You’ve all experienced days in training where you simply feel rough. You may try to crack on and get the session done as prescribed. In order to do this you may also shovel 4 scoops of your favourite pre-workout down your neck. Sure, you may have missed a few reps here and there but you got your session done, which is great, right? Well no probably not, the likelihood is you’ll spend the rest of the day tired and thinking about how poorly the session went. You may even find yourself feeling worse the next day? Having a flexible training program can help avoid days like these.
Flexible Training Programs
The idea behind a flexible training program is that it plans for thew bad days and gives you an opportunity to work around them. By doing this you won’t be tempted to complete sessions and end up misses reps and weight increases. To keep it simple a flexible program lays everything out weekly or monthly. From here you can essentially pick and choose which day you want to complete, depending on how you feel.
How Much Freedom Is Right?
Example of how to assess readiness – www.strongerbyscience.com/flexible-training/
It’s important to note that if you’re following a basic linear progression then a flexible program may be harder to follow. If you happen to follow a more varied program, you may benefit from more flexibility. A daily undulating program may call for various repetitions across days of the week. A flexible training programming simply allows more choice.
Again, keeping things basic, lets imagine an athlete has 1 power, 1 strength and 1 hypertrophy session within a week. The flexibility here is simple. As long as all 3 sessions are completed in the week, the order does not matter. Therefore, the lifter can assess how they feel and workout accordingly. It is likely the power day would be complete when energy is lowest and strength when highest.
Keeping Things Simple
While we could go down the route of flexibility of within larger training blocks, I am a firm believer in simplicity. If you’re not on a strict linear program it may be worth having a play with a flexible program. If your job requires high levels of physical activity you may need that extra day to recover. Working with clients Personal Training in Twickenham, London, the start of each session can dictate how the rest goes. If you’re feeling rubbish and I had heavy squats planned, it’s safe to say we’re not going to load you up and crack on!
