Adult programming strategy

We are fortunate enough to call ourselves Raleigh’s best Athletic Performance Facility. The reason we can call ourselves that is because we have coaches with a combined 30+ years of experience in the industry, we have a full time dietitian on staff, and our program is unparalleled in the area.

Let me take you through the thought process I had when creating this adult style of programming. Some of it may get science-y so keep up. When we think of training we think of multiple adaptations we are looking to stress, in order to improve. Training to gain strength requires heavy weight, training to improve your cardiovascular and pulmonary systems requires conditioning, you get the point. We alternate between those intended adaptations in order to ensure continuous development of various body systems and avoid overuse injuries.

To get started, let's talk about our clients, knowing who they are allows us to understand their needs. We train athletes and the support system around them (i.e. parents/family, their coaches and beyond). For the sake of this blog, we are going to focus on the support system, the adults. 

It doesn’t matter what adult you talk to, people want to get lean for beach season. As a result, we include more conditioning and bodybuilding type movements in the late spring early summer. With a GPP (general physical preparation phase) to start us off followed by a higher volume (hypertrophy = muscle building) phase. This allows for 8-12 weeks of programming on one adaptation that is based solely on how efficiently your mitochondria function and how efficiently your cardiovascular system transports oxygen throughout your body. (If we want to get really specific in tracking, we have the ability to set up testing your VO2 max and a local testing center).

We also coincide this training phase with our 4-week kickstarter program leading into Memorial Day, to help create goal specific habits going into the summer. (We also like to attack our record board during summer months, not only because they are difficult challenges but also because we tend to see a reduction in attendance and this allows us to add a little extra into every training session, which fits well with our GPP phase). Bodybuilding training inherently is a stressor on your metabolic system. Typically this includes moderate weights for more reps, inducing the “pump” or burn that everyone talks about. In real bodybuilding the strength phases are saved for off season prep work and done far away from competition, with excess calories. Which leads me to the next phase of our program… Strength.

The holiday season hits everyone hard, us too. Stress, families, parties, and increased calories all play a factor in our lives and ability to reach our goals from essentially Halloween through New Year’s… That is almost 3 months!!! In the New England Journal of Medicine, it states the average American gains 1.3 pounds in just 10 days around Christmas. More generic studies show the average person gains 5 lbs between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With that being said, we understand that life needs to be enjoyed. So, we seek to utilize this time while you are enjoying life and putting back the extra calories to hit our strength phase and use those calories strategically. Strength is developed through stress imposed in two different ways: mechanically (muscle tissue actually changing by tensile strength and density), and neurologically (by training feedback systems to be comfortable being uncomfortable). Strength is rarely gained in a caloric deficit so placing it around the holidays when we tend to have an increase in caloric intake works well. As long as protein intake is high, the excess calories could be used to lay down new, stronger tissue. During this time attendance and consistency of training can be tough with busy holiday schedules. Fortunately though, true strength work leads to more mechanical damage in the tissue resulting in the need for more recovery. You can still make gains during a crazy holiday schedule as long as each training session has enough stress that requires the body to respond. Hitting this level of stress comes from weight selection, intent, and near failure reps. To help with all these challenges we also run our second kickstarter program during the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving to hopefully prepare everyone to have a good mindset around holiday eating and setting some achievable goals through the holidays. 

Now with two mesocycles built we just have two more to worry about: power and speed.

After our strength phase we lead into power. Power is defined by work/time; how much force can you produce quickly. A simple way to measure power is on the bike. Using max wattage you can see how much power you can produce. There are other ways, like a vertical or broad jump, that can also tell us how powerful an athlete is. Strength does a great job developing muscle tissue but sometimes the tendons and ligaments need a different stimulus to “thicken up”. This is one of the reasons why we move directly into a power phase from strength, it allows us to develop those tendons and ligaments. Additionally, power production is very important as we age. The saying “if you don’t use it you lose it” pertains to power production. Vergoshanski states that power production can be lost in 4-9 days, depending on how highly trained you are. We reintroduce power training slowly to allow for our adult population, who may not have done things quickly in a while, to adapt without injury. Preparing someone's tissue to move quickly is inherently injury prevention as well.

SPEED. Our last cycle to go over is speed. Now people may read this and think we are trying to get a bunch of adults running 4.4 sec 40yd dashes and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Here’s a quote that someone once told me: “Once you are forced to stop running you start to lose your youth”. Now take a step back and think about it. Kids run everywhere, it’s what makes them kids. Running at the pool, running at the playground, running in the house, if this rings a bell for you stop telling your kids to stop running lol. We incorporate speed like movements to create the proper preparation to allow a return to sprinting. We believe whether you are 6 or 60 you can and should perform some kind of sprinting. The best way to think about speed is in relation to your weightlifting maxes (use about 30-60% of max effort to develop power and less than 30% to develop speed). For example, if you can max squat 100 lbs then your power range would be moving a bar with 30-60 lbs as fast as possible and your speed range is moving 30 lbs or less as fast as possible.

In conclusion, our adult training program is designed with a thoughtful and strategic approach, keeping your individual needs, goals, and lifestyle in mind. By cycling through different adaptations—GPP, hypertrophy, strength, power, and speed—we ensure a comprehensive training experience that prioritizes sustainable progress, injury prevention, and maximizing results.


Whether you're preparing for beach season, navigating the holiday rush, or rediscovering the joy of movement, our expertly crafted phases are here to support you every step of the way. The keys to success are consistency, intentionality, and trusting the process. With the right guidance and effort, you can achieve far more than you imagine.


At our facility, we don’t just build athletes—we build confidence, resilience, and a stronger, healthier you. Let’s keep moving forward together!

Written by Joseph Pearson, Owner and Performance Coach at The Strength Feed.