For us as athletes we are always striving to drive our performance to new heights, we obsess over the smallest details that will allow us to get most out of our training and to maximise our results. For many individuals, they believe the way to achieve this is by finding the next product or a new secret technique but, sometimes less is more! The belief that all improvement takes is a little more work along with some extra blood and tears is a frame of mind that is prevalent within the lifting community but, just because some is good DOES NOT mean more is better. Sometimes it is not a lack of work that holds back progress but a lack of structured recovery, that is why today I wish to explore the importance of deloading and the place it should hold within your programming.

First things first, what classifies a deload and how should they be structured? A deload is defined as a pre-determined or self-regulated period (usually a week), in which your volume or intensity is titrated to...

The reality for many of us is that we are not professional athletes. 

Training, although an essential part of life, can't often take the place of the highest priority over things like work, family and lifestyle and honestly, nor should it.

Training is a tool we use to drive positive health outcomes and work towards our strength or fitness goals, and for some of us to make that happen, it has to be relegated to the early morning shift, where you can steal a bit of free time.

For many, including myself, the struggle has always been making early morning training feel as productive as training later in the day, especially if you are hitting heavy compound work or sessions of a high load or intensity.

Questions like to eat or not to eat, how to get moving as fast as possible and how to manage your time effectively are all things I want to give you the answers to today!

Setting routines and food choices

Half of the battle regarding early morning movement is setting clear...

How long should a program stay the same?

For many athletes and coaches their programs and exercises within it are like a revolving door. As soon as a movement gives the slightest hint of stall or the pre-thought out 4 weeks has concluded, it seems there is a complete teardown and rebuild of the entire program's exercise selection. 

It is a habit which can become an easy pitfall to slowly leak possible progression over time. This is the problem which i wish to attack in today's instalment of coach zac writes things on the internet, how often should a program change? How often should you change movements and when do you know it is the correct time to do so on a per athlete basis. WELL, keep scrolling to find out. 

To set the precedence, for me how I would visualise a program at its base form, (which includes things like rep schemes, your main lift variations and your adherence to basic training principles) is like the foundation and scaffolding of a building. Before anything...