Forming the formless

What is the single greatest exercise programme for achieving all our fitness goals, whatever they may be?

Those who have attempted to follow extremely detailed routines have either failed to keep up with the volume of training… or forced to make modifications of some sort- Matthew Muscat Inglott

That’s the billion euro question. Indeed, it is extremely difficult for most to answer with any sort of conviction. When I was asked this question most recently however, I responded with what seemed to be the most logical answer at that particular time: the best programme of all is perhaps to have no programme.

OK, maybe it’s finally happening; maybe I’m going just slightly mad.

When we take a closer look, however, at the traditional approaches of exercise science to engineer the most perfectly planned long-term training strategies for optimum performance, maybe it’s not that mad after all.

Imagine if we existed for the sole purpose of exercising. Imagine we lived in a place where we would find no distractions, are fed exactly the right food required to sustain our efforts, given exactly the right supplementation to that food, and had our entire daily routine structured exclusively around carefully planned training sessions, including treatments like massage and hot baths to assist in rest and recovery.

There are indeed such places in this world, but unfortunately they are reserved for the sole use of professional athletes, while the rest of us must continue to toil amid a daily routine of work, family commitments, financial restraint, interrupted or low-quality sleep, and squeezing workouts into the little time that is leftover, whenever that may be.

While the professionals may indeed respond to carefully-planned training schedules, just like machines, unfortunately the rest of us do not share that same luxury. What happens if you manage to keep up with a high volume, percentage-based programme for three months or so, and just before the planned climax of your cycle – when you must attempt a new personal record, or a particularly challenging workload – you suffer a missed night’s sleep due to unforeseen circumstances, you experience a dilemma in your personal life, or fall badly ill?

What happens when your programme says you must go light on a particular day, but you wake up feeling on top of the world like you can move mountains?

Of the many clients and amateur athletes that have passed beneath my humble gym-wing over the years, those who have attempted to follow extremely detailed and structured long-term routines have, most of the time, either failed to keep up with the volume of training, frequently missed targets, suffered injury or illness along the way, and have ultimately been forced to make modifications of some sort.

So if we usually need to modify such programmes anyway, then why not adopt an approach to training that embraces the concept of modification and fluidity in the first place?

If we could completely control everything that happens in our lives and all our moods and feelings, then a completely controlled training programme would certainly be a logical continuation.

Unfortunately for most of us however, this is unrealistic.

If we simply cannot completely control the numerous outside factors that have so much bearing on our workouts, then why continue resisting or refusing to acknowledge this fact of life? Let us embrace it instead, and adopt a more flexible approach to our training that aligns itself to your personal life instead of opposing it.

Most of the programmes we find online are modelled on those used by professional athletes or bodybuilders. Since such people usually have access to training luxuries we don’t, it is reasonable to assume we must seek a different approach.

Does this mean you cannot ever reach a great standard in your fitness or chosen sport?

Certainly not. Because when you train in alignment with yourself rather than against yourself, you will find your progress far more dramatic than your peers who struggle with impossible routines. Overtraining and the associated forced lay-offs due to injury and illness are the most destructive forces for your fitness or sporting goals.

Imagine you could instead make continuous incremental progress towards your goals without interruption. However small your steps, unless you give up along the way you will eventually reach where you want to go.

Let us strive instead for a training philosophy rather than a training programme. Here are some guidelines; be efficient, as intense as possible given the conditions in which you will train on any given day, allow ample time for rest and recovery and above all, be fluid and adaptable.

We know that 45 minutes to an hour is a productive timeframe for a workout. Any more than that and your concentration drops off, stress hormones begin circulating in your blood stream, and a greater dent into your resources is etched. All these factors will lead to overtraining if repeated frequently enough.

Fill your workout time with the most efficient and productive exercises pertinent to your goals without wasting time with inefficient, non-specific, energy-sapping movements. Start from the most important exercises of all while your energy levels are at their highest, and work through to the less important.

Work out on non-consecutive days, always allowing a rest day for your body to recover and overcompensate. Be flexible with your intensity. Find the resistance or difficulty that is challenging on an average day and make this your baseline.

When conditions outside the gym are bad, dip under your baseline and when conditions are good, push yourself beyond it, according to how confident you feel.

If you get all this right, your good days will become far more frequent than your bad ones, and your energy levels will soar.

Most importantly of all, strive for quality over quantity. Don’t perform countless ineffective movements just to amble through some arbitrary quantity of prescribed training; every single repetition must be as close to perfection as you can get.

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