Principle Over Everything

There is more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to athletic development. No matter the number of athletes or teams you are training for, it is best to have a set of principles to follow. No matter if you agree with the way someone else programs or not, if what they do is grounded in principle and science then they are just as right as you. Following a set of principles allows you to check yourself before having a final product. Being principle based instead of philosophy based can ensure every bucket is being filled, weak points are being hit, and athletes are continuing to develop. The big rocks of any training program are: Progressive Overload, Specificity, Individualization, Variation and Reversibility(1).

Progressive Overload

The mother of all principles is progressive overload. At its simplest form progressive overload is increasing the stress being placed on the athlete with the goal of creating a desired adaptation. This can be done in multiple ways, the most popular are increasing load, increasing volume, or decreasing rest. 

The best way to explain progressive overload is through the story of Milo of Croton. Milo lived in Greece 2500 years ago. Milo was walking and saw a calf, he picked it up and carried it home. This left him exhausted, the next day the calf grew a little bigger and so did he, he carried the calf up a hill again. Milo continued to go back to the calf and even when it grew to a bull he carried it, and he continued to get bigger and stronger. As the bull got bigger so did Milo, Why? Progressive Overload. If you are training to become bigger and stronger than you need to increase the difficulty of how you train, doing the same thing will ensure you stay the same (2). 

Below will be an incredibly basic example of a 4 week training program following progressive overload. Like I said before there are many ways you can achieve progressive overload, the one below will be following the example of adding more weight.

Week 1: 3x10 @ 100lbs

Week 2: 3x10 @ 105lbs

Week 3 3x10 @ 110lbs

Week 4 3x10 @ 115lbs

Specificity

Specificity is creating a training program based on the demands of the sport to set the athlete up for success. Some coaches believe that all athletes no matter the sport can do the same program. Some sports have very similar demands which can allow for similar programs. However, there is a lot to consider when creating a program: bioenergetic demands, common injuries, movement patterns, etc. In no world should an offensive lineman and a tennis player be doing the same program. 

The best way to ensure that you are hitting everything that the sport demands in a program is to complete a needs analysis. All a needs analysis does is allow you to check off boxes when designing the program. Looking at figure 1 you can see a needs analysis I created for the average collegiate women’s volleyball athlete. When designing a needs analysis it can be as in depth or broad as you need it. The idea is to allow you to see what needs to be attacked to set the athlete up for success. If you have no idea what to write about a certain sport, then watch that sport. You will learn a lot about the demands being placed on an athlete just by watching them compete.

Figure 1: Needs Analysis for a female collegiate volleyball athlete.

Individualization

Each athlete needs to have their needs met within training. This does not necessarily mean that every single athlete needs their very own program. I am simply saying that there are factors that need to be looked at when having anyone start a training program. 

The needs of an athlete are identified by their injury history, sport, and position being played. Each athlete should be assessed on an individual basis. This may sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be as simple as swapping an exercise in a training session. For example, if an athlete is not cleared for axial spinal loading, but the program calls for a back squat, there are a million ways you can attack this. The athlete could perform a 2 DB Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat, Belt Squat, Walking Lunges, Reverse Lunge, etc. When a program calls for alterations the world does not have to be flipped on its side. Programming through patterns rather than muscle groups can ensure you are still able to check off the boxes originally intended.

Some coaches decide to dive even deeper into individualization. Some strength coaches create different programs within the sport for positions, such as in football a common categorization is Bigs, Skills, Big Skills. The programs are typically not completely different, much of the time it is the same movement patterns, just different exercise selection. This takes place in other sports as well, baseball is another popular one with position players and pitchers doing different programs. A very common example of the same pattern but different exercise is position players barbell bench pressing, and pitchers either dumbbell benching or performing weighted pushups.

A very convenient way to allow for quick alterations is to create “injury cards.” I created injured lift cards for our athletes. If we are supposed to be on a lower body emphasis day and a guy comes to me saying he rolled his ankle playing basketball this weekend, then we can change the program for them. These injury cards should not be used as crutches, but as a way to provide the athlete a training program if they are unable to complete the majority of the non-injured lift for the day. I would recommend creating upper and lower body cards for however many days your team trains in the week.

Variation

As mentioned in the specificity section each program takes into account what the athlete needs to be successful in their sport. However, you cannot continue to perform the same exercises, sets/reps, or loads for an infinite amount of time with no change. Doing so will result in a dulled stimulus and adaptation will diminish. Variation is responsible for continuing to produce stress for the athlete to adapt to in different forms of training. 

The most common form of periodization is the 4-week linear training model. Increasing load or volume while decreasing the other for 3 weeks, then deload the 4th week to allow for recovery and adaptation (3). 

Now the 4-week model is not the only periodization option, but that is a conversation for another article. After the 4 weeks you do not necessarily have to change the entire program, there are multiple ways you can provide variation without blowing the whole thing up. Some of these include altering the load, volume, exercise selection, tempo, range of motion, etc. Simply altering these can continue to provide stress to the athlete and allow for a stimulus to keep providing adaptation.

Figure 2: 4 Week Linear Periodization (3)

Reversibility

Reversibility is a principle you may or not see within a textbook, but I can argue that it is a principle that cannot be ignored. What is reversibility you may ask? It is talking about the use it or lose it effect. If you do not continue to train an adaptation it will start to diminish after a period of time. 

It is hard to discuss reversibility without talking about Vertical Integration. In the simplest terms Vertical Integration is just training with every quality present at all times. There is an emphasis on one quality during training depending on the time of day, week, month, or year. For example, Day 1 of the offseason we emphasize hypertrophy. Whereas when we get into preseason and closer to the season the emphasis shifts more towards max strength and chasing power development, but hypertrophy training is still present, just not as emphasized.

Why should you use Vertical Integration? Short answer, residual training effects. This is where the use it or lose it principle comes into play. For example, if you have been in a power/speed block for 4 weeks then you don’t do anything with it for another 4 weeks you cannot maintain those previous levels. When training ceases for a specific quality for a certain period of time those gains begin to deteriorate. These time periods differ based on the adaptation being chased. If all of these are kept in the training program then we do not run into these issues (4).

Figure 3: Chart showing the residual training effect of each adaptation (4).

Conclusion

There is no right or wrong way to program for your teams. Everyone in this industry has different styles, beliefs, and philosophies, and they all work. I said it before and I'll say it again, the only way you can be wrong is to put your athlete in harm's way and to not follow principles.

The goal of this article was not to try to sway you to believe one philosophy over another, which is why I gave minimal detail into how I program for teams, it was to show you base principles that should be followed. If you have never written a program before, but you take into account Progressive Overload, Specificity, Individualization, Variation, and Reversibility it is going to be incredibly difficult to be “wrong” within your program.

Citations:

1. Bompa, T. (1994). Theory and methodology of training (3rd ed.). Kendall/Hunt Publication Company. archive.org

2. Miranda, Juan Artola. (2023). The Tragic Legend of Milo of Croton, The Man Who Carried The Bull. wordandsorcery.com

3. N.A. (2018). An A-Level PE Strength Guide. excelsiorgroup.co.uk

4. Table adapted from: Issurin, V. (2001). “Block Periodization: Breakthrough in Sport Training.” New York, NY: Ultimate Athlete Concepts.