1) Mobility 2) Reactivity 3) Speed/Power
4) Strength 5) Endurance 6) Relaxation/Recovery
Training Principles
This topic is important for those who desire efficiency and want to get the most out of their workouts.
If you want to get in shape (whatever that means) and not just be OK at a bunch of different exercises, you will have to plan out -step by step – the path to your goal.
Since most people don’t have fitness goes beyond simply ‘getting fit’,
This article will be about the very general goal of getting fit.
With this goal in mind, we can begin laying out the step by step process towards ‘fitness’.
> If you follow this workout organization, you will find yourself on the fast track to fitness success.
1)Mobility
- Soft tissue work first. Do this in order to get the tissue moving in the right way.
- Foam roll, Band work, Active Stretching
- Write down a mobility goal, ideally have it relate to an exercise you know you will be doing later i.e. better hip mobility in the deep squat.
- Some Movement Patterning work for the exercises you know you will be doing later is a good idea.
2) Reactivity
- Having slow reactivity means you have a slow nervous system, this is an indicator of how much time you have left.
- you can train reactivity in many ways:
- vision training
- balance training
- catching and throwing exercises
- changing directions (of any movement on demand)
- It is important to do this prior to lifting, because the effects of this type of training will increase your ability to produce strength later in the workout.
- Doing this after a workout will reduce the training effect.
- This is also a good time to practice a new skill
3) Speed/Power
- Must be done prior to any excess fatigue.
- Speed development means fast twitch muscle fiber development.
- Metabolic waste is detrimental to speed development I.E. no one gets faster as a game progresses.
- This section will recruit high threshold motor units and will encourage myofibrillar hypertrophy
- Choose compound movements – jumping, explosive kettlebell movements, Olympic lifting, sprinting, plyometrics etc.
- keep reps LOW (1-5 reps) and rest HIGH (3-5 minutes)
- complete recovery between sets is required, don’t confuse speed training with conditioning…. it is trained more like strength.
I want to remind you that this is not THE way, this is just one of many ‘ways’.
All I am trying to do it make your life easier.
If your reading this then you more than likely care about your body, you already workout and want to know more about the health and fitness world.
If you order your workout according to this template, you will be following the body’s natural way of optimizing and improving your energy systems.
You will therefore be getting the most out of each workout.
Damn love efficiency…
4) Strength
- this section of your workout is where you stress your body for 3-5 sets with 1-3 different exercises.
- choose a grinding, compound movement for sets of 3-6 repetitions with about 3 minutes rest. (Ex. Deadlift, Press, Pull Up, Squat…)
- this section will encourage sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
5) Endurance
- Conditioning in this template means anything more than 6 reps
- If your ‘explosive’ movements stay explosive, and form remains strict – this section can last for as long as you do.
- this section is highly goal dependent:
- if you want slow-twitch muscle hypertrophy = sets of continuous movement for 40 – 120s, equal amount of rest.
- if you want to burn calories = heavy 3-5rep Deadlift/ followed by 30-60sec Swing/ followed by Plank until you ‘recover’…
- Find yourself a qualified strength and conditioning coach – one who doesn’t confuse strength and conditioning with conditioning and more conditioning.
- This is because there is a difference between muscular conditioning – and – cardiovascular conditioning … each has its own considerations and ideal training methods.
6) Relaxation/Recovery
- this section should be as long as needed, some need 5 minutes, others 15.
1. breathe deep
2. decompress your spine.
- decompression exercises include : hanging, child’s pose and cobra, cat-camel, Sphinx pose etc.
- Post Workout Window for Improved Recovery: there is a 6-9 hours window post workout that if you time either your recovery procedures or sleeping cycle to correspond with this window you will enhance your recovery and your ability to train the following day.
- Meditation and other mental practices will help tremendously for those athletes committed to their progress. Since mental practice takes time – However, even 5 minutes will go along way!
> if you enjoyed this post, share it with someone who you think would benefit
<>
Martin Colangelo
“The Better Movement Specialist”

<>
Stay Strong my friends!