Yesterday, Julie Foucher hosted an hour long Q&A as part of her “TRAIN with Julie Foucher” launch. Not only did she respond to questions regarding the program, but she also gave her personal advice regarding other CrossFit related questions, as well as ways to manage, and stay motivated during, periods of heavy workloads.
In case you missed it, below is a list of some of the highlights of last night’s session. Check out all the questions and answers.
Q&A
- Q: What type of gym equipment will TRAIN use? Will it work at a generic Globogym, or do you need a full crossfit gym? (Prowlers, olympic rings, climbing ropes & tractor tyres, etc are hard to come by in a regular gym)
- A: We’ll use a variety of equipment you would typically find in a CrossFit affiliate. Barbells, pull up rig, dumbbells, kettle bells, rowers, etc. Rings on a regular basis, sleds will be more infrequent.
- Q: Have you ever gone through times of low motivation levels with training and if so how did you overcome them?
- A: Absolutely! Finding good training partners and being on a program helps me a lot through those times. Also giving yourself some space and taking some pressure off that you don’t have to PR every day. Some days just getting in the gym and getting the work done is a win!
- Q: What is the best advice you’d give someone just starting out in CrossFit who isn’t exactly in the best of shape
- Find an affiliate near you and sign up! The coaches will take you through everything and help you to learn the movements. You will see that there are probably a lot of other people in the affiliate who are just like you!
- Q: How do you find a balance that enables you to work on every movement/lift consistently each week? There’s so much to Crossfit, it’s sometimes hard to cover everything on a regular basis!
- A: Yes, it can be overwhelming! I think building the foundation of the major lifts is important: squats, deadlifts, and presses, as well as Olympic lifts. I make sure to hit a range of time domains and some variation of each skill at least once every two weeks, most at least once per week. Staying with classic CrossFit (couplets and triplets in the glycolytic metabolic pathway as recommended by Coach Greg Glassman) also has the most transfer so I try to spend most of my time there
- Q: to someone who wants to become a competitor in CrossFit but they are brand new. What advice or recommendation as in regards to volume, training, skill work would you tell someone who wants to get to that level.
- A: I would say if you are new to CrossFit, build your volume slowly. Start with classes and then once you are comfortable you could slowly add in additional training to supplement for competition such as gymnastics skill work, olympic lifting, or endurance specific work. Then after doing that for a while you might start doing multiple workouts a day on occasion to prepare for a competition.
- Q: Does your train program give eating tips or menu options to a better lifestyle?
- A: Currently you can track your eating habits through beyond the whiteboards Lifestyle Log. You can also track things like sleep, mobility, and water intake. In the future I definitely plan to incorporate more nutrition into the program as well, including nutrition tips, recipes, and challenges we can all do together from time to time.
- Q: I am a retired endurance athlete and now only CrossFit. I really feel like my endurance has deteriorated so much. How do I build that back up while still succeding at CF? Does your new program address something like that?
- A: A good CrossFit program should cover all time domains so should help you to maintain your endurance. Although, with CrossFit we do compromise some endurance in order to have well-rounded fitness so I wouldn’t expect your endurance to be at the level it was when you were purely an endurance athlete. The program will address endurance with workouts in longer time domains, and also I recommend on our active rest day doing a long slow endurance effort as well.
- Q: What kind of advice would you give to someone who is looking to coach CF but is a bit nervous about doing it?
- A: I’d say there is no way to get better other than practice! We all have to start out as “not so great” coaches before we can become “good” and then “great” coaches. Practice teaching your friends, family, anyone who will let you! And everyone’s nervous at first but as long as you care about the people you are coaching and genuinely want to make them better you will be successful.
- Q: What’s your favorite cheat meal? Are you a sweet or salty person? I love sweets, such a bad habit of mine!
- A: Chocolate all the way!
- Q: What was the hardest lift for you to master when you started?
- A: I’d still say the clean and jerk. Front squats are my least favorite lift and the Olympic lifts are so technical – there is always something to improve.
- Favorite work out ?
- Fran!
TRAIN with Julie Foucher
“We’re all busy – we have jobs, significant others, children, friends, homes, projects, and pets to attend to, and there are only 24 hours in a day. In order to best meet all of life’s demands, we must first care for ourselves. You don’t have the luxury of spending hours in the gym each day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get and stay fit! Although I am working to complete my medical training and become a physician I still want to maintain a high level of fitness. Thus, #TRAINwithJF was born: 1 hour in the gym per day, 5 days per week, fully scheduled out for you and jam-packed to build a solid foundation of GPP and proficiency in the full gamut of weightlifting, gymnastics, and monostructural skills. This is the actual programming that I am doing each day, so you can rest assured that based upon my 6 years of experience training for the CrossFit Games, this is what I believe to be the most efficient programming to maintain a high level of fitness in just a few hours per week. Come workout with me! You just get to the gym, and let me worry about the rest. Each training day you will receive a task list which includes a warm-up, workout, strength and/or skill work, and a cool down. The tasks will be scheduled to fit a strict 60-minute timeline. I recommend you write this timeline up on the whiteboard when you enter the gym, set the clock, and go all out. When the clock hits 60, you can leave the gym confident that you put in the work to increase your fitness in a time-efficient way. I am working with btwb so we’ll be able to see and comment each other’s results. I’ll share nutrition and time-efficiency as well as host Q&As with you guys so we can get to know each other.” -Julie Foucher (Learn More)
Learn More: http://btwb.com/juliefoucher