The process of designing a fitness program for a client may seem like building with Legos.
Each brick you decide to eventually add to the project needs to take into account the client’s occupation, unique lifestyle issues, current fitness level, and even individual preferences and inclinations when working out, among other factors.
That’s why the construction project is “finished” for each client (eg, Customized Training Plan) unique.
But no matter how different one client is, you will notice that there is one building block that you should use – no exceptions.
Do you know what this is?
It is a gradual overload. In other words, the file The principle of strength and conditioning It states that we need to increase the demands on neuromuscular systems over time to establish and sustain physiological adaptations from resistance training.
Contrary to popular belief, progressive overload is not just about adding weights.
This article outlines five ways you can keep your clients moving — without resorting to heavy dumbbells, weights, or a barbell.
Ask your client to perform more reps
Let’s say your customer is moving away from £235. Adding 22 pounds to the iron is just a 9% weight gain — and in most cases, your client will be able to handle the load.
However, when it comes to isolation exercises (for example, biceps, triceps exercises, lateral raises), performing the same degree of increase is not possible. Getting your client to move 10 to 15 pounds of dumbbells on these involves a massive 50% load jump.
There is no way your client can perform the exercise with proper form and style. If after all.
So, how do you get your client to overload the gradual in this case?
Ask them to get another rep (or two) with the same load. For example, let’s say your client raises dumbbell lateral raises by 10 pounds for 10 repetitions. Instead of turning over heavier weights the following week, have them perform 12 repetitions with 10-pound weights.
You’ll know it’s (finally) time to increase the load when a client can perform anywhere between 15-20 reps – with no less than perfect form – on all of their working sets.
Shorter Rest Periods Program
Make your client work harder during their sessions by reducing their scheduled breaks.
This forces the client’s muscles to work “overtime”, which greatly increases metabolic stress—One of the three main factors that contribute to muscle hypertrophy (The other two are mechanical tension and muscle damage.)
There is an important disclaimer here, though.
Don’t be zealous to reduce a client’s downtime. Doing so can compromise their overall training volume – as they will experience a high level of accumulated fatigue during their workgroups – and make them dread attending their sessions!
But this begs the question: How much can you cut into your customer’s downtime?
who – which Depends on the type of exercise they do. Here are general guidelines to help you decide:
- Single joint exercises: 2 minutes
- Compound exercises: at least 3 minutes
In general, you can be more “generous” with client breaks in compound movements. While it’s unlikely that excessive fatigue and a breakdown in form from serious injuries can cause lateral raises, the same can’t be said for deadlifts or squats.
Change the pace of the client’s workout
Have your customer rise to a steady pace.
This is especially useful for clients who like to “cheat” and bounce from the lower positions of their lifts (eg, squats and bench press) because rhythm training is about moving slowly and under control – which increases time under tension (TUT).
TUT refers to the amount of time a working muscle spends under tension during the set of exercise.
In other words, increase the customer’s TUT It raises the demands you place on their muscles. This is basically the essence of progressive overload. Again, though, don’t take this progressive overload method to an extreme.
Usually there is no need for your customer to perform any stage of any movement for more than 10 seconds.
In addition to Being an unpleasant experience in generalIf your client lowers themselves for 12 seconds in a pull-up only hurts their training volume and reduces the effectiveness of their workouts (even if they were able to do it in the first place).
Improve your customer’s range of traffic
Pay attention to how your client performs each exercise. Do they struggle to reach their full range of motion (ROM)?
If so, optimizing your client’s ROM is one of the easiest ways to help your client gradually overload it without gaining weight.
To illustrate, let’s say your client cannot go deep enough (ie more than 90 degrees of bend in the knees) on leg press due to excessively narrow hip and limited ankle motion.
They just move the load, say 40 cm on the leg press.
Now, imagine that you then have your client stretching his thigh muscles (with something like a lunge stretch) and working his ankle motion (with something like a knee-to-wall drill or a weighted ankle stretch).
What is happening? Thanks to improved mobility, they can – at least – hit a 90-degree bend of the knees in the lower position.
So, instead of moving the load only 40 cm, they now increased the “effective working distance” to 50 cm on the machine. And that’s basically a gradual overburden: getting the client’s muscles to work harder over time.
Also, sometimes all your customer needs is a cue to use a full range of motion in their movements.
For example, with an exercise like the biceps exercise, you might say something like, “Be sure to lower the dumbbells to the starting position before starting with another reps.”
Maintain training volume even when client loses weight
If your customer is committed to a program Weight loss workout plan You created it, they probably lost weight. our end!
Here’s something worth remembering about this process: When your customer loses weight, they inevitably Lose a percentage of muscle mass with fat—Even if they are still training hard and Maintain high protein intake.
Did you know that having your client perform the exercises with the same exercises, along with sets and reps ranges, can now be seen as progressively overloading?
Let’s say your client had a lean mass of 88 lbs when he started training with you. They were able to squat 220 lbs. Three months into the workout plan, their lean mass is now 77 lbs instead. And imagine what?
They are still able to squat 220 pounds for the same number of sets and reps as before.
But wait. How is this progressive overload? Everything has to do with relativity. A simple way to think of it is to “increase the load to lean mass ratio”. Let’s calculate the ratios together:
- Before the client loses weight: 220/88 = 2.5
- After the client loses weight: 220/77 = 2.86
Here you are: Since there is less lean muscle mass to “bear the load”, your client’s muscles have to work harder now!
away
As you can see, there are many ways to achieve gradual overload without adding weight.
This is why it is so important to Build a holistic view of your client trainingDoing so allows you to decide on the most appropriate method that will get your customer the results they are looking for.
Just remember this: gradual overloading (with or without additional weights) should only be done based on proper lifting form and good technique.
There is no point in placing extra demands on your client’s muscles just for the sake of it. You will deceive yourself, shorten your client, and worse, put them at increased risk of injury.
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