how we changed Programming is it no longer works the same with the Playground
First: You no longer have access to your old cards (comms were sent out)
Second: You can still display a Program in the playground. It will be the Board view and look like plain text.