What do you think of this workout?

Quite possibly the most common question anyone who works as a personal trainer, strength or movement coach gets asked. It’s a curious question, because rather than ask said professional to design a training plan for you, you have asked them to provide an opinion on something someone else has designed.

My answer is normally along the lines of:

“Yes. Without prejudice or commitment, that is indeed a workout.”

This phrase “Without prejudice or commitment” is something that is hammered into all MoD project Engineers, to be used when talking to contractors. It basically means:

“No party can take anything I am about to say, or have just said, as a contractual obligation.”

Yes, I am saying that what you have presented to me is, in fact, some form of ‘workout’. Without any further information I cannot determine the usefulness of the aforementioned ‘workout’ for either yourself or for any other person. I am not denying or affirming that the ‘workout’ is either good or bad.

You see a singular workout is in fact one, mostly likely, 20 to 90 minute block of physical activity. Without the following things I cannot determine it’s usefulness.

1. Where you are now (movement wise, capability wise, etc)
2. Where you want to be (what is the goal?)
3. Obstructions and other nuisances

One of my own personal ‘workouts’ from my last block of training would be absolute useless to most people who aren’t me:

Friday
Super Joints Mobility Complex
Kettlebell Press (32kg) 6,5,4,4,3
Deadlift 4@120kg, 4@130kg, 2@150kg, 3@150kg, 5@130kg, 6@150kg
Weighted Pull Ups (+10kg) 6,6,5,4,3
TGU (32) 1/1 x 3
KB Snatch Practice (32kg) 4/4 EMOTM x 10 minutes

For anyone who followed that (and knows how heavy I am) realises that’s a hell of a lot of work and one hell of a stupid workout (weighted pull ups, deadlift and snatch on the same day?!?!). But if I pointed out that it is actually 4 workouts split across a day, with at least 5 minutes of rest between sets (except the TGU and Snatch) it starts to be a bit more realistic. Also, this is a part of a wider program with this particular workout being towards the ‘peak’ of the deadlift but the ‘trough’ for the snatch (and 32 kg is just ‘starting to get heavy’ for KB snatch for me). This was part of preparation for the Tactical Strength Challenge which is an event with a max. deadlift, pull up and kettlebell snatch, so now you start to see why this is the way it is (I was using the Friday as competition preparation for an event held on a Saturday, as I couldn’t use the Saturday). Trainers reading this also get bonus points for asking where are the squats? The answer to that is Tuesday and Thursday. A workout doesn’t necessarily have to be balanced across the movement spectrum, but a training program does (or does it?).

That workout would be quite impossible to do (properly) if it wasn’t split across 4 mini-workouts.

So, you are starting to see that context is very important to determining whether something is useful. Asking if this workout is ok, is like asking me if getting your mum a Babylon 5 box set for her birthday is a good idea. It might be great, or it might be terrible, but I don’t know your mother so can’t really comment (my own mother would like it, but prefer Deep Space Nine, we’re a dysfunctional family but somehow manage to cope).

So let’s break down how a professional would decide on a good training program for you. Using the travelling from A to B analogy they would:

Find out your goal (where are you going?)
Find out where you are in terms of body composition/movement screen/performance (where are you now?)
Find out when/where/what you are able to train (what mode of transportation do you have to get there?)
Teach you the movements/exercises (can you actually drive?)
Develop the plan (what is the route?)

Now we have a program that contains individual workouts! Given all of the same information one trainer could now provide an honest assessment on ta program developed by another.

Earlier in this piece I dropped an Easter egg about whether a program has to be balanced across all of the human movements. The correct answer is that the individual should be balanced across all of the human movements. If someone’s screen shows they are hyperkyphotic (the ‘Gollum posture’ from Lord of the Rings) I might not have them doing any traditional pressing movements. If they have a problem with their squatting pattern I might eliminate than in favour of crawling/rocking drills. To a trainer who doesn’t have their screening information the program might looked unbalanced, because it is. The client has moved to one end of a spectrum and we are trying to bring them back to the middle by deliberately unbalancing their program.

Context is King. Don’t judge until you have all of the facts and ask all the right questions.

Be fit, be strong, be happy.