July 05, 2017 By Nick Folker

Software for Strength Coaches: Programming Made Easy

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Software for Strength Coaches

The purpose of BridgeAthletic’s software for strength coaches is simple: it’s to empower you as a coach to do more in less time. We strive to deliver a platform that equips you with a way to seamlessly develop your S&C program in real time, as your athletes develop. At the heart of every strength department are the programs, which is why we’ve made the Content Manager the heart of the Bridge platform. Create your own exercises or use our built in library, build out days, weeks, and seasons of training, saving templates along the way to come back to next season or use as a starting point for another one of your teams. When you’re done, review the load analyzer to make sure the program progresses as you intend. Then, quickly schedule your training and deliver it to your athletes, no formatting necessary, leaving you with more time to coach and less time spent on the computer.

Intuitive Design

We understand you have little time to devote to learning the intricacies of a digital platform. That’s why we’ve designed our Content Manager to replicate the simplicity of spreadsheets. Drag, drop, clone, delete and switch exercises, workout days, weeks and even programs as much as you need to, all without ever having to manually save.

As these simple features allow you to learn the platform quickly, you will be able to design well structured, periodized workouts that are delivered to your athletes in seconds.

Store your Workouts

One of our most popular building features is the ability to retrieve any of your past workouts and exercises at any time, across all of your teams. The Content Manager section allows you to template your entire training program across many months, or save “blocks” of content that may pertain to a particular session. For instance, say you are building a particularly grueling leg day and want to incorporate some metabolic activity as a finisher. In the past, this would require you to build that circuit from experience or memory; however, now, you can choose from your template list of supersets (or other groups of exercises) that you have previously built and drop them into your new program with just a couple clicks.

 

Template Blocks

 

Furthermore, if you find you want to copy an entire group of exercises to another day, but you don’t need to save it for future use, simply copy it and drag it to the day you want.

 

Copying a Block
 
Copy the block (above), then drag it to a new day (below).

 

Moving a Block

 

From here you can switch out exercises for others that might be more effective for your second day of training. This “Switch Exercise” feature will allow you to choose if you want to switch an exercise for just that instance, the entire day, or replace it for the whole week, phase or program. This could be useful if one of your athletes is not yet able to perform a certain movement with proper form, so you can substitute in a simpler exercise as they develop.

Switching an Exercise

 

Load Progression View

As S&C coaches ourselves, we understand the purpose and importance of periodization. Our “Load Progression View” allows coaches to view the same day across each week of their training to ensure their program maintains a consistent progression. For instance, if you have built out a first week of training and want to copy that schedule across many weeks, simply copy the week to create multiple weeks.

From this view, you can now easily compare the same day (for example, Training Day 1 or Monday) across multiple weeks to ensure your periodization will enable your athletes to peak at the right time.

 

Progressive Load View

 

The BridgeAthletic platform is a software for strength coaches. Each feature is designed to make your life simpler and more efficient, so you spend less time on the computer and more time on the floor. Not totally convinced? Here’s what Jim Krumpos, Director of Olympic Sports at University of Arizona, has to say about the simplicity of our platform:

 

Jim Krumpos, Director of Olympic Sports

BridgeAthletic has streamlined my daily programming and testing, providing me more time to work with my athletes on the floor.

 

Before using Bridge, I was spending hours a week formatting cells, entering formulas, printing workouts, and transferring testing data multiple times from clipboard to final profile. Now with Bridge, I can quickly design workouts that I can assign to large groups in minutes. Additionally, I can provide my coaches with testing data as soon as the test is concluded in a professional, easy to read format, that also charts and records their athletes’ progress from previous tests. Finally, my athletes' ability to have access to workouts while on the road or on a break through their phone has improved their adherence to the workouts, as well as given me the instantaneous ability to modify workouts as needed.”

To learn more about digital software for strength coaches check out these articles on edits on the fly and tracking athlete performance

Smarter Training. Better Programs.

About the Author

Nick Folker

Nick Folker is the Co-Founder and Director of Elite Performance at BridgeAthletic. Nick’s roster of athletes includes 35 Olympians winning 22 Olympic Medals, 7 team NCAA Championships and over 170 individual and relay NCAA championships.

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