Show Whenever I talk to people about their exercise routines, inevitably, they tell me what exercises they are doing. What most people don’t realize is that exercise selection is actually only the fourth most important variable in exercise program design. What? The actual exercises are not that important in an exercise program? Yep, you heard me right. Exercise selection isn’t that important. The single most important variable is your progression model. After that, it’s intensity. After that, it’s volume. And only the fourth most important variable is the exercises themselves. Original source: here. What do I mean by all that? What does “progression model”, “intensity” and “volume” all mean? That’s what we’ll cover in this article – essentially – what factors should be considered when designing a personal fitness program and why. This is for you whether you’re designing your own programs, or if you’re a personal trainer, designing for clients. And if you want to just skip all the theory, and have a proper program designed for you, feel free to fill out this questionnaire, to see if you qualify to work with us. Progression ModelAbove all other variables, this one is king. Because exercise should be progressive. You may be a complete beginner right now, but the body responds to exercise consistently, predictably, and if you’re a beginner, quickly (within 1-3 days). So yes, you can get stronger literally workout-to-workout at first (your first 1-3 months of exercise). And if you do the exact same sets, repetitions and weights after 2 weeks of starting a program, you are shortchanging your results. A person with all the wrong exercises, but with an appropriate progression will make far better progress than another person with all the right exercises, but no progression. Of course, ideally, we have both: proper progression, and correct exercises. What are different ways to make progress? The most obvious is to increase the repetitions, or increase the weight. But there are other methods of progression:
And different progressions will have different physiological effects on the body. Here’s how they break down:
As you can tell, selecting a proper progression model takes some thought and consideration in terms of what you want to improve. And if you’re looking at the above list like a menu, and thinking “I want everything” (strength, endurance, coordination, power, flexibility, etc.), you’ll get nowhere. I would just pick your 1-2 top priorities, and stick with those progressions. For our fat loss clients, here’s a typical progression that I might use for a hypothetical exercise: Workout 1: 10 pounds, 15 reps Workout 2: 10 pounds, 16 reps Workout 3: 10 pounds, 17 reps Workout 4: 10 pounds, 18 reps Workout 5: 10 pounds, 19 reps Workout 6: 10 pounds, 20 reps Workout 7: 12 pounds, 15 reps Workout 8: 12 pounds, 16 reps …you get the idea. And that may be a typical fat loss progression. But I want to point out 2 things:
IntensityWhen I refer to intensity, I don’t necessarily mean effort. The sport science definition of intensity is the percentage of your maximum strength that you’re working at. That is, if the most amount of weight you can lift for 1 repetition is 100 pounds, 80 pounds represents 80% intensity. 50 pounds represents 50% intensity. You get the idea. Intensity is the second most important variable when it comes to exercise program design, because it has the second biggest impact on your results. Additionally, intensity will influence your decision for variables lower down on the priority scale. For example, if you select 90% intensity, you know your volume (which will be explained in the next section) will need to be lower than if you selected 50% intensity. At 90% intensity, you may only be able to do 2-5 reps. At 50% intensity, you might do over 30. And different goals necessitate different intensities.
VolumeThe sport science definition of volume is sets x reps x weight. So if you’re doing 3 sets of 10 reps, with 100 pounds, your volume is 3000 pounds for that exercise. But in conventional gym lingo, the weight is taken out, and volume just refers to sets and reps. Volume has the third biggest impact on your results. Basically, after having selected the appropriate progression, and the intensity, volume just falls into place. In a nutshell, you can’t do many reps at a high intensity, so intensity and volume are inversely related. That is, the higher the intensity, the lower the volume.
Exercise SelectionFinally comes the least important part of a program: the actual exercises. The exercises simply determine which muscle is working. You can stress different parts of a muscle, but that’s basically it. Just look at the material above. If all you know is which exercises a person is doing, you don’t know:
…and more. Of course, that’s not to say that exercise selection is not important – it is, but it’s not the single most important variable. As you can tell, there’s quite a bit to exercise programming, so hopefully this article helps you put together your own programs. But if you want it done by a professional, so you don’t wonder whether you’re doing it right or not, feel free to fill out this form to see if you qualify to work with us. When designing a resistance training program for either yourself or clients, there are many considerations that need be taken into account before you hit the gym. Broadly speaking, there are three key components to program design: Environmental factors, needs analysis and program variables/training guidelines. It’s important to identify and consider the elements involved in each of the components to ensure for an effective training session and overall program. Let’s take a closer look at these components: Environmental Factors:This includes external factors such as equipment availability, time of day, time available to train and number of participants. While these might seem like obvious considerations, they are important as they will have an impact on what types of exercises you can include in your program and how many exercises you can perform. Needs Analysis:A needs analysis is a way to gather specific information about your client to allow for an individualised program to be created. If you are creating a program for yourself, a needs analysis is still important and will help you select the appropriate exercises, sets and reps to meet your fitness goals. The information that should be considered in the needs analysis includes:
Program Variables/Training Guidelines:After determining what environmental factors exist and analysing the internal influences involved, the process of actually writing the exercise program can begin. This process can be broken down into the following: It is important to balance out development of all muscle groups, and as a general rule programs should consist of exercises that include legs, upper body push, upper body pull and core. It is also recommended to make the exercises ‘functional’, which means they assist in preparing the body for everyday activities. Train larger muscles first, and then move to smaller muscles. This will see compound exercises performed at the beginning of the session and isolated exercises toward the end. There should be an inverse relationship between weight and the number of repetitions. That is, as the weight increases, the number of reps should decrease, and vice versa. Specific training goals are also important to consider, e.g. 1-6 reps for power and strength goals, 8-12 reps for general strength and 15+ reps for endurance. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is a self-quantified measure of intensity for an activity and should be used to understand load. There should be an inverse relationship between the number of sets and repetitions. That is, a lower number of repetitions should be combined with a higher number of sets, and vice versa. Similarly to number of repetitions, training goals are important to consider when programming how many sets to complete. Rest time will depend on both training goals and fitness levels. For power and maximal strength goals, longer periods of rest should be taken (3-10 minutes), for general strength between 30 seconds – 2 minutes and for beginners anywhere between 1 and 2 minutes. To minimise the down time between sets you can alternate exercises for different parts of the body, for example, a set of for the legs immediately followed by an upper body exercise. If you would like to learn more about exercise prescription and programming, check out our Cert III & IV in Fitness and expand your knowledge in this area as well as much more! |