Group classes with real coaching
Capped at 14, coached live, 26 sessions a week — how the class side works.
The whiteboard · Coaching
How we program our
small group classes
Behind every 50-minute class is an 8-week plan, a capacity cap and a template that's been rewritten eleven times. Here's how class programming actually works at ChoiceUpliftLane.
Why we cap at 14
Fourteen is the most people a coach can genuinely watch in an hour. At fifteen, someone hides in the back with a rounded back and nobody notices. At fourteen, every squat gets eyes.
The cap also keeps the room honest — enough people for energy, few enough that the coach learns your name, your knees and whether you sandbag the last round.
The weekly template
The timetable isn't a lucky dip. Strength bias on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; conditioning on Tuesday and Thursday; mobility and a longer mixed session at the weekend. A member who shows up every day still gets a balanced week.
Each day has the same skeleton: warm-up tied to the work, a strength or skill block, then conditioning scaled to the day's load. Predictable structure, varied content — that's what makes progress trackable.
A good class program is invisible. You just notice you're getting stronger and the hour flies — the plan did its job quietly.
— Liam O'Connor
Programming in waves
Classes run the same 8-week wave structure as our strength blocks: build volume, build intensity, deload, test. The movements repeat because repeating is how you get good at them.
Members notice the difference around week five — the goblet squat that felt awkward in week one starts feeling like a warm-up. That's not an accident; that's the wave working.
Scaling is the real job
Every class has three versions of each movement written before the coach walks in: the standard, the scaled-down, and the nasty version for the regulars who ask for it. Scaling happens quietly mid-class — nobody gets singled out.
A beginner and a three-year member do the same workout at different depths, loads and tempos. The program serves the room, not the other way around. That took us three rewrites to get right.
What changed when we rewrote it
The eleventh version of the template cut warm-up filler, moved the skill work earlier and made the conditioning shorter and harder. Attendance and member ratings both jumped — turns out people can tell the difference between programmed and improvised.
Curious? Book a class spot and watch it happen. Or read about the coaches who write it.
Keep reading
- See the class side of the club: group fitness classes.
- Want the heavier version? Strength blocks are the same idea, heavier.
- How the other half recovers: recovery is training too.
Written by
Liam O'Connor
Liam writes most of the class programming and leads the conditioning side of the timetable. Ask him about interval pacing at your own risk — he will talk for forty minutes. Meet the whole crew.
More from the whiteboard
Read these next
Strength & conditioning in 8-week blocks
The block program our classes borrow their structure from.
5 strength myths that keep beginners weak
The beliefs we correct in week one — and what actually works instead.
Try the next class
on the house.
Book a free trial and jump into whichever session fits your week — you'll see the template working.