Designing Your Resistance Training Program

There are multiple things to consider when designing effective resistance training routines. Today we're going to look at the big picture. This includes making a program that works for your specific goals. All the variables and systems you select are going to be based on your needs.

1. Needs analysis

First, you're going to want to think about your overall athletic goals and how resistance training will help you reach your goals. RT programs should be built for your life, not the other way around. This is called a needs analysis. Ask yourself these questions.

• What specific muscles do I need to train for my sport?
• What are the joint angles I will be using during performance?
• Is my sport anaerobic or aerobic based?
• What is my injury history, and how will RT prevent future injury?
• What are the common sites of injury for my sport? (Fleck, Kramer 2014)

2. Program variables

Second, based on the needs analysis decide on program variables. Here is a list of common variables:

• Choice of exercise
• Whole-body, multi/single joint, structural
• Specific muscle
• Exercise order
• Largest muscles first
• Hardest technique first
• Upper to lower, arm to leg
• Lower to lower, upper to upper, arm to arm, leg to leg circuit format
• Sets, Intensity, Rest

Focus	Repetitions	Sets	Resistance	Rest
Strength	1-4	4-8	85-100%	2 - 4 minutes
Power	5-8	3-6	70-80%	1.5 - 2 minutes
Endurance	8-12	2-4	50-70%	45 - 90 seconds

In Strength Basics (p. 35). Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.

Choice of exercise: How do you know which exercise to select when there are thousands of possibilities? This will tie back to your needs analysis. RT exercises can be altered in many ways. By changing joint angles (turning the hand or foot in, out, or straight) different muscle fibers will be activated (Tesch and Dudley 1994).

Aside from altering individual exercises, all lifts can be generally categorized by the following terms: primary, assistance, structural, multi-joint and single joint. Primary exercises (squat, bench press, clean) focus on major muscle groups while assistance exercises (bicep curl, knee extension) train mainly one muscle. Good programs mix both types for a full-body approach.

Structural exercises combine multiple muscle groups in one lift (deadlift, snatch) and are similar to multi-joint exercises that require more than one joint to move at the same time. Single joint exercises require movement at only one joint at a time (bicep curl). Chilibeck et al. (1998) note that multi-joint exercises may take longer times to teach, learn, and master. However, the payoff is definitely worth the extra effort. 

All sports require some sort of multi-joint movement, and athletes who train with multi-joint exercises may be able to produce more force, speed, and power giving them an advantage during sport. And while they may take longer to learn, multi-joint exercises may save time in the long run because they focus on more than one muscle group at a time, forcing more muscle fibers to adapt to change.

Exercise order: Conventional wisdom states that large muscles should be exercised before small, technical before easy lifts, alternate lower and upper-body lifts, weak areas before strong, power and Olympic lifts before all other exercises. However, recent studies have shown that athletes should emphasize the muscles they want to experience the most gains first in their program, as fatigue becomes more of a limiting factor as the session progresses.

Simao et al., 2010 examined 31 men from the Brazilian Navy Sergeants School over a 12 week period. The men were close in age, height, and weight. Additionally, none had participated in resistance training for the 6 weeks prior to testing.

Muscle thickness and strength were recorded at baseline and post-treatment. Results showed that exercises performed at the end of an exercise routine (regardless of size; large or small) suffered decreases in repetitions performed and increases in VO2 max indicating greater fatigue (Farinatti et al., 2009).

Bellezza et al., 2009, add to this study by suggesting that training muscles from small to large may positively influence exercise adherence in the beginning stages of a weight training routine. This is a particularly important finding for those new to resistance training who may have some apprehensions to training heavy.

Simao et al., 2010 conclude by stating that exercise goals matter most when picking exercise order. Instead of training large to small or small to large, the authors suggest picking goals and then choosing exercises that meet those goals to go first in a weight training routine. That way the muscles you want to experience the most growth in strength and muscle thickness actually experience those gains instead of suffering from overload.,,,

Sets: Sets are the completion of a certain amount of repetitions. Example: you complete 3 sets of 5 reps for the squat exercise. The total number of squats you completed is 15, with breaks after 5 single reps counting as a single set. During every session, you can complete a high, medium, or a low number of sets. As the number of repetitions increases the number of sets typically decreases.

Several studies have shown that multiple sets programs are superior to single set programs when it comes to building muscular strength (Paulsen et al. 2003; Rhea et al. 2002; Kramer et al. 1997; Marx et al. 2001).

Intensity: Intensity can be expressed as a percentage of your 1 repetition maximum. Let’s say your 1RM on the bench press is 100 lbs. If you lift 100lbs, you're exercising at 100% of your 1RM. For increased strength, athletes exercise between 85-100% of 1RM, for power 70-80%, and endurance 50-70%. Typically as the intensity increases the number of sets and reps decreases. As the intensity decreases, the number of sets and reps increase.

Rest: Rest between sets helps you reach specific goals and can be broken down to short, moderate, and long periods. Shorter rest periods (<60 seconds) result in a greater cardiovascular and metabolic response and are good for endurance programs (Kramer, Dziados et al. 1993). Moderate rest periods are 2-3 minutes and can be used for strength gains.

Longer rest periods (>3 minutes) allows you to complete more work and greater power for each set (Pincivero, Lephart, Karunakara 1997).

3. RT Systems

Third, decide on the type of program that makes sense for your goals and schedule. Common types include upper/lower body, push/pull/legs, and full-body programs.

SOURCES

1. Bellezza et al., 2009Farinatti P.T.V., Simão R., Monteiro W., Fleck S.J. (2009) Influence of exercise order on oxygen uptake during strength training in young women. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 23, 1037-1044
2. Chapter 4: Designing Your Program. (1996). In Strength Basics (p. 35). Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.
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