Have you ever seen an exceptional programmer?
The one who solves problems quickly and finds elegant solutions? The one who has mastered the tools of the trade? The one who is proficient with the programming language and yet uses easy-to-understand constructions? You’ll know when you see one.

Regardless of their level of natural talent, truly exceptional programmers have a clear vision of who they want to become. They define intelligent goals aligned with this vision. They know how to achieve these goals or are willing to search for a solution. And finally, they resolve to work hard to accomplish these goals.

What can we do to become one?

Let’s think for a second of another group of people that displays similar qualities – professional athletes. Successful athletes also have a clear vision of themselves; they can define goals that move them along the path to success, and they are willing to put an effort into accomplishing these goals. Moreover, professional athletes have a universal tool that can move them toward success…

They work out.

What if we could adapt the idea of a workout to train programming skills? Perhaps we could do 30 minutes of touch-typing, instead of running? Maybe we could practice ruby koans for repetitions instead of doing push-ups? What if we did code-katas and measured our progress by recording ourselves?

Well, of course… we can! We can compose such exercises into a programming workout. We can do these workouts a couple of times per week. We can measure our progress as we move towards our goals.

If we are consistent and do regular workouts, we can become exceptional!

Where to start?

Take a look at slides from the Programming Workout Talk presented at the wroc_love.rb conference. A recording of the presentation is on the way.

Search for the #programmingworkout tag on twitter.

And visit programmingworkout.com. In the near future, this site will contain lots of useful information related to programming skills training.