Top 4 Programme Design Considerations

To achieve consistent performance outcomes with clients and athletes, fitness coaches must be able to design an integrated training programme that addresses the individual needs of the client. It's easy to get bogged down in lots of technical information when developing a comprehensive strength and conditioning programme but I like to keep things as simple as possible, so here are my top 4 programme design considerations (it ain't very technical!).

Know Your Starting Point

The programme design process must start with a comprehensive initial evaluation and assessment (subjective and objective). The results then drive the programme design component.

Become An Expert of Change

There's an infinite amount of change (macro and micro variables) available. Training programmes must balance the need for continuity whilst taking into account the importance of variation (this is the toughest balancing act). Ongoing monitoring will allow you to track the rate of change and provide clues as to the rate of change.

Throw Away The Cookie Cutter

To achieve consistent performance outcomes with athletes, fitness coaches must be able to design an integrated training programme that addresses the individual needs of the client (cookie cutter programmes won't deliver long term results).

Plan Vertically and Horizontally

Consider what are the effects of training one physical quality on another, and consider what are the effects of improving one physical quality on another? Programme design is about the development of a structured programme that divides training into manageable phases with sufficient variation in the training stimuli and use of planned rest periods to improve recovery and restoration and increase the potential for achieving specific performance goals.

Plucking a training session out of thin air when the athlete walks into the gym, come on, you're better than that!