Philosophy of Training

Ben Bruno wrote a great post a while back about the importance of writing out your training philosophy as a personal trainer. I put it off for a few months, but I finally decided to give it a go and found it to be a very useful exercise.

Just as everybody is different, so too is every body. While the training programs and workouts I write are unique to each individual, I believe there are common principles that apply to everyone, regardless of age, ability, and ambition. This philosophy has evolved (and will likely continue to evolve) over time, and is the result of my own mistakes and experiences, as well as the collective knowledge and wisdom of other people a whole heck of a lot smarter than me. I’m not perfect and definitely don’t pretend to have it figured out, but hopefully this gives you a lens into who I am and what it is like to train with me.

1. Simple

While strength training isn’t always easy, it also doesn’t need to be too complex. A good program begins with mastering the basics and dialing in the technique on a handful of fundamental movements. This unlocks the door for more advanced exercises and variety down the road if needed or desired, but really most people will do well with 2-3 workouts a week that include some form of push, pull, hinge, squat, and core work, along with some mobility and conditioning. Of course there is nuance here and all of this needs to be tailored to the individual (see the next point), but you can go very far with simple. Some questions I like to ask are “what would this look like if this was easy?” and “what is the minimum work required to achieve the desired result?”

2. Specific

The fundamentals will work best for 99% of people, but training still needs to be specific to the individual and fit into the context of their other training, work, and daily life. This means meeting the individual where they are and fitting the exercise to them (based on their body, training and injury history, preferences, etc.), not the other way around. There are no mandatory or “must-do” exercises. The best exercises and training program for a 22-year-old cyclist logging 15 hours a week on the bike and training for a multi-day stage race will be very different from a busy mom of three who has back pain and only an hour or two a week to exercise. The reality is that even the most impressive training program or workout on paper is still worthless unless it is both realistic for the individual to implement and specific to their unique needs and circumstances,

3. Progressive

Your body won’t adapt unless you give it a reason to, and doing the same thing week after week is a good way to ensure you’ll never change. An effective strength program should start as light and as easy as necessary and be safely progressed over time as the individual adapts to the training and their goals change. Progression can take many forms, including improved form, increased capacity for work, more reps performed or weight on the bar, and advancing to more complex exercise variations. This doesn’t mean you should expect to improve every day and never have days off or recovery weeks, but rather focus on maintaining an upward trajectory over a lifetime with strategic ebbs and flows.

4. Consistent

I think Ben Bruno says it best: “Results come from consistent hard work over time, and you can’t be consistent if you’re consistently getting hurt.” As a trainer the number one goal is to do no harm and keep your clients healthy and safe. For me, this means avoiding heroic efforts gym, prioritizing consistency over intensity, sowing restraint and stopping one rep short most days (even when you’re feeling good), and striving to be consistently good, rather than occasionally great.

5. Fun

Last, and perhaps most important, training (even hard training) needs to be fun. Sure, it isn’t always going to be easy and you might have some days that you really don’t want to be there. But at the end of the day, the training needs to be an enjoyable experience for both the client and the trainer. Otherwise, neither of them will be around for very long.