How to Get Fit Fast with Multi-Week Programs May 18, 2023 Share Programs developed by fitness experts help 65% of Speediance members train more consistently.
A fitness goal, whether it’s building muscle or training for a marathon, is very much like a long road trip: you need a carefully planned route to get to your final destination. “Random workouts are like driving without a guide, where you just randomly arrive in cities until you reach your final destination, if you ever do,” says Christian Hermann, Senior Director of Sports Science Performance at Speediance. “With a program, you input that destination into your GPS and trust it to get you there.” Read on to learn why specific programs are the best option for achieving great results, and how random workouts can also strategically fit into your program.
What are programs?
When you work with a personal trainer at the gym, your trainer should design your workouts based on proven principles of exercise science to help you achieve your goals. The workouts will be built according to a calculated method, allowing an ideal balance between work and recovery to get the desired results.
The programs at Speediance work in the same way. Each Speediance program is designed with a specific outcome in mind. Depending on the program, this end result can be hypertrophy (muscle growth), increased strength and power, changes in body composition (more lean muscle and less body fat), improved movement patterns, or greater endurance.
When Speediance coaches, all of whom are certified personal trainers, create these workouts in collaboration with a team of recognized experts in fitness planning, they base them on proven training protocols that support these goals. By varying repetition patterns, rest periods, exercise order, and exercise selection, coaches can design different types of resistance workouts to achieve specific results.
In addition to adapting each set of exercises, Speediance coaches and planning experts ensure that the exercises in the program are connected like ladder rungs to progress towards a final goal. This means you may see more advanced movement patterns in the last weeks of a program, building on fundamental movements you learned in previous weeks, or days of high and low intensity that alternate to balance work and recovery.
You can trust that every program is supported by the scientific principles of exercise and based on the latest research. Here are the key benefits of programs according to experts, Speediance members, and scientific studies.
Programs will get you to your goal faster Jaime Rios from Mexico City, since buying his Speediance, has lost weight, gained muscle, and even lowered his cholesterol. "After a few months with Speediance, my doctor was impressed with the results," says Rios. "Objectively, I am much healthier."
To achieve his goals, Jaime specifically chose to follow the programs designed by Speediance experts, based on science, and completed 18 programs in a year and a half, instead of doing random workouts. "The coaches are top-notch and know what they're doing," he says. "I really have no idea what I'm doing in the gym, and the fact that I have coaches I trust leading challenging programs is a game-changer."
Hermann explains that at Speediance, the workouts within a program are connected by a common thread to help you achieve your goal. In most cases, this thread is the principle of progressive overload, or the gradual increase in effort on your body during resistance training necessary to gain strength.
"Intensity drives adaptation," Hermann explains, so once you feel more comfortable and confident with an exercise, you should increase the intensity to create changes, such as an increase in muscle size, strength, or power.
"Most of our programs follow a simple linear progression pattern, meaning week after week you increase your volume [in terms of repetitions] or increase the weight," says Hermann. "Gradually, as you progress through the program, you expose your body to a slightly greater amount of effort, but still within the appropriate threshold for that."
Although a program may become more challenging as you lift more weight or do more repetitions, the linear progression pattern ensures that you are ready for that challenge. There will be no sudden increase that your body is not ready for; instead, you will be exposed to the appropriate amount of effort to create changes.
Programs keep you consistent.
Whatever your goal, being consistent in your workouts is the fastest way to achieve it. At Speediance, members who follow programs are 65 percent more consistent week after week than those who only do random workouts. There are several reasons, both psychological and physical, that can explain this.
If you've ever spent half an hour working out and spent the first 10 minutes deciding which workout to do, you know that decision fatigue is real. In addition to shortening your workout time, research has shown that decision fatigue increases the perceived effort during exercise, making the workout less enjoyable. When you sign up for a program at Speediance, you know exactly what's coming each day.
Completing a program also leverages your sense of self-efficacy or your confidence in your ability to complete each stage of achieving your goals. As recent research suggests, process- or learning-based goals are more likely to lead to success than specific outcome-based goals. Checking off each workout in a four-week program helps you celebrate each step of your journey. Although you train alone, knowing that hundreds or thousands of Speediance members are following the same program can be very encouraging.
Jaime says the support he found in the official Speediance Facebook community keeps him consistent. "Speediance is the tool that helps me get fit," he says, "but I'm not alone on this journey, and that helps a lot." Physiologically, programs are designed to be balanced so that you don't derail your progress along the way.
For example, programs are often divided into upper and lower body workout days or by push and pull splits. "This ensures that you don't overstress any muscle group to the point of excessive fatigue or where you can't perform what you need to," says Hermann. "It's designed to put you in a position to succeed." With independent workouts, you risk overtraining a particular muscle group, which can lead to excessive pain and fatigue, reducing the likelihood of starting your next workout.
The programs are varied, not random. Programs can be methodical, but that doesn't mean they are monotonous or boring. Small changes week after week keep workouts interesting so you don't get bored. As you progress through a program at Speediance, you'll notice that although the exercises remain consistent in the program, the number of repetitions required may vary to stimulate a different adaptation.
This could be increasing the number of repetitions in the second week of a program to increase endurance, or reducing the number of repetitions but increasing the weight to increase strength. Even if the exercises and repetition range remain the same week after week, you'll get stronger throughout the program and Speediance will increase the recommended weights for certain exercises.
This means you'll lift a greater volume in the last week of your program compared to the first week, indicating that you're progressing through progressive overload.
When to do independent workouts
Although programs are key to achieving your goals, that doesn't mean there's no place for independent workouts in your routine. It's about strategically planning them so that they contribute to, rather than distract from, your main focus. When doing a strength training program, adding a light mobility workout, yoga, or Pilates on your rest days will support your lifts without overtaxing your tired muscles.
If you want to add a weekly cardio workout day, that's also a good option; just make sure you don't do a high-impact workout the day before a lower body strength workout. You know your GPS can change your route if there's unexpected traffic or roadblocks. In fitness, these unplanned deviations can manifest as injuries, illnesses, or even a few stressful weeks at work that throw you off your plan. In these cases, take time to meditate or do a short Quick Fit workout to maintain consistency before you can get back on track.
There's also nothing wrong with taking a break from programs for a few weeks and trying new independent workouts during this time to vary the pace. You'll maintain your fitness level and enjoy trying new modalities or working with new coaches before returning to the programs for continued progress. Ready to try the programs but not sure where to start? Check out the Speediance app to find the perfect program for your goals and experience level.
