Progress and Regress For Success

After reading this article, my hope for you is that you will understand why progressions and regressions matter. We will also explore the STCfit progression regression model as well as how to apply it to your own training.

Why do progressions and regressions matter?

There are 4 reasons we apply a progression/regression model to exercise selection;

• SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand)
• Skill acquisition/deficiency
• Strength deficiency
• Dysfunction

SAID Principle in Practice

Following the SAID principles requires base knowledge of the 3 main target adaptations we pursue in training for strength.

1. Intramuscular coordination. In other words, how effective a muscle is at producing force. This is typically targeted by using loads over 85% of our 1 Rep Max (1RM).
2. Intermuscular coordination. Again, in over simplified terms, the effectiveness of a muscle to produce force via the timing and chronological order of muscular contractions. This is typically targeted by using loads between 40%-70%. It is important to note that overlap exists across the full spectrum and in particular from 70%-85%.
3. Hypertrophy. This is Increasing cross sectional area of the muscle and targeted with loads at 40%-80% provided that proximity of failure is reached.

The next order of business is introducing STCfit’s 4 movement types:

1. Prime — The lift you want to improve (for eg. squat, bench and deadlift).
2. Accessory — Lifts that closely mimic the prime lift with great carry over while reducing the level of fatigue (for eg. SSB Squat, close grip bench, RDL etc).
3. Compound — Multi joint movements not directly connected to the main lifts (for eg. walking lunge, DB press, GHR etc).
4. Isolation — Single joint movements not directly connected to the main lifts (for eg. leg extension, pec fly, lying hamstring curl etc).

Prime — While there is a time for using low loads in a prime lift, most often the goal is to train intramuscular coordination with the intent to express or prepare for expressing strength.

Accessory & Compound — These lifts illicit less systemic fatigue and as a result we can build more volume in these lifts. It’s plausible to use loads 40%-90% but most often we’ll sit in the 60%-85% range to create a spread of positive outcomes across all three adaptation targets.

Isolation — Plain and simple we are here to drive hypertrophy. With conscious thought we can consider other variables like muscle function and use positions that may help with stability and/or connective tissue health however predominantly … size is the prize.

There are situations predicated by the lifter’s experience, goals, phase of training and primary goal outcomes where we turn dials up and down on movement types to elicit different target outcomes. We can easily do this by progressing or regressing the movement according to the goal at the time.

Moving towards strength expression, exercises are progressed to create a very specific program containing mostly prime and accessory lifts. In contrast, during a hypertrophy phase they are regressed to allow for more total volume.

Skill Acquisition/Deficiency

If technique is defined as the ability to perform a rep within the agreed parameters, skill is therefore the ability to do so with maximal effectiveness, consistently and under a load to create the adaptations we are pursuing.

A skill break down may only see “some good reps”. Eg. In a set of 5, repetition 2, 4 and 5 are executed well while repetition 1 and 3 show errors in execution.

When performing an exercise without skill, we may be wasting valuable recovery capacity and time on ineffective work. Instead it makes more sense to regress the exercise to a point where we can execute well and reap the rewards.

Once we reach a level of proficiency in an exercise, we can consider the benefits for progressing that exercise further. This might be to increase objective load, reduce subjective difficulty or to drive a more specific pattern to provide carry over to the goal outcome.

The ability of the programmer to make smart progressions/regressions can remove weeks to months of unnecessary “technique work” which has little carry over to intramuscular coordination and hypertrophy.

Strength Deficiency

A strength deficiency will typically be expressed under a specific load or as fatigue builds over a set or sets.

Specific load will show as a weight reached where the technique and skill is still executed perfectly yet there is a breakdown at a specific stage of the movement. We could drop the load slightly and attempt to correct this weakness by increasing volume at a load we are able to execute proficiently however a more effective method to overload specific weakness could be found in a regression.

Building fatigue is more difficult to accurately interpret. If as the reps and sets go on, we see a breakdown develop in the pattern we can conclude it may be due to a weakness in that specific part of the movement. If there are multiple or inconsistent issues in the movement we may have simply exceeded our mental capacity or endurance. The difference between skill and strength deficiency can be explained using the example of hips shooting back in a squat. If no cuing or refocusing fixes the following rep, we probably have a weakness. If we can cue it to improve or one rep reveals hip shooting and the next a rounding of the upper back we may have exhausted our mental capacity or endurance. In this case we would treat this regression as we would a skill deficiency.

Dysfunction/Pain

Interventions for dysfunction and or pain are outside of the personal trainer/coaching scope. We can however work with allied health professionals to regress and progress exercises as appropriate. Most issues can be not only worked around, but improved with the correct implementation of the progression and regression model.

A dysfunction will show as an issue in the movement that is consistent in every rep and or causes pain. An ankle that’s restricted, a torso rotation in a squat, a hip that pinches in the hole and so on. Experienced coaches with further education may have interventions that can help but always remember your scope of practice. Always err on the side of caution by referring out to an allied health professional who works with barbell athletes and working together to solve the problem.

How to Apply STCfit’s Progression/Regression Model to Your Programming

Below is an explanation of a concept and not a prescription. I’ve simply selected one potential regression for each tier. There are many scenarios where different interventions would be more appropriate for the outcome.

Takeaways

You should be leaving this article with a few questions worth sitting down to contemplate and answer.

• Do your programs consciously adhere to the SAID principle?
• Can you identify skill and strength deficiencies?
• Can you identify and work around dysfunction and pain with an allied health professional?
• Do you have a progression / regression model sufficient to cover all movement patterns you use in your programming (vertical push/pull and horizontal pull not shown in this article)?

Confidently answering these four questions places your best foot forward to well rounded and bullet proof programming.

Lift smart, lift hard, lift long.

Ben

@benscottstc