Why Most Group Training Programs Don't Work!

This is something that I have to bring up because it’s been bothering me for quite some time now, as I’ve been seeing this more and more lately.

One of the KEY components, and one that I feel is greatly overlooked when it comes to an effective exercise regimen, is program design. I’ve noticed a trend with a lot of trainers lately where the focus has been more on “beasting” or trying to whip the heck out of their clients, instead of focusing on putting together an actual longterm program designed to keep producing positive results.

I see this trend all across the board in the fitness industry, but more so with group training classes. One of the main reasons for this is that most group training classes are “pay-as-you-go” or “come when you can be bothered”, essentially meaning that the trainer never really knows who’s going to be there, especially in the longterm. This usually results with the workouts being put together an hour or so before the class has started, and usually with random exercises that might as well have been pulled out of a hat, or worse yet...the trainer makes up the workout as they go!

How is someone who participates in a group training class, as the one described above, expected to see longterm success if the trainer running the class can’t even tell you what you’ll be doing tomorrow, let alone in a week, 2 weeks, etc? That just doesn’t make sense to me, I find it a bit irresponsible, and that’s how a lot of people end up getting injured.

How are people supposed to continually progress if there isn’t any progression built into the program? Don’t get me wrong, a “beasting” session is good and fun every once in a while, but if you’re doing this day in and day out, then your results are going to yeild diminishing returns much sooner than if you were participating in a well designed program.

That’s why I’m a STRONG believer in a program that has a definitive start and end date, opposed to those “pay-as-you-go, come as you please” programs. That way, as a fitness professional, I know who I can expect in my classes and I know exactly how to properly periodize the workouts over X amount of days, weeks, months, whatever the case may be.

Now when I say “periodize”, I mean scaling up or scaling down the intensity of the workouts when necessary. This is done by changing the work volume, rest times, time under tension, exercise combinations, among other things. All of which is designed to have you continually moving towards your goals and limiting plateaus, burnout / overtraining, injury, etc.

So as you can see, it takes quite a bit of thought and planning when putting together a successful longterm program. It’s definitely not something that should be thrown together in a matter of a few minutes or off-the-cuff. Everything in your workout should mean something in the grand scheme of things and shouldn’t just be thrown in because the trainer needs to fill a few minutes due to being underprepared.

If you’d like more information about a well thought out workout program that’s designed to keep you continuously progressing towards your health and fitness goals, please feel free to contact me at any time. You can also get more info by checking out our website at www.healthyfitbootcamp.com.

PS - I can’t lie, up until a few years ago I was one of those trainers that took pride in making people throw up and tried to kill everyone I trained. But I like to think of that time in my fitness professional life as my “Naive Era”. However, I have since grown as a fitness professional, and have now moved on to what I call my “Enlightened Era”. ;)

PPS - I look forward to helping you achieve your health and fitness goals soon!

Your friend in health,

Rich Rodriguez

Healthy Fit Boot Camp

Certified Fitness Trainer

Specialist in Sports Nutrition

rich@healthyfitbootcamp.com

www.healthyfitbootcamp.com

(925)586-7473