Beyond Strength

There’s a difference between testing and noting your progress.

Last week was testing week for us.
A full week of strength and conditioning tests.

It’s great, because our members get to lay it all out and see the fruits of their labor.

But here’s the thing…

We only do that once every 13 weeks.
And we have a less intense training week leading up to it.

A lot of people try to force testing on themselves.
They turn every workout or every week into a test.

It absolutely wipes them out, and they don’t understand why they don’t make progress, or worse, why they’re going backwards.

We’ll tell you why…
They’re giving their body way too much stress.
They can’t recover and adapt.
They’re so fatigued that they can’t gain fitness.

Regular testing is a good thing.
But not every workout or training week should be a test.

There are a bunch of other ways to track progress:

-Log your weights
-Record your heart rate during conditioning workouts
-Record your pace during conditioning workouts
-Track your consistency on a calendar

These often give you great clues about how training is going for you.

Note your progress over time.
Test every few months.

That’s how you get results and keep them.

Chubs from Happy Gilmore got it right…

It’s all in the hips!

Stretch them thangs.

This is from one of our strength and movement circuits during our last training phase.

We paired strength movements with mobility exercises and carry variations.

Checking every box in just 8 minutes per circuit to…

Move better.
Feel better.
Live better.

That’s not our slogan or anything.
But it sounds good, doesn’t it?

Megan Corey flew all the way from Minnesota to compete in the RCR | 313!

She found it on instagram, booked the flight, and then did the damn thing.

And, man, did she ever give it some gas!

She covered 7 tough miles in 1:07:52.

That’s with a 3-mile run, 1-mile carry, and a 3-mile ruck.

Not only was she a killer competitor, she was a great compadre.

Megan fit right in with our folks and we all enjoyed getting to know her.

Congrats, Megan. We appreciate you coming all that way to party with us.

We hope to see you next year!

We’ve been asking ourselves a question since the day we came up with the idea for the RCR | 313.

Can someone finish in 60 minutes or less?

We almost got our answer this past weekend.

Jonathan Goldsmith was a member at Beyond Strength for years before he had to move away for work.

He was the first ever member to achieve our Black Level during testing week.
(It’s really f*ckin hard to do.)

Goldsmith signed up for the RCR | 313 knowing he was moving back to the area.

He just got back a couple of weeks ago.
With all the stress of moving and getting settled back in, he almost decided not to do the race.

But he showed up on race day anyway.

And he put up a time of 61 minutes, the fastest time yet.

He showed us that a sub-one-hour time is definitely within striking distance.

Now that he’s rejoining Beyond Strength, we’re sure he’ll break his own record next year.

Welcome home, Jonathan.
We’re glad to have you back.

The Second Annual RCR | 313 was awesome.

The racers kicked a whole lot of ass, pushed themselves, cheered each other on, and had a great time.

We even had a new course record! Like, a blazing one we weren’t sure could happen.
(We’ll talk more about that this week.)

Thanks to everyone who came out and got after it with us on a Saturday morning!

Tomorrow’s the big day!

The 2nd RCR | 313 is going down at Algonkian Regional Park!

We’re pumped!

Not just to watch folks get after it during the most unique physical challenge in NOVA.

But to see people kick way more ass than they thought they could.

8am sharp, folks!

We’ll see you in the morning.

3 days until Northern Virginia’s most unique physical challenge.

The RCR | 313 is this Saturday at Algonkian Regional park.

The party starts at 8am sharp.

3 mile run
1 mile carry
3 mile ruck

7 challenging miles that test your strength and endurance.

We have a great line up of folks already set to get after it. But late comers are welcome.

As are those who just want to come out and support everyone running the race.

Come push yourself or give someone an extra push to get across the finish line.

How it feels to finish something hard and celebrate what you just did.

It sucks that a lot of people never experience that.

They never feel that elation because they never push themselves hard enough to find what’s waiting for them on the other side of discomfort.

Want to have more moments of celebration in your life?

Well, do more s**t worth celebrating.

You know, that chick who pooped her pantaloons at HYROX might have been onto something.

One of the best ways to boost training motivation while helping you make progress…

…is putting an event on the calendar that makes you s**t yourself just a little bit.

A little anxiety over preparedness can give you big amounts of motivational fuel.

And your training has to be dialed in so you’re ready at go time.

It’s a double whammy of needing to move and doing the right things over the short term and long-term…if you keep putting events on the calendar.

We do not, however, recommend pooping yourself in real life.

That makes everyone’s day worse.