Questions to Ask Yourself When Writing a Training Program

Whether you’re a newly minted performance coach or personal trainer, or a long time veteran in the weight room, writing a program for your athletes and clients is an important part of your job (and often the one that, as newbies, we obsess over the most, even though your ability to connect and coach is what will set you apart). 

Any good program should start with an evaluation and assessment of the individual and their needs (or, if you coach groups or have 80 athletes on your team in your weight room at once, at least a rudimentary assessment of them and their sport’s demands). 

The assessment should cover a basic health history (past or current injuries, surgeries, medications, illnesses), a discussion of their goals and sport/position demands, as well as a movement screen of some sort (there are many, and you’ll find the one that works best for your population). 

I like using the assessment I learned at CSP, which is part hands on (looking at joint ranges of motion, passive versus active ranges) and part FMS/SFMA style (squat and lunge patterns). I find it to be most instructive in giving my an idea of how people move, and, give or take a few pieces depending on the individual, is very useful. 

(This is more difficult for college strength coaches who can have hundreds of athletes coming in at the same time. They may find other screens more effective given the time constraints and resources available. The point is, you have to assess to get an idea of where to start).

After assessing, you start to build out the program by asking these questions:

• How many days a week will you have to train them?
• How long will each training session be? 
• For athletes: Where are they in their training year? (In season, pre season, post season, off season). How much time do you have to prepare them? 
• For general population: What sort of training background do they have? 
• What equipment will they have access to? 
• What are their top limiting factors? What order should you approach these? (This one is multifactorial, including nutrition, sleep, and other work/life stressors AS WELL AS physical limiting factors like weak core/glutes, injuries, poor ranges of motion from the screen). 
• What are their goals/sport demands? What do they NEED to be good at? 
• What is the SIMPLEST way to achieve that?
• How do you keep them ENGAGED? 

And my favorite, and often most important question: What is the PURPOSE of whatever exercise you put into a program?

That last one makes all the difference between the trainer on the gym floor randomly stringing exercises together because they saw it online and figure it would be fun, and the coach who is actively trying to get their athlete or client RESULTS. It’s the difference between just working out (just getting a sweat on) and TRAINING (having a goal in mind and working towards it).  

If you can’t offer a good reason as to why an exercise is in a workout, why did you select it? It’s certainly okay to say “for fun” for one or two (especially with general population folks who can get bored with a workout routine), but they shouldn’t be the rule, rather the exception. 

Ask your trainer/coach. If they’ve put any level of thought into it, they’ll likely be happy to answer it. Or, if you’re the one writing it, ask yourself (or have a friend ask and give you feedback). Personally, I love having clients ask me why they’re doing a particular exercise, because it keeps me on my toes and keeps me focused on providing the BEST program I can. 

Perhaps you have other questions you focus on when writing a program. I’d love to hear them! Drop a comment below!

Changing your relationship with food

“I don’t understand why they can’t just follow the food plan. Just DO it. How hard is that?”

That’s a surprisingly common phrase I hear out of coaches’ and trainers’ mouths in regards to nutrition. Heck, it came out of MY mouth more than once when I was a new trainer. I couldn’t understand how hard it was for clients to STOP eating takeout every night, or to give up the daily sodas.

What I failed to understand (ironic, because I went through my own struggles with eating), is that our relationship to food is one fraught with emotional baggage. It’s actually easier to start a new workout routine than it is to unravel our deeply emotional ties to what we eat. Try telling a new client to stick to a workout routine; you’ll be met with enthusiasm. Now try telling them they can’t eat their favorite junk food anymore. (I love when some folks say “food is just fuel” without acknowledging food is also comfort and pleasure).

We have so many social ties to our food–including memories of our parents or grandparents making us certain meals, and ethnic and national heritages linked to certain meals–that it’s a tricky road to navigate as a coach as your clients (or you yourself) try to make changes.

What complicates matters even more is the sheer amount of information out there (vegan? vegetarian? keto? no carb? all carb? how much protein is ideal? iifym?), and the tendency of people to feel that if they eat a certain food they’re “good” or “bad,” or if they fail to follow a certain diet plan they’re “failures” or “weak.”

Suffice it to say, unraveling the negative thoughts surrounding our food is one of the most difficult tasks we take on when we begin making nutritional changes. MOST people think they need to be super strict in order to succeed, but at the beginning especially, allowing yourself to make mistakes and learn without feeling guilt is important. Why? Because those who “fail” and feel guilt slide much further off the track than those who understand it happens and it’s okay (the difference between “I ate a cookie that wasn’t on my plan so I might as well eat ALL of them since I ruined my diet” and “I ate a cookie that wasn’t on my plan. That’s okay, I’ll just get back on it and eat my protein and vegetables next meal”).

But the most important reason is that I’ve seen people fall down an obsessive and unhealthy rabbit hole where carbs/fats become the enemy and they’re afraid to eat certain things because they’ll “undo all their work” in one meal. I’ve seen a surprising amount of people become borderline orthorexic in their quest to “eat clean”…far more than I thought I would when I was learning about it in grad school (because let’s be real, most people need to eat better in this country than need to eat a little unhealthier). Even when it doesn’t go quite that far, I still see unhealthy “healthy” behaviors pick up. But that’s a post for another day.

So what do we do about changing our relationships with food?

First, shed the guilt. Seriously. Guilt over food serves you no GOOD purpose. Stop thinking you’re “good” or “bad” based on what you ate for the day.

Second, make a SIMPLE plan. And I’m not talking about strict meal plans telling people what they can and can’t eat. If you’re a coach, understand that some people need more structure than others when they’re beginning (target numbers, specifically). I prefer to work on behavioral changes but even I understand that I need to adapt my own coaching to match my client; if that means focusing on more concrete things to start, I do, while adding a new behavior in each week. While I DO NOT offer food plans, I do talk about how much protein they should be targeting each day (and from what sources), how many vegetables or fruit they should be aiming to get (or suggesting trying a new one each week), tracking calories and measuring food (at least to start, so that they get an idea of portion sizes, although the goal is get them to eat intuitively eventually), and how to make meals that match their goals and plan.

Normally, it looks like this:
-Every meal should have a lean protein (I include sources of lean proteins to choose from/get an idea about what counts as a lean protein).
-Every meal should have a vegetable (I include different types to aim for).
-Put your food into an app (myfitnesspal, Fitbit, etc) that tracks your calories and your macros–primarily so you can get an idea of how much you’re eating, what you’re eating, and so you can see patterns as they develop over time.

Third, make it easy. This is twofold, both in how you approach coaching and in how you approach your own plan. First, I never overwhelm my clients with too many changes to make at once. Making ONE is difficult enough. We clear one or two new habits and then move on to the next one. (For instance, we discuss eating mindfully and listening to our hunger/fullness cues, OR about drinking more water each day). Second, seriously, make it easy to eat well. Prepare meals in advance. Keep “trigger foods” out of the house (meaning if you can’t eat just one without eating all of the jar/bag/box, don’t bring it near you–avoid the temptation). Cut up fruits and vegetables and make them easily accessible for snacks. The EASIER it is to eat something, the more likely you are to eat it.

Fourth, reinforce that consistency is better than perfection, and that if you/your client slips up and binges on an entire pizza, IT’S OKAY. If you fall off the wagon, jump right back on during your next meal.

Fifth, use some Jedi mind tricks. Psychology is a huge part of making lasting changes. My favorite trick of all is to add things into a diet rather than remove them. If someone tells you you’re not allowed to do something, that one thing is suddenly all you can think about doing (if you have kids, you know that’s especially true because they’ll literally do everything you tell them not to). The same goes for food. Telling yourself you CAN’T eat something makes you want it that much more, and when you finally cave and eat it, you tend to go crazy and eat ALL OF IT (because you already screwed up, right? So why not go all the way?). Rather than do that, focus on adding things in first. Want a slice of pizza? Sure, you can have it. But first, have you had your vegetable for the meal? How about your protein? Eat those two things first, and if you’re still hungry, eat a slice! Chances are, you’ll be less hungry by the time you get to the pizza, and you may not even want it anymore.

And you want to know what the biggest thing is for my clients?

Accountability. Depending on their preferences, I make them report back to me everywhere from 5 days a week to once a week. Because you know what? Accountability means consistency–and consistency is key.