This is going to be direct; you need a plan. We have heard it repeatedly, “fail to plan, plan to fail”. The same holds true for the sports performance world.
Why?
Structure: Like anything, without structure, we tend to wander, which will lead to performing exercises that are available, convenient and/or comfortable. Doing so will not give you the best chance at improving. There are a lot of boxes to check when it comes to human performance–see list below. By shooting from the hip day to day a lot of these will fall through the cracks.
- Sprint
- Jump
- Squat
- Hinge
- Push
- Pull
- Core
- Carry
- Nutrition
- Recovery
Weaknesses: We all have them. Frankly these are the exercises and/or movements we sometimes do, but tend to avoid due to ego, embarrassment or fear of failure. Without a plan, these weaknesses will be easy to avoid, but with a plan, they will likely be sprinkled in throughout, not giving you much of a choice but to perform them, and convert them to strengths.
Progressive Overload: A way of consistently waving (volume, weight, intensity, density & exercise selection). It’s clear cut across the board in life. The only way to get better at something is to consistently do it, using slight progressions. When it comes to performance, there are different ways to progress.
- Volume – the total amount of physical work performed in a workout session.
- Weight – the increasing or decreasing of weight
- Intensity – the amount of energy expended (75% -> 80%) weight, running intensity…etc.
- Density – the amount of work performed in a unit of time. (if you perform the same workout back to back weeks but finish one in an hour and the next in 50 minutes you essentially did the same work in less time; increasing your density)
- Exercise Variation – Progressions and regression of exercises (split squat -> RFE split squat)
Having a plan will likely encompass most of the above progressive overload options, if not you are on a maintenance program (Orange Theory, Barrys..etc). There is nothing wrong with those if your goal is to sweat, feel the burn and maintain. To me that’s not human performance.
Those of you struggling to find a plan feel free to hop on either of these to help get you started
Any questions, shoot me a DM @cm1_Performance on Instagram
With strength,
Colin Masterson
Owner – CM1 Performance
“Creating the Best Athletes”