"Practical Programming" by Mark Rippetoe

• A true strength and conditioning professional must be versed in all areas of practice and competition, through experience and education.
• The strength coach will likely spend more individual time with an athlete than any other coach during the athlete's career. 
• Playing and coaching are two different skills.
• A good rule of thumb is that if the certifying agency does not have an annual convention of its professional membership, does not have a professional education agenda, and does not product a professional journal, it is likely that the merit and value of its certification is low.
• A common problem is that findings derived from a specific population--untrained college-age males, for example--are frequently considered to be generalizable to all populations, including trained athletes.
• Periodization has been called one of the "core principles" in the preparation of athletes for competition.
• It [periodization] is a very simple idea: the athlete trains very hard for a "period" of time and then trains less hard for a "period".
• The primary reason athletes are overtrained is that coaches fail to periodize.
• Don't be shy about asking "experts" questions. It's a rare expert who doesn't like to talk about what they know.
• Training models appropriate for chemically enhanced athletes are not applicable to frequently drug tested drug-free athletes.
• Effective physical education is best done in small groups with adequate time.
• The concept of periodization is sound.
• Copying and cannibalizing successful programs without understanding why they were successful is never a good idea.
• The terms "novice", "intermediate", "advanced", and "elite" relate to the trainee with respect to the time it takes for recovery from a homeostatic disruption induced by training.
• Because a novice lifts weights that are light relative to his genetic potential for strength and power development, the rate of recovery following training can be rapid.
• Recovery processes are as trainable as any other physical parameter, and this is an extremely significant factor in the training process.
• It is import to remember that recovery processes can always be exceeded by the injudicious application of training stress.
• Recovery must occur before progress can be made.
• Simply put, a novice, as we use the term here, is a trainee for whom the stress applied during a single workout and the recovery from that single stress is sufficient to cause an adaptation by the next workout.
• Programming for the novice is essentially the linear progression model that is described in the ACSM manual.
• General programming: novice=daily, intermediate=weekly, advanced=monthly, elite=annually
• Intermediate trainees benefit from exposure to more exercises than novices.
• The majority of trainees will never attain the level of development that makes advanced periodization necessary, since most trainees voluntarily terminate their competitive careers before the advanced stage is reached.
• Elite athletes are the genetically gifted few who also happen to be motivated to achieve success despite enormous physical and social costs.
• Unlike beginners or intermediates, advanced and elite trainees need large amounts of intense work to disrupt homeostasis and force adaptation.
• With novice trainees, disruption of homeostasis can occur with smaller loads than those used by advanced trainees, since conditioning has not yet developed work tolerance.
• If the stress on the body is too great, either in magnitude or frequency, the body will be unable to adequately adapt and exhaustion will occur.
• Progressive training within the context of the General Adaptation Syndrome requires that an increase in training load be applied as soon as it is apparent that recovery has occurred. 
• Using the same training load after adaptation has occurred is counter to effective coaching practice if performance or fitness improvement is the goal.
• In the novice, a single training session will disrupt biological equilibrium locally within the muscle and systematically within the body.
• It is important to understand that the trainee is not getting stronger during the workout. He is getting stronger during the recovery period after the workout.
• Applying the same workload again produces no progress, since this stress has already been adapted to, but merely reinforces the existing level of fitness.
• As the body gets better at producing force against a load, it is also getting better at recovering from that stress.
• The relationship of recovery to performance is linear: as recovery increases performance increases.
• Overload represents the magnitude of work required to disrupt biological equilibrium and induce an adaptation.
• Overload without recovery just induces overtraining.
• Fatigue is usually defined physiologically as a reduction of the force-production capacity of a muscle.
• Overtraining is the cumulative result of relentless high-volume or high-intensity training, or both, without adequate recovery, that results in the exhaustion of the body's ability to recover and adapt.
• Overtraining occurs when performance does not recover within one reduced-load training cycle.
• The success of any program is ultimately the trainee's responsibility.
• An increase in anabolic (muscle-building) hormone concentrations and activity take place during the sleep cycle.
• A major function of the growth hormone is the mitigation of the negative effects of the catabolic hormone cortisol.
• An average of eight hours of sleep, especially during very rigorous training, will aid in recovery.
• A good rule of thumb [for hydration] is one liter for every 1000 calories expended.
• Protein synthesis, the process by which new muscle is built, requires a dietary protein source.
• An easy way to ensure enough dietary protein is simple to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight.
• A caloric surplus is needed to drive progress.
• Correctly designed programs achieve positive results by controlling the volume and intensity of training.
• Volume is the total amount of weight lifted in a workout or group of workouts.
• repetitions x weight = volume
• Intensity is the amount of weight lifted in relation to 1RM.
• Intensity is considered as a percentage of 1RM.
• The basic cure for overtraining is the combination of time and reduced workload.
• Planning a program of weight training requires a clearly defined set of goals for the athlete.
• The modern fitness industry's concept of "toning" muscles is specious--it might sound cool, but it lacks any tangible and definable meaning.
• If "tone" is the goal, strength is the method.
• Strength is a measurement of the ability of a muscle to exert force.
• Strength improvement should be a goal for all trainees; it always contributes to performance.
• The production of power is key to most sports.
• Power production requires both strength and speed.
• The ability to generate power directly affects performance.
• Training programs that increase power output should be used for all athletes, from the beginner up to the elite.
• All other things being equal, the more powerful athlete will always beat the less powerful athlete.
• Training for power requires the use of exercises in which heavy loads are moved quickly, such as the Olympic lifts--the snatch and the clean and jerk and their derivatives--which cannot be done slowly.
• Absolute strength does increase as muscle cross-sectional area gets bigger.
• High-rep, low-intensity training results in more and faster hypertrophy, but strength and power training provides a functional advantage over bodybuilding type training: more strength and more power.
• Bigger muscles also mean more efficient leverage around important joints.
• In a novice, the need for specificity in training is low, since the trainee is far away from his genetic potential. In contrast, an elite athlete must be trained with a high degree of specificity.
• Training should never reach 100% specificity, as this does not allow for varying the nature of training stress in order to continually drive adaptation.
• Muscle is the basic physiologic unit of movement.
• The largest structural unit of the muscular system is the muscle itself, which attaches to the skeleton at a minimum of two points by way of connective tissues called tendons.
• Individual muscles are separated from other muscles by another type of connective tissue, fascia.
• When a muscle contracts, it pulls the bones attached at either end toward each other, resulting in the movement of the body part.
• The amount of force a muscle can exert is generally considered to be proportional to its cross-sectional area. This means simply that the bigger the muscle, the more force it can generate.
• Stored ATP is always the first energy source utilized during muscular contraction.
• The form of energy stored in the muscle is glycogen, the storage form of glucose.
• Intense exercise of longer than 12 seconds and up to a few minutes in duration, such as longer sprints and high-repetition weight training, requires the breakdown of glycogen molecules into glucose, a process called glycogenolysis.
• The real value of creatine supplementation lies not in its short-term performance enhancement but in its ability to assist in recovery between sets and workouts done repeatedly over time.
• How hard, and how long, we exercise directly affects which metabolic pathway(s) our bodies use to fuel the activity.
• The central nervous system is linked to muscle fibers by way of motor neurons.
• Well-designed programs, in concert with sound nutrition and recovery, produce superior results.
• Organized training programs are based on the concept of the "repetition maximum" (RM or max) or personal record (PR).
• Strength is gained using lower repetitions (1 to 3) with heavier weights (90 to 100% of 1RM).
• Muscular hypertrophy is produced by using higher reps, 8 to 12, with 65 to 85% 1RM, or more.
• Power, the combination of speed and strength, is developed by using moderate numbers of reps (3 to 5) performed at maximal velocity with loads between 50-75% of 1RM for the exercise.
• The speed component of power is developed when each individual repetition is performed at maximum velocity.
• Different numbers of reps have different training effects, and it is important to match the correct reps to the goal of the trainee.
• One set of an exercise is not capable of producing the stress that multiple sets can produce, because stress is cumulative.
• Work sets are the heavy sets that produce the training effect of the workout.
• Sets across are a marvelous way to accumulate total set volume of high quality, since the weight chosen is repeated for all the work sets, producing higher average load at the limit of the trainee's ability.
• The time between sets is an important variable in workout configuration.
• If strength gains are the primary training objective, rests of greater than one minute are not only okay but necessary.
• If muscle hypertrophy is the only concern, rests of 45 seconds or less are best.
• As a rule, warm-ups facilitate work sets; they should not interfere with them.
• Too few workouts per week will not adequately stress the body, and no positive adaptation will occur.
• The most important consideration for exercise selection should be the functional application of an exercise to the training objective.
• Virtually every single effective exercise program for sports performance will comprise the following rather short list of weight room exercises: squat, press, deadlift, bench press, clean or power clean, jerk, snatch or power snatch, and chin-ups or pull-ups.
• A whole-body workout every time is the preferred approach to training.
• Three to five correctly chosen and performed exercises are all an athlete needs, and should be able to do, in one workout.
• Among other things, novices are developing motor skills that will allow them to handle a larger variety of exercises later in their training careers.
• Workouts should be ordered in a way that allows the most important exercises to be done first.
• In the interests of both muscle mass and power training, higher velocity works better.
• Safety is the result of correct technique, at any velocity.
• High-speed exercise is necessary if power is to be trained.
• The majority of the data available indicates that pre-training stretching neither reduces the frequency of injury nor effectively improves flexibility.
• If full range of motion in all the positions encountered during training and performance can be properly expressed under load and during skill execution, the athlete is sufficiently flexible.
• In one very important respect training novices is easy: virtually anything that makes a novice work harder than bed rest will produce positive results.
• It is quite easy to produce fitness gains in any beginner.
• The results of a study done on a specific population--one with specific characteristics that make it very different from other specific populations--apply only to that specific population.
• To be most effective at improving fitness for novices, a program must progressively increase training load as rapidly as tolerable so that meaningful results happen in a useful timeframe.
• Simple progression is everyone's friend. It works well. It's how weak people can get very strong very fast. Up to a point.
• The squat, deadlift, bench press, and press should be learned first, with the power clean or clean and the power snatch introduced as skill and ability permit.
• The first goal for the novice should be the development of basic usable whole-body strength.
• The classic barbell row is a good builder of back strength when done properly, starting each rep off the floor like a deadlift.
• Absolute strength is gained by using very low reps (1 to 3) per set, mass is increased with higher reps (10 to 12), and local muscular systemic endurance is developed with even higher reps (20+).
• For a novice trainee, the adaptation to a new training load occurs within 24 to 72 hours.
• Any novice learning a new exercise should begin with an empty bar.
• For the novice, the law is: learn first, and then load.
• Heavy always competes with correct, and at this point correct is much more important.
• If the trainee has worked through the entire range of motion of an unfamiliar exercise, he will experience some muscle soreness.
• Linear progress, for as long as it is possible, is the most efficient way to utilize a novice trainee's time, since every workout yields a strength improvement.
• The deadlift is done for 1 set of 5 reps due to its harder nature at heavy weights.
• Small plates are necessary for small jumps, and small jumps are necessary for progress.
• Simple progression works for months when the trainee is new to a program of organized training.
• The most important consideration for programming at the intermediate level is the selection of exercises, which will be determined, in large part, by the trainee's choice of sport or training emphasis. 
• Any workout that takes longer than two hours probably involves too many exercises, too many sets, or too much talking.
• The closer the trainee is to his genetic potential, the slower the progress toward it will be.
• The intermediate stage is the place where most athletes make their biggest training mistakes.
• High-intensity training, the utilization of a very high percentage of force production capacity, is very productive but difficult to recover from in large doses.
• Speed sets specifically target neuromuscular efficiency. 
• Training should be fun, and indeed more progress will be made if it is.
• Novices, by definition, lack the motor skill to perform a valid 1RM on any barbell exercise.
• Remember this: you don't get strong by lifting weights. You get strong by recovering from lifting weights.
• One heavy set of deadlifts usually produces sufficient stress without the need for more sets.
• The advanced trainee is one for whom a weekly training organization is no longer working.
• The best way to jump into longer training cycles is with a very simple model, with a structure that consists of nothing more than a pyramid that lasts for a two-month period. 
• Usually, a week of two of "active rest" or less-frequent training with moderate weights is a good idea between cycles to assure that the trainee is rested and ready to undergo another period of stressful training.
• Each cycle through the training year can and should have a different goal.
• The whole body should be trained every workout, as large-scale stress on a large mass of muscle is more effective at driving adaptation than exercising a small amount of muscle.
• One way to manipulate volume is to vary the number of sets and reps.
• Training for local muscular endurance involves higher numbers of reps with lighter weights and shorter rest intervals.
• Reeducating the body on a previously mastered technical task does not require long periods of focused repetition of the skill. It is regained with short periods of focused technical practice within other blocks of training.
• Strongman competition is designed to test the general capabilities of the contestant, and is not something for which a great deal of specific technique preparation is intended or necessary.
• Muscular endurance and glycolytic capacity for several [strongman] events can be developed by using the farmer's walk at various distances and weights.
• A key element in avoiding overtraining for every sport is the recovery phase, which allows the body to fully recuperate, both physically and psychologically, after a long training cycle.
• The purpose of an active rest phase is to allow for complete recovery and supercompensation, but in a way that does not cause detraining.
• It is very important to understand the following true thing: women are not a special population. With very, very few exceptions, they are trained in exactly the same way as men of the same age and level.
• Properly conducted weight training programs are safe for children because they are scalable: the loads used can be precisely adjusted to the ability of the child to use them with correct technique.
• Correct technical execution prevents injury, since by definition "correct" means controlled, even for explosive movements.
• Properly supervised skill-based weightlifting programs are appropriate for children and can commence as early as 6 years of age.
• Absolutely nothing prevents a middle-aged trainee from getting stronger, bigger, and more powerful but their own attitudes about training and age.
• The loss of muscle mass has another insidious effect that becomes more perceptible at an advanced age: a loss of proprioception and balance.
• Staying in the gym slows the decay in muscle mass and pushes the onset of atrophy back for decades.
• All athletes who train hard enough to compete will get injured.
• Progress involves hard training, and hard training eventually involves pushing past previous barriers to new levels or performance.