Breaking Down Factors of Training

Whether you're working out alone, in a group setting, or one on one with a trainer, as long as you are in a gym training there are 6 different principles to consider to optimize your training habits and maximize your results. These 6 principles form the acronym FITT-VP. During my time in my undergrad and post-grad fellowship at Umass Amherst, the FitT-VP principle was drilled into my mind time and time again, as it is extremely relevant to most things 'exercise science'.

So you're probably wondering, "what exactly does fitt-vp stand for?" Well with a quick google search you'd come to find that FITT-VP stands for frequency, intensity, time, type, volume and progression. In the following paragraphs I'll break down, first, what each of these actually mean in regards to resistance training, and second, why they matter.

Frequency is how often you are training, meaning how many times per week, or if you are an athlete, perhaps how many times per day even. Intensity means how vigorous the training is. To simplify things, training is usually either classified as light, moderate, or intense, but another way to classify intensity is to use a 'rate of perceived exhaustion (RPE) scale of 1-10 or 1-20. Usually on these scales 1 is easy, the highest number is extraordinarily difficult. The first T in our acronym is time meaning how long we are training for per session. Another way to think about this is session duration. Here, we should ask questions like is it feasible to workout for 2 hours daily or should I tone it down? Would it make more sense for me to train 1 hour 6 days per week or 2 hours 3 days per week? These questions are pertinent to time and frequency.

The next letter of our acronym is another 'T'. The second t stands for type. This is referring to the 'how' of our training. Different types of training examples for say a marathon runner may include outdoor running, treadmill running, self powered treadmills, walking, or even other forms of aerobic (cardio) training such as swimming or biking. Our next letter is 'v' standing for volume. This is how many total sets and reps we are doing within a given session or across multiple sessions, but during a set period. If I run 3 miles 4 days this week my total volume is 12 miles. Or if I do 5 sets of dumbbell curls for 10 reps each, my total dumbbell curl volume would be 50 reps, which assuming I idd more exercises during a workout, would account for a percentage of my total workout volume. Lastly is the 'p' which stands for progression. This is how to make consecutive workouts appropriately more challenging so that stagnation doesn't occur. Progression for resistance training might include adding volume in the form of extra sets or extra reps per set, or by increasing load gradually.

By following the FITT-VP principle and taking into account these 6 metrics, you and your trainer can successfully maximize your sessions and work towards reaching your goals. Frequency is important because training too frequently may lead to overtraining, muscle damage, and risk of injury, whilst not training enough, obviously leads to underwhelming gains. Intensity is important for obvious reasons. If you are not challenging the muscle, it is unable to grow and adapt to moving a heavier load, thus strength gains suffer. With muscle, if you don't use it, you lose it, so intensity must be kept moderate or vigorous to see strength and hypertrophy gains consistently. Time matters for the same reason frequency matters. Type is important because your training must make sense for the right adaptations to occur. Think, would a baseball player train like a marathoner? No! because training type matters. Volume matters because, again, too high of volume can cause fatigue and performance decline, and too low of volume will not challenge the muscle enough to cause it to grow. Lastly, without progression, there is no improvement. Imagine if you were stuck lifting the same weights from age 5 to age 55. It sounds hard to imagine, because progression comes naturally with practice and skill inquisition, the same is true for weightlifting, so progression is important and make sure it is logical. Imagine training for a half marathon, 13.1 miles. Week one you run an average of 3 miles a day for 3 days. Would it make sense for week two to run 7 miles a day for 4 days? Of course not! That progression isn't logical. a better progression would be to run 3.2 miles for 3 days or perhaps 4 miles for 2 days. That way total volume remains nearly consistent, but there is sitll improvement.

Hopefully this post helps you to better plan your workouts and optimize your training! If you found this blog helpful, please consider liking, sharing and reposting! Thanks for reading, now let's get FITT-VP!