Defining Your Fitness System

Your fitness system will, of course, take a lot of time to develop into its final form, but that is not an excuse to avoid putting the current version on paper. Change will always happen, but that doesn’t mean you can avoid starting now. Picture the last time you set a project aside until all your ducks were lined up in a row perfectly; how much more time did that add to the completed project? Even if you finally got the project done, how much easier was it because you avoided starting until the “right time”?

You need to sit down and define your fitness system now, no matter how rough it might seem in its current form. The process will quickly help you identify the holes in your business and put you on your way to defining a complete solution.

While your fitness system will be completely dependent on what you’re offering, be it a coaching service, fitness product, event, etc., I have found some commonalities between all of them. The following outline doesn’t include everything, but it will get you on your way to defining your system. It includes your Philosophy, Principles, Assessment/Progression, and Training/Nutrition.

Philosophy

Your Fitness System must have a well defined philosophy that clearly illustrates what and why it achieves what it does. Don’t confuse this with a mission statement; this is an over arching view of how you solve the problem you’re attempting to solve, and a good one won’t budge a bit after you have it set.

An example of a Fitness Philosophy that is extremely targeted would be, “Using three primary implements (kettlebells, sandbags, and barbells) and progressive movement techniques, this system allows overweight individuals to enhance their health and physical performance over a long term period.” A good philosophy will also be able to be simplified into a single, three to eight word line which you’ll then use as your company slogan.

Principles

Principles are specific guidelines that could get applied to a variety of situations to make the choice both easy to make and consistent with past decisions.

A good example is how you address the issue of building strength. An okay principle in this regard may be, “We address strength development through the use of low repetition sets.” A better principle would be, “We use barbell deadlifts, back squats, and military presses combined with progressive 4 week workout programs to develop strength.” One is vague while the other is much more specific and actionable.

Whatever your principle is, it should be extremely consistent and every member of your company should be able to recite it from scratch. You should have enough principles to answer any question in regards to your Fitness System.

Assessment & Progression

Just as there are no two identical people (even twins have separate life experiences that may influence their fitness levels), there is no such thing as a universal fitness solution. The only way to get someone from Point A to Point B is to find out where Point A is in the first place! Your Fitness System should include some element of Assessment. Something as simple as a Push Up Test could give you all the information you need to integrate custom attributes into your Fitness System for each person, but you need something.

Progression is intimately connected to Assessment; now that you know Point A, you need to find out where Point B is and when your client arrives there. How do they progress?

Training & Nutrition

Your Fitness System should include training and nutrition, of course. In terms of detail, this section should have the most information. For training, what implements, techniques, exercises, set schemes, and workout schedules do you use? For nutrition, what diet plans, ingredients, recipes, supplements, and eating schedules do you recommend? On top of that, how are each of these aspects modified for specific situations/clients?