The Difference
Between A Program, And A System
A lot of people lack direction in their training, and appear to do
things without any rhyme or reason hoping that it will get them the results
they desire. While this can work for some, “hope” is not a strategy – at least
not an effective one. It’s for this reason that many search endlessly for a “program”
designed to provide them with the results they so desire. The program itself
provides guidance and purpose, which is great, but there’s one major drawback
with this approach, and it is: it’s impossible to predict how you’re body is
going to respond from day to day, workout to workout, set to set, and even rep
to rep.
Because a program is nothing more than a physical representation of
a strategy, it has room for error as some days you may be able to perform more
sets and reps, or you may not be able to perform the prescribed amount of sets
and reps – in either case (feeling like you can do more, or feeling like it’s
too hard), the psychological effect may be that the program isn’t the best for
the person following it. It’s for these reasons that a “system” of training,
one in which accounts are taken to allow for the natural daily fluctuations in
performance, may be a more effective approach both physically, and mentally.
A system allows for interpretation, and for on the fly adjustments
to be made based on how your body is reacting to the work that you are doing. After
all, a training session is something that the individual is experiencing, and
only that individual knows exactly how the work they’re performing is effecting
them, therefore the individual must learn to listen to the internal cues of the
body and base what they do off of that. That in essence is what training is all
about. To go one further, that’s pretty much what life is all about – feedback:
performing an action, gauging the reaction, taking the reaction into
consideration and performing a following action.
