FAQs & Support

How does my Fitness Profile determine my program?

Once you have profiled your health and fitness, the ROM Programming software uses a series of algorithms to determine what sort of program you should be doing to give the most benefit. No two programs are ever the same.

There are a lot of calculations that go on in the software here behind the scenes, but let’s go into some of the basics.

We know that if you want to get better at something, you have to do more of that thing. So ROM Programming takes your four letter Fitness Profile, and uses this to start working out what types of sessions to give you.

To understand this process, it’s first important to know that your program contains 18 different sessions that you’ll work through (we’ll talk more about this later), and the types of sessions are based on your four letter profile:

The first letter of your profile (the thing that needs the most work) will have four sessions dedicated to its improvement.

The second letter of your profile will have three sessions dedicated to its improvement.

The third letter of your profile will have two sessions dedicated to its improvement.

The fourth letter of your profile (the thing that you’re already best at) will have one session dedicated to its improvement.

How does the ‘My Movement Averages’ chart determine my program?

Next, we move on to the ‘Movement Averages’ section of your profile, the one that calculates your average score for different types of movements. You’ll remember that the two lowest average scores in this section were highlighted red. To improve this weakness, ROM Programming will provide an extra session for each of these movement weaknesses (for example if ‘squat strength and stamina’, and ‘running’ are weaknesses, there will be an extra session in your program for each of these).

So now we know where 12 of the 18 sessions come from - 10 from your four letter Fitness Profile, and another two from your weakest movements.

How does my program make sure I’m still improving on things that aren’t my weaknesses?

The final six sessions are common to all programs. We know that, although building balance and removing weakness is important, we also need to make sure that everyone is working on everything. Just because you may already be strong, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t benefit from more sessions that improve strength.

In this way, your program will contain more of the types of sessions that will improve your weaknesses, and less of the types of sessions that will improve the things you’re already good at, while still allowing you to be working on everything. This helps to create the balance that is necessary for well rounded health and fitness.

How is my program laid out?

When you generate a new program, you will see 18 sessions (plus three ‘extra credit’ sessions, which we’ll talk about later). We call these 18 sessions, a ‘cycle’ of training.

This cycle of training contains different types of sessions based on the importance of each as determined by your Fitness Profile.

How quickly should I progress through a cycle of my Program?

The beauty of having your sessions laid out like this, is that you can work through them at your own rate. Some people may do two sessions a day (we’ll talk in a moment about how to order sessions if you do this), while some may do two a week. If you miss the session you had planned to do on a Tuesday for example, you can then just make it up on Wednesday. A cycle (18 sessions) of training may take you two weeks, or it may take two months. You will benefit enormously from both!

I’ve finished all 18 sessions, how do I get more?

Once you’ve completed and logged (more on this later) all sessions, you will be able to click the ‘regenerate’ button at the top of your program, for a new, fresh cycle of training, with new sessions and new challenges. But remember, you’ll need to log all sessions first - it’s our way of making sure you’re working on the things that your body needs.

What changes when I generate a new cycle of 18 sessions?

The number of each type of session, and the order of the sessions will stay the same even after you regenerate, but the actual session you’re doing will change (explained another way, the thing that session is training will stay the same, but the exercises and structure of the session will change).

What order should I complete my sessions in?

The best way to progress through your program is in order - session one, then session two, then session three etc. This is because sessions of similar types are evenly distributed through your 18 session cycle. We want to spread out sessions of similar types to ensure you’re recovering enough (and therefore getting the benefit of your training). Of course, sometimes that just doesn’t fit in with your plans (maybe you don’t have much time to exercise on a certain day and want to do a shorter session). In this case, you can jump ahead a session or two, but try not to do this too much, and make sure you come back to the missed sessions. ‘Cherry picking’ the sessions can result in you being left with sessions of similar types, which will reduce your progress. We’ll talk more later about how to plan and piece together your training.

How does ROM Programming choose the exact session I’ll be doing?

We’ve already discussed how ROM Programming chooses which session types make up your program, but how does it decide the exact session (the format and exercises etc.)? The best way to understand this is to picture a series of buckets.

Each bucket is full of sessions that we’ve written for a certain session type. For example, we’ve got an ‘Absolute Strength’ bucket which is filled with sessions that will improve your absolute strength. There’s a ‘Continuous Cardiovascular’ bucket full of ‘Continuous Cardiovascular’ type sessions. There are well over 1,000 total sessions.

When you generate a new program, ROM Programming will select a session from each of the buckets that correspond to the session types in that program, and insert them into your training program.

Some of these sessions will be chosen at random from the bucket. This ensures your training is never the same twice, and also occasionally gives you the opportunity to repeat a session to see how much you’ve improved. The sessions that are chosen randomly are sessions that do not need to be completed in a certain order for maximal effect.

There are some session types however that use what’s called ‘periodisation’. For these session types (things like Olympic lifting, Absolute Strength and Relative Strength), you will benefit most from completing them in a set order. For these sessions, ROM Programming won’t select them from our ‘buckets’ in a random order, but in the order that is going to give you the most benefit. You don’t need to worry about all this, because ROM Programming will serve up sessions in the orders and frequencies that is best for your individual needs.

Why do Multi-Modals have clickable links instead of exercises?

Instead of telling you which exercises to do, Multi-Modals tell you which movements to do. And you’ll notice the movements are written as a clickable link.

So what’s the difference between a movement and an exercise? Well, a movement might be something like ‘upper body gymnastics push down’. That’s not the name of an exercise, but a type of movement the body can do. If you click on the name of the movement (the clickable link), you’ll be able to choose which exercise (or ‘movement alternative) you would like to do. You can see in this example, there are a range of exercises you can choose (don’t worry if you don’t know what they are).

So why is this important? Well, there are two main reasons - one physical and one mental.

The physical purpose of this variety is that if your body does a wide range of exercises, you will experience a wide range of benefits. Even though exercises are similar enough to ensure you’re constantly progressing (for example ‘ring dips’ and ‘parallel bar dips’ will both improve each other), they’re also different enough to force your body to keep adapting to new things (for example, there are some benefits that are unique to ‘rings dips’, and some that are unique to ‘parallel bar dips’). In particular, ‘unilateral’ movements (those where your right and left arm/leg have to work independently, like you’d get with dumbbells or kettlebells for example) are a great way to build joint and muscle health, balance and stability.

The mental reason behind the variety lies in both the ‘novelty’ value of new exercises, and also in the fact that the movement alternatives give you some freedom in an otherwise structured program. The mind thrives off these novel movements, and they inject some fun into your training.

How should I decide which exercise to choose in Multi-Modals?

So how can you make best use of these movement alternatives? You should always aim to choose something new and interesting. Try to stay away from the ‘normal’ exercises that will be covered in other sessions in ROM Programming.

So what’s the difference between a movement and an exercise? Well, a movement might be something like ‘upper body gymnastics push down’. That’s not the name of an exercise, but a type of movement the body can do. If you click on the name of the movement (the clickable link), you’ll be able to choose which exercise (or ‘movement alternative) you would like to do. You can see in this example, there are a range of exercises you can choose (don’t worry if you don’t know what they are).

So why is this important? Well, there are two main reasons - one physical and one mental.

The physical purpose of this variety is that if your body does a wide range of exercises, you will experience a wide range of benefits. Even though exercises are similar enough to ensure you’re constantly progressing (for example ‘ring dips’ and ‘parallel bar dips’ will both improve each other), they’re also different enough to force your body to keep adapting to new things (for example, there are some benefits that are unique to ‘rings dips’, and some that are unique to ‘parallel bar dips’). In particular, ‘unilateral’ movements (those where your right and left arm/leg have to work independently, like you’d get with dumbbells or kettlebells for example) are a great way to build joint and muscle health, balance and stability.

The mental reason behind the variety lies in both the ‘novelty’ value of new exercises, and also in the fact that the movement alternatives give you some freedom in an otherwise structured program. The mind thrives off these novel movements, and they inject some fun into your training.

I notice sometimes I get alerts and updates at the top of my program. What can I expect to see here, and what does it all mean?

As you progress through your ROM Programming, you’ll receive alerts at the top of your program to celebrate milestone and ‘hot streaks’.

You can expect to see some of the following notifications as part of this gamification:

A bar showing your progress through your 18 session cycle.

A running tally of the total number of sessions completed.

Milestone alerts when you’ve completed 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300 etc sessions.

A running tally of your training consistency, which will keep track of the consecutive number of weeks where you’ve logged one, three or five sessions.

Milestone alerts when you’ve completed a certain number of consecutive weeks of one, three or five sessions.

Is it enough to just do one session at a time?

At its most basic level, we recommend you working through your ROM Programming sessions in order, session one, then session two, then three etc. This is because sessions of similar types are evenly distributed through your 18 session cycle. We want to spread out sessions of similar types to ensure you’re recovering enough (and therefore getting the benefit of your training).

Doing one ROM Programming session every time you exercise is more than sufficient to improve your health and fitness. But some people have the time to do more than one session every time they exercise

How do I order my sessions if I want to do more than one session at a time?

We’ve made a list (below), ranked in order of priority. That is, the session types at the top of the list should take priority as the first thing you do in a day’s training. Those closer to the bottom of the list are the things you do last in a day’s training. We’ll give a few examples in a moment.

In addition, there are certain types of sessions that we don’t recommend you do in the same bout of exercise. Try not to do more than one session from each group at a time (this is because they train similar things, so doing them at the same time may reduce their effectiveness).

1) Olympic Lifting (drills), Olympic Lifting, Absolute Strength, Relative Strength, Squat Strength/Power, Pull From Ground Power, Pressing Strength.

2) Heavy Barbell Conditioning, Moderate Barbell Conditioning, Pull From Ground Strength.

3) Relative Stamina, Pushing Stamina, Pulling Stamina.

4) Multi-Modal, Energy System Intervals, Rowing, Running.

5) Continuous Cardiovascular.

What are ‘EIPs’, and how do I incorporate them into my ROM Programming?

EIPs are a series of short, five minute sessions, that have been designed to help you improve your ability or stamina in certain more ‘skill based’ movements. You can ask your Personal Coach about these EIPs, and whether they’re appropriate for you. The general rule of thumb here, is if you’re completing an ‘ability’ EIP (to learn to complete the skill), you should do this before your ROM Programming training for that day. This is because skills are best developed when you’re not fatigued. If you’re completing a ‘stamina’ EIP (looking to increase your endurance), you should do it at the end of your ROM Programming.

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