Having Trouble Writing a Strength Program? Start with These 4 Things!
Having trouble writing your own strength program? Maybe you’re stuck on a client’s program? Exercise programming requires good planning and organizational skills. Here are 4 things I focus on first when writing a strength program for myself or my clients!
Is there a competition coming up? Want to test maxes on a certain day? Pull up a calendar and work backward from that date to figure out how many weeks you have to work with! Having 12 weeks is much different than only having 4 weeks.
How many days per week do you want to train and how much time do you want to spend in the gym? That should be your framework! I wouldn’t program 5 days a week and 2 hour workouts for someone who can only train 3 days per week for 30 minutes, just like I wouldn’t give someone 3 days per week who really wants to lift 5 days per week (provided that would be suitable for them). Timeframe is often overlooked, but it’s definitely a crucial consideration when creating a strength program.
When you begin writing the program, prioritize high skill, explosive, or compound movements first. In general, movements that require a higher energy demand should be done at the start of your workout, followed by accessories or lower skill movements. Your program should also address squat, hinge, push, pull, and carrying movements. To gain strength, muscle tissue, or get better at something, we need to do the same kinds of movements day after day, week after week, year after year, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun!
Program 4-6ish exercises per day, in 4-8ish week training blocks with some type of progressive loading. The further out from a competition or testing day, the more exercise variety you can include. As you get closer to meet day, training should become more specific to the movements that will be tested. For example, if you’re competing in a powerlifting meet in 12 weeks, it might be a good idea to program three 4 week training blocks. The first training block may address some type of weakness with a variation, such as difficulty locking out a deadlift with heavy block pulls. As you progress into the next training block, you’ll move closer toward competition style deadlifts.
There’s not necessarily one correct way to program for strength, which makes it so much fun! Programming can also be quite overwhelming at first. I don’t know it all, but I do have a lot of experience. If you have any questions or any other tips you’d like to share with the lunar team, please feel free to send me an email!
In strength,
Jory
