Our Training Philosophy

PROTOGYM is a performance-based athletic training system. This system is based on human mechanical movement (kinesiology) rather than the body’s physiological processes (heart rate). This creates a measurable method of exercise that allows efficient workouts to be designed with maximized results.

Why Train for Performance?

Most people start a training program for two primary reasons:

Health - People want to be healthier, or they may have been prescribed exercise by their medical physician due to high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.
Aesthetics – People want to look better. Lose weight; look good at the beach, etc.

What people don’t recognize is that health and aesthetics are a byproduct of performance! When focusing on athletic performance, the natural side effect is improved health and aesthetics. After all, how many athletes (individuals who practice performance oriented training) are overweight or have body image issues?

Training for performance is a new training mentality that must be adopted. This is the exact goal of PROTOGYM; to utilize today’s most progressive fitness concepts to design efficient exercise in order to increase athletic performance. This not only grants the individual the usual goals they seek, but also gives them the gift of functional athletic performance that applies to everyday life.

Training Principles

PROTOGYM uses the latest concepts and techniques to ensure the most efficient means to facilitate any training goal. The philosophy primarily focuses on three main principles - Plane of Motion, Exercise Type, and Movement Type.

Plane of Motion

All movement occurs in three planes of motion (POM). The three planes are:

Employing all three POM’s assures the body can maintain proper balance and posture in any position.

Movement Type

There are three different types of exercise movement. The three types of movement are:

All three movement types are used to allow the body to develop the most potent combination of absolute strength and neuromuscular control.

Exercise Type

There are many different types of exercise. PROTOGYM utilizes all types of exercise to provide the most comprehensive training available.

Training Environment

High-Intensity Short-Duration Training

Perhaps the most important aspect of PROTOGYM’s training philosophy is its focus on high-intensity, short-duration training. The main goal of this style of training is to provide the best level of athletic performance while burning the maximum amount of calories possible. This creates a highly efficient training environment; meaning a reduction in overall training time.

The two main goals of this method can be exemplified in the scenario below:

Suppose an average individual was told to jog on a treadmill for one hour. Their heart rate was recorded every minute for the whole hour the individual was jogging. The jogging is categorized as low intensity/long duration training and shown by the blue line in figure 1.

The next day that same individual completed a workout using the PROTOGYM system which subscribes to high intensity/short duration training. Their heart rate was again recorded every minute and recorded below shown by the red line in figure 1.

Figure 1

There are two details to take from figure 1:

(1) The area under each line - The white area under the High Intensity/Short Duration line (HISD) is much larger overall than the Low Intensity/Long Duration line (LILD). Another way to tell that the HISD line has a larger area is the average of the HISD measurements is larger than the LILD measurements.

	Value	Percent Value
LILD HR Average	114	82%
HISD HR Average	140	100%

This means that is in this time period it took more calories to sustain the HISD line than the LILD line. More calories burned means a greater chance of maintaining a lean and more efficient physique.

(2) The HR range of the HISD line – The HISD line mostly is in the 140-160 range of the individual’s heart rate whereas the LILD line is on the lower range (under 120) of the HR scale. Because the HISD line is in that HR range, it invokes anaerobic cellular respiration within the body. This activity type mainly causes adaptation of the fast twitch muscle fibers of the body which go through hypertrophy and increase in siz). This increases muscular size, speed, strength, and power.

Because the LILD line resides mainly in the low end of the HR range, it invokes the aerobic cellular respiration within the body. This activity type primarily causes adaptation of the slow twitch muscle fibers of the body which do not increase in size. They do however increase in aerobic capacity. Unfortunately, aerobic capacity only increases low intensity endurance. Increases in muscular size, speed, strength, and power are not realized.

Result

Through these combined training techniques, PROTOGYM creates the most effective and efficient means to boost athletic performance. It also creates the maximum amount of lean muscle mass and tone while maintaining superior cardiovascular health. As a result, all fitness goals are realized through the nature of the PROTOGYM fitness system.