Welcome back to Frameworks. This is a place for coaches who want more than just reps and sets. We dig into the principles, philosophy, and stories that help you coach with clarity, design with purpose, and keep chasing mastery. Today we’re wrapping up our 3-part series on Smarter Program Design. If you missed the first two episodes, The Macro and The Meso, start there. They’ll give you the full context for what we’re building today.

This episode is Part 2 of our Smarter Program Design series. If you missed Part 1 The Macro, go back and start there. It lays the foundation for long-term planning, defining your client’s story, building direction, and thinking in seasons instead of weeks. Now, we move one layer deeper: the Meso, or short-term planning. This is where your story becomes a strategy. Where long-term vision turns into tangible, trackable progress.

Coaching smarter means coaching longer-term. The Macro Layer is where you step back and tell the story of your client’s development not just for this cycle or this month, but for the year ahead. If you can’t explain where your client’s headed over the next 12 months, you’re not programming, you’re just writing workouts.

This is a place for coaches who want more than just reps and sets, who want to build their craft on principles, not just tactics. Today’s episode is a personal one, because this is a trap I’ve fallen into myself. We’re talking about the myth of the “do-it-all coach.” The coach who programs for a full roster of clients, runs the business, manages the team, replies to every message, posts daily content, wears every hat…and still feels like it’s never enough.

Today we’re talking about one of the most misunderstood parts of coaching, assessment. Most coaches think assessment is about collecting numbers or showing expertise. But assessment isn’t about data. It’s about truth. It’s how we see where someone truly is- physically, emotionally, behaviorally, so we can meet them there. In this episode, I’ll walk through a framework for assessment that goes beyond tests and templates.

Science helps coaches, but worshiping it can hurt your craft. This episode breaks down science vs scientism, why principles should lead your decisions, and how to blend evidence with experience to get real results. Use these frameworks to coach with clarity, design smarter programs, and serve people first.

Today, we’re tackling what I call the messy middle—the space between where clients need you and where they can finally lead themselves. That’s where Habits-Based Coaching lives. In this episode, I’ll walk you through the six-step pathway I use to move clients from external reliance to internal regulation: Intention, Assessment, Prescription, Strategy, Time, and Success Markers.

In this week’s episode of Frameworks, I share 3 lessons from Poliquin that still hold true today: Why structural balance is the foundation of performance, How training age should guide every prescription, And why short loading cycles often produce better results than long ones. If you’re a coach who values clarity over complexity, and longevity over hacks, this one’s worth a listen.