How Your Training Plan Is Built

Every runner gets a different plan. Not just different paces or distances — different exercises, different drills, different priorities. Two runners training for the same marathon on the same timeline will get workouts that look nothing alike, because their bodies are different.

This article explains the two systems that drive that personalization: your body readiness profile and your running form type. Together, they shape every strength session, every drill routine, and every mobility warm-up in your plan.

Your Body Readiness Profile

During onboarding, we assess how your body moves — specifically, your range of motion and your single-leg control. Based on those two dimensions, you're placed into one of four profiles:

Starting From Scratch (Deconditioned)

You're limited on both range of motion and control. The root cause is general deconditioning — you need to build a foundation before anything else. Your plan starts with the simplest exercises, higher reps, lighter loads, and a focus on consistency over intensity.

Locked Up

You can generate force, but your joints are stiff — hips, ankles, thoracic spine. Your plan prioritizes exercises that demand full range of motion: deep squats, full-range hinges, tempo work that forces you through restricted positions under control.

Unstable

You have the range of motion but can't control it. Your knees cave, your hips wobble, your trunk shifts. Your plan loads up on single-leg work, anti-rotation core exercises, and carries — anything that forces your nervous system to stabilize under load.

Tension Holder

You score fine on both mobility and control, but you over-brace everything. Your plan emphasizes flow and relaxation — rhythmic exercises, tension-release cycles, and breathing-integrated work instead of heavy isometrics.

Your body profile shapes your strength sessions and mobility work. It determines which exercises you're prescribed, how they're loaded, and what progression looks like week to week.

Your Running Form Type

Separately, we assess how you run. During onboarding, you rate five statements about your running mechanics. Your highest-scoring statement determines your primary form type:

The Natural

No dominant issue. Your form is balanced — nothing stands out as a limiter. Your drills focus on maintaining what you have, building general running economy, and progressive skill development.

The Stomper

Heavy, loud footstrike. You land with high braking forces, usually from low cadence and overstriding. Your drills focus on quicker turnover, better foot placement, and elastic rebound.

The Shuffler

Short, restricted stride. Your hips don't fully extend at push-off and your knees don't drive forward. Your drills focus on unlocking hip drive through exaggerated movement patterns like A-skips and bounding.

The Wobbler

Lateral instability. You sway side to side, especially on uneven ground or when fatigued. Your drills focus on single-leg balance, lateral control, and frontal plane stability.

The Bouncer

Excessive vertical movement. You go up and down more than forward. Your drills focus on posture, arm mechanics, and redirecting elastic energy horizontally.

The Fader (modifier)

The Fader isn't a standalone type — it layers on top of any primary classification. If your form breaks down as you get tired, the Fader flag modifies your post-run routine to include deliberate form-reset strides. The reset cue is specific to your primary type.

Your running form type shapes your pre-run drills and post-run strides. It determines which drills you're prescribed, what cues you focus on, and how your drill complexity progresses over time.

How They Work Together

Your body profile and running form type are assessed independently. A runner can be any combination — a Locked Up Stomper, an Unstable Natural, a Tension Holder Shuffler. The two systems don't override each other; they operate in parallel on different parts of your training.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

A Stomper who is Locked Up gets cadence and foot-placement drills (from the Stomper classification) alongside full-range-of-motion strength exercises (from the Locked Up profile). Their ankle mobility work serves double duty — it helps both the restricted joints and the heavy footstrike.

A Wobbler who is Unstable gets lateral stability drills (from the Wobbler classification) alongside single-leg strength work (from the Unstable profile). These two systems are directly aligned — the strength work builds the muscle capacity, and the drills build the motor control to use it while running.

A Shuffler who is a Tension Holder gets hip drive drills (from the Shuffler classification) alongside flowing, rhythmic strength work (from the Tension Holder profile). The hip mobility that both systems emphasize comes from different angles — drills open the stride dynamically, while strength exercises build force production without over-bracing.

A Natural who is Deconditioned gets general-purpose drill work (from the Natural classification) alongside conservative, beginner-friendly strength (from the Deconditioned profile). The drill program can progress faster than the strength program since their movement patterns are sound — they just need to build the engine underneath.

When they reinforce each other

Some combinations are naturally aligned. Wobbler + Unstable is the clearest example: both systems identify single-leg control as the priority, and strength and drills attack the same problem from different sides. Shuffler + Locked Up is similar — restricted hip range shows up in both assessments.

When they're independent

Other combinations are orthogonal. A Natural + Deconditioned runner has fine movement patterns but no strength foundation — the drill program and the strength program serve completely different purposes. A Stomper + Tension Holder has a cadence problem in their running and an over-bracing problem in their strength work — unrelated issues that each get addressed in their own domain.

The Fader adds a layer

The Fader modifier cuts across everything. Regardless of body profile or primary form type, the Fader flag adds fatigue-resistance work to your plan. Post-run strides become mandatory form resets. Strength programming shifts toward endurance-building rep ranges. The specific reset cue matches your primary form type, but the principle is universal: practice maintaining form when tired.

What Changes Week to Week

Your body profile and running form type are set during onboarding and remain stable throughout your training plan. What changes is the progression within each system:

• Strength exercises progress from simple to complex, light to heavy, bilateral to unilateral — guided by your body profile's progression path
• Drills progress from basic coordination to advanced neuromuscular patterns — guided by your form type's drill priorities
• The AI adapts session by session based on your feedback, completion data, and how your training load evolves across phases

Your profile and form type are the starting point. Your weekly reflections and workout data are what keep the plan evolving.