What is PLT4M and How Does It Work?
Two years ago when the conversation of improving strength and conditioning at Canton High School started, one of the first thoughts revolved around, “How do we get all of our student-athletes and students at Canton High School unified in their efforts to improve overall strength and conditioning?” As this conversation grew the idea of utilizing an app-based and online program called PLT4M (platform) became intertwined with how we would accomplish helping all of our students and student-athletes gain traction and provide high quality consistency in their training and overall fitness.
PLT4M is a program that I had the pleasure of learning about and using while at a previous school where I worked with the creators of the program. Through that connection I knew that it would be a tremendous fit at Canton for what we were attempting to do with increasing the consistency and availability of high quality and impactful workouts for Canton High School.
So what is PLT4M? PLT4M is an online, app-based program that we use with all of our fitness classes and sports teams at Canton High. This program allows me as Head Strength and Conditioning coach and as a wellness teacher to program workout programs specific to what students and sports teams specifically need in order to grow and be successful. This program is one that is provided and paid for by our athletics and wellness departments that services our entire student population. We currently have 752 active accounts out of our 1,000 available accounts. Our goal with this program is to ensure that every student at Canton High School has an account that they can access for either wellness class or for their sports team. Once students have access to an account, they can download the free app and log-in to their account. On their account, they have direct access to custom fit workout programs for their specific needs whether if it is generalized fitness or a sport specific workout that targets direct needs for the sports they play.
As students and student-athletes access their workouts, they find and locate the workout program they are working on and select the workout they need for that specific day and select “Start Workout”. Once the workout is started a timer starts timing the duration of the workout and the exercises completed. This feature is not only beneficial to the student or student-athlete but it is also beneficial to the teacher or coach for that particular student. As exercises and workouts are completed, a coach or teacher can see on their “Coach” app who has completed workouts, how long it took, and when they completed them as well as how many workouts have been completed in a selected time frame. This feature not only promotes great consistency but even greater accountability for students and student-athletes while working out.
One additional benefit to having PLT4M is that while it promotes accountability and consistency, it also brings a great deal of flexibility for workouts to be completed. A great example is to imagine that a student-athlete is working out during the summer and has been attending workouts with their team for most of the summer like their coach has promoted them to do. At some point we acknowledge that everyone goes away or goes on vacation. This is where PLT4M flexes its flexible muscle so to speak! If and when students or student-athletes are going to be out of town, they still have access to their PLT4M app on their phone and can continue to work and make progress on their custom workout plan so that they are not simply taking a week off. This feature is one of the many great benefits to having PLT4M at Canton is that it allows for the instances in which someone may not be able to attend a workout session at the school. Our first and primary option that we want EVERY student and student-athlete to take advantage of is the FREE state of the art facilities we have at Canton High School and to come and workout with their friends and teammates to build chemistry and have a sense of belonging at Canton High with their peers.
Along with providing high quality and custom workout plans to all individuals, PLT4M also has other great features like an exercise vault full of video descriptions and progress tracking through workouts. Within each workout, all exercises that students view carry with them an explanation video, all the sets and reps they need to complete, and the weights or resistance they need to use. This ensures that all students and student-athletes are performing safe, fundamentally sound, and appropriate exercises, sets, and repetitions throughout all of their workouts.
PLT4M in conjunction with the two state of the art fully equipped training room facilities we have at Canton provide all of our students and student-athletes with the greatest training experience they could possibly ask for at ABSOLUTELY NO COST! It only takes getting a PLT4M account and being committed to showing up consistently to get a full and impactful experience through strength and conditioning at Canton! If your student has an account it is worth the time to sit down and look through it with them to see all of the great features it offers to our students. If your student needs an account, it’s FREE and all you have to do is email and ask.
Please check out the links below to get a view of how PLT4M works at Canton and all of the great offerings it has for your student.
NOTE from the AD- Special shout out and thank you to the CHS Athletic Booster Club and to the Scott Herr Foundation for their continued support of our Herr Training Centers.
