A System To Create An Optimal Fitness Program
According to Dr. Andy Galpin, there are primarily two reasons that people fail to reach their fitness goals.
1) Lack of adherence
2) Lack of progressive overload
These two issues can be solved by following his 10-step system for designing an optimal fitness program, which he discussed last year on the Huberman Lab Podcast.
Preparation
Grab your favorite notebook, piece of paper, or digital document. I use a tool called Obsidian to manage much of my life.
System Steps
1. Define a SMART Goal
SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals. Defining SMART goals is a core step in most systems I have discussed in this newsletter because we all have different needs, wants, and desires. Goal setting will help you identify what you want to achieve but defining SMART goals will help you achieve them more quickly and ensure they are in alignment with your overall values and priorities.
It’s difficult to achieve desired results without knowing what results are desired. Imagine getting in a car and driving around aimlessly. You may eventually get to a place that you like and is interesting but it will likely take a while to get there. A better approach is to take some time to figure out where you are, where you want to be, when you want to arrive, and an optimal route to get there.
Take some time to define a SMART goal for your fitness for the next quarter. I prefer goal setting in quarters because it’s long enough that you can see significant results but not so long that it’s too difficult to stay motivated.
Example: Lose 2% body fat while maintaining lean muscle mass over the next 12 weeks.
2. Identify Your Defender
What are or will be the things in your life that will stop you from achieving your goal? In this step, we need to come up with a plan to defend against those obstacles. Examine your lifestyle and work schedule. Do you struggle with consistency? Perhaps you don’t know what training to do to reach your goal. Write down the obstacles that are standing in your way. We each have non-negotiable aspects of our lives that are always going to take priority over our fitness regimen. These could be related to your job, your family, or anything else. Identify and write down what your nonnegotiables are.
The reason that picking up a random fat loss or strength training plan off the internet doesn’t typically work is because they don’t address your points of failure, which are highly individual. Instead, your program should be chosen and tailored to address the reasons you will likely fail or have failed in the past. This doesn’t mean that your fitness program isn’t going to take hard work but it is critical to defend against anything that has the potential to derail you. For example, let’s say that your afternoons are filled with meetings for work and your evenings are spent with your family. Some people would still be successful working out in the later evening but I would wager that most would not be. A good defender against a schedule like this is to always schedule workouts during the work week before lunch.
Take a pass through your list of obstacles and identify a strategy to defend against each one.
Examples:
Obstacle: Lifting is boring
Defender: Perform more interesting movements like Olympic lifts, compound exercises, circuits, etc. You don’t need to adhere to an isolation split to achieve the results you are looking for.
Obstacle: Hectic work schedule
Defender: Schedule workouts before work or work out less frequently during the week and more frequently on the weekends.
After you have identified your defender for each obstacle, it is critically important to print this list and put it in an area related to your obstacles where it is highly visible. If work tends to get in the way and you work at a computer, then taping it to your computer monitor would be perfect.
3. Goal Timeframe and Life Events
It’s really common to adopt an intense training program and then fail because we didn’t account for major deadlines, vacations, and events. Make sure that all of these events are accounted for in your training calendar. Ensure that your goal timeline is realistic and achievable.
4. Training Frequency and Duration
Based on your schedule and life events, identify a conservative number of training sessions and session duration that you can reasonably accommodate. It is important to err on the side of less initially and either add more as you realize you can accommodate more or add more during less hectic weeks. Adding an extra workout feels great while missing a workout will wear you down mentally and create a feeling of failure.
5. Exercise Selection
Choose exercises that you are comfortable doing and that you know how to do safely. If you’ve never done Olympic lifts, deadlifts, squats, bench presses, etc then now is not the time to experiment without first seeking in-person instruction from a knowledgeable trainer.
Balance movement patterns/muscle groups across the week so that you target the entire body each week. Be sure to target the muscle group/movement related to whatever goal you are working towards at least once per week.
6. Exercise Order
It’s best to do the most important things first in each workout and do the most important workouts first in the week. An exception to this would be if there is a day where you are more likely to get the workout in or a day where you will be better rested.
7. Intensity/Load
Create a strategy for progressive overload by increasing the weight, reps, speed, heart rate zone, or distance of each exercise or movement you are performing. Increasing around 3-5% in weight, reps, speed, or distance each week will generally work well. This is another area where seeking the help of a credible trainer would be valuable.
8. Volume
Volume needs to be tailored toward the goal and desired adaptation. This could mean more sets/reps, more workouts, or more distance per workout. If you aren’t aware of a good starting point then it is best to consult a credible trainer or start with something very manageable.
9. Rest Intervals
You should choose the rest intervals that are appropriate for the intention of each workout. The following guidelines tend to work well:
2-5 minutes for power, speed, and strength
1-3 minutes for hypertrophy
15-90s for endurance
10. Chaos Management
Take a look at your finished fitness program and try to identify any holes and potential points of failure. Adjust your defenders, schedule, and workouts as necessary. It’s ideal to come up with solutions before starting the program but you can also incorporate a feedback loop every few weeks to make slight scheduling adjustments.
Case Study
Over the years I have worked with fitness coaches in and out of CrossFit gyms, worked with personal trainers, and have also paid for personalized programming. They have all subscribed to a similar protocol for building an effective fitness program but without critical steps 2 and 3 which led to many years of me failing to achieve my desired results until I finally created a schedule that worked for me.
The past year I have enjoyed using an app called PUSH. I am not affiliated with them in any way but love how just by providing the equipment I have available, my fitness level, how frequently I am willing to work out, any muscle groups I want to focus on, and it will generate a 12-week comprehensive lifting program with progressive overload built in. It’s not perfect and tends to increase the weight too aggressively at times but it’s very easy to correct if you have some lifting experience.
My primary fitness goal for Q1 of 2024 is running focused. I’m planning to run a 1:29 Half Marathon following a very recent 1:34. I’m using a customized version of this training plan as I am an experienced runner with a high weekly base mileage already and my race is only 9 weeks out.
Luckily, I have already identified my defenders and they are primarily schedule and energy-related. For me, the best time to run is around lunchtime during the week and in the morning on the weekend. The best time to lift is as a morning break between working sessions, generally around 8 am.
Final Thoughts
This system resonated with me because I had to learn it the hard way, through years of trial and error. Hopefully, this article will save someone some time. The entire guest series with Dr. Andy Galpin is packed with information related to exercise science and physiology. It is excellent and I highly recommend listening to it.
You can watch it here:
P.S. I’m currently looking for 2 more businesses to participate in our Slipstream beta program. We will help you identify, document, and systemize your core processes in Slipstream and give you an extended free trial (6 months!). Drop me a message on LinkedIn if you are interested!