Custom Programming Defined
by Paul Roberts
If you have had trouble getting or staying in shape because of your schedule (long hours, work stress, children, etc.) a custom written fitness & nutrition program is probably your best bet in terms of improving. This is true in terms of money & time. Similarly, if you have a compound injury (hips, ankles, shoulders, etc.) getting in shape can be challenging, and an off the shelf fitness program like P90X is just not going to work that well. Sand & Steel offer numerous ways to work within the confines of your schedule and restrictions.
One of the more valuable services we provide is our Triple Assessment System. This system comprises the Fitness Benchmark which informs us as to what areas of strength and conditioning you are strongest and weakest at. An InBody report provides us body composition and inflammation information. A nutrition assessment shows us what are the most important diet changes you need to make.
As a former big law attorney, I can appreciate the demands on your time. If you have a gym at home or work, we can use that to improve your fitness. Fitness programming is very complicated. In order for it to be effective you need to consider:
- Which movements to do
- What pairing of movements to do
- How long the rest periods should be
- Which modifications you should employ (hand position, eccentric movements, plyometric variations.)
- How many reps and sets you should do (21, 15, 9) v (10 x 5)
- How many days per week you should work out.
- Age, gender, body type, and ethnicity considerations.
If you have a compound injury getting in shape is challenging, and an off the shelf fitness program like P90X is just not going to work that well
Look online all you want, but there are no general answers to these questions. We have to custom design workout programs because every person is different. We carefully monitor client results and constantly upgrade our methodology based on what works and what doesn’t for our clients. We have a tremendous amount knowledge and experience when it comes to training and nutrition. We can easily write fitness programming for you to do 3-5 times a week.
But exercise is much more helpful when paired with nutrition. We can make a huge impact on your nutrition in as little as two hours a month. If your nutrition is slipping and you can meet us at Sand & Steel Old Town, we can help you with nutrition online via email and google spreadsheets (you just respond when you have time.)
So if you’re a person who has a tight time budget for fitness and nutrition, you need to make sure you maximize whatever time you do spend.
For that you need a custom plan. We do a free consultation for plan programming to go over:
- How many hours per week you can work out and at what location
- How many hours per week you work on your nutrition
- How many hours per week you can speak with us on the phone or video conference
- How many hours per week you can meet us in person (could be at your home, work, or of course at the S&S)
Ultimately, what we need to analyze is what is:
- Your current condition (which is what we use the triple assessment system for),
- What your goals are,
- How quickly you want to accomplish those goals, and
- How much resources (time & money) you can commit towards getting accomplishing those goals.
What we’ll do during our consultation is discuss items 2-4 in detail. We’ll listen to your responses and craft a program that meets all your requirements and expectations. While we do offer a number of off-the-shelf programs at Sand & Steel (like the Fitness Revolution), most of our clients request a custom program. We provide custom programming at no extra cost, because we are a results driven practice. Since our clients measure results in money & time, we build custom programs so that all the time our clients do spend is productive.