Five reasons why you shouldn’t write your own program

Five reasons why you shouldn’t write your own program

If there is one mistake that amateur athletes make, it is writing their own program. It doesn’t matter how much you know, how many years you have been training, or how many websites and blogs you read, any program you write for yourself will let you down. Why? Because you will write a program that reflects your strongest areas or those you enjoy training. No matter how much you think you have balanced your program, it will reflect your preferences and not your needs.

In addition to this, your program is unlikely to address what it actually needs to – your weaknesses. Good programs are focused on developing your weaknesses as well as your strengths. It’s pretty hard to identify your weaknesses; it’s something a good coach is trained to identify and address.  Failing to adequately address your weaknesses will lead to either a stall in your progress or an injury - guaranteed!

The best solution is to use a well-trained and experienced coach, for the reasons listed below:

1.     Coaches are trained to identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as the needs of your sport. This is a critical foundation for an effective program.

2.     Coaches are objective, their goal is to balance your development and maximise your performance. If a coach thinks you need to focus on an area, there is generally a pretty good reason why.

3.     A good coach will understand how to train you to reduce your injury risks, or how to train you after you have been injured. This is a vital component of maximising performance.

4.     Good coaches understand that you have areas you want to train, and they will structure a program to reflect this. They won’t take your favourites away from you; they will just adjust the volume.

5.     A program written by a coach will be underpinned by short, medium and long-term development and goals.

If you really want to maximise your performance, hand over the programming and monitoring to a coach. They will get you training for balanced development, reduced injury risk and superior performance, and let’s face it, that’s what you’re training for. 

Brett Neasham

S&C Coach