[Pain]

Personal Training 101: Four Steps to Maximizing Training Efficiency

by Charles I. Staley, B.Sc.

(Posted 10/5/96)

Since most personal training clients commonly pay for three one-hour
sessions weekly, a significant concern is "How can I design training
programs to be as efficient as possible?" Since a trainer's income depends
on his or her reputation, and reputations stand on results, all serious
trainers must concern themselves with efficiency. The following
suggestions should not be misconstrued as compromises, but as the best
way to train the majority of your clients. As they are based on sports
training (as opposed to bodybuilding) concepts, they are seldom used
today.

Step One: Make liberal use of multi-joint exercises. Multi-joint, or
compound exercises, allow you to train more muscle with less exercises,
which is the very definition of efficiency. Physical therapists will tell
you that compound movements are more "natural," and the strength gained
through such movements transfer better to real life activities.

Step Two: Minimize redundancy. I commonly see (for example) people
squat, then leg press in the same session. Both movements are essentially
the same, except squatting (for most clients) is more effective. If you've
put proper concentration and intensity into your squats, there's no need to
leg press. A recent article recommended doing standing behind the neck
presses, standing in front of the neck presses, seated behind the neck
presses, and seated in front of the neck presses for working the deltoid
muscle in a single session!

Step Three: Use one exercise per muscle group. Perhaps the most
inaccurate concept sprouting from the bodybuilding media over the past
few decades is the idea that one must "attack the muscle from all angles"
using a variety of different exercises. It's common to see trainees
performing bench presses, dumbbell flyes, incline presses, and pec deck
for the pectorals in a single workout. Bodybuilders (and those influenced
by bodybuilding) are the only athletes who will do this. While all these
exercises may target the pecs in slightly different ways, the difference
is minuscule. A more efficient approach is to pick an effective exercise,
put your heart and soul into it, and move on to the next muscle group.

Step Four: Prioritize. Where is it written that all muscle groups have to
be trained? If a client has great calves, skip them! Instead, concentrate
on muscle groups that really need the work. This saves lots of time and
energy.

Keep in mind that quality of effort has much more impact on results than
the number of exercises performed. In fact, the two concepts are
inversely correlated! Trainers should not worship the "covering all the
bases" approach, but instead, critically evaluate whether or not a given
exercise needs to be included. Such a "minimalist" approach usually leads
to fantastic results with less time spent in the weight room.

[Cricket_Fire]

Good article. I expecially agree with steps 1 and 3. Here is another one.

Step 5: The importance of diet. Alot of people I see in my gym don't gain alot (if anything). I obviously don't know the whole story, but I think it might be because of diet.

[ShutUPandLiFt]

Originally Posted by Cricket_Fire

Good article. I expecially agree with steps 1 and 3. Here is another one.

Step 5: The importance of diet. Alot of people I see in my gym don't gain alot (if anything). I obviously don't know the whole story, but I think it might be because of diet.

Your diet is more important then tranning actaully,,,no matter how much u lift if you don't eat correct you wouldn't grow and cut up.

[post]

Originally Posted by ShutUPandLiFt

Your diet is more important then tranning actaully,,,no matter how much u lift if you don't eat correct you wouldn't grow and cut up.

that can go either way bro
no matter how much you eat if you overtrain like a bitch then you are never going to grow-/ even on A properly implemented program you can still gain strength eating like shit, but mabye not as much muscle as you want.
training is just as important if not more important.

[bodydropped]

no such thing as overtraining, just under rested

[GoingBiG]

Originally Posted by post

that can go either way bro
no matter how much you eat if you overtrain like a bitch then you are never going to grow-/ even on A properly implemented program you can still gain strength eating like shit, but mabye not as much muscle as you want.
training is just as important if not more important.

I think the diet is the most important thing in bodybuilding, of course there aren't 1 thing that is but you get the idea, you can train very "wrong" and still put on a lot of gain as long as you have a good diet.

But it is of course a combination...