The RGF Coaches’ Playbook: How We Build Sessions That Actually Work

If every workout you do is completely different, you might be exercising... but you’re probably not following a programme.

Random workouts can be fun. They can make you sweaty, tired and sore the next day. But feeling like you’ve worked hard doesn’t necessarily mean you are making progress.

If you want to get stronger, fitter or more capable, your body needs a reason to adapt. That means gradually asking it to do a little more over time.

This is called progressive overload.

It might mean lifting a heavier kettlebell, completing more repetitions, improving your technique or trying a more challenging variation. However it happens, there needs to be enough consistency for you to practise something, track it and gradually improve it.

That is difficult to do when every workout is completely unrelated to the one before it.

How we structure our training year

Rather than planning one term at a time, we begin by looking at the whole year.

We divide the year into three larger training blocks, which we call Meso cycles. Each one lasts roughly three to four months and has an overarching training focus.

Each Meso cycle is then divided into smaller Micro cycles. These are our RGF terms, which usually last around four to six weeks.

The Micro cycles allow us to change the specific focus, exercises and accessory work more regularly. This gives members some variety and helps keep training enjoyable, while everything continues to contribute to the wider goal of the Meso cycle.

Between our Meso cycles, we return to our Success Markers. This creates regular checkpoints throughout the year and helps us decide what needs to happen next.

The structure means that each week builds on the one before it, each term builds into the wider training block and each training block contributes to our goals for the year.

How do we turn that structure into a session?

It all starts with our Success Markers.

At the beginning of the year, our coaches choose a collection of exercises and physical qualities that we want our members to improve. These decisions are influenced by what our members want to achieve, alongside what our coaching team has noticed could be developed.

The Success Markers give us our overall direction for the year. We can then choose a more specific focus for each Meso cycle.

That focus is often influenced by what we saw during the previous Success Marker period. For example, our next block focuses on building maximum strength through deadlifts, overhead presses and pull ups. A previous term focused more specifically on producing speed through our hip drive.

Once we have chosen the focus of the Meso cycle, we decide how each shorter Micro cycle will contribute to it.

Within each term, we build in a clear progressive element. We might gradually increase the repetitions, total volume, weight or difficulty of a movement. We plan the first session and then develop it across the following weeks of that term, rather than writing a new workout from scratch every week.

That does not mean every term or every session looks identical.

We can introduce variety when the term changes, as well as through different accessory exercises, movement variations and circuit formats within the term. These elements help keep sessions fresh and give us opportunities to address other areas that our members or coaches have noticed need attention.

The important thing is that the variety fits around the main goal, rather than distracting from it.

This structure allows us to plan every session with one clear question in mind: what are we trying to improve, and how does this session help our members get there?

If you don’t test, you guess

At the end of each Meso cycle, we repeat our Success Markers.

These are not pass or fail fitness tests, and they are not about comparing yourself with the person training next to you. They give each member a personal baseline and a way to see how their training is progressing.

The results might help a member decide which weight to use in the next block or identify an area where they would like to put in a little more effort.

They also help us assess the programme itself.

If members are progressing, brilliant. If lots of members have struggled to improve in one particular area, that tells us something may need to change. We can then give that area more attention when planning the next Meso cycle.

We combine these results with feedback from members, observations from our coaches, common technique issues and what people have enjoyed.

We then use everything we have learned to shape the next training block.

Planned recovery: Resting isn’t cheating

We run our Success Marker periods alongside a planned deload.

Training creates the challenge that encourages your body to adapt, but recovery is when that adaptation actually happens. If you continually add more weight, repetitions and volume without giving your body an opportunity to recover, fatigue will eventually start getting in the way of progress.

A deload does not mean stopping completely. It means deliberately reducing the overall training demand for a short period.

We may run lighter sessions, workshops and other activities that give members an opportunity to learn, move differently and enjoy training without constantly pushing for more.

This helps reduce the fatigue that naturally builds across a training block and allows members to begin the next one feeling fresher.

Resting is not cheating. It is part of how we keep progressing over months and years, rather than going hard for a few weeks and then needing to stop altogether.

Progress won’t look the same for everyone

Although we plan a progression into each term, we know that everybody progresses differently.

So we try to teach our members enough about progressive overload to help them adapt the planned session to suit themselves.

We might increase the kettlebell size in the programme, but the next weight may be too big a jump for one member. Instead, they might complete another two repetitions with their current kettlebell.

Another member may have increased their weight the previous week, so their next step might be adding another repetition rather than going heavier again.

Both members are still progressing. They are simply doing it in a way that works for them.

Our logbooks help with this. Members can see what they did the previous week, how it felt and what changed. Our coaches can then help them choose the most appropriate next step for their body, experience and goals.

Mixing things up isn’t bad

Variety can make training fun, expose you to different movements and help develop more rounded fitness.

But too much variety makes progression almost impossible to measure.

If you wanted to learn French, you wouldn’t switch to German every other week and expect your French to keep improving. You would keep practising French, gradually building your vocabulary and confidence.

Training works in much the same way.

You do not need to repeat exactly the same workout forever, but you do need enough consistency to practise, adapt and improve.

At RGF, we keep the direction consistent while changing the right details along the way. That gives members the structure needed to make progress, with enough variety to keep enjoying the process.

A good workout can make you feel like you’ve worked hard.

A good programme helps you become capable of more.

We are not simply trying to make our members tired today. We want to help them keep learning, adapting and progressing for months and years to come.

That means knowing when to push, when to practise, when to change things and when to recover.

There is always a plan behind the sweat.