The Basic Principles of Training

Why Read?

Do you want to understand the basic principles of training to help progress your own program for whatever you are trying to achieve? In the following information, I’ll go over all the basic principles of training - Structure, Volume, Frequency, Intensity, and Progressive Overload - and provide you with actionable ways to integrate this information into your own training.

Structure

Structure of a program is important. It means that there is a clear goal, schedule, plan, and specific actions to get you to achieve your goal. This structure can be broken down by days of the week, meaning when and how many times a week will you train. It can also be broken down by when during the day you will devote time for training. However, the structure of training starts with a goal. With a clear goal it is much easier to develop your training structure. For example, your goal may be to run a 5k in two months. That goal outlines an action (a 5k) and a timeframe to achieve it (two months). This type of goal with a clear action and timeframe will help you structure your training program because you understand what action you must complete and by when you must complete it.

The second aspect of structure is to understand where you are in terms of how close you are to achieving your goal. If you would like to run a 5k but have never ran before, then your training structure will look different from someone who has been training for years and would like to run a 5k. Beginners and people who are advanced have to structure their training differently to promote the best outcome for their specific experience, knowledge, and goals. For instance, as a beginner, your training structure will begin easier, you will train less often, and it will start with a different focus than someone who is advanced. It is important to understand what level of experience and knowledge you are at in your specific training to help develop your training structure. Your level of knowledge is important because if you are a beginner, then you may not understand what type of training is most effective for you as you have not experienced the training and how your body reacts to it yet.

Volume

Volume is the amount of work you perform over a period of time. If we are using a week in the structure of our training program, then volume is the amount of work you do over the course of the week. Depending on your training work includes the number of repetitions, sets, and weight you lifted, the distance you ran, biked, or swam or some other variable associated with your specific training. Volume is an important metric because it shows you how much work you are doing and it is a variable to measure and increase over time. If you are slowly increasing your volume about 5-10% each week, you will see progress in your training. Similar to structure, with volume it is important to understand your level of experience. For instance, an advanced lifter may need to do more volume than a beginner to facilitate progress.

Frequency

Frequency is the number of times you perform a certain activity over a period of time. Again, if we are looking at a week as our timeframe, frequency would be the number of times you worked out your legs, ran, or swam in one week. Frequency is another variable to measure progress and to determine how often you need to perform an action to effectively progress towards your goals. Frequency often goes along with volume, as the more you perform an activity the more volume you typically do. Similar to volume, understanding your level of experience is important.As a beginner, you can start with less frequency to allow you to have more time to recover.

Intensity

Intensity is the level of difficulty of an activity. For instance, your one-rep max squat is a greater intensity than a set of 12 squats at a lighter weight. Your goals, along with your level of experience, will determine the level of intensity you should be training at. Experimenting with different intensities is a good way to figure out which intensity you respond the best to.

Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is how you will progress in any type of training you do. It is gradually increasing your training over time. Progressive overload works with the previously mentioned principles: volume, frequency, and intensity. For instance, for week 1, your training program calls for you to do three sets of five reps on squats at 135 lbs, twice a week. To implement progressive overload, next week, you will do three sets of 5 reps at 150 lbs, twice a week. You see in this example that your volume in week 2 went up from week 1 as you did the same amount of reps, sets, and frequency of squats, but the weight you used went up from 135 lbs to 150 lbs. This is progressive overload. You are gradually increasing your training to promote growth. Through putting your body through progressively harder and harder training, it will adapt and improve.

The Relationship Of Volume, Frequency, and Intensity

Volume, frequency, and intensity are crucial for any training program. However, you cannot have high levels of all three at the same time as it increases your chance of injury. Injury is the worst detriment to progress. The key is to manipulate these three principles in a way that best suits your specific training goal. For example, if intensity is very high, the frequency can be high only if the volume per session is low or moderate. Two of the three can be relatively high, but all three cannot. It is also important to keep at least one or two of these relatively moderate or high, otherwise you will not be training as effectively as you could. Here are some additional examples:

• Low training volume + low training intensity = you are not training hard enough.

• Low training intensity + high training volume = good for muscular endurance.

• High training intensity + low training volume = good for strength.

• High training intensity + high training volume + high frequency = risk of injury.

Actions For You to Take Now

• Set a Goal: Think about what are the demands of your goal (i.e., if you are powerlifting then focus your training on strength).

• Think again about what level of experience you have regarding your goal. Are you a beginner, intermediate, or advanced? If you are a beginner, then you can start training with relatively less intensity, volume, and frequency.

• Begin to think about your first week of training. You will want to have a relatively low amount of volume so that you can get used to the training, feel good after each session, and start building the confidence and momentum to keep training week after week.

• Think about how much time you have during your week and determine how much time you have to devote to training. The answer to this can help you determine your frequency of training.

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