Why Template Workout Programs Don't Work

For some reason, it has been difficult for me to explain to some people why template workout programs are not beneficial and/or as effective as they should be. A template workout program is simply a workout program that is given to all athletes to promote strength and power. Template programs may have, for example, three workouts. Every week the same workouts are repeated with little difference - weights are increased or changed, repetitions lowered or raised, and maybe an exercise or two added or subtracted. The basic template of the program, however, stays the same.

What's wrong with this you might ask? There are two major issues with template programs: 1) they often don't reflect individual needs and 2) they become mundane, boring, and less effective over time.

The first issue is one I am extremely passionate about. We need to design programs based off of:

-Sport(s) played
-Gender
-Age
-Maturity level
-Body Shape Strengths/Weaknesses
-History of Injury

To demonstrate the complexity, let's look at one sport (Football), one gender (Male), one age (17), and one history of injury (none). So we are keeping everything constant besides body shape and maturity level.

We will need workouts that are specific to lineman and skilled positions. We can differentiate the skilled positions too between those who may need to sprint 60 yards (wide receivers or defensive backs) and those who may sprint 10 yards or less most of the time (running and full backs). We need to differentiate between those boys who have hit puberty and those who are lagging behind. We need to differentiate, especially now days, between those who are overweight and those who need to gain mass.

I haven't hit everything, but let's take this logic down to one exercise: the front plank. Lineman will have trouble holding their bodies up so we need to have them do the exercise for fewer seconds. They simply won't be able to hold it. The rest of the kids may be good for 1 minute so we can have them do that. But what about the 4-5 guys that have awesome cores!!? What should we do with them? Just like we don't want the 300lbs lineman doing a plank 1 minute when he can't yet, we don't want a ripped wide-receiver doing a 1 minute plank and being bored out of his mind. We want him doing it on a pseudo-ball or on one hand for 2 minutes or longer. We want to add in more instability to the exercise.

That's one exercise!! Within that one exercise we need at least 3 different variations to have an effective program.

Hopefully it is obvious that template programs don't work the best. If you're paying for them, I'm sorry. You might as well just learn the lifts and then do everything on your own. After a couple weeks you can do the whole program!