5 Ways to Improve Your Programming

1. Prioritize Strength Training

Strength is the underlying quality that positively affects all other physical attributes. It’s your “base”.

Getting your clients strong will check off a myriad of other benefits, including:

• More lean muscle

• Higher metabolic rate (strength training is the most efficient training method to keep fat off due to the increased calorie expenditure after the workout and throughout the day)

• Improved performance everywhere

• Reduced risk of injury (a stronger body is a more resilient body)

• Higher energy levels

• More confidence (your clients will be confident AF walking down the street knowing they can toss anyone who gets in their way)

• Better sex

• Better sleep

Regardless of goals, strength training is the most efficient means to an end.

2. Incorporate Fillers

If you've ever found yourself making awkward small talk with your clients between sets...you’ll love fillers.

Fillers are low intensity exercises or drills you perform between sets to improve mobility, prevent injury and correct imbalances.

As Eric Cressey puts it, the name “filler” seems to imply a lack of importance. The reality is that fillers foster an athlete’s ability to recover and perform at a higher level. They help your clients get more out of their workouts by filling the gaps in their training.

Benefits of Fillers

• Fillers Slow Things Down for the Go-Getters

My clients range from former competitive athletes to CEO’s and business owners. High achievers with ridiculously strong work ethics. 

If they’re not doing something, they feel like they’re wasting time.

Fillers give your clients something productive to do in between sets. This forces them to rest optimally between exercises while making every minute of their session count.

• Fillers Maximize Your Client's Time in the Gym

Echoing the last point, fillers make every minute serve a purpose. 

Your clients will get better results in a shorter amount of time, and it shows a level of professionalism on your part. Instead of watching paint dry between sets, every minute is accounted for in order to help your clients get better. 

• Fillers Reduce Warm-Up Time

Warming up is important, but foam rolling for 30 minutes is overkill. Fillers make your warm-up part of the workout and allow your clients to get their “warm-up sets” between lifts. 

The more frequently your clients perform mobility or corrective fillers (in addition to whatever homework you program between sessions), the less time they’ll eventually have to spend warming up since they’ll be coming to the gym at a heightened state of readiness.

• Fillers Address Imbalances

Lifting highlights your clients’ imbalances. Fillers address them. 

• Fillers Act as Conditioning and Active Recovery

Let’s say you have a client that is generally deconditioned. They do a few min on the treadmill and sweat profusely. This individual clearly doesn’t need excessive HIIT or training methods to get into shape. They just need to move more. 

Fillers are an opportunity to introduce more movement in a low-impact setting without any repercussions of overtraining while improving blood flow, recovery, and overall conditioning.

• Fillers Improve Your Client's Lifting Technique

Fillers are an opportunity to address your clients’ weaknesses while reinforcing optimal lifting technique.

Every rep of every set provides valuable feedback into how your clients can improve their technique and what fillers would be suitable for their individual needs.  

For example, if your client’s upper back tends to round during RDL’s, some thoracic mobility drills or upper back work may be a suitable filler.

Types of Fillers

There are various types of fillers you’ll want to consider adding to your clients’ programs, including:

• Mobility Filler – A drill that focuses on improving the mobility of the joints involved in the main exercise being performed. For example, hip CARs between sets of squats.

• Pre-Hab or Corrective Filler – A drill or exercise that addresses a current or pre-existing injury prescribed by a specialist (physio, athletic therapist, chiro, etc).

• Activation Filler – A drill or exercise that enhances blood flow to the working muscle(s) involved in the main movement being performed. For example, banded hip bridges between sets of RDL’s.

• Opposing Filler – A drill or exercise of the opposite movement pattern of the main exercise being performed or emphasizes the opposing muscle(s) involved. For example, band pull aparts between sets of the bench press or face pulls between sets of push-ups.

3. Include 1-2 "Priority Exercises” in Your Programs

A recurring issue I see in a lot of programs is a lack of direction. Everything’s kind of just thrown together with no real emphasis or priority. This usually leads to the endless hamster wheel of training with nothing to show for it.

The single best thing you can do to drastically improve your programming is include what’s called “priority exercises”.

Priority exercises are movements or lifts you prioritize in the program to gauge progress. Your goal is to improve these exercises, which will indicate whether or not the program is actually working.

Pick 1-2 major exercises to prioritize in your programs. Ideally, you want at least 1 upper body and 1 lower body movement. Doing so prevents you from deviating too heavily into one direction of training and allows for a more well-rounded program.

Examples of Upper Body Priority Exercises

• Push-up

• Bench press

• Chin-up

• Strict press

Examples of Lower Body Priority Exercises

• Trap bar deadlift

• Barbell deadlift

• Box squat

• RFE split squat

Priority exercises provide purpose to your training and allow for continuity between mesocycles or phases, making programming way more simple since the only exercises you should be including are the ones that improve your priorities!

How to Program Priority Exercises

1. Pick 1-2 exercises to prioritize in the program.

2. Set a baseline so you know where to improve.

3. Set a goal.

4. Program exercises that improve your priorities (these include supplemental and accessory exercises).

5. Track weights, reps and sets throughout the program.

6. Re-test every 3-6 months depending on your client’s individual goals. Keep in mind, this is a general guideline.

4. Include 1-2 Core-Specific Exercises In Your Warm-Ups

Most people’s idea of “core training” is pumping out a few half-assed sit-ups before they leave the gym.

Not exactly optimal.

Here’s the thing – core strength is important. So, why not prioritize it at the beginning of the session? I first came across this idea from Alwyn Cosgrove and I have to say, the results have been amazing.

Now, we’re not talking about doing 100 crunches and exhausting your clients before their strength training.

Rather, we perform 1-2 core-specific exercises to prepare your client for the training session.

Personally, I use exercises that train your core to resist movement, including:

• Anti-Extension = Dead bugs, planks, ab rollouts

• Anti-Rotation = Pallof press, woodchops

• Anti-Lateral Flexion = Side planks, suitcase carries, Copenhagen hip lifts

You can include 1-2 core-specific movements as part of the warm-up for 2-3 sets of 5-10 reps depending on the program.

5. Include 1-2 Power-Specific Exercises In Your Warm-Ups

Power declines rapidly as we age, so be sure to include it your programs. Since it’s important and taxes the nervous system, we place it at the beginning of the session after the dynamic warm-up.

This is essentially a light switch that helps your clients “turn on” their nervous system so they get more out of their strength training.

Depending on your client’s goals and capabilities, you might consider including:

• Jumps – Box jumps, vertical jumps, squat jumps.

• Throws – Med ball throw variations.

• Olympic Weightlifting – Barbell, dumbbell, and/or kettlebell snatch, clean, and jerk variations.

Anywhere from 1-5 reps for 3-8 sets is generally a safe bet.

For your more advanced clients, you might consider contrast training.

Contrast training is a hybrid strength-power modality that pairs a heavy lift with a dynamic or ballistic exercise of the same movement pattern (ex. box squat and squat jumps; bench press and explosive push-ups).

Sample Contrast Workout A

A1. Bench Press 3 x 3

Rest 20 sec

A2. Med Ball Throw 3 x 5

Rest 2-3 min

Sample Contrast Workout B

A1. Trap Bar Deadlift 3 x 2

Rest 20 sec

A2. Box Jump 3 x 3

Rest 2-3 min

Depending on your client, you would generally perform contrast sets in the first block of the training session and limit them to 1-2 x per week for 3-4 week phases before tapering down and reintroducing them into the program.