When I sit down to design a program, one of the first things I think about is whether I’m actually building something… or just taxing the athlete for another day.
Because those are two very different things.
It’s not hard to make someone feel worked. It’s not hard to write something that looks good on paper or creates a tough session. The harder part is stepping back and asking, is this actually moving them forward over time, or am I just borrowing from what they have today?
That’s the difference between programming for performance and programming for sustainability.
When you start looking at a full block—whether it’s 12 weeks, 16 weeks, or longer—you have to think beyond individual days. You’re not trying to create a few great sessions. You’re trying to build something that carries through the entire process.
And what happens a lot is athletes and coaches get caught up in single sessions. They focus on what today is supposed to look like instead of what the next few weeks need to look like.
You end up with a program where day one feels great, day four feels terrible, and everything in between is inconsistent. That’s not real progression. That’s just riding the ups and downs of fatigue without any real direction.
Now, don’t get me wrong—training is never going to be perfect. We all live in that rule of thirds. Some days feel great, some feel average, and some are just off. That’s part of it.
But good programming should manage that, not amplify it.
A big part of that comes from understanding the athlete in front of you.
Recovery isn’t the same for everyone. Age, training history, body type, stress levels, everything outside the gym—it all plays into how someone is going to respond.
So when you’re designing something, it’s not just about asking what works. It’s about asking what works for them, right now, and what they can actually recover from.
Because something that looks great on paper doesn’t mean anything if the athlete can’t sustain it.
At some point, every coach has to define the difference between progressing an athlete and breaking them down.
There are going to be hard sessions. There are going to be days where fatigue is part of the plan. That’s not the issue.
The issue is when that fatigue stops being productive.
If I’m pushing an athlete physically, I have to think about what they’re going to need after that. Maybe that means pulling things back in the next session. Maybe it means giving them something they can feel successful with so they don’t lose confidence.
On the other side of it, if we’re working lighter for a longer period of time to clean up a movement, that becomes more mental than physical. Now I have to support them in a different way, because staying patient there isn’t always easy.
That’s where coaching and programming start to overlap.
And that’s also where explanation matters.
If I’m asking an athlete to stay lighter, or to hold back, or to trust something that doesn’t feel immediately rewarding, I have to be able to explain why.
Not just “because it’s in the program.”
That doesn’t get buy-in.
If I can show them what this leads to, and how it fits into the bigger picture, it becomes a lot easier for them to commit to it.
I’ll even ask them straight up, what matters more to you—what happens today, or what this builds over time?
It’s a simple question, but it forces them to think long-term. And once they say it out loud, they start to own that process a little more.
Another piece that I think gets overlooked a lot is just the reality of life.
No program exists in a vacuum.
Athletes are going to miss days. They’re going to get sick. They’re going to go on vacation. They’re going to deal with stress outside of training.
If your entire program falls apart because of that, then it wasn’t built to last in the first place.
There has to be some flexibility built in. There has to be a way for them to step out, come back in, and keep moving forward without feeling like they lost everything.
Because the goal isn’t perfect execution.
The goal is consistency over time.
At the end of the day, one session shouldn’t dictate everything.
Just like one bad day doesn’t define an athlete, one adjustment shouldn’t break your entire plan.
You have to stay focused on where you’re going, not just what’s happening in front of you.
So when you’re building your next program, take a step back and ask yourself:
Is this something my athlete can sustain… or just survive?
Because performance might show up in a day.
But sustainability is what actually builds it.