Hi, my name is Lori and I am a recovering program stealer.

I have been sober for 172 days.

After hitting rock bottom, I decided to check myself into the Strength Faction Program.

It hasn’t been easy, but each phase, each block I grow stronger…

…A bit of a back-story.

During my playing days I was fortunate to have some high level coaches write my programs for me. I knew the strength and conditioning world was the field I wanted to be in post retirement.

For the most part, all of the coaches programs were very different so it gave me a lot of material to steal learn from. So I would study these programs that the coaches wrote for me, and try to figure out how they came up with the exercise selection, reps, sets, etc…

As soon as I thought I would understand one phase, they would throw another program at me and I would be completely lost. It all seemed so random to me…

…Fast forward to my coaching days

When it came to writing programs, not much had changed. I was still left feeling overwhelmed, sitting in front of a computer screen, not having a clue where to start- and even more frustrating- not knowing where to “go” after the initial phase of the program.

I always felt like I was just pulling things out of thin air, with no rhyme or reason. So naturally, I just said f*ck it and started stealing old programs that had been written for me.

Now I know what you might be thinking. Lori, that’s not that bad – we all borrow ideas from one another and in many cases that is how we learn.

And, while I agree with that – the issue I was having was that nothing seemed to flow. I was haphazardly throwing exercises together based off of the limited knowledge I had and I wanted to be better for my clients…

….Enter Strength Faction and Chris Merritt

Enough was enough – I knew I needed some help. So I enrolled in Strength Faction and, slowly, I started to make some progress.

A few months in to the program I started to frequent Beyond Strength Performance’s in-service’s. One Friday Chris and I got to talking about programming – I had read all the lessons regarding the subject and things were starting to make a bit more sense.

I still had some questions though…

“Hey Chris, can you answer some of my questions?”

Chris being the amazing helper/giver that he is said

“Absolutely.”

And, before I could get any questions out, Chris enthusiastically went into a tirade about programming.

“Let me tell you how my brain works. I do this, and then I create a menu here, then push a button, we have P5677 S342, I create this all on Microsoft word.”

I could barely keep up with the cursor on the computer; let alone what he was saying.

“I’m not sure if that makes sense, but hopefully it does.” – Chris

“Ummm yeah I get it.” – Me

What the f*ck?! I had no clue what he was saying.

In fact, I left thinking, how is any of this programming stuff ever going to make sense?

So instead of wallowing in my feeling of defeat I decided to get to work…

…Here’s what I did.

1. I spent the next Saturday studying the lessons on programming. For over two hours I took notes and wrote down all questions I had. I had already read through the lessons prior, but it wasn’t until I really set aside time to pick them apart that things started to click.

2. I created menus. I know this might seem like, duh Lori, Chris and Todd said we should create menus for our programs. I was reminded of the quote “What’s easy to do, is just as easy not to do.” So I plugged away at creating menus.

3. I followed the “Seasons of programming.” This has been the biggest game changer in programming for me. One of the biggest issues I would have when stealing writing programs was “where to go” after the initial program was finished. I could never find a resource that would explain this.

[This philosophy gives us a clear pathway on how to progress our clients/athletes throughout the year.]

4. Re-enrolled in Strength Faction. This time around I am fortunate to be a mentor, but just being around this awesome group of coaches, I’m learning even more and picking up on bits of information that didn’t quite click last phase.

The Strength Faction system for programming has been a total game changer for me. Once I took a step back, asked questions, and studied the material – everything began to click. Plus, once you realize you aren’t the only who is struggling or has struggled in writing programs, it is much easier to relax and give yourself a break.