The client has a long training history so knows the gym fairly well although has had an extended period off due to a complicated child birth. She has been working with a Physio, focusing on her pelvic floor and mild diastasis recti and is now ready to get to unrestricted exercise.
Her primary goal was weight loss and toning so the focus of her programme was a combination of weight training for hypertrophy and cardiovascular (CV) training for fat loss. The purpose of this was to create a sustainable calorie deficit, for fat loss while promoting muscle growth to increase her lean mass.
She was already doing interval training (IT) classes with friends on specific days and wanted to continue with this so her resistance training (RT) and training week was designed around this. As detailed below, her week included 2 x full body RT sessions and 2 x IT sessions, totalling 90 mins of vigorous cardiovascular training, which is in line with UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines (Department of Health & Social Care, 2019).
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Full Body RT | BodyCombat (IT) | Yoga | Full Body RT | Gym Floor IT | Long Walk | Rest |
I was happy for her to continue with her IT because it supports her main goal but primarily because she enjoys it and is therefore more likely to adhere to it. IT is effective in promoting fat loss, even in sedentary women with a normal weight range (Kordi, Choopani, Hemmatinafar & Choopani, 2013; Viana et al., 2019). As she has not done any CV training for over 6 months, IT is a good option as shorter bouts will allow her to train harder for longer, allowing for increased calorie burn during her workout and a small increase after through excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) (Greer, Sirithienthad, Moffatt, Marcello & Panton, 2015; Tucker, Angadi & Gaesser, 2016). Compared to continuous training at the same intensity, blood lactate accumulation during IT is much lower, allowing for sustained workouts at a higher intensity (Bangsbo, 2011). Low-moderate intensity continuous training was made an option after her RT sessions using either a treadmill or elliptical. This was to offer her a relaxing way to destress and also to recover from the RT session by reducing lactate levels (Lum, Landers & Peeling, 2010), while increasing overall weekly energy expenditure for the week without the risk of overtraining.
Her RT programme was focused around hypertrophy to facilitate a higher % of overall lean mass, giving her the toned physique she wanted. Also, as this is her first macrocycle, it will act as a general preparedness phase following her prolonged period away from RT before she starts working toward her Deadlift strength goal. Her strength testing was to establish a 10 rep max, which was achieved using an RPE of 8 (Borg, & Noble, 1974). I didn’t feel 1 rep max testing was appropriate or safe because of the weaknesses that remain following child birth and pregnancy.
A linear programme was used for its simplicity and to allow for weekly progressions in load to utilise “muscle memory” on her return to resistance training (Gundersen, 2016). Each phase has a taper or de-load week on week 4 where volume is reduced to optimise supercompensation and prevent overtraining (Schoenfeld, 2010). Multiple sets were used, ranging from 3-9 per muscle group per session. Compared to single sets, multiple sets have been shown to lead to greater muscle protein synthesis and anabolic signalling resulting greater hypertrophy (Krieger, 2020)
In the sessions, a rep range of 8-12 was used to create metabolic stress while maintaining enough mechanical tension to promote hypertrophy (Schoenfeld, 2010). Tempo is used with each exercise to encourage slow controlled movements for injury prevention on returning to weight training. Also, there is a focus on eccentric loading to promote exercise-induced muscle damage, leading to satellite cell stimulation to further support hypertrophy (Krieger, 2020).
As her time is limited and she can only commit to 2 RT sessions per week, her sessions needed to incorporate full body. Primarily compound exercises were selected, which included 3 x lower, 2 x push, 2 x pull and 2 x Core. The client was provided with a warm up routine to be done before our sessions which included a pulse raise, using full body movements such as walking, elliptical or rower. Muscle activation, focused around her hips, upper back and shoulders to support in the correction of muscular imbalances (Distefano, Blackburn, Marshall, & Padua, 2009). Finally, mobilisation through dynamic stretching of the full body. Potentiation was not used in this phase as explosive movements need to be avoided due to weaknesses in pelvic floor and core. Furthermore, any load beyond an RPE of 8 was not encouraged in this phase.
The training programme was designed for the purpose of this assignment as my existing client base were not available for filming due to lockdown. My other client programmes were not suitable for Louisa so made it bespoke to her. With family commitments and other assignments there hasn’t been an opportunity to deliver much of the programme so the recorded session was week 1, session 1. Because of time restrictions with recording I did not include Push Up on Knees and Bird Dog in the video. Also, I sped up the video during sections where I was changing equipment, repeating myself of counting reps.
I felt the session went well, Louisa has completed her warm prior to starting and counted her own reps which allowed us to focus on coaching the different exercises. More time was taken with the coaching during the first session to ensure correct technique was understood and achievable in future sessions, especially those unsupervised. Although I had my programme on my iPad nearby, I worked off memory which led me to ask for the wrong rep range on some of the bodyweight exercises, a mistake I realised on reflection.
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Department of Health & Social Care. (2019) UK Chief Medical Officers’ Physical Activity Guidelines. [Online] Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/832868/uk-chief-medical-officers-physical-activity-guidelines.pdf [accessed 28 April 2020].
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