This article will combine the information from Pt 1 on Adaptation and Applied Stress and Pt 2 on Mechanisms of Fatigue
If you haven’t already, I would recommend going back and reading those articles before progressing through this one.
Assessing Athlete Needs
“What gets measured gets managed” is a truism that abounds in the training world, and for good reason! In order to understand where we want to go and how we’re going to get there, we have to first understand where we are right now.
Assessment doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be consistent. Any chosen measurement should be valid (meaning it accurately measures what it claims to) and reliable (meaning the measurement method is consistent).
For example, an arbitrary overhead PVC squat is challenging for everyone and simultaneously tells a coach very little about what an athlete can do in their sport or what a gen-pop client can do in their activities of daily living. It also while also fails to create a measurement of true squat strength. A superior metric would be to assess maximal squat strength or repeat effort endurance while also having a measurement regarding the individual’s sport or activity of daily living.
The coach needs to ask;
What challenges is the individual currently experiencing in sport or life?
What training methods can directly address that problem?
What measurements, objective and subjective, will reflect change in the training program’s progress.
What measurements will reflect improvement in the desired goal?
Planning and Progressing
Once training goals and obstacles are identified and initial measurements are taken, it’s time to develop a plan. During this phase the coach must identify a long term vision. This involves developing an understanding of the time course required for the accomplishment of the desired goals, an understanding of what methods will address those goals, and a relationship with the individual as an educator and a guide throughout the program.
Methods and Approaches
It is beyond the scope of this article to explain in depth fully all of the methods regarding exercise programming, however a simple familiarity with methods is necessary in order to make sense of the approach to creating a training structure. There are volumes of literature on set rep schemes, volume, intensity, and velocity and it is suggested that the reader who is deeply interested in this topic explore current research, and read canonical sport training books such as Supertraining by Siff and Verkhoshansky. For the purposes of this article, a few simple examples of methods for each category of adaption will be provided.
Another notable thing is that, while some training methods may have a bleed over effect, that doesn’t mean they are directly addressing the same thing. For example, sprint training aimed at speed development may have a conditioning effect but that doesn’t mean we are using it as our primary conditioning method. Conversely, repeat sprints with little rest may be effective for some hard conditioning, but they will not be effective for increasing top end speed because the fatigue accumulation happens too fast.
The cornerstone of programming is knowing what kinds of exercise methods create the kind of adaptation needed. Quality inputs yield quality outputs. All of our programming efforts should seek to maximize signal and minimize noise. To do this, we need to know what we want the program to accomplish, and in order to do this we need to determine what the athlete needs are first.
Typically, we want to collect baseline data from the following categories:
Mind you these lists are examples and not comprehensive of all of the testing options one might choose*
Cardiovascular metrics and conditioning capacity at varying intensities:
- Vo2 max tests
- Wingate tests
- HR data
- resting
- during work / rest windows
- Critical power tests
- Repeat Power on sprints, airdyne, etc
- Distance for time trials
Mobility Screens
- Active mobility
- Passive flexibility
- Table testing / joint rom assessment
- Sport specific mobility needs
- Activities of daily living mobility needs
Strength and Power Output
- Max Strength lifts
- 1-5 rep max range typically
- deadlift
- bench
- squat
- Weighted chinups, pushups
- Repeat effort or endurance strength testing
- max pushups
- max pullups
- Isoholds for time
- Max Power output
- Jump testing of all kinds
- max wattage output on airdyne
- Sprint testing
- Throw variations
- Olympic lifts
*A note about special tests such as the ACFT, is that testing the test itself is imperative. If your athlete has to complete a specific test battery for a sport or job demand, test that specific test – assess the weak or low scoring areas – and design your training around performance for those specific metrics.
Methods and Tools
After we gather our data we have to apply it! This means understanding what training methods will drive what adaptations and applying them accordingly.
The below categories are very simplified / broad because each of these topics already fills volumes of literature outside the scope of this article. Anyone seriously interested in programing should seek in depth resources beyond this article. Books like Pat Davidson’s A Coach’s Guide to Optimizing Movement, Issurin’s Principles and Basics of Advanced Athletic Training, Mladen Jovanovic’s Agile Periodization Strength Training Manuals 1 & 2, Greg Nuckholz’s The Art of Lifting, Ultimate MMA Conditioning my Joel Jamieson, and Integrated Periodization In Sport Training and Athletic Development by Bompa & Blumenstein are just a drop in a host of great resources.
Conditioning:
Methods to address each individual energy system
Address perfusion, utilization, and respiration limiters
Maximal Strength:
Higher % loads, lower repetitions per set
Overcoming Isometrics
Explosive Power:
Blend high % loading for strength and lower % explosive lifting, Olympic lifts, jumps, throws
Hypertrophy:
Moderate % loading, 8-12 rep range generally though size can be developed from various methods of training.
Endurance:
High repetition, long iso holds, yielding isometrics
The Process and Case Study
Ok so we’ve said a bunch of stuff about assessment, measurement, and athlete needs, but how does all of this ACTUALLY look when it’s put into practice?
Let’s use our imagination and walk through some examples.
Today, you’re a trainer who’s got a new client assessment, congrats!
You read client 1’s application:
Name:
Jane Doe
Age:
35
Medical History:
Mother of two kids aged 4 and 6, last gave birth in 2020. Spent time in pelvic floor PT for her first birth, but has had a history of urinary incontinence since her last child. No major injury history, experiences occasional hip and upper back discomfort.
Goals:
Feel strong enough to lift / play with her kids, relieve lingering discomfort with exercise in hips after pregnancy, feel fitter.
Availability:
Early mornings before work on Monday and Thursday.
Assessment Session
After introducing yourself to Jane and getting her comfortable with her things you guys sit down and talk for a bit. You ask what motivated her to reach out to a trainer, how her body is feeling today, and what she’s looking to get out of today’s session.
She says that she’s feeling ok except that she went for a long walk today and she has the same nagging pinch in her hip she’s had since giving birth. She said she reached out because she was tired of feeling “older than she should” at 35 and knew things needed to change.
You affirm that she’s come to the right place and inform her that you’re going to go through some basic mobility assessments then do some strength work and put together a plan for her.
Jane wears an apple watch and you collect her morning resting HR
Resting Heart Rate Average:
80 bpm
Healthy resting HR is listed as being between 60-100 bpm, but evidence shows that lower resting heart rates are associated with increased longevity, decrease of cardiac incident, and improved cardiovascular performance. My goal is to get my clients resting HR to 60 or slightly below, especially if they are an athlete of any kind.
You complete your passive and active mobility assessment first and notice a few specific mobility deficits.*
Hips:
Supine Passive:
Right hip External Rotation normal with stiff Internal Rotation with slight ROM deficit. No joint pain sensation, but Jane reports the outside of her leg feeling tight during the passive IR test.
Left hip external rotation normal but Jane reports some tightness sensation at end range. Internal rotation normal.
Supine Active
Right hip ER ROM normal but substantially less than passive ER ROM. IR very limited.
Left hip external rotation normal, only slightly less than passive test. Internal rotation less than passive test only marginally.
Shoulders:
Right shoulder limited internal rotation, limited overhead.
Left shoulder normal
Movement Control Tests:
Squat
Squats with a lot of visible lumbar hyper extension and has a hard time clearing the crease of the hip below the knee. Upon driving up hips shift to the left away from the right hip.
Jane says squatting causes her right hip to pinch again. You have her do the following:
Hip traction x 2:00 min
Hip IR sleeper stretch x 1:00
Posterior Capsule Stretch x 1:00
After mobilizing the right hip into internal rotation and opening some work space you have her re-test the squat. The pinch is gone!
Pushup
– Right side shoulder blade elevates excessively
– right side pelvis drops with lumbar extension
– left side shoulder movement is to standard
Quadruped Hip Extension
– Right hip extends partially and compensates with lumbar extension at end range
– Left hip extends normally, controls lumbar during end range.
*If you’re unfamiliar with this kind of testing, physiopedia has a great resource you can find here: Physiopedia Assessing Range Of Motion
*Below is the format that I keep client assessment notes in, though rather than filling that out for an imaginary client I have pulled the data we’ll look at most closely for this client to use as specific examples.
Jane's Program
After the assessment, Jane tells you she’d like to sign up to work with you two days per week. You schedule your 1 hour training sessions then ask her if she has time to do any additional homework. She says she thinks she can do one short session per week so you agree that in addition to coming to you she’ll complete one thirty minute home session on her own each week.
Jane will have two lifting sessions weekly with you in the morning at 5:30 Am on Mondays and Thursdays and will do one home session on Saturday.
Your priorities are:
Improving her hip ROM and control, improving lumbar spine control and trunk strength, and increasing upper body strength and right shoulder IR and shoulder blade control.
Things to consider:
Her training age is low, she doesn’t have a lot of experience. The advantage of being novice is that all training methods are novel and will elicit change more rapidly than they would in a more advanced trainee. Because almost anything will improve her strength and conditioning from current baseline you can prioritize movements that are challenging but not overly complicated that allow her to feel successful and cardiovascular interventions which are diverse, challenging, and ones which expose her to more movement skills. Post pregnancy, the pelvic floor can weaken so finding it’s control tolerance during training is important for her comfort. Strengthening it will be paramount but things like vigorous jumping or hard bracing demand movements may not feel good at first, but building tolerance to these demands will assist athletic movement.
Her home equipment is limited but they do have an exercise bike, dumbbells up to 10#, and a few bands.
Day 1:
Mobilization:
Hip IR Stretch x 1:00
Posterior Capsule Stretch x 1:00
Warmup: 2x
Cuban Press x 10
Dead-bug x 10
Side Plank x 0:30
Strength Series A:
Step Up 3 x 10 @ RPE 7
– focus on feeling mid foot and driving with the glute of the working leg rather than springing at the ankle of the non working leg.
Pushup to bar 3 x 8
– pick a height she can control, and emphasize creating a good pelvic and rib cage stack and maintaining it.
– emphasize shoulder blade movement
Strength Series B:
Goblet Squat w/ 4 Count Pause 3 x 8 @ RPE 7
Inverted or TRX Row w/ 4 Count pause 3 x 8
Finisher:
w/ Sled or Airdyne
0:20 WORK – HR @ 90% of max or RPE 9
1:30-2:00 REST
x 5-8 sets
Day 2:
Mobilization:
Shoulder Sleeper Stretch + Iso Holds
Warmup: 2x
Bear Crawl Plank x 0:30
Hip 90/90 Windshield Wipers x 8
– if too easy progress to shin boxing
KB Deadlift
4 x 6 @ RPE 8
– Emphasize spinal control
DB Floor Press
3 x 12 @ RPE 8
Contralateral Half Kneeling Cable Row
3 x 12 @ RPE 8
Reverse Hyper
3 x 10-15 @ BWT
– emphasize proper lumbar spinal mechanics and control of both traction and extension positions.
Home Day:
First few weeks priority is to get cardiac fitness up, spend 30 minutes doing moderate intensity cardio on exercise bike and try to get walks in as much as possible.
After a few weeks, we’ll assess resting HR and re-evaluate at home conditioning and mobility work.
This first week isn’t complicated, but things don’t have to be complicated to work and most clients, especially general population individuals, don’t need bro splits or ultra complicated training methods to improve they just need to work hard consistently over a long time course. Training that is challenging, relevant to their life, and fun will take a person a long way.
If you enjoyed this article series on programming or have any questions or comments you’d like to share please shoot me an email at annie@unbreakablestrengthco.com