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Throughout my career I have been
fortunate enough to work with and be taught by many different strength coaches
and experts in my field and have been able to get a look at what
works and what doesn't work in regards to program design. Recently I talked
with many of the industry’s leading professionals about the common mistakes
they have seen over the years. Originally I only planned to use notes that I
took down to better myself as a
Professional
Personal Trainer but soon realized that the information that they were giving
me could benefit many others out there and so I put this together to identify
the biggest program design mistakes in the hope that you will be able to avoid
making these in your own programs.
Mistake # 1: Not assessing Clients.
Assessing
clients is a huge part of program design but it is all too
often left
out. There are many ways to test a client and obviously,
you can’t spend hours on functional tests but this
doesn't mean that you cannot assessyour
client. Before workouts even begin you can talk to the client
to get a
feel on how they are doing, during warm-ups you can assess,
during the
workouts you can look for things that need to be fixed ifathletes
don't respond to cues.
Mistake # 2: Creating Programs based
on one training methodology.
All too
often strength and conditioning coaches and personal trainers build training
programsaround
their own individual bias. Maybe they used to be a Bodybuilder,an Olympic
lifter, a powerlifter, or a strongman and so when they sit down to
write their training programs often they are will look like they are
designed for that sport. For instance if you come from a powerlifting
background you may decide to bench, then do board presses,
then rack lockouts followed by another tricep movement. Buthow
effective is this going to be a developing the client for anythingother than
the bench? There’s so many different methods out there toimprove a
clients performance that you need to keep an open mindtake
pieces from all of these training methods and figure out what ismost
applicable to your athletes and put them all together in yourprogram.
Mistake # 3: Teaching variations as
progressions.
It seems
there is a current trend that in order to teach a squat you
must first
teach a bodyweight squat, then a dumbbell squat, then a
front
squat, and then a back squat. This is not a progression but a
series of
variations. A progression should follow a specific plan of
teaching a
motor skill or a skill through that plane until it becomes a
complete
skill. And then you start adding a load or other external
variables
to that skill.Let's look at the squat. First you would teach athletes how to do
abodyweight
squat, next you would want to teach them how to squat
with a
piece of dowel or PVC pipe, next you would add the bar andlastly you
would add weight.
Mistake # 4 : Not being able to
justify what is in your program.
There is
so much information available on the Internet now and so
many personal
trainers are coming out with innovative exercises that it is very
easy to
get caught up in the latest and greatest and forget about what
it is we
really need to achieve with each training session. I am not
saying
that you should not include other exercises but make sure you
are
including them for a reason and not because you read somewhere
that you
should. If you can’t justify why everything in your program is
in there,
then it shouldn’t be in your program.
Mistake # 5: Lack of Attention
Often the
personal trainers lack attention to details and will allow the client to getaway with
not doing things properly. You must spend time teaching
your
athletes the fundamental basics and techniques to executing the
lifts
before you begin to load up the weight. We cannot expect a
client to
know that they are performing a lift incorrectly if they have
never been
taught how to perform that lift correctly. Once you know
they can
perform the lift it makes it easy to give feedback in regards
to whether
they are squatting low enough or not, whether they are in
the
correct position or improper positions etc.
Mistake # 6: Number Inflation
For some
reason some personal trainers decide to throw the
rule book
out the window and allow clients to perform lifts incorrectly
in order
to lift heavier weights. Unfortunately, although this
may look
good on paper in the long run it does nothing but hurt the
client.
This is a lose, lose situation.
Mistake # 7: Pushing too hard
Personal
trainers often push their athletes too hard in the weight room.I see it
everyday. It isimportant
to take into account everything that goes on in a clients
life and
know when it is time to push and when it is time to back off.
When
designing your program remember that there are a lot of things
outside of
the weight room that have a huge affect on clients (diet,
sleep
patterns, school, relationship, etc) that need to be taken into
account as
well as the demands of training itself. Often personal trainers will
mistakenly
think that there clients are giving them a low level of
effort
when in reality the client is giving it their all but they just have
not
recovered from a long ,hard week.
Mistake # 8: Too Much Volume
By the
time you factor mobility work, dynamic work, agility work,
lateral
speed work, linear speed work, plyometric work, strength work,
power
work, and conditioning you end up with a huge list of possible
exercises
and often people get carried away and try to include it all in
one
workout. A lot of times people just – you try to spread that out
and it's
really easy just to get carried away and just use way too much
volume.
What is interesting to me is I have yet to work with an
athlete
who didn't respond to a workout that focused more on quality
than
quantity.
Mistake # 9: No long-term plan
Believe it
or not there are many personal trainers out there who do not have an
organized
plan and have no idea what their end goal is for their
clients.
When you sit down to write a program you should always
ask
yourself where do we want to end up? Where do we want them be
in six
months,12 months. When it finishes? Where do you want the clients fitness levels
to be at ? Etc. Then once you have figured out where you want to end up you
work backwards and design a program that will help you achieve those goals. The
biggest mistake you can make is not having your goal written down and just
trying to do things week by week. If you don't have that end goal then you are
not going to know where to start or what you need to do each week.
Mistake # 10: Copying someone else's
program
Many
personal trainers believe that if they
copy the top guy on the internet or Youtube training program then they will
become successful. However, using a program with the mentality that one size
fits can become very counterproductive to both the athlete at the end goal.
Because, generally the programs that are copied are designed for really
advanced athletes and this means that beginning athlete might get overwhelmed
by the demands of the workouts. Of course you can always learn from other programs
but it is important to find out for ourselves what our clients need and be able
to create a program that meets those needs.
How is it
that some athletes seem able to overcome a painful injury with ease, while
others really suffer? And how can the same injury produce different pain
experiences in different athletes? In the
past, the scientific and medical world has seen the mind and body as two
separate entities and the sensation of pain as the result of purely physical
and chemical processes as a result of damage to tissues.
Modern
medicine however is beginning to show the limitations of this approach. Most
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have shown that there's little link
between the degree of tissue damage revealed in a scan and the amount of pain
experienced, while nearly 40% of people with abnormal and damaged spines have
no pain whatsoever!
Tissue
damage alone it seems is insufficient to explain the degree of pain
experienced.
The
"gate control theory" proposes that the central nervous system (CNS -
brain and spinal chord) plays a central role in modulating the what kind of
pain you experience i.e. the type and
degree of tissue damage only partly explains what you subsequently experience;
it's the CNS processing of those initial tissue damage signals that determine
how debilitating and sever that pain is and how rapidly it diminishes.
While the
gate control theory has been continually modified and expanded, it has stood
the test of time and is backed up by over forty years of scientific research.
Because
the brain is involved in interpreting and processing pain signals, the
thoughts, emotions, beliefs and attitudes of the athlete can and do play a role
in the pain that is experienced after injury.
In other
words, pain effectively emerges from the combined action of the pain system,
which comprises of three components:
. Peripheral modulation - where pain
receptors are stimulated by an initial injury or trauma and then by the release
of pain stimulating chemicals.
• Spinal modulation - where the signal
travelling from tissue to brain can be either amplified or decreased by nervous
interactions as it enters the spinal chord.
• Supraspinal modulation - processing
in the brain involving attention, beliefs, attitudes and previous pain
experiences.
The
interaction between these components is complex but helps to answer some of the
questions raised earlier. For example, scans of brain activity show that
different people respond differently to the same pain stimulus, while studies
involving twins have shown that learned behaviours are also important.
Even in
the same athlete, the pain experienced can vary significantly depending on the
circumstances becoming significantly less during competition when supraspinal
and spinal modulation act to inhibit the transmission and limiting awareness of
the pain signal.
Sometimes,
chronic pain produces changes in the functioning of the pain system so that it
becomes over-sensitised. When this happens, even everyday movements and
pressures that would normally cause no irritation or pain in tissues continue
to cause pain, long after the originally injured tissue has healed.
This can
be compounded by an athlete's fear and anxiety about their ongoing pain and by
focusing too much attention on the pain. When this "maladaptive pain"
becomes entrenched, a gradual and graded approach to activity designed to
desensitise the pain system is require.
Should you
ignore pain and try to shrug off an injury?
The
initial phase of sensitisation is designed to encourage you to stop using
injured tissues to avoid making things worse. You therefore need to ask
yourself three questions:
• Can I cope with the pain?
• Can I continue to contribute a
meaningful performance?
• What are the consequences of
continuing?
The
answers to these may well depend on the situation you find yourself in, and
require a judgement call. If that's the case, you need to qualify the questions
above by asking:
• Am I prepared to cope?
• How important is contributing a
worthwhile performance to me?
• Am I prepared to suffer the
consequences?
Using a
potentially risky pain killing injection the day before an Olympic final, would
seem quite reasonable thing to do if it was the only way an athlete could
compete, but the same course of action would not seem reasonable for a novice
runner before a fun run!
You may be
able to overcome acute pain and continue to compete, but it doesn't necessarily
make it a wise decision, which is why professional advice at the earliest
possible opportunity is invaluable!
Inevitably,
the most successful athletes are those who best understand the relationship
between pain and performance; they're prepared to overcome pain, but make wise
and informed decisions about when it is worthwhile trying to do.
While it
is obvious that your feelings can influence your movement, it is not as obvious
that your movement can impact your feelings too. For example, when you feel
tired and sad, you may move more slowly. When you feel anxious, you may either
rush around or become completely paralyzed. But recent studies show that the
connection between your brain and your body is a “two-way street” and that
means movement can change your brain, too!
How exercise can improve mood
disorders
Regular
aerobic exercise can reduce anxiety by making your brain’s “fight or flight”
system less reactive. When anxious people are exposed to physiological changes
they fear, such as a rapid heartbeat, through regular aerobic exercise, they
can develop a tolerance for such symptoms.
Regular
exercise such as cycling or gym-based aerobic, resistance, flexibility, and
balance exercises can also reduce depressive symptoms. Exercise can be as
effective as medication and psychotherapies. Regular exercise may boost mood by
increasing a brain protein called BDNF that helps nerve fibers grow.
For people
with attention-deficit disorder (ADHD), another study showed that a single
20-minute bout of moderate-intensity cycling briefly improved their symptoms.
It enhanced the participants’ motivation for tasks requiring focused thought,
increased their energy, and reduced their feelings of confusion, fatigue, and
depression. However, in this study, exercise had no effect on attention or
hyperactivity per se.
Meditative
movement has been shown to alleviate depressive symptoms. This is a type of
movement in which you pay close attention to your bodily sensations, position
in space, and gut feelings (such as subtle changes in heart rate or breathing)
as you move. Qigong, tai chi, and some forms of yoga are all helpful for this.
For example, frequent yoga practice can reduce the severity of symptoms in
post-traumatic stress disorder to the point that some people no longer meet the
criteria for this diagnosis. Changing your posture, breathing, and rhythm can
all change your brain, thereby reducing stress, depression, and anxiety, and
leading to a feeling of well-being.
The surprising benefits of
synchronizing your movements
Both
physical exercise and meditative movement are activities that you can do by
yourself. On their own, they can improve the way you feel. But a recent study
found that when you try to move in synchrony with someone else, it also
improves your self-esteem.
In 2014,
psychologist Joanne Lumsden and her colleagues conducted a study that required
participants to interact with another person via a video link. The person
performed a standard exercise — arm curls — while the participants watched, and
then performed the same movement.
The “video
link” was in fact a pre-recorded video of a 25-year-old female in a similar
room, also performing arm curls. As part of the experiment, participants had to
either coordinate their movement or deliberately not coordinate their movement
with the other person’s arm curls. They filled out a mood report before and
after each phase of synchronizing or falling out of synchrony. They also
reported on how close they felt to the other person.
The
results were interesting. When subjects intentionally synchronized their
movement with the recording, they had higher self-esteem than when they did
not. Prior studies had shown that synchronizing your movement with others makes
you like them more. You also cooperate more with them and feel more charitable
toward them. In fact, movement synchrony can make it easier to remember what
people say and to recall what they look like. This was the first study to show
that it makes you feel better about yourself, too. That’s probably why dance
movement therapy can help depressed patients feel better.
Putting it all together
Your mind
and body are intimately connected. And while your brain is the master control
system for your body’s movement, the way you move can also affect the way you
think and feel.
Movement
therapies are often used as adjunctive treatments for depression and anxiety
when mental effort, psychotherapy, or medication is not enough. When you are
too exhausted to use thought control strategies such as focusing on the
positive, or looking at the situation from another angle, movement can come to
the rescue. By working out, going on a meditative walk by yourself, or going
for a synchronized walk with someone, you may gain access to a “back door” to
the mental changes that you desire without having to “psych yourself” into
feeling better.
The holidays are coming so if you plan on celebrating with a few drinks ,read this first.
Straight to Your Head
Thirty
seconds after your first sip, alcohol
races into your brain. It slows down the chemicals and pathways that your brain
cells use to send messages. That alters your mood, slows your reflexes, and
throws off your balance. You also can’t think straight, which you may not
recall later, because you’ll struggle to store things in long-term memory
Your Brain Shrinks
If you
drink heavily for a long time, booze can affect how your brain looks and works.
Its cells start to change and even get smaller. Too much alcohol can actually
shrink your brain. And that’ll have big effects on your ability to think,
learn, and remember things. It can also make it harder to keep a steady body
temperature and control your movements.
Does It Help You Sleep?
Alcohol’s
slow-down effect on your brain can make you drowsy, so you may doze off more
easily. But you won’t sleep well. Your body processes alcohol throughout the
night. Once the effects wear off, it leaves you tossing and turning. You don’t
get that good REM sleep your body needs to feel restored. And you’re more
likely to have nightmares and vivid dreams. You’ll also probably wake up more
often for trips to the bathroom.
More Stomach Acid
Booze
irritates the lining of your stomach and makes your digestive juices flow. When
enough acid and alcohol build up, you get nauseated and you may throw up. Years
of heavy drinking can cause painful sores called ulcers in your stomach. And
high levels of stomach juices mean you won’t feel hungry. That’s one reason
long-term drinkers often don’t get all the nutrients they need.
Diarrhea and Heartburn
Your small
intestine and colon get irritated, too. Alcohol throws off the normal speed
that food moves through them. That’s why hard drinking can lead to diarrhea,
which can turn into a long-term problem. It also makes heartburn more likely –
it relaxes the muscle that keeps acid out of your esophagus, the tube that
connects your mouth and stomach.
Why You Have to Pee … Again
Your brain
gives off a hormone that keeps your kidneys from making too much urine. But
when alcohol swings into action, it tells your brain to hold off. That means
you have to go more often, which can leave you dehydrated. When you drink
heavily for years, that extra workload and the toxic effects of alcohol can wear
your kidneys down.
The Steps to Liver Disease
Your liver
breaks down almost all the alcohol you drink. In the process, it handles a lot
of toxins. Over time, heavy drinking makes the organ fatty and lets thicker,
fibrous tissue build up. That limits blood flow, so liver cells don’t get what
they need to survive. As they die off, the liver gets scars and stops working
as well, a disease called cirrhosis.
Pancreas Damage and Diabetes
Normally,
this organ makes insulin and other chemicals that help your intestines break
down food. But alcohol jams that process up. The chemicals stay inside the
pancreas. Along with toxins from alcohol, they cause inflammation in the organ,
which can lead to serious damage. After years, that means you won’t be able to
make the insulin you need, which can lead to diabetes. It also makes you more
likely to get pancreatic cancer.
What’s a Hangover?
That
cotton-mouthed, bleary-eyed morning-after is no accident. Alcohol makes you
dehydrated and makes blood vessels in your body and brain expand. That gives
you your headache. Your stomach wants to get rid of the toxins and acid that
booze churns up, which gives you nausea and vomiting. And because your liver
was so busy processing alcohol, it didn’t release enough sugar into your blood,
bringing on weakness and the shakes.
An Offbeat Heart
One night
of binge drinking can jumble the electrical signals that keep your heart’s
rhythm steady. If you do it for years, you can make those changes permanent.
And, alcohol can literally wear your heart out. Over time, it causes heart
muscles to droop and stretch, like an old rubber band. It can’t pump blood as
well, and that impacts every part of your body.
A Change in Body Temperature
Alcohol
widens your blood vessels, making more blood flow to your skin. That makes you
blush and feel warm and toasty. But not for long. The heat from that extra
blood passes right out of your body, causing your temperature to drop. On the
other hand, long-term, heavy drinking boosts your blood pressure. It makes your
body release stress hormones that narrow blood vessels, so your heart has to
pump harder to push blood through.
A Weaker Immune System
You might
not link a cold with a night of drinking, but there might be a connection.
Alcohol puts the brakes on your immune system. Your body can’t make the numbers
of white blood cells it needs to fight germs. So for 24 hours after drinking,
you’re more likely to get sick. Long-term, heavy drinkers are much more likely
to get illnesses like pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Hormone Havoc
These
powerful chemicals manage everything from your sex drive to how fast you digest
food. To keep it all going smoothly, you need them in the right balance. But
alcohol throws them out of whack. In women, that can knock your periods off
cycle and cause problems getting pregnant. In men, it can mean trouble getting
an erection, a lower sperm count, shrinking testicles, and breast growth.
Hearing Loss
Alcohol
impacts your hearing, but no one’s sure exactly how. It could be that it messes
with the part of your brain that processes sound. Or it might damage the nerves
and tiny hairs in your inner ear that help you hear. However it happens,
drinking means you need a sound to be louder so you can hear it. And that can
become permanent. Long-term drinkers often have hearing loss.
Thin Bones, Less Muscle
Heavy
drinking can throw off your calcium levels. Along with the hormone changes that
alcohol triggers, that can keep your body from building new bone. They get
thinner and more fragile, a condition called osteoporosis. Booze also limits
blood flow your muscles and gets in the way of the proteins that build them up.
Over time, you’ll have lower muscle mass and less strength.
Bottom Line: Moderation is the key
Overweight vs overfat: Is your scale lying to you?
You may be storing unhealthy amounts of visceral fat even if your weight appears normal.
 For decades, the body mass index (BMI) has been the gold standard for gauging obesity-related heart disease risk. But this handy tool doesn't always tell the whole story. It extrapolates your body fat percentage based on your height and weight . But the formula can't assess how or where your body stores its excess fat — a distinction that is crucial for cardiovascular health. By some estimates, the BMI misclassifies nearly 50% of people who are at higher disease risk from excess fat, meaning that you can be overfat even when you're not overweight.
The secret life of belly fat
Some people are genetically programmed to have a lot of fat tissue under the skin, which is deployed to store extra food energy during times of scarcity. But other people have very few of these designated fat cells, explains Dr. Christos Mantzoros, professor of medicine at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
In individuals who lack an adequate quota of available fat storage cells (or people whose fat tissue is already filled to capacity), fat particles travel in the bloodstream and congregate in the liver, muscles, and other organs, which normally have no fat. This also leads to the accumulation of visceral or "belly" fat — a pattern of fat distribution that is particularly hazardous to your health (see "Who is prone to visceral fat?"). Visceral fat is associated with insulin resistance and other metabolic irregularities. "It also triggers the release of inflammatory substances that damage the arteries and help set the stage for cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Mantzoros.
Who is prone to visceral fat?
The tendency to accumulate visceral fat is governed by genetic, ethnic, and gender differences. For example, people who inherit two copies (one from each parent) of a mutation in a gene involved in fat metabolism are more likely to have higher amounts of visceral fat than people with just one copy. Those without any copies of the gene mutation are less likely to develop heart disease — even if they become obese. Natives of India and South Asia have a higher-than-average propensity for abdominal obesity. And white men and black women tend to accumulate more visceral fat than black men and white women.
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Fat and aging
With age, people tend to lose muscle tissue, especially the type of specialized muscle fibers that produce quick bursts of speed and power. Fat frequently accumulates within the remaining muscle tissue, causing your body fat percentage to increase even when your weight remains constant. This scenario is closely linked to bodywide inflammation and diabetes risk. It may also explain why your BMI measurement doesn't provide a true reflection of your health risks.
Evidence suggests that waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio are better indicators of metabolic health than BMI. Even among people with the same BMI, those who have a large waist (defined as more than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women) have a significantly higher risk. In addition, people who tend to carry their weight in their hips and thighs (a "pear" shape) have lower waist-to-hip ratios and are less prone to heart disease than people with abdominal obesity (an "apple" shape); see "Measuring your midsection."
Measuring your midsection
To measure your waist accurately, exhale and wrap a measuring tape around your bare abdomen just above your navel (belly button). Don't suck in your gut or pull the tape tight enough to squeeze the area.
To compute your waist-to-hip ratio, first measure your hips by putting the tape measure around the widest part of your buttocks. Keep the tape measure level. Then, divide your waist size by your hip size.
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Measurements that signal high risk
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Waist (inches)
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Waist-to-hip ratio
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Women
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35 or more
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0.9 or more
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Men
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40 or more
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1.0 or more
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What should you do about visceral fat?
People with abdominal obesity — even if they're not overweight — can lessen their heart disease risk with regular exercise and healthy eating habits. "Reducing the total amount of fat in your body frees up storage space for fat particles in places that are associated with less metabolic risk," says Dr. Mantzoros. That's why losing as little as 7% of your total weight helps lower heart disease risk: the most dangerous visceral fat disappears first.
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