9 WAYS TO IndividualisE Programs & Workouts

Fitness of any kind is a journey of learning to know your body, so experimenting with different programs and workouts as well as customising these to suit YOU in the most optimal manner can be both interesting and educational.

Trained athletes generally need less time to recover, so as you grow stronger, you may also be able to handle more training volume. In the same manner, beginner athletes may require more rest and recovery. Since we are all different in terms of recovery, it is also important that you allow yourself to make certain individual customisations to the programs and I am here, not to claim that my programs are universal, the best, or one size fits all, but to help and guide you in doing educated choices based on best practice principles.

We may also have goals that stretches out beyond that of any single program alone, in which case we may need to get a little creative.

Sometimes there may be factors preventing us to complete the entirety of the programs as is, which will require us to make certain customisations.

So without further ado, here is a few ways to individualise the programs:

1. You can reduce, or increase the number of sets within each workout

2. You can add Modules for additional skills you want to work on

I you for example are doing a handstand program, and also want to learn to planche, or front lever, or any other skill, but don’t want to embark on a complete bodyweight program, then adding additional modules for the skills you want to work on may be a good idea.

The same applies if you are doing a complete bodyweight program and want to add training for skills that isn’t a part of the program you are using.

I recommend “saving” your favourite modules so they are easily accessible. You can do several modules after each other, or just one. The modules can be done after your main workout, as a part of it, or by itself on a separate time in the same day, or another day where you have no other workouts.

Modules are found in the “stand alone” workouts tab in the app. You can use the filter “modules” to easily find all available modules.

The difference between a module and a workout is that a module is not regarded as a complete general workout, but a complete specific workout for a specific skill. It includes specific warm-up only, so if you are only doing a module stand alone (not after, or in another workout), a general warm-up is recommended before starting.

3. You can add additional workouts

if you want to for example follow a full bodyweight program, you also want to learn to handstand, but do not have the time to follow both a handstand program and a complete bodyweight program, then you can add a handstand workout to your program.

The same would apply if handstands was your priority and you want to add for example 1 day a week of bodyweight strength work.

In any case I recommend finding your favourite workouts to add and “saving” them (by clicking the heart in the upper right corner) so they are easily accessible from the home screen of the app.

Another useful tip is that the level of the workouts (according to the level of the programs) are indicated in the workout names. Here are some examples.

• “BW foundations 1 (Full)” means it is level 1 and same pre requisites as “bodyweight FOUNDATION” programs is to be expected. As a side note, all BW foundation workouts are full body workouts.

• “Full Body L2 A” means it is level 2 and same pre requisites as “bodyweight STRONG” programs is to be expected. Letter “A” indicates that there is one, or more variations of this workout (labeled with “B” etc.)

• “Pull L3 B (OAP & FL)” means it is level 3 and same pre requisites as “bodyweight SKILLED” programs is to be expected. The parenthesis will be explained further.

• Workouts named handstand 1, 2 and 3 will indicate the difficulty of the handstand workouts according to prerequisites specified in the handstand programs for these levels.

• You can also get more info on each workout by clicking on them and reading the introduction on top.

in addition to this there may be additional information within (parenthesis’) indication additional info such as:

• (FULL) - The full workout including all important exercises for specified workout.

• (SHORT) - a shorter variation of the workout with only the most essential exercises.

• (“some specific” focus) - focusing on a specific aspect relevant to the specified workout. “handstand 2 (mobility focus)” for example will have a stronger focus on the mobility aspects of the handstand 2 workout. and “Pull L3 B (OAP & FL)” is a pull workout of level 3 wich focuses on strength for one arm pull-up (OAP) and front lever (FL).

All workouts in the app is available as stand alone workouts in the “stand alone workouts” tab in the app.

4. You can combine programs

You can combine any programs as pleased. In many cases this means 2 workouts will occur on the same day. It is then up to you to decide if you are too fatigued to perform both on the same day, or if you have time to do so. If not, then choose to perform the workout that is most relevant to your priority of goals.

If you do choose to complete 2 workouts on the same day, you can either complete them back to back, or one in the morning and one in the afternoon/evening. If you choose to complete them back to back, you can skip the warm-up of the second workout. In this case I also recommend starting with the most technical workout. If you for example are following “bodyweight skilled Push/pull” program and handstand 2 program, and want to do two workouts from these programs back to back, I recommend starting with the handstand workout. In this case, if the handstand workout also includes strength work, I would recommend skipping this.

5. Add deload week and/or additional rest days when needed

You know your body best and if you some time feel that you are in need of an additional rest day, or a deload week, then do that.

You notice the need of an additional rest day if you feel unusually sore, or if you feel that you are performing worse than your last workout. You may also feel the need to add consistent additional rest days. Perhaps you feel the “bodyweight skilled Push/pull” program for example is slightly to much volume for you to handle and that you need an additional day between day 5 and 6 for example - then you do this! In the app, the “day 5” will be waiting for you. We do not always need to think of programming in terms of weeks!

You notice the need of a deload week by consistently feeling fatigued and by consistently performing worse from workout to workout.

A deload week can either be week (or just a few days) of complete rest, or reduced volume. You could consider down regulating the amount fo sets to half of the original workout for example (by clicking on the set number and choosing a new amount of sets).

TIP: Active rest days and deloads:

Instead of complete rest, you could deload a strength program, by focusing more on handstands for a week. Try some of the handstand workouts, or even follow one week of a handstand program.

OR, you could focus more on mobility and test out some of the upper body mobility workouts, or even give the Acrobatics 101 program, or workouts a try.

You could also simply do some more running, swimming or other cardio activities that aren’t too hard on your muscles.

6. Choose the right & customising progressions

The app contains more than 1000 progressions spread out between the different programs. Some of these are duplicates specifying specific rep ranges and hold times, cause lets be honest - 20 seconds of planche compared to 10 seconds of planche is as much a progress of jumping from one variation to the next, and should be celebrated as such.

It is very important that you spend time experimenting with and selecting the proper progressions that are challenging enough. Have a look at the exercise descriptions to get an idea of the rep range you should be working with, to make an educated choice of progression.

Can you skip progressions? YES, of course - if you are able to stick to the specified rep range for the exercise, then go ahead. Especially for technical exercises, some steps may be ambiguous for some people. Other times, two progressions may even be of the same difficulty, just in a different way, or with different equipment so you can choose what is most convenient for you. We are also all different, so in a few cases, one progression that is considered more difficult for some, may be easier for you and vice versa.

In some cases however, you may even want to introduce your own progressions between two progressions by doing what I like to call progression interpolation.

In short this means that for progressions including distances and depths, you can create an intermediate progression with the distance, or depth in between the one specified by the two separate progressions.

7. Make the programs fit your schedule

Do you have something coming up, preventing you to complete a workout on a given day, or Wednesdays is supposed to be full body workout, but is also a day you know you consistently will not have time for a workout? Don’t sweat it.. You can do the workout on tuesday (if you can handle it), or push it to thursday.

8. Skill play of your choice

In some workouts there is a block called skill play/balance play. This is inspired from my own way of training, where I, after the warm up spend 15-45 minutes practicing some cool skills, combinations and just have some fun, playing around with the strength, balance and skills I attain through my practice. These blocks are optional and includes a variety of suggestions to things you could practice.

You can however feel free to practice whatever you wish and try to be creative and learn anything you think is appropriate to your level and that you find motivational and fun.

These blocks can also be skipped if it is not of interest, or if you do not have time.

You can also add skill/balance/strength play after the warm up of any workout. You can even get some inspiration from other play blocks, from the acrobatics program, or even spend some time practicing handstands without the restrictions of a program - just practice whatever and however motivates you :)

9. Individualise app settings