Engine Builder

Forty-five minutes of honest aerobic work at talking-pace-minus-a-little — the class that builds the engine every other class borrows.

Strength & conditioning
Mixed ability
45 min
Works for 8–20
1 instructor
Effort 4/5
Gym floor with a 15–20m shuttle lane
conditioning
intervals
cardio
engine
gym

The ClassPlans programming teamLevel 3 group-fitness qualified · 10+ yrs teaching

Kit: 8 cones for two shuttle lanes, steps or low benches (one per 4 members), 6–8 light dumbbells (4–8kg), mats. Rowers, bikes or ski machines slot straight into station one if your floor has them.

Warm-up8 min

Find Your Gears

Gear 3 ≈ RPE 6–7 — the night's home

Setup: Stations pre-built around the room (see the map in the next block). Group gathers in the shuttle lane.

How it works: Teach the gearbox first, because the whole session is driven by it. Gear 1: walking, full sentences. Gear 2: easy movement, chatting happily. Gear 3: working, short sentences only. Gear 4: hard, three words at most. Then feel them in the legs: one minute in each of gears one to three up and down the lane — walk, jog, stronger jog — with thirty seconds of gear one between. Finish with leg swings, hip openers and ten squats.

Common mistakes

Skipping the gear teach — without it, half the room sprints minute one and dies by minute ten.

What to say

“Tonight lives in gear three — strong but repeatable, short sentences.”
“Gears are personal: one member's gear three is another's walk, and both are right.”
“Calibrate honestly now — the intervals only work if the gears are true.”

Easier

Gears one and two only in the rehearsal; the class runs fine one gear lower throughout.

Harder

Add three strides of gear four, 10 seconds each, walk-back recovery.

Workout14 min

The Long Rotation

4 × [3 min work / 30s move]RPE 6–7 held flat

Setup: Four stations, quarter of the group at each: 1 shuttle lane (or rower/bike if you have them), 2 step-ups at the benches, 3 light dumbbell thrusters or squat-to-press, 4 mat station — mountain climbers at a steady drum-beat pace.

How it works: Three minutes per station in gear three, thirty seconds to walk to the next. No sprinting, no stopping — the skill is a pace that looks the same at minute one and minute three. You call the halfway point of each station so members can check their gear honestly: could you say a short sentence right now, yes or no.

Common mistakes

Letting the keen ones treat station one as a race — the rotation is a metronome, and you are its conductor.

Rounds: 1 full rotation

What to say

“Same pace at the end as the start — that is the whole exercise.”
“Step-ups: whole foot on the bench, drive through the heel, swap lead legs each minute.”
“Thrusters light and rhythmic — this is a breathing exercise wearing a dumbbell.”
“If the sentence test fails, shift down half a gear; if it is a speech, shift up.”

Easier

Two-minute stations; climbers as slow marching planks with hands on the bench.

Harder

Gear three-and-a-half on stations one and two only — the legs-only stations carry more pace safely.

Workout12 min

Surge & Settle

10 × [20s surge / 40s ease]Surges RPE 8 · recovery RPE 2–3

Setup: Everyone to the shuttle lanes, two lanes, half the group in each, spread along the start line. Cones at 15–20m.

How it works: Ten rounds of one minute: 20 seconds of gear four — a genuine surge up and down the lane — then 40 seconds of gear one-and-a-half, walking or very easy jogging, no standing still. The interval teaches the engine's best trick: surging and then paying the debt back while still moving. Halfway through, remind them the surge should still be repeatable — round ten's surge should look like round one's.

Common mistakes

Letting people stand during recovery — still legs pool, moving legs clear; keep the walk going.

Rounds: 10

What to say

“Surges start strong, not desperate — you have ten of these to honour.”
“The recovery is walked tall, hands off knees — moving pays the debt faster than folding.”
“Turn tight at the cones: low hips, short steps, push out of the turn.”
“Breathe big in the 40 — through the nose if you can, mouth if you must.”

Easier

15-second surges at gear three; recovery fully walked.

Harder

25-second surges, same recovery — only for those whose round-five surge still looks like round one.

The rest of this class plan is free — along with 3 more this week.

ClassPlans programming team

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