Program Planning
Framing
Program-planning questions give you a client (goal, training status, schedule, equipment) and ask for the design decision that follows. Anchor every answer in the FITT-VP variables (frequency, intensity, time, type, volume, progression) and the principles of specificity, overload, variation, reversibility, and individualization.
Concepts to own
- Needs analysis: goal, movement patterns required, injury history, time and equipment available.
- Exercise selection and order: large muscle groups before small, multi-joint before single-joint, power before strength before muscular endurance.
- Loading: the percent-of-1RM to repetition relationship (roughly 75 percent for 10 reps, 80 percent for 8, 85 percent for 6, 90 percent for 4). Rest intervals of about 2 to 5 minutes for strength and power, 30 seconds or less for muscular endurance.
- Periodization: linear versus undulating, with microcycles and mesocycles.
- Aerobic prescription: about 60 to 90 percent of HRmax, 20 to 60 minutes, three to five days per week for health.
- Flexibility: static stretches held 15 to 30 seconds, two to four repetitions, at least two to three days per week.
Traps
- Prescribing heavy loads without teaching breathing to a hypertensive or older client.
- Omitting warm-up and cool-down from an otherwise correct plan.
- Using a more-is-better progression instead of the 2-for-2 rule.
- Confusing training volume with training intensity.
Worked example
A client with a 200-pound bench press 1RM trains at 80 percent, so 160 pounds for about 8 reps. If they complete 10 reps at 160 pounds in two consecutive sessions, apply the 2-for-2 rule: increase the load by roughly 2 to 10 percent and reassess.
Rule of thumb
Match rest to the goal, not to the clock on the wall: long rests build strength and power, short rests build endurance.