Designing Resistance Training Programs

During graduate school at Southern Utah, our professor, Dr. Brian Lyons, summarized the topic of designing resistance training programs by saying, ”Program design is an art. When you are given athletes, they are like a blank canvas. You are the painter, and the paint is the scientific principles you have learned.”

These principles are found in the acronym F.R.I.T.T.O.

• F - Frequency, i.e. the number of workouts per week, or per day in some cases.
• R - Rest & Recovery, time between workouts, rest between exercises.
• I - Intensity, is perceived level of exertion, or stress, placed on the person.
• T - Time, the length or duration of the workout.
• T- Type of exercise, i.e. running sprints, lifting weights, cycling, etc.
• O - Order, the sequence of different exercises through the length of a workout.

Here are explanations and examples about each principle:

Frequency of workouts could be twice a week, three times a week, or everyday. It’s common for people to follow a Monday/Wednesday/Friday routine, or Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. Some are in the “weekend warrior” category of working-class people who don’t have time during the week, so they go all-out on Saturday/Sunday.

Be careful about overdoing it. It’s easy to get injured when you’re trying to fit six or seven days of exercise into one or two.

Recovery (R&R) is where the magic happens. During rest (especially sleep) is when the body is adapting to become more efficient against the demand of the workout. Muscles grow, and fat is recruited and burned for needed energy to repair the body.

It is also broken down to extract vitamins and minerals, which are stored therein. Furthermore, fat is used to make more hormones, which regulate all of the changes taking place. At least for men, both testosterone, and especially growth hormones, spike during deep sleep.

Intensity can be a great tool, useful for those who want to workout nearly every day, but also don’t have copious amounts of time.

An hour long lackadaisical weight training session, can be condensed into a 20 minute workout by increasing the intensity i.e. using heavier amounts of weight, shorter rest periods, choosing multijoint aka full-body exercises, and/or performing more repetitions in a row. Mix your poison, but don’t kill yourself.

Time is the length of the workout. Or for how long a coach afflicts the person/team. Commercial and corporate trainers normally will work with a client for ~30min to an hour. An intense half hour can beat a lazy hour. Use time wisely and have fun. Little children run around all day when they can. They play until they are exhausted, then play some more.

Type of exercise depends on its purpose, or goal. Weightlifters lift weights. Runners run. Sprinters do both. Football players practice football and lift weights. For many sports, usually more time is spent getting stronger by weight training in the offseason.

As the season (or competition) approaches, the focus shifts to skill development (weight training is used minimally to maintain strength). In a gym, there are different types of exercise equipment to use. For example: dumbbells, barbells, benches, seats, machines with weight stacks, pull-up bars, parallel bars for dips, medicine balls, heavy ropes, jump-ropes, kettlebells, and more. These are each designed to be used for different types of exercises, serving a plethora of purposes.

Order determines the sequence of exercises, and can differentiate depending upon the athlete’s (anyone’s) sport or goal. Sprinters tend to practice running first, then hit the weightroom second. This order is used to prevent injury. For many sports, it is standard to perform multi-joint exercises first, then single-joint exercises.

For example, pull-ups (shoulder joint + elbow joint), followed by biceps curls (elbow joint only). Squats (hip and knee joints) before the leg extension machine (knee joint only). This method is used to help the bigger joints (i.e. shoulder and hip) to do more work, before the smaller joints (elbow and knee) run out of power. If the smaller joints are exhausted first, they could become a weak link. Another way order can be used is by working different muscle groups on different days, i.e. the lower body one day, the upper body the next day, etc. This practice is common in bodybuilding. Some bodybuilders will focus on a different muscle group each day of the week.

Breaking down, defining, and setting-in-stone each of the F.R.I.T.T.O. principles can create a much more efficient and effective workout program for anyone. Doing this can optimize one’s time by knowing when/why they are going to the gym/field, and what they are going to do there. They know how much time they have, which helps produce a better mental focus. As the weeks go by, they will also learn how hard they should work to get what they want, and see the value of rest and recovery before going at it again.

Remember F.R.I.T.T.O. - Frequency, Rest, Intensity, Time, Type, and Order. You can simplify things as you begin to apply the principles by starting with only one at a time. Or focus on one of them per week, then add two together for a week, then three, and so on.

Each principle is measurable. Recording anything measurable is the way to track progress. This is an important component in the journey to health, fitness, and confidence-boosting success. Plan your way to victory!

Jesse Obed Nelson has been a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist since 2009, soon after graduation in Physical Education at Utah State University. He went on to complete a master’s degree in Sports Conditioning and Performance from Southern Utah University, where he was able to publish his thesis, on the topic of agility development in high school soccer players. His favorite activity throughout his life has always been snow skiing, and he lives a 15 minute drive away from the base of Sundance Ski Resort, Utah.

Main Photo Credit: Eviled/shutterstock.com; Second Photo Credit: S_L/shutterstock.com; Third Photo Credit: Dima Sidelnikov/shutterstock.com; Fourth Photo Credit: PANIGALE/shutterstock.com; Fifth Photo Credit: Romolo Tavani/shutterstock.com; Sixth Photo Credit: Viktoria Gavrilina/shutterstock.com; Seventh Photo Credit: Dragon Images/shutterstock.com; Eighth Photo Credit: Serghei Starus/shutterstock.com