How to design a great exercise program

For fitness enthusiasts working out can be a bit confusing. Questions like: "What exercise should I do?" "What's the best training split for my goals?" "How do I know if I'm working hard enough?" "How often should I max out to track progress?"

As you can see, there are a lot of questions that come up when choosing an effective workout program.

In this blog, I want to share with you how I program for my clients based off of their goals, time availability, preferences, and schedule. I'll give you my blueprint along with a client example.

The blueprint

The blueprint is based on the answers I receive to specific questions. Therefore I'll share the questions I use when onboarding a client.

1. What is the main goal?

2. What is the time frame you'd like to achieve sed goal in? (make sure it's realistic)

3. How many days per week would you like to work out to attain sed goal?

4. How much time per day do you have available to work out?

5. What exercise equipment do you have access to, gym or home gym?

6. Do you have a specific training style you prefer?

7. Do you have any physical limitations or previous injuries I should know of?

Using these questions, I can understand how to outline their program.

The last piece of the blueprint is a thorough assessment of clients' flexibility, strength, and endurance. I also like to add a lifestyle assessment (sleep, nutrition, hydration, and stress) to get a complete picture of a clients health.

I'll show you how I implement this blueprint with a client example. This is an actual client, but I'm using a fake name.

Client #1 (Bob)

Goal	​Overall health + wellbeing
Time Frame/expectation​	Unlimited (lifelong client)
Days/week to workout	4-5 days/week
Time per day to workout	45-60 minutes
Equipment available	​A whole gym in the basement
Training preference	Functional/crossfit-ish
Injuries/aches + pains	Herniated disc in L4/L5

Using the information in the table above, I have sufficient information to lay a basic outline for the design of Bobs' program. However, I don't have everything I need.

To truly make an effective program, I need better to understand Bob's current capabilities through an assessment.

After gathering the information above, I will have Bob undergo flexibility, strength and cardiovascular assessment to understand where he is at with his fitness.

Upon completing movement Bob's assessment, I see he lacks overhead mobility, ankle flexibility, and core strength. Bob is sufficient in cardio fitness and bodyweight strength (push-ups and pull-ups).

Using this info, I can better help him reach his goal of staying healthy!

His lifestyle assessment showed that he has a healthy body weight and body-fat percentage, handles stress well, gets 7-8 hours of sleep per night, and drinks enough water daily.

I can make an effective workout program now that I have all the necessary information.

Based on Bob's responses to my questions, I'll do two days on one day off split since he doesn't care what days he trains. Each workout lasts 45-60 minutes, including an individualized warmup and cooldown. From his assessment, I know he needs to build strength, specifically in his glutes, obliques, and hamstrings. Because his goal is overall health, I want to do cardiovascular training at least twice weekly.

His training experience tells me that he can do pretty much any movement with proper form, so he has no specific exercise restrictions. His herniated disc tells me we must limit heavy loads in the spinal flexion position (hingeing, AKA: deadlifts). Instead, we'll focus on strengthening his spinal extension.

Because he is doing 4-5 days a week, I could either do full body every day or split it into upper/lower days, with the 5th day solely cardio.

Here is a sample training week of a full body training split:

Day 1:

Warmup focus on overhead mobility, ankle flexibility, core strength, hip activation, and increased heart rate.

Strength one exercise for each muscle group starts with three sets per exercise for 8-12 reps. We want to get within 2-3 reps of failure to deliver enough stimulus, so I would communicate that to Bob when choosing weights.

Cardio 15-20 minutes of cardio at conversation pace on his choice of home gym equipment.

Day 2: the exercise selection may differ from Day 1 to keep interest and enjoyment high. You can write the best workout program, but he probably won't stick to it if it's not enjoyable.

Warmup focus on overhead mobility, ankle flexibility, core strength, hip activation, and increased heart rate.

Strength one exercise for each muscle group starts with three sets per exercise for 8-12 reps. We want to get within 2-3 reps of failure to deliver enough stimulus, so I would communicate that to Bob when choosing weights.

Core end the workout with a 10-15 minute core circuit since we did cardio the previous day.

Day 3: Rest

Rinse + repeat

I would follow this style of program for 12-16 weeks. Typically, I have my clients do two weeks' worth of workouts before making the next two weeks. I do this because it keeps enjoyment high and allows for some adaptation but not too much. If I were training elite-level athletes, I'd have them do the same program for 3-4 weeks before doing new workouts.

If Bob preferred to do an upper-lower split, then Day 1 would be one exercise for every muscle group in the lower body rather than the major ones. For example, on his full body day program, I wouldn't need to program bicep or tricep exercises because he'll get enough volume from exercises like presses and rows.

If he's doing an upper/lower split, I would add more isolation work to the smaller muscle groups. This will help fill the time and ensure every muscle gets sufficient volume. I'd also increase the sets for the major muscle groups. Instead of doing three sets for each group like he would on full body days, I'd do four-five sets on an upper/lower split for his large muscle groups.

Doing so ensures he gets enough volume to build muscle on both training splits while minimizing injury risk.

I would retest his assessment every three months (12-16 weeks) to ensure he's making sufficient progress and that the program is working. If I start to see several weeks in a row where there aren't any changes in the weight he is using, I know he may not be recovering well from the volume and would therefore need to reduce or add volume depending on his fatigue and stress level.

I hope this blog gave you an idea of how to design a program effectively! There isn't always a "best" approach, so don't pin yourself in a corner. What matters is that you have a plan and that you're able to track progress!

If you're stuck and need help with your workouts, you should hire me to make your workout program. With my support and expertise, I'm confident I could help you reach your goals no matter what they are!

Please use this link to complete my application!