Over the last 6 years I’ve written hundreds of programs for clients from a wide variety of backgrounds from office workers training 3 days a week to drop a few kilos and improve their health through to military personnel and police training up to 3 sessions a day to achieve special forces selection.

In this article I want to outline the considerations and basic steps that I go through in putting together any program so that next time you need a program you can have a go at putting together a personalized program that takes into account your current fitness level, goals and available time and resources.

Programming Considerations

Goals

Before you begin to put together a training program it’s important to determine the desired outcome of the plan.  I won’t spend too much time on goal setting as it’s an area that most people are familiar with but one point I do want to stress is that in order for your plan to be successful your goals need to be fairly simple and they need to be achievable in the time frame you’ve set.  Many people I talk to are making the mistake of chasing too many goals at once and end up achieving nothing.  If you want to get good at several things that’s fine, just break your program up into smaller cycles and emphasise one or two goals at a time and put your other goals in a holding pattern.  If you are working hard on one aspect of fitness you won’t lose much ground on another aspect of fitness!

Time and Resources

This is a critical consideration.  If you want to join the SAS but you work 80 hours a week then chances are your available time is insufficient to achieve your goals.  Decide early on how many days a week you can REALISTICALLY devote to training.  You will save yourself a lot of frustration by planning and executing a solid 3 day week program compared to planning on 6 days a week and missing 3 workouts due to other commitments.

I would recommend a minimum of 3 days a week and a maximum of 6 days a week with a maximum of 15 training sessions for very serious athletes.

As with time, make sure you’ve got access to the right equipment before planning your training.  If you want to get strong you’ll need weights of some description, if you want to become the worlds greatest crossfitter then you are going to need a gym full of rings, rowers and all the other toys needed for the workouts.

Current fitness level, diet and supplementation, age and training age

I’ve lumped these together because they are all major factors in your ability to adapt and recover from training sessions.  Many people get frustrated because they set out to do a program only to burn out .  The problem is that unbeknownst to the athlete the program was originally written for a genetically gifted 25 year old professional athlete on a steady diet of food sleep and steroids!

At this stage of planning it’s important to conduct an honest assessment of how well you are going to recover from your training and take that into account when planning overall volume and intensity.

Putting the plan together

So once you’ve written down the main considerations above it’s time to put together a plan.   Here are the steps I go through when putting together a program.  Note that when planning initially I don’t try to put the program into a weekly schedule, I simply collect all the elements together and arrange them later, often shuffling things around a few times to get the best fit.

Match your goals with primary exercises/workouts

This stage is pretty simple.  If you’ve got a specific goal simply match up that goal with a short list of core exercises.  For example if your goal is to improve your powerlifting performance you would choose squat, bench press and deadlift and if your goal was to improve your aerobic fitness you might choose 3-4 variations of aerobic exercise like long distance runs, intervals, rowing and cycling.

Within your workouts these exercises should be “front loaded”, that is they should appear preferably as the first exercises in a session so that if the session gets cut short you’ve got your important stuff out of the way early.  I like to call these your “A” exercises and in a good program they will account for about 70% of your time and will give you about 80- 90% of your total results.  If you are on very limited time they may be the only exercises you do.

Choose supplementary exercises

Once you’ve got your big basics written down you can add a sprinkle of exercises that complement your core exercises.  This can be stuff like ab work, mobility work or strength exercises to balance out areas that need work to support the primary areas of interest in your program.  For a powerlifter this might be things like seated rows to balance out the shoulder or some conditioning work to keep bodyweight down.  For an endurance athlete this could mean strength work, soft tissue work or stretching.

These “B” exercises are still very important but because of their secondary role you can get away with dropping them occasionally (but you shouldn’t make a habit of it)

Sometimes I even go a step further and add some “C” exercises and workouts that are nice to have but not essential.

So for example a sample exercise grouping for a strongman in the early off season might look like this.

Main goal – Improve deadlift and overhead strength.

“A” exercises

Deadlift

Rack pulls

Military press

Push press

“B” exercises

Squats

Planks

Kroc Rows

Pullups

Bench press

Glute Ham Raise

“C” exercises

Kettlebell Swings

Strongman implement work

Conditioning work

Choose set, rep and loading schemes for your primary exercises

Once you’ve got your exercises sorted it’s time to choose your sets, reps and loads for your primary exercises.  This is where the art and science of programming can get a bit tricky as there are a number of effective (and some not so effective) loading patterns you can use.

Initially I suggest using a simple program like 5 sets of 5 with a steady linear progression in weights over 4 – 6 weeks.  You could also adopt a 5-3-1 loading pattern or alternate between sets of 5 and sets of 3.

For endurance programs a simple cycle of long distance, short interval, medium intervals with a linear progression in volume works well.

Conclusion

In part two of this article I’ll outline the final steps in putting together a program and provide some worked examples of programs for different goals.

The new book has 6 complete programs suitable for everyone from absolute beginners through to elite athletes as well as pre-hab, warmup, stretching and strength routines to take the guess work out of your beep test preparation.

In fact there was so much stuff that came up while I was writing that I’ve set up a completely new website just to handle beep test content.

“Beat the Beep Test” is on sale for a short time at $29 which includes unlimited email support for your first 30 days.

Check out the new website at www.beatthebeeptest.com

The reality is that most people don’t train hard enough to justify the supplements they are on but they can be very useful.

Before taking any supplements you need to understand which level of training you are at and then get the appropriate stuff. You also need to make sure your basics are squared away. If your diet is crap, you don’t get enough sleep or your training program is rubbish no amount of expensive powders will make you big and strong.

So here is a guide for three basic levels of training, keep in mind that these are cumulative which means that people at the advanced/competitive level need to take everything from the levels below as well.

Before you think about supplementation check the following

1. Are you eating 3 solid meals a day + 2 – 3 snacks each containing some protein, carbs and good fats

2. Are you training at least 4 days a week with a focus on the big basics like deadlifts, squats, bench press, chinups and military press.

3. Are you getting 7- 9 hours of sleep a night.

If the answer to any of these is a no then spending big bucks on supplements is going to be a waste of time.

Level 1 – Beginners

During the first 6 months to 1 year of serious training it’s unlikely that you’ll need much more than lots of food and some hard training to make gains.

Supplements at this level are restricted to stuff that’s cheap and highly effective.

Multivitamin – Train hard and chances are that you’ll be working your bodies vitamin and mineral stores a bit harder than the average couch potato. While you may be getting enough from your diet a multivitamin is good insurance and costs bugger all.

Protein – Plain Whey Protein Concentrate mixed with whole milk 2-3 times a day. No need for fancy pants stuff that’s been bioengineered to death.

Fish oil – 3 – 6 caps a day for general heart, brain and joint health. Start now and never stop taking it.

Sports drinks – Gatorade or similar during hard training to replace electrolytes and provide energy. Avoid if your goal is fat loss.

Level 2 – Intermediate

If you have been training for at least 6 months and you are now using more advanced training methods because beginner programs stopped working then you are probably ready for some level 2 supplements.

This stuff is more expensive than the level 2 stuff and the performance gain is not generally as big you get from the basics.

Creatine – 5g a day with your recovery shake. Creatine improves performance in repeated bouts of near maximal exercise. This allows you to train harder and allows you to stress the body more for continued gains in strength. Good for strength and power programs, not so good for distance runners because you do tend to gain some fluid weight which makes you slower.

Minerals – Zinc, Magnesium etc can help you recover. I quite like “Endura” sports drink at the moment but you can also use a supplement like ZMA that may boost testosterone production.

Glutamine – The most abundant free amino acid in muscle. 3-5g once a day after workouts may speed recovery.

Level 3 – Advanced / competitive athlete

If you are 2+ years into serious training and you compete then you’ll be looking for anything that gives you the edge.

At this level it’s worth experimenting with different products and combinations as some things appear to work for one person but not another.

Some stuff to try

BCAA – Branch chain amino acids may help recovery

Vitamin D – 5000IU a day, this may turn out to be like fish oil in that it’s long term health benefits are becoming compelling but for sports performance at the moment it may help or it may not.

ZMA or GABA – Worth trying for improved sleep and growth hormone secretion but not cheap.

Anything else that takes your fancy, antioxidants, weird plant extracts, Nitric oxide supps, caffeine in high doses (be careful with this one). At this level you might get 1 or 2% from trying something new or you might get nothing but the proverbial “expensive urine” however as a competitive athlete sometimes that 1% is the difference between first place and fourth, and no one EVER remembers the guy who came fourth.

Want Supplements?

I get all my supplements from  The Edge Sports Nutrition

I’ve known the guys at The Edge since I first started training back in 1997, they’ll be able to give you advice on exactly what stuff you need.

In essence I’ll be living out of a backpack for the month so I’ve had to reduce my program to a handful of light items that I can carry with me and still get a good workout.

Therefore I’ve gone for a set of portable rings for upper body and core, a gymboss timer for running intervals and my back pack for some leg workouts.

Introduction

I’ve been running my business now for just over 5 years and working fulltime for the last 8 and in all that time I’ve never had a chance to take a proper holiday!

This Christmas though common sense has prevailed and I’m off overseas for 4 weeks in Thailand and Burma.

Naturally I realized that I’m not going to be able to maintain a heavy schedule of training while I’m away (which would kind of defeat the purpose of having a holiday anyway!) but at the same time I don’t want to turn into a complete slob so I’ve devised a simple plan that will hopefully achieve the following goals.

1. Maintain a reasonable level of basic fitness so that my return to full training in mid January is less traumatic.
2. Allow a few aches and niggles to recover ready for a big year of training.
3. Work on a few weak spots like my upper body strength if possible
4. Allow plenty of time to check out Thailand and Burma
5. Not get me killed by the girlfriend because I’m spending all day in the gym!

The plan

My plan for the next 4 weeks revolves around the following elements

1. Ring training for my upper body and core
2. interval training with a Gymboss trainer, bodyweight exercises and runners
3. Adding a couple of sandbags to my back pack and using it for basic weight training exercises.
4. Visiting a gym 1-2 times a week if there is one available wherever I am and doing some light to moderate barbell and dumbbell workouts to stay in the groove.

I’m going to keep all the workouts short and intense to keep plenty of time for relaxing and sight seeing and plan to do something 4-5 days a week.

The workouts I’ve described below should give you a few ideas for how you can keep your training plan on track over the holiday season

Remember that the best thing you can do is commit to doing something most days and then use whatever is at hand to stay fit.  Holidays are a great time to switch up your training with beach runs, surf swims, hiking etc and most holiday destinations provide new terrain that will challenge you.  If you are traveling by car remember that a kettlebell takes up very little space and allows for a huge number of workouts.

I’ll be taking advantage of whatever pops up in Thailand, whether its beach sprints, swimming or taking a Muay Thai class at local gyms (even if I get killed by the conditioning workouts!)

In order to mix things up I’m going to write up the following workouts on some index cards then just pull one out at random and perform it.  Next time I want to train I’ll do the same thing so that the workouts are pretty unpredictable!

Workout 1

21, 15, 9 reps

Ring pull-ups

Back pack thrusters

Situps

Workout 2

Max rounds in 20:00

5 ring dips

10 pushups

15 situps

20 unweighted squats

Workout 3

Sprints

10 rounds

30 second sprint – max effort

60 second recovery

Workout 4

Anaerobic intervals

6 rounds

Run 2:00

Walk 1:00

Workout 5

7 rounds for time

5 back pack snatch

5 back pack shoulder and lunge each side

15 ring pushups

20 situps

Workout 6

Tabatas

8 rounds of 20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest of each of the following exercises.

ring pull-ups

pushups

squats

situps

Workout 7

Beach workout if available

Unstructured run and swim

Run for 1-2 minutes along beach

Swim  1-2 minutes

Repeat 5-8 times

Conclusion

I’ve deliberately avoided structuring numbers of workouts a week and alternating strength and conditioning sessions because to be honest I’ve got no idea what I’ll be up to at each point in my holiday and I want my fitness work to be flexible and work around all the cool stuff I’ll be doing.

The following is an excerpt from my new book “Beat the Beep Test” which will be available in November 2009

Part 1 – Getting ready

If you are reading this book then chances are that you fall into one of two groups.

The first group are people who have applied to join or are thinking of joining the police, military or another similar organisation and who have just come across references to the beep test in the application pack. 

If you are in this group and have never run a beep test in your life don’t worry, this book will guide you through the process from the first workout where you lace up your shoes to the day when you fly through the test and impress the recruiters with your superior fitness.

The second group are people who have perhaps had experience with the beep test but who want to improve their fitness and their results in order to join a special unit or because you’ve let your fitness slip (hey it happens to the best of us) and need to get back to a certain level for a yearly fitness test. 

If this is you then I still recommend that you read the whole book as you may pick up some valuable tips in the early sections.  You may however be able to skip the introductory programs and get stuck straight into the intermediate and advanced programs.

Ok so let’s look at a few preliminary issues before we get into the programs

Fitness Testing vs Fitness

Believe it or not being fit and being good at passing fitness tests are not the same thing!

While fitness tests obviously measure some specific aspect of fitness they don’t tell the whole story.  This is particularly true in complex physical jobs like police and military work.  The guy who can run 3 minute kilometres is definitely aerobically fit but if he weighs 50kg and can’t pick up his backpack without being crushed like a bug then he’s going to be a useless soldier.

Preparing specifically for a fitness test is sometimes missing the point that after the test you’ll actually have to do a job that’s radically different from what was tested.

Another thing that many people don’t realise is that fitness tests are a skill and that like any skill you can get better at doing the test even if physiologically your fitness hasn’t improved.  If you need to pass a test then you can use this to your advantage (something we’ll talk about extensively in this book) but don’t be fooled into thinking that improved scores are always a result of improved fitness.

Ideally you should be aiming to develop a high level of real world, job specific fitness so that you can pass a fitness test (beep test or anything else) at any time without notice.  Specific test preparation should be used to polish your performance and ensure a comfortable buffer for test day.

In writing the programs I’ve aimed to both improve your fitness and provide specific test preparation.

Job specific fitness

Consider for a moment the following pairs of scenarios each testing one or more aspects of fitness and see if you can figure out which situation in each pair you are more likely to encounter as a police officer, emergency services worker or soldier.

Aerobic fitness

Scenario 1 – Dressed in shorts, running shoes and t shirt, run 2.4km in a straight line along a perfectly smooth, flat road.

Scenario 2 – Wearing boots, long pants and carrying 10 – 15 kg of belt kit including water, weapons and tools, sprint 400 – 800m over varied terrain.

Anaerobic fitness

Scenario 1 – Dressed in your PT gear, complete a progressive warm up before doing a short hard run on a flat surface in a temperature controlled gym.

Scenario 2 – After 2 weeks of minimal sleep, in freezing cold or desert heat, while wearing 10kg of body armour and 15kg of weapons and other equipment perform multiple 10 – 20m sprints over rough urban terrain while someone tries to kill you.

Upper body strength

Scenario 1 – Perform one set of pushups until you can’t do any more.

Scenario 2 – Tackle and then restrain a series of violent offenders during a brawl some of whom outweigh you by 20+ kilos

What is the beep test?

The beep test is a multi stage running test performed as a series of 20m runs with a turn at each end.

Running pace during the test is controlled by a series of beeps each indicating the completion of one 20m shuttle.  The aim is to reach the opposite end of the course at or before the next beep.  Failure to reach the end in time results in elimination from the test and the number of beeps completed gives the score.

The beeps start out relatively far apart and the time gap decreases each minute.  The first 4 levels are a built in warm up and from there the test gets progressively harder.

What’s being measured

I like to think of the beep test as three fitness tests in one.

In stage one the beep test is a test of aerobic capacity.  This is the longest phase of the overall test and if your aerobic fitness is good enough you should be able to pass the test without dipping into the next two stages.

In stage two the beep test becomes a test of anaerobic lactate tolerance.  During this stage of the test (which may last several shuttles or even a whole level) you’ve gone past your bodies ability to process oxygen and you are living on borrowed time!  Continuing through this point relies on a certain tolerance for discomfort.

In the final stage of the beep test you’ve basically overdrawn your bodies aerobic and anaerobic reserves and you are in what’s called the Alactic zone.  This section of the test is only going to last 2-4 shuttles but you may need to dip into this zone to eek out the final shuttle or two to pass.  At this point you’ll be in severe discomfort but the good news is that the test will soon be over.

The beep test is fundamentally a test of your aerobic fitness.  This is your bodies ability to draw in air, extract the oxygen and then distribute this oxygen to working muscle cells so that the oxygen can be used to oxidise (burn) fats and carbohydrates to sustain muscular contraction over a moderate to long period of time.

The aerobic energy pathway kicks in when exercise lasts for longer than about 90 seconds and is increasingly the dominant energy pathway as exercise duration increases from a few minutes up to several hours.

There are several things that can limit your aerobic fitness but the good news is that through training you can reduce those limitations and improve your ability to maintain a given level of work output.

Briefly, here are some of the key limiters of aerobic fitness.

1. Lung capacity and efficiency – bigger lungs can process more air and through training it is possible to improve both your lung capacity and the efficiency of your lungs.  Stronger muscles around the lungs can draw more air into the lungs and this improves performance too.
2. Blood physiology – The only thing that can carry oxygen around the body are red blood cells and the proportion of your blood which is made up of red blood cells varies from person to person.  This level, known as Hematocrit can make a huge difference to aerobic capacity.  Aerobic training increases hematocrit and makes it easier to get oxygen to the working muscles.
3. Muscle structure – Muscle contractile fibres cannot themselves oxidise nutrients from food to produce energy for muscular contraction.  The production of energy for muscular contraction by aerobic metabolism actually happens in areas within the muscle right next door to the contractile fibres. These microscopic powerhouses are called mitochondria.  Training increases the number of mitochondria in the muscle which means nutrients and oxygen can be oxidised at a greater rate, supplying the working muscles with more energy and allowing them to work harder for longer before exhaustion sets in

Anaerobic lactate tolerance

If at any time the workload you are asking your body to perform outstrips your capacity to provide the working muscles with oxygen then you will go into oxygen debt.  At this point you have a limited amount of time that you will be able to continue working at this elevated rate.

During anaerobic metabolism the body breaks down sugars to provide working muscles with the energy to contract however without enough oxygen the sugar can’t be completely metabolised and the process is quite inefficient.  The lactate that builds up in the muscle can be used for energy once the workload drops and oxygen becomes available but during the latter stages of the beep test you won’t have to worry about this until it’s all over.

Once lactate starts to build up muscle acidity goes up and eventually interferes with the chemical process that allow a muscle to contract.  When this happens exhaustion sets in and you will be forced to stop.

The beep test as a fitness test

The beep test was designed as an easily administered field test for aerobic / anaerobic fitness and as such it does a fairly good job of assessing your overall level of conditioning.

However as discussed it’s not a great measure of job specific fitness for a lot of situations.

At the end of the day the fact remains that a large number of organisations use the beep test and if you want to be a police officer or soldier chances are you’ll need to pass the beep test at some stage. 

The problem of over-specific preparation

A lot of people when faced with fitness tests for police and military jobs become extremely blinkered and end up doing way too much specific preparation for the tests while failing to develop the overall fitness required for the job.

They also get fixated on achieving the minimum numbers required for the test without realising that simply passing the tests with the minimum numbers is going to and them in a world of hurt when they enter training and find themselves struggling at the back of the group during PT.

Too much specific preparation can also lead to overuse injuries and muscle imbalances which will cause issues further down the track.

Remember your focus should always be on becoming as fit as possible and then simply polishing up your “test fitness” to ensure an above average or outstanding result on test day.

“Beat the Beep Test” Contains 9 separate  8 week programs divided into three levels to allow anyone from complete beginner to advanced athlete to improve their beep test score!

Available in Hard copy and E-Book from November 2009.

Enquiries fitness@octogen.com.au

The other day I got a question from a guy who was 8 weeks out from Army recruit training and who had developed shin splints (probably from too much running on hard surfaces) .  Generally I try to limit the amount of running I give to my clients and we take care of their cardio fitness through other means.  This guys wasn’t one of my clients but since he was in a bit of trouble so close to his enlistment date I gave him the following plan so that hopefully he’ll recover in time and won’t suffer too badly through recruit training!!

The only things that help acute shin splints in the short term are the following.

1. Not running
2. Not getting them in the first place.

Assuming you can already pass the required run standards you will be able to give them some time off and maintain your fitness before you hit recruit training.

Try the following.

1. Stop all running and don’t do ANY for the next 6 weeks.
2. Take 2 weeks off any loaded leg movement, swimming and cycling are fine.
3. After 2 weeks get a kettlebell or use dumbells to do all your conditioning. Do loads of timed swings and snatches, do boxing circuits, row, cycle and swim.
4. In the last two weeks before you go down do no more than 2 sessions a week of running, on grass, no more than 3 x 400m to start with and 3 x 800m to finish with.

Running is a skill and you will bounce back with only a few practice sessions as long as you keep your fitness up.

Other stuff.

1. Get your shoes checked and buy new ones
2. Try massage, ice, contrast baths, acupunture stretching etc. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t but they never make things worse
3. Take your fish oil, multivitamin, protein etc and get as much sleep as possible, all very important for recovery.

Good luck with it

Article 7 – March 2007 – Deployed workouts

Article 8 – June 2007 – Avoiding Common injuries