Programming Considerations - Part 3

Boris was super stoked, that's the Russian face for I'm having a great time...

In part 2 we discussed some reasons for the information we collected in part 1, this time I want to talk about as a coach what information I'm going to collect.

When I'm writing a program for an online client, I personally like to see a video of their current lifts (squat/bench/deadlift/military press/etc.) not just them telling me some number they hit in testing, as this is really not going to give me much information.

I have them video the top 3-4 weights, not just the top set. This is so I can analyse their form breakdown and determine whether or not this is going to be purely a technical issue or they have some sort of muscular imbalance/weakness, and not just the main lifts, I like to see some footage of a few basic aux lifts as well, the execution of these can give a good indicator of why there may be muscular imbalances.

Also you can get an idea of what type of athlete the person is -

The under doer - will stop their max/max rep sets short, and you can clearly see by the bar speed and lack of strain how much more weight/reps were left.

The over doer - will strain their fucking balls out, the form breakdown will be at an all time high.

And the seasoned athlete - who gets its spot on, a small amount of form breakdown, slowing in bar speed but still able to drive it through to the end without 26 seconds of pant shitting strain.

Or just seeing how emotionally invested the person is in attempting that lift... if they have triple ply knee & elbow sleeves, 4 pairs of wrist wraps, 7 belts, just watched some 8mm snuff film and has drunk 1 litre of ammonia with the sounds of machine guns in the background then hits their squat.

Identifying if it's a technical issue or a muscular weakness will determine the exercise selection and or frequency of certain movements.

Technical - then more volume and frequency will need to be done on the lift or lifts that are suffering, this gives the athlete plenty of opportunities to correct the problem.

Muscular imbalance - then there may be a greater focus on lift variations i.e. pauses, different bars, stances/grips, chains/bands/boxes/boards, etc. or maybe a greater proportion of energy devoted to more volume/frequency on given bodybuilding/isolation movements to remedy the weakness.

Identifying the type of athlete or how emotionally invested they are, is going to determine how you manipulate the intensity. If the athlete is an over doer and just did 26s of ass splitting strain or ridiculously high emotional state and you use that number as his/hers 100% to base the programme percentages off, when in reality they were probably @110% then the accumulative fatigue at the end or mid training cycle will be extremely high and basically negate any supercompensation. 

As for the under doer his/her percentages would need to come up a little as under training will also negate supercompensation. As for the seasoned athlete the numbers would be sufficient. So there could be 3 totally different outcomes from the one program just by not addressing how legit the testing weights are.

Programming Considerations - Part 2

In part 1 we got the information about what the individual is actually going to be capable of due to lifestyle factors and training history. This is important not just for a coach to consider, but as an individual trying to choose an program template off the net. You should think about who the program was written for, as generally templates are programs that were designed for and individual or a group of people that had great success with it.

An example - 
CrossFit box 1 is using and having great success with a program they designed, the demographic of that individual club is it's in an affluent area and the people have low financial stress, the club has a real good nutrition trend through the gym, and the majority of the people on the program had a decent background in collagate sports and had been involved in some S&C through thier sporting careers.

CrossFit box 2 trying to implement CrossFit box 1's program, but its in a less affluent area, they work longer hours, have great financial stress, there is no nutrition trend through the gym everyone just eats what they want and the sporting background of the group is pretty much non-existent.

Another example -
The "sheiko" templates like the ones you find on the Internet 29, 30, 31, 37, etc, they where all written for an individual athlete with a specific goal for each training cycle. In Russia a committee decides whether you can move from 3 days per week training to 4/5 days per week, so just because some of the templates are 3 days per week does not mean its for a beginner this could be a well season competitor with many years of training under their belt within that system.

All programs will work its just the intensity of that program may need to be adjusted significantly for the individual to be able to tolerate the volume and/or frequency. Remember no one is going to tell you about the failures of their programs, there will always be failures if you have a rigid system and don't adjust for the individual.

Above is a screen shot from a recent youtube video of Kirill Sarychev discussing the very same thing.
heres the link to the vid - https://youtu.be/yV9VgIwk7eU

This can be seen in the above graph, training too hard is going to result in you being the same strength/fitness as you were before the training bout/cycle.

This could be as simple as starting a training cycle off too hard, if your anus is bleeding and you need to suck down a bunch of pre-workouts and ammonia to to get through the first and second week of a training block then your training to hard, fatigue is accumulative, and by the time your mid training cycle you will be getting buried with warm up weights.

Programming Considerations - Part 1

This is a question i get asked regularly is how do i learn how to wrote programs, i always answer "its pretty simple, you just need to know a few things"

Heres my list of questions i ask -
gender
age
occupation
level of stress
work hours
amount of sleep per night
personal life
social life
drug use (recreation/ped/current/previous)
sports (current/previous)
training history
current training split
injuries
diet
how many days per week can you make it to the gym

Why?
Gender - females can tolerate more volume and frequency than males, females have less upper body mass on average.

Age - a 21yo is going to be able to tolerate more training than a 50yo, given there maybe exceptions but the rest of the questions will separate this.

Occupation - a removalist may need less volume and intensity or more frequent deloads than a accountant.

Level of stress/work hours/social/personal life - all integrate, i.e; if the person owns their own business, has just had a baby, the wife has is highly stressed. you can pretty much guarantee the volume and intensity that can be tolerated at this point is going to be pretty low.
Same goes for the young 21yo that goes out both friday and saturday night to party by default even if they aren't taking drugs or drinking alcohol they are going to be loosing roughly a nights sleep each week which will significantly impact recovery when compared to someone who doesn't.

Drug use - again may tie in with above but someone who's on anabolics is going to be able to ramp up intensity through out the program much quicker than a non PED user, conversely someone using speed/coke/ectasy etc on the weekends is by default going to be under eating and under sleeping.

Sports/training history/current training split - a 25yo who competed in track and field since they were 13yo and has been lifting weights in an s&c program for roughly the same time is going to be able to tolerate a fuck tonne more volume, than Betsy who didn't compete in any sports and has been doing crossfit for the past 6 months. also if the person plays a sport recreational or professionally its again going to affect how many days per week and volume can be done.

Diet - someone who has eaten quality food and drinks plenty of water/fluids will be able to tolerate more training than someone who misses half their meals, has poor protein consumption and the only water they see is in the shower.

Injuries - pretty self explanatory, you may have to work around something for a certain period of time.  But also a common injuries is going to give an indicator of weak areas that need to be addressed with in the program. Generally the injury aries from poor quality of tissue i.e; adhesions/knots/tightness or inherent weakness of a muscle or group of muscles that never gets rectified due to high level of form breakdown.

How many days per week can you make it to the gym per week - 5days maybe optimal for the individual but their schedule may not allow for this and you will need to design a program that best suits what the individual can achieve.

Pre-workouts, Why cunt!

I dont understand people needing pre works, this doesn't make sense to me, if your the type of person that needs some shit to get you through a workout, then your probably not going to achieve much in the gym at all... The only motivation you should need is that every time you get through a session good, bad or indifferent, you will be one step closer to your goal.

Not every session is going to be amazing, a lot will suck, a lot will hurt, some will be awesome and at some points in your training you will bleed from your asshole, but its only training just a step on the staircase.

If you need pre-workouts to get through most of your workouts then maybe you should consider looking at your programming as your vol/intensity is obviously more than you can currently tolerate.
if you need more simple caffeine tablet or couple of shots of coffee to get you though some anus splitting volume, you should look between your legs and see how much sand is caught in your vagina dust that bitch out.

Save your money and buy more food because pre workout don't improve recovery, food and sleep does and thats what will take you the furthest.