7 Rules for Selecting an Explosive Training Program

The internet is literally a huge freaking mess of people trying to sell you a training program.

How do you choose which way to progress with your athletic journey, and which program or training philosophy is best for you?

When I first started checking out various training programs and ideas when I was 15, I literally had no idea where to start other than looking at the testimonials and reviews surrounding various training programs. Some programs I tried delivered… some, not so much. Each time around was a learning process.

When it comes to deciding which program is best for you, or just how to optimize the training program or plan that you are already on (or that your athletes or clients are on), I have found 7 factors that will determine how you should go about progressing in training, and which type of program is best for you.

(Full disclosure, I sell a few different programs and training packages, so this list certainly caters towards things that I have found very important for an athlete’s training success, but you can use the information here without buying anything from me).

Training age

The first, and possibly most important question of all: how long have you been training? You know those testimonials where athletes “put 10 inches on their vertical jump”? If that even happened (which occasionally, it does), the training age of the athlete is extremely low.

As athletes progress in training, performing more advanced exercises, and reaching greater levels of physical strength and muscular coordination, they require a training program that matches their abilities.

This match happens by exercises and training loads that deliver exercises at an intensity level to the point where an athlete can and will adapt and improve. Athletes who have been lifting weights and doing plyometrics for a few years will need an overload that usually comes in the form of the strategic use of more advanced training protocols, such as individualized depth jumps and French Contrast complex training.

I’ve had a total beginner to training, a tennis player literally put 9 inches on his standing jump in 2 weeks once we started training in the fall, most of which was simple complex training schemes. Because we were training for tennis, and not dunk competitions, his jump didn’t improve much after those 2 weeks, but it certainly would have made a nice testimonial on a jump product!

Bottom line, the longer you’ve been training, the more intense the methods you should be using, and you need to be much more aware of how dense (how many times a week) you are training hard. Advanced athletes also often need to make use of potentiation (one workout enhancing another) to reach their highest level.

Neurotransmitter and personality type

We talked about how often you should train in the last point, but what is the best training split for each athlete? Should you train every 2 days? 3 days? Once a week?? Believe it or not, I know of successful coaches who have chosen to train athletes once a week, and have them compete once a week, and they do well!

On the other hand, some athletes may need to train 5-6 days per week to see their highest result. What helps determine how often to train? The answer is something most wouldn’t immediately consider: neurotransmitter type.

Here is a quick rundown of the 4 neurotransmitters, and how they impact training.

Dopamine: Related to energy and getting things done

Acetylcholine: Related to creativity and relational intimacy

GABA: Related to consistency and loyalty

Serotonin: Related to sitting back, relaxing and enjoying life

According to Charles Poliquin (and my findings with the athletes I’ve had take this test confirm this), Dopamine dominant athletes are the intensity hounds who also need to watch how often they train. GABA dominant athletes can sustain greater training loads for extended periods of time. Athletes who are high in acetylcholine will respond better to more variations in the training load (and I believe they do better with more “discovery based” training).

Those who are low in the first three, but high in serotonin probably aren’t athletes.

If you are interested in your test results, check out the “Braverman” test, and see how you stack up.

General build and disposition towards types of exercise

Generally speaking, athletes should emphasize training to their strengths. Athletes who are lean and lanky, with long tendons and stiff ankles are generally predisposed to respond well to a lot of elastic training, which means they can sprint and do plyometrics regularly. On the other hand, these leaner athletes tend to respond less well to a large volume of strength training, and this must be delivered in a smaller dose!

Athletes who have a lot of muscle mass, and don’t have builds that are quite as conducive to dropping from high boxes will often be better off doing a greater percentage of their training doing heavier strength work versus their peers, respectively.

The idea of “training your weakness” doesn’t always work so well when you aren’t innately wired for it.

These days, I do far less strength training than I ever have, I do 1×10 front squat once a week, and a few sets of the kBox squat or split squat on another day, and I’m maintaining, or even improving my leg strength versus when I was lifting more often. Not to mention, I can jump much higher than I could last year at age 32. My body is literally “wired for speed”, and every time weights take the place of speed and plyometric work (outside of 2-3 week washout periods), my results flounder.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Just because you aren’t “strong” in the weightroom (I may start campaigning to start referring to strength as “intramuscular coordination”, as it may be a helpful paradigm shift in helping understand the role of barbell work and speed/power gains) doesn’t mean that you need to do the powerlifting craze of the day to “hit 2x bodyweight in the squat and officially be ready to do plyometrics and more advanced training”.

Regardless, many athletes do need to get stronger. Although I talk loads of smack in regards to those coaches who push lifting numbers hard, in my own work, I want to see steady and consistent gains in basic lift numbers from year to year as a measure of global strength development, and improvement in athletic coordination. I have a few athletes who are at the point where I don’t need to see them put any more weight on the bar, but I would say that 80% of those athletes I work with aren’t quite there yet. It doesn’t mean that I’m in a huge rush to get them there, as I want balanced development, which leads to a higher performance ceiling. I’ll err towards the 70% 1RM range vs. the 90% end of the spectrum nearly every time.

Some athletes need to get stronger, while others need to get faster. On top of this, there are a lot of other potential weak links that need to be addressed in the kinetic chain, such as:

Posture
Hip strength
Foot function and vertical stiffness
Deep core strength and contractility

Knowing how these pieces fit together is really important in the creation of a program that will yield the best result.

Does the program you are using have the biomechanics of your specific skill of choice in mind?

Any training program should have in mind the specific biomechanics of an athletes primary skill, whether that be jumping, sprinting, throwing, change of direction, or any combination of these skills.

Mechanical errors can be corrected by a coach or program that offers specific exercises to improve technical deficiencies. For example, athletes who lose pelvic position at the end of a long sprint, or feel the race more in their adductors can benefit from using barbell hip thrusts to create more glute power and contractility, while doing self myofascial release on the adductors.

Athletes who have poor snap of the hips or loading patterning in a two leg jump can benefit from learning the drop-catch RDL and kettlebell swing. Athletes who heel strike in running can improve by performing active cord touchdown drills from Dr. Yessis. Whatever skill you are trying to improve, there is an exercise that can improve sensory stimulation on the motor control level, or intramuscular coordination between the brain and muscles to improve technique and output.

How much stress do you have in your life?

This point is short, but easy. Athletes who have a lot of stress in their lives cannot train as hard as those who do not.

During mid-term weeks, I often see a sharp decrease in power output in many of my athletes. Research has also proven that athletes with day-jobs cannot achieve the “gainz” of athletes whose only job is simply to train!

To reach your highest level of performance, you must avoid stress. If you can’t avoid stress, then you need to adjust your training level. This is something a program can’t do for you, but only you can adjust based on how you are feeling.

In reality, it is often easier to make a hard focus on reducing stress, rather than adjusting a program around it, if possible.

Does the program give you the ability to use your own intuition and creativity to maximize your results?

This point is one that isn’t often talked about, but it’s important. No athlete will hit their highest performance without the ability to at least make a few decisions in terms of the exact layout and flow of the workout.

On one level, athletes who have a say in their own workout have higher levels of autonomy in the process, and a greater feeling of ownership. On another, if you give athletes a “menu” and let them choose between a few possibilities, their intuition often serves them well, and they’ll pick an option that is probably the best one for them.

I know of the practice of letting track athletes choose, or have a say in their own workout in the peaking process. In this regard, the “hay is in the barn”, and the biggest thing of importance at that point is simply believing in what you are doing!

I also am of the strong opinion to put points in a workout where athletes will choose their reps for a given exercise, particularly when doing core or remedial work.

In many of my programs, especially after a few months with an athlete, I’ll have a small training menu where athletes can choose which exercise they prefer. This system is also prevalent in the “Vertical Ignition” system.

Conclusion

With these training considerations in mind, it is my hope that you are now equipped with better ideas on how to maximize the training of yourself, or your athletes. Best of luck!

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