When most people think about designing a training program, they believe that all they have to do is choose what exercises they are going to do on a given day. This may give you some positive results for a while, but what happens when your progress begins to slow, or if you are an athlete that needs specific preparation for your sport and upcoming season/matches? Do you think randomly slapping together a few exercises is going to give you that extra edge over your competition?
Even if you’re goals are not sports specific and you are simply trying to look, feel and move better, don’t you want to know that the time you are putting in to your body is being optimally invested?
Exercise selection is only ONE piece of the programming puzzle; and while it’s very important to have the right exercises in your program, it is definitely not the most important variable.
Training Variables to Consider
1. Type (jumping, sprinting, running, multi-directional, resistance training, and sport specific skill work (e.g. hitting straight drives, in field reaction catching and throwing at a stump).
2. Intensity (neural, muscular, mental, and metabolic factors)
3. Volume (number of reps and sets)
4. Tempo
5. Work/ Rest Ratio
6. Exercise Selection
As you can tell from the list above there are a number of important factors that come BEFORE exercise selection.
It is all about HOW you use your selected exercise to impose a specific demand to each of your body’s systems to create an optimal training effect.
This basically means that the same exercise can be used in completely different ways, to develop diverse adaptations and ultimately lead to an entirely different result. By manipulating the load, reps, sets, tempo, and rest periods for just that one exercise, we can create entirely different training adaptations:
• Maximal Strength
• Alactic Power Output
• Aerobic + Anaerobic Endurance
• Static Strength
• Explosive Endurance
• Aerobic Power Recovery Rate
• Lactic Capacity
I hope that this has helped you understand that effective program design is much more than slapping down exercises on paper and randomly doing them.
If you want to take the guess work away and have your program designed for you based on YOUR body (strengths and limitations) and goals, then check out my Online Training Service. There is a limited number of people I can help at any given point so I apologize in advance if space is filled. Just shoot me an email and I can put you into the waiting list - [email protected]
