SNC in Nashville
Greetings from the road, once again! Lots of people are curious what life on the road entails for members of Straight No Chaser when we are out for up to 3 months in the fall. There are certain routines that each individual has, but the overarching goals are: 1) stay healthy; and 2) get ample sleep. For a number of us, that means trying to find a gym somewhere in the area almost every day. Which is why a number of us jumped at the opportunity when our friend Ryan Blanck told us he was taking us to the gym Franklin Strength in the suburbs of Nashville, TN.
Franklin Strength is a great gym that shares space with a cheerleading academy. The trainer with whom we worked, Daniel Johnson, is one jacked guy, and his goal is to bring out the best performance in every client. Like many gyms, Franklin Strength offers multiple classes per day, but his classes are much more limited in size to provide very personalized training at a reasonable price point to create recurring “workout warriors". We came for a cross training session, but while there, a couple of young ladies were absolutely blasting their legs, and the workout looked intense!
So let’s talk about our workout: We had 6 of us there, so we went with 3 pairs, effectively creating teams to “compete” against each other, while having a teammate for encouragement. We began with everyone on rowing machines for 5 minutes to get the blood flowing. Next up were 2 alternating stations: one person was punching the heavy bag, while the other was using the weighted sled.
The sled is a great piece of equipment to which I certainly don't have access on a regular basis. We tied it off with a long rope, and the cycle was to drag it 50 yards across the ground, then get up and push it back to point zero. Repeat this thrice and then trade with the person punching the heavy bag. That was one set(!) and we did three. Yep, felt that one!
For our next series, we utilized the hanging rings from the ceiling. We went back and forth between doing isometric rows and planking with arms extended on the rings. For the rows, dig your heels in and pull with a flat back until your hands are directly at your side. We started with 10 repetitions and decreased by 1 each set (10 total). We went back and forth on the rings until we had hit 10 sets.
Next, we did a burnout set on the rowing machine. The goal was to hit the 50 calorie mark as quickly as you were capable. I went about as furiously as I could, and after 2:10, I had hit the goal. I stood to get some water and that was the first time where I truly thought I might just pass out. But the moment luckily passed and we went on to the abdominal portion of the workout. For these, we used a padded medicine ball and rotated between holding it above our heads and doing leg raises. I made it through one set with the 12-lb. ball before retreating to the 6-lb. ball to be able to finish.
The workout was fantastic and took me through a number of exercises that I don’t make a normal part of my workout. It was a great way to mix things up for the day and use friendly competition to fuel my fire. A big thanks to Ryan Blanck and Daniel Johnson for the great workout- it was just what I needed to break me out of my routine. If you live in the Nashville area and want to get back to being the best you, check out Franklin Strength.