Chronic Program Hopping – Part 1

Chronic Program Hopping – Part 1

6 Reasons Why We Don’t Stick To Our Plans

When I was in the Marine Corps, I remember how my old gristly 1^st Sgt would end our weekly NCO and Staff NCO meetings with the same line:  “Doing your own thing gets your Marines killed.”   The point was to always follow the plan.  Even a bad plan.  Stick to it.  Execute it to the best of your ability.  We re-evaluate and change plans when we get back to base.

The only thing worse than having a bad plan, is having no plan at all.  Or having a new plan every week, which essentially leads to the same place.   I’ve been coaching and training clients long enough now to understand why and even predict this type of behavior – the type of behavior that causes people to stop and start new training plans/programs on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis.  But it wasn’t until I was listening to some business audio books a few days ago that I really had a moment of clarity on the matter.  The speaker was talking about why entrepreneurs have such a hard time sticking to their plans and executing with precision in the business world.  As he was talking my mind, of course, starting thinking about how this applies to training.  And as he was listing his bullet points I thought “this 100% describes exactly why people get engaged in Chronic Program Hopping!”

As I write this, I’m short on time (as always) so I’ll get right down to the 6 Reasons why you and others can’t stick with a training plan.

#1:  You Don’t Trust the Program

This happens most often when people write programs for themselves or get the program from an unreliable source.

You start the training plan with a little bit of doubt already embedded in your mind about how this is going to work out in the end.  This often happens when the trainee is making a radical change from one type of program to another.  Then all of a sudden the trainee has a bad workout and/or they stall on a lift.  This negative event confirms the doubt in their mind and they reach the conclusion that “yep, this program is not right for me”, and so they start to scour the internet for something new.

Solution

Have patience.  New training plans almost always have kinks and learning curves in them.  And there is no such thing as the “perfect program.”  Start learning to make small adjustments and tweaks to your training program rather than radical changes every time you have a bad workout.  My advice is to give everything at least 12 weeks to run its course.  At the end of 12 weeks, re-evaluate.  Even if the program didn’t produce the results you wanted you at least know what doesn’t work for you.  This is valuable knowledge and allows you to write a better program next time.

#2:  You Don’t Trust Yourself

This is mainly a self-image problem and is largely linked to whatever failures or lack of progress you have had in your past.   If you see yourself as a skinny-fat-weakling who will never pull 500, then chances are you will continue to be a skinny-fat-weakling who will never pull 500.  Dr. Maxwell Maltz states in his classic Psycho-Cybernetics that we will rarely outperform or underperform our own image of ourself.  I am a firm believer that this is true in all areas of life, training included.  I honestly feel that Chronic Program Hopping is a form of self sabotage that keeps us from reaching our goals.   I have had multiple prospective clients reach out to me for program design who did not need a new program.  They were setting PRs on a weekly basis, but were ready to move onto something new.  In some cases, not all, I believe this type of thinking is an unintentional act of sabotaging their own progress.   Their progress in the gym does not mesh with the image they have of themselves as a skinny-fat-weakling.

Many years ago, I quit accepting clients that were morbidly obese.  Why?  Because about 95% of the time they commit acts of self sabotage in the midst of making great physical change.  As they start to lose weight and get healthier, this change is in stark contrast with the image they have of themselves as fat and unhealthy.  So they unconsciously find a way to quit training and resume old habits.  Weird and completely irrational, but I believe it to be true.

Solution:  I realize this sounds incredibly hokey and lame, but start doing some work on your self-image.  To better understand the whole self-image / performance phenomenon I would recommend that everyone read Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.  In the meantime start doing some positive self-talk and visualization about what you want to achieve with your training.  Your failures in the past have absolutely nothing to do with your success in the future.

#3:  No Reason to Stick to Your Plan

This problem stems from goal setting.  Either you do not have goals at all or you have set arbitrary goals that you are not really passionate about.   Often times the latter stems from having someone else set the goals for you.   No one can set goals for you or tell you what is important.  Every individual must decide for his or herself what is really important to them.

Generally, goal setting can come from two places:  The Desire to Attain Something or The Desire to Avoid Something.   For a competitive power lifter, his overwhelming desire in life may be to win a National Meet or to set personal bests of 500/400/600.  This is an example of training to attain something.  The flip side is the trainee who has set a goal of trying to avoid something.  The best example of this is my senior clients who are trying to avoid winding up in a wheelchair or on a walker for the rest of their life.  Their goal is to avoid the negative consequences of aging.

Solution:  Give some serious thought as to why you want to train.  Try and block out everything you have ever read or heard about why you should train or how you should train.  This process is strictly about you and your goals.  Be open and honest with yourself about the purpose behind your time under the bar.  Once you establish your purpose for training then you can start setting up some goals.  Once you have some goals, you can start setting up a plan.

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week!