Progressing Your Fitness Program

The topic of this blog post is progression of your fitness program. One of the most common things I experience with my clients is that they sign up for a fitness program, go through an evaluation, get a written program tailored to their needs and then either don’t do the program on a regular basis or continue doing the same set of exercises over and over again. Both of these things are a recipe for failure and frustration in achieving your fitness goals.

Everybody who starts a fitness program has a level of fitness that is personal to them. That is why we do an evaluation before designing a program. This initial level is neither good nor bad; it just is what it is. It is only a starting point and, if you view it as that, you will have a much better chance of improving. By measuring this starting point your fitness professional is able to design a personalised program for you that will allow you to exercise without getting injured and will put you on the path towards a fitter stronger body.  Stronger bodies make it easier to make more repeatable golf swings.

Now that you have a program, we need to discuss why progression is so important. Good programs are designed to gradually progress your overall strength and fitness level.  As you complete exercises your body adapts to the load that is being put upon it and gets fitter and stronger. If you do not continue to make the load more difficult by lifting more weight or making the exercise more challenging you will tend to plateau and not see the gains for your effort. By gradually increasing the amount of weight you are lifting you will continue to challenge your body and it will continue to adapt and grow. This is the main reason why there needs to be a progression element to your fitness training program.

Another reason why you want to have a progression and change the element to your fitness training program is the fact that you want to challenge yourself and keep yourself interested in your training. It can be easy to become bored with your program if you are doing the same things over and over and you may become stale and lose the motivation to exercise and continue to achieve your fitness goals.  By monitoring and adjusting your program you will not get bored and will continue to stay motivated giving  you a much better chance of seeing improvement in yourself.

The pictures that are shown above are of the same golfer that I have coached in the past over a period of time. It clearly shows a drastic improvement in her ability to maintain a good bridge posture and an increase in her strength as she is able to add weight in the second picture. This golfer struggled to complete even basic, body weight, exercises when she first started training with me. However, through hard work and determination she gradually improved her ability to complete the exercises we prescribed for her. She slowly added more weight and made the exercise more difficult and she is now a very fit and strong golfer.

This is a classic example of the improvement you can make to your level of fitness and strength by persevering, being dedicated, working hard and applying the progression theory to your training.

Until next time,

Brent Davis