DATA: We Coach Beginners Extremely Well

First things first, everyone who shows interest in DEUCE completes a “Intro Session with a coach. The details of this critical meeting aren’t important right now, but (as you may know) this session includes the “Baseline,” which is a short bodyweight workout used as a benchmark from which to measure some objective improvement in work capacity. The “Baseline” looks like this:

“Baseline”

Complete the following for time:

400m Run

40 Squats

30 Sit Ups

20 Push Ups

10 Pull Ups

Keep in mind that we scale this workout aggressively to account for strength deficiencies and lack of skill. Most people that come here aren’t fit enough to do this with the intended intensity, so we change things about the workout to make that possible regardless of fitness level. In addition, we keep track of every single “Baseline” score, and as a result we have quite a bit of data on this. Firstly, the average baseline time (most of which are comprised of scaled variations of the workout) is seven minutes and eighteen seconds. The median time? 6:42. This tells us that the population is slightly skewed towards the slower end of the 7:18 average score.

For context, the fastest men’s score is less than three minutes and the women’s time is in the four minute range, which is an insane difference (in the case of the men, is the same amount of work in half the time). While we have known we are quite effective at improving fitness because of objective test/retest events like this where we markedly improve performance, the observation that most people come here with very beginner capacities is telling. This data shows that the average person that walks in the gym is a bonafide beginner. Not only is DEUCE a welcoming environment where beginners are the majority, we find that beginners statistically don’t stay that way. The data shows regular performance gains (often 30-50% performance increase in less than a year) for beginners indicates that this is a place that beginners can change. 

DEUCE Gym is a great place for beginners. Most importantly, DEUCE Gym is a place to become an intermediate.

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach