The Basics of How to
do it
The SLED System is based on the Delorme’s Principle of progressive resistance to get your body to change. It starts with three sets of ten repetitions. If you can do all ten of the third set, then raise your weights on the next workout. A basic rule is your third set is 100% of what you can do ten times, your second set is 75% of the third, and your first set is 50% of your third. That’s a guideline; the weights don’t have to be exactly that, but should be close.
You’re going to be filling out everybody’s workout charts for them every time they come in using the principle above. A sample chart is here with five pages of how we do a chart and how a member might progress from day one. We will take a new member through a first workout and do two sets of all the exercises on the sheet (see page 1). As we go, I’ll fill in the person’s next workout, writing in the weights for all three sets, but leaving the third set blank. The member is then instructed to fill in how many reps they do on the third set UP TO TEN on their next workout. I tell them if they feel they can do more than ten not to. Only go to ten. They then hand in their chart to the “workout bin” and we fill in their next workout the same way, with the third repetition set blank, the chart then goes into a filing cabinet on the gym floor and is ready for them the next time they come in. Got that? The weights are filled in for all three sets, the repetitions for only the first two sets. The member fills in the reps for the third set. The number of repetitions they performed on the third set determines what they do on their next workout, if the weights go up or the reps go up.
If they made it to ten reps on the third set of the previous workout, we raise the weight on the third set for the following workout (and sometime the first and second sets as well). Make sense? Look at the sample charts on the link in the previous paragraph, that’ll help. Now, after a few weeks, when the member reaches a plateau and has been stuck on a given weight for a while, when they finally do reach ten, we’ll start doing rep increases also. So rather than going up in weight, we’ll go up in reps to twelve. When they do all twelve reps on the third set, we’ll bump the weight and go down to eight reps. When they do all eight, we’ll go to three sets of ten, then three sets of twelve, all at the same weights as before, then bump the weight up and bring the reps back down to eight. This is harder to explain in text than I thought it would be! After a while it becomes three sets of eight, then three sets of ten, then three sets of twelve. Raise the weight and back down to three sets of eight…
I talked about doing three sets for all the exercises. This works fine in the beginning, but as people get stronger on the bigger exercises (like leg presses or squats), you’ll need to go to four sets. In some cases with some of the guys lifting, I’ve had to go up as high as six sets. I don’t want them starting with too heavy of a weight or having the jumps between sets to be too big, so increase the number of sets. It’s all relative. For a strong guy doing free weight squats, he may start at 135 lbs, then 225, then 315, 405, and 495 for a final set.
There’s an entire cardio version of the SLED System also, so make sure to check out that link on the home page.
Here are a few little things we encountered since starting this program:
FORM: You will be amazed at how the members that start doing this will start pushing themselves. They really do want to get one more rep! But…many will start losing form as they try to get the next rep or weight. You need to keep an eye on them a little. You can watch them on the gym floor and correct any thing you see on the spot, or watch their charts. If you notice that the weight that some are doing seems just a little high, make a note to yourself to watch them the next time they come in. Stability ball crunches are one that it happens a lot on. People start going back less and less and/or going up too high. Shortening their range of motion to lift more weight is another problem.
WORKOUT CHARTS: We’ve added some text into the inside cover of the manila folders that contain their charts. We call it “Things To Remember”. A picture of a folder is here, and the text is here. It will help with any possible liability issues.
NOTES: Leave little notes or smiley faces in their charts when they accomplish something good. It goes a long way. Members will also leave you post-it notes with questions. Do your best to answer the question with another note or have them call you at the gym sometime to discuss it.
BLANKS: From time to time, you’ll come across people’s charts where one of the third set blank spots has been left blank. They didn’t fill in how many reps they did. This happens for many reasons. Sometimes they just forgot to write that one in. But there may be other reasons also. Something may have been hurting or they simply couldn’t do the next weight. Sometimes they won’t leave you any reason why they did this. If I see somebody leave a blank more than once, I’ll leave them a post-it note asking why.
BALANCE: One of the machines in our gym is a Glute Press. It’s a machine where you do one side of the body at a time. In the beginning we’ll see some people start doing more on one leg than the other. They’ll usually write on the sheet” R=7, L=8” or something like that. Instruct them not to do this. Make sure they know to do the weaker side first, then only do that many reps on the stronger side or they risk making imbalances worse. The biceps curl gets this a lot also.
I will be adding to this over time as I think of and come across other things. For any clubs that start this program, don’t hesitate to write in with other things that you notice. I’ll post it here. Ultimately, this will help ALL OF US!
MAKING MONEY WITH THE SLED SYSTEM
One possible way to increase your PT income for the SLED system is charging for new workouts. It’s still free to get people set up on it when they join (you want them to get into it), but then you charge for any future custom programs. You can recommend any amount of time you wish. For instance, once somebody is going on their program you tell them that it is recommended that they do a new program every two months in order to keep their body changing and the results coming (which are true anyway). You can schedule the appointment then or leave them reminder notes in their folders.
Some numbers:
300 people in your club on the SLED System
Each person does a new workout once every two months
Two months at 300 people = 60 days = 5 people per day at $50 (or whatever you want to charge) per session for a new workout
This equals $250 per day in PT income X 365 days per year = $91,250/year. Not bad!