Day 86: How to build a training programme
The programme will be soon over and you will be on your own way in workout but we want you to be prepared for this moment and have enough knowledge and skills. One of our college teachers said that the most important task of higher education to give knowledge on learning. We think this is a correct idea since it is not possible to give students all possible knowledhe and answer all possible questions but if a student knows how to find answers for his or her questions their they will fare well afterwards. After the programme ends the question arises how to train further, which schemes to use, which programmes to follow and how to build your own programmes and so on. This is what our today’s post about!
If you read a typical interview with a typical workouter then you might get an impression that they do not follow any programme and gain significant results. It is actually true but it works when you get to a very high level. There is an analogy: imagine a newbie and a kung-fu master. The master achieved all possible knowledge and now can train as he wants but the newbie is only at the beginning of the road and he has to follow simple and coherent schemes not not miss or forget anything to gain results. These are the laws of kung-fu. Workout is the same. Until you reach the highest level (and you will know when you arrive there) you need a programme to follow.
There are some basic rules to build a programme you need to follow to make your programmes work. Here they are:
your programme should reflect your goals. Decide what you want first, then decide on the means. To gain mass or to lose fat - these are different goals and their means are different.
your programme should take into account your fitness level and your individual characteristics. We have already warned you against ready-made programmes from the Internet. You need to learn different exercises, schemes, find out your weak and strong spots. After that you are able to build a programme yourselves.
heavy impact or complex exercises always come first. You have enough strength and concentration to perform them (after a warm-up, essentially). The harder the exercise the close to the beginning it should be. You can always do your abs in the end.
your programme should comprise exercises for all major muscle groups. Even if you do not like to do a particular exercise, you should do it. We do like to do exercises we success in and do not like to do those we are bad at. That is the wrong way, the way to imbalance and probable injury. That is why a programme should be built with logic and analysis not with emotion. For instance, if you do not like to train legs, then put them on Monday. You do away with legs on Monday and the rest of the week is for your liking.
you have to build your programme into your daily routine. It is useless to build programmes that you cannot implement. Build your programme based on your abilities, available time and equipment. Use your imagination and invent your own exercises. That is a good warm-up for brains too.
your programme should use progressive workload. The only thing that changes your body is stress. Stress is there when your body is not ready for it. If you keep doing the same programme over and over again then your body will adapt to it and your progress will stop. You need to keep increasing your workload and there are many ways to do it: choice of exercises, rest period, exercises sequences.
Remember, that no programme works forever. Our bodies have an amazing ability to adapt to stress (and this is great for everyday life and bad for workout). That is why you should change your programme from time to time or create a new one. Stress is one of the keys to progress. That is why it is worth to change an element of the programme once a month (for example). You can change exercises, re-order them, change rest periods, change tempo, number of reps or sets. What is important that you need to try to increase workload progressively. It is not only about sets and reps (total time under stress), it is possible to introduce heavier exercises, change technique. Programmes are not set in stone, they are a means to progress, they are subject to constant change because they have to bring you closer to your goal. If there is an element that does not work or stops providing any positive effectit has to be changed.
100 дневный воркаут - Содержание
Number of exercises, number of sets and repetitions, rest periods they all are individual. There are lots of parameters here, starting from goals and fitness level and finishing with intensity, tempo and time limitations. Follow the rules written above and define your numbers according to them.
