Program design questions - Personal Trainer Community - Forum

[beachtrainer]

I train rather freestyle involving balance, speed, dynamic movement, flexibility as well as power and strength in my programs. I am hoping that I can get a few opinions and facts if any about which order I should be training my clients. currently I train one exercise of each and continue for about 16-21 exercises in a workout. Customarily I train in this order.
Balance
Dynamic movement
Speed
Power
strength
flexibility
endurance
core
any suggestions on the order??

[muscletrainerdh-NSCA CPT]

Christopher,

If I understand you correctly, you are training your clients on all those aspects you list in each and every workout?

That's going to lead to over training and your clients will burn out quickly. it would be wise to listen to your clients needs/wants/goals and develop a routine from there.

Not every client wants to be "fast" (Speed) or go further (Endurance). Unless you normally train elite athletes, I see very few in the general population who would actually express wanting to work on all those factors.

Your client should tell you what they want to improve on, and you should create the program from there. Not saying that it's not admirable to want your clients to improve on all those aspects of fitness, just saying it may be too much for them to handle.

Hope that helps,

Dave

[Christina]

Hi Christopher,

I agree with Dave. You need to take into consideration the sport they are involved in and design a program from there. Depending on what they do, the athlete may not need to be trained in all of those areas. (For example, a long distance runner does not want or need a lot of mass.)

If the majority of your clients are athletes I would encourage you to become a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). They have tons of great information on their site and many sport specific training articles. http://www.nsca-lift.org

I am not sure who you are certified through but if the majority of your clients are athletes you really should look into NSCA's Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification (CSCS). http://www.nsca-cc.org/

Good luck!
Christina

[beachtrainer]

Thank-you for your responses. I value your input, however I train people of all walks, and their needs are my priority. I train specific to what they'd like to achieve from weight-loss to elite hockey and football players. I only include one or 2 of each modality in order to improve the overall individual (for those wantuing overall fitness). I don't get incredibly intense at any one thing if general fitness is the goal which is mainly what I train through the general public. I train to make athletes more athletic. So as much as I prioritize whatever my clients are after i was just hoping to gain a little more insight as to the order I should be training different modalities.

[rbd]

I think some good points were made already.

As for order I think a good quote is "once you understand the rules, you can break the rules". There a variety of guidelines out there on exercise order, but again they are guidelines and depends on the goal. For example, whatever is weakest should usually be hit early in the week and early in the workout. So order can very, but there are some certain guidelines that are good to follow for most cliients.

As for program design, you will find so many philosophies out there and there is no real absolutes in this industry, probably why there are so many opinions. I don't think I would be bouncing around these different qualities back and forth in a circuit fashion, if I understand what you are doing in your programs.

A general order could be:

Some type of myofasical work to loosen things up - such as foam roll, stick, tennis ball

Static stretch what is tight

Core activation work to turn on what is weak

Dynamic mobility work to prepare body for workout

Movement Skill - speed work / plyo work

strength training complexes - think density - more work in less time. Of course all O-lifts and power work first

energy system work - I hate the terms aerobic and cardio work

recover work - possibly some more foam roll or stretching. Maybe later in the day and not right after the workout, since stretching right after the workout is not always optimal

There are a variety of good text out there on this topic, with varying opinions, so you need to find what works for you, your clients and the environment you train.

I hope this adds to what has already been said.

[beachtrainer]

I appreciate you taking time to respond and with some great thoughts. I like the part about working what is weakest first. I have employed that thought and continue to do so, but when I only see someone 2-3 times per week I like to utilize all systems in the body. Balance and speed are as important as strength and core movements. I think I would have to disagree, only for the sake of growth, on both our parts, with the static stretching during a workout as it is proven to decrease power by as much as 50%. I do appreciate all the info you have shared as I am happy to add to my vault of knowledge. Thank-you once again.

[rbd]

As for professional growth I would have to disagree with you on this topic and I probably wouid have had the same response to static stretching a couple of years ago, but you really have to take a look at what the research has said and then apply it correctly to program design.

Take a look again at the research on static stretching because we are going through an over reaction currently in our industry in regards to stretching. I do agree with the research and some of the applications, but if you follow static stretching up with core activation work and an active warm-up patterns you will not run into those decreases. Strength coaches have been doing with no ill effects, but again it does depend on the client, what they need and what they want. I totally agree that you do not want to static strech someone then move right into strength or power training. With our society most could use a good dose of static stretching. If someone is tight they will typically move at the least stiff segment, why just doing dynamic work can lead to problems and promoting their dysfunctions. think some of the research has been taken out of context in regards just like tranverse adominus work a few years back.

I agree with what you said about balance and speed to an extent, but again it depends on the client. Just don't get caught up to much in the oversuse of unstable surfaces to train balance, since that is getting used way too much in our industry. People have lost sight of balance training and stability training with this focus.

I hope this adds more to this reponse and love exchanges like this because it helps expand our profession and some of the myths out their currently.