Exercise Intellect

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Kati Droganov. I have been a certified personal trainer (NASM) for 5 years. I have been in the strength and conditioning field for the last 12 years. My interest began when I was 17 and desired to learn more about my training. At 16, I decided to do everything possible to become a college athlete, a shotput and discus thrower. The following year, I became highly interested in my training program and started asking questions and learning from my coaches. By 18, I was a college athlete at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. I learned about college strength and conditioning coaches’ programs for different athletes here.

Then, I joined the Navy and learned how the Department of the Navy programs and trains its sailors to be tactical athletes, a little lacking in luster, back in 2016. While in the Navy, I became an assistant command fitness leader to help my fellow sailors. From 2018 to 2020, I worked on my first bachelor’s degree in exercise science from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Throughout this time, I worked briefly as an intern at Lamar University, but life and severe weather happened, so I left for California. While living here, I worked with a wonderfully intelligent individual to understand and help program the training programs for the Department of the Navy, which was more than what I did while serving.

In 2022 and 2023, I held two jobs as a personal trainer. One was for myself, as KD Strength, and the other was for a “CrossFit” gym. These two opportunities allowed me to work with a diverse clientele with different needs and wants. However, in 2023, I dissolved my business to attend an accelerated nursing program at George Washington University Nursing programs. Throughout nursing school, I worked with my classmate to educate and give advice on their training programs. Only in the last semester did I start to provide a more in-depth analysis of individuals or gift programs.

My own training programs have varied from personal design to utilizing other programs. In January 2024, I decided to design my own program and run it for a year with 12-week cycles, focusing on two main themes: increasing strength and mass. Each cycle slightly changes. The first 12 weeks, which I just finished, focused on building a solid base of strength. My second 12 weeks focused on increasing my athleticism and time under tension.

The first analysis I will do will focus on my own program and how and why I designed it. Why these specific exercises? Why those sets and repetitions? Why those tempos? Why this volume? I will answer all of these questions.

The next program I will analyze is a “client’s” training program that is 98% body weight, which requires a completely different grasp of the basics.

I hope this will be helpful to someone.