Pay Attention

  This post by kettle bell great Mike Mahler really hits the spot about 6 mistakes many of us make.

  I definitely keep records of my training, always measuring my progress or lack of. I strongly recommend you do too. That's such a motivator.

  I'm certainly not perfect. I most definitely don't get enough sleep. Unfortunately my schedule (workouts, work, the dog, the house,etc.) makes it that way. Hopefully someday I can fix that.

   So read and reread that post. Pay attention and learn from it.

High Rep Without Failure

 Merry Xmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc. I hope everyone had a good holiday because now it's time to get back in the program.

 The title seems contradictory but is possible. I know because I did that today.

  After I ran 1/4 mile hill sprints this morning ,I had time to kill. I also wanted some aerobic exercise as well as improving some of my main exercises, especially high rep push ups and pull ups. For the last couple of months I've been doing a program similar to Marine officer Greg Donahue , doing a set of pull ups and push ups, about 50%-75% of my max, once or even twice a day when I'm really pumped. Currently that means 7 pull ups and 20 pull ups ( my most recent max , done last Fri. Dec. 21 was 13 pull ups and 25 push ups in 1:00, plus another 7 in more 1:00. Remember , pressing motions require strong shoulders, something that's going to take me a while).

  Remember an earlier post on circuit training? You know, one exercise after another with no rest. Well that's what I did. First, military presses with two 15 lb dumb bells x 5 reps, followed by 3 pull ups, then 10 push ups, and finally 15 kettle bell swings. While the reps were definitely low, they were all done with good form ( though I must admit my push ups did start to struggle later in the work out). I also was able to mix sub maximal strength ( presses), strength endurance( push ups and pull ups ), and explosiveness ( swings ). Did I mention that I did 25 sets? That's right. Add it up. That's 125 military presses, 75 pull ups, 250 push ups, and 375 kettle bell swings in a single work out! It took 1:13:34, but it was worth it.

  High reps without failure, maintaining relatively good form. Obviously, a work out like this should only be done once or twice a week at most,if even that.This was a very high set work out. The next time I try this again one other variable I'm going to add is try to beat the time, even by :01. Other than that I'm glad I did this. So if you have the time , and the endurance, give it a try.

But I Want Huge Biceps

 How often do we hear that comment. Or " I need to develop my triceps " or calves, etc. You get the idea.

  What these people are looking to do is isolate a specific muscle. It may be for cosmetic reasons. It may be for athletic reasons. I understand. I used to believe that, but now I know better.

  In reality it's almost impossible to isolate a specific muscle. Muscles work together, whether in training and certainly impossible in competition. While it is true that certain muscles may play a major role in an activity ( main mover ) there are supporting muscles that help ( synergists ). An example , which I can attest to, is beach running. Especially in soft sand. Your calves will be screaming. This drives many people to do tons of  calf raises. But think about it. Your calves aren't running alone. Your hamstrings and glutes are moving, pushing those knees forward. Your quads are also involved. Your abs are supporting you, keeping that spine straight. Meanwhile your arms are pumping back and forth, kind of like upper cuts in boxing. This is also helping you to stay stable as well propelling you forward. Your biceps are the main movers in the arms. Don't forget how your shoulders are stabilizing your head and neck. You got the idea. No one muscle is going to move you through this alone. If you only did calf raises you'd end up creating some serious muscular imbalances. By the way an even worse way to train calves, or any body part for that matter, is doing that exercise seated. That really takes out all supporting muscles and causes even more muscular imbalances.

 These imbalances are one of the main reasons for injuries. People focus so much on one part that when their body needs to work as one unit ( which we've just seen ) it doesn't happen, often causing injury. It also causes poor performance, for the same reasons.

  The only time you ever want to do isolation would be for rehabbing an injury or possibly as a prehab for a muscular imbalance in your body. In my case I do some specific shoulder exercises due to previous shoulder injuries. And when I got back in to running I did do some calf raises with dumb bells, focusing on my whole calf/ankle complex. However this was very specific injury rehab/prehab given to me. And 95+% of my training is total body work.

  Also, you'd be wasting valuable time on these small areas like lower pecs,etc which you can use to further your skill/sport. Another plus for whole body exercises like push ups, kettle bell swings,etc. More bang for your buck.

  It is true you can emphasize a specific area in some exercises but even then other areas will be involved. Leg raises are used to emphasize lower abs, and they do but your upper abs will definitely be involved to a point. And don't forget those glutes tensing, the inner thighs holding your legs together, etc. You couldn't do it without the other muscles at least partly involved.

  So where did the idea for isolation come from? Here we go again, the usual suspects. First, modern body building. Those guys emphasize looks over function. I've explained before how it's all for show and not for go. Tell me one champion in any sport or real life athlete ( soldier, fireman, etc. ) who trained like them and succeeded. When I say train like them I mean the whole deal ; lots of isolation exercises like pec dec flyes, triceps extension ,etc. Don't forget 6 meals a day , 75% protein,tanning, more supplements than a vitamin store, shaving hair, as well as that little "extra something ".  And much of their muscle is made up of sarco plasm and capillaries, 2 small cells in muscle that give that puffy look. Maximal strength training on the other hand produces dense, myofibril tissue. That rock, hard look.

  And of course much of the fitness industry has embraced  these ideas. Especially most commercial gyms which make extra money with all the supplements they sell as well as the not too knowledgeable trainers who make their monthly commission with all that extra time they charge you for.

  So please, save your time and money, and focus on the big picture. Train like a champ, not a chump.

If You Train To Failure You're Training To Fail

 What that means is if you always train to failure eventually you're going to fail in your activities. Your central nervous system will be fried. Instead train for success.

 Maximal strength and even strength endurance need to be built carefully. Maximal strength means low rep activities like overhead and bench presses, squats, and dead lifts. There are also a few body weight examples like 1 arm push ups and 1 leg squats. No one has ever made progress just mindlessly trying to crank out more reps but instead failing, often hurting themselves in the process. All this does is lead to setbacks, frustration, and often just quitting.

 The key to success for strength is not more reps per se but rather generating maximal tension within the body, then practicing it regularly, while at the same time staying fresh. The body will eventually get in to a groove and produce results.

 The 2 most well known strength experts , at least with weights, are power lifters and Olympic lifters. Power lifters almost never go beyond 5 reps per set. Often they'll train a specific lift once a week using 5 reps x 5 sets with 75+% of their max weight. Note we're talking 1 lift  once a week, not all 3 lifts 5 or 6 days a week. The rest of the week they may use other low rep plans, such as 3 reps x 3 sets while using 90% of their max, or maybe even 1 rep x 16 -20 sets using 95% of their max. You'll notice in all cases they're using heavy weights while still not maxing out  nor are they doing lots of non stop reps but rather a few reps at a time while putting intense effort.They also leave a few in the tank, meaning they could have done a couple of more reps but they stopped while they were ahead. Intensity is more important than reps.

  Olympic lifts are more technical so they usually do 1 -2 reps at a time with numerous sets. They also lift heavy, 50% -80% of their max depending on their exercise. They do sometimes also do 5 x 5 but that's a lower weight and often a variation of an exercise. They also train 5-6 days a week. They train frequently but not to failure. They stay fresh, building their skill.

 Even strength endurance can be developed by careful training. Marine officer Greg Donahue wrote how he trained for 20 pull ups by carefully doing 60% -70% of his max reps once a day, 5 -6 days a week. In the article he wrote how Pavel Tsatsoulines father in law was able to do 20 pull ups by doing 5 pull ups through out the day. He also notes body builder Clarence Bass who did 10 pull ups 2 or 3 times a day and eventually also made it to 20 pull ups.While the 3 men trained slightly different they all trained  daily and they all avoided failure. Their central nervous system was trained to complete reps.

  With maximal body weight strength exercises , like the 1 arm push up or 1 leg squat, not training to failure is even more important. You're using your whole body. This requires full concentration and full maximal internal tension. Such tension can be held for only so long.

  I can say from experience that frequent but not all out training can pay off.  My best weight to strength dead lift, which I have a video of on this blog, was a 300 lb pull with a body weight of 136.6. About 21/4 x my weight. I got there using much of what pavel tsatsouline outlined in his book "Power To The People". Basically he says to do 2 sets of 5 reps ( he has since changed it 3 sets going 5, 3, 2 ). A total of 10 reps. Also , you use progressive weight increases in work out after work out. But you stop before you get to your maximal weight. Instead you go back to start a new cycle but now you start with 5 lbs more than you did last time. I did this. I also tweaked it in little ways. I sometimes did singles x 10 - 20 sets or doubles x 10 sets. But other than an infrequent test, I never maxed out or failed. I did however train 5 - 6 days a week.  I also took long rests ( 2:00 -5:00 ) between sets. This definitely worked.

 I also have finally achieved the 1 leg squat. I'll go into detail how I achieved it in a future post . The short of it was I trained daily, but never failed. I sometimes would train more than once a day but carefully. Doing it right is far more important than just mindlessly shooting for more reps.

  There is a place for max reps , particularly with strength endurance, but even here it should be limited. Some trainers like former SEAL Stew Smith have you do a day of max rep, set after set. But this is just once a week. The rest of the week is normal training . And it may take more than a day to recover, which isn't really good.  While you can train to failure once a week with strength endurance,  anything more will set you back. Instead a good idea is to do circuits but keep the reps at 25% -30% and certainly no more than 50% of your max reps. Example: if your max pull ups is 10 , your max push ups is 30,  and your max leg raises is 40, you could do 3 pull ups, then immediately 10 push ups, and finally 15 - 20 leg raises. Do that for 5 - 10 sets. 10 sets would mean 30 pull ups, 100 push ups, and 150 - 200 leg raises in a work out. You could in theory do that every day although I would recommend mixing up the exercises .  Maybe mountain climber pull ups,diamond push ups, and flutter kicks on the next day. You get the idea.

  There are a couple of reasons for the wrong, "always train to failure" attitude out there. Modern body building started it because the American public confused looks with fitness. And of course I'm going to beat up on a frequent target of mine, the commercial fitness industry. The vast majority of commercial gyms don't care what works, they just want members. And of course most of the trainers in these places don't know any better and they themselves follow this logic. See how many of them have anything to show for it. I believe Mark Twain said something like "Get your facts right , then you can twist them."

  Seriously, whatever you train for, train with progression, not regression. I think you'll like that much more.

Aim High

 That Air Force slogan should also apply to your training and especially any competition you enter.
 Going in with a defeatist , or  "it's no big deal" attitude will get you nowhere. On the other hand going in with a can do or "I will do this" attitude will take you places. Approach your training or competition with not ordinary goals but rather with high goals.

 Now this doesn't mean you should make totally unrealistic goals but they should be above normal. If you train for cosmetic reasons (i.e. for looks) instead of saying " I just want to look ok" why not "I want to be ripped and cut!"  Or say " I want a 30 inch waistline with ripped abs, popped up veins running through my body, v shape back, and below 10% body fat!"  That will motivate you to train harder and eat cleaner, to stay on the straight and narrow. Competitive athletes should definitely aim high. Instead of saying " I just want to finish this race"  say  " I want to win!". You'll really give it your all in competition, and this will really drive your training harder, where in turn you'll make big goals. For example because you're trying to win you'll decide that you're going to get your 1/4 mile sprints at the track down to 1:30 or less. Or maybe you'll work on building up to a squat with 1 1/2 times or more with your body weight. Or maybe you'll work up to 100 +  non stop kettle bell swings. There are numerous examples.

 Now achieving your goals can definitely take time. There are several factors involved. Are you a newbie? How out of shape are you? Do you have any physical limitations? Do you have quality guidance? If we say that you're in average health and have good guidance, and you stick with the program, you will definitely make it. The bigger the goal the longer it'll take but don't give up. Consistency in training is a must as well as maybe the most important factor in reaching your goals.

 While I've said you should aim high your goals should also be doable and reachable. It's a good idea to go for smaller goals first. And remember some goals may have factors beyond your control. Saying you want to swim better than Michael Phelps has lots of factors involved , and let's face it, for most of us is almost impossible. Plus even if you wanted to go head to head with Phelps you can't because he's retired! So that ends that. Seriously, what we all can do is certainly improve our swimming as well as bringing down our times. And instead  of  concentrating on beating Phelps's record compete in local swim meets and do your best there. Who knows, with enough wins maybe you'll get the call to go to Olympic trials?

 Or maybe 20 + pull ups is your goal. Right now you can only do 3. So there's no point in expecting 20 next week or even next month. Hell, it may take a year. Don't worry, just keep practicing and improving. Instead of 20 next month  try to get up to 10 in 2 - 3 months. If you did, good for you. You're halfway there. You know with consistency at some point you'll make it. If after 2 - 3 months you only got to 6 it's not the end of the world. You did progress, just not as fast as you'd have liked. It's going to take you longer. If you made no progress re-evaluate your training. Setbacks do happen but we have to overcome them. See where you're going wrong. Maybe your nutrition, maybe you're over training or under training, maybe wrong technique,etc. We can usually  find a cause and then fix it. That's important.

 Some of my goals have been reasonably quick. I remember when I got back into working out after a long layoff, I got into reasonably good shape within a few months. On the other hand,some very difficult goals have taken a very long time. For example the first time I was a lifeguard in 2001 I wanted to swim underwater for 50 meters. Definitely a tough task. But I practiced, day after day, week after week. After a while I reached 25 meters. Halfway. I won't lie, those last 25 meters are twice as tough. Nevertheless, I went meter by meter, little by little. Finally, after 4-5 consistent months I made it. Success!

 Even harder and longer to achieve was the 6:00 mile. I believe the first time I achieved it was after 11+ months of consistent training in 2008. Then on July 4, 2008 I actually ran a 5:46 mile in a race ( despite that I only came in 11th overall! Damn! Not to worry, the following year I took it down to 5:45 coming in 10th).

 While ridiculously high goals may be out of most peoples reach ( like a sub 4:00 mile or dead lifting 1,000+ pounds) we can and should always give it our best, striving to be #1. Like retired SEAL Lt./ fitness trainer, and athlete extraordinaire Stew Smith has said "Don't train just to survive, train to be competitive".