Is your exercise program really working for you? Why individualization matters

Did you ever stop to ask “why?” Why is that person throwing a barbell in their post? Why is everyone doing Hyrox-should I? Why does this exercise feel weird when I do it?

The general recommendations for exercise to maintain health and body weight are 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, 2-3 days per week of resistance training, and 2-3 days per week of flexibility and neuromotor training. Where do these recommendations come from and what do they achieve? Several decades ago, large epidemiologic studies looked at hundreds of thousands of individuals and activity patterns, and found that those who achieved 150 minutes, at moderate intensity or more, had far less onset of all causes of morbidity and mortality. The core principle for longevity was born.

What does moderate intensity mean? Activity that increases your metabolic load by at least 3 times your resting level. Sounds complex to identify, yeah? Well, perhaps thinking of it as heart rate zones in the zone 2-3 range (generally 67-76% of your peak heart rate) is helpful! Whereas, vigorous activity is generally in the zone 4-5 range above 76% of peak heart rate). Now these recommendations must change if the goal is to build endurance, achieve a PR or simply complete a long ride. In these cases, we use progressive overload of cardiorespiratory exercise to achieve higher stamina, lactate tolerance, and VO2 max.

Follow up studies have identified that the addition of resistance training and neuromotor work (think tai chi, yoga, Pilates and plyometrics) maintain function and independent living as we age; but when it comes to achieving your goals, how can we get more specific about these recommendations?

The exercise program should be modified according to an individual's habitual physical activity, physical function, health status, exercise responses, and stated goals. Adults who are unable or unwilling to meet the exercise targets outlined above still can benefit from engaging in amounts of exercise less than recommended. Once more, those looking to improve health status or reduce weight may need to do more than the standard recommendations if you are already reaching the standard recommendations for general health.

Quality matters

It’s one thing to do 150 minutes of elliptical exercise for cardiorespiratory fitness, but if you are doing 150 minutes of running, group exercise classes including jumps, or a sport like pickleball or tennis, the musculoskeletal impact must also be considered. I often see clients who consider themselves injury prone, with a mindset that it is “just the way I am” but on further discussion, we may identify that they only do group exercise classes and each class includes some form of jumping whether it be a burpee, squat jump, star jumps, or another version. Oftentimes, an instructor will add the jumping because it achieves a high heart rate easily, therefore achieving the high heart rate intensity goal of a HIIT class.

However, high intensity does not need to be high impact. In fact, we should be getting at least 72 hours between high impact exercises in order to allow the body to heal.

We also have strength standards in the strength and conditioning world, and the amount of jumping we incorporate into a session is guided by the strength of the individual relative to their own body mass. Can you leg press 1.5 times your body weight? If not, maybe don’t do the single leg bounds, skaters, and tuck jumps in the HIIT class. Maybe dedicated progressive overload strengthening is more beneficial to you to build soft tissue and bone strength and resilience to prepare you for more jumping type activity, while you do cycling/incline walking, rowing or other modalities for your HIIT training.

Tailoring strength training

The American College of Sports medicine identifies that 8-12 reps of 8-10 exercises for “all major muscle groups” per session will get the job done for “muscular health” reducing risk of muscle loss, maintaining metabolism, preventing osteoporosis, and improving glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity (among other benefits such as maintaining balance, agility and coordination).

Three sets of 10 reps is a go to rep scheme that is used throughout rehabilitation and gym settings, and often, never changing despite adaptations, improvements in strength, or changes in goals.

What if you want to make improvements in muscle mass? Gain lean tissue? Lose body fat, or develop a more powerful tennis serve? Well, then we need to change up that rep scheme!

Hypertrophy (lean mass increases) is best induced with more time under tension - slow and controlled lifting, multiple exercises in a row activating the same muscle groups, and relatively high load for multiple sets. All of these factors increase the time the muscle is contracting, the hormone responses, and the ultimate growth hormone and testosterone release that occurs for muscle building to take place.

What about losing fat mass? For this you want to organize your lifts in a circuit, moving quickly between exercises with 30 seconds or so of transition time between.

And for power? Set and rep ranges definitely need to change. Think much faster movements, less repetitions, and less heavy weights. Power involved a quick neural response, targeting efficient activation of specific groups of muscle fibers to optimize force generation effectively. Typically, we start with slow controlled movements to ensure form and technique is mastered. Then, we optimize the muscle strength, then power. An individual who jumps straight to all power work will miss out on the untapped potential they may have.

Keep in mind, the actual exercises are not the most important part of the program in many cases - how important depends on the goals. The set and rep scheme, rest, tempo, volume and progression are key here. Yes, exercise selection matters, but as long as you are targeting all major muscle groups with good technique, you’re okay…unless of course, your goals are more movement specific for your desired activity.

Do you need to do weighted single leg squats on an unstable surface for hypertrophy? No, but you might if you're a figure skater, hiker, or love water skiing on vacation. This is where we can really get creative and have fun! We analyze the movements needed, the stabilizing muscle activation involved, and the amount of force generation in each plane to best prepare for specific tasks like these. Many times, the exercise selection can lead to injury, if we don’t analyze range of motion, muscle activation patterns, prior injury history and anatomy before selecting exercises, and selecting the best fit not only for goals, but for ability as well.

To jump or not to jump

What about plyometrics? We know that it is important as part of the training program, but how does the dose affect recovery times and the balance with every other type of exercise we are prescribing?

Despite weight training alone resulting in greater increases in strength variables than plyometric, power and strength training combined, this may not translate into superior improvements in the sport-related performance. In fact, a combined program with plyometrics and strength shows higher efficacy of transfer of strength gains to sprint ability. Therefore, a combined strength and plyometric program could represent a more efficient method for improving activities which involve acceleration, deceleration and jumps compared to resistance training alone, such as sports like tennis, soccer and pickleball.

Not every plyometric exercise is the same. For example, a runner can benefit from vertical and horizontal jumps to improve running efficiency and pace. However, a basketball player will benefit from depth jumps and rebound to train reactive strength. An older adult interested in bone health will benefit from small double leg jumps while a cornerback will benefit from lateral and single leg bounds.

Completing the picture

The last piece of this beautiful programming puzzle is the flexibility and neuromotor work. For those of us who are lucky enough to note we have limited range of motion, we just need to do stretching of all major joints twice per week to maintain muscle length and joint integrity. Now, if you are someone who notices shortened muscles or limited range of motion, that recommendation goes out the window, and multiple times per day may actually be warranted in order to gain length and motion. And why do we care? Well, it opens the door to be able to do more activities, strength exercises, and reduce injury risk as well.

The interesting observation for recommendations for neuromotor exercise is, we don’t have as clear, concise, and dose specific recommendations as we have for cardiorespiratory and strength training. We know that yoga, Qigong, Pilates and tai chi can help manage blood pressure, stress, muscular endurance and range of motion. Only 2 days per week of 30-60 minutes is needed for this, so if Pilates or Yoga are your only forms of exercise, you may benefit from reviewing this article and identifying the gaps in your program, depending on your goals.

The moral of the story: Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. The time you spend on exercise is important time, so let’s make sure you’re getting the most of it!