When to Progress and When not to Progress Your Exercises

Hey it's been awhile, maybe some of you remember I use to do this thing on the reg. In any case, how's it going everyone? Happy belated December to all, everyone in the northeast, get ready because yeah, it’s about to get a bit chilly. I had my first crying baby on a plane experience this past weekend. I’m not judging the parent because I’m not one and god knows how good or bad I will be at it. With all that said, thank god, I had headphones and something enjoyable to listen to, others weren’t so lucky.
 
I’ve gotten this question, or variation, a couple of times over the years and got it again recently. I may or may not have hit on points like this before, but at the expense of landing in Redundancyville we’re going to get into this anyway.
 
The subject we’re getting into here is progressions and pregressions (<-borrowed term), when, where, how and all the in between for working out and training.
 
Pretty much every exercise and drill you see out there can be made easier or harder. Harder isn’t always better either so let’s dismiss that notion right now. A good coach/trainer likely has a list that they go by and base their exercise selection off of. Let’s talk about the basics of why an individual might land on a certain progression. These are in no particular order, they all play a part;

1. Their skill level- Movements should be treated like a learned skill, if you've not done a certain movement often, especially under load, start easy. Example, the hinge is an often not performed movement for so many people. That being the case, they're often started with the simplest exercises like Goat Belly Swings (thank you Dan John), RDLs, Pull Throughs and Hip Bridges/Thrusts.
2. Experience- Goes hand in hand with the above, but worth a mention of it's own. When someone has learned a particular movement pattern, it does not mean they are ready for the hardest variation possible. Just because someone has the pulling/rowing movement down, does not mean it's time to, elevate their feet on a 24 inch box and slap a weight vest on them. I say this a lot, but using common sense and the space between our ears pays off pretty well in this world, keep that in mind always!
3. Injury history- Injuries will more than likely make a particular movement very difficult, uncomfortable or damn near impossible. Strict overhead pressing is something that many would tend to avoid if someone has had a significant shoulder injury. It's a movement that some coaches will never program for a person depending the injury, the make up of their shoulder and a host of other reasons. I believe the phrase used is, clients have to earn the right to over head press.
4. Physical structure- No two bodies are put together the same, that's why even things that tend to be super generic in settings like group classes, need to monitored with a watchful eye. Things as simple as foot placement for a squat will change from person to person. Some people simply can't perform certain movement, such as said squat, because of bony structures in their bodies. There is no drill, warm-up exercise or "corrective" that we can program to fix that, it's stuck their, and we're not doing surgery to remove it so the client can squat, so we need to program around that.

 
Really, I could make this list pretty damn long, but those are the basics that determine who winds up doing what. Full disclosure right here, I use to be a coach that would program a round hole for a square peg, and I did not follow a few of the above rules very well. Not the way to go about it, being super dogmatic like that is just plain silly and asking for trouble. Case and point have a look at this post from a few months ago.

We can all squat (mostly). Not everyone can squat with the same variation. Case and point, 3 ladies, 3 different variations. 1️⃣Safety Squat Bar Squats 2️⃣Back Squats 3️⃣Goblet Squats Questions?

A post shared by Jarrod Dyke (@jdykefxvp) on Jun 9, 2017 at 5:21am PDT

 
Just as there are reasons to progress and pregress certain movements, there are definitely reasons to not. The best and most often occurring reasons I've come accross are;

1. Boredom- The simplest stuff is often the most effective, which makes for a not super exciting program sometimes. I get it, no one wants to be bored out of their skull with their routine, but there are simple things you can do to change it up without taking it too far. Adding in things like pauses, tempos and changing the rest periods are usually enough of a shake up to make things interesting. There's nothing wrong with going back to a previous progression and finding ways to change that up either.
2. Because it’s the hardest thing possible and you need to punish yourself- This one is usually all about mindset and I, along with other coach friends, have gone through a fair share of people like this. When the exercise looks too easy, the client doesn't think it's going to help them reach their weight loss goal of 100 pounds in two weeks (might be slightly exaggerating) or whatever other reason they've come up with for the day. Trying to crush yourself in a workout because you had a cookie, piece of cake, bowl of ice cream, extra crumb of food, etc... is not a good mindset. There's places to go to have this addressed and I feel like the industry is getting better about giving this situation the proper attention it needs. The simplest way I can help this mindset for those reading this is for you to remember this, you can't out train a bad diet, no matter how intense the exercise.
3. If there is pain- There is a difference between pain and the discomfort that comes with proper loading of a movement. Learning that can come with time, but if it hurts, pass on it. I think it was Ben Bruno that had it in his list of rules, "you must tell me if something hurts", this goes for the all trainers and coaches. Either fix it with some form correction and proper cuing or bag the exercise entirely, especially if the cuing doesn't alleviate the pain. For those that don't have a coach/trainer, if you are not comfortable with a movement and it is giving you issues beyond the norm, ditch it faster than the crazy drunk girl/dude at a party.
4. Because you saw it on YouTube/Instagram/whatever social media floats your boat- Dear god in heaven this is most trainer/coaches worst nightmare. Usually the conversation goes something like below. Just remember, no amount of likes, comments or shares is worth hurting yourself. If those things are why you're doing this, you might want to reconsider your priorities, just a thought.;

Client: Hey I saw this exercise my friend/person I'm stalking was doing on Instagram, I want to do it. *Shows trainer video of said exercise*
Trainer: *Looks at video and eyeballs start to burn* No I'm not letting you injure yourself for the sake of coolness, you'll thank me later.

These are all guidelines for the most part, because from person to person, that old answer comes up, IT DEPENDS. It's not a sexy answer and that's not what most people are looking to be told, but it's the truth. Even if you never want to hire a coach or a trainer, I encourage anyone looking to get (back) into training, fitness and working out, get a movement assessment or screen. Your Globo Gym, trainers don't do them? Find someone that does. There are tons of coaches that are really smart out there that do them. and well Yes you might have to pay, but it'll help make those workouts more effective and appropriate, you may even learn a thing or two, which is what we coaches are hoping for really. This is especially for you New Year's Resolutioners out there. Something like this could be what helps you get through that 6 week block everyone seems to slam into after the first of the year.

Hope this answers the question, and it didn't seem to redundant from things I've posted before. Have a good day all, go out and get after it.