From custom workout plan to personalized medicine

A custom workout plan and personalized medicine are just two out of hundred other ways to emphasize the significance of serving your unique needs.

What makes us unique?

Personal state of awareness is on top of the list. Your uniqueness is tied to your state of awareness and not mine or someone else’s.

We all have more or less the same physical structure. Our head is usually on top, and our feet are usually at the bottom.

We have the same basic needs for shelter and food. We have the same deeper desires for companionship and love.

These do not make us unique.

Whatever that unique element is for us, it is worth recognizing and expressing. Ultimate customization and personalization is part of that process.

Let me take you through a custom workout planning process as an example of linear progression periodization training.

Linear Progression Periodization Training

Personalized workout plan using this type of progression includes:

1. A clear personal goal
2. Consistent application of effort to reach it
3. Tracking and organizing efforts to achieve better results faster

Without your goal, your consistent effort and your desire to get better results for your effort, there is very little value in discussing periodization training.

The discussion of techniques and plans must come after goal setting and a personal agreement to consistent effort.

If goals are not clear and obstacles prevent consistent effort, the custom plans must begin with clarigying goals and understanding the nature of those obstacles.

Let me give you a couple of examples many of you deal with at some level. Even that level is a subtle and secret desire within your heart that whispers, “I wish I could…”

Imagine an event coming up.

It could be summer around the corner, a job interview, a reunion, a company event, a wedding or a social get together.

These events require increased fitness level just like an athletic competition. For many of you that I have worked with over the years, the intensity of looking fantastic in a dress was much greater than any athletic competitions.

Once the desire, the date and challenges are identified, a plan that includes progression enters the picture.

How does linear progression periodization training help?

Periodization helps you break down your steps into segments or periods.

You can focus on muscle size and endurance first, and as you progress, you shift your attention to strength and power. Each period could be around 2 to 3 weeks.

There is no confusion in periodization between strength training and endurance training phases. Each phase is clear to you and your trainer. The power clarity brings can only be experienced. It borders on supernatural.

Progression helps you to track your actions and move forward toward your goal.

Spending energy doesn’t matter how exhausting, is not how you measure progress.

Ever seen a dog chasing his tail? Talk about spending a lot of energy going in circles.

Linear in this case means that you keep everything constant and gradually and continuously increase only your training intensity which is the amount of weight you lift during each exercise.

For example, you begin with doing 3-5 sets of squats with 8-12 repetition in each set.

You do the same thing in week one, week two, three, four, five, etc.

The only thing that changes is how much load you use in each session.

You can begin with just bodyweight, and then you add 20 pounds, 30, 40, etc.

You need to time this progression in a way that by the day of your event, you are on top of your game.

This is a strength training example.

You can use the same principles to other fitness goals like losing weight. A weight loss example would be to go from burning 50 calories per workout to 500 calories per workout.

Part of this process is to work within the higher levels of your capacity.

You begin at around 70% and then increase your efforts to reach over 95% of your capacity which has been increasing as you progress.

You need to be aware of your changing capacity. If you underestimate your capacity and work below it you don’t get the results you are looking for. If you work above your capacity, you risk over-training setbacks and injury.

Again we return to the question of awareness.

Are you continuously aware of your capacity; are you in tune with your physical parts to recognize the difference between fatigue, dehydration or laziness?

From a trainer’s point of view, there are tests that could give you a snapshot. Tests like one rep max that we’ll cover later.

These tests do not replace your awareness. For now, consider these questions.

Could you think of any significant success in life that doesn’t depend on your degree of awareness?

Shouldn’t your workouts be a part of the process of expansion of awareness that benefits all parts of your life?