Personal training for film and TV crews works on a two-mode rule: build strength on hiatus, when the weeks are yours, and hold a minimum during a show, when twelve-to-fourteen-hour days and night shoots own the calendar. The program is written as a list of priorities rather than dates, so a coach can reprogram it every week around a call sheet that arrives the night before, and sessions are booked one at a time at 5 am before call or in the last slot before the 8 pm close after wrap.
Crews on the North Shore stand, carry and lift for a living, on concrete, for longer than any office day. Grips, camera, electrics and set construction need strength that survives the day; everyone on set needs the conditioning to be upright and sharp in hour thirteen. This page is how that gets trained without pretending a show schedule is something it is not.
Two modes: hiatus and show
The whole approach fits in one table, because the mistake most crew make is running the same plan in both modes and failing at it in the show mode.
| Hiatus | During a show | |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions a week | Three | One, two when the week allows |
| Goal | Build: loads rise every block | Hold: loads stay, volume drops |
| Session shape | Full program, progressed | Short, heavy, four movements |
| Conditioning | Intervals and incline walking, twice a week | The set supplies it |
| Booking | Fixed days | Booked the night the call sheet lands |
Holding is cheap. One heavy session a week keeps most of what a hiatus built, and a crew member who accepts that stops quitting at week three of every show and restarting from zero on the next hiatus.
What a show week does to a body
A show week is an endurance event with a lifting component. Twelve hours becomes fourteen with the commute, the floor is concrete or asphalt, the meals are whatever craft services and catering put out, and the clock flips when a night shoot lands mid-week. By the Friday that becomes Saturday morning, sleep is the only recovery left and there is not enough of it.
The training answer is not to add stress to that week. It is to make the body arriving at it stronger than the week needs, and to make the one session inside the week short enough to help rather than cost. Craft services is a real problem and a dietitian is the right person for it; a coach's contribution is a body that handles the same hours with less damage.
Strength for grips, camera and the departments that lift
The departments that carry for a living need carries, hinges and single-arm work, because that is what the day is. Stands, sandbags, dolly track, cable, ballast and camera builds are picked up off the ground and carried somewhere awkward, often on one side.
- Carries. The farmer carry for the two-handed loads, the offset carry for the reality of one heavy thing and one light thing, and an overhead carry for the shoulder that holds a build at eye level.
- A hinge. The conventional deadlift, progressed patiently, so that lifting a case off the truck is a fraction of what the back can do.
- Single-arm pulls and presses. Single-arm rows and dumbbell presses, because set work is one-sided and the gym should even it out.
- Grip and shoulder health. Dead hangs from the rig, face pulls and rear-shoulder work for hands and shoulders that hold weight all day.
Everyone else on set, from production to hair and makeup, gets the conditioning half: incline walking for the base, short treadmill intervals for the top end, and enough leg strength that standing for fourteen hours is an event you are prepared for rather than one you survive.
Morning before call, or the last slot before close
The studio opens at 5 am, seven days a week, which fits a session before a 7 am call at a stage or location on the North Shore. It closes at 8 pm, which leaves the last evening slot for a day that wraps by early evening. Night shoots move the session to the afternoon, after sleep and before an evening call. None of this needs a fixed class time, because sessions are booked individually on the live schedule or the app and move when the call sheet changes.
There is no on-set or in-home training; the coaching happens in the Lower Lonsdale studio, a short drive or bus ride from most North Shore stages and a SeaBus crossing from downtown.
A coach who reprograms around a schedule that changes weekly
The program for a crew member is a ranked list, not a calendar: the heavy hinge first, the carries second, the pulls third, conditioning fourth, everything else optional. When the week shrinks to one session, the coach takes the top of the list; when a hiatus opens, the whole list comes back. That only works with a coach who knows the list, which is why this page sits under 1-on-1 personal training: assessment first, a fully individual program, one coach who rewrites it week to week.
Once a show settles into a rhythm, or on a long hiatus, small group training often takes over: coach-prepared sessions, individual loads, a maximum of eight people, and a booked session that still exists on the day the call sheet moves. Many crew run both.
Hiatus: the build, and what not to do with it
A hiatus of six to ten weeks is one or two full training blocks, enough to add real strength if the plan is modest and progressive, and not enough to fix everything at once. Three sessions a week, loads rising each block, conditioning twice, and a deliberate taper in the last week so the first show week starts fresh rather than sore. The people who get the most from a hiatus are the ones who arrive at it still holding a minimum.
Common questions
The schedule just flipped to nights mid-week. What happens to my sessions?
They move. Cancel the morning booking, rebook an afternoon slot after you have slept, and tell the coach which day is the flip day so the session before it is lighter. The longer logic for rotating clocks is on the shift worker page; the short version is sleep first, session second.
During a show I can only promise one session a week. Is that worth booking?
Yes, and it is the most important session of the year, because it is the one that stops the slide. One heavy session with a hinge, a carry and a pull holds strength for months. The minimum dose is smaller than most people believe.
Can I book tomorrow at 5 am once the call sheet lands tonight?
If there is a spot on the live schedule, yes; sessions are booked individually, not as a fixed weekly slot. Ask on the consult how booking and cancellation windows work so a late call sheet never costs you a session.
Do you train on set or come to a location?
No. There is no in-home or on-location training; everything happens in the studio at 142B 3rd Street West. Crews shooting on the North Shore usually find the 5 am slot before call the easiest fit.
Is the food on set really the problem, or is it the hours?
Both, and they compound. Long days push people toward the snack table, and the snack table makes the long days feel worse. A coach can hand you simple defaults for a set day; anything beyond that, especially where weight or blood sugar is a concern, is a dietitian's job.
