The 6 Key Principles Of An Effective Training Program: How We Got Faster Results Training Less

15-20 minute read • by Cho Lim

Welcome back again to The Lazy Lifter’s Building Your Best Physique in 2022 Workshop!

Whether you’re a newbie na nag-start palang sa fitness journey nya, or a gym addict na hindi makuha yung gustong results nya, this is the place to be — the place where you will learn how to get your dream body 3X FASTER in 2022!

My name is Cho and I’ve been teaching people how to get their desired physique in the fastest and easiest way possible. 

Ako yung takbuhan ng mga tao pag hindi sila makakuha ng results sa coaches, instructors, diet, or program nila. That’s because I know this stuff — and I know how to give you the transformation that you want — kahit ano pa ang starting point mo.

This will be our third lecture where I will be teaching you how to build muscle, lose fat, look good naked, or just be fitter in general — all without killing yourself in the gym and in the kitchen.

Gusto ko lang muna mag thank you sa lahat ng positive comments and replies na nareceive ko from lessons #1 and #2. I didn’t expect na these lessons will reach over 1,500 comments total. Wow.

I poured my heart in creating these lessons kaya masaya ako na madaming natutulungan.

Excited na ko sa 2022 natin lahat! 

Kung naalala mo sa previous lesson, I showed you the details of my three transformations (2018, 2019, and 2020) — from my diet, workouts, and to the supplements I used. 

Pinakita ko rin sayo na you can achieve the same transformation kahit kumain ka ng madaming carbs or kahit anong paborito mong pagkain or uminom ng alak!

Inexplain ko rin dun yung logic and science why and how we got better and faster results in terms of muscle growth and fat loss sa high carb diet kesa sa low carb or keto.

Eto yung results ko:

Transformation #1 (2018)

Transformation #2 (2019)

Transformation #3 (2020)

My Students’ 100-Day Transformations

Kung di mo pa nabasa yan, I would highly suggest doing so before reading this third one.

Click here and come back only after you’ve finished reading everything

This is a 4-part workshop series and I highly recommend na basahin mo muna yung previous lessons in order to get the most out of everything that I teach.

And if you haven’t read any of them yet, the links are below. Click mo lang to access the lessons:

Lesson #1 – The 6 Fitness “Secrets” That Allowed Me to Burn Fat and Build Muscle Faster Than Ever

Lesson #2 – Unbelievable 100-day transformations: Why eating rice, chocolates, pizza, burgers, and milk tea accelerated our progress.

Don’t worry, aantayin kita dito until matapos ka magbasa. Basta make sure to read them in order.

Done reading? Let’s proceed.

OK, lesson #3 is all about the key principles in creating the best workout program. Madami tayong ididiscuss dito so kailangan ko ng full attention at focus mo.

What I mean by “best” workout program here is yung best for you, yung effective for you.

Kasi hindi naman lahat effective diba? For sure dumaan ka na sa phase na ginaya mo yung workout routine ng kaibigan or idol mong maganda ang katawan, pero wala ka namang results na nakuha. Tama ba?

Naisip mo ba kung bakit kaya ganon? 

Naisip mo na ba kung bakit yung ibang training programs ay effective at yung iba eh hindi?

Naisip mo na rin ba kung bakit yung ibang workout programs ay effective lang sa ibang tao, at hindi sa lahat gumagana?

At naisip mo na rin ba bakit sobrang “malas” mo na kahit anong workout routine or program ang gawin mo, wala ka pa rin makuhang results?

Dumating ka na ba sa point na sinisi mo yung “genes” mo? 

I know you have, kasi dumaan na rin ako dyan.

I was in the same position back then, and it took me several years bago ko marealize na hindi naman pala ko “malas”, at hindi rin ako “hardgainer“, at wala naman sa lahi ko yung “hindi maganda ang katawan” — hindi ko lang talaga alam ano kulang kasi close-minded pa ko sa mga new ideas noon. 

Even though I wasn’t born with good genetics when it comes to building muscle, the moment I found out these key principles sa paghanap or paggawa ng effective training program (na ituturo ko dito sa lesson), everything changed. Dun ako nagkaron ng decent progress and my life has never been the same.

Then I tried my luck by teaching it to others, and then… boom! Insane transformations are everywhere!

So what is it exactly? Meron bang secret ulit?

I know there are probably thousands of workout programs out there already, but which one should you choose? Which one is effective? At pano ba malalaman kung effective talaga ang workout program?

These questions will all be answered in this lesson.

To get the most from whatever training program you do, kailangan mong sundin yung mga key principles na nakasulat dito.

Doing otherwise only welcomes frustrations, disappointments, and wasted time, money, and effort — gaya ko na tumambay sa panget na katawan ng 8 na taon.

*Take note. This refers to a training program specifically to build muscle and/or lose fat. This is not for a program that will make you run faster, increase your stamina, make you good in bed, improve a specific skill, treat your STDs, etc. You get the point.

Let’s start.

6 Key Principles Of An Effective Training Program: How We Got Faster Results Training Less

Principle #1: The most important principle of all

So what is the most important WORKOUT principle?

It’s this: The principle of progressive overload

So ano ibig sabihin nyang principle na yan?

It is a principle which states that in order for muscles to grow, there should be a gradual increase of resistance placed upon the body.

Got that?

This should be the number 1 priority for all training programs — I mean all! 

Kesyo home workout or gym workout, eto ang pinaka-importante sa lahat if you really want to build your dream body.

Kung ang workout program mo eh walang element ng principle na ‘to, then you’re guaranteed to fail for the rest of your gym life.

Even worse, kung ang goal ng workout program mo is just to make you sweat, or to get your body tired and beat-up, then you should forget about that program ASAP and find a new one.

An effective training program should take you from point A to point B.

Examples:

Add 50lbs to your bench press.

Do 10 more reps on your deadlift.

Add 5 more reps to push-ups every week

Increase workout capacity by doing more workout volume.

These are just a few.

You may say, “pero ang goal ko palakihin yung chest at arms ko! I don’t really care about how much I lift. I only care about building muscles.”

I know, and I understand, but you really can’t separate muscle size and muscle strength — kasi ang best proxy natin for determining muscle growth is simply our steady strength progression. Madami pang factors, pero eto ang pinaka-importante.

So you want a bigger chest? Then add 50lbs to your bench press and do more reps and see what happens to your chest.

Same with your arms, just add 20lbs to your Dumbbell Curls and see your arms explode.

Eto dapat yung default goal natin sa gym.

It’s not just lifting weights for the sake of lifting and sweating or feeling the burn

Instead, it’s about tearing the muscle fibers down through weightlifting, then giving them time to rest and recover so they can come back bigger and stronger. 

Hindi mo ‘to maaachieve kung hindi ka progressive sa workouts mo. 

So ask yourself, “Am I lifting more weight or reps today than the previous month? Or even the previous week?” If not, make the necessary adjustments.

Ang mali ng karamihan na napansin ko is they just add more sets, more exercises, do drop sets, forced reps, and other complicated stuff instead of just focusing on the most important factor for building muscle — progressive overload.

Remember the phrase, “If you don’t get stronger, you won’t get bigger.“

Hint: This is why a program that focuses on muscle confusion eh bihira gumana. Why? Kasi if you keep confusing your muscles by switching your workouts weekly, how will you know if you’re gaining strength on each exercise?

Ang goal natin is to make the muscles bigger by making them stronger, not by confusing them.

Principle #2: Form is crucial

An effective training program focuses on practicing good form on all exercises. Again, I mean all.

Form muna bago weight, kasi walang silbi ang heavy weight kung hindi mo rin matatarget yung muscles ng maayos.

Ang naisip ko lang na rason why people sacrifice form to lift heavier weights is because their “ego” loves it. Kaya “ego lifting” ang tawag dyan.

These people lift for the purpose of impressing themselves or other people, not because they want to stimulate their muscles. 

Don’t get me wrong ha. Dumaan din ako dyan and I know it feels really good to lift a lot of weight that we forget that it’s not the main purpose (unless you’re a powerlifter).

What I am saying is, if the goal is to build muscles, then doing proper form is a must so you can hit the body parts fully and properly.

Let me get clearer on this:

Following the principle of progressive overload, hindi mo pwedeng sabihin na may progress ka kasi bumigat yung buhat mo, and yet yung form mo papanget ng papanget. 

Not only you’re getting yourself at a high risk of being injured, but you’re only wasting time because you’re not stimulating the muscles with the use of proper form.

I’d say stop ego lifting. Gaanan mo muna yung buhat mo and do your reps in a controlled manner. Use a full range of motion. Feel the targeted muscle.

This is why whenever I teach someone online, I make sure that they’re doing the exercises correctly by asking them to post videos for me to see.

I also send them lots of resources for them to really hammer the exercise execution. No wonder they get amazing results.

Principle #3: The key exercises

A good training program focuses on the money exercises.

I label these exercises “The Big 5.”

These exercises are:

Deadlift – works the whole back from neck to toe

Bench Press – works the chest, front shoulders, triceps,

Overhead Press or Military Press – works the front and side delts, upper chest, triceps, and core muscles

Pull-ups or Chin-ups – works the lats, middle back, rear shoulders, biceps, and core

Squats – works the entire legs, glutes, lower back, and mid back

And all their variations.

We can also label them as such: 

• Horizontal Push
• Horizontal Pull
• Vertical Push
• Vertical Pull
• Squat
• Hip Hinge

These exercises are called “money exercises” because they stimulate a lot of muscle fibers in the body and they cover everything you need to have a great physique.

Karamihan sa nag-ggym, kaya sila walang results masyado, is because they focus too much sa mga fancy exercises — yung mga exercises na less effective when it comes building overall muscle mass. 

They do sets after sets ng mga exercises na ‘to, and they just waste their energy and effort and no wonder they’re not getting any results.

So if you’re going to pick only 5 exercises, eto yung mga yun, and I guarantee you, you will build muscle and strength and you will look fantastic!

Almost all the great workout programs I know use these exercises as their main ones. Others have substitutes for each, but they still follow almost the same movements.

Now, if you’re not physically capable of doing any of these exercises, pwede ka maghanap ng substitutes that mimic the movements.

For example, for the pull-ups, you can just do lat pulldowns instead if you’re not yet strong enough to do proper bodyweight pull-ups. They work the same.

Principle #4: Weight should be heavy enough to stimulate muscle growth and strength

A good training program focuses on muscle stimulation, not just the pump, although madaming naka-focus lang sa pump and burn kaya hindi makakuha ng mabilis ng results (lessson #1).

These people focus so much on the feel and the pump that they forget that their main goal inside the gym is to trigger the body’s growth mechanism into motion — and you do this by lifting at/around a certain effort.

Kung di mo sya magets, ganito lang…

Isipin mo building muscle is like turning the lights on sa kwarto mo, at before mo mabuksan yung ilaw sa kwarto mo, you have to turn on the switch, tama?

It’s the same with fitness… bago kumilos yung katawan mo sa pag-build ng muscles, kailangan mo pindutin yung switch. 

At ano yung switch na yun? It’s weightlifting — lifting heavy enough to stimulate that muscle growth.

And as stated in the programs I created, when we’re trying to build muscle and lose fat — it’s the intensity and quality of the effort that truly counts.

If a person can bench press 100lbs for 10 reps ng walang masyadong hirap, tingin mo ba may enough stimulation yun to trigger muscle growth? The answer is no.

And like we’ve said, for the muscles to grow the fastest, we have to force them to grow. The intensity and quality of effort go hand in hand with the principle of progressive overload.

Ang goal natin is not just to add weight/reps sa mga exercises, but to make sure that the weight we use is heavy enough to produce the required intensity for muscle growth.

In this case, hindi uubra yung 100lbs for 10 easy reps. Maybe add another 10lbs, 15lbs, or 20lbs more to make the sets harder?

Training hard (to a degree) is a requirement for muscle growth.

Principle #5: Should have a proper balance of workout volume and frequency based on your individual recovery ability and training level

Okay, so now meron ka ng goals sa training program mo:

– To apply progressive overload because that’s what makes muscles grow
– To use proper form to stimulate the targeted muscles and not any other muscles
– To do the key, money exercises or their variations to ensure muscle growth for all parts of the body
– To use heavy enough weight or exert enough effort to stimulate muscle growth

The next questions are:

How many times a week should I train?
How many sets should I do?

These factors are super important kasi they will determine if you will achieve progressive overload or not, or if you will achieve it faster or slower.

Before we continue, tandaan mo ‘tong mga ito:

Training too frequently will result to slow or no progress.
Training too infrequently will result to slow or no progress.

Doing too many sets will result to slow or no progress.
Doing too little sets will result to slow or no progress.

Why does training too frequently and doing too many sets result to slow or no progress?

That’s because limited lang yung recovery abilities ng katawan natin. The more we train hard, the more we damage our muscles and the longer time we need to recover. 

Why does training too infrequently and doing too little sets will result to slow or no progress?

Because we need a minimum amount of workout volume and frequency to stimulate the muscles. If you do 1 set of bench press every two weeks, obviously, walang masyadong magiging effect yan.

So kung may ginagawa kang program pero tingin mo hindi gumagana, take a look at these factors:

• You’re not applying progressive overload
• You’re training inconsistently and infrequently (1-2x a week)
• You’re training too frequently at hindi na makarecover katawan mo
• You’re training with too many sets and exercises at hindi na makarecover katawan mo

Kadalasan, it’s the last two — training too often and with too many sets and exercises. This wastes your time and effort and kills your gym progress dahil wala ka ng resources for recovery. Worse, wala ka ng makuhang results, feeling burnout ka pa.

If you don’t believe me, try doing more. Double or even triple your sets and exercises then balitaan mo ko sa progress mo. If you’re training 3x a week, try training 6x a week and add more sets and exercises and check kung bibilis ang results mo. Some can handle that (roid users or genetically gifted or experienced trainees), pero karamihan hindi.

The mistake here is thinking that the more you do, the more you kill yourself, the better your results will be. Wrong.

The people you see that have been training 6-7 days a week with good results, they didn’t start with that, they worked on that. Nagstart din sila sa konti, and they progressively increased their workout capacity to handle progressively increasing training volume and frequency.

Ang key word is “progressive“.

Kaya mostly yung ibang beginners na sumasabak agad sa 5-6x a week workout, nagqquit agad. Bukod sa walang results na makuha, sobrang pagod pa at overtrained.

With that said, the key thing here is finding your optimal training volume and frequency for your body. The keyword is you.

Because you have different recovery abilities, you have a different capacity in handling stress, and you have a different training level.

So how would you know what’s “optimal” for you? Madali lang yan.

The only thing you need to do is start training with less frequency, and use the minimal number of sets and exercises that will produce maximum results, and progress from there.

Wala kang idea how to do that? I have a program that I will introduce to you below that teaches this.

Principle #6: Should teach you how to program your own training based on your needs

A good and effective training program (this can also be applied to a good training coach or instructor) doesn’t just give you the workout routine, but should also teach you how to make make your own program based on your needs and preference.

Best example neto eh yung mga fitness instructors na binibigyan lang yung clients nila ng list of exercises on what to do today, tomorrow, and the next day, without even telling them how it works and why.

Then after the end of their contract, maybe around 2-3 months, matatapos yung client without really knowing what happened.  Pwedeng may results, pwedeng wala, pero walang natutunan si client.

The client should’ve learned something in the process. Kung walang natutunan si client in that 2-3 month period, obviously, he will think he can’t do it alone, and it’s more money for the instructors since the client can extend their contract even more.

Of course, this is a bad example, but this always happens.

A good training program, whether given by an instructor or whether bought or read on the internet, should teach you more about the principles behind what makes that program effective, and less about the workout routine itself.

This is because the workout routine is just a tiny fraction of the whole program. 

This is the reason why I don’t give “workout routines” alone. I prefer to write a whole “program,” so I can teach all the important elements that make the routine work. 

Remember, kahit sino pwede magbigay ng workout routine sayo and tell them that it’s effective. But again, depende lang yan if the person giving and receiving know all the important principles that make a training program super effective.

So my simple advice to all of you:

Pick a program, not a workout routine. Mamili ka ng program na may explanations at backed by principles, kesa yung long list of exercises and sets lang ang nakasulat.

I guarantee you, yung time at effort na iinvest mo sa programs will all be worth it.

Eto yung iba pang examples ng students ko na binigyan ko ng COMPLETE PROGRAMS, not just workout routines. Complete programs meaning, lahat ng kailangan malaman andito — workouts, nutrition, supplements, and all the principles and reasons why they work.

Basahin mo maige yung sinasabi nila by zooming in sa image (a lot of them did only home workouts):

Inspiring? You bet.

Conclusion

Ngayon, naintindihan mo na ba bakit hindi gumagana yung workout program na ginamit mo in the past or yung ginagamit mo ngayon?

Nagets mo na ba bakit yung kinopya mong workout sa internet or sa tropa mo or sa batak na lalake dun sa gym, eh walang effect sayo?

Most importantly, narealize mo ba why me and my students are getting such amazing results by training less in the gym?

It’s because we follow these 6 key principles at lahat ng workouts namin, kahit minsan lang kame pumunta ng gym, they produce maximum results with the least amount of effort.

Even though we’re doing less than most people, we’re getting more results naman than them — and that’s the amazing part!

Naimagine mo ba na minsan ka lang pumunta sa gym pero gulat na gulat mga kasabay mo kasi ang bilis ng progress mo? That’s what my students are experiencing every time!

Nakakatawa pa kasi yung iba nagkkwento na hilig sila pakeelaman nung mga tao sa gym, tinatanong bakit daw konti ang ginagawa nila at bakit minsan lang sila mag-workout, and then after a few months, magugulat na lang kasi ang bilis ng results… at pagbibintangan na lang na nag-steroids lol.

In a nutshell, I wanted to show you guys these 3 lessons and our amazing results para makita nyo na possible pala gumanda katawan:

• Kahit walang steroids/drugs
• Kahit hindi ka tumira sa gym. 3x a week training lang okay na.
• Kahit home workouts lang
• Kahit walang cardio
• Kahit kainin mo kahit ano gusto mo
• Kahit walang masyadong supplements

Yes, posible lahat yan basta alam mo PANO. 

• Pano malaman ang ENERGY REQUIREMENT?
• Pano gawin ang bulking at cutting step by step?
• Ano uunahin ko, bulking or cutting?
• Ilang exercises, sets at ilang reps para ‘di mag overtraining? (Very important)
• Ano yung exact home workout routine na ginawa ng students ko to transform in 100 days
• Pano palakihin yung chest, arms, back?
• Pano alisin yung stubborn belly fat?
• Ano yung exact gym routine to get optimal results? 
• Ano yung mga effective na supplements? (I detailed the super effective ones and listed all my favorites)
• Ano yung meal plan na pwede saken to hit my calories and protein?
• Ano yung optimal workout training volume and frequency para hindi masobrahan?

And many many more!

 

Is it possible for you to gain 10, 20, 30 pounds or more ng di tumitira sa gym? I’m telling you with absolute certainty that IT IS POSSIBLE! 

Is it possible for you to build your dream body kahit home workouts lang? We’re going to tell you, YES IT IS!

These are just some of the many. 

And you know what? These people are normal people. Like you, akala nila wala ng pag-asa makuha yung dream body nila. But look at them now.

So kung kaya nila, kaya mo rin!

It doesn’t matter if you’re fat, skinny, skinny-fat, ectomorph, endomorph, bad genes — lahat ng yan itatackle ng program ko and you’re going to have the transformation you’re dreaming of!

So kung gusto mo magtransform this 2022 at makatipid pa, NOW IS THE TIME!

[4 of 4] Click here to sign up for the FULL PROGRAM

[4 of 4] Click here to sign up for the FULL PROGRAM

If you want to read lesson #1 again, click here.

If you want to read lesson #2 again, click here.

(For more bonus tips, please check your inbox tomorrow)