Summary: With the launch of Scott’s Program Design Masterclass at programdesignmasterclass.com, we figured we would just do an episode all about what program design really is: why Scott believes there is an art and a science to it, what good programs look like, what bad program LACK, and that sort of thing. We mention a few specific exercise sequences and programs, scenarios, and what factors affect Scott’s program design decisions.<br> <br> ----------------------------------------------------<br> ♦ THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PROGRAM DESIGN ♦<br> ----------------------------------------------------<br> <br> Scott believes there is an art and a science to program design. To him that means a workout is more than a collection of exercises, and a program is more than a collection of workouts.<br> <br> In other words, what you do today is affected by what you did yesterday, and it will affect what you do tomorrow, and next week. The program you just finished a month ago affects the program you should be on now.<br> <br> Scott got started in this way back in the early 1980s, partly when he got tired of trying to guess or just do what the magazines said, and started trying to learn more. There really wasn’t much on program design specifically, so he was reading a lot of actual physiology texts and articles, but one of the books that really stuck with him was Bill Pearl’s Keys to the Inner Universe.<br> <br> Mike and Scott also discussed Scott’s process for designing a new program from scratch: he starts with the theme or purpose, then moves on to the structure, then the context, then whether or not (or how) to use planned performance training* or periodization, and from there this lets him determine the strategies and tactics, and what will be variable vs. constant.<br> <br> The theme or purpose might be something like conditioning, or balancing conditioning with long term physique development goals, putting on muscle, developing workload capacity, and various combinations thereof. Context is a bit about the trainee, but in a general way, before the specific application. Structure is like “a 3-day program using quadplexes” or “a 5-day traditional bodypart split.”<br> <br> That’s all the DESIGN of the program. The application of a program to a specific client or trainee is then about the 5-Part Training Model, which asks “Who is my client?” in terms of 1. Effort, 2. Training Strategy, 3. Workload Capacity, 4. Recovery Capacity, and 5. Internal Biochemical and Hormonal Environment.<br> <br> In other words, Scott has a “collection” of hundreds of workout programs he’s designed over the years. Sometimes a trainee needs a totally new one, but often not: often Scott can just go into his collection, make a tweak here and there, and assign it. Sometimes it doesn’t even need a tweak — the customization will be in Scott’s email where he’ll say, “Look, here’s the program, pay attention to this, but watch out for this, this and this, and condition into it by doing this…”<br> <br> * I think this comes from JC Santana – M<br> <br> Scott and Mike referenced some slides that Mike made for the masterclass, to illustrate Scott’s process for designing a new program right from scratch. (Available at the shownotes at smartersculptedphysique.com/047.)<br> <br> <br> -----------------------------------------------<br> ♦ USING 4-WEEKS’ WORTH OF WORKOUTS ♦<br> -----------------------------------------------<br> <br> Scott mentioned that one of the ways he could very quickly see if someone was taking his programs was they would come back with a four week cycle of workouts.<br> <br> That is, Scott’s workouts aren’t periodized in terms of planned load percentages or anything, but many of them do have 4 weeks’ worth of workouts that you cycle through, so you do Week 1 of chest, week 1 of delts, week 1 of arms for the first week, then in the second week you go to week 2 of chest,
