Top-end strength coaches get big bucks to figure out what workout plan is best for what athlete. What exercises to do, at what intensity, at what time of year as it relates to a training program, and a competition schedule is a science. The coaches who do it best are in high demand. And for good reason. It’s not easy to blend the knowledge of a physician with the passion of a motivational speaker and the instructional skills of a school teacher.
But for most of us, it’s not necessary to hire one of the
world’s most knowledgeable strength coaches to make major improvements to you
game, your fitness level, and your overall health. For the vast majority of us,
we can make major strides with two words at the core of our workouts:
consistency and variety. Keeping those two words in mind will make just about
every athlete more fit, more efficient on the court, and an all-around better
athlete.
Consistency should be goal number one. I had a coach in who
used to preach consistency with this line. “Do you know what lifting weights
twice a month will do for you? It will get you really tired and really sore,
twice a month.”
The general idea is that if something is important to you,
it shouldn’t be something you do once in a while. The more specific idea is
that it’s difficult to build a foundation of strength (or endurance, or
flexibility) without making that type of training a part of your regular
routine.
What you do when you get to the gym is not as important as
walking in the door. Some days, you’ll feel like setting a personal record in
the clean and jerk. Other days, you’ll feel a little less motivated and you’ll
settle for a little circuit training, a game of 3-on-3 hoops, or a long walk on
the treadmill. Just walking in the door and go.
I didn’t always think this way. For a long time, I made my
money as a personal trainer. I thought my input was why my clients were getting
in shape.
What changed my mind was a series of conversations with the
most fit men and women in the gym. I was trying to see what kind of input they
got from “experts” like me to get where they were. I found out that most of
these people had never spoken with a strength coach or personal trainer about
their workouts, and probably would have avoided me if I didn’t initiate the
conversation.
Some of these people were on a workout plan that they put
together by themselves or with their training buddies. Some of them showed up
at the gym and decided on the fly what they were going to do. Sometimes they
did the same thing over and over and never made an adjustment. Some of them did
something different every time they went to the gym; everything from group
exercise classes to heavy deadlifts to distance runs on the treadmill. Some
trained seven days a week, some five days a week, and some three. But they always showed up. The workouts
weren’t just something they did. It was a part of who they were.
That’s consistency. It’s what you do regularly. It really
matters.
But what about variety? I just said that some of the most
fit people at the gym implemented variety and some did not. There’s one key
difference between those people and you. They were not all competitive
athletes.
Variety in a workout plan matters for a tennis player for a
million different reasons. But, in my opinion, the most important reason to
vary your workouts is to avoid burnout.
In a previous life, I was an assistant strength coach at a
small college. The head strength coach was a great workout programmer. He had
periodization, percentages, and lifting form down to the science that it is. We
had one major problem. Our athletes weren’t into it.
I came from the other side of the weightlifting world. I
grew up on do-it-yourself workouts with fun elements and impromptu adaptations,
and I learned more about the science later.
My workouts were fun. His were scientifically excellent.
One year, the athletes were programmed his workouts. Very
few of our athletes improved that year. Why? They weren’t enjoying their workouts
and, subsequently, they lacked effort.
The following year, he let me program all of the athletes,
presumably so I could flop and he could say “I told you so.” Whatever. If I
fail miserably, so be it.
But a funny thing happened
on the way to the weight room. Every one of our athletes got better that year.
Every single one of them. Why? They loved their workouts and their effort level
was never an issue.
My program design sucked, I didn’t even consider
periodization, and I certainly didn’t check with any scientists on my linear
progressions. We just did hard stuff that was fun, competitive, and
challenging. And we crushed it.
We lifted heavy, we did circuits, we sprinted, we jogged, we
did yoga (or my bastardized interpretation of yoga), and we even turned some of
our workouts over to the players with no coaches influence whatsoever.
Productivity improved right along with the players’
attitudes and effort levels.
It’s just like every tennis coach has every told you. There’s
no substitute for hard work. But hard work and smiling are not mutually
exclusive.
So, science be damned, right? No. Exercise science is a
fascinating field with some of the world’s greatest coaches. But I’ll take the
athlete who’s consistent and committed to loving exercise with no particular
plan over the kid with the world’s best coaches and a half-hearted effort any
day.
