GET BACK TO YOUR ROUTINE - In the Club Vol. 3
In the Club
Vol. 3 · September 2026 · Santa Cruz Athletic Club
Hello September.
There is something good about getting your own schedule back.
Summer has a way of making every week look different. Travel, visitors, kids at home, longer evenings, plans that move around. Then September arrives and the calendar starts to settle.
This month is not about packing more into that calendar. It is about deciding what deserves a place on it.
A workout you can count on. Recovery before you are completely depleted. A class that gets you out of your usual routine. Time at the club that belongs to you.
Welcome back to your own schedule.
Club Notes
Put Yourself Back on the Calendar
September is a good month to look at your training differently. Instead of asking how many workouts you can squeeze into a week, start with the sessions you can realistically protect.
Two consistent workouts beat five ambitious ones that disappear when life gets busy.
And remember, SCAC is designed so that training and recovery do not have to live on separate calendars. The gym floor, RedRoom, heated studio, locker room recovery, personal training, and AURA all live under one roof.
Not sure where to restart? Use your training sessions.
SCAC memberships include two complimentary personal training sessions, making September a good time to get familiar with equipment, establish a baseline, or simply put some structure around your next few months.
A trainer can help assess your goals and movement patterns, build a sustainable routine, and create a plan that works with your actual schedule.
The Lift
September's workout is about building strength you can come back to week after week.
No complicated setup. No chasing exhaustion. Just foundational movement patterns, enough volume to create progress, and a conditioning finish that gets you out the door feeling like you trained.
The September Strength Standard
Programmed by the SCAC training team
Movement Prep | 2 rounds
90/90 Hip Switch x 8 per side
World's Greatest Stretch x 5 per side
Glute Bridge x 12
Dead Bug x 8 per side
Bodyweight Squat x 12
Scapular Push-Up x 10
Block A | Squat + Pull
4 rounds
Goblet Squat 4 × 8
Assisted Pull-Up or Lat Pulldown 4 × 8 to 10
Choose a load that makes the final two reps challenging without changing your position or tempo.
Block B | Single-Leg Strength + Push
3 rounds
Reverse Lunge 3 × 8 per side
Dumbbell Bench Press 3 × 10
Move with control. The goal is quality across every set, not racing to the next exercise.
Block C | Posterior Chain + Carry
3 rounds
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift 3 × 10
Farmer Carry 3 × 40m
The Finish | 8 minutes
Alternate each minute:
Minute 1: Rower, 40 seconds at a strong sustainable pace
Minute 2: 10 kettlebell deadlifts + 8 push-ups
Repeat for 4 rounds.
Short on time? Do the movement prep, Block A, and Block B. A focused 25-minute workout still counts.
Consistency is the September standard.
The Lounge
Training creates the stimulus. Recovery helps you come back ready to do it again.
Red Light, Green Light
If September means returning to more consistent training, it is also a good time to get more intentional about recovery.
One tool worth understanding is red light therapy.
What does red light therapy actually do?
Red and near-infrared light use specific wavelengths of light that can penetrate the skin and interact with cells and tissues. One of the primary areas of research is how this light affects the mitochondria, the structures within your cells responsible for producing energy.
In simple terms, red light therapy is designed to support the processes your body already uses to produce energy, repair tissue, and recover.
That can make it a useful complement to a consistent training routine, particularly when the goal is supporting muscle recovery, managing soreness and inflammation, and maintaining healthy tissue over time.
And you do not have to wait until something hurts to use it.
Recovery works better as a rhythm
It is easy to think about recovery reactively. You train hard, get sore, then look for something that will make you feel better.
But recovery is happening all the time.
Building recovery into your week gives your body regular opportunities to restore between training sessions. Red light therapy can be one piece of that routine because it is non-invasive and easy to layer into the time you are already setting aside for yourself.
Train. Recover. Repeat.
More than one way to experience red light at AURA
Red light is integrated into several experiences inside the AURA Recovery Lounge, so you can choose the setting that makes sense for your goals and your day.
Full Red Light Therapy Bed
A dedicated, full-body red and near-infrared light session for focused recovery.
Vibroacoustic Bed + Red Light Canopy
Pair red light with sound and gentle vibration for an experience designed to support both physical recovery and a calmer nervous system.
Private Contrast Room
Combine recovery practices in one private space, including infrared sauna, red light, and cold plunge.
The goal is not to use every recovery tool every day. It is to understand what each one does and build a recovery rhythm that supports the way you train, work, and live.
Book through the app or ask the front desk where to start.
The Class Pass
You do not always need another workout to plan.
Sometimes the easiest way to stay consistent is to put a class on the calendar and let someone else take it from there.
Here's what we’re loving for the September schedule.
Sculpt
Heated Studio · Intermediate to Advanced
Yoga meets strength training. Sculpt combines traditional yoga movements with light weights and resistance work for a full-body session that challenges strength, stability, and control.
A good choice when you want strength work without another traditional lifting day.
Slow Flow
Heated Studio · All Levels
September does not have to be all acceleration.
Slow Flow links breath and movement through a gentler pace, longer holds, and smooth transitions. It is a chance to work on mobility and movement quality while giving your nervous system a quieter hour.
Put it between harder training days or make it the session you protect during a particularly full week.
The Team
Behind every class is a coach with their own relationship to movement. This month, we're highlighting two instructors who remind us that consistency doesn't have to come from pushing harder. Sometimes it comes from finding a practice you genuinely want to return to.
Lily Dwyer Begg
Yoga Instructor
Lily has been practicing yoga for more than two decades and teaching full-time since 2006, but her philosophy can be summed up in three simple words:
Feel, don't force.
A former professional modern dancer, Lily brings an extensive movement background to her teaching, including vinyasa, prenatal and postnatal yoga, yoga for scoliosis, and Somatic Practice. Her work has taken her from studios in Germany and Japan to YogaWorks trainings, international retreats, and specialized work with athletes including the Golden State Warriors and UC Berkeley's NCAA diving team.
At SCAC, that depth of experience translates into creative, fluid sequences grounded in precise anatomical cues and breath-led movement. The practice can be athletic, but the goal isn't to push through at all costs. Lily encourages students to pay attention, stay curious, and understand what their bodies are telling them.
It's an approach that feels especially relevant in September. When the instinct is to get back on track by doing more, Lily offers another option: move with attention, build gradually, and let consistency come from connection rather than force.
Sometimes the strongest routine is the one you don't have to fight yourself to maintain.
Mara Ruth
Yoga & Barre Instructor
For Mara, movement is more than something you put on the schedule. It can be something that brings you back to yourself.
A Santa Cruz-based barre, yoga, and Pilates instructor, Mara brings strength, alignment, and mindfulness together in classes that are energetic, accessible, and fun. Her approach is steady and encouraging. She wants you to challenge yourself, but never at the expense of being present in your own body.
That perspective comes from experience. Mara began her own transformational journey in 2014, eventually completing more than 500 hours of teacher training in Peru. Her movement practice also carried her through the loss of her sister, becoming an important part of how she rebuilt physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Today, that experience shapes the way she teaches. Whether it's barre, a dynamic flow, or a restorative practice, Mara creates space for members to build strength and confidence without losing the connection to why they're moving in the first place.
As you settle back into your own schedule this September, Mara's classes are a good reminder that the routines that last are often the ones that give something back.
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: "My schedule is finally predictable again. How should I build a weekly routine without immediately overdoing it?"
ANSWER: Start by building your week around three things: strength, conditioning or movement, and recovery.
You do not need to do everything every day.
A simple week might look like this:
Monday: Full-body strength
Tuesday: Walk, mobility, or Slow Flow
Wednesday: RedRoom or conditioning
Thursday: Recovery or rest
Friday: Full-body strength
Weekend: Something you actually enjoy outside the gym
Then adjust from there.
If three training days is too much right now, start with two. If you are already training five days a week, look at whether one of those days would be better spent recovering.
The question is not, "How much can I fit in?"
It is, "What can I repeat?"
A good schedule should leave you capable of coming back next week.
Try This: The 3 + 1 Week
If September is your month to get consistent again, try this for the next four weeks:
3 movement sessions. 1 intentional recovery session. Every week.
Your movement sessions can be lifting, RedRoom, Heated Studio classes, personal training, or a combination.
Your recovery session can be contrast, red light, sauna, mobility, or simply a lower-intensity class.
SCAC was built around this idea. Movement and recovery work better when they are part of the same plan, not competing priorities.
Put all four on your calendar before the week starts.
Then protect them.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Start with a frequency you can realistically repeat. For many people, two to three purposeful training sessions each week is a better starting point than immediately committing to five.
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Prioritize a few foundational movements. A squat or lunge, a push, a pull, and a hinge or carry can create an effective full-body session without spending an hour in the gym.
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SCAC membership tiers include two complimentary personal training sessions. These can be a useful way to understand the equipment, discuss goals, and establish a sustainable routine.
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Red Light Therapy uses red and near-infrared wavelengths and is offered through AURA as a non-invasive recovery modality intended to support cellular energy production, tissue recovery, inflammation management, and overall vitality.
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Sculpt is an intermediate-to-advanced Heated Studio class combining yoga and strength training with light weights for a full-body workout.
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Slow Flow is an all-levels class that links breath and movement at a gentler pace with longer holds and smooth transitions.
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Yes. AURA recovery services are available to non-members, with single sessions and package options offered.
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A workout gets you moving today. Training connects today's session to what you want your body to be able to do next month, next year, and further down the road. Both have value, but a little structure makes consistency easier to build.
September does not need a dramatic reset.
Pick your days. Put them on the calendar. Give recovery a spot too.
Then come back next week and do it again.
Your schedule is yours again. Build something good into it.
