My universal program components!
The SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT question that I ask every single new person I encounter is, “What is your goal?” The answer to this question quite literally decides almost every single component of all the information I provide to this athlete thereafter. I have spoken many times in the past about the importance of goal setting and designing your program optimally for the goal you wish to achieve from your training/diet/etc. There’s plenty more to come from me on that subject in the future too…
There are, however, a few universal components that I adhere to in almost every situation when designing a plan or coaching an athlete. Now I emphasise the word almost, because it would be naive of me to apply a steadfast rule for everyone. There are always rare exceptions to any rule, and a coach’s mindset must be malleable enough to cater for these people as well! Having said that, this stuff applies to maybe 98%+ of my experiences thus far. So here is the stuff that applies to just about everyone, just about all the time!
Good mechanics are good mechanics. Now everyone knows I’m a real stickler for form and technique building. Not only is this a key component of injury prevention, but in order to make the most of your effort and translate this into improved performance, the aim should always be to work as mechanically correct as possible. My first port of call when assessing a new athlete is to observe their function. If they can move well, that's great, we can move along. If they cant move well? Then my job is to make sure that they can before I go pushing them to the limits with movements or loads that will cause a breakdown. For some people this means small adjustments or correctives, while for others it means more comprehensive strategy of movement rebuilding. Now this doesn’t mean that you’re spending 6 weeks with me doing ‘pre-hab’, you’ll still get a heap of muscle work in, but it does mean that we’ll be putting in some serious attention to detail to build strong movements from the bottom up. You can’t build a house on sand!
There is no such thing as too strong. Every time you walk into a gym the primary aim should be some kind of measurable strength progress. Despite the fact that I’m the owner of a strength gym and I’m going to come across as biased, I can think of literally zero situations that being stronger is not more advantageous. Throw them out there and I’ll gladly refute them. Regardless of your goal, being stronger is going to be better. If your goal is purely body composition? Stronger = more muscle = leaner/metabolic effect/improved aesthetic etc. Maybe your sporting goal has absolutely zero strength requirements? Improved connective tissue health, joint stability, injury prevention. A higher absolute strength means far more control when working submaximally. Worried about ‘tightening up’ or ‘slowing down’? If you’re working with mechanically correct movements through full ranges of motion, it’s simply not going to happen. For those about to ask me about bodyweight changes to do with strength training? Your bodyweight is controlled entirely by your diet, so a good program design will ensure that the nutritional component is in alignment with the overall program goals. Which brings me to my next point….
A holistic approach is always better. This means thinking about how all of the different components of your training program fit together. Often times an athlete will fail to realise all of the different variables that can potentially impact outcome. That’s where the coach comes in. It’s my job to analyse both the inputs and the outputs, and pinpoint the areas that need attention in order to OPTIMISE progress. Sometimes this is simple things like exercise selection, sets or reps, but a holistic mindset means the list grows far longer. Nutrition, sleep, and stress (life stress or physical stress from training) are responsible for far more than most people realise. Proper program design means factoring all of these things (and many more) into your plan in order to get training volume and recovery just right. Will it all be perfect all the time? Never. Our job is just to maximise what we have. Forgetting about any of these components will either rob us of progress, or stall it out completely, so you need to pay attention in AND out of the gym!
The last one for today? Attitude is everything. Hopefully this one needs no explanation. You get out what you put in, ‘nuff said!
This is by no means a comprehensive list of my training methods or philosophies. It’s just a few concepts that hopefully get you thinking about your programming and methodology. I’m always up for a discussion so feel free to ask or argue away!
Till next time
Yours in strength
Dan