General Strength
This is the program option for beginners or those just looking to get stronger for any purpose or prepare to compete in competitive sports. This would also be a great option for someone that doesn’t know exactly what they want to do, but they know they need to start working out. After filling out the registration form and purchasing the program, you will receive an email to share a google spreadsheet with you which you have editing access to. First you will have a box to fill in personal records (PR’s) as well as notes to leave in case certain numbers seem unattainable now or why you may prefer not to do one exercise. This is a shared document which I check on regularly and update monthly unless you purchase virtual meeting times as well in which I update the program at every interval that we meet.
Once you fill out the PR list, all necessary numbers will autopopulate to the rest of the program and will give you weights to use for some exercises throughout the program. If you have supplementary goals like weight loss or muscle gain there will also be a section here for tracking weight or body fat % as shown below.
Each workout will have the exercise followed by the autopopulated PR for that exercise and the percentage, weight, and repetitions for each set. Some exercises are supplementary or for other reasons, do not work from PR’s therefore there will be freedom / knowledge of choosing your own weights for some exercises. This is also a great place to track your weights used in the appropriate cell like the client has done below.
Hypertrophy
This program option is for those primarily focused on gaining muscle. The best way to gain muscle depends on other factors like body composition goals (gain/lose weight or fat) strength level, training experience, etc. therefore it is important that the registration form is thoroughly filled out. To grow as much muscle as possible, the focus should be tension on the muscle in the shortened and lengthened position and every place in-between. Unlike training mainly for strength, building muscle should be taxing the target muscle group enough to elicit growth. Therefore selecting weights each week may be less important and perceived difficulty of each exercise and/or session may be more helpful to objectively track progress. The program template looks identical to the general strength program shown above but will likely use less percentage based weight prescription.
Training For Sport
This program analyzes patterns and dominate muscle groups used in each sport and emphasizes muscle / tissue development to improve performance and confidence long term. This is a strength and conditioning program specified for your sport(s) and not a highly specific program to replace sport training unless training for a strength sport. Important aspects for this type of program is the schedule of the competitive season, preseason, offseason, etc. Sport specific information like lacking confidence hitting in baseball, persistent ankle injuries in football, or low back pain in track and field practice are important aspects to improving your game and being in the weight room for the right reasons.