DESIGNING TRAINING PROGRAM

Creating a fitness program is like cooking. Some people like Italian, some Chinese and others may prefer Thai food. Doesn’t mean that any of them are wrong, it’s just different style, different ingredient but some rules have to be inside the cooking method. Same goes in the fitness industry. We have trainers with different styles of programming. Or even some trainers like to copy fitness programs. If you are copying, don’t copy from various sources. Cooking something from 2,3 recipes and combining them certainly doesn’t look like a good idea. Same thing happens in the fitness industry. It’s not a shame to copy a program from an experienced chef rather than mixing it up with various ingredients. As the new trend of exercise pop up and you look at modern training from other trainers you don’t turn your program upside down if your previous program was a well built one. You make minor adjustments that you think will make your program better.

As you decide to create program for your client, athlete after assessing them, some rules have to be followed.

Every training program should consist of an upper body pulling and pushing, lower body knee dominant and hip dominant, core, plyometrics for athletes (upper body and lower body) and some conditioning.

They are few rules to follow when designing a functional strength training program:

· Master the basic movement. The biggest mistake you can do is start loading an exercise with external load if the proper bodyweight pattern doesn’t look good. First master the bodyweight exercise then proceed with the progression.

· Start with simple. If a baseline exercise is an issue for a client there is an option to regress the exercise. Example would be bodyweight squat. Regression would be using TRX handles or simply sitting on a chair in a proper squat pattern. Almost every exercise has a regression exercise to do.

· Simple to complex. Once the basics have been mastered you can proceed to a more complex exercise. Example would be progressing from split squat (simple exercise) to a rear foot elevated split squat (complex).

· Adding weight for progression. Adding reps or weight is best way to follow progress of your client. If an athlete does 8 squats with 10 lb kettlebell, next week he should do 10 reps and then 12 reps and after that he can start again with 8 reps holding 15 lb kettlebell. The functional training progression is very simple.

Charles Poliquin is a legend of strength of conditioning and he wrote an article in 1998 “Variety in Strength Training” about training periodization. Poliquin undulating model of training consists of high volume-low intensity, low volume-high intensity and unloading phases within the program. In a high volume phase major exercises should be done between 24 and 36 reps per session (3 sets of 8 to 12 reps), while low volume high intensity phase between 9 and 15 reps (3 sets of 3 or 5 reps).

Exercises can be classified between terms of baseline, progression and regression.

Usually the training program starts with a baseline exercise. Clients/athletes perform baseline exercise for 4 weeks before proceeding to a progression exercise. If clients have difficulty performing baseline exercise then they perform regression exercise until they master the form and move back again to baseline. The exercise needs to look good before proceeding to the next level. Sometimes it’s not strictly following the 4 week period rule for doing the progression. It’s mostly how the exercise looks like and if you like the form.

Sport Specific Program

Sport specific programming is evolving every day and lot of changes have been made from last century training program to today. The ultimate goal was always getting athletes faster and stronger no matter what team or individual sport we are talking about. The training program between each sport is 80% similar. The 20% is different depending on the muscle group or energy system that is mostly used in that sport. But the ultimate goal stays the same. Making athletes who can accelerate and decelerate fast, change direction, jump high, have strong single leg strength, core and good conditioning is a goal in each team sport with minor adjustment.

Each training session within the training program should consist of the following steps:

• Foam rolling

• Static stretching

• Dynamic warm up, mobility and activation

• Power, speed, plyometrics and medicine ball throw

• Strength training

• Conditioning

Strength training program should start with the fast exercises first. Either doing Olympic lifting, plyometric or speed work. After that athletes proceed to a tri-set of an upper body, lower body and core or exercise. The core or mobility work after the major lifts are considered useful rest time between sets. After completing the first tri-set for 3,4 sets depending on the training program phase we proceed to another tri-set of upper body, lower body and core exercises. The major difference between training programs of different sport is not in the training program itself but in the energy system demand for particular sport. Conditioning programs are much more sport specific and need to be tailored to a single sport or group of sports.

There are 10 components of a well designed program. How we utilize them depends on the number of training days in each week. In a 4 day program each component is done twice while in a two day program each component is done once.

1. Explosive power work (Olympic lifts, plyometric etc.)

2. Bilateral Hip dominant exercises (trap bar deadlifts, sumo deadlift etc.)

3. Bilateral knee dominant exercises (goblet squat, back squat etc.)

4. Single leg knee dominant exercises (split squats, single leg squats etc.)

5. Single leg hip dominant exercises (straight leg deadlift, single leg bridge etc.)

6. Core (antiextension, antirotation and antiliteral flexion)

7. Horizontal presses (bench press, push-ups etc.)

8. Overhead presses (dumbbell or kettlebell overhead presses)

9. Horizontal pulls (standing rows, inverted rows etc.)

10. Vertical pulls (chin ups, pull ups etc.)

It is important to balance between the components of the training program and include them all so we don’t overwork a muscle group and underwork opposite muscle group.

As mentioned earlier Charles Poliquin’s method is used by thousands of trainers around the world when designing functional training programs for athletes.

Every phase has a 3 week period if we are training an athlete that has 12 week off-season.

1. Base phase (anatomical adaptation)- High volume, low intensity. 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps. Olympic lifting 4-6 reps

2. Intensification phase- Higher intensity, lower volume. 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps. Intensity goes from 70% to 80%.

3. Complex training – Pairing strength with power work (upper body or lower body depending on sport). Volume increases again to 3 sets of 8 reps.

4. Strength endurance phase- Higher reps again. Prepare athlete for season.

If the athlete has less time for preparation as some sports have short off season (European Football) the training program can be modified but the base phase has to be present always to balance all the muscle groups as most sports are one sided and unbalanced body is more prone to injuries. During the season functional training is cut to one or two days per week depending on the schedule.

Day 1	Day 2
Olympic lifting Core	​Mobility or Olympic lifting Core
Bilateral Hip dominant Horizontal press (supine, incline)	Bilateral Knee dominant Overhead press
Vertical pull Unilateral knee dominant	Horizontal pull (row) Unilateral hip dominant

Depending how many sessions we are training our athletes per week try to use the time you have best you can and follow the progression rules. Using all components of the functional training program is crucial in making a stronger, faster, healthier and less injury prone athlete.