Traditional Personal Training Vs The PHILLIPS FIT Method™

Why the PHILLIPS FIT Method™ Is Different

Traditional personal training has helped millions of people improve their health and fitness. The PHILLIPS FIT Method™ builds on many of the same principles while adding another important dimension: your nervous system's current capacity to successfully organise and tolerate the demands of each exercise.

Here are the 11 Decision Points™:

1. Daily Readiness

Traditional Personal Training:

"How are you feeling today — ready to train as planned?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"What does today's assessment tell us about your current nervous-system capacity, and how should that shape the session?"

2. Training Demand

Traditional Personal Training:

"How much training can we fit into today's session?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"What training demand can your nervous system successfully organise and tollerate today, and how should today's training be adapted to that?"

3. Exercise Selection

Traditional Personal Training:

"Which exercises best suit your goals and biomechanics?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"Which exercises best suit your goals, biomechanics and your nervous system's current capacity?"

4. Training Dose

Traditional Personal Training:

"What weight, reps and sets should we prescribe?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"What dose of this exercise can your nervous system successfully organise and tolerate today?"

5. Exercise Response

Traditional Personal Training:

"Does the exercise look right and feel okay, and if not, what should we change?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"How is your nervous system responding to this exercise, and how should that response guide what we change, if anything?"

An exercise can look right and feel fine while still producing a defensive nervous system response. The PHILLIPS FIT Method™ assesses for what you—and your Trainer—may otherwise be unable to see.

6. Progression

Traditional Personal Training:

"Can we increase the load, reps or intensity?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"Has your nervous system demonstrated capacity for a greater demand, and when we increase that demand, can it still organise and tolerate it successfully?"

7. Movement Capacity

Traditional Personal Training:

"What can we stretch, release or mobilise to increase this range of movement?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"Why is this movement currently limited, and what does that response tell us about the most appropriate next step, if any?"

8. Strength & Force Production

Traditional Personal Training:

"This muscle appears weak — how do we strengthen it?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"Is your nervous system currently limiting force output in response to this demand?"

9. Sensory Demand

Traditional Personal Training:

"Can you perform this exercise with appropriate balance, stability and control?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"Does your nervous system feel safe processing all the information this exercise is asking it to handle?"

10. State Regulation

Traditional Personal Training:

"How are you feeling today — stressed, tired or ready to train?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"Can your nervous system successfully shift into the state this demand requires, and return from it without triggering a defensive respone?"

11. Intervention Choice

Traditional Personal Training:

"Which exercise, stretch or 'release' method should we use to improve this problem?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"Is exercise, stretching or 'releasing' actually the most appropriate intervention for the response we're seeing, or does something else need to be addressed first?"

A muscle that feels tight is not necessarily physically "too short", and a muscle that tests weak does not necessarily lack physical strength. Both can reflect protective changes in nervous-system output.

If the nervous system is increasing tension or reducing force because it does not currently consider a particular movement, position or demand safe enough, immediately stretching, releasing or strengthening the area may be only addressing the output (symptom), rather than the reason that output is occurring.

That's why PHILLIPS FIT first asks what is driving the response, then uses that information to determine the most appropriate intervention to resolve the problem.

The Overall Philosophy

Traditional Personal Training:

"How do we adapt the programme so you can progress through it?"

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The PHILLIPS FIT Method™:

"How do we continually adapt your training to your goals, biomechanics, current nervous-system capacity and response to each demand — rather than expecting you to automatically adapt to the programme?"

The PHILLIPS FIT Difference

Traditional Personal Training typically uses the programme as the primary framework for deciding how training should progress.

The PHILLIPS FIT Method™ keeps the individual as the primary reference point — continually adapting training to your goals, biomechanics, current nervous-system capacity and response to each demand, rather than expecting you to automatically adapt to the programme.

Never assume capacity. Assess it!
Train to your capacity. Expand what's possible.