How to Customize a Training Program

By Dr. Davide Marciano

"The winning weapon of the personal trainer is the personalization of the training through rigorous application of science" .

Obvious sentence, right? Too bad that it is often obvious things that escape us.

The personal trainer absolutely cannot afford to give a client the same card drawn up for another, it would be a considerable loss of image, without then talking about the secure loss of the customer.

Without going too far into the theory, let's try to go straight to the point, explaining how a personal trainer draws up a tailored training program for a person whose purpose is, for example, to increase muscle mass.

Personalized training: point one

Without the usual bar theories / chatter, we take science and apply it.

The science of SET (by muscle group).

The science of repetitions.

So we talk, on average, of two exercises from three series per muscle group, with a load that allows us to perform approximately 8 - 12 repetitions. We are obviously aware of the fact that a program that respects itself is nothing but a link in a long chain represented by periodization; therefore, it is necessary to vary series and repetitions during the year. No 15 to 20 series, as we are used to seeing, and science, never contradicting itself, leads us to the second point.

Personalized training: point two

Training against resistance causes the increase in testosterone, the hormone responsible for increasing muscle mass. After about an hour of training, the production of this hormone drops, giving space to the secretion of cortisol, also called stress hormone. The latter is the archenemy of performance and increased lean mass, and is inversely proportional to the production of testosterone itself. Therefore, prolonging a workout for more than an hour is equivalent to saying testosterone drop and cortisol elevation; in other words: unproductive training.

Personalized training: point three

How much recovery between one series and another

The recovery time between a series and the other, necessary for the increase of the muscular mass, varies from 60 "to 90", because this interval of time does not allow a complete regeneration of the ATP (energy necessary for the contraction). In this situation, the body - through a process called supercompensation - is forced, in order to increase transport, to stimulate muscle growth.

Higher recovery times (3 '- 5') induce greater recharge of adenosine triphosphate and are particularly suitable for strength training.

Personalized training: point four

How many days a week? 2 - 3 - 4?

To answer this question I must introduce the BIA (bioimpedance) discourse. The latter is a tool that - through the measurement of body water - allows us to understand, with certainty, what volume of work our coach is able to support.

In no uncertain terms we can see whether to draw up a training program on 1 or 4 sessions a week; nothing generalized, everything overly precise.

Personalized training: point five

Choice of exercises

Since we have to choose 2 exercises per muscle group and since we must finish everything in an hour, we must be very scrupulous. I would certainly take away all the machines, which from a commercial point of view do so much, but from the biomechanical point of view they are often deleterious.

I would choose multiarticular exercises that allow to lift considerable loads without preparing the body in the medium - long term for postural alterations. But first of all, we must verify the articular freedoms and possible muscular tensions, to see if a given exercise is suitable or not for our client.

For example:

checking tibio-tarsal and lumbar rigidity is essential to evaluate the insertion of the King of the "Squat" exercises;

verify the ability to stretch the various muscles to evaluate the ROM of movement to be performed during the exercise;

assess the presence of spinal changes: such as hypercifosis, hyperlordosis, scoliosis and others.

Let us always remember that we must be personal trainers who decide what is best for our client and not him. That is, if the classic gentleman comes who wants a steel chest but has a noticeable hypercifense, with consequent anteriorisation of the shoulders, to work with chest exercises would be a massacre if we do not first give him back, at least partially, a certain harmony.