13.2 If-Then Plans, Variable Adjustments, and Referral

13.2 If-Then Plans, Variable Adjustments, and Referral

Quick Answer: Write if-then implementation intentions and recruit social support for travel, illness, and schedule shocks. Adjust sets, repetitions, intensity, rest, and tempo so the client keeps training something — never a five-day makeup split. Refer when the “adherence problem” is depression, disordered eating, or a medical red flag.

Naming the lapse and the barrier is diagnosis. This section is the response: the concrete plan that survives the next disrupted week, the program variables you are allowed to move, and the point at which the honest answer is that this is no longer a training problem.

If-Then Plans, Implementation Intentions, and Social Support

Implementation intentions (if-then plans) are the Task 2 strategy ACE wants when the barrier is predictable. The formula is specific: If [situation], then I will [tiny behavior]. Vague motivation (“I will try to stay active on the road”) is not a plan.

Write them in the client’s words and attach them to a cue they will actually meet:

• If I land after 9 p.m., then I unpack the shoes and walk the hotel hallway for 12 minutes — I do not wait for a “real” gym session.
• If the baby has a fever on Tuesday, then Thursday becomes the lift and I walk after the last bottle.
• If I wake with a fever, then I rest and text you. I do not “push through.”
• If the meeting runs to 6:40, then I do the 20-minute version, not a cancelled week.

Social support is an enhancer, not a lecture. Ask who already helps and what they can actually do: cover bedtime, walk at lunch, sit with the baby for 25 minutes, stop offering “you can start in January.” Do not assign a spouse as a drill sergeant. Accountability that shames is a new barrier.

The ACE Mover Method still runs the talk: Ask what got in the way, Break down the barrier that is actually movable this month, Collaborate on the next dose. You do not install a mesocycle to punish a lapse.

Adjust Sets, Reps, Intensity, Rest, and Tempo

Skill 3 is the programming half of Task 2. The outline names the levers: sets, repetitions, intensity, rest, tempo. The point is to keep the client training something. Holding the original 5-day Load/Speed split “to teach discipline” after a new baby is how you produce collapse.

Worked new-parent picture. The original week was three 50-minute club sessions. The client now has two unpredictable 20-minute windows and has missed three weeks. The matching adjustment is not “come back when the baby sleeps.” It is a 20-minute Functional block (sit-to-stand, hinge to a chair, wall push-up, suitcase carry) plus a hallway walk, with rest intervals that fit the window. Tempo stays controlled. Intensity stays conversational. They are still training. That is Skill 3.

Do not add isolation work “to make up” missed volume. Makeup volume is how a lapse becomes an overuse problem. Do not delete all structure and say “just move more.” Collaborate on a dose with a start and a finish.

Communication Without Shame — and When to Refer

Skill 4 is verbal and nonverbal technique. The return conversation is the intervention.

Do say: “You missed two weeks and you are here. That is the habit.” “What got in the way that we did not plan for?” “What is the smallest week that would still feel like yours?”

Do not say: “I guess you were not committed.” “We have to work twice as hard now.” “Serious clients don’t take weeks off.”

Nonverbal: no eye-roll at the attendance app, no crossed arms, no dramatic sigh, no public comment on the floor about “someone’s vacation body.” Sit down. Leave space after the question. If you guessed the barrier wrong, their face will tell you.

Skill 5 is identifying the need for referral. Some “adherence problems” are not programming problems:

• Persistent low mood, anhedonia, hopelessness, or sleep collapse that is not explained by a hard training block → licensed mental-health professional. You do not diagnose depression.
• Binge–restrict cycles, purging, compulsive exercise to “earn” food, or a food log that is clearly harming them → physician and/or RDN and mental-health support. You do not treat an eating disorder with a new split.
• Chest pain, unexplained weight loss, syncope, night sweats, or a new neurological story → physician. You do not keep coaching through red flags.
• A return-to-training request after surgery, a cardiac event, or a high-risk pregnancy complication → medical clearance, then program.

You can still offer a supportive, optional, very small training dose while the referral happens — if it is safe. You cannot use more burpees as psychotherapy.

Exam Traps

• Treating a lapse as collapse and restarting from zero with a harder plan.
• Shaming missed weeks to “create accountability.”
• Ignoring enhancers (social support, a mode they like, a time that already works).
• Holding sets, reps, and intensity constant after a schedule shock.
• Writing a vague “stay active” intention instead of an if-then.
• Calling depression, disordered eating, or chest pain a motivation issue.
• Re-teaching all five TTM stages instead of applying relapse prevention to this slip.