One of the most common situations we encounter as Lifetime Athletes is the need to adjust a workout to fit our needs. Make a training session meet your unique body where it’s at…perfectly. This is a big FAQ in our community and it’s an outstanding topic for today’s discussion.
Almost any workout can be scaled up or down, and that’s particularly true of our Training Tribe programming. Most of our training sessions utilize a blend of exercise methods and varying levels of emphasis on the 5 Capacities of Athleticism. Those are strength, speed, power, agility, and endurance. Depending on the time of year and the specific training block we’re in, the workouts will be biased to produce major adaptations in one or two areas and keep the others in maintenance mode. We organize our sessions, or Workouts of the Week (WOW!), into three segments. There’s a preparatory (warmup or activation), primary (main), and accessory (bonus or cooldown) section.
A lot of our T2 members just jump into the workout and smash it as it is written. Many of the sessions have ranges in some elements to allow the athlete to select exactly what they wish to do secondary to how they are feeling on the day. For example, a circuit might be recommended at 2-4 rounds. Or reps, sets, and durations (depending on what we’re doing) will be presented in range format. But sometimes it is necessary to personalize the workout a bit further. Let’s dive into the systematic, scientific approach to workout individualization that Lifetime Athletes use.
We adjust workouts by manipulating volume, intensity, duration, and density. We also customize exercise selection and technique. I’ll describe each one of these elements and provide some examples.
The terms which describe workout parameters are fairly straightforward. This is certainly true with volume. Put simply, it’s how much you do in a training session. In lifting applications, this equates to the total number of sets performed. It can also be reps of 100m sprints in the pool, 400m on the track, 500m on the rower, and the like. These would be summed to represent the total volume of work done in the session. When the other workout parameters are in sync with what wer’re trying to accomplish, volume tends to be the changemaker with regard to adaptation and increased fitness.
Intensity is how hard you go. How heavy are your weights? How close to failure are you pushing? What’s the RPE, RIR, % of max HR or veolcity, or Zone? High intensity is the stimulating dosage in training. It’s also the kryptonite. We’ve got to keep it somewhere between minimum effective dosage and maximum absorbable dosage. You need to be fresh to tackle high intensity, do the right amount (for your body) and recover appropriately. The mix of low, moderate, and high intensity is different for every athlete, and at different times of the year. It’s an artful dance to leverage intensity to improve your health and fitness. It’s fun to push yourself and it gets results. It’s also important to ease up, sometimes a lot. We need all levels of intensity and doing or trying to do – only one – is ineffective.
Duration describes how long the workout lasts. This often equates with volume, distance, etc. But it’s really just the time it takes to get the session done. Many times this relates to how much time is available to train, and how into it (or not) the athlete is feeling. Duration applies quite well to sport practice, play, and competition. One important thing to keep in mind about duration is that even a low intensity workout can creep up into moderate or higher workloads if it is long enough. Short and slow is easy on the body, but long and slow may not be.
The compression (or lack thereof) of rest intervals within a workout is known as density. I’ll sometimes liken this to a sponge versus a brick. A sponge is a workout with long rest breaks, and it’s a little easier on the body in most cases. A brick is very dense, having compressed rest periods. This can impact conditioning and mental toughness, but it can also be very metabolically taxing. It just depends on what we’re going after. If high speed or strength output is desired, long rest breaks are warranted. But if we are giving submax (relatively) efforts and we’re looking for acidosis tolerance, etc., short breaks might be the ticket.
Volume, intensity, duration, and density are the variables that, when combined, determine the overall workload of a session. This describes how significantly the session impacts the athlete and consequently leads to fitness adaptations. We intentionally progress workload gradually when we are seeking gains. We reduce it when we are deloading or in need of substantial recovery. We keep it static on occasion for maintenance purposes.
We also make workouts more personally appropriate through exercise selection and technique modification.
With exercise selection, we might choose a different implement or machine for a resistance movement. For example, if we are performing a horizontal pressing exercise, we might utilize a pushup, a bench press with free weights, a machine, a cable apparatus, or elastic bands or tubing. We can do this when we are looking for a slight change of stimulus or if a certain method is more comfortable for the trainee’s anatomy. Same thing goes for switching up modes in aerobic training, such as going lower impact versus locomotive options. We always find a way to train that accomplishes objegtives without sacrificing orthopedic longevity.
We can modify technique to facilitate many situations. If the athlete has a healing injury, or a position/movement path that is painful, we can alter the body position and movement, or utilize only a portion of the range of motion. I typically call these types of adjustments orthopedic workarounds. Instead of not training, you find a way to work around the problem area and keep the training habit, as well as some conditioning, alive. This is so important in Lifetime Athletes who invariably will have issues and who tend to be profoundly affected by downtime in a negative manner. Finding a way to be successful and consistent with training is essential.
We can adjust workouts to accomodate orhopedic issues and we can also adapt them to align with ability levels. Additionally, we can modify workouts both proactively and reactively.
A proactive workout adjustment might look like scaling up workload to take a somewhat intermediate session to the advanced level to match the trainee’s ability. Or it could involve a mini-taper in which we knock down intensity and volume by 20-30% each for a few sessions in order to be fresh and ready for a big weekend golf or backpacking event. These are examples of circumstances where we don’t really need to blow up the whole training program and recycle everthying toward an absolute peak. This is more of an adjustment because something tasty and attractive came up on the radar and we responded reflexively.
A reactive workout adjustment typically happens at the front end of the session. You’re getting ready to go, setting up, and starting your prep work. But the body says it’s feeling a little stiff, tired, and sore. Sometimes these sensations just fade away and you proceed with business as usual. But other times you know you need a lighter session that facilitates recovery, yet you want to stay with the system and do some of the programming. If you are stiff, spend more time on the warmup. If you are sore, back off the intensity. If you are tired, you need less total volume and duration. In our coaching relationships we address these things quickly and easily. However, any athlete can become a bit more instinctive in the application of science.
So there you have it. No workout program is written in stone. Nor should it ever be. The shapeshifting, ass-kicking BEAST known as The Lifetime Athlete always finds a way to create the win.