Using a GymBoss Timer for GPP/Conditioning Day!

Per my write up of my current GPP/Conditioning day using the GymBoss Interval Timer in a recent blog, I decided to make a vid of the actual workout, which was fun to make, not so much fun to follow! I’m no cross training/endurance

God I can assure you, and brief, intense workouts like this are how I prefer to get in my conditioning workouts. Try it, you’ll enjoy it. OK, you wont “enjoy” it in the classic sense, but you’ll know you have been through a workout!  If you do, let me know! For more specific info, additional instructions, etc  on the workout, click Here. You can find the Timer listed in the Recommended Products section of the site also.

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Don’t even tell me you wouldn’t wanna work with these guys!

The above trailer is from Joe’s documentary movie Strong available at www.strongmovie.com There will be a review of it as soon as I get my copy. I’m expecting very good things from it.

Westside for Deployed Skinny bastards

Warning: This program will make your clothes fit tighter, draw attention from really hot girls and become freaky strong. You’ve been warned!

Those of you not familiar with Joe Defranco, you’ve been missing out. The program that follows is from his WS4SB (WestSide for Skinny Bastards) series. Specifically I pulled the template from part III. It’s a journey of myself and some fellow squad members that delved into this program and made some dramatic gains. We utilised the Strength & Speed template.

Below I’ve highlighted what we did in the last two weeks of our WS4SB. This is not the extensive list from the original article as there is only so much the overseas gyms have available. There were a couple options in various sections in case the equipment was being being breathed on by the mouth breathers that aren’t breathing through their mouth because they’re working hard. Where there are two highlighted, it would alternate depending upon equipment. For the full list of templates and exercises, go to Joe’s site.

WestSide for 220^th Skinny Bastards

Strength & Speed Template

A- Max Effort Upper Body

1. A. Incline Barbell Bench Press-Work up to 2 max sets of 3 Reps

B. Flat Dumbbell Bench Press- 2XAMRAP(As Many Reps As Possible)

Approximately 15-20 Reps, 3-4 Min Rest

2. A1-Dumbbell/Barbell Rows/Cable Rows

A2- Rear Delt Flyes/Scarecrows/Face Pulls/Seated DB “Power Cleans”/Band Pull-aparts

3-4 SetsX8-12 Reps Supersetted

3. Dumbbell/Barbell Shrugs 3-4SetsX8-15 Reps

4. Dumbell/Barbell/Hammer Curls 3-4SetsX8-15Reps

B- Speed Training

1. General Warm-up/Movement Skills (5-15 minutes) Increase core temperature by performing basic movement skills and calisthenics (Ex. Bodyweight Squats, Jumping Jacks, Skipping, Back Pedaling)

2. Ground Based Mobility (5-15 minutes) (Sample mobility drills: Roll-overs into V-sits, fire hydrant circles, mountain climbers, groaners, etc)

3. Frequency Drills (2-3 minutes) 1 or 2 drills to excite the CNS. 5-10 secondsX2-3sets (Ex. Low pogo jumps, wideouts, ankling, etc.)

4. Speed Training

A. 10-Yard Starts/Sprints-10 sprints with 1 minute rest

B. 20-Yard Shuttle/Sprints-6 sprints with 2 minutes rest

C. 3-Cone Drill/40-Yard Sprints-4 sprints with 4 minutes rest

C- Max-Effort Lower Body & Conditioning

1. Box Squat- Work up to 2 max sets of 3 Reps(The gym surprisingly had a box. I’m sure it was probably requested for step-ups, but it worked)

2. Hip Extension- 45 degree back raises/Pull-throughs 3X10

3. Sprinter Sit-ups- 3X20

4. Conditioning Finisher- Chose One(We alternated both)

Farmers Walk- 4-6X40-60 Yards 1-2 minutes rest(kettlebells carried in deep gravel)

Forward or Backward Sled Drags- 4-6X30-50 Yards 1-2 minute rest(kettlebells pulled by leather jump rope in deep gravel)

D- Repetition Upper Body

1. Dumbbell Flat/Incline/On Swiss Ball/Floor Press or Push-up/Chin-up Variations

3SetsXAMRAP or 4X12-15

2. A1-Lat Pulldown/Chin-ups/Straight Arm Pulldowns

A2- Rear Delt Flyes/Scarecrows/Face Pulls/Seated DB “Power Cleans”/Band

Pull-aparts

3-4X8-12 supersetted

3. Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Military Press/Side Press(slight learning curve if you’ve never performed these. Refer to Power to the People by Pavel)

4X8-12

4. A1- Dumbbell Shrugs 3X8-10

A2- Hammer Curls 3X8-10/Dumbbell Tricep Extension 3X10-15/Pushdown 3X15-25

5. Weighted Abdominals- Chose one 4X10-15

DB side bends

Barbell Russian Twists

Hanging leg raises

Weighted Swiss ball Crunches

Spread Eagle sit-ups with DB over chest

E-Conditioning/Strongman/Sports

1. General Warm-up/Movement Skills (5-15 minutes) Increase core temperature by performing basic movement skills and calisthenics (Ex. Bodyweight Squats, Jumping Jacks, Skipping, Back Pedaling)

2. Ground Based Mobility (5-15 minutes) (Sample mobility drills: Roll-overs into V-sits, fire hydrant circles, mountain climbers, groaners, etc)

3. Frequency Drills (2-3 minutes) 1 or 2 drills to excite the CNS. 5-10 secondsX2-3sets (Ex. Low pogo jumps, wideouts, ankling, etc.)

4. Conditioning

Option 1- Benchmark WOD roughly 15-20 minutes

Option 2- Sport-Play a pick-up game for fun

Option 3- General Conditioning

Sample:

1. Mountain climbers into 10-Yard sprint-8 sets, 30 seconds rest, rest 1-minute before 2^nd exercise

2. Wideouts into 15-Yard sprint-Wideouts for 5 seconds then sprint 15 yards on command. 6 sets with 45 seconds rest, rest 2 minutes before 3^rd exercise

3. 60-Yard Shuttle- 4 shuttles with 45 seconds rest, rest 1 minute before 4^th exercise

4. Illinois Drill- 3 sets with 1 minute rest

Explainations

A. Max Effort day- Pretty self explainatory

B. Speed training- Sprint training not only make your assault techniques more effective, but it trains your nervous system to fire faster. Just like lifting fast and olympic lifts creates nervous system improvements. You should be working in either O-lifts, fast weighted lifts or some other type of speed training to enhance your muscle firing rates and coordination.

C. Max Lower Body and Conditioning- Again pretty self explainatory

D. Repetition upper body day- This is where the beef is built. The high volume stimulates muscle growth and helps flush the muscles to assist in recovery. If you are trying to maintain a lower weight, drop this day from your program.

E. Conditioning/Strongman/Sports(Optional)- Utilize this day for additional conditioning, lifting heavy stuff cause you feel like it(strongman type stuff) or play a pick up game of a sport. Depends on your goal, but the sport option has a definate mental and physical break and is much more fun.

Results

After one month of training following the templates laid out in part III of WS4SB, all of our lifts went up by 30-50 pounds(I’ll find my notebook again one of these days in between moving). I personally had a bodyweight shift from 177 to 189, appeared to be less fat as well, but being in a combat zone I didn’t care to actually measure all that. I gained another 5 or so in the next month. I had to have my ma send me new boxers so the legs would fit!! I had to cut the sides on all the rest. Be warned, you’ll need to get some Hane’s comfort band boxers. They tend to fit better in the legs while maintaining the same waist. T-Shirts fit tighter, I actually filled the arms up for once haha. People started mentioning how beefy and ripped all of us looked. But enough about my panties.

If you’re looking for a program to get you beefy, but still athletic and more functional, I highly reccomend any of the Templates. Even if your a fat bastard, you’ll still get freaky strong, and with ensuring proper conditioning, the fat should come off fast as well.

If you’re in a tactical enviroment, I would give a strong look at the ‘In-Season’ template. Combined with the conditioning methods mentioned in the Deployment Fitness Guide, you’ll be set without burning your nervous system out. The gist of the In-Season template is to design a Max-Effort Upper Body session and a Max-Effort Lower Body session approximately four days from each other. Combine this with some conditioning as outlined in the Deployment Field Guide and you should be set pretty well.

As as side note, I was talking to my friend Nate Morrison the other day. He mentioned they experienced dramatic improvements in ruck times by utilizing sprinting. I would strongly encourage looking into sprint training like the above no matter what your job or sport. Many benefits will come, mainly from getting the nervous system fired up. Speed is king.

In the end, I may be a skinny bastard. But like many of Joe’s clients, those of us that went through the adventure are now bigger and stronger skinny bastards.

Highlights from the 2010 Arnold Classic…BrinkZone style

Just returned from the 2010 Arnold Classic. Was a great show this year. The Arnold Classic is far more then just oiled up IFBB pro bodybuilders posing on stage, it’s the largest sports festival in the US. The mens pro show gets more then enough coverage in the magazines and such… I enjoy covering the other aspects, like the expo, various sports (last year I covered Fencing, O lifting, and PL for example), gadgets, and yes, more pretty girls. I like pretty girls…

So, warning to viewers: if you are expecting/looking for, IFBBs pro bodybuilders on stage, you wont find it in this vid. I thought this year was particularly good for new exercise related gadgets, many of which were of that super simple “why the hell didn’t I think of that?!” variety. One of them I recently covered on this blog for example, the GymBoss Interval Timer. Another was the Fat Gripz you will see me using in the vid. May do a write up on that product in the near future. There’s also a new magazine on the market, called Muscle Insider, that looks very promising (reminds me of ‘old school’ MuscleMedia…) that yours truly will be in on semi regular basis.

So without further delay, here’s this years vid, BrinkZone style.

Here’s my philosophy on Law enforcement training in general. For a patrol officer, the most common thing they will be doing is slinging people not objects. You already do MMA, just make sure you include grappling of your choice that meshes with your dept policies and programs. So that could be considered your strength work. Now for operator duties you’ll need a little bit extra juice for breaching, carrying around extra weight, assaulting objectives, mental clarity for long periods during a stand off, etc. For that you can work in any quality strength program. Joe DeFranco, Jim Smith/Diesel Crew, Dan John, Alwyn Cosgrove, Charles Staley are all excellent choices.

Again for patrol officers, the grappling will be sufficient conditioning and very specific. To expand for you team role add in a crossfit metcon or some kettlebell snatch work twice a week. Also some sledgehammer work laterally against a target about the same height as your average door breach along with some med ball twisting throws should work some nice specificity into your hoolie work, when dynamic breach isn’t acceptable.

So putting it all together, couple different ways. cycles of four days of ramping intensity, I’ve found to work better than any other protocol I’ve used. It will force you to recover so you can actually go all out on your high intensity days. Each cycle of four days consists of a day each of no intensity, low intensity, moderate intensity and high intensity.

On the no intensity days, do a ton of joint mobility work, you can also think of this as the ‘off’ day. But it’s not off, it’s active recovery.

You’ll follow this up with a low intensity day. On this day practice your tactical skills, dry fire or live fire if possible, and also use this day to work on your flexibility. PNF, dynamic flexibility, foam rolling or yoga type stretches are all good here. Think of this as your active recovery day, feel free to break a light sweat, but nothing above 60%. Concentrate on opening up your upper back, pecs, shoulders and hip flexors as those are the most tightened by body armor and sitting in a patrol car.

Next on your moderate day is either your strength or conditioning work. Whichever you feel is currently the better of the two, you’ll place here and they can be flip flopped every few weeks if needed. Usually most place their strength here, preferably full body work. Deadlifts, squats, weighted pullups, gymnastic skills or any other difficult strength/strongman work you like here. If you do any sparring or want to take your body for a test drive in some form of competition, approximately 4-6 hours after your moderate workout is the opportunity.

Last is your high intensity day and most will place their conditioning here. If you decide on one of the programs from the guys I listed you may have to put your strength here because many of them are just too intense to have anything follow them. But for conditioning a high intensity metcon of at least 20 min can go here. About once a month or so ensure to get a longer metcon or a weighted hike for some mental challenge. And of course you can put any kettlebell conditioning work here as well. I like the snatch VO2 protocol.

If you prefer 5 day/week cycles, not to fear. Just do your moderate on Mon and Thurs. High on Tue and Fri. Mobility and active recovery/flexibility improvement on Wed.

Just kind of my philosophies on things. Let me know if you need anything else at all or have any questions.

Nathan

Something I forgot to mention is make sure your training does not interfere with your job performance. Some sore muscles may not slow you down too much on the exterior, but it’s not worth risking not knowing how it’s actually affecting you on the inside.

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I’m really stoked about this E-Rport as I know it has the potential to help out a lot of people who may be confused about what foundational “habits” lead to success  in the gym.

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I’ll see YOU .. in the Gym.
PS:If you enjoyed 7 Habits, then you’ll love Bodybuilding Revealed, (if you’re not already a member).

Short post here. This is just my philosophy on the use of kettlebells as a tool in a broad spectrum training program.

• Work capacity
• Portability for travel or deployments
• ‘Feeder’ Exercises

Work capacity is pretty self explanitory.

The small size makes it easy to take just about anywhere for a total body gym. Going on deployment? Shove a couple in a conex and take an adjustable one on the plane. At work all day and don’t have much time or space to get a workout in? Tote it along and knock out some short work throughout the day. Your co-workers may think you’re a little nutty, but that’s ok you’ve got the six-pack and he that sports the six-pack makes the rules.

Jumping straight into olympic lifts is a very techinical sport and takes years of training. Kettlebells allow you to start training the gross motor movements(hip extension, coordination) with more room for not quite perfect form. And just as the kettlebell clean and snatch are slightly more complex, you can start just about anybody on swings and have them slowly progress to those exercises and if they so choose to trasition to the bar versions, they will have many of the mechanics already set.

So those are my top 3 uses of the kettlebell. The reason I break it down to these three is for whatever reason I see people trying to make the kettlebell things it’s not. I’m not talking about the guys that actually use kettlebells only, that’s their thing cool. I’m talking about the gym idiots that are doing curls with them, when there are freaking dumbbells right next to them. If you’re trying to bodybuild with kettlebell front raises…..you’re probably not a very successful bodybuilder, might want to find a new hobby.

Use them to become a workhorse while on the road because when you get back you want to get into olympic lifts. Don’t use them in front of a mirror or you will have your man card revoked….for life.

Getting Into Great Condition Using an Interval Timer

Outside the programs that are designed to obtain a specific goal, such as increases in 1RM strength, or an increase in muscle mass, etc, conditioning workouts can also be an integral part of a well designed program. In my earlier days, like most western trainers, I generally ignored General Physical Preparedness (GPP)/ general conditioning when focusing specifically on an increase in strength and LBM. The more western approach to increasing strength, muscle mass, or what ever the specific goal, is to simply focus  on the training that follows the goal, and generally ignore everything else. For example, if you want to be good at the powerlifts, just practice the powerlifts and so on.

That, more or less, is the classic ‘old school’  western model, although things have changed for the better in recent years as what worked well for western strength athletes has influenced eastern approaches and vise versa and modern coaches have rethought some of their approaches in recent years. However, most of your everyday people in the gym often fail to realize how much has changed in the past decade… One of the most successful strength coaches on the planet, Lou Simmons, is a big proponent of GPP for strength athletes of all kinds regardless of their specific sport. His article on the importance of GPP is a ‘must read’ in my view. (1)

Over the years, an appreciation on my end for GPP was responsible for the addition of my Hybrid/HIIT day as part of Brink’s Hybrid Training Program, which has led to improvements in body composition, strength, and GPP/conditioning, for those who have followed it. There are many ways to go about incorporating GPP into a program, but that’s not the focus of this write up;  I encourage people to read Simmon’s article on the topic. Other very successful SnC coaches/competitors, such as Dave Tate and others, are also proponents of intelligently applied GPP. How GPP is applied depends to some degree on the goals of the person, experience levels, etc., so some research is warranted before jumping into it.

Can the intelligent/appropriate use  GPP training – besides the obvious benefits to health and conditioning – make one a better power lifter, a better bodybuilder, a better athlete regardless? In my experience and opinion, the answer is yes.

With all that in mind, I wanted to discuss one of my favorite gizmos called the Gym Boss Interval (GBI) timer, and how I recently used it in my GPP/Conditioning day.

The GBI timer is one of those “why the hell didn’t I think of this?!” simple gadgets, that although not essential to a program per se, adds so much convenience to any workout that involves an interval of some sort, you don’t know how  you lived without it.

Simply put, it’s an inexpensive timer that will track two separate times intervals and combine them for you into a single program. For HIIT training, it’s a must have gadget. However, I find it useful for various activities  that involves any type of interval time between exercises, or rest periods. What follows is a recent GPP/conditioning day I followed that is a current favorite of mine, and how the GBI Timer was used.

This particular day calls for:

•10 minutes of HIIT training
•10 minutes of heavy bag work
•10 minutes of lateral medicine ball wall smashes

I set the GBI timer for a 30 second: 1 minute interval that lasts 10 minutes long. The timer will beep after each interval, so no watching clocks on the wall or display on some machine while trying to focus on not dying during HIIT!

The three sessions for this day are done with minimal rest between them. How much rest? ‘Till you have the ability to go onto the next one. If you can jump right from the HIIT session to the heavy bag work, go for it. I usually need  a few minutes to get my legs to work properly and my breathing back…

HIIT session for the day:

The HIIT protocol  I use for this session goes like so: after a brief warm up – 5 minutes or so on the treadmill – I will use a stair stepper type machine and will do 1 minute low intensity followed by 30 seconds all out, and repeat. I will do that for 10 minutes, which is literally all I can stand. When I say “all out” I mean 100% intensity, nothing held back, as fast and as hard as my legs can move me, similar say to a full sprint on a track.

Quick important note here: what most people consider HIIT is not. Most people who think they are doing HIIT are not. My full comments on that can be found in my article “HIIT Training, are you really doing it?”

As mentioned above, the Gym Boss Interval timer is worth every penny when it comes to HIIT considering how difficult HIIT is (when done correctly!) and not having to keep track of the intervals allows one to really focus on the effort.

Heavy Bag Session:

Heavy bag training, if you have never done it, is amazingly taxing. Again, the GBI timer is invaluable to me as I just want to focus on what I am doing vs. looking at the clock on the wall. Although one can certainly alter the intervals on the timer, I like to stick to my 30 second: 1 minute intervals for 10 minutes. I’m lazy I guess.

The heavy bag is 30 seconds of heavy bag work, one minute of rest, repeat for 10 minutes. Heavy bag work is not HIIT training. It is a form of interval training to be sure, but it’s not HIIT, nor is it recommended to attempt as true HIIT. If you have never done any heavy bag work, it’s probably worth getting some coaching there, looking at some vids on the ‘net. Etc. Heavy bag work can be hard on the joints, and done incorrectly, lead to injuries to your wrists, etc. How much actual effort you put into the heavy bag during the 30 second “go” interval, is dictated to some degree by your experience with it, not to mention, that 10 minutes of HIIT that was just done leaves one feeling quite trashed, believe me.

My advice, pace yourself on the heavy bag. Ten minutes of that – immediately following a HIIT session – will be much harder then most may expect. Again, the Gym Boss Timer works great here. No watching the clock (and I don’t like wearing a wrist watch when I train….) just hearing the beep, and focusing on the effort.

Lateral Move Med Ball Wall Smash:

The final third of this death march is the Lateral Med Ball Wall Smash: This one takes a little explaining. If you have worked with a medicine ball, you know they don’t bounce. The “med ball wall smash” involves throwing a med ball with enough force for it to bounce back at you off a wall. You shove it away from you as if passing a basketball to someone using two hands. Ball close to body, shove hard forward with both hands. With a med ball, standing say 3-5ft away, it takes some effort to make it bounce back at you. As you are doing that, you are moving laterally to your left or right. Obviously, you  need a length of wall to do it.

Two, the wall you use MUST be made of brick/cinder block/stone. If you try this on a typical indoor wall made of sheet rock for example, you will make big dent/whole in the wall, and owner of said wall will not be happy with you…ask me how I know… At my gym, the building is made of cinder blocks, so as long as I am using an exterior wall, I’m good to go. I usually use an empty aerobics room/studio for this.

I will go left 20-30ft, then back the other way along the wall as far as I have until the 30 second timer of the GBI timer beeps, then rest a minute and repeat. Again, when added to the last two section of this GPP/Conditioning day, this is much more difficult then it may sound. OK, maybe some of the 20 something studs reading this will blow right through this day, but I’m toast afterward.

Finally, I will finish the day off one set of chin ups for 20 reps.

That’s my current GPP/conditioning day – which I do once every 7-10 days depending on how it fits into my resistance training program – using the Gym Boss Interval Timer.

My gym is a pretty typical Golds Gym, various cardio equipment, a heavy bag set up in a corner of one of the aerobics oriented studios, various medicine balls, etc, so none of the above requires anything very fancy. You may have to modify it a bit to fit your particular set up. There are many other ways to use the GBI timer for a HIIT session, GPP day, intervals of all kinds, etc. You don’t have to use my examples  above.

You could also be creative and break it up into say 5 minute section, such as HIIT 5 mins, Heavy bag 5 mins, Med Ball Wall Smash 5 minutes, and repeat.

You can also change the interval times as it suits your needs, conditioning levels, etc. The 30 second: 1 minute interval for HIIT is all I can stand, and that same interval seems to work well for the others that follow, but there’s no reason one can’t play with the interval times per se.

Well that’s my write up of the Gym Boss Interval Timer as I use it for my current favorite GPP/Conditioning day, which for me, is incorporated into my overall program, which is focused mostly on resistance training (once a gym rat always a gym rat I guess), but currently I’m more interested in an overall balance between strength, bodycomp, and conditioning, then just one of them in isolation. I have added this “why didn’t I think if that?!” gadget to the Recommended Products section for those interested

See you in the gym!

(1) Lou Simmons on GPP

As my colleague Will Brink likes to say, “From Mentzer’s ‘one set to failure’ to Poliquin’s ‘German volume training,’ there is no program which recommends using progressively lighter weightloads from week to week.” Brink is of course, alluding to the universal requirement of all successful strength and mass gaining programs: progressive overload.

One well-known pro bodybuilder recently told me that as long as he was training to failure, he felt assured that he was using the highest possible intensity, and therefore, it didn’t matter what weights he used. Most people, after seeing his physique, would hesitate to argue with such convoluted logic.

(Incidentally, Matt Mendenhall jokingly calls this phenomenon the law of excessive mass: i.e., “I’m bigger than you, so I’m right!”) But I would remind such people that the individual in question possessed several attributes which allowed him to succeed despite his poor choice of exercise protocol:

1) He chose great parents for his avocation;
2) He was probably a dru… I mean, a recreational pharmacologist;
3) Perhaps most importantly, he possessed the ability to work extremely hard on a consistent basis for a long period of time.

With this in mind, you should immediately grasp the foolishness of “average” trainees (which the vast majority of us are) attempting to use this individual’s training methods.

Training is Stress!

Let’s start off with an analogy: If you went from a sedentary desk job to working as a lumberjack, your body would undergo some interesting adaptations as it struggled to cope with the unfamiliar environmental stressors inherent in that profession.

You would most certainly develop caluoses on your hands as a result of grasping axes, saws, and other implements for hours each day. These callouses, however, would be exactly the same size one year after getting your new job, three years after, six years after, ad infinitum. Why? Because after the initial shock, the degree of stress to your hands never changed over that period of time.

Training is no different. Most bodybuilders make great progress for the first year or two, but then never look any different from that point on. Many of these people understand the importance of progression, but lack the skills necessary to implement it properly.

The Training Load

In sports science jargon, the training load is defined as “the sum total of all training activities for a given unit of time.” The training load has two important components, both of which can be used to provide overload— volume, or the amount of work done, and intensity, or the difficulty of work done (Incidentally, as a rule of thumb, you should seek to establish a certain level of intensity first, and then add volume, rather than the other way around).

Before you can plan a certain level of progression, it becomes necessary to have a way of measuring each of these components. Volume is usually calculated as the amount of weight lifted multiplied by the repetitions performed with that weight. However, this traditional calculation is being called into question by some latter day thinkers. Charles Poliquin was the first to say that the actual time that a muscle is under tension (TUT) must be considered as well. If this seems too anal-retentive, let me ask you a question.

If you perform a set of 10 reps with 135 pounds, and your lifting speed (or tempo) is 6 seconds per repetition, and your training partner used the same weight and reps, but executed each rep at 3 seconds per repetition, did you each perform an identical amount of work? Clearly, no. This scenario illustrates the fact that the training load can be increased simply by gradually slowing down your lifting tempos over successive workouts. Reducing rest between sets also increases volume, since the workload will be performed in a shorter period of time. So, to use another example, if you and your partner both perform 3 sets of 10 reps with 135 pounds using identical tempos, but you rest one minute per set while your partner rests two minutes between sets, you achieved the greater volume.

Intensity is the second component of the training load, and it is normally expressed as a percentage of your 1RM (one repetition maximum), or the greatest amount of weight you can lift for one repetition in proper form. But here’s the catch with 1RM’s: they’re always changing. This means you never quite know for sure what your 1RM is for any given lift. Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t test for 1RM’s every 8 weeks or so— you should. Doing so gives you a guideline to work with. It’s just important to realize that 1RM’s are a dynamic measurement. For this reason, I usually prescribe repetition bracketsrather than percentage of 1RM when I write training programs for my clients.

When considering intensity, it’s important to realize that any change in your exercise technique— no matter how slight— changes the equation altogether. For instance, if you normally use a 3 second tempo (meaning, you complete each repetition in exactly 3 seconds) when testing for your 1RM, and the next time you test you’re able to add 5 pounds to your 1RM but it took you an extra second to complete the lift, it’s not an accurate indication of improvement. Establish your testing parameters, and then stick to them so that you have a consistent protocol when testing. If you do not, you’ll have no real way of knowing whether or not you’re improving.

Incidentally many people use the phrase “high intensity” to describe workout that are actually high volume or high density (which refers to the work/rest ratio). So just to be clear about our terms, remember that intensity has nothing to do with how much pain you’re in, or the fact that you frequently experience reverse peristolisis and out-of-body experiences after your leg training— it simply refers to how much weight is on the bar relative to your current maximal ability. Using this definition, we could say that performing 315 pounds for 1 rep is more intense than 10 reps with 310 pounds, even though the latter effort is far more difficult to perform.

The Volume/Intensity Relationship

Volume and intensity are mutually exclusive concepts— you can’t have high intensity and high volume simultaneously. If this was possible, you’d be able to do three sets of ten with your current 1RM! Yet both volume and intensity are necessary to achieve results— high volume loads create more lasting adaptations, while intense loads create faster adaptations which are more temporary. This apparent paradox is one of the primary reasons for periodizing (or cycling) your training.

Although you can implement the principle of progressive overload by increasing volume or intensity, it’s important to realize that increases in volume are more sustainable than increases in intensity. In other words, for a trainee with 10 years experience who can squat 695 for a single repetition, it’s much easier to progress by adding reps and/or sets than it is to try to add weight to the bar during any given repetition bracket

Which Type of Progression is Best?

In his book Science of Sports Training, Thomas Kurz identified three distinct methods which can be used to increase the training load over time:

1) Rectilinear method: Loads are continuously and uniformly increased. An example of rectilinear progression is to attempt to add five pounds to the bar every time you perform squats.

2) Stepped Method: Load are sharply increased, then held at that level for a period of time, before being sharply increased again. An example would be using the same weight, say 185 pounds for five sets of five reps, for a period of four weeks, and then increasing to 225 pounds for four weeks for the same sets and reps, and so on. This method, when used by advanced athletes, can result in fast, but temporary strength increases. Not effective for beginning or intermediate lifters of less than 4 years of continuous lifting experience.

3) Wavy method: Loads are gradually increased for several sessions, and then decreased for one or more sessions, and so on. A classic example of this loading scheme is as follows:

While increases in load are slower than the previous two methods, this technique lends itself to more sustainable progress, and as a result more satisfaction, and fewer injuries from training.

The Law of Sustainable Progression

Should an athlete progress as fast as possible? Or perhaps as fast as is comfortable? Or, should you just choose some arbitrary unit— say 5 pounds per week? There is a way to make some sense of this. The key is to determine the amount of progression that you can sustain over a prolonged period of time. Let’s take the 5 pounds per week scenario, which incidentally, is commonly used by people who make great progress initially, but who hit a wall after a year or two. While 5 pounds a week seems like a very gradual progression, if you take the time to extend this level of progression over the long term, you’ll find that it equates to an increase of 260 pounds per year! In such a scenario, the athlete would be a world class powerlifter within 2 years! Since this happens to very few people, it is a useful analogy to prove my point.

The previous scenario violates what I call “The Law of Sustainable Progression.” Fast increases in training loads soothe the ego and make for fairly impressive short term gains, but they can’t be sustained. A slower progression over a longer period of time leads to better and more lasting results than a faster progression which can only be sustained for a short period of time. Further, large, sudden increases in training loads are associated with hitting an early and false plateau, which can lead to injury, as the athlete resorts to more and more extreme methods in an attempt to break out of this plateau.

So progress as slowly (and also as consistently) as you can. Equipment companies are responding to the concept of “micro-progression” by providing more variable weight stacks which allow for smaller jumps. One company, Benoit Built, makes specialized magnets (called Plate Mate) weighing between 1/4 and 5/8 of a pound which can be attached to plates, dumbbells, and weight stacks. The beauty of Plate Mate (besides portability) is that they allow you to make minute, yet sustainable progressions from workout to workout. Putting this concept in terms you can relate to, let’s assume you’re a 250 pound bencher. Using a progression of 2.5 pounds per week, you’ll be a 380 pound bencher in one year. Even this is a very significant increase, but by using sound training programs and recovery strategies (see sidebar entitled “The Role of Recovery in Progression”), it can be done.

In the Final Analysis…

Bodybuilding is a subjective sport. But because there is a very real correlation between training loads and hypertrophy, you can assure progress by carefully designing your training programs and then closely monitoring the results of these programs. If your training load is gradually and consistently increasing, you’re making progress.

Methods of Employing Progressive Overload:

1) By increasing time under tension. Start with 6 repetitions per set, utilizing a 4-0-1 tempo. Each set should therefore take 30 seconds to perform. Each workout, increase the tempo by one second per rep, until you reach 10 seconds per rep. At this point, should choose to increase the weight, reduce the tempo, and begin progressing again.

2) By increasing the weight lifted. Using a standard set/rep scheme for each workout, add between 2.5 and 5 pounds to the bar each session. 3) By increasing the number of reps per set. This method is useful with exercises where you initially have a low level of strength, such as pull-ups or dips. Using the same load each workout, start with 1-3 reps per set, and add one rep per set each workout. Once you reach more than 12 reps per set, you should then employ more weight and/or slower tempos.

3) By increasing the number of sets per workout. Although it has its place, be cautious when adding sets to your workouts. For example, going from three sets to four is a 25 percent increase in volume for every given exercise!

4) By increasing the range of motion. Using the same load each workout, start with a reduced ROM, and gradually increase it from workout to workout. For example, you can perform bench presses in a power rack, starting the movement from the bottom-most position, which is set by the height of the pins. On the first workout, you might only work the top 3″ of a bench press. Each workout, drop the pins one notch, until you reach full ROM.

5) By reducing the rest intervals between sets. This has particularly good results when attempting to improve relative strength. Using the same load, number of reps, and tempo each workout, simply reduce the rest intervals by 10 seconds each workout.

6) By using “stutter” or interrupted sets. Rather than performing a continuous set, you can select a heavier weight, and rest briefly (5-10 seconds) between each rep. One method I sometimes employ with my athletes is to ask for a maximum number of reps in a specified time period— say, 2 minutes. They can use any number of sets or reps— they might for instance perform a set of 8, rest 20 seconds, do a set of 7, rest 30 seconds, then 5 reps, etc., until the time period expires. When using this method, always maintain consistent exercise form and speed of execution.

Sometimes, two or more methods of progression are used simultaneously. For example, from workout to workout, you may choose to add both weight and reduce rest between sets. This is usually employed in situations where a trained athlete is coming back after an extended layoff, and is able to make rapid improvements from workout to workout due to his extensive training experience. The problem with this method however, is that when you do make progress, you won’t know which factor to attribute it to.

The Role of Recovery in Progression

Better recovery means more frequent training sessions and therefore, faster progress. Although recovery will take place regardless, there are two particularly effective means you can take to accelerate recovery from training: massage and nutritional management.

In my work with athletes, I have found that expertly-applied massage can improve recovery times by as much as 40 percent. In fact, I find it so effective that I require prospective clients to receive massage therapy at least once per week. According to my colleague Dianna Linden, an elite-level softtissue worker located in Santa Monica, California:

“Spasms keep muscle fibers in a contracted state and disable their capacity to perform within the muscle when it is under load, therefore decreasing strength by whatever percent of that muscle stays contracted by the spasm. This weakens the muscle and increases its potential to tear near the edges of the spasm. By working regularly with an athlete the therapist can provide feed back which is a far more accurate account of how the muscles are handling the stress levels they are exposed to.”

Of course, nutrition plays a vital role in recovery as well. Although there are many factors to consider, adequate protein is crucial— I consider one gram per pound of bodyweight per day a minimum standard. Creatine monohydrate and branched chain amino acids immediately following training.

BrinkZone Sponsors Local MMA Event

As mentioned in a prior blog, I was a (minor) sponsor of an MMA event. The name of the event was “stand Up and Fight” and was held Feb 19th in Tyngsboro MA.  There was some great ‘ground and pound.’  I was really impressed with how professional the athletes were and the level of sportsmanship they showed; as good as it gets. I have been to a ton of bodybuilding shows, power-lifting meets, etc as both judge and or attendee,   the behavior was less then professional by some and that’s a real turn off. Trophies smashed, people storming off stage, and general hissy fits. These guys, after beating the snot out of each other, to a man, showed sportsmanship and professionalism that really impressed me.

Hey, make sure to share this via Facebook, Twitter, etc! Thanx!