Having recently celebrated our 10th Anniversary as a semi-private training studio, I can safely say that a decade’s worth of “in-the-trenches” experience has proven that programming and coaching are the roadmap and trail guide to effect positive, lasting physical transformations for athletes at all levels.
Consider this, if you’re not on a program, then your exercise sessions are akin to playing around at the park; it might be fun, and yes it’s better than sitting on the couch, but it isn’t actually taking you anywhere. It can, at worst, even be dangerous. Following a program with an experienced coach is more like climbing up a mountain. You take the safest and most efficient route, guided by an expert who has already been up to the top, with just the right number of stops along the way. And now with innovations like GPS technology, the experience is even better. Using a combination of proven programming principles, sharp-eyed coaching, and advanced technology, our members have demonstrated over and over again just how effective this training paradigm really is.
It wasn’t that long ago that navigation was accomplished entirely by paper maps and/or someone to direct us. Los Angeles residents of a certain age might remember the “Thomas Guide” that we always kept under the front seat of the car. Somehow we got around without GPS enabled phones and apps to guide us. The old methods worked, but we did have to take a lot more time planning routes, asking for directions, listening to traffic updates on the radio and still had to suffer through a lot of getting un-lost! Then technology stepped in and gave us incredible turn by turn navigation. The trade-off has been that the number of side-streets, u-turns and strange maneuvers our devices prescribe can occasionally defy common sense, and a subservient adherence to each robotic command can produce some outright comical routes to a given destination, but hey… that’s progress.
Programming and coaching has evolved a lot like navigation; it was once a very pen and paper (or chalk and chalkboard) experience that has since become highly driven by gadgetry. Author and expert coach, Alwyn Cosgrove, likes to remind us that out of this environment has arisen two of the lies the fitness industry likes to perpetuate; “1. Everyone is a completely unique snowflake and needs a brand new, never-been-done-before program. 2. Everyone should just do the same program. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.”
Even a trusted guidebook won’t be able to provide the best route for anybody to follow at any time. With that said, it’s not better to have an app that generates a course that no other travelers would ever have considered taking before, and that might be simply ignorant of local dangers or construction work etc. Ergo, the very best method to get around efficiently would actually be to have a map to reference offline, a GPS and also a local guide who is up to speed on the very latest conditions. While this is far too much to hope for on most road-trips, it is exactly what you can achieve in semi-private training with a coach.
Let’s get more specific and look at an example of how this might work. Many athletes seek to achieve a high proportion of lean muscle and low body fat percentages. One proven method to get this result is through “Hybrid Density Training.” Research tells us that we’ll need to prioritize strength and we’ll need to affect metabolism. So if we collect and reference data as to an athlete’s physical capabilities and couple an appropriate intensity of resistance training (strength) with an element of loaded cardio (metabolic conditioning), we’re already most of the way to achieving good results as far as exercise goes (nutrition would need to be considered as well, of course). Programming periodized heavy kettlebell grinds and a volume of powerful ballistics with specific heart rate and/or rest period targets would likely get the job done nicely. Using the navigation analogy once again, this programming and monitoring would give us a map and some GPS coordinates.
The more subtle “secret sauce” element is introduced in how the density variable is applied and the training sessions are managed. This is where a coach might reference an athlete’s pervious rates of adaptation and apply it to the periodization plan over time to either incrementally reduce the overall time in which the same workload is being completed, or increase the workload within the same timeframe. They might also tweak the program to suit the needs of an athlete on a given day, taking into account unforeseen variables like incomplete recovery or injury. With a program to follow, and technology capable of recording, graphing and projecting training volume (reps), intensity (loads) and time (well… time), we have a much better chance of staying on the direct path to success. But we still need a coach to act as a guide, so that we can also ensure that we are avoiding or overcoming any obstacles or dangers along the way. Taking a proven program and individualizing it just enough, adjusting it slightly from session to session as needed, coaches are able to take trainees where they want to go with the greatest efficiency. Programming principles and coaching methods like those used in the example above can be applied in a general “go by feel” fashion, if one isn’t as concerned about peaking on demand (a more relaxed, scenic route), or in a closely regulated method like a competitive lifter would use to peak on a specific day for an event.
Seeing the continued success of our athletes, us coaches are renewed in our commitment to push technology and methods in ways that can bring about a better tomorrow on a grander scale, as soon as possible. Charles Darwin famously said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one more responsive to change.” Well, I think that describes us pretty well!