Red Woods Fitness | Blog Week of 9-14-2026

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September 13, 2026

Quote of the Week 9-14-2026

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“Your life is what your thoughts make it”

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NEWS

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Welcome back friends! If you’ve been in class lately, you already know what we’re working on- Olympic lifting. Snatches, cleans, jerks, positions, timing, technique. And probably a whole lot of your Coach saying things like, “Stay over the bar,” “Finish your pull,” or “Move your feet!” Olympic lifting is one of the things I love most about training because you can never really master it. You can always get better. And that’s also exactly why this is one of the best times to talk about something we don’t discuss enough: Personal training.

Some things need more Coaching! Group fitness is the foundation of what we do at Red Woods Fitness. You get great programming, Coaching, accountability, and the energy of training alongside other people. But there are moments when an Athlete needs more than a few minutes of individual attention during a class. Olympic lifting is a perfect example. Maybe your mobility makes it difficult to receive a snatch properly. Maybe your starting position is holding back your clean. Maybe you’ve been power cleaning the same weight for two years and can’t figure out why the bar won’t move anymore (been there). Maybe everything feels fine until the weight gets heavy. These problems aren’t solved by simply trying harder. They’re solved through Coaching!

That’s the biggest difference with personal training- for our session, you aren’t one Athlete in a class. You are the class! We can slow things down, we can watch every rep, we can identify the position that’s breaking down and spend time fixing it. We can choose exercises specifically for what you need instead of what the group needs that day. Our personal training program is built around that individualized attention, with sessions customized specifically to the Athlete.

And while Olympic lifting is a great reason to use it, personal training certainly isn’t limited to the snatch and clean & jerk. Maybe it’s pull-ups. Maybe it’s toes-to-bar. Maybe you want your first muscle-up. Maybe your squat has been stuck at the same number forever. Maybe you want to improve your conditioning. Or maybe there’s one movement you dread seeing on the whiteboard because you’ve never felt comfortable doing it. Those are exactly the things we can attack in a personal training session. That little bit of focused work can have an enormous impact on everything else you do in the gym.

I will say this- Coaching is a shortcut and there really aren’t many shortcuts in fitness. You still have to do the work, you still have to be consistent, you still have to put in the reps. But good Coaching can save you an incredible amount of wasted time. Instead of spending six months practicing the same mistake, someone can see it, correct it, and give you the drills you need to improve it. And because the sessions are one-on-one, we can work around your goals, ability, and schedule. Our program also gives Athletes a direct relationship with their Coach for additional accountability, questions, and support outside the session itself.

Group Fitness plus Personal Training… I don’t think this needs to be an either/or decision. For a lot of our Athletes, the best combination is both. Group fitness gives you consistency, Community, competition, and broad fitness. Personal training gives you precision. One develops the entire Athlete. The other gives us an opportunity to take out the magnifying glass and work on the details. And right now, during an Olympic lifting cycle, those details matter, like a LOT. A slightly better setup or a more efficient bar path, better timing under the bar, more confidence receiving a heavy clean. These little improvements all add up fast.

I have always been a big believer that we need to invest in our weaknesses. We all have things we’re naturally good at. God knows we all have movements we’d rather avoid. My challenge to you is not to avoid those weaknesses- invest in them. If there’s something you’ve been struggling with, grab me and ask about setting up a personal training session. You certainly don’t need to commit to becoming a full-time personal training client. Sometimes you simply need focused Coaching, a plan, and someone giving you 100 percent of their attention. That’s what I am here for! Because the goal isn’t just to get through today’s workout, the goal is to keep becoming a better Athlete.

It is important to keep in mind- this is what makes our gym special! Almost every other affiliate or ex affiliate has dropped these complex movements. WHY? Because they are damn hard to Coach. It is much easier to scale a business when you offer watered down versions of programming. That is NOT us. Why do we continue to do this- because it is hard. We choose to do the hard thing. Because these moves have merit and we have the skills to Coach them. It would be so much easier to not have atlas stones and tacky, outlaw chalk because it makes a mess, sanitize our workouts from moves that the general population struggles with. We are different, we are chasing the struggle. Help me to continue to prove that we are correct in keeping them.

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PROGRAMMING

Heavy EMOMs all week setting up next week’s PRs. Focus up folks. Use your Coaches. Make mistakes, get messy, move some weight. Should be a damn fun week!

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HERE WE GO!

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Monday

Strength

EMOM 10

1 Squat Snatch

Metcon

9-7-5

Clusters (135#/95#)

Burpees x2

Tuesday