Customizing Your Workouts for Maximum Results

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS Director, Staley Training Systems Question: If you train and eat exactly like Dorian Yates, can you expect to develop an identical physique? The question is rhetorical, obviously. And while genetics is usually blamed for lack of progress, it's not that simple. Your genes are just one aspect of what makes you different from everyone else. But more on that later. We know that the outcome of any exercise program can be made more predictable if a handful of established training concepts are understood and applied. In a field where there is no absolute right and wrong (only good, better,or best), the skillful application of these concepts helps us make the "best" decisions regarding exercise programming.

For instance, exercise should be progressive. In other words, you'll progress only when exercise is more difficult than what you're used to. We also know that the type of exercise selected determines the result you'll see .

This is also sometimes called the S.A.I.D. principle— Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand.
Further, it's clear that eventually, the body will stop responding to any exercise regime. This is one reason why there can never be the "perfect" training program— no matter how scientific and well planned it is, your body will eventually stop responding to it. When it does, you've got to be ready with "Plan B." (This is why it's important to switch up your routine every 4-6 weeks. It keeps you & your muscles engaged).

The concepts just discussed form a good "template" for developing exercise programs. However, by themselves, they offer only part of the answer. That's because a fourth factor— your individuality— must be considered to "fine tune" the program to your own unique situation. If the previously discussed concepts are the road map, individuality is the steering wheel. It allows for constant, minute to minute adjustments, so that the exercise program can be "fitted" the individual, rather than vice versa.

Commonly, people make the incorrect assumption that training = results, without factoring in the individual.

The importance of individual response is often misunderstood. Even science can be misleading. As an example, let's take an imaginary research study that evaluates the effectiveness of pre-exhausting the triceps prior to bench pressing. The researchers find that the majority of the subjects do not experience greater pectoral hypertrophy than the control group. HOWEVER, a few individuals DO make greater progress than the control subjects. The scientist who did this study would rightly conclude that pre-exhaustion is not effective. But for a few of those test subjects, it WAS. So the lesson is, not all people (in fact, very few) fall in the middle of the so called bell curve .