190: Grant Fowler on Non-Linear Training Programs and the Flow of Exercise Rotation | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

Today’s episode features Grant Fowler, owner of Fowler Fitness in The Woodlands, Texas.  Grant is a creative coach and performance consultant who has been getting some fantastic results with his athletes in the realms of strength, speed and power.  Grant is a different thinker who has a distinctive “non-linear” and adaptable style to his training program design, where exercises and their variations are changing from week to week in a manner that allows for regular personal bests.  Recent podcast guest Kevin Foster has been training under Grant’s program on his run for the 2020 Olympic Trials, and has been easily breaking many lifting and performance personal bests since working with Grant. I haven’t had a lot of episodes on writing training programs, yet programming for training is one of my favorite things to talk about.  It’s good to have a show periodically where we really get into the nuts and bolts of a training program, since this is the most “raw” form of conversation, in regards to what actually happens in training and the subsequent results.  The art and science of writing a training program (yes, there is a significant element of art to it) is a multi-factorial venture considering the different physical and psychological systems of the body. On the show today. Grant gets into the fine details on his approach to a fluid training model where exercises and variations of exercises change from week to week in a model inspired by Westside Barbell, but adapted for the needs of athletes.  Grant will specifically get into how he rotates the “big lifts” in a max effort format, versus his rotation of the smaller lifts in the program over time.  We talk about how the stress level of a given session, including mental fatigue, impacts how often exercises are rotated across the breadth of a training month, and beyond. The thought that resonates in my mind with Grants system is similar to my time working in an old beat “Mixing” program called “Fruity Loops” where various tracks are laid over each other to provide a song.  Some lines are brought in more frequently, others less, to create the art-form of the audio experience.  In my last 5 years of coaching particularly, I’ve been using a lot of 14-day training cycles, so it was awesome to get inside Grant’s programming mind in creating a variable training stimulus. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. More show notes at just-fly-sports.com/podcast-190-grant-fowler/