Whether you’re an elite athlete training for the Spartathlon in Greece or you’re a sporadic gym-goer keen to shape up, using progressive blocks to improve your workout results can save you from losing motivation, injury, or physical burnout.
Founder of Body Fit Training (BFT), Cameron Falloon swears by the 8-week method of using progressive training. Throughout his fitness career as a strength and conditioning coach, he has used training blocks to coach with the heavy hitters such as the Geelong Cats, Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide Football club. And now, thanks to Cameron Fallon, you can utilise the progressive blocks to improve your workout results through your local BFT studio.
How to use progressive training blocks
Each class at BFT focuses on progressions for around an 8-10 week period. The progressive nature of the programs focus on increasing or decreasing loads, high reps vs low reps or increasing or decreasing working time, depending on the type of exercise you are doing. For example, if the focus of the bock was to increase strength for a deadlift, you might start out in week one with high reps and light weight to familiarise the movement pattern. Week two, you would drop the reps slightly and add a bit more load, then week three, drop back the number of reps but increase time under tension with tempo. It’s a fairly easy concept to incorporate into almost any workout, but you need the knowledge of how to do it which is programmed for you in a BFT session, without the cost of a personal trainer!
Remember to not simply concentrate on how much weight you can lift or how far you can run, but think about it in terms of improving mobility and range of motion. They also play a large role in making sure you can reach your peak performance.
When you use progressive blocks, you get to see real results and should find (if you are doing it right) after a 8 week period that will have more range of motion, move faster and be able to lift more weight. It’s seeing that steady progress and tracking those results that make this type of training addictive.
While you may get excited and want to push yourself harder once you start seeing the results, you need to remember to give yourself recovery breaks, not just throughout the workout, and giving yourself a day or two to rest.
You can apply progressive techniques to your own workout, but it’s always more motivating and safer when you undertake progressive training blocks in a group setting under the watchful eye of a trainer.
If you’re interested in learning more about BFT or trying out progressive training blocks, you can find locations near you by clicking here.