Progress & Programs
By: Jeremy Warner
Do you feel like you are making progress towards your fitness related goals? Do you feel like you need to try that other program that always works for your friend? Well is the program actually to blame for your lack of progress or are you just not putting in the work?
Programs written for groups of people can be as generic as the population of the world is diverse, or actually designed for a specific population, for example children, elderly, or elite athletes. In the instance you do not fit into one of these categories, you should probably not follow that particular program.
Believe it or not, men and women could also have differing programs. A recent study conducted by an esteemed strength coach actually tested the loads, reps, rest, and frequency of weightlifting on the different sexes finding that women could lift more often, a higher percentage of their 1RM for reps, with less recovery time then their male counterparts. That’s right! Women lifting more then men! Relatively speaking of course.
The most important thing to consider with any program is how well you are following it? Did you change the work and rest days? Are you doing extra running on the side? Added an extra set because you felt good? Well then you are not doing the program. Tweak your nutrition, your amount of sleep each night, your mobility work but do not alter a program written for a goal you are trying to accomplish. How can you judge the effectiveness of that program if you decided to alter it?
In CrossFit, and every other experiment, to judge effectiveness we need observable, measurable, and repeatable data. Without that we are merely taking shots in the dark. Give a program the respect it deserves, no matter what it is, or who wrote it by seeing it out until the end. The idea of squatting heavy everyday sounds like destruction to some, but let me tell you there is a book titled squat everyday that covers exactly that, and I am not talking about air squats either! Morale of the story, commit to the program, respect the journey, put in the work, then weigh the results. See you on the platform!!
