Planning your ‘My Fitness File’ Training

Your program is a direct result of your profile. It contains your weaknesses at a higher frequency than your strengths. The type of sessions, as well as the frequency of sessions differs for each profile type. These sessions are broken down in a continually repeating 18 session cycle. The actual sessions will change every cycle, but the session types will remain the same to ensure the maintenance of the bias.

The sessions are programmed in a particular order. This order contains an even spread of sessions to ensure that the application of a stimulus occurs at a high enough frequency to ensure progress and improvement. The balancing and cycling of sessions maximises training volume while minimising the chances of overtraining. To this end, for best results, sessions should be completed in the order programmed. Exceptions can be made when required to complete multiple sessions in one bout of exercise.

The rate at which you progress through your cycle depends on your experience as an athlete, how much time you have to train, how well you’re recovering and your level of ambition for improvement. Sessions can be grouped together and completed in one bout of training, so 18 sessions doesn’t necessarily mean 18 bouts of training. Extremely high level athletes who complete multiple bouts of training in one day may complete the cycle in one week (this is an extreme and while top athletes may handle this volume we definitely do not recommend any quicker than this). Social athletes will still experience gains by completing the 18 sessions over six weeks (three sessions per week).

There are certain guidelines you should adhere to when grouping multiple sessions into one bout of training.

• Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, Olympic Lifting Drills and Weighted Bodyweight session types should always be completed at the beginning of a bout of training. Similarly, if your trainable weaknesses comprise Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting or Weighted Bodyweight, this should be completed at the beginning.
• Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting and Olympic Lifting Drills sessions should not be completed in the same bout of training.
• Heavy Barbell Metcons and Moderate Barbell Metcons should always be completed before Complete Relative Stamina and Trainable Weakness sessions involving bodyweight movements.
• Complete Relative Stamina and Trainable Weakness sessions involving bodyweight movements should be completed before Continuous Cardiovascular, Ping-pong Metcons and any Trainable Weakness sessions involving interval based running or rowing .

To explain how best to construct your training, we’ll examine a typical training cycle (18 sessions) and explore how your training plan would be constructed for athletes of varying levels of commitment/experience/time availability/ambition etc.

Option one: Casual athlete training every day, suitable for the time poor individual who can train every day but cannot devote much time to training (approx 30 mins per day). One session per day, sessions completed in order. 

• Monday: Session 1, Multi-Modal.
• Tuesday: Session 2, Power Lifting.
• Wednesday: Session 3, Ping-Pong Metcon.
• Thursday: Session 4: Olympic Lifting Drills.
• Friday: Session 5, Multi-modal
• Saturday: Session 6, Trainable Weakness (running intervals).
• Sunday: Rest

Option two: Casual athlete training three times per week. Multiple sessions in one bout of training (approx 60 mins per bout of training).

• Monday:
  Session 2, Power Lifting. 5 mins rest.
  Session 1, Multi-modal.
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday:
  Session 4, Olympic Lifting Drills.
  Session 3, Ping-Pong Metcon.
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday:
  Session 5, Multi-Modal.
  Session 6, Trainable Weakness (running intervals).
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

Option three: More serious athlete training once a day. Able to devote more time to training and recovery.

• Monday:
  Session 2, Power Lifting. 5 mins rest.
  Session 1, Multi-modal.
• Tuesday:
  Session 4, Olympic Lifting Drills. 5 mins rest.
  Session 3, Ping-Pong Metcon.
• Wednesday:
  Session 5, Multi-Modal. 5 mins rest.
  Session 6, Trainable Weakness (running intervals).
• Thursday:
  Session 7, Heavy Barbell Metcon. 10 mins rest.
  Session 8, Complete Relative Stamina.
• Friday:
  Session 9, Multi-Modal. 5 mins rest.
  Session 10: Practiceable Weaknesses.
• Saturday:
  Session 11: Olympic Lifting. 5 mins rest.
  Session 12: Continuous Cardiovascular.
• Sunday: Rest

Option four: Elite athletes training multiple times a day. Long training history and previous adaptation to high training volume and intensity.