Coach Billy.

Physiological, social, and psychological differences must be considered before doing a training program. I learned about the different somatotypes or body types – the endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph. I was somewhere in between an endomorph and a mesomorph, so I should not expect to look skinny like an ectomorph, and I ought to capitalize on my own somatotype. I also realized that I work out better when I am on my own, or at least have my personal space in the gym. Some people won’t work out without a ‘workout buddy’ or a ‘spotter’ – for me, I am able to focus more when there’s no one looking.

An individualized training program will help the person or the athlete achieve improvements in strength and performance more efficiently. If you are training with a group of people, modifications can be incorporated for your individual needs. Last but not the least, be realistic and set goals according to your individuality.

For me, I didn’t improve much of my aerobic capacity when I started because I just focused on lifting weights and training for Powerlifting. If you’re just doing weights at the gym, you won’t develop your legs or any other part of your body if you just do bicep curls.

All of us has reasons to stop exercising or training for a while. This principle reminds us to take it easy whenever we go back to training. During college and being part of the Powerlifting team, there were many times that I had to stop training for a few weeks and even a couple of months because I needed to study for an exam or finish a paper. This principle works with progressive overload because I had to go back to lighter loads and progress again before training for another competition. The good news according to research is that athletes and more trained individuals are able to retrain faster even after a long break.

Exercise or any physical work damages and breaks down the tissues in our bodies, and intense activity depletes energy stores. Overtraining and not giving the body enough time to repair these tissues and replenish lost energy would then be detrimental to training and might even result to injury. There are times that we can get too hyped up to work out, join races weekly, and cause our body to be overtrained. Remember that Recovery is as important as training – it is during the Recovery period that your body gets stronger and adapts to the stress of training.