Custom Strength Training Programs

The Fundamental Guidelines and Principles I Use When Designing Programs

By Coach Jon Cole

My job as your coach and teacher will be to make sure you accomplish what you want and understand what your program involves and how to utilize it correctly for maximum results.

Let’s start with a few facts that are the bases of my programs. Strength is the foundation for your health, longevity and ability to perform. Strength is the opposite of sickness and weakness. The degree of strength you have within you is directly related to the amount of energy you have, your physical appearance, your endurance, your ability to recover from daily activities and the degree you are able to resist all the toxic substances you are subjected to each day. Picture your strength as you would your bank account. The more you deposit into it, the more you will have to draw out. When you stop making deposits into your bank account it becomes empty and soon, will close. The same is true of your strength account, except that the results of a decreasing strength account are far more severe, and without deposits eventually your life will end. We have all seen it in movies and on television in soap operas where the doctor comes out of the intensive care room and walks up to the wife and children of the man he had operated on the previous day and says, “I’m sorry, he just wasn’t strong enough to make it through the night. So, Fact one is, that your program will be created to increase your total body strength level and at the same time achieve the goals you desire. Fact two is, that your program will be designed to reduce excess body fat. Excess body fat is not only undesirable to look at, it is also the number one cause of sickness, disease and lack of energy. It takes three miles of vessel to supply one pound of excess body fat with blood. This is extra work on your heart. Excess fat does absolutely nothing to help your body. Fact three is, that your program will have four individual parts. Each is of equal importance and should be given your equal attention as they are synergistic to one another and produce greater results when their prescribed combination is followed. Below is a basic description of the four parts.

Part One - Strength Training In addition to what has been discussed previously about strength, you can also expect to accomplish the following: Better coordination and balance, substantial increase in the degree of performance in any sports activity, a boost in your self-confidence which comes from a positive self-image as you will look better to yourself physically and you will feel so much better.

Part Two - Warming up and Stretching There is a difference between being warmed up and being flexible. Unless you do certain stretching exercises, your muscles will not be able to do a full range of motion when you ask them to perform an action. Muscles that are not flexible do not function as well as muscles that are flexible. When Muscles are exercised they are far less prone to injuries when they have been stretched. Flexible muscles achieve a minimum of 30% more results then tight muscles do; and, they do so in half the time. Flexible or not, muscles need to be warmed up and prepared before exercise begins. Your program will contain the procedures you will need to follow for warming up plus the stretching exercises needed for flexibility.

Part Three - Aerobics Your heart is about the size of your fist when clinched and its function is to bring oxygen-rich blood to all body tissue and to pump oxygen-poor blood to the lungs to procure more oxygen. Although  heart muscles have an involuntary rhythmic cycle of contractions,  (meaning not under your conscious control), called systoles, and relaxations, called diastoles, they can be conditioned to perform more work, and do so for longer periods of time, through the use of correct exercise. In fact, a properly exercised heart will recover from work much faster, resist the effects of stress much better, and will function more efficiently and have a much longer lifespan. Since your heart is such a vital part of your body, your program will be designed with one part that is strictly devoted to the strengthening and conditioning of your heart muscles. In addition, the weight training part of your program will be designed with specific rest intervals for you to follow between each of the sets you do of each exercise and between the exercises themselves. This gives you the best case scenario, as you will be exercising your heart muscles without resistance, called aerobic exercise, and with resistance, called anaerobic exercise.

Part Four – Nutrition First, a few false statements that are continuously misrepresented to all of us in all forms of media and advertisements. Number one - when you stop working out your muscles will turn into fat. False, unless you continue to eat as much as you were when you were doing your work outs you will not gain weight. Besides, the truth is that fat and muscle are comprised of different substances. Number two - I will gain too much weight if I lift weights. False, you will not gain weight from weights, unless you eat them. Weight training strengthens sculptures and shapes your body. When you lift weights you will actually lose size at first due to the reduction of fat which has deposited around fibers of your muscles as well as stored in other parts of your body. Once the muscle fibers have burned the fat and each fiber is lean, it will gain in size proportionally to the amount of strength you gain and the type and amount of foods you eat or supplements you take in. Muscles are comprised of approximately 75% water, 20% protein and 5% inorganic salts and minerals. Calcium and phosphorus make up 90 to 95% of the minerals.

Therefore it is of extreme importance that you take in the right amount of protein with the needed balanced amino acids, as well as the right vitamin and mineral complex designed with the correct ratio of potency of each ingredient to one another. I will design your program based on the information I receive from your preprogram questionnaire, and the 20 minute phone conversation we will have which is part of the program package that I am offering. Your strength training program will include the exercises, the starting weights, the number of sets, the number of reps in each set and the weight to be used in each set.

Right now, I am designing all programs personally; which means, the number of people I can handle correctly is limited. However, The Jon Cole System Online Fitness Club is coming soon. Then we will be able to handle an unlimited amount of programs as we will have completed the computerization of all my formulas for programming. Click here to proceed to the next step, and be ready to “Grow in the Company of Champions”