[Franz29]

So I suppose I should introduce SPQR Fitness and what it is.

Basically, SPQR Fitness was/is the name I used for my Speed and Agility coaching for my American Football team. It started out as a way to separately invoice the university for both the regular coaching and the strength work I did, which we (rightly IMHO) considered to be two separate and distinct things. Any money received always went back to the club to pay for equipment and other sundry expenses that we don't receive funding for.

The name comes from Ancient Rome; SPQR was the term used to describe the government and property of the state (Senatus Populus que Romanus - "The Senate and the People of Rome") and was inscribed on the arm of all Roman soldatii (as in Gladiator). The Roman Soldier was trained to the highest degree of fitness - he was expected to speed march all day, yet still be capable of out fighting any opponent, and their training was brutal - running, swimming, long speed marches, sword work, spear throwing etc, all in full armour for hours on end. This is the epitome of functional training to me. Train for life and death situations as hard and as realistically as possible

It also works that SPQR is an acronym for some of the tenets of fitness that we were improving with our training - Speed/Strength, Power, Quickness, Reaction.

When Chet discussed his Associate idea, I knew it was time I made this official so the SPQRFit.com site was registered and the garage gym was born. Right now it's a definite non-profit thing; I am training my football team and a few friends, all without charge but I am hoping in the near future to move it up a notch and start to advertise my services more widely. I am already in negotiation with the Women's soccer and rugby teams at the university to prepare their SPAQR training on an ad-hoc basis, and if this works out, I hope to parley that in to doing the same for the men's teams.

The garage is small, but has pretty much everything we will need for the time being and for space there is a park just 150 yards away that we can use at any time no matter the weather. Starting this week a new blog and WOD site went live so we can do our own programming; sessions normally start with some form or strength work, followed by a metcon then finishing with some skill work.

Anyway, that's about it. I am grateful that Chet considered me as a "plank-holding" associate and look forward to working with Chet, Mark and Andy in taking this forward and increasing awareness of the high quality of trainers and services available in the UK in the field of functional fitness.

If you are in or around the Guildford are and fancy coming down for a session, give me a shout and we can sort something out.

Stephen

[FK Pimp]

nice one buddy
had a look at your site yesterday - looks good & decent challenging WODs

[Gubernatrix]

Had a look at the blog - good luck with it all.

Interesting your idea about cohorts. I would imagine that people would be in different cohorts for different sessions though. Looking at your workouts I would be Aquilifer for the deadlift workout but probably Optio for the thruster workout.

[Tick88]

Hi Stephen,

The reasoning behind your company name is very interesting…I love it!

I've been thinking about what to call myself when I start up...

Thong-Fitness has a ring, but not sure it'll draw the right clientele!

[FK Pimp]

your theme tune could be the thong song by cisqo
(sorry couldn't resist it - slaps self on wrist)

[Franz29]

Gubernatrix, on Mar 24 2009, 12:58 PM, said:

Had a look at the blog - good luck with it all.

Interesting your idea about cohorts. I would imagine that people would be in different cohorts for different sessions though. Looking at your workouts I would be Aquilifer for the deadlift workout but probably Optio for the thruster workout.

Yep, that's something I need to figure out. Right now the group is so small it's not an issue, but it could rear its head soon. Right now, of the two guys and one girl who regularly train with me, we tend to work it out as we go what level they train at for any given exercise. I have one guy who trains independently (in the Lebanon no less) and he is "civilian" all the way right now, but progressing nicely.