Below is an email I received. It is brilliant. One of the most thought out emails I have had in a long time. Read the email and look for my thoughts below it.....
The Email:
Into our second week of strength training, I am beginning to feel and appreciate the affects of this ladder/rung training approach, and do have a sense of satisfaction that I am pressing a 5 with hopes of reaching the 5x5 level with both arms in the weeks to come. However, I am a little concerned that my limited time for working out, which up until now had been three (sometimes four) days a week at class, is too focused.
Before strength training started, I always got the feeling my whole body was being fired and my ass was kicked hard at least once a week at classes (usually more than once a week!) Since I just don't have a lot of time beyond class for additional training, this scheme was perfect for me, and think I have been feeling and showing the results.
My concern is that if my only training is focused on strength training through presses for two months, I am not getting the full body work that I would like and missing the natural benefit of working with kettle bells, in that it works so much of your body. And right! I know that I shouldn't be concerned with being 'entertained' either, but only looking forward to presses for the next 6 weeks is a little uninspiring.
Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way - if so, I am happy to shut up and go with it. I do respect your approach, and have really enjoyed the variety and effectiveness of your classes. I don't pretend to know more than you about training to be sure. Wouldn't it be beneficial though to break up the regimen at least once a week, or every other week with a 'change up' to fire parts that may be dormant during strength training? At least giving us people with limited time and struggling to make ground in strength training a reprieve?
At this point in the email it ended with the usual "Mike your so cool...I wish I could be just like you....Could I wash your car this summer..." endings that everyone puts on their emails to me. :)
NOW...tap into this. According to Issurin and Lustig (2004) Motor Ability; Residual Duration (measured in 'days') This is how long you can STOP training with NO EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE. Yes...this means you can walk away and not train.
Aerobic Endurance 30 +/- 5 days
Maximum strength 30 +/- 5 days
Anaerobic Glycolytic Endurance 18 +/- 4 days
Strength Endurance 15 +/- 5 days
Maximun Speed 5 +/- 3 days
There's the numbers. This study assumes you stopped training. Stop. Nothing. Zero training. Your body will keep it's capacity for that length of time before it starts adapting to your new lifestyle. Pretty impressive stuff. Your body will keep it's form even though the function has stopped. HIGH-FIVE !!!! That rocks ! I don't feel guilty anymore. I am going to train smarter, not harder. That's the baseline.
Let's talk about the email...
Training serves many purposes. A good personal trainer will make you set goals. Something attainable. Measurable. These mile markers serve a dual purpose. The client will see value in the training due to the results AND the client will see value in the trainer due to the same results. Everybody wins. The problem is...some of the goals are so lame. Lose 10 pounds before my wedding. Really? Lose 10 pounds? Weak. Sew their mouth shut and have them suck their food thru a straw for 2 weeks. Done. Next? It's not hard. You only have to 'stop' something. Stopping a behavior is not hard. Let's see....I am going to change my diet not to include fast food. OMG !!! How will you do that? Your so strong willed. Can you say 'your my hero'? Lame, lame,....el Lamo'. McDonalds doesn't deliver. Stop going to Mickey 'D's and you got it covered. Just...don't ...go. How tough was that? STRENGTH TRAINING IS DIFFERENT.
You gotta dial in. Plain and simple. You have to wrestle with the inner demons. Those dragons will tell you things. Make you promises. Give you praises and then place doubts in where you least expect it. Ultimately they only fuel the doubts. Dragons suck. They suck straight across the board. They suck your mind. They suck your energy. They suck your will. MOST importantly...they suck your confidence. There lies the trappings of 'the work-out.' I like to refer to a 'work-out' as a length of time devoted to challenging my mind or body. How I attain that....I don't care. Bell's, biking, bowling, blading or things that don't start with B. It doesn't matter. It can be mental. Sometimes just being (oops,...another B) with someone is a work out. You walk away feeling good. Why? Because it got rid of stress. Stress is a huge dragon. Get that bad boy back in the cage for a day and you will live forever !! Well, not really but you may kick the dog less. Bottom line is you got rid of stress during your work out. Strength training is the opposite. Wait...let's revisit that...STRENGTH TRAINING IS THE OPPOSITE !! There...better. It is stressful. You get very few pats on the back along the way...IF ANY. I am watching. I am watching. I know who is going to really struggle in the next 2 weeks. It's easy to see. They are still working with bells sizes that are within reach. They are moving right along (dug-a-dumm, dug-a-dumm) foot loose and fancy free. When they hit the next bell it will all fall apart. They will look at everything in the environment as the excuse why things are not improving. The next bell is too heavy...they can't do it. RIGHT ! You have to earn it ! No more rewards for just showing up and sucking your neighbors air. You have to work...and work HARD. Many, many days of not getting it will finally be rewarded when you do get it AND THEN nobody will care. Well that's not true. I will care because I love you :) For the most part it's true...nobody will care. When I gained 'X' pounds on a lift...nobody cared. I had to enjoy it myself...and you will, too. You will have a great feeling and walk a little taller. Then you will grab the next size bell and be crushed. So goes the nature of strength training. The email CLEARLY points to a desire to have a satisfying and rewarding day in the studio. Even though the writer states that they feel good about the training and the goals...they wonder about other things. THAT'S THE DAMN DRAGON TALKING !! Beat that beast down. That beast wants you to stray from your path and is putting all kinds of unfounded doubts into for head. First, You are still training your entire body. Cleans, presses, swings, snatches...all prime the pump. The focus has shifted to strength. Do you have it? Can you condition something you don't have? Deconditioned muscles and joints is the runner's pitfall without the strength portion to their training. THE CHRONIC RUNNER IS GOING FOR THE 'RUNNERS HIGH.' THEY ARE ADDICTED TO A 'HIGH.' The other component to this equation is a little word with a big finger pointed straight at you. 'Optimization.' Are you optimized? In other words...are you at your end game? Are you at the peak of your performance grid? Will dialing back and focusing on your strength training get you the silver instead of the gold? Nope. Nobody in my class fits this description. Factually , everyone can focus on strength and IT WILL IMPROVE THE OTHER AREAS BECAUSE THEIR PERFORMANCE IN THE OTHER AREAS IS BEING HELD BACK DUE, IN PART, TO GLOBAL WEAKNESS (and our overall mobility sucks but that is a separate rant). EXAMPLE: I repeated the last week, this week. My left wasn't onboard. I spooked myself into poor performance. I was afraid to clean the bell properly because I didn't think I could get it out of the hole and fire it up. So every press was out of my groove. Not this week. I have nailed it (I know...you don't care...I KNOW). If...WHEN..I nail it tomorrow I will gladly move up a rung and be crushed for the next 3-4 weeks. I hope to get all rungs thru 5 x 5 within the next month with my current bell. I have a bell that is challenging to me. Gotta dial in.
The short answer to the email is...stick with the program. Trust me. Have some faith. Don't get distracted by shiny things. We are still doing a full body work-out...your not going to lose anything. We are optimizing. Keep your dragon on a leash.
See you tomorrow.
(BTW~The guy in the picture above...doesn't eat meat. Just leaves and branches)
3 comments:
I’m so glad someone brought this issue up in such a well thought out way! Two months of pressing out of a lifetime of fitness is a drop in the bucket. One awesome thing about strength training is that if you stick with it, you will be able to do things in the future that are currently impossible.
And it's not like we're isolating the anterior deltoid for 2 months. Don't forget that you're also doing like 200 or more heavy cleans a week. And then some snatches. If you've still got some stress to burn after all that, I invite whomever sent that email to come push the Prowler with me tomorrow after we kill those presses. So it better not just be me and Bill out there again.
Wow! Great response. I think this strength training is leading to an obvious goal - a T shirt: "NEKB - Dial It IN" on the front and "I leashed the Dragon!" across the back. Not only that, get Dragon Door on the line - I think we can sell this! ;^)
Another thing I'd like to mention: Right of Passage press ladders aren't a full body workout? BS!
This article is on our wall: http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/clarifying-hardstyle/default.aspx
And it talks extensively about one of the major components of hardstyle: tension. Increased tension to make heavier lifts possible. And what are we doing? Trying to increase our max press.
Yes, one need not to deploy full-body tension across each press on every day but I know that I am getting there when I get to the 5X5 heavy days as fatigue sets in and, if you've got the right bell, no day should be easy...the easy and moderate days just may not wring you out. If 100 or 150 full-body tension and recruitment events isn't a full-body workout, I must be doing something wrong because the heavier days are devastating...and that's before 7 minutes of max-effort swings...
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