I am a firm believer that doing anything is better than
doing nothing. Although I agree with this statement I do still believe that
good, well thought out programming will trump random “do as I feel” workouts any
day of the week.
The difference is astronomical and I wish I were able to get
people on a proper routine.
When I go to box gyms I see the same people running through
the same routines week over week.
The same exercises, the same weights, same sets, same reps,
SAME EVERYTHING. The best part of it all is some people expect to see change by
doing it this way.
There are so many factors to play around with when creating
a program for people that it can get very complex.
If you are running a program at the moment, or can recite
your routine, think about it for a minute.
How are things working, are you getting stronger, are you
feeling more energized, do you have joint pain, are you too sore to workout two
days in a row?
Think about these things and try to answer them because they
can all play a role into whether or not you are running a good program or not.
If things are not thought out to enhance your performance
then the effort you are putting in is not going towards the results you are
expecting.
How To Create An Effective Program
FIRST you
need to look at when creating an effective program is your goal. Is your goal
to get stronger, to look better, to feel better, to maximize your longevity, to
reduce back pain, to recover from an injury.
This goal will have a HUGE impact on how the program is
made. For the sake of generality most people want to get stronger, look better,
and feel better.
These are the most common goals I see and they are great
goals to start with.
NEXT you
have to ask yourself is, what does your current exercise plan look like. Write
it out, the exercises, the sets, the reps, the weights, how much intensity are
you using.
This will give either yourself or your trainer an idea of
what you are currently doing and what it is currently doing for you. Write down
if you are getting stronger, weaker, gaining weight, losing weight, feeling
bogged down, or feeling energized.
The more information you are able to derive from your
current program, the better.
Now looking at all this information you are able to see what
is working and why it’s working or maybe what is not working and why it isn’t
working.
In many cases people had something that worked and now it
doesn’t. This is called a plateau and can be caused from an adaptation to a
particular stimulus or style of training.
A good idea to start with your programming is to begin far
away from the spot that you are at right now.
So if you have been running a 6-7 day a week body-part split
geared to build muscle with high reps, then the first thing you can do is run a
3-4 day a week full-body routine that is geared toward strength.
Every program should have a basis around the compound
exercises (using multiple joints to complete the movement). There is no
isolation exercise that can replace a compound movement for overall
effectiveness.
There is a place for both compound and isolation exercises
in programs but they must be implemented appropriately.
FREQUENCY
When creating a program frequency is king. You need to be training
each muscle group more than once a week.
This is where full body style workouts can shine. Full body
routines will make sure the muscle isn’t broken down as much as it would if you
were just hammering one muscle each day.
It will also allow you to train each muscle much more
frequent and allowing it to create more muscle protein synthesis.
PERIODIZATION
One of the biggest areas of programming that must be done is
periodization. Your body is an adaptation machine and WILL adapt to any
exercise routine after a few weeks.
To stop this from hindering your progress you need to create
phases for your workout routines that are ready to change anywhere from 4-6
weeks. This gives you enough time to practice and get good in a new phase and
then really work on mastering the phase the last few weeks.
One way to look at this is by making sure the changes are
big enough to create a significant change.
You wouldn’t want to go from rep ranges of 4-6 and then move
up to 5-8.
An example of this would be:
Strength Phase: Compound Lifts: 4-6 weeks
1-5 reps—long rest periods 2+ minutes
Hypertrophy Phase: 4-6 weeks
10-15 reps—shorter rest periods 1-1:30
Strength Based Phase: Work in unilateral movements: 4-6
weeks
3-8 reps—moderate rest
How To Know If
Your Program Is Working
One of the best indicators that your program is working the
way you want it to be is that you are getting stronger.
If you are not getting stronger then you need either really
start focusing on following your program better or it just isn’t planned well.
You should see steady progression with your programs and
they should keep your body ready and able to build muscle.
If your program is good and you know it but you still aren’t
seeing results then make sure the rest of your life is on track as well.
- You cannot out-train a bad diet
- You cannot out-train poor sleep
- You cannot out-train a stressed body
Look at these three things and make sure to start
prioritizing the importance of each of them.
Work towards getting better at each and you will see your
results with exercise increase as well.
If these three areas are not in good standing they may not
only be slowing down progress but you may see yourself weakening.
Health is the main priority so make sure that health is
always at the top of your priority list and start making some good programs!
JNHealthandFitness@aol.com
