There is a lot of contradictory information in the fitness industry about what the best approach is. Trying to find the ideal generalized approach is like trying to find a bolt that fits on every screw, personalization matters. That is what justifies or even necessitates the use of a personal trainer. Cookie-cutter training programs that people often buy from celebrities or social media “experts” are only as valuable as their ability to increase your heart rate. This is likened to fad diets and is only good for ephemeral weight loss improvements while neglecting muscle growth.
Long-term body composition, maintaining health, increased functionality, aiding longevity, and improved quality of life. These are all addressed through building muscle and conscious training adaptations.
The risks of non-personalized programs
If one were to incorporate one of these non-personalized programs, then they may experience great success in the first mesocycle or 4-6 weeks. However, this progress is sure to come to a halt. This is due to the inherent lack of managing accumulating fatigue, addressing unique deficiencies, accounting for strengths, and reassessing the approach at particular milestones.
For example, if a client has a muscular imbalance between muscle groups, then a program that is not personalized to address this issue will exacerbate it. This will increase the risk of injury or even cause chronic pain from an overactive muscle group. This lack of personalization can get a lot more nuanced when talking about specific neural, mechanical, and metabolic specificities. This triad is the primary reason behind personalized fatigue management.
Let’s say that a client can only endure 30 sets in a workout before cortisol becomes too prevalent in the system. The cortisol begins its catabolic process of breaking down muscle proteins to turn them into glucose through gluconeogenesis so they can be used as energy.
Consequently, we must determine what the best allocation of these sets is. Perhaps this client has a great neural connection to their chest but a terrible connection to their shoulders. Since the chest experiences better contractions, regulates the metabolic byproduct more efficiently, and recruits more motor units synchronously. Knowing this we can allocate 8 sets to the chest and 12 sets to the shoulders.
This helps improve the motor learning of the shoulders and achieve all the sets required for the hypertrophy of both muscle groups. And all this without causing a systemic decrease in muscle mass.
Calculate your workout sets
The layman’s approach would be to add more total sets to the workout in hopes that this would increase muscle mass. That isn’t how it works, of course, for the aforementioned reasons.
If we don’t reallocate sets from the chest to the shoulders, then we are not paying only the cost of excess cortisol for that particular workout. We are also increasing the toll on the central nervous system. This is a large reason why many individuals experience a plateau so early in their training. They simply don’t have the information to form their workout routine accounting for all of these variables. Hence they get to a point where they are hopeless or think that they are doing enough in the gym to be “healthy.” In reality, making the wrong decisions during a workout can be quite unhealthy. This is caused by the relationship of stress to cortisol and the lingering effect of rampant fatigue.
Muscular strength vs. weight loss
I mentioned the cardiovascular benefit of other, non-personalized workout routines. I have seen many individuals in my career who have gone through significant weight loss. And they have managed it without a significant change to their body composition.
Prioritizing weight loss and merely increasing heart rate have a negative impact on their muscular strength. This also impacts muscular endurance, balance, mobility, etc.
If they were to emphasize increased muscle mass, they would have gained all these other health-related components of fitness. This while also increasing their base metabolism, creating long-term health, and making it much easier to keep the weight off.
Cardiovascular health is important, but it is another aspect of intelligent programming. Where we place it in the workout and the overall program is essential to achieving results. This certainly should also be addressed in its own segment of the workout or routine. And muscle growth should be addressed in a different, prioritized part of the exercise prescription.
