When was the last time you reassessed where you were in relation to your training goals?

If you’re not doing a regular assessment of your progress, do it now and every two weeks.

If you are an you’re not progressing, why not?

Sure you have rest and recovery to be concerned with and supportive eating is as important as any component of your training program, but here’s a quick thought…

Maybe you’re on the wrong program.

With the mass of training information available, many trainees will choose the program they want to be one rather than choosing or creating the program that they should be on.

In many cases, driven by enthusiasm, many will select a program that is too advanced for their current physiology.  The complexity of your program should be at the minimum level that produces the maximum results.

I’ve seen too many young athletes, bodybuilders, or fitness enthusiasts training on higher volume, complex, split programs that only provide exposure to each movement pattern one time per week.  More often than not, this will only slow progress.  Most of the volume in these cases is “junk volume” that because of fatigue is below the intensity threshold level to provide a stimulus for adaptation.  Then assuming there is a stimulus from the first couple exericses in the program, the muscle is ready for another stimulus in 48-72 hours, but because the program is based on a body part per day plan, detraining takes place and limits or even stagnates potential gains in strength or muscle mass.

Think you’re an advanced trainee?  Maybe you are in some movement patterns.  You could have a big bench and lousy squat.  It may take you longer to recover from your horizontal pressing training than from your squat training.  If this is the case, how do you bring up a lousy squat?  Reduce the volume per session and increase the number of sessions per training cycle (week).  Try to make progress each session.  If you added 5 pounds per training session and squatted twice a week instead of once, wouldn’t progress be a helluva lot faster than squatting once a week?  No brainer, right.

Not sure what you should do?

Then take a step backward.  Drop your volume and focus on increasing frequency and intensity.  You may be happily surprised.

Bill

I had dinner last night with Jim “Smitty” Smith of Diesel Crew and Mike Robertson.  A mighty fine cow gave its life to sustain our bodies (my apologies to my vegan friends, but it was really good cow).  I think I got ripped off after ordering the large filet (medium rare, of course) and then being served what looked like a nickel-sized, but perfectly cooked, transected psoas (geek check).

That’s not why I’m writing today.  Conversation covered just about everything you can imagine.  We even talked a bit of training (had to justify putting dinner on the business card).  One of the topics was how we went about a needs analysis for an athlete.

Here’s a simple way to develop a needs analysis that will assist with determining your programming goals:

1.  List all the possible physical characterists the athlete will need to participate in his sport (speed, power, agility, flexibility, strength, etc.)

2.  Using a 1-10 scale, determine what would be the ideal representation of each physical characteristic.  For instance,  a “10″ for flexibility would be a gymnast.  A “10″ for maximal strength may be a powerlifter.  A “10″ for linear speed would be a sprinter…and so on.

3.  Based on the sport in question and the position your athlete will play, determine the ideal score that describes optimal performance for that sport (this is a sport analysis).  For instance, a linebacker doesn’t need a gymnast’s flexibility, but he doesn need some.  For the sake of argument, let’s say a linebacker needs a 6 compared to a gymnast.  Continue to score each characteristic to determine the ideal athlete in this sport.

4.  Rate your athlete’s current abilities in each characteristic compared to the ideal for his sport and position.

5.  The greater the difference between the ideal athlete and your athlete’s score determines how the athlete should be spending most of his training time.  For instance, if the athlete score a 9 in linear speed but only needs a 7, then spending a large portion of training time is unnecessary as trying to improve linear speed will not improve performance and would also be very difficult to do.  On the other hand, if the athlete scores a 4 on maximal strength and needs an 8, this would indicate that he should be spending adequate time in the weight room to bring up his strength.

Bill