How do you plan your training or programs??

Today I would like to talk about the most important principle to make training programs. 

It is called the FITT principle

FITT Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type.

We need to think about all aspects when we make training plans and programs.

Frequency

It literally means how often you train. You might want to train 6times / week you might want to train 2time / week because you are busy. You might want to train 2times / week in the gym and 2times /week outside running. Your training program changes depending on how often you can or want to train. Even if you train 5times / week, you still have to think about how often you train each part of the body or each fitness aspect. Traditional bodybuilding training is 5day splits such as day1; chest, day2; back, day3 shoulder, day4, legs, day5; arms. If you are training for diet, you might train day1,3,5; whole body, day2,4; cardio. As you can see, even if you train the same “frequency”, each fitness aspect gets trained with a different frequency. 

 That is, you need to think about your goals and have to choose how often you train for the goals.

 

Intensity

  It means how hard(heavy, fast) you train. If you do resistance training, you usually use %1RM, RPE, or even Kg. if you do cardio, you use %VO2max,%HRmax, or even km/h. the problem of using absolute numbers such as kg, km/h is that it will be different intensity for individuals. 10kg might be light for you however it might be too heavy for somebody else. If you make a program for a person then it shouldn’t be a problem however, if you make a program for a group of people then it might be a problem. 

Time

Time means that when you train and how long you train.

It looks very simple. But it is also important. If you walk only 2minutes then it’s not going to be effective for diet on the other hand it might be enough for warm-up. You have to set the duration depending on your goals. If you know you are busy in the evenings then you might have to plan to train in the mornings. This is simple but very important to keep your training journey.

However, it is sometimes complicated. For example, if you train 2 times or more on the same day. Then you might train in the morning and again in the afternoon. You have to think about the effects of the training in the morning on the training in the afternoon. For example, you play soccer and train for the performance. If you do squats and legs training in the morning then you can really do practice soccer in the afternoon. You also have to think about the order of the exercises. If you do squat a lot on Monday then it might be hard for you to do deadlift on Tuesday or at least the intensity will go down.  Even within the same day, if you focus on squat performance, you might have to do squat as the first exercise of the day. So you need to think about when you train, how long you train and what order you train with.

Type

Type means what kind of training you do. It is very important to pick up the right exercises for your goals. Resistance training or cardio?? Machine training or free weights training?? HITT or long-distance running??

You need to pick up the right one because every kind of training has advantages and disadvantages. Everybody knows that squat is one of the best leg exercises then if you want to train legs you will do squat. However, the squat has so many variations such as half, full, narrow, wide, back, front, etc…. for example as I said everybody knows squat is a good leg exercise but some people do half-squat even though they want to train glutes(bum muscle). (it is known that deeper the better glutes activation )

If you train for powerlifting then you have to do deadlift but if you train for bodybuilding then you don’t have to do deadlift because there are so many other good exercises for body making. 

If you dont know what to do with your strength training , read this a swell

 

So this is the FITT principle.

You always have to consider all of them when you plan training and make programs