Tag: strength training

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Train / Eat / Sleep

IN THE GYM,

You Train, you Work Hard, you go home… right?

Unfortunately that is not how it works for most of us who are not professional athletes.

The difference between being a ‘professional’ versus being a ‘high-level athlete’ is that high-level athletes still have to go to work! Whereas Pro’s job is to Train / Eat / Sleep + Perform.

Top Professionals have as much control over their Sleep and Nutrition as they do their movement. High-level athletes don’t/can’t because Life often gets in the way!

All that is to say is – pay more attention to your Sleep and Nutritional QUALITY – and you will notice an improvement in Performance.

I appreciate that this is easier said than done.

Start with limiting your training sessions to 3 days a week but adding in one important extra little thing …

MOVE MORE THROUGHOUT THE DAY
ok this isn’t a ‘little’ thing, its huge. Most of us sit all day and don’t walk enough.

  • the negative effects of sitting for hours cannot be undone by any amount of exercise.
  • walking / running is the most primal type of human movement and is one of the most effective exercise for maintaining general health.

Another General Rule:
you need almost twice as much “Non Exercise Activity” as you do training in the gym.

HOW!?!?!
here are a few ways of adding more movement into your daily life

  • Morning Movement Routine
  • Pre / Post – Meal Walks
  • Set up a “courage corner” / workout station and practice “Grease the Groove”

This is not the place to explain the GTG protocol.

Suffice it to say – Grease The Groove is the most effective way to Build Strength and Skill while helping to maintain a Healthy Body Composition.

That brings us back to the question of Exercise Selection and what you should be focusing on when it comes to Movement Quality.

…. More on that next time

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Strength Training specific 4 your Age & Fitness Level

IN THE GYM,

“Training like a teenager is only appropriate for teenagers.”

It is important to take into account chronological age and “fitness level” when considering how much Volume of Work you should be doing each week.

There is only empirical evidence from my own experience to back up this next claim:

A (very) General Rule:
once you past your 30ies you need to be doing 10 reps for every decade you have been alive. Every workout, for every exercise.
– example: if you are 35 you need to be at least doing 30 reps per session of each exercise. If you’r 90, you do 90 reps per exercise, per session.

When it comes to Exercise Selection:
you will get stronger, faster, if you stick to the same 5-10 Compound Movements (or at least variations of them) and get really, really good at them.
– example: Push Up, Squat, Pull Up, Deadlift, Snatch

That being said ….

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

If you put in hard work, no matter the age, you will get stronger.

That means you can be considered a high level athlete at any age.

At that point of being a ‘high level athlete’ – the very general rule I stated above no longer applies. At a highly trained level one must be very strict with their sleep and nutrition, not just their training – if improvements are to be made.

A high level athlete may need 5 or 6 sessions of training per week to progress.

However, for those following the general rule : 3 training sessions a week is a enough!

In the next post I will talk a little bit about why 3 workouts a week is enough IF you MOVE MORE OFTEN throughout the day. I will give you a few suggestion on how to go about this

* a note on the General Rule : this rule will change depending on the exercise, and is a suggestion of how much Volume of Work you need to do in order to maintain joint and muscular health as you age. If you are 90 you might do 9 sets of 10 reps on the bench press, but then only do 9 sets of a single 40 yard dash. (a great workout btw – try it and let me know how you feel the next day.)

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Why everyone should Train HardStyle

What is HardStyle?

  • Hardstyle is a bend of aspects form martial arts and weightlifting.

Who uses martial arts? – Warriors.

Who lifts weights? – Strong people.

Hardstyle thus creates Strong Warriors.

Why is Hardstyle valuable for training Warriors?

  • Warriors cannot take days off. They must be ready for anything, anytime.
  • Warriors cannot take time off because they are too tired from their workout. They cannot tell their opponent to come back later. In fact a smart adversary will use momentary weakness to gain the advantage. This is unacceptable.

But how can a Warrior continue to progress their performance goals without deleteriously affecting the day-to-day requirements of a Warrior?

The answer is “Tactical Training / Tactical Programming”

What is Tactical Programming?

  • Performance oriented workouts that stress the body enough to elicit adaptation. What is ‘enough’ depends on one’s ability to recover, how much stress they are under as well as the fitness demands of their daily activities.

Training Vs. Exercising

  • Exercise fulfills an immediate need and promotes general health.
  • Training takes time – it is the process of achieving a performance goal.

The Training Process

  • Requires you know yourself / your goals
  • Requires you to know certain principles of adaptation
  • Requires Focus, Determination, Perseverance & Trust

Who would you want to teach you how to fight: the professional MMA fighter G.S.P. or Richard Simmons?

The answer is obvious : the Professional fighter.

  • Therefore it makes sense to have a professional in charge of your training.
  • You can try and do it on your own, but you might end up just exercising like Richard Simmons….

StrongFirst

  • is a School of Strength, consisting of Professional Coaches and Athletes who use the Hardstyle approach to training and follow “Tactical Programming” which allows you to progress your performance goals without sacrificing days off for recovery.

StrongFirst is not just about using Kettlebell’s – and it’s not just about creating the greatest amount of force, but about applying those forces in proper, efficient and intelligent ways.

Sleep well, Eat well, Trust your coach, Trust in Hardstyle and be consistent.

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Local Expert Discusses The Importance Of Strength

The viscous cycle of spinal flexion

If you look back to our society anywhere from 80 to 1000 years in the past, it’s plainly evident that we’re weak when compared to our ancestors.

The main reason for this sad state of affairs is a little invention known as the chair, coupled with the general need to make everything easier for ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong,

I love to chill out and sit as much as the next guy – but not without training hard, and more importantly, training smart. This blog entry is mainly focused on what happens when we sit down (also known as ‘get weak’) for most of our lives.

If you have major imbalances among your muscles and bones that make it extremely taxing to maintain proper alignment, – ultimately it is harder to maintain homeostasis when it comes to posture – and YOU, my friend, are a weak person… It’s the imbalances’ fault your weak, but your fault for developing them.

I target the chair as the culprit – because it puts our bodies in a position of flexion, and most of us are in the seated position all day. The entire spine and the many joints that act on the muscles in the anterior chain of the body are pulled into an undesirable, flexed position.

Being in this position for a prolonged time is the equivalent of keeping a muscle in a constant shortened position; although you may not feel it flexing, you can bet the muscle is on and this will (over time) make the muscle rest in that shortened position.

Think about it:

How long during the day do most people function in the flexion position? Let’s start at night when you go to sleep. Most of us sleep in a position of flexion. Brushing your teeth in the morning? Position of flexion. Eating breakfast? Driving to work? Sitting at work? Position of flexion. Driving home? Watching TV? Heading to bed? You guessed it – Flexion.

At bedtime, the vicious cycle of flexed spines, complete with its accompanying gamut of postural and physiological issues, continues.

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Major Issues with the Seated Position and their Long Term Effects

The main muscles that tend to be tight from resting in a shortened position are the muscles of the neck such as the sternocleidomastoid and short cervical extensors, the muscles of the shoulder girdle such as the pec minor and anterior deltoids, the rectus abdominis and muscles of the hip girdle like the psoas group and the adductors group.

Upper leg muscles including the biceps femoris, tensor fascia lata and illotibal band round out the list of muscles that promote a far from desirable posture for the body whether seated, standing, walking, running, jumping, crawling, dancing or lifting.

Pretty much all of the muscles in and around the entire upper back and all aspects of the glutes become so weak from all of this.

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Summary / The Solution / What Next?

Do I expect the human race to stop using chairs, or put a halt to ergonomic technology?

NO! – this is precisely why I strongly believe strength training is mandatory.

Simply going for a run or doing some form of traditional cardio isn’t nearly enough.

You won’t fix these issues; in fact, there’s a good chance could be making them worse. Learn how to deadlift safely and effectively so we can reverse this deadly trend of weak, misaligned spines. Remedy the issue in a controlled environment so that resisting gravity alone, or external loads such like groceries, babies or even the high demands of many sports people play and often take for granted becomes as easy as 1-2-3.

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The Best Exercise. Period / ‘The Moneymaker Movement’

The Deadlift

In my eyes is a beautiful, big bang for your buck exercise that will help slowly reverse all the bad habits the dreaded chair has helped you attain.

When done and progressed properly, deadlifts can give you a healthy backside and body (in terms of strength, force production, and force transfer). If you hate lifting weights, learn to love it.

In my professional opinion, you still have to lift weights to maintain and sustain your health (I hate paying my mortgage or property taxes but I know if I don`t do it I might be homeless).

  • Start by learning the deadlift, and learn it well.
  • Progress it by using any progressive variable – load, time under tension, rest changes, etc.
  • You should be able to continue to stay tall, upright and strong. You know, the way we humans were meant to be.

Once again – Everyone NEEDS to strength train.

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P.S. If you have a job where you are upright throughout the day for many hours, you’re not home free. I still think you should strength train, though it is not as imperative as the person sitting all day. We are meant to move, so MOVE!! Learn how to overcome more than just gravity!

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Author:

See original article HERE

 

 

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Pre-Exhaustion

 Tyler here,

Before resuming our train of thought on nutrition (our discussion from last time ended with the role of carbohydrates and fats in training),

I want to delve once more into the physiological aspect (because I love it) of training, and speak briefly about the concept of:

Pre-Exhaustion

The gorgeous thing about this concept is that it can transcend both the body building and strength training worlds.

Basically we take the more sensible approach of programming the multi joint / more complex movements first; with the smaller movements second. And then we flip it on its head.

Let’s first make sure a couple things are hashed out.

First, we must assume the coach prescribing this type of training to a client knows what’s going on – and isn’t just doing it for fun.

and, Second – that must be a good baseline of strength and quality movement in place first. 

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Essentially what a Pre Exhaustion Set is – is when you first perform a single joint exercise to pre exhaust some of the smaller, ‘synergistic muscles’ (which would be the prime movers in this case) and then immediately superset with a more complex multi joint movement that utilizes these synergistic muscles (but no longer as prime movers). 

What you achieve out of this can be a couple different major adaptations.

For a bodybuilder (not my clientele but they are out there) it can be a beautiful reverse pyramid systemic approach to increasing the cross sectional area of a muscle, while maintaining overall strength too.

For the people interested in strength and movement, what happens here is that by pre exhausting the smaller groups, we nullify any chance of recruiting them too much in the larger movement (remember they are helpers not doers). If they are pre exhausted, ones central nervous system has no choice but to utilize the larger multi joint muscle groups.

EXAMPLE

>Shoulder raises or Strict Presses (until failure)

super set with

>Push Presses

= Really efficient Push Presses!

Just remember this is an approach to training that NEEDS to have a solid baseline in strength and quality motor patterning. 

Consider implementing this technique into your training.

Enjoy, and stay strong people!!

TYLER LEES-SCHMUT

Co-Owner / Instructor / Author @

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