Program Design

Ok, here's is a basic version of the program design that we here at Nunn's Performance Training do with our clients.  Obviously, we will individualize each program as much as possible, but here is a basic overview of what we do. 

Our programs are basically divided up into four phases.  They are:  General Physical Preparedness (GPP), Hypertrophy, Strength, and Power.  Let's start with a brief describtion of each.

GPP - GPP is basically what it sounds like.  We are getting you physically ready to DO WORK!  With most beginners, this will consist of a bodyweight circuit like this:

Do as many rounds as you can in 30 minutes:
Bodyweight Squats x 20
Pushups x 20
Pullups x 20
Split Squats x 20

From there, we would progress to a plate circuit like this one.

After that, we would go to a blast circuit like this one.

The length of time an individual would stay in this phase is dependant upon his or her fitness level.  If the individual has a very high fitness level, they may only stay in it for one week.  More deconditioned people may stay longer.

Hypertrophy - Hypertrophy means an increase in cell size.  Basically, we are trying to increase the individuals muscle mass.  Each workout will typically have anywhere from 6 to 8 exercises while doing 40 - 60 reps of each one.  (4 sets of 12, 5 x 10, 6 x 8, ect.)  The exercises are all multi - joint or compound movements like pushups, overhead press, pullups, squats, deadlifts, ect. as we are generally limited to an hour with each client.  We must get the most "bang for our buck"....Sorry, this means that we rarely do bicep curls.

Strength - Strength is exactly what it sounds like.  We are trying to get the person to move more weight.  The benifits of being stronger are tremendous.  Not only when will being stronger help you at your daily activities, it will allow you to use more weight while doing GPP work and therefore burn more calories.  The exercises during the strength phase will be similiar to those in the hypertrophy phase, but the main difference will be that the sets and rep schemes will be significantly lower.  (5 sets of 5 to 5 sets of 1)

Power  - Some people call this reactive training, some call it plyometrics.  Whatever you call it, the main idea is that we want you to produce as much power at you can as quickly as possible.  We will typically use some sort of bodyweight squat jump or medicine ball toss during this phase.  The weight used will be between bodyweight and 20% of bodyweight.



So, a beginner will go through this program by spending anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks in each phase.  It'll look similiar to this:

Once a client has been through the program once, we change it up a little.  They will begin to do their combine the the Power, Strength, and Hypertrophy phases with the GPP phase.  This will allow them to burn more calories, speed up their metabolism, and allow for less rest time between exercises which equals MORE WORK BEING DONE!  This is done by incoperating a Tabata or Blast circuit at the end of the session.  So, it looks more like this:

 

So, there you have the very basic short version of program design at Nunn's Performance Training.