Doug LarsonEvery weightlifter needs a plan and a great program.
Without that continuous guidance and clear direction, you’re doomed to wander aimlessly around the gym for the duration of your lifting career.
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we emphasized the importance of following a weightlifting-specific program to help improve your technique and strength. But with countless programming options out there, where should you start? How can you be sure that a program is right for you?
First, a great program is more than just workouts.
The most successful athletes in the world don’t just workout. In reality, that’s just one small part of the equation when it comes to reaching peak performance.
A great analogy is to consider that workouts are just like farms. You can give someone an operational farm, and they can work the land as hard as they like, but that doesn’t mean they can grow food. In my case, I did only workouts for years. Sure, I made a little bit of progress, but I quickly stalled because I wasn’t doing everything necessary to maximize adaptation and performance.
It wasn’t until I started to implement better lifestyle and training habits overall, focusing primarily on nutrition, mobility and recovery, that progress began to accelerate. In hindsight, I wish I had implemented those changes and habits far earlier in my training career. But I was too busy believing that as long as I just kept doing the workouts, I would get better.
Is your program written for you?
What I didn’t know was that all the effort in the world couldn’t make up for the fact that those random workouts I found online weren’t written for me. They were for someone else, put together by a coach that I had never even met. They were for stronger athletes with loads more experience, better technique, and great mobility. I just wasn’t ready yet.
When someone provides you with just a workout, they are also assuming that you already know how to do everything else. You should already know how to warm-up, cool-down and mobilize, and how to eat to properly to fuel your body for the demands of training. You should already know how to perform every movement with the proper technique.
You even have to consider motivation. Many programs are written with the assumption that you already train with a group of other highly motivated lifters, and that you probably have a coach or someone close that can inspire you and hold you accountable. But, of course not every lifter has that luxury. In my experience, a lack of accountability, direction and guidance makes it far too easy to skip the tough work that you really should be focusing on.
With all of these factors at play, it should be no surprise if your “workouts” bring only inconsistent results, setbacks, frustration and injury, instead of consistent progress and bigger lifts on the platform.
Your program should make no assumptions.
You must cover all the necessary bases for success in weightlifting, there’s no way around that.
Your program must include very challenging and progressive workouts, that much is certain. But you also must have the tools, direction and knowledge necessary to ensure long-term progress and success. You have to work every day to improve the quality of your motion, your diet and recovery. You need great habits and interaction with a coach to help guide you and keep you on track.
That’s why we created FLIGHT Weightlifting. We realized that there wasn’t a truly comprehensive, interactive, online training program for young weightlifters. So, we poured everything we could into our program – Every struggle, frustration, and hard-earned lesson. As an athlete, it’s everything I wish I would have done when I first started Weightlifting.
You have the opportunity to set yourself up for peak performance in the future. So, take it.
“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” – Tony Robbins
Don’t hop from program to program – from random workout to random workout – in hopes of eventually discovering success. That’s the hardest way to grow. And don’t make assumptions that only leave your strength to chance.
Participate in a comprehensive program, written with you in mind. Work hard in the gym, but even harder to maximize diet, recovery, and accountability. And of course, never try to make this journey alone. If one thing’s for certain, it’s that your chances of success are about a thousand times greater with someone supportive by your side.
See you in the program,
Mike, Doug and Team Barbell Shrugged
