Exercise Prescription
Programme Design
Effective programme design is a key skill to ensure long term progress and success. Such progress requires the design and implementation of a series of logically progressive training phases, with each phase building on the foundation of the previous one.

Unfortunately, too many individuals in the fitness industry fail to grasp the importance of progressive programme design. The inevitable consequence is lack of progress and dissatisfaction, causing the individual to reach a plateau and not getting anywhere.

On this page I would like to explain some of the key concepts and principles of programme design, as well as introducing and discussing the various issues governing progression over time.

Programme Objective Guidelines:
Training Goal: Strength: Hypertrophy: Endurance: Intensity High Moderate Low Loads as % of 1RM > 85% 67-85% < 67% Reps / duration 1-5 6-12 12+ Recovery between sets 3-5 min. 1-2 min. 30-60 sec. Sets per exercise 2-6 3-6 2-3 Frequency per muscle group 1-2 x / week 1-2 x / week 2-3 x / week		Health: Cardiovascular: Low (Aerobic) 60-90% MHR N/A N/A 30 min. + 20 min. + N/A N/A 1 1 5+ sessions / week 3+ sessions / week

When selecting a weekly frequency, your training age (Status) should be considered. The table below provides a simple illustration of how we can manipulate the variable of frequency as your training Status / Experience increases.

Total sessions per week for different training ages

Training Status: Frequency Guidelines (sessions / week): Beginner: 2 to 3 sessions per week Intermediate: 3 to 4 sessions per week Advanced: 4 to 7 sessions per week

It should be noted that these frequencies are based on resistance training sessions per week (not aerobic, flexibility sessions etc), and that these are guidelines only. Exceeding that maximum recommended frequency on a regular basis would be inadvisable however, as your ability to recover from the load would be compromised.

Progression:
The human body is a master adapter, and given the right conditions it will adapt at a reasonable pace to any new stimulus. Once the individual physiology has adapted to the workout stimulus, the onus is on the personal trainer to make appropriate programme modifications. If appropriate modifications are not made your progress is likely to plateau. In the medium to long term, progress stagnation is likely to cause dissatisfaction. Programme modification should be progressive and designed to build on the foundation of the previous training phase.

Unfortunately, many individuals do not make the long term fitness gains that they desire. Often this is because they have a tendency to stick to workouts that lack variation. The following is a list of reasons why individuals tend to persevere with the same or similar workouts for excessive periods of time:

Lack of knowledge:
Often individuals are unaware of the need for change, or they lack the knowledge to make appropriate programme modifications.

Following a programme from a magazine:
A significant percentage of the exercise public obtains their resistance training programmes from magazines and other popular media sources. Fitness, glamour and lifestyle magazines all frequently include resistance training articles offering programmes and advice. Unfortunately, the quality of these articles can be variable. Even when the advice provided is good, the article only tend to provide one sample training programme, often associated with a particular celebrity. As previously discussed, the body adapt relatively quick to an exercise routine. As a result of this even a well-constructed routine has a brief useful life span.

Good initial results from programme:
Most individuals will experience some initial gains from a new exercise routine. Once the body adapts to the new stimulus these gains slow down and eventually progress reaches a plateau. Often individuals experiencing such a plateau will blame themselves rather than the programme for lack of continuing progress. They may resolve to work harder while still persevering with the same routine. This is unfortunate, as this approach will generally fail to deliver results in proportion to the effort exerted.

In a comfort zone:
Often an exercise routine becomes as habitual as showering or cleaning your teeth. Individuals become familiar with all the elements of the routine, and they begin to settle into a comfort zone that has little real benefit.

Programme Variables:
When the time comes to change a resistance training programme, your personal trainer has a wide variety of variables that can be manipulated. These include:

	Number of Exercises
	Number of Sets
	Target Repetition Range
	Recovery (Rest) periods between sets
	Workout Frequency
	Movement Speed - slow to fast
	Different Exercises
	Stable to Unstable to Stable
	Simple to Complex
	Split routines

Basic Resistance Progression
In order to physically progress an individual over a prolonged period of time it is important that we develop a long term training plan.

When planning to take you from e.g. novice level through to the more advanced and intensive form of resistance training, the following basic progression pyramid will be adhered to.

Strength

Hypertrophy

Endurance

As discussed previously, the objective of the individual does not always suit their current level of physical preparedness. A thorough examination of your previous exercise experience, training routines and adherence patterns will provide an indication of your suitability to perform certain types of resistance training.

The basic pyramid approach to resistance training progression over time will only apply if the individual's goals include training towards Strength and or Hypertrophy (Bodybuilding). Many individuals will not want to focus on these aspects of muscular fitness, in which case the pyramid approach may not be applicable. If this is the case, then your personal trainer has various options.

Firstly, there is scope for intensity progression within each training objective. For example, if you want to focus predominantly on muscular endurance, the guidelines of 12+ repetitions per set can be subdivided into smaller repetition ranges. Successive training phases might progress from 18-20, 15-18, 12-15 reps per set. This would provide small increments in intensity while still remaining within the muscular endurance range.

Second option would be to keep the repetition range the same, but amend other programme variables (see Programme Variables listed above). Increasing the movement complexity from phase to phase while working with the endurance repetition range is one of many possible options.