The Considerations Behind Our Program Design

If you’ve ever walked into a gym and wondered, “What am I supposed to do today?”—you’re not alone.

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Gym time can look many different ways, including:

1. People doing their own thing, which often means they are focusing on what they like to do and avoiding things they need.
2. Group fitness focused on high-intensity circuits that leave you sore, but not stronger.
3. Generic, templated programs (often purchased online) that don’t account for individual differences and are void of coaching.

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There’s always the argument that “any movement is better than no movement,” and we do agree. However, better is better.

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At Vero Strength, we approach programming by using principles and methodologies. Because results don’t come from doing random or doing more. They come from doing things better.

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Here’s a peek behind the curtain into how we design our programs.

1. We Train Movement Patterns, Not Just Muscles

Rather than isolating body parts, we build strength through functional movement patterns: squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, carrying, lunging. This carries over to real life—picking up groceries, moving well under stress, staying resilient as you age.

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By improving these patterns, we reduce injury risk, improve performance, and build strength.

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Because we train movement patterns, we aren’t married to specific exercises. What that means is that if a movement bothers someone or they can’t quite achieve it, we come up with a suitable modification. Take, for instance, the barbell back squat. Many people can’t do this exercise well when they start training, so we suggest things like goblet squats, belt squats, sandbag squats, etc to build that pattern. A squat is a squat (just like row is a row, a hinge is a hinge and so on.)

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2. We Program in Phases

Your body adapts in phases. So does our programming. We use structured blocks (typically 6 weeks long) to target specific adaptations—like building muscle, improving strength, or increasing power. Each phase has a clear focus.

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The benefit of a six-week timeframe is that it doesn’t feel stale. You get stronger, master the movements, then move on to a different focus point. The goal is ALWAYS to get stronger and move better, however during some phases we will use more dynamic movements, which are particularly important to touch (because if you don’t use it, you lose it) or more tempos and isometrics, etc.

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3. We Adjust for the Individual

Even in a group setting, our coaching is personalized. This point was addressed in section 1 regarding movement patterns.

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It’s not about being pressured into doing something because it’s written, it’s about challenging each person appropriately—based on their body, their experience, and their goals.

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4. We Write Programming Pencil, Not in Pen

We keep a pulse on how the program is going and revise if necessary. We may program a week and then get to Thursday and realize we need to make a change because of how all of our bodies are responding.

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5. We Consider All the Things

When writing programming, we audit our work (it actually passes through a few sets of eyes before it’s final), looking for red flags like overuse, programming too much bending, too many long conditioning pieces, too much intensity, too much or too little volume, etc.

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6. We Test

If we want to introduce a new methodology or movement, we test it first, taking stock of the complexity, how it can be regressed, how our bodies feel, and more. We don’t program anything we wouldn’t do for ourselves. In fact, we are doing the same workouts as you are!

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The result? Sustainable progress, smarter training, and a gym full of people who move better, feel stronger, and train for life—not just for the moment.

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