Workouts & Exercises
Turn the cardio block into pad work and your client asks for the hard bit
From the FASTER syllabus: this article is taught in full in the Advanced Combat Techniques course →
In short: Clients rarely ask for more steady-state cardio, and a session that feels like a chore is a session they eventually stop booking. Advanced Combat Techniques teaches the martial arts movement and pad work that turns cardio, speed and agility into something clients actually look forward to.
The short version
Your client will tell you which part of the session they want more of, and it is the part with a bit of skill in it. Advanced Combat Techniques puts pad work, footwork and combat movement where the treadmill block used to sit, so the conditioning still lands and the client comes out asking for the round again.
Key Takeaways
- Cardio clients tolerate rather than enjoy is a slow leak on your rebooking rate.
- Advanced Combat Techniques turns the same fitness outcomes into pad work and combat movement.
- No fighting involved: it's the movement and the coaching skill, aimed at making cardio something clients look forward to.
The block nobody asks for more of
Every trainer has a version of the same session shape: strength work the client is engaged in, followed by a cardio finisher that gets done because it's on the plan, not because anyone's excited about it. The client shows up, gets through it, and books the next session anyway, right up until the week they quietly don't.
That drop-off rarely comes with a complaint. It comes as a cancelled slot and a client who's suddenly very busy. The part of the session nobody ever asks you for more of is usually the part costing you the booking, and steady-state cardio is the most common culprit going.
Why the industry keeps serving it anyway
Cardio is easy to program and easy to justify with a chart, so it stays the default long after most trainers have noticed clients don't love it. Nobody's being lazy on purpose. It's just the path of least resistance when the alternative sounds like it needs a skill set you were never taught.
Advanced Combat Techniques teaches the martial arts movements and pad work that turn conditioning into something clients enjoy, and holding pads properly is a specific, learnable skill, not an instinct you're supposed to already have. Once you can hold and coach pads so a round is sharp, safe and fun, the same aerobic and speed work that used to be a treadmill block becomes the session a client mentions to their friends.
What it changes in a session
The conditioning is unchanged. Same fitness built, same heart rate raised. What changes is the shape of it: combinations instead of intervals, a partner holding pads instead of a screen counting down, speed and agility drills built from combat movement instead of cones on their own. Clients get the same conditioning and a session they'd choose to repeat.
That's the difference between being a trainer clients tolerate through the boring part and being the one with sessions people look forward to, which is exactly the reputation the course is built to hand you.
What to do next
The Advanced Combat Techniques course covers pad holding and combat movement properly, taught by the people who built it, with free return access to everything for as long as FASTER exists. It's built visually and hands-on, the way every FASTER course is, because pad work is something you learn by holding pads, not by reading about tempo.
PT Manager keeps a record of what each client did and when they booked next, so you don't have to guess which sessions are quietly costing you rebookings and which ones clients are asking to repeat.
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Frequently asked
Do I need a martial arts background to teach this?
No. The course teaches the movements and pad-holding skills from the ground up, built for personal trainers, not fighters.
Is there any actual fighting or sparring involved?
No. It's movement, pad work and conditioning, not combat sport.
What does the course actually replace in a session?
The blocks clients tend to tolerate rather than enjoy, like unbroken steady-state cardio, get built into pad work and combat movement instead, aimed at the same fitness outcomes.
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