One of the first steps to designing a program for any athlete or client should be to answer the basic questions: Who, what, where, when, why, and how? If we take the time to critically analyze each of these questions when writing out programs, it takes a lot of guessing out of the equation and makes exercise selection, volume, and intensity much more justifiable.
Who is this new client/athlete? Are they a 10 year old who needs to develop a better foundation, or an IT whiz who is great at what they do but doesn’t understand how to get results at the gym? Whatever the scenario may be, there are a spectrum of exercises that may not be warranted for either individual in the beginning. Here, our biggest bang for our buck is going to be exposure to as many simple exercises as we can in a logical manner. It’s not until we get the college or professional/olympic athlete that we start to get very specialized with our programs, or the individual with a huge training age (consistent number of years training).
What is the client/athlete training for? This will dictate what you’re going to do and how long your cycles are going to last. If you’re dealing with a strict weight loss or general health client, there is no real competition to peak for unless they have a particular date in mind for a wedding or vacation for example. Athletes may warrant a little more planning here based on their test performance in the beginning.
Where? This question can be asked a couple different ways. Where is the training going to take place? Is it going to be at your facility under your guidance? Or could they be doing this on their own either at their home or at a commercial gym? This could take some serious critical thinking about logistics. You may have all the equipment that you need, but their commercial gym may not. It may require that we make tweeks here or there to make the program work. The other way to read this question is, where does the client or athlete hope to be at the end of this? Maybe you have an NFL prospect that expects to be a high draft pick based on the combine that you are helping them prepare for. Or maybe it’s a 12 year old trying to make the club hockey team in town.
When? When in the day is the training going to take place? When in the week? Will this individual fit in with a similar group of individuals?
Why is a huge question to ask throughout the whole periodization process. It may seem like a redundant question in some respects, but bear with me. Why is this client or athlete coming to you? Why are you going to use a particular exercise? Can we justify everything that we are going to do with this person or are we just putting in fillers? Every exercise or task must have a reason. With our overweight client it could be simply that this particular exercise is extremely metabolically demanding. For an athlete it could be speed work. For anyone, the correctives should be placed to achieve an optimal position for the joints in the body.
How are you going to make this come together? Are you going to use any particular system to make this work? Sit down and plan this thing out. I was once taught by someone much smarter than myself to start at the end. That’s how I personally start my program design and it seems to work. If someone simply just wants to get bigger, how are you going to do that? Faster? Skinnier? Plan it out.
That’s the basic jist. It helps tremendously to sit down and ask yourself all these questions when you write programs. KISS-Keep It Simple S… is an acronym that one of my mentors likes to use often and it has been probably one of my best tools in the toolbox. Putting someone on a physio ball balancing doing squats while performing some Harlem Globetrotter ball spinning isn’t going to make anyone better, but, it will probably get someone hurt. If not physically then maybe emotionally for the trainer/coach because their clientele isn’t getting better. I digress. Keep it simple.