Coaching · 5 min read
The Person Comes Before the Program
Marco Panetta
5 September 2026
Before I write a single exercise, I need to understand the person I'm coaching — their goal, training experience, schedule, body, limitations and lifestyle. The program is built from there.
I don't just program exercises. I program outcomes.
Same goal doesn't mean same program
Two people can have the exact same goal and still need completely different training. If two people both want to lose 10kg, that doesn't mean they should follow the same plan. Their training depends on:
- Training experience and current ability
- Body structure, schedule and available equipment
- Injuries, limitations and recovery capacity
- Exercise preferences and how they respond to training
The goal might be the same. The path doesn't have to be.
Exercise selection has a reason
I don't choose exercises because they're popular or because they're in some generic program. Every exercise should have a purpose that relates to your goal. The same movement can be programmed completely differently depending on what we're trying to achieve.
The perfect program doesn't matter if you don't follow it
I'd take someone following an 80% perfect program consistently for 12 months over someone following a 100% perfect program for three weeks, every time. Planning is the easy part — doing the work is where results come from. A big part of my job is building a plan that actually fits your life so you can spend your energy executing it, not second-guessing it.
Written by
Marco Panetta
Strength and performance coach on Sydney's Northern Beaches, and online anywhere in the world. I build training around the person in front of me — not a template — so the plan actually fits your life and you can stick to it.