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"Developing a winning training program!"

By Andrew Voris

I have been a trainer for about 12 years now and I feel that for the first 8 years or so I was just searching for the best training program for my athletes. I would read every book I could find and download every new training program available. Of course I learned quite a bit but were my athletes really getting the best training program available?

What I know is that if an athlete has a training program that they follow they can see better results than if they just show up to train and ho-hum around.

What I also know is that if the training program was created with the end in mind it will be even more successful. What I mean is that the training program actually has progressions and a rhyme and reason for those progressions.

Taking it a step further, if the athlete is monitored by a trainer and the trainer determines when the next progression begins based on an assessment of the athlete the training program will be even better. This is different than the training program having set time frames for each phase say 4 weeks for Muscular Development Phase. The trainer interacts every day with the athlete and should be recording several variables throughout the sessions to determine the best time to make changes in the training program.

I also think that most training program are fairly sound as long as the trainer has a firm grasp of the concepts and more importantly the variables. I have seen many trainer obtain a certification and then never crack the book open again. A trainer must study continually in order to understand the variables in training program design.

What happens when an athlete pulls a hamstring playing around with buddies the first week of power and plyometric training program? What do you as a trainer do now? Stop the training program? Change the training program? How about regressions in some areas and progressions in others? If the trainer understands the variables for training program design he/she should be able to rehab the leg while not losing much ground in the overall training program.

As an athlete it is crucial to have a trainer following these principles. Of course an athlete can settle for a mediocre training program/trainer and still possibly see some results but why would you? Author s resource box Andy Voris is a certified personal trainer/strength coach located in Glen Ellyn, IL. He works with athletes of all levels including NFL players like Todd Sauerbrun. He owns to companies, BodyForm Personal Training & Athlete Development Institute. His websites are http://www.bodyformpersonaltraining.com & http://www.athletedevelopmentinstitute.comI have been a trainer for about 12 years now and I feel that for the first 8 years or so I was just searching for the best training program for my athletes. I would read every book I could find and download every new training program available. Of course I learned quite a bit but were my athletes really getting the best training program available?

What I know is that if an athlete has a training program that they follow they can see better results than if they just show up to train and ho-hum around.

What I also know is that if the training program was created with the end in mind it will be even more successful. What I mean is that the training program actually has progressions and a rhyme and reason for those progressions.

Taking it a step further, if the athlete is monitored by a trainer and the trainer determines when the next progression begins based on an assessment of the athlete the training program will be even better. This is different than the training program having set time frames for each phase say 4 weeks for Muscular Development Phase. The trainer interacts every day with the athlete and should be recording several variables throughout the sessions to determine the best time to make changes in the training program.

I also think that most training program are fairly sound as long as the trainer has a firm grasp of the concepts and more importantly the variables. I have seen many trainer obtain a certification and then never crack the book open again. A trainer must study continually in order to understand the variables in training program design.

What happens when an athlete pulls a hamstring playing around with buddies the first week of power and plyometric training program? What do you as a trainer do now? Stop the training program? Change the training program? How about regressions in some areas and progressions in others? If the trainer understands the variables for training program design he/she should be able to rehab the leg while not losing much ground in the overall training program.

As an athlete it is crucial to have a trainer following these principles. Of course an athlete can settle for a mediocre training program/trainer and still possibly see some results but why would you? Author s resource box Andy Voris is a certified personal trainer/strength coach located in Glen Ellyn, IL. He works with athletes of all levels including NFL players like Todd Sauerbrun. He owns to companies, BodyForm Personal Training & Athlete Development Institute. His websites are http://www.bodyformpersonaltraining.com & http://www.athletedevelopmentinstitute.com

About the Author:

Andrew Voris is a NASM certified personal trainer working out of his private office in Glen Ellyn, IL and out of Tri-City Fitness in St. Charles, IL. His websites are www.bodyformpersonaltraining.com & www.tri-cityfitness.com