Resistance training: choreography v principles

Michael Goulden

Last updated: 

2 Feb 2024

2 min. read

What is the first thing your clients ask you when you return from a workshop you have just attended? ‘Show me some moves!’. They are excited and want to hear and see what you’ve learnt. This is cool.

This happened to a friend of mine in the US, but it wasn’t his client asking. It was his PT Manager.

You’ve now done RTS; show me an RTS workout!

My friend was stumped. He had nothing. The PT Manager was confused.

This is not unusual; the standard for personal training courses is to offer new moves, new tricks, new choreography, or new protocols.

When you’re first starting in the industry, this is what you need. However, we’ve all experienced the scenario where the protocol didn’t work or your client’s posture didn’t look like it should. Now what?

Rather than following the rules of the exercise, we could learn the rules of the body, forces, and the specific strategies it takes to deliver results for our clients.

Hey, you’ve been on a building course; show me some moves!

I struggled to write that sentence. I can’t imagine someone whipping out a hammer and smashing things up or taking the saw to the kitchen worktop. But it’s what expected of you once you finish a course.

Hey, you’ve just finished med school; show me what ya got!

You get the point.

Where do we start?

Here’s a great jumping-off point for your study.

1. Anatomy
2. Forces
3. The art of ‘seeing.’
4. What it takes to create an adaptation

Anatomy & Forces.

Simply put, every exercise you design and deliver is a force applied to the human body. It’s the force that creates the change we seek. It stands to reason that your starting point should focus on these two topics.

The art of ‘seeing’.

From your assessments, movement-based observations to the execution of every single rep: everything you see, measure and record matters.

What is takes to create an adaptation

We are in this industry to help people—the dosage matters.

• If we focus on getting everything perfect but don’t create a sufficient stimulus: our clients lose.
• If we focus on using as hard as possible, with no concern for detail: our clients lose.

It’s all about knowing which tool to pick and how to use it for the desired outcome.

In turn, achieving impressive goals for each client – not just those that fit into the pre-determined protocols.

It’s not called “personal” training simply because it’s one-on-one. It’s supposed to be personalised as well! And personalised training is much more than creative exercise selection and program design.

Tom Purvis, RTS Founder