NSCA Chapter 15:
Resistance Training Program
Design, Pg. 361
By: Brian Huynh
Period 2
Vocabulary Defined

Specificity
 Refers to training a client in a specific way to produce a specific change or result.

Overload
 A training stress or intensity greater than what a client is used to.

Progression
 The gradual and consistent increase in the intensity of an exercise program.

Program design variables
 An aspect of an exercise program that, when manipulated properly, creates a safe,
effective, and goal-specific outcome.

Exercise Choice
 The exercises selected for inclusion in a resistance training program.

Core exercises
 Exercises that involve movement at two or more primary joints and recruit one or more large
muscle groups or areas.

Multijoint exercise
 An exercise that involves movement at two or more primary joints.

Assistance exercises
Vocabulary Defined Cont.
 Exercises that involve movement at only one primary joint and recruit a smaller muscle group or only one large muscle group or area.

Single-joint exercise
 An exercise that involves movement at only one primary joint.

Frequency
 The number of workouts performed in a given time period (typically one week).

Split Routine
 An exercise routine in which different muscle groups are trained on different days or training sessions.

Exercise Order
 The specific sequence of exercises within a resistance training workout.

Compound set
 Two different exercises for the same primary muscle group that are completed in succession without an intervening rest period.

Superset
 Two different exercises for opposing or antagonistic muscle groups that are competed in succession without an intervening rest period.

Trial Load
 An estimated load that is based on a percent of the client’s body weight.
Vocabulary Defined Cont.
 Goal Repetitions
 The number of repetitions a client is assigned to perform for an exercise
 Volume
 The total amount of wright lifted in a training session or the total number of repetitions completed in a
training session
 Set
 A group of repetitions that are performed consecutively
 Rest Period
 The time interval between two sets
 Pyramid training
 A type of training variation in which the load is progressively increased in sequential sets with a
corresponding decrease in the number of goal repetitions
 2-for-2 rule
 A guideline that can be used to increase the load when two or more repetitions above the repletion goal
are completed in the final set of an exercise for two consecutive training sessions.
Introduction
 Goal: Designing a safe and effective resistance training program involves
the consideration and manipulation of certain variables that make
resistance training programs more complex than aerobic exercise
programs.
 Consultation and fitness assessment to determine a client’s resistance
training status, exercise technique, and goals.
 All exercise programs are based on specificity, overload, and progression. A
program must have a specific change in mind, client trains over their
current level, a plan for future higher levels of stress and intensity over the
clients level.
Components of a Resistance Training
Program
 Initial consultation and fitness evaluation
 Choice
 Frequency
 Order
 Load
 Volume: repetitions and sets
 Rest periods
 Variation
 Progression
Initial consultation and fitness evaluation
 Are you Currently following a resistance training program?
 How long have you been following a regular resistance training program?
 How many times per week do you resistance train?
 How difficult or intense are your resistance training workouts
 What types and how many of resistance training exercises can you perform with proper
technique?
 3/5 in one row of 5 columns, shows y yat, resistance training status
 Fitness Evaluation
 Assessing Muscular strength
 Compare data with Normative data to assess a client‘s current level of fitness, set a baseline for future
comparison as training status improves, and identify current strengths and weaknesses for goal setting.
 Before making the goal a trainer must have the client’s primary training goal as the goal determines
the type of program they’ll be using.
Fitness Evaluation
• Three Primary goals
• Muscular Endurance
• “I want to have better endurance, the client is signaling in this
area
• Gives enhanced ability of targeted muscles to perform at a
submaximal level for repetitions or duration.
• Hypertrophy
• “I want to be more sculpted.”
• Increased muscular Hypertrophy
• Muscular Strength
• “I want to get Stronger.”
• Encourage improvements in athletic performance
• Loads for this program are heavier therefore the client needs to
have prior resistance training, such as hypertrophy or muscular
endurance training first.
Choice
 Picking exercise that a client will perform during a resistance training workout.
 It is influenced by how much time the client has to exercise, what equipment is available, and the client‘s
experience with correctly performing resistance exercises.
 Types of Resistance training Exercises
 Core Exercises
 Typically helps clients reach their goal more effectively
 Should follow two rules:
 Should involve movement of two or more primary joints
 Should have one or more large muscle groups or areas combined with smaller muscle groups.
 Assistance Exercises
 Maintains muscular balance across joints, to help prevent injury or rehabilitate a previous injury, or isolate a
specific muscle group.
 Should follow two rules:
 Must involve movement at only one primary joint
 Must have a smaller muscle group or only one large muscle group or area
Frequency
 Refers to the number of workouts a client performs in one week.
 The personal trainer should base the training frequency on the client’s resistance training
status.
 Less-trained Clients who take more rests during training will have less frequency, vice versa.
 A beginner client’s have two or three sessions per week that are evenly spaced out.
 An intermediate clients can have more than 3 sessions per week, although the client has to
train multiple days in a row to increase frequency.
 Follows the split routine in which schedules four or more workouts evenly spread out in a week but
each workout only works on specific parts of the body. Which results with increased training
frequency with enough rest time in between.
Order
 Exercise order refers to placing the exercises in a
specific sequence within a resistance training
workout. It is directed by the type and
characteristics of the selected exercises.
• Methods of Arrangement
• Power, Other Core, Then Assistance
exercises
• Arrange all power exercises at the
beginning , then core, and assistance
 Exercises can be arranged in order of descending
exercises.
priority or application to the client’s goal.
• Power requires more effort.
 To give the best performance of the client, a
• Alternate “Push” and “Pull” exercises
personal trainer should arrange specific exercises
• Guarantees the same muscle group
that fatigue caused by an exercise has the least
won’t be used twice, which gives
impact on the quality or effort of the next exercise.
away fatigue.
Which is to arrange them by type and muscle
• Good for untrained and injured
areas.
client’s.
• Alternate Upper and Lower Body Exercises
Load and Repetitions
 2 Step Process:
 The personal trainer must perform a test to gather information about the client
 Then the trainer may assign the actual training loads.
 Directed by the client’s resistance training goal
 Endurance or Strength?


Percent of 1RM-Repetition Relationship

The heavier the load, the repetitions decrease,

When load is too heavy for client, one repetition called, 1RM
Limitations in the %1RM-Repetition

Tables show a direct association between the loads lifted and # of repetitions performed

Well-trained Clients can perform more repetitions at a given %1RM

# of repetitions applies only to one set, not multiple sets

A client cannot perform as many repetitions for an assistance exercise any %1RM for a core exercise
Cont.
 Guidelines
 Directly testing or estimating the 1RM
 Using a % of a client’s body weight for testing
 Performing RM testing
 1-Repetition Maximum Determination
 To use table 15.3 trainer must find client’s 1RM
 Directly Testing 1RM
 Not for un-trained Clients, only intermediate or advanced clients
 Only Core exercises are safe
 Stress on smaller muscle groups therefore trainer must examine each exercise
 Estimating 1RM
 Perform 10RM testing
 Good for almost all exercises
 Easily tired not for un-trained
 After finding 10RM use table 15.4 to find 1RM
 Another way to Test 1RM\
 Testing using a certain % of a client’s body weight. Good for core and assistance exercises
 Not for Well-trained Clients
Cont.
 Repetition Maximum Testing
 Third Method
 Number of Goal Repetitions
 Good for all core exercises
 Higher RMs can cause a client to be fatigued (more sets)
 Assistance Exercises but only at 8 RMs or higher
 Guidelines
 Training Goal
 After finding the 1RM, the trainer must decide the goal repetitions for each exercise in table 15.6
Table 15.3
Table 15.4
Table 15.6
Volume: Repetitions and Sets
 Two Definitions:
 The total amount of weight lifted in a training session.
 The total number of repetitions completed in a training session.
 Directed by altering the number of assigned sets to match the training status of the
client.
 Guidelines to follow:
 A client’s training volume is determined when the load and repetitions are based
on the %1RM-repetition relationship
Resistance Training Status
A single set is enough for an untrained client until they can perform
additional sets.
Resistance Training Goal
Goal at hand when setting up Volume of a client’s workout.
Rest Periods
 Resting time between exercises.
 Influential Factors:
 Direct Relationship between an assigned load and the needed rest between sets
with that load. Such as the heavier a load for the client, more rest is needed.
 Guidelines:
 Resistance Training Status
Untrained Clients require twice as much rest as trained individuals
As the client becomes better trained, they’ll be able to perform multiple sets
and longer exercises with less rest time.
 Resistance Training Goal
Trainer must follow sufficient rest between sets and exercises so that a client
can lift the assigned training load for the targeted number of repetitions.
Variation
 To help a client experience ongoing improvements, lower the risk of overtraining,
relieve boredom, and maintain training intensity, the personal trainer needs to add
variation.
 Variation is the purposeful change of the program design variable assignments to
expose a client to new or different training stressors.
 The trainer can alter the clients frequency, load, volume, or rest period.
 Pyramid Training
 The load is progressively increased while the number of repetitions in sequential
sets of an exercise is progressively decreased.
 Within-the-Week Variation
 A trainer may also vary a client’s program across the sessions of a training week.
Progression
 Considered as a program design variable.
 Can be applied to a client’s training frequency, number or difficulty of exercises,
number of sets, or any combination of these or other changes. But is the most
frequently used method is to regularly and appropriately increase the weight lifted for
each exercise.
 When a personal trainer is having difficulty in deciding whether the client is ready for
an increase in training load the trainer may use the 2-for-2 rule. It is based on the
number of goal repetitions assigned for an exercise. If a client can complete two
more repetitions than the repletion goal in the final set of an exercise for two
consecutive training sessions, then the personal trainer should increase the load in all
of the sets of that exercise for the next training session.
Study Question #1
1.
When a client progresses to follow a split routine, all of the
following describe the changes in the program EXCEPT:
A.
Increased weekly training frequency
B.
Decreased overall training volume
C. Decreased training frequency of each muscle group’s workout
D.
Increased number of rest days between each muscle group’s
workout
Explanation
 B, Decreased overall training volume
 The next progression in training frequency for an advanced
client is a three days on, one day off split routine that yields five
to 6 workouts per week….the client completes one workout on
three consecutive days and rests on the fourth day. (Involves the
same exercises).
Study Question #2
2.
Which describes the arrangement of exercises performed in this order:
bench press, bent-over row, lying triceps extension, biceps curl, shoulder
press?
A.
Multi-joint exercises first and then single-joint exercises
B.
Exercises that train large muscle groups first and then exercises that train small
muscle groups
C.
Core exercises then assistance exercises
D.
Alternate “Push” and “Pull” exercises
Explanation
 D, Alternate “Push” and “Pull” exercises
 Method that provides necessary rest between exercises to maintain effort and
technique is to alternate pushing exercises (vertical chest press and triceps
pushdown) with pulling exercises (seated row and dumbbell biceps curls).
Study Question #3
3.
A personal trainer wants to include the lateral shoulder raise exercise in a
client’s program. Which of the following is an appropriate testing method
that will produce a test result that allows the most accurate assigned
training load for a repetition goal of 10 per set?
A.
Directly testing the 1RM
B.
Estimating the 1RM from a 15RM
C.
Percent of body-weight testing
D.
10RM testing
Explanation
 D, 10RM testing
 10 RM is the heaviest load that can be lifted 10 times with proper technique.
 This method is acceptable for nearly all exercises and for most clients, as long as
they know how to properly perform the exercise.
 Table 15.3
Study Question #4
4.
What is the load for the bench press exercise on a “light” day of a
strength training program if the client’s 1RM is 200 pounds (91 kilograms)
and the number of goal repetitions is 6 per set?
A.
170 Pounds (77 kg)
B.
160 Pounds (73 kg)
C.
135 Pounds (61 kg)
D.
130 Pounds (59 kg)
Explanation
 C, 135 Pounds (61 kg)
 The heavier the load, less repetitions there will be. The light the load, more
repetitions will occur.
Applied Knowledge Question
 Based on the following initial consultation and fitness testing information, fill
in the empty spaces to determine the client’s training loads for selected
exercises.
 Initial resistance training status and exercise technique experience:
 intermediate
 Fitness evaluation: 10 RM testing to estimate a 1RM
 Primary resistance training goal: Hypertrophy
 Assessing load Capabilities
 10 RM loads and their estimated 1RMs for these selected exercises:
Applied Knowledge Cont.
Exercise (all are cam machines)
10 RM (pounds)
Estimated 1RM (pounds)
Vertical chest press
60
80
Seated Row
50
65
Shoulder press
45
60
Biceps curl
35
45
Triceps extension
30
40
Leg (Knee) extension
Leg (knee) curl
70
60
95
80
Applied Knowledge Cont.
 Assigning loads
 Repetition range to match training goal: 6 to 12 per set
 Goal Repetitions: 8
 Loading (%1RM) range to match the training goal: 67 % to 85
%1RM
 %1RM associated with 8 goal repetitions: 80 %1RM
Applied Knowledge Cont.
Exercise (all
are cam
machines)
%1RM
 Calculate training loads from
the estimated 1RM
Estimated
associated
1RM
x
with 8 goal
=
(pounds)
repetitions
(in decimal
form)
Calculated
trial load
Assigned
training load
(rounded
down, if
needed)
Vertical
Chest press
80
X
.8
=
64
60
Seated row
65
X
.8
=
52
50
Shoulder
press
60
X
.8
=
48
45
Biceps curl
45
X
.8
=
36
35
Applied Knowledge Cont.
Exercise (all
are cam
machines)
Estimated
1RM
(pounds)
x
%1RM
associated
with 8 goal
repetitions
(in decimal
form)
=
Calculated
trial load
Assigned
training load
(rounded
down, if
needed)
Triceps
extension
40
X
.8
=
32
30
Leg (knee)
extension
100
X
.8
=
80
80
Leg (knee)
extension
80
X
.8
=
64
60