There are several key strength training principles that coaches and athletes should consider when creating and executing a strength training program. In the upcoming blog posts we will review three of these key principles: specificity, progressive overload, and individuality. We will discuss what each principle means and how they should be considered when constructing and executing a training plan. In other words, we will define the principles and review their practical application.
First, let’s discuss what principles are and why they are important. Principles serve as a set of guidelines when determining and implementing a course of action. They may not hold true across all situations, but they are a great starting point for making decisions. With strength training, individuals are presented many choices including repetition ranges, number of sets, types of exercices, and frequency of training. It is very easy to get lost in all of the different options. Guidelines help sort the better options from the less better options and provide us with an evaluation criteria. This is not about finding the perfect option, that search is futile, but rather its about finding a good option based on the individual’s goals. In the next post we will start by reviewing specificity.