Whether you are a seasoned gym veteran or new to the gym, you need a plan to take to the gym. Now there are so many different type of programs out there, all geared toward different goals, abilities, schedules, needs, and skill levels. But the bottom line is, you need to be going to the gym with a plan, if you want to make any sustainable progress. A well-rounded training program takes into account many things, however the four most important are schedule, progressive overload, autoregulation, and recovery. These four components are key to not only making progress, but continuing the progress week in week out. A well written program will make it so you can’t plateau.
Schedule
I put this as the first one simply because, it does not matter how good your training program is if it does not fit into your schedule, like fitting a square into a hole, you can push and push all you want, but you will just end up frustrated. Before you pick a training program, determine how many training sessions you can CONSISTIENTLY make it to each week. Be honest with yourself, if you want to train 4 sessions per week, but only have the time to hit 2 consistently, but maybe 3. Then I would recommend you work on aiming for two sessions each week, then building up to a third one. This is where starting small is best, it allows you to build the momentum and the habit that it takes to do 3-4 sessions per week, do not by shy by just starting with two. In addition to how many sessions per week, you are going to want to assess exactly where these sessions fit within your day. You know yourself the best, if you are a morning person who can wake up a bit earlier to get their training session in then by all means you should. On the other hand if you struggle in the mornings to get your day started, an early morning session may not be the best for you. Program adherence is key to success, so selecting a time of day that you can not only make it to, but can put forth a solid effort is important to. I hear the excuse of not having enough time way to much, if you think you don’t have time, I want you to pull out your phone and check your screen time. Then dive into how much of that time was spent on social media. There, I magically found a couple more hours within your week (or day) to train. In conjunction with not only selecting how many training sessions per week, but the timing of them, lets dive into our effort level within those training sessions. Now most people think that they need to train at 100% maximum effort every session. Which is not only completely untrue, it is impossible, if you think you are going to train multiple days a week at 100% effort, you aren’t actually training that hard. You are likely training at 70-80% effort throughout the week which is leaving you burnt out, and never feeling like you have worked hard enough, frustration.
`The image above shows how we want to allot our efforts, as you can see there are two “development” days, these are your hardest training sessions that take the most time to recover from. These sessions are you max effort lower body days, strongman training days, heavy compounds movements. The sorts of training sessions that leave your nervous system fatigued. We want to strategically place our high output training sessions throughout the week and build our stimulation and regeneration training sessions around them. If you are someone who is familiar with the 80/20 rule, this is pretty much it. We will get 80% of our results from those high output days, which account for about 20% of our schedule. While our other training sessions are meant to stimulate, not annihilate. Lastly, we need to have some sort of reaeration or active recovery day. This can be a training session that helps us improve weak areas, work on mobility, and get a light sweat on. The purpose of an active recovery session is to not only help us recover from the previous sessions, but to set us up for a strong performance on our next development day. The better prepared and recovered we can be going into our development sessions, the better off we are. As I previously mentioned, those development days are where we will see the bulk of our results.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is essentially means we gradually increase the demands on our muscles and strength. This is critical to a solid training program because we NEED progressive overload in order to make progress. No matter what our goals are, continuing to to challenge ourselves in an incremental manner will allow us to make steady and consistent gains. A great training program takes progression into account, there are so many ways we can progress just one exercise. We can add reps, add weight, add sets, decrease rest time, increase range of motion, add a pause in a disadvantageous position, slowly lower the weight, utilize accommodating resistance (bands and chains), drop sets, and the list goes on. The best programs keep their progression models consistent and feasible, there is no need to reinvent the wheel here. We just need to understand how we are going to progress a given movement, using one of the methods listed above. While overload is important, it is also important to track that overload, for two reasons.
- What gets measured gets managed, when you track your weights you have no choice but to review them when you revisit an exercise. Tracking will help you ensure that you aren’t just spinning your wheels, improvements to each workout need to be monitored.
- Performance based goals are key, when we can work on improving our body composition, losing weight, and getting leaner. We can look to improve metrics in the gym, our strength, endurance, and mobility all play a big role in getting to our desired goal. Think of tracking performance as a building block to losing weight, getting stronger, and improving confidence.
The ability to continue to progress is critical to ensure that we are always making progress, when you hit a plateau with your weight loss, strength, body composition, or performance there are a number of things to assess. But the first thing that I look at is what is our progression model, simply because the way we progress facilitates us achieving performance goals. As I previously mentioned, performance goals are key building blocks to our actual goal, unless of course our desired goal is a performance goal.
For those who train at home or are constantly on the road and may only have access to hotel gyms with minimal equipment, often times struggle to progressively overload. I get it, it is hard to lift more weight when there isn’t necessarily always more weight to lift. However, there are a number of ways we can thoughtfully apply progressive overload. Let’s think a bit more outside the box, as opposed to adding reps or sets, after adding more weight becomes a limiting factor. We can look to increase our time under tension, which is key for not only building muscle, but dropping body fat. Check out this video to see how you can make light weight feel heavier.
Nutrition
Nutrition will make or break your training program, you cannot out train a bad diet, period. Now this does not mean that your training program should come with a full meal plan, those don’t work at the best of times. But what it should have is guidelines around nutrition, why? Because, without some nutrition guidelines we are left with what we know and for most people, we could all use a bit more knowledge when it comes to nutrition. This is how we can get the most out of our hard work in the gym. Navigating the confusing world of nutrition is contradictory at most and unclear at best, from interment fasting, to the keto diet, to the carnivore diet, all of these schools of thought and contradictory protocols often time cause more confusion than they do help. A good training program should outline not only what good nutrition looks like, but it should take into consideration lifestyle adjustments that facilitate with better nutrition.
For example, every client that signs up with me receives a comprehensive welcome package that outlines the following:
As you can see, the majority of the information has to do with nutrition, it is imperative for my clients to understand the components as to how they can influence their metabolism, dial in their calorie management, as well as their calorie and energy balance. Simply knowing about these things is not enough, you need to understand them, understand how they relate to you, your body and your lifestyle. This is where most training programs end up short changing the participants of the program. You can work as hard as you want in the gym, however if you are not doing what is required outside of the gym, you won’t see the results you want or the results you have been working so hard for.
Recovery
Saving the most important component to a good training program for last, recovery. You are only as good as your ability to recover. Why? because this is where the progress is made, you don’t gain muscle from just lifting weights, you gain muscle when you RECOVER from lifting weights. Not focusing on good quality recovery is like making a cake, then throwing it in the microwave for 90s on high and hoping it turns out how your grandma makes it… Not going to happen. Whether you are looking to shed body fat, gain muscle, or feel better, our recovery is imperative to all of the above.
What is recovery?
Recovery is our body’s ability to repair, rebuild, and adapt after its given stimulus. Recovery is more than getting your 7-9 hours of sleep, which is hard to do. Recovery has to do with our nutrition and hydration, are we consistently putting good quality fuel into our body? It also has to do with how well we manage stress, stress is one of the biggest killers when it comes to improving our body composition. When we are constantly stressed, in a state of fight or flight, our bodies will retain fat, as a protective measure. Simply because when we are in that negative fight or flight state, our bodies do not know any better and think “I better hold onto this fat, I don’t know where I will get my next source of energy from”. Aside from sleeping quality hours, eating and hydrating properly, we can also look to manage overall stress levels on our own. This is how we can balance out our hormones and facilitate a better mental well-being. Whether its walking, meditation, journaling, or stretching, there a numerous ways that we can help facilitate better balance within our nervous system.
Recovery for Fat Loss
When it comes to losing body fat and dropping weight, how we recover is equally important to how effective we are at losing body fat. You can have your nutrition, sleep, and training dialed in. BUT if you are facing a stressful time at work or perhaps a relationship issue, your body and nervous system are going to be working against your efforts. This can be really frustrating because on paper, you are doing everything right, however, your external environment is severely holding you back. When we experience even shorter periods of stress, our cortisol rises, this can cause our metabolism significantly slows down, meaning that we burn fewer calories than normal at a resting rate. So even if you are eating in what once was a caloric deficit, now that the stress has effected your metabolism, you may think you are eating less, when in all reality you are now eating in a caloric surplus. This is why managing stress is so important.
Conclusion: Putting It All Together
Developing a sustainable training routine requires balancing four crucial elements: a realistic schedule, a smart progressive overload strategy, a well-rounded nutrition plan, and consistent recovery methods. These elements don’t just stand alone—they work together to keep you on track, help you continuously improve, and protect you from plateaus or burnout. If you lock in your schedule but neglect progressive overload, your performance might stall. If you train hard but ignore nutrition, your body won’t have the fuel it needs to recover or see the physical changes you’re working toward. And even if you eat well and train smart, overlooking recovery can derail your progress by causing fatigue, injuries, or mental burnout.
The beauty of these four tenets is that you can adapt them to any goal—building muscle, dropping body fat, or simply maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A thoughtfully designed training program keeps you focused on gradual progress, consistent workouts, and a supportive lifestyle outside the gym. Remember, real results are built not just during your sweat sessions, but also during your restful nights, nutrient-packed meals, and proactive stress management.
Ready to Elevate Your Training and See Real, Sustainable Results?
If you’re feeling motivated but want guidance on building a program tailored to your unique goals, schedule, and preferences, I’m here to help. By working together, we’ll create a personalized plan that embraces each of these four tenets—ensuring you never lose momentum and always stay excited about your progress. From adjusting your schedule to maximizing recovery strategies, I’ll walk you through every step of the process. Get in touch with me today, and let’s start crafting the training journey you deserve!
