The P-Word and the Man Hours We’ll Never Get Back as a Species

There’s never been a move overused, overvalued word in the gym space. Nonetheless, it’s used by clients to bounce from one shiny thing to another and it’s used by fitness authorities to jockey for an overstated importance in the success of their clients. I’m talking about programming. 

Beyond having a fundamental strategy for progressive overload and some thoughtful movement selection, programming isn’t the Holy Grail it’s made out to be. This gets obvious very quickly when you realize that a student who enjoys weightlifting can have remarkable success changing body composition, being compliant, and garnering impressive gains in capacity. Meanwhile, weightlifting might be the worst way to get someone leaner, excited about training, and improving their capacity if he or she is a general person whose main goal in the gym is to leave it in one piece to get back to their life. 

Let’s not miss the point, people. 

Sure, there’s bad programming (SEE: high cortisol producing, dopamine parties with no strategy to progress like Barry’s & F45). But, beyond a simple threshold for quality, great programming is the program that you will do well with relative intensity indefinitely. 

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