Improvement Warrior Getting Started Guide

This webpage is going to go over the basics of what you need to know before starting your journey with Improvement Warrior Fitness. Exactly what we do, what we are, what we are NOT, and how we are going to help you change your life— YES, Life; not just your body and health, but your overall life will Improve.

Don’t have time to read? Play or download the audio below. There’s a free PDF version here: Getting started IWF

What is Improvement Warrior Fitness?

Improvement Warrior Fitness is our 3rd name since 2008. And it will be our last. We started off as Yun Fitness Bootcamps in 2008, then moved to Yun Fit the UN-Bootcamp in 2012, and IWF in 2013. The reason for the changes is we wanted to differentiate ourselves as much as possible from the word ‘bootcamp’. With any type of fitness program there are good and there are bad programs (as well as good and bad trainers), we felt the majority of ‘bootcamps’ in the Columbus, Ohio area fell in the range of mediocre to bad.

The program has gone through many changes all in the effort to improve the service and the results gotten. As you read through this page you will start to see the differences we offer over other ‘bootcamps’, franchise gyms, personal training studios, cross fit boxes, zumba, and other types of fitness programs.

Locations and times

Makes no sense for you to keep reading if you are out of our service range or the times don’t mesh with your schedule. Our locations and times of classes offered:

 

If our locations and times do not work for you, we highly recommend checking out our online workout program: LBN Online Strength & Fitness Workouts

Who is Improvement Warrior Fitness For?

We’d like to say ‘everybody’ here. But as we have learned through the years that simply is not the case.

We have a wide array of clients working side by side next to each other. From 20-something college students all the way up to 70+ year old grandmas/pas, and everything in between.

The ones who make the changes that need to happen are the ones that understand that there is going to be a lot of work. The work is intense. And it will be extremely difficult when you first begin. But that is how most things are when you first begin anything that helps to create a lot of change.

The more out of shape, injury-ridden, overweight/obese that you are the harder it is going to be especially at the start. But that is our clientele that needs to start the most!

So before you start, you better have reached a point in your life that you are sick and tired of being ‘sick and tired.’ You’ve tried the other fitness programs before and they didn’t work, you’ve tried working out on your own and it didn’t work. You’ve tried this diet or that diet and it didn’t work.

Your first 2-6 weeks is your introductory period– to re-introduce exercise and especially the type that we do so your body and mind can adopt to the long-term changes that we will be making. Show up your first day, work too hard, never show up again…..it happens all the time in our program and other workout programs…. read this blog post for more detail……

Maybe you even tried us out when we were Yun Fitness Bootcamps or Yun Fit The UN-Bootcamp…… And yes- we believe our program is even that much more improved since then ( and in our opinion, we were the top ‘boot camp’ program in the city).

So there better be some emotion behind you wanting to change your body and health. If there isn’t you’re not going to last. And that’s how it will be at IWF or where ever you go in the future.

Your mindset will play a huge role in this as well. IWF will help with the mindset training but understand: YOU CANNOT STAY THE SAME PERSON YOU ARE RIGHT NOW AND EXPECT TO GET THE RESULTS/BODY/HEALTH/FITNESS YOU ULTIMATELY DESIRE! Personal improvement of your mind needs to take priority otherwise nothing you do will work for you.

With that said….. who is Improvement Warrior Fitness for?

• Beginners to weight and strength training— Now if you are advanced to strength/weight training then you will find our training program is perfect for you as well– and we won’t let you slack on your form….. If , on the other hand, you have never trained with weights before, or it’s been a while, or you’ve only done machine training, then IWF is a great place to start. Understand we do NO machine training. We work with kettlebells, resistance bands, medicine balls, dumbbells, barbells, equalizers, battle ropes, and your own body weight. There’s a section below on why strength training is the most important element in your body transformation.
• People tired of the same boring workout— Doing the same thing over and over again can get pretty boring. And especially if it is not producing any results. At IWF our F.L.O’s are different every time. Providing a different stimulus on the body and nervous system for ultimate strength and conditioning gains and body fat burning workouts. You’ll see our IWF basic exercises every week, and usually some variation of them everyday– that’s because the basics always work.
• People looking for consistency—Changing programs doesn’t result in long-term results. This body transformation of yours takes time. You can’t get strong and fit and reach all your goals in 30-days, it is a lifelong process.
• Challenge— Everybody needs a challenge. But not everybody wants one; we don’t want those people. We have built in short-term goals that you will be striving for (see FitRanX  below). Reaching these benchmarks will require you to get stronger and better conditioned (stamina/endurance); which will result in a better body and overall health.
• In need of nutrition support— Everybody gets our Look Better Naked Nutrition Blueprint. If that’s not enough, you can schedule your success session with owner, Jason Yun. Changing your nutrition is 50% of your transformation. The other 50% is the actual workouts, recovery/regeneration, sleep, and stress reduction. We also have done-for-you nutrition challenges, for the specific ones please see the ‘services’ tab at the top of the website.
• Self-Development—- People looking to better themselves everyday. Our tagline is: ‘Stay Strong, Stay Positive, Be the Improvement Warrior’. Fitness and nutrition translates into every aspect of your life. It’s the starting point in our opinion.
• Movement Restrictions—- These happen over time and will either result in injury or severe movement restriction— UNLESS you do something about it. IWF will provide certain movement/mobility/regeneration drills you will do before, during, after class and can even do at home or the office. If you can’t move correctly you can’t perform correctly. THIS is the most important aspect of training but most gyms, studios, and people who work out don’t do enough or completely ignore it.

IWF F.L.O

F.L.O is what we call our workouts. It stands for Fat Loss Opportunity. Because everyday is a chance to burn fat.

100% of our clients at IWF want to lose weight and/or body fat. We recommend you get out of the mindset of weight loss and instead focus on fat loss.

Fat loss is the #1 indicator you are making progress. Weight loss could be due to a number of things– losing water, losing muscle, stress, poor sleep, lack of calories, lack of nutrition. With fat loss you are basically forced to do things the right way– taking NO SHORTCUTS, not hitting an easy button– because you won’t see any progress.

Each day at IWF we have a brand new F.L.O for you to do.

The overall basic template is the same for everybody. But each exercise and circuit can be modifiable based on your level of fitness and strength. So for instance, say you come into our program and your first day we have squats on the board– Joan can do squats with a kettlebell with an extra 40 pounds, Dave needs to squat with his heels on boards to get deep enough, and you need to do chair squats or box squats to learn the squatting pattern. If you’re injured with say a knee injury and can’t squat at all, you will be assigned a suitable exercise that you are able to do until you heal or are strong enough to perform a more advanced progression.

We have progressions or regressions for each and every exercise.

Intervals and circuits:

Each of our F.L.Os basically run off of time, or intervals. This way it is highly modifiable for each person. Person A might be able to perform 15 full pushups in :20, Person B might be able to perform 10 reps on her knees, Person C might only be able to do 3 reps.

START WITH WHERE YOU ARE……AND PROGRESS FROM THERE.

‘To do anything well you must have the humility to bumble around a bit, to follow your nose, to get lost, to goof. Have the courage to try an undertaking and possibly to it poorly. Unremarkable lives are marked by the fear of not looking capable when trying something new. New experiences are meant to deepen our lives and advance us to new levels of competence.’
–Epictetus

Our goal is to start you working out in the most correct fashion possible (meaning perfect form— see Red Light System below). And then to keep progressing throughout your lifetime. Or once you do reach your desired level of fitness to maintain that. We want you working out for the rest of your life, because the benefits go way beyond feeling good and looking better naked. And you CANNOT continue to workout if you push your self too hard when your body is NOT ready, or perform exercises incorrectly.

Intensity

This is where it matters. If your workouts are not intense enough you will not get results. Period!

If you do the same weight over and over and over again for the same exercises you will not get results. You have to constantly be striving to do more– either more weight, more reps, more rounds, longer distance, etc……

If you don’t, you might as well stop. Because there comes a point when you say to yourself ‘I’ve been doing this for ____ months or ____ years, and I look and feel exactly the same.’ Frustration sets in and then you do quit. Don’t bother wasting the time. Just quit now. Or increase the intensity.

Here’s a video that I made on intensity.

 

Be sure to read the FitRanX Strength & Conditioning system below on how we automatically incorporating progressive & systematic intensity into your program.

 

Your fitness pyramid is broken…… Let IWF Fix it!

Strength Training #1. Strength and/or weight training is at the top of your pyramid– underneath nutrition– but it is the most important training part of your life.

Ditch the cardio! We did! We don’t do any ‘cardio’ at IWF.

If you are a busy person and not training for endurance type events then it is a waste of time, hard on your joints, shrinks your muscles (and metabolism), and takes a huge time investment to get any results.

FitRanX

FitRanX is the Fitness ranking system we mentioned above. You can read all about it here. But basically it provides each of our Improvement Warriors a physical training goal to shoot for each and every phase. There are a total of 8 levels to achieve.

3 age brackets, and 2 gender brackets. Making it the ultimate strength & fitness testing tool to find out exactly where you stand.

How to best think about this system: Martial Arts have white to black belt. This is a ‘belt system’ for progressing you through strength and fitness (remember strength is the most important aspect of your training program, actually behind mobility, because if you can’t move you can’t get stronger.)

Red Light System

The Red Light System is our way of keeping you safe and injury free.

We are a injury free zone. If one of the coaches of IWF see’s your form off in any way, we are going to correct it. If we can’t we are going to give you an alternate exercise, usually a regression of that exercise. And if that doesn’t work, we keep regressing the exercise or level of difficulty until you are able to perform it perfectly. Then you build back up from there until you are able to perform the original exercise. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past, start with where you are NOW! [BLOG post here]

Registration

You have the opportunity to register to start your program with us with several different Trial Options. But whichever one you choose, you basically become a Trial Client of Improvement Warrior Fitness the moment you hit ‘Submit’.

The different trial options you have are listed below with a brief description:

All trials below come with our Look Better Naked Nutrition Blueprint, 25 Rules of Fat Loss .Mp3, a Success Session with IWF owner Jason Yun, access to the Trial Client Success Portal, welcome orientation video, and access to our online workout program (LBN Online) and online coaching program (Mindtamer).

Complimentary 2-Week Trial: This is our most basic trial. There is no cost. You are allowed to workout up to 6 times in the 2-weeks. You can click here to register for this trial.

21-Day Rapid Fat Loss Program: This trial is 21-days of unlimited training (with IWF and our Yoga program) for $21. It comes with a body fat and functional movement screen. As well as a 21-day nutritional meal plan and starter guide which was based off of our most successful transformation contest. You can register for this trial here.

47-Day Ketogenic Challenge: This gives you the same access of the 21-day rapid fat loss program, minus the body fat, and also gives you access to our most successful weight/fat loss nutrition program. You can register for this trial here and read more about the program here. 

Daily Deal/Gift Certificate: We occasionally we offer deals through sites like Groupon and Living Social that you may purchase through them and then register on our website. We also will donate to a lot of events and charity fundraisers as well. If you purchased or received a gift certificate you may register for your trial here.

IWF Extended 1-month trial: This is the 2-week complimentary trial extended out for 4-weeks or 1-month for just $20.

 Trial Client Success Portal

Once you register, you then get access to our Trial Client Success Portal. See example below. This will give you access to several things that will help you along your way. Everything that we give you is a tool. Some tools can be used immediately, some in the future, some you will never use. If you have questions please ask.

The tools you will gain access to in the Trial Client Success Portal are:

• Welcome Orientation Video
• Workout of the Month (WOM) You get a fitness workout (WOP) and a Improvement Warrior Yoga YOP).
• FitRanX Hacks
• Functional Movement & Mobility Drills
• Red Light System
• Basic Exercise Tutorials
• Foam Rolling
• Your look better naked nutrition blueprint
• 25 Rules of Fat Loss .MP3
• Goal setting sheets

Your Trial

Your trial is your first time at IWF, or returning after a year or more. This trial is to gauge whether or not Improvement Warrior Fitness is the right place for you.

You will know within the first week if it is the place for you, and usually you will know within the first day you are with us.

After your first day, we will give you a  welcome packet which explains all of our membership program and it will also be emailed to you.

We expect you to become an Improvement Warrior with us, but if it is not the place for you we expect you to tell us that as soon as possible as well.

How to use this site

The tabs

Services: Here you can select and read more about everything we offer. Select the one you are looking for.

• Main services: Fitness. Most people are looking for one or the other. Doing both is great, but to start choose one and START!
• Additional services/events:
  • Saturday Fitness Classes– Every Saturday we have a themed workout. These are bonus classes in addition to our Monday-Friday schedule.
  • Body Fat: You can get your body tested via the Ultra Sound Body Metrix 2000
  • Lunch and Learns (corporate speaking): Jason Yun puts on health talks with a wide variety of topics to bring everybody’s level of health to the top of their game.
  • Athletic Revolution-Hilliard: This is our youth sports and fitness program for kids 8 and up.
  • Nutritional Challenges: Our current and previous challenges that focus on changing your nutrition for the best overall success
  • Upcoming events/seminars: Any other workshops, seminars, talks, or events that we have coming up will be listed here.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. For the group  strength & fitness (what this page has been going over). All questions in regards to each program that we have encountered over the years is answered there.

Class Schedule: This is a google calendar which has our entire schedule for all programs listed in a day by day, hour by hour format. So our regular workouts and classes is listed here, as well as any special workshops, seminars, webinars, etc…..

Register for your trial: This tab is when you are ready to register you can fill out the form on the trial of your choice.

Testimonials: Clients in action is where you can see some of our Improvement Warriors in action via video/pictures. You can also read and watch some of our previous testimonials and the success of some of our clients— will you be the next one?

The blog is where I, Jason Yun, posts different things about nutrition, health, fitness, mindset. I also post my previous talks, webinars, and seminars. You can request me to speak at your company here.