A "session" is a single bout of training composed of one or more workouts. You might generally think of it as a one or two hour training block where the athlete begins a session with a warm-up, practices some aspect of training, then ends with a cool-down.
The concept of sessions is used on the calendar and in programs. The format is slightly different in the two locations, but the attributes are essentially the same.
Session principles & best practices
Here are some general principles to consider when building sessions:
Naming
You generally want to give the session a succinct, descriptive name that informs people what the session is about. For session templates, you'll want to give it a unique name that makes it easy to distinguish from other sessions in the database. The name appears in various contexts, including in the calendar, in the program interface, and in the mobile app where athletes will be following the session.
Workouts
The session's workouts are where you define the actual work do be done in the session. As a best practice, try to keep individual workouts small and concise. This generally leads to a better user experience for both coaches and athletes, because it's easier to manage and consume information in small chunks. For example, if your session calls for 3 sets of 5 @ 65% for bench press, back squat, and hang clean, then separate out those three exercises into their own workouts.
Session flow
When athletes receive sessions on a mobile device, or when sessions are displayed on the digital whiteboard, the interface is laid out such that each workout will be executed in order. So try to design the workout flow so that each one can be executed independently and in sequence.
Creating sessions
Sessions can be created in a number of different contexts:
In an institution database
In a team database
In a program
On the calendar
Sessions created at the team and institution levels serve as templates that can be inserted into a program or onto the calendar.
Create an institution session template
Sessions created at the institution level act as templates that can be utilized by any team at the institution. These sessions will be displayed everywhere sessions can be inserted, i.e., within a program or onto the calendar.
To create an institution session, navigate to the institution dashboard, click the sessions item, then click the button to create a new session.
Create a team session template
Sessions created at the team level act as templates that can be inserted anywhere within the given team. To create a team session, the team must have the "Private database" setting turned on. Then you can navigate to the team dashboard, click the sessions item, then click the button to create a new workout.
Create a program session
Sessions can be created from scratch within a program by clicking on a program day. This opens the simplified program session builder, which allows you to give the session a name, description, and facility. You can create new workouts from scratch, or you can search and insert workouts from your database.
See the program building guide for more details on building sessions within the program context.
Create a calendar session
Sessions can be created from scratch on the calendar by clicking on a time slot. This opens up the new calendar session form where you select who the session is scheduled for and assign it a facility.
After saving the session, you're taken to the session builder where you can further build out the training instructions.
(Additional session options can be modified for calendar sessions by clicking the "Edit" button in the top right of the session builder.)
Session builder
The session builder is the interface for building out training sessions. As noted above, the standard session builder is used when creating sessions in the database and on the calendar. A simplified session builder is used for building program sessions.
Session building context
It's important to recognize the importance of context when building sessions. Specifically, building session templates in the team or institution database makes them available for future use in programs or on the calendar. Database sessions are not assigned to anyone in particular.
Building sessions on the calendar or in a plan program, however, is effectively scheduling it for execution on the given date. Just keep this in mind to avoid confusion around how sessions ultimately end up getting deployed.
The examples here demonstrate building session templates for the database.
Add workouts
The main task when building sessions is adding the workouts. The workout contents and the order of the workouts dictates the flow of the session. When building session templates in the database, you have two options for adding workouts:
Build a new workout from scratch.
Insert an existing workout template from your workout database.
Build a workout from scratch
You can build a session workout from scratch using the workout builder. Simply click the "New workout" button and select the "From scratch" to get started.
See the guide on building workouts for more information about building workouts from scratch.
Insert a workout template
If you've created any workout templates in your database, you can easily insert those into a session by selecting the "From database" option in the new workout dropdown.
This enables you to quickly search for and insert a workout template from the database into the session.
Add an image
You can attach an image to a session to provide a visual component for athletes when they follow the session. Simply expand the image option and drag/drop an image from your computer into the image capture area, or click to open your file browser.
Session images are displayed in a number of places when the session is deployed.
Mobile phone
When an athlete views the session on their mobile phone calendar, the image will be displayed above the session's workouts.
TV mode
If the session is pulled up in TV mode from the calendar, the session's image will be displayed in the background of the screen.
