At SugarWOD, we’re intrigued by the process and attention to detail that goes into effective workout programming. We’ve been talking to our customers and reaching out to expert programmers in our community over the past few months to figure out how we can make the programming process easier for gyms and better for athletes.
In a recent survey, we found that 70 percent of our customers write their own programming each month. They like the control and customization this process gives them. In fact, many head coaches view programming as their “core job” in serving athletes and a large part of their gym’s brand.
In the same survey, we found that about 25 percent of gyms outsource their programming and then tailor the templates to the needs of their members and the capabilities of their facility. These gyms view outsourced programming as an essential factor in their ability to scale their gym operations while providing their members with the best experience.
We’ve gathered and analyzed more than 14 million workouts over the past few years, and our programming tools are used by thousands of coaches. We see the thought, care, and time that goes into creating an effective month of functional fitness programming. There’s a lot of consideration given to the needs of your box’s particular clientele. Are you a gym of fire breathers and games competitors? Or are you “normal” people looking to improve your fitness and quality of life?
All of this is time-consuming and for some, it might not be your strength. We believe that a business can only be as strong as its weakest parts. Leveraging outsourced, expert programming ensures that the workout is strong. Gyms who use programming, delivered by people who are entirely focused on creating the workout experience can provide a more effective workout for your athletes. Plus, expert programming often provides multiple elements to fill the workout hour—not only the workout, but the warm-up, coaches notes, skill work, and benchmark planning. It gives gym owners and coaches the time to focus their efforts on getting new members, strengthening their community, and growing their gym.
There are dozens of free and paid programming providers like Warmup & Workout, Project Roots, Ben Bergeron, Jason Brown, Thrivesty, Invictus, etc. These groups create comprehensive programming plans for an hour-long WOD and the gyms that use these services report the following positive impacts:
- More consistent programming and planning
- Superior service from coaches
- Improved experience for the athletes
- Improved athlete performance
- More time to work on member acquisition and retention
- Stronger gym community
We’re all about saving box owners and coaches time. We also really love improving the effectiveness of a workout for athletes. We’re excited to offer a way to do both. We’ve been closely watching this trend toward investing in expert programming and think it provides incredible value to the CrossFit community. It became clear to us that we could make our customer’s lives easier if they could use SugarWOD to automatically publish the programming they were getting through these services to their SugarWOD calendar.
So, we have decided make publisher programming available through SugarWOD in our new Marketplace.
What does that mean? It means that if you are signed up with a programming expert that offers their workout plans through SugarWOD, you get your Sundays back. To start, the WODs and WOD Plans provided by experts like Project Roots and Warmup & Workout are automatically added to your SugarWOD programming calendar. Once there, you can customize, move or augment them using SugarWOD’s regular programming tools!
The Marketplace will launch in November, offering Project Roots and Warmup & Workout programming. Want to be notified when it goes live? Subscribe to our mailing list below!
*If you sell programming and want more information about how to publish your workouts through SugarWOD, email hello@sugarwod.com.