When putting together a program for a particular athlete a lot of thought and preparation must be put in to it. Training variables such as the sport an athlete plays, the position, prior injuries, training age, goals of the athlete, what time it is in the sports season, etc. all are factored in to writing out a program for every athlete I train. Writing out programs for athletes though goes even further than that. The number of reps , sets, amount of recovery, etc. involve a high amount of individualization and certain lifts and muscle groups respond best to a certain amount of reps and sets.

How can you ensure I keep making gains?

What I do when I write out custom programs for my athletes is I periodize them. Periodization of a program is a critical part of writing out a program for any athlete. Periodization basically refers to planned changes in a program so that one does not plateau. These changes involve different phases or cycles for different parts of the sport season and involve changes in workout volume, intensity, types of exercises, rep tempo, and rest intervals.

How is progress measured?

When I write out a program for an athlete every aspect of the workout is taken into consideration and carefully monitored, tracked, and progressively changed for long term success. The ability to know the precise volume, intensity, type of exercises, etc. to have in a program for each individual athlete, how much recovery to allow, and how to change those training variables through the different training phases is critical for long term success and to prevent overtraining. This is exactly what I do when I write out programs for my athletes and why they have had long term success working with me.