Personal Training Profile

Joe Birch · 07-23-2008, 10:59 AM

I'm going to create some training profiles for my self and my house mate during my masters in 2009 in order to provide to potential employee's. I have knocked up a first draft 3 month program for training with beginners (we will have been both been traveling for 6 months before our masters program and so both pretty badly out of shape!). The program aims to provide proof of my ability to carry out a range of training approaches, using mainly exercises that would be traditionally seen in an English gym, hence I have not used any Oly lifts which are not often used by beginners and I am not yet qualified to teach them. There will also be a period of "hypertrophy" training using body building rep ranges to show my ability to train in this style as this is likely to be unfortunately expected from me by most employee's.

The weights will consist mainly of exercises featured in SS and also some others to show my variance in my training. The "cardio" will be done using a range of different activities in a CF style, using equipment that should be found in your average gym (hence no rope/bar work or use of tires etc).

I've decided not to go over board on the nutrition side of things as I don't want to start using IF or 100% paleo or anything as it's unlikely I would ever be able to get a real client to carry out those protocols properly (except in a CF gym!).

Considering these profiles are geared toward potential work in personal training, image is an issue, however the various fitness tests will be much better motivators for training and more tangible evidence of improvement. I've never carried out such a training program with multiple goals and thus any advice would be much appreciated, especially in terms of metcon planning for both short and long workouts (however i'm sure i'll be able to pick up loads of variations and WOD's from the website and forums).

Training plan is as follows:

Baseline Testing
Baseline photo, weigh in, BF%, testing including 1RM strength testing, 5km time trial, 30m sprint time, vertical jump - possibly wingate and VO2 max test if available.

Weeks 1,2,3 – Hypertrophy
Work sets across, short rest periods, heavy barbell exercises (squats every session), 3 sets in 8-12 range except 1 set of heavy DL's every other workout – looking for linear progression.
Train M, W, F with dietary emphasis on regular meals including red meats, good fats and low GI carbs where possible, with the main dietary goal being high caloric intake to achieve hypertrophy.
Weigh in once a week at the same time each week plus photo after 3 weeks

Weeks 4,5 – Strength, intro short metcons
Strength work using same exercises as previously but in 3 sets of 6-8 range (sets across) and increased rest periods.
Metabolic conditioning kept under 10 minutes including a running or rowing section every time. Work on a 3/1/2/1 schedule of weights, metcon, weights, rest, weights, metcon, rest (Mon-Sun) - should be maintainable for a beginner as the metcon intensity will be kept low for these two weeks - fairly easily attained rep goals with appropriate loads will be used to ensure the subject progresses without overtraining when going into this harder schedule.
Weigh in once a week and photo after 5 weeks

Weeks 6,7,8 – Strength cont, short high intensity metcon
Strength work at 3 sets of 5 range (sets across) and further increased rest periods to ensure sets across are achieved.
Metcon's will stay short (under 12min) but intensity will begin to become much more taxing.
Possibly adapt diet slightly to account for metcon introduction (ie, more carbs).
Weigh in once a week and photo after week 8.

Week 9 – Testing
Weigh in, BF%, 1RM strength testing, 30m sprint time, vertical jump - carried out in same schedule as initial testing. Hopefully will be improved across all of these domains.
After testing is completed the rest of the week will be taken off for some well earned recovery time – or possibly just some half volume sessions depending on how client feels.

Weeks 10,11,12,13 – Strength and metcon
Strength work at 5 sets of 2 reps (working weight progressively increasing upto 2RM), schedule will be squats/DL + short metcon, push/pull, long WOD, rest, squats + push/pull, optional WOD (depending how client feels), rest (Mon-Sun). 5k runs will be done once a week during this period on tues or sat.

Week 14 – Final testing
Testing as completed at baseline

* The quality of testing depends on what the university will allow me to use, at best I will be able to carry out hydrostatic weighing for BF%, and carry out wingate and VO2max tests in the lab, hopefully a force plate for vertical jump testing as well as time gates for sprint testing.

Any advice will be taken on board and much appreciated!
Thanks for your time, Joe.

Steven Low · 07-25-2008, 07:42 PM

Since this is for beginners...

~probably inadvisable to test 1 RM strength & 5km especially in establishing a baseline. Easy to injure someone with 1 RM lift and 5 KM will probably screw someone over real bad. Go for a shorter run like 400m or something and maybe 5 RM (use a calc to extrapolate 1 RM if you have to)

~short sprints and vert changes at the end will probably be due to better technique.. not necessarily (well, some) to an efficient program. I suppose this is half the point though to get good results in which case you want to spend some considerable time on technique work especially for the weightlifting as well...

~I think the hypertrophy weeks are fine as these beginners need to have some method of getting their connective tissue and muscles ready for pure strength work. Otherwise, if they weren't beginners I'd say just throw them into an SS-like program.

~To be honest if you're gonna try to ramp up the weights quickly (which will stimulate the muscle mass and body comp changes you want) there needs to be enough rest. I don't think beginners will be able to handle 3/1/2/1 with strength work + metcon after only ~3 intro weeks.

IMO 3 days a week full body routine + maybe short metcon or two per week.

~Similarly, keep them on a base linearized program like SS going from week 4-> End. I mean, the fact that you have it based on kinda a periodized cycle is nice... but beginners don't need that programming unless their lift numbers are stagnating and they're over 2-2.5x bodyweight squat and deadlift...

Basically, keep it simple and keep it like SS for beginners (if you're not allowed to use SS specifically). No need to periodize anything or get fancy here... simple is better for beginners.

p.s. just my opinion.

Joe Birch · 07-27-2008, 10:57 AM

Thanks for the reply! Yeah I think in terms of the 1RM testing and 5k run I may have been over ambitious. I've been toying with the idea of having a couple of familiarization weeks anyway so me and my partner are much more prepared for any testing we might do. Preferably I would just stick to an SS style linear progression weights program, just trying to decide whether I want to prioritise actual performance gains or showing my ability to potentially train in a range of styles and thus show I'm capable of training any client that could come into the gym... after all the whole point of this is too use as a selling point for myself on top of my CV. But I definitely see the wisdom behind your points of lots of technique practice as well as sticking to one linear program.

Steven Low · 07-27-2008, 11:53 AM

Well, the various "styles" work best with a decent base depending on where you want to go with it.

And with a linearized program geared towards strength with good diet and sleep they should be dropping fat and gaining muscle regardless.

Up to you though.

Joe Birch · 07-28-2008, 02:50 PM

Ok thanks for the advice.. does seem slightly pointless to go through a range of different volumes and intensities of weight lifting when one (likely to be SS which I have used regularly myself) would probably be most beneficial. Going to pester my personal tutors (legendary physiologists ron maughan and mike gleeson (in england at least anyway!) on my masters program anyway, see what they think!

Cheers, Joe.