Programming Essentials

To conquer any obstacle, one must strategize and execute consistently. That’s what separates the great from the mediocre.

For a de-conditioned individual beginning their fitness journey, just getting to the gym is a good start. But after a week or so, a proper program is required to continue progressing. Here is a guide to how I program for myself and clients.

First, establish your goals. What do you want out of all this? You want to be stronger, leaner, defined, sexier when naked? Whatever it may be, figure it out and that will set the tone for your program.

The FIT Principle

Frequency: 3x/week

Exercise science shows that optimal adaptation- acute and chronic- start at 3x/week. Depending on your training type, the frequency can be increased, however, anything under 3x is sub-optimal.

Intensity: 60% Max Effort

Intensity also varies depending on what type of training you’re programming, however, the rule of thumb is 60-65% of VO2Max is the threshold you must exceed in order to see adaptation.

Type: Conditioning, Strength, Hypertrophy, Sport Specific

When it comes to types of training, I believe that everyone- from obese girls to professional athletes- needs conditioning when starting a fitness program. Some schools of thought believe that strength training should lead. I disagree. In order to do a strength program, you need proper joint mobility, at least bodyweight stability and average VO2Max. Lacking these prerequisites, you can leave yourself open to injury and crippling DOMS. All that can be avoided with a conditioning program.

Macro & Micro Cycles

Macro & Micro cycles are charting devices that will help you stay on track to reach your goals. Think long-term goals and short-term goals.

Macrocycle: 1 year= 52 weeks= Off-season, Pre-season, Season, Post-season

Out of the 52 weeks in a year, I shoot for 40 weeks that I will be locked into a program. That gives me 12 weeks of vacation, sick days, emergencies, etc. Now, you break up the 40 weeks into different types of training you want to do.

This was my macro a couple of years ago. The only programming experience I had was bodybuilding.com type programs I did with my college buddies… your basic 3×8 chest/tri, back/bi, legs, shoulders split.

*My goal was to get stronger and increase athleticism. Therefore, the bulk of my program was spent in strength and sports specific.

• Conditioning: 6 weeks
• Strength Training: 15 weeks
• Conditioning: 8 weeks
• Olympic Lifting/Boxing: 11 weeks

Microcycle: 6 weeks

When it comes to chronic adaptations to a fitness program, 6 weeks is the benchmark. The bare minimum would be two weeks. It takes about two weeks for nueromuscular adaptation which is then followed by physical adaptations. The only instance where I see a two week program working is if a conditioned individual just needed to learn movement patterns for the strength program.

*Make sure that you’re recording the actual weight, rep scheme and exercises used.

This is a good basic guideline for building your own program, but there is still a whole lot of information that I haven’t shared that you can build off of. Go ahead and start here. The key is to optimize, get the most out of your program.