Have you heard of people designing their own programs based around isolation or machine exercises?
Have you heard of people designing their own programs based on ineffective exercises and wonder why they don't make progress or reach their fitness goals?
I believe the answer to the above questions is yes for a lot of people. I was guilty of these at certain points in my training experience.
I want to bring to your attention the value of good, well designed, mass produced fitness programs.
Are you crazy, Herman? Isn't every body different? And hence different program design tailored to individual needs?
Let's take an analogy here. Would you rather buy a ready made car or custom made your own design (and maybe manufacture it to your specification)?
For most of us, the obvious answer is a ready made car. Unless you have the expertise to custom make your own car, nobody in their right mind would venture out to invest precious time and money on a project not guaranteed to work.
Yet this is what we see in the fitness world. Newbies or weekend warriors "create" their own program (if it can be called a program at all) without guidance from a personal trainer or fitness professional and wonder why they are not losing enough fat or not getting their back pain free.
On the other hand, mass produced fitness programs designed by "master coaches" or somebody of extensive expertise and experience are more likely to work better, a lot better, than these frankenstein programs. Of course there are lousy mass produced fitness programs but that is another story.
See it this way, my friend, these coaches have spent time in the trenches to study human performance much longer and deeper than you do. They have studied the art and science of program design more than you do. Therefore they know how to design effective programs better than you do. Why wouldn't you want to try them out? Why do you think you can do a better job than them? Why reinvent the wheel and take the risk of it not working?
If you have not done a good mass produced fitness program and feel its effect on your own body, what makes you think you can gauge the effect of your own frankenstein program?
Put it another way, if you can't follow a recipe, what makes you think you can create a good recipe?
I have always been fascinated by good program design. I purchase a lot of mass produced fitness programs designed by Scott Sonnon and the guys at CST. And i learn a lot more about program design just studying their programs than trying to design my own programs from guides.
Well designed mass produced programs are well worth the investment into educating yourself in program design. You can study all the guides in the world but if you have never experienced a good program, you can't design a good program as you have nothing to compare with.
How can you be sure that mass produced programs work for everyone?
For the simple reason that everybody is different. Therefore even though everybody may be doing the same exercises, each person is getting a different effect from each exercise. So in this manner there is customization within the program.
Let's just take an arbitrary program composed of just two movements as an example 1) squat and 2) push up.
Two athletes are doing the same program. Athlete A is strong in the upper body, weak in the lower body. Athlete B is strong in the lower body, weak in the upper body.
A may have a hard time with the squats but breezing through the push ups.
B may have a hard time with the push ups but breezing through the squats.
Two totally opposite effects for two different people doing the same program. But the training effects are going to create a better balance between their upper body and lower body.
People are have different mobility, flexibility, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and many more factors that you cannot expect any two people to get the exact same effect.
Left to themselves A would prefer push ups and B would prefer squats, at the exclusion of the other exercise. We are just lazy bastards who hate what we don't do well in. But with a mass produced program, each is forced to fight through their weaknesses and become a more balanced athlete.
Are you struggling with ineffective programs? Three options for you:
1) Join our FlowfitⓇ class.
2) Take up personal training.
3) Purchase any of the products that i have on the right side bar and do them.
Keep me updated of your progress.
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