The “Program”
NYC Personal Trainers and Strength & Conditioning Coaches, we’ve all been a part of it, the on going research for the holy grail, the “Perfect Program”. Unfortunately, there is no such thing but with a strong foundational knowledge and coaching skill we can get close.
General to Specific
Whatever your goal is, whether its for sports performance training or to get super shredded, the premise is all the same. This means you start from a general phase, aka base, to specific- “GENERAL – SPECIFIC”.
General to Specific Programming for an American Football Player
Take for example a football player (of whatever skill level-NFL, Collegiate, Highschool), let’s specifically look at the Wide Receiver (WR). The WR will have his off-season, Pre-Season, In-Season, with some variations but for simplicity let’s keep it as is.
The off-season is focused on building the athlete up, the initial stages is to get them healthy, work on their disfunction’s, build on their strengths etc… than you keep building up their general strength, work capacity, mobility, and flexibility, as the pre-season gets closer and closer, they’ll start to work on more movement drills- i.e. routes, blocking, more skill position, and hand/eye coordination work.
As it gets closer into the pre-season you’re doing more work with the quarterback and other WR’s to keep building rhythm with the team and getting your body adjusted to the specific demands of your position. When pre-season hits in, you’ll start to get used to being hit, speed of the game, etc… And as the in-season has approached, you’re spending less time in the weight room and more on the field, in the film room, honing in on the SPECIFICS of your game.
You get the point, it’s GENERAL-SPECIFIC. The example of an Olympic Weightlifter would be working on his general capabilities, such as strength/power through squats, pulls, and power position movements. As it get closer to competition, they’ll focus very SPECIFICALLY on their sport movement= Snatch, Clean & Jerk, and most likely cut out auxiliary movements in the program workout.
Across the Board:
Whatever your sport or position and whatever program method you choose, the foundation of the program is still based of this simple but effective philosophy “General to Specific”.