Q: In working as a personal trainer, do you find that your training changes for girls who are not trying to compete in figure vs those that are? Do you program more randomly to keep it entertaining for them or do you tend to keep them on a regimen of predictable advancement giving the body very similar stresses and constant gains?? Maybe what I’m trying to ask is can you touch on programming and fat loss for people who don’t care about hypertrophy?”
A: This is a great question and something to touch on! I definitely do slightly change my training depending on if someone is getting ready for a show or not. First of all, everyone has their own personal goals, ideal look they are going for and reasons for wanting to train. The first step is digging deep to find out their goals and results they want to achieve. If a person is coming to me for figure, of course, I analyze their physique from a judges point of view– muscle tone, conditioning, symmetry, balance, overall structure, density, lean body tissue vs. body fat, and the overall flow of their lines, personality and structure from head to toe. Now, if someone is coming to me with the goal to get in the best shape of their life but not to step on stage and use the “Oxygen” models as their ideal goal, I would access them in a similar manner. If someone came to me and said they wanted to lose some weight to be healthy. They have NO desire to be super lean and actually like their curvy body, I would train them still in a more circuit style fashion with some heavier/concentrated sessions here and there. It really depends on ones goals and take on training/cardio and the weight room. Everyone is SO different and you have to access each client differently and find out their goals, needs, fears, ideals, limitations, etc.
It is important to keep people excited and constantly changing things up to not only keep their body and mind stimulated but also the keep things fun yet challenging. You can make the body respond and grow with constant change!! Even though I may train one person super heavy and structured, I will still throw in days of circuit style training or super light. On the same note, I would take someone who I train more circuit style and throw in some days of concentrated heavy exercises!
I think everyone should care about hypertrophy and as a trainer you understand that regardless of one’s superficial goals, hypertrophy should be a huge concern. Even if someone doesn’t want to step on stage, most likely their overall goal is fat loss, right?! Well adding slight muscle density and shifting body composition is key to increase overall fat loss and increasing metabolism which leads to fat loss and achieving goals. Now keep in mind, to put on muscle takes some serious time, effort, lots of rest, proper perfect nutrition, etc. so someone who is not looking to increase size is most likely not going to, regardless of how you train them. I am sure they do not follow the lifestyle to allow for the gains they are not seeking. Trust me, putting on muscle is hard. You should train with the thought of shifting body comp (increasing lean body tissue and decreasing body fat), regardless of ones aesthetic goals because fat loss is the common denominator.
Now I could really go on and on about this topic because it is a great one!! My overall take on the results my clients are trying to achieve comes down to nutrition and their diet. Depending on their goals and ideal look they are striving for, I alter their dietary needs accordingly! Someone looking to step on stage vs. someone who is looking to lose a few lbs are going to have different dietary programs.
Keep in mind also that regardless of ones goals, if you focus on the guidelines we look at in “figure” i.e. that hourglass shape, isn’t that what women want… the shoulder to waist ratio, curvy booty and great symmetry and flow… If you train someone to achieve round shoulders and that v. tapper, their waist will appear smaller i.e. they get the results they want… Now you can and will always be able to train glutes and hams the figure way, as that is the area most women need to either sharpen up or round out. In so many ways the training is similar but what is different is your approach to each individual client and finding what drives adn motivates them! There are so many ways to achieve the results they are looking for but the question is what is going to work best for them and keep coming back and wanting more!!
Hope that helps.
