Back to Your Own Schedule - In the Club Vol. 2
In the Club
Vol. 2 · August 2026 · Santa Cruz Athletic Club
Hello August.
It's a good place to land. The frantic pace of summer is winding down, but the weather hasn't gotten the memo yet. That means you get both: a return to routine and rhythm, and still enough golden afternoons to actually enjoy the outdoors instead of just running through them.
So this month is about easing back into a rhythm that works for you, while making the most of the season while it's still hanging around.
Here's what's waiting for you at the club this month - built for getting back into your groove, and enjoying it while the sun still cooperates.
Club Notes
New This Month at SCAC
Youth Combine Event | August 8/22 and 8/23 at 1 pm. The Youth Athletic Program's Combine is back, testing speed, strength, and agility for athletes heading into their fall season. A great excuse to get your student-athlete moving again before the first bell rings.
The ARC Lab — One Month In Small group training launched in the app last month, and it's already become one of the most-booked slots on the calendar.
Mon–Fri, 8am. All membership tiers. Drop-In $26 · 10-Pack $240 ($24/session)
The Lift
Every month our training team puts together a program you can actually use — something built for real life, not just one great session. August is about efficiency: four movements, minimal setup, built to fit into whatever window you've actually got.
The August Strength Standard
Programmed by the SCAC training team
Movement Prep — 8 min
Inchworm Walkout x 10 yards
Bear Crawl x 10 yards forwards + 10 yards backwards
Lateral Crawl x 10 yards each direction
Thoracic Bridge x 5 each way
Push-Up x 15
Toe Touch Squat x 10
Walking Lunge x 10 each
Cossack Squat x 10 each
SLDL x 10 each
Turkish Get Up x 5 each
Block A — Hip Hinge + Vertical Push (alternating sets, 4 rounds)
Trap Bar Deadlift 4 × 6 reps, 70–75% working max
Push Press 4 × 8 reps, moderate-heavy
Block B — Knee-Dominant + Horizontal Pull (alternating sets, 3 rounds)
Rear-Foot-Elevated Split Squat 3 × 8 per side
Single-Arm DB Row 3 × 10 per side
Block C — Core, all three planes (3 rounds)
Plank to Shoulder Tap 3 × 30 sec — anti-extension / anti-rotation
Pallof Press 3 × 10 per side — pure anti-rotation
Suitcase Carry 3 × 40m per side — anti-lateral flexion, loaded carry
Tabata Finisher — 4 minutes
20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, 8 rounds total.
Primary option (bike or rower):
Assault Bike or Rower, 8 rounds × 20 sec max effort / 10 sec rest
No-equipment backup (if bikes or rower are full):
Kettlebell Swings, 8 rounds × 20 sec / 10 sec rest
The Lounge
Recovery is where adaptation actually happens. Every month we spotlight one tool in AURA that's backed by science and built to help you get more out of the time you do have.
Oxygen, Under Pressure
Recovery isn't always about slowing down. Sometimes it's about giving your body more of what it's already using to repair itself: oxygen.
Here's what's actually happening: inside our mild hyperbaric oxygen chamber, air pressure rises slightly above normal, typically 1.3 to 1.5 ATA. That small shift lets oxygen dissolve directly into your blood plasma instead of riding only on red blood cells, which means it reaches tissue that's harder to get to, tissue that's inflamed, fatigued, or still repairing from training. More oxygen at the cellular level means faster tissue repair, sharper mental clarity, and an immune system with less to work against.
August tends to be when fatigue catches up with people. A summer of training piles up, sleep gets disrupted by the school-year transition, and a lot of members are running on accumulated wear with nothing built in to actually repair it. A session in the chamber gives your body a head start instead of waiting for a rest day to catch up on its own.
Book through the app or ask at the front desk.
The Class Pass
We have an incredible class schedule and instructors who genuinely love what they do. Every month we highlight two worth putting on your radar. Here's what we're loving in August.
Build x Burn · RedRoom · Intermediate–Advanced A fast-paced blend of strength circuits and cardio intervals in a warm room. One session, full body, done — no need to plan a second workout around it.
Restorative Yoga · Heated Studio · All Levels Props, long holds, deep relaxation. The counterweight to a packed schedule — and proof that recovery doesn't have to mean doing nothing.
The Team
Behind every great workout is a person who showed up ready to coach it. Here are this month's featured team members.
Here are this month's featured team members.
D'Shawn Hopkins
Personal Trainer, HIIT Instructor
D'Shawn has been a personal trainer since 2020, bringing energy and consistency to every session he runs. A former Division 1 football player at UC Berkeley, he knows what it means to build a routine around a demanding schedule — and he brings that same practicality to the members he coaches.
He works with a wide range of clients, but busy parents and people rebuilding a routine after time away are where he does some of his best work. His approach favors consistency over motivation: showing up on the days it's inconvenient is the whole game, and D'Shawn makes that feel doable instead of daunting.
You'll also find him leading high-energy RedRoom classes. His favorite part of the job is watching someone walk in intimidated and walk out considering themselves a "gym person."
If your schedule just got turned upside down by the school year, D'Shawn is a great place to start.
Will Geary
Personal Trainer
Will has been training for a decade, with a focus that goes beyond the weight room: mobility, functional strength, and reconnecting people with how their bodies actually move. He works especially well with people returning to the gym after a break and looking to build something sustainable — not a routine they'll abandon in three weeks.
Outside the gym, Will spends his time rock climbing, mountain biking, and hiking — which shows up in how he coaches. Movement quality matters to him as much as the numbers on the bar.
His favorite part of coaching is watching clients rebuild a real connection with their own bodies, one consistent week at a time.
Ask a SCAC Coach
Our coaches are here for more than just the session. Every month we take a real question from our community and give it a real answer.
QUESTION: "School's back, my kid's schedule is running my life again, and I haven't trained consistently in weeks. How do I actually get back into a routine that sticks?"
ANSWER: Start smaller than you think you need to. The instinct after a break is to come back hard and make up for lost time — that's usually what causes the next drop-off, not what prevents it.
A few things that actually work:
Pick one fixed time slot tied to something already fixed in your day (right after drop-off, during a lunch break, before pickup)
Commit to two sessions a week for the first two weeks — not five
Use a class instead of programming your own workout for the first stretch. Less decision-making, more just showing up
Expect the first week to feel hard. That's not a sign it's not working
The goal isn't to fix your whole schedule in one week. It's to make training the thing that doesn't get negotiated away when the week gets busy. Once that habit is back, adding more is easy. Skipping the habit and trying to add more first is how it falls apart again.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Start with a fixed, non-negotiable time slot tied to an existing part of your schedule, and commit to a lower frequency (2x/week) for the first two weeks before building back up. Consistency at a lower volume beats an ambitious plan that collapses in week two.
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Yes — a focused, full-body session built around a few compound movements (like a deadlift variation, a push, and a carry) delivers real strength and conditioning benefit in a short window. The Lift's August standard is built specifically for this.
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Contrast therapy alternates heat and cold exposure — typically sauna and cold plunge — to train the nervous system to shift states efficiently. It reduces inflammation and has been used to support alertness and stress recovery in as little as 30 minutes.
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Build x Burn is a RedRoom class at Santa Cruz Athletic Club combining strength circuits and cardio intervals in a heated room, designed to build muscle and conditioning in a single session.
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Restorative Yoga uses props to support the body in relaxing, held poses. It supports stress relief and nervous system recovery, making it a strong complement to higher-intensity training.
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Yes. Between early morning ARC Lab sessions (Mon–Fri, 8am), a full class schedule, and efficient full-body programming through The Lift, SCAC is built for people fitting training around a full schedule, not the other way around.
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The Combine is a testing event for the Youth Athletic Program, assessing speed, strength, and agility ahead of the fall sports season.
