But it’s not really a fair fight. The knee is a highly complex hinge-joint designed to deal with an insane amount of force in the frontal and sagittal planes inherent in flexion and extension of the joint.

The shoulder. Maybe it isn’t the greatest design out there, but it does allow people to do some pretty amazing things. When you think about which joints in the human body are most prone to injury, there’s a healthy competition between the shoulder and the knee for the top spot.

But it’s not really a fair fight. The knee is a highly complex hinge-joint designed to deal with an insane amount of force in the frontal and sagittal planes inherent in flexion and extension of the joint.

The knee contains a number of stabilizing ligaments (ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL) and menisci (medial and lateral) that provide additional stability as well as acting like shock absorbers in order to deal with varus and valgus forces, as well as internal and external rotation.

The shoulder joint and surrounding musculature on the other hand, is a kind of ball and socket joint primarily designed to stabilize the glenohumeral joint. While this allows for amazing flexibility and range of motion (certainly much more range of motion than the knee), all of that flexibility and complexity can leave the shoulder more susceptible to injury.

The Shoulder Is Under Pressure

The bottom line—the shoulder isn’t well designed to deal with the horizontal and vertical forces that we throw at them in strength and conditioning.

But with smart programming and thoughtful supplemental work, you can train hard, push big weights and avoid the sorts of injuries that we’ve all likely had a time or two and get stronger in the process.

Because of the range of motion that the shoulder is capable of, it is important to train the surrounding musculature to be strong in as many of these ranges of motion as you safely can.

At Gym Jones, we use a number of isometric holds where we ask of the shoulder musculature to do what it was designed to do—stabilize the glenohumeral joint. For example:

1. Double kettlebell/dumbbell front rack carries
2. Overhead kettlebell/dumbbell carries
3. Mixed kettlebell/dumbbell carries
4. FLR planks
5. Ring planks
6. Side planks
7. Light dumbbell push presses with isometric overhead holds
8. Overhead squatting
9. Slosh pipe carries and holds

We also use a number of supplemental shoulder exercises to become as strong as possible in various ranges of motion, including:

1. Dumbbell lateral raises
2. Bent over rear delt flys
3. Chest flys
4. Push-ups
5. Parallete push-ups
6. Ring push-ups
7. Ring pull-ups

Feel free to add these shoulder specific movements and exercises to your existing programming if they aren’t sufficiently present already.

Remember to stay light enough to ensure perfect technique and only increase weight when you can do so perfectly. Technique is paramount with shoulder work. Don’t let your ego creep in!

Progress Your Training and Increase Your Strength

As with all other kinds of training, your sets and rep structures should be progressive, starting with the lowest volume that will cause adaptation and working towards the maximum you can recover from.

Get out there and build some bulletproof shoulders.

The post Build Shoulder Strength to Avoid Injury appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Getting strong is pretty simple: move big weight in the classic compound lifts—the deadlift, back squat, bench press, and overhead military press. If you can put up big numbers in those lifts, congratulations, you’re strong.

But that’s not where the story ends. The story really begins with the supplemental work that will hopefully allow you to continue to push big weight in a healthy and sustainable way over the long term. After all, its hard to get strong when you’re constantly dealing with injury after injury. We believe that unilateral (single arm, single leg, etc.) training has a hugely beneficial impact on joint health, stability, coordination, and balance.

There should be periods of time in a cyclical, periodized, and progressive year of programming where the focus is definitely on the classic compound lifts where these unilateral movements will be purely supplemental, and periods of time during the year when they can step up into the spotlight a little bit more.

For example, if you’re a powerlifter (or train like a powerlifter) at times during the year, it can be very valuable to move away from the classic barbell lifts and introduce dumbbell or kettlebell variations to address weaknesses and simultaneously allow for some recovery from heavy compound lifting.

Below are some examples of single arm, single leg, and dumbbell exercise variations to promote injury-free hard training. Let the rep range dictate the load.

The Single Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

Perform 3 sets of 10-20 each arm with 60 seconds of rest.

The Single Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Perform 3 sets of 15-20 each arm with 60 seconds of rest.

Single Arm Renegade Rows

Perform 3 sets of 10-15 each arm with 30-60 seconds of rest.

Single Arm Dumbbell Row

Perform 3 sets of 10-20 each arm with 30-60 seconds of rest.

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Perform 3 sets of 10-20 with 30-60 seconds of rest.

Single Arm Kettlebell Clean And Press

Perform 3 sets of 10-15 each arm with 30 seconds of rest.

Single Arm Overhead Walking Lunge

Perform 3 sets of 15m with a kettlebell or a dumbbell (each arm) 30-60 seconds rest.

Single Leg Step Ups

Perform 3 sets of 15-20.

Double Front Rack Step Ups

Perform 3 sets of 10-15 with two light kettlebells.

Single Leg RDLs

Perform 3 sets of 10-15 with a light/moderate kettlebell.

Keep It Simple

Keep things simple. The last couple reps should be hard and you should leave 2-3 in the tank. You can make these supplementals progressive by increasing the load (weight), volume (number of sets), rest (decrease rest week to week), or by altering all three variables.

Think about incorporating new exercise variations every 4-12 weeks or whenever you feel as though progress has stalled—meaning that you can’t add more weight without compromising technique.

The post A Comprehensive Guide to Unilateral Training for Injury-Free Training and Performance appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The first thing you need to do is start with an honest assessment of your current capabilities. This might imply that some testing is necessary. It really depends on how recently you might have tested those attributes.

I’ll give you an example. Let’s suppose that one of my goals this next year (2020-2021) is to bring up my back squat to 400lbs. Well, I can’t write effective programming unless I know what my current back squat max is, so it would be really helpful to test it.

Next, we need to set a reasonable time frame to achieve the goal. In the case of this 400lb back squat, it could very well take 2 years to add 40lbs to my current squat max (360). This depends on what other (if any) fitness characteristics need to be addressed in the macrocycle.

If pure strength is the only energy system that you plan to address, 40lbs is pretty reasonable. However, if you plan on spending half of the macrocycle (6 months) building your fitness, then 40lbs is pretty unreasonable.

You would have to adjust your expectations from 40lbs to maybe something like 20-25 lbs. If you end up achieving a better result, fantastic. If not, you had reasonable expectations at the start of the training year and you already knew it was going to be a multi-year commitment.

Macrocycles and Training Plans for Fitness

Now that you have some clear objectives, an understanding of your current capabilities, and reasonable timeframe, it’s time to lay out what the macrocycle should look like (and take note I’m keeping this discussing very global and conceptual, the granular nitty-gritty would be a much more in-depth discussion).

Assuming you have no fitness goals during the training year and you’re dedicating all of your time and energy into your strength objectives, the training year would look something like this:

• January – March Hypertrophy
• 2-4 weeks in March / April Foundation
• April – July Strength
• 2-4 weeks July / August Foundation
• August – October Hypertrophy
• October – December Strength
• December – January Foundation

Are there other ways to write this? Sure. You could definitely omit the weeks of foundation between phases, but I find that it’s a nice physiological and psychological break from the training grind to just come into the gym and do fun stuff for a week or 2 (or more should you need it).

Cycling between strength and hypertrophy is a great way to organize strength training. Hypertrophy work allows you to not only put on a bit of size, but also allows you the time and relative break from high intensity to perfect technique, develop great training habits and movement patterns, and to take the low hanging gains in the 65-80% range in terms of loading.

You can also implement some variations on the classic lifts (conventional deadlift, bench press, back squat, barbell strict press) if you plan on attacking those in the more linear strength phases. Avoiding exercise variation is a fast track to potential overuse injuries and more systemic burnout.

If your goals are more general, i.e. that of a generalist (GPP – general physical preparedness), your training macrocycle would look very different and more like how we approach the year here in the gym.

• October – December Hypertrophy
• 1-4 weeks in December Foundation
• December – February Strength
• 2-4 weeks in February Foundation / Athletic Power
• March-May Aerobic Capacity
• May – July Cardiovascular Power
• July – September Power Endurance

The fact that our training year goes from October to September is incidental and primary driven by the Advanced Seminar that we put on once a year in September. We always have some locals in the gym that plan on attending, so we train to optimize our fitness for that event. Your calendar should reflect your own training and peaking needs.

Seasonal Training Design and Training Blocks

Sport-specific training is very different. No matter the sport, there should be a clear offseason and a clear in-season approach to how you train. If you’re not taking this approach towards your sport, that’s fine, it just means that you’re not serious about it.

I’m not here to judge what you do or how you go about it, but if you want to train for an optimal outcome or to be a competitive athlete, rest assured the competition most likely isn’t wasting valuable time and energy at the local big box gym in a jazzercise class in preparation for the World Championships in any sport.

The seasonal design starts with the timeframe. When do you need to peak? If it’s multiple times per season (like a strength or power sport such as Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting or strongman) your off-season is simply any period between competitions.

Your training blocks will depend on a number of factors including results, injury status, and the time between competitions. If your sport is more traditional (like football, basketball, baseball, etc.) in-season and off-season training are much simpler in design.

Planning and Achieving Goals Go Hand-in-Hand

The difference between achieving your goals and just talking about the things you wish you could do typically comes down to planning. Make a plan, make it relevant, and make certain it’s achievable. Have clear objectives and a realistic timeframe.

Finally, execute. As always, feel free to ask questions. We have custom programming options available to you should the need arise.

The post Creating A Long-Term Training Plan and Macrocycles appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

We have high standards at Gym Jones. I don’t just mean the strength and fitness standards that so many people associate us with. I mean it more generally. When we train someone here, we expect effort and intensity, of course, but we also expect them to meet us halfway. We will give you our time, our energy, and all of the training knowledge we’ve accumulated over the years. But it’s what the trainee brings to training that is, in many respects, the much more important contribution.

It’s the how, not the what, that ultimately makes training efficacious. I’ve argued many times that it’s the intent with which you train and not the perfection of the program that makes all the difference. What happens when smart programming meets proper intent? Transformation.

It’s More Than Just a Workout

When I train someone here, I don’t just put them through a workout. I don’t count their reps. I explain the why and the how behind the training. I explain why this percentage and not some other percentage. I explain the physiological reasons behind a 2:00 interval with 60 seconds of rest.

This type of mutual involvement in the training, in the how and the why, is a powerful transformative tool. In building a real coach trainee relationship, we’re laying the foundational understanding that we’re in this together and it requires something more from you as a trainee than you may have thought otherwise.

There’s an expectation that things will be required of you aside from something as basic as showing up. You need to write down everything we do here in a training journal. Every rep. Every set. How granular should that training journal be?

The more specific and detailed you can be (how you slept that night, how your digestion was, how training felt, etc.) the better your training results will likely be. I am not your rep counter here. I am not your babysitter. I am your coach and you owe me your part in your own athletic development.

It’s really fascinating to see what happens after 6 months or a year in the gym with this sort of effort and mutual understanding between coaches and trainees. I often walk around the gym and marvel at what I see happening around me.

Instead of one coach and 12 or 15 athletes making their way through a training session, I have 6 or 8 or 10 other pairs of eyes that I can trust and count on to keep those who are new here on track—to make sure they’re approaching the workout or the session with the proper intent and with good technique.

The goal isn’t for me as a coach to have less work to do or less impact on the individual. The goal is to create a culture of high expectations of each other. No one here will let anyone off the hook or out of the work. We all watch each other’s backs, we encourage each other, we applaud each other’s successes, and we’re not afraid to point out and understand the why behind our failures.

I don’t want one leader here. I want a room full of leaders. I want it to come from everyone, and in order to achieve that I, as a coach, have to empower people. I have to give them responsibilities, I have to share my knowledge and my experience, and I have to encourage them to pass it along to new trainees.

The Learning Curve

In my mind, you haven’t really learned something until you can adequately explain it to someone else. It isn’t enough to just be a good athlete at Gym Jones. Adequate performance isn’t all that we’re after. You have to add something to our environment.

We are teachers and we want students here. Passivity isn’t something we practice or encourage here. Building a culture requires energy and dedication. The same things are needed to build anything of value, including fitness.

If you really want something significant from your own training, be prepared to put in the time and effort it takes to understand the mechanisms behind the thing you’re trying to achieve. I’d encourage you all to do more than simply select a program and work. Read articles, ask questions, train, experiment, and see what works best for you.

To get the most of this experience, you need to be an active participant in your own transformation. If you’re not writing things down, if you’re not asking questions, if you don’t care about the why and the how behind what makes a program work for you and your goals—it’s not happening. Be prepared to give everything.

The post More Than a Workout: Learning Curves and Having High Standards appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Training without analysis isn’t really training at all. Let’s break this down one by one.

A real training program has to have a few attributes that make it a training program and not an exercise program. The difference is not subtle. Training should be progressive. Training should be periodized. Training should be goal-oriented and outcome-based. But more importantly than anything, training should be meticulously planned, executed, and the most important piece of technology out there is a training log and a pen to keep your results.

Training without analysis isn’t really training at all. Let’s break this down one by one.

1. Training Is Progressive

First, training should be progressive. This is something that beginners rarely, if ever, understand. Most of the time, training is totally doable, meaning that the work being done—the weight being lifted or the intervals you run (or row, or ski, etc.)—should be just enough to elicit a response and no more.

Really, we’re discussing training volume here. In other words, don’t do 10 rounds when 3 rounds would suffice. Any more just makes progressing the training (i.e. doing more and going heavier or faster) that much harder.

You can only make adaptations to the work that you can recover from and any more than that is literally pointless. But if you’re not writing down what you’re doing from week to week, how do you have any idea what’s working and what isn’t?

How do you know how much volume you can recover from? How do you know how much volume you need to elicit the intended training response? Short answer: you don’t. You’re guessing or worse, you don’t care to know.

2. Training Needs to Be Periodized

Second, training should be periodized. Periodization has a few meanings depending on your specific outcome. In general physical preparedness (GPP), the training emphasis cycles through the four energy systems that make up the fitness continuum: strength, power, power-endurance, and endurance.

In more specific types of training and competition, like a strength sport or an endurance sport for example, periodization refers more to the preparatory, intensity, competition, and recovery cycles of the sport specific training season.

Either way you look at it, if your training doesn’t cycle from lower intensity to higher intensity and from lower volume to higher volume, you’re probably busy exercising. In real training, there are a few highly specific and planned periods of intensity that are either just on the edge of your capabilities or that cause you to overreach and make adaptations to higher training stress than you’ve ever experienced before. This is how we get bigger, or faster, or stronger, or go longer, or whatever outcome you’re seeking.

3. You Must Track Progress and Analyze Results

Third, training results should be written down and analyzed. Doing the work is pretty pointless if you’re not asking yourself this very simple question: did any of what I just did actually work? If so, what?

I see an awful lot of people out there with their fitness trackers and their sleep analyzers and all of this stuff and meanwhile they’re sleep walking through the actual workout part of the equation. And no doubt they head home and pay zero attention to what they put in their mouths and why.

Data is important, no doubt about it, but you have to do the work that makes the data have value. Do you understand what you’re tracking and why you’re tracking it? Do you pay any attention at all to the results? Do you make adjustments to your training or nutrition based on the actual outcomes?

If you’re not doing those things and you’re not putting the work into what is producing the data, then I’m going to break it to you, you’re exercising. You’re literally spinning your wheels. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it and if that’s what you want to do, go crazy. But don’t delude yourself into thinking that exercise is sufficient to produce a specific outcome that you desire.

Want to be a great athlete? Sweating in a group fitness class isn’t going to get it done. Want to get bigger and stronger? Picking up some random weights sometimes and paying no attention to the volume or intensity won’t help you one bit.

Training Is So Much More

Training is not walking into the gym and smashing yourself and trying to get as sore or tired or beaten as possible. In a well-written program, the first week or so might actually feel too easy. And it probably should considering that in the last last week or two of the program you’ll be encountering more training stress than you’ve ever experienced before.

Doesn’t it make some sense that the lead up to that period would be planned in a way to ensure you don’t have so much accumulated training fatigue that you can actually get the programmed work done?

After all, you will have to eventually go faster or lift more weight to get faster or stronger. It doesn’t happen by magic and it definitely doesn’t happen by repeating the same interval at the same intensity or lifting the same light barbell over and over and over again.

Getting better is very, very different than just sitting in some spin class somewhere getting sweaty. Numbers and data drive better performance, not how you feel about a workout. Use your data wisely. Buy a pad and a pen and get to work.

The post Training Is Data Driven, But Not How You Think appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It’s not a bad question, and there’s no simple answer because it’s not one set of circumstances—it’s a lifetime of circumstances.

Someone asked me a question while I was dropping in at another gym back home in Virginia recently that got me thinking: “How much time do you spend in the gym to look like that?”

It’s not a bad question, and there’s no simple answer because it’s not one set of circumstances—it’s a lifetime of circumstances.

I’m tempted to answer that question with, “as little as possible” because that’s my truth now but that hasn’t always been the case. I used to be addicted to training. And it really isn’t true to say, “used to be addicted” because, as I’m sure you know, you never really beat an addiction. At best you learn ways to cope without resorting back to the addicted behavior.

The truth is that right now I’m bigger and stronger (and on my way to being leaner than I’ve ever been) all while spending the least amount of time I ever have training towards those goals. But the answer to the question isn’t really “as little as possible” precisely because I’ve spent thousands of hours training. That’s the truth and, as usual, it’s much more complicated than it seems.

Mastery Is Your Pursuit

Mastery, in any pursuit, involves seeking as much information and experience as possible. Only then will you finally have some real insight into the thing you were actually chasing all along. That’s what you see out there with so many fitness professionals and former professional athletes and their “less is more” message.

The thing they’re mostly not telling you is that they once did much more than was strictly necessary. Most of us at this level have been through a phase like this. If some is good, then more has to be better.

Unfortunately, this isn’t true.

It can be very tempting to take the advice of the jacked ex-CrossFit Games athlete advising you to do a little light lifting and a metcon and you’ll end up looking just like him. But that isn’t realistic. The truth is that that same guy deadlifts 575lbs, back squats 425lbs, front squats 400lbs, clean and jerks 375lbs and runs a 5:30 mile. Do you know what someone capable of all of lifting and squatting looks like? A jacked, insanely fit dude. The very same body many of us are chasing.

Photo by Lisa Borshard of Gym Jones

But here’s the thing, do you know what it takes to actually maintain a physique like that? Not that much. Surprisingly little actually. Great nutrition, a little conditioning, and a little weightlifting. If you haven’t caught on, that’s the same “less is more” approach that everyone is talking about.

The problem for most of us is actually getting to that body in the first place. You have to build all the underlying musculature before you can even start thinking about training at the minimum to maintain it. Unfortunately, in order to look the part, you actually have to be able to do this stuff.

The real problem with the “less is more” training approach is that it’s only sufficient for basically two types of people: highly developed athletes who just want to maintain size and fitness and people who are absolutely brand new to training.

For those of you looking for the appearance of those athletes (and may or may not be interested in the actual performance of those athletes), there is no getting around this simple fact: they spent years getting very strong, very powerful, and very fit. Therefore, if you want to look just like them, you have to train the way that they did and you have to eat to support it. There’s no shortcut to it.

There’s a caveat here: it’s often difficult to really understand how big (or not big) someone is in a picture or a video. It’s strange what a wide angle lens can do to a human being. It can make someone lean look absolutely gigantic. The body type I’m talking about in this article is the average CrossFit Games athlete, so someone in the 5’7″-6′ range weighing 175-200lbs.

Personally, it’s absolutely crazy how much 15lbs of muscle has changed the way I look in pictures. There’s absolutely nothing unusual about a 5’9″ guy weighing 185lbs. However, a lean, muscular 185lbs on a frame that size on film or in a video? Prepare to look gigantic.

It Depends on Your Factors

So, as usual, the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the article is, “It depends.” What are your aesthetic goals and what are you really willing to do to support those goals? If you just want to be lean then you will need to eat well, train only as much as you have to, and get some sleep.

If you don’t have much muscle on your small frame you will have to train a little more or a little harder and eat a little more. If you need to lose weight then you must focus on your nutrition, stop driving everywhere, get a bike or walk more, learn how to lift weights and be prepared to spend a lot of time on your goals.

But if you want to look like a jacked, powerful, and fit person, prepare to put the years in. You don’t get to skip the hard part and do the minimum. You have to build it first.

You might also like:

• Less Is Not More
• The Myth Of More Is Better
• This Year, Exercise Less
• Effective Training: Make Every Rep Count

The post How Much: Time, Quality, and Quantity appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“Training is life.”

“You gotta love the grind.”

“24/7, 365 hustle.”

“Training is life.”

“You gotta love the grind.”

“24/7, 365 hustle.”

I’ve been guilty of chasing numbers in the gym to the point of actually suffocating the good things in my life. It’s one thing if you’re a professional athlete and sport and training put food on the table. It’s another thing entirely if you’re pursuing personal growth, change, or a worthy goal that doesn’t make or break your career or your life.

Competing in a regional powerlifting meet is an absolutely worthwhile goal that you should be spending your time and energy in the gym pursuing. But killing yourself in the gym every day for two hours is a colossal waste of time and energy for most people just seeking a little personal growth or a change in their appearance.

Balance Your Time and Energy

The amount of time and energy you spend in the gym needs to correlate with the scale of the goal. If your goal is to win the Crossfit Games, then you should be spending 18-24 hours a week training towards that goal.

If your goal is to lose 5lbs or achieve a particular level of leanness, then you should be spending 4-5 hours a week in the gym at most. You should spend the rest of your time and energy recovering and, more importantly, focused on the much more important aspect of your goal: nutrition.

To put it simply, if you want to be the best, you have to put the time in. There are no shortcuts to transcendent performance. If the competition is putting in 20 hours a week, then realize that 20 hours a week is the minimum.

Chances are you’re not the outlier. But the point here is not to speak to that crowd. This is for the person just looking to be a little bit better than they were before—a little stronger, a little more athletic, a little fitter, to feel a little bit better about themselves.

That doesn’t take a lot of time in the gym. It takes much more effort outside of the gym because there are some things you’ll have to change in your life to help you achieve what you want.

Surround Yourself with What Makes You Better

Surround yourself with like-minded, good people. If you find that you have a problem drinking too much on the weekends for example, then maybe start hanging out with a new and different crowd. Be self-aware enough to realize that the people you happen to have around you might not have your best interest in mind.

At the same time, find some balance in your life and remember to have fun. Make a schedule and create a routine that includes periods of discipline that allow you to partake in the good things in life.

Have a beer. Go out for drinks. See a show. Eat good food. Take a vacation without worrying about which gym you’ll be able to drop into. But realize that you have to earn all of that with balance in your life. That takes time and it takes effort. No one achieves much of anything by accident.

The post Find Balance in Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Walking.

Seriously. Walking is incredibly underrated. It’s become my favorite recovery modality by far. I know you don’t believe me, so I’ll give you an example from my own training this year.

I’m about to blow your mind. There’s one exercise you’re probably not doing that’ll change your life and give you immediate results.

Walking.

Seriously. Walking is incredibly underrated. It’s become my favorite recovery modality by far. I know you don’t believe me, so I’ll give you an example from my own training this year.

Why Walking Works

First, some background. I’m a General Physical Preparation (GPP) athlete who desperately needed to add some mass to his frame. Currently, I’m nearing the end of a slow and steady cut after putting on 23 pounds this summer.

At my peak in the massing phase I weighed in at 193lbs and my daily calories hit 3600, including more than 500g of carbohydrates a day. I started my cut a few weeks ago with a two-week maintenance phase where I cut back my calories to 3000 a day and my weight leveled off to steady 190lbs.

My cutting phase started about 7 weeks ago at 2700 calories a day and I’ve been getting steadily leaner without having to cut calories any deeper than the initial drop. How? That’s a good question. Let me explain.

I’d cut out all of my conditioning during my massing phase. I didn’t do it overnight, but instead, I slowly phased it out in the first six weeks of massing. Well, I did the same thing in the cut. I very slowly started adding in a little bit of simple walking and then conditioning to my normal hypertrophy focused weight training.

I can keep my calories nice and constant and still build a steadily bigger calorie deficit so my body wouldn’t adapt to a particular input (2700 calories a day) which would force me to drop calories. It looked like this:

• Week 1: Reintroduce cardiovascular warm-ups for weight training
• Week 2: Walk to coffee (3 blocks), add a conditioning day on Wednesday
• Week 3: Walk to lunch (0.75 miles)
• Week 4: Walk to lunch and back (1.5 miles)
• Week 5: Walk to lunch and back and take another walk after dinner in the evening (2 miles total)
• Week 6: Add another conditioning day on Friday

Each week builds upon the last. Basically, I’m very slowly reincorporating conditioning into my training and the only thing I’m really “adding” is walking. I can’t think of a better, lower impact, and more mindful thing to do with my time.

And the cool thing is it’s probably the best recovery exercise you’re not doing for maximal muscle retention. You’re not going to be digging the recovery hole deeper with walking like you would with HIIT or running and the slow and steady approach to this cut means that I’ve maintained as much of the musculature I built this summer as possible.

In short, walking makes me feel good, both mentally and physically. It’s a time for me to recharge, to think about things, or listen to a podcast or some music and not think about things.

If you’re trying to make substantial changes to your appearance or you’re looking for a great recovery modality that won’t leave you feeling worse—try walking for an hour or so every day. It’ll be good for your mental and physical health.

The post The Best Recovery Modality You’re Not Using appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In my case, I decided over the summer (as I was fixing a problem with my nutrition) that it would be an ideal time to focus on building some size and strength. In late 2016 I injured my back and really hadn’t been able to do much weight training through most of 2017.

We have a saying here: everything costs something. If you want to enhance some part of your performance, you should be prepared to suffer some short term (or even long term) consequences to other aspects of fitness and performance. There is almost always a trade off.

In my case, I decided over the summer (as I was fixing a problem with my nutrition) that it would be an ideal time to focus on building some size and strength. In late 2016 I injured my back and really hadn’t been able to do much weight training through most of 2017.

I felt good enough last January to start incorporating some weightlifting into my training again. Over the course of my injury I’d dropped from 175lbs to the high 160s, losing a lot of strength and muscle along with the weight.

The Cost of Specificity

In order to maximize my ability to put on size, I had to drop my cardiovascular training. I simply couldn’t afford the caloric expenditure inherent in high intensity power endurance work. This is the cost of specificity.

As an experienced, trained athlete, I couldn’t optimally chase two things at once. To get bigger and stronger, I had to sacrifice some elements of my training and pour my energy into my nutrition and especially my recovery practices.

So, I tracked every meal I ate and I tracked every rep of every workout I did. I put my bike away for the summer. I walked a lot less. I commited myself to getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night.

Basically, I lifted weights, I ate food, I rested, I recovered, and I took two days off every week. As a very active person who is passionate about fitness, this was not easy for me to do. But it was necessary for me to achieve my goals.

I knew that putting on 20-25lbs would be hugely beneficial to me in terms of strength and power. After all, it takes mass to move mass. I knew I would see some immediate results, and I have.

I was expecting a short term drop in my power endurance and cardiovascular fitness, but interestingly, I’ve PR’d most everything I’ve attempted during this massing phase, including my 100m row (15.5) 250m row (39.8) 500m row (1:27) and 10 minutes of max calories on the assault bike (205). I wasn’t necessarily expecting this kind of performance after taking nearly four months off from any kind of cardiovascular training.

But, these are mostly short, power events. The 10 minute test on the assault bike was very surprising as it’s a longer power endurance event, but there have been some definite trade-offs as my power to weight ratio has changed, so workouts like “Jonescrawl” and “Jonestown Sprint” would be much harder than they were four months ago.

Workouts like these will eventually improve with targeted training as I make adaptations to my new size and strength. After all, you have to carry your engine. Yes, my engine is pretty big, but my frame has just become that much bigger.

Any specialization phase will result in some temporary tradeoffs. To make specific adaptations you must be willing to make short term sacrifices.

Commit yourself to making the progress you want in the area of fitness (or aesthetics) you’re targeting, and then bring up the other attributes when appropriate. Beginners can make adaptations across the board concurrently, but experienced, trained athletes will have to sacrifice something in the pursuit of the desired, specific outcome.

The post Specificity appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Most of us have muscular imbalances—a weaker arm, shoulder, leg, etc. If you find yourself constantly doing the classic barbell movements (barbell bench press, deadlift, and back squat) then you might be further developing and exacerbating your own imbalances.

We can start to iron out these imbalances by introducing single leg and single arm work into your programming. The obvious place to insert this type of work is into your specific warm up and your supplemental work.

Here’s an example of how to include some unilateral work into a specific warm-up:

• 2x15m single arm overhead walking lunges at moderate dumbbell weight (each arm)
• 2x15m offset suitcase carry walking lunges at one moderate dumbbell and one heavy dumbbell (i.e. 25lb dumbbell and 45lb dumbbell)
• 3×10 Bulgarian split squats with a 10-second hold on the last rep
• 3×10 single arm kettlebell press with a light bell

Here’s an example of unilateral work:

Barbell Reverse Lunge (plus step up complex)

• 1x reverse lunge + 1x step up onto 16-20″ box, 10x reps each leg, no alternating, at 95-135#
• 3 rounds – 8x single arm half kneeling kettlebell presses, each arm, each side
• 3 rounds – 10x single arm kettlebell floor press with a 24-32kg bell, each arm

Put It to Practice

Get creative. Dumbbells and kettlebells are a great way to train your limbs independently and make sure you’re not developing a “strong” side or a “weak” side. Too much emphasis on barbell work can create and worsen this phenomenon.

The only rule you need to remember in writing your own specific warm ups and supplementals is this: it can’t be harder than the workout. It has to supplement the workout or prepare you for the work ahead. In general, try to stick to no more than 2-3 supplemental exercises and scale the specific warm up to your fitness level and work capacity.

You might also like:

• Finding Your Asymmetries And Fixing The Uneven Body
• Create Muscular Balance With Unilateral Training
• Muscular Imbalances And The Lazy Man On The Assembly Line
• Unilateral Leg Training, Part 1: Historical Perspectives

The post Attack Your Imbalances appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

First, some terminology: testing, training, and exercise—these are not the same thing, though sometimes they can look very similar.

It can be surprisingly easy to lose your way in the gym. It is especially easy if you tend to train by yourself and you don’t have a coach or a trainer. I think a very valuable question that you need to ask yourself, aside from is: “Am I getting better or am I getting sweaty?”

First, some terminology: testing, training, and exercise—these are not the same thing, though sometimes they can look very similar.

• Testing is important in that it informs training. Coaches write programming based on test results in strength (i.e. 1RM back squat), fitness (2,000m row), or both.
• Training is work that is specific, purposeful, and outcome-based (i.e. to achieve a 400# back squat, a 6:00 mile, a 4:50 Gym Jones Triathlon, a 100kg snatch, etc).
• Non-specific training is when there is no testing, no progression, and/or no deloading, but training is planned according to intensity level and energy system with a schedule in place (basic fitness, general aesthetics, or even sheer enjoyment).
• Exercising applies to you if you’re walking in the gym scrolling Instagram for inspiration, writing random workouts on the board, or just doing whatever you feel like doing on that particular day to get sweaty or satisfy some psychological need or desire.

The purpose of this article is not to pass judgment on exercise—it has a time and a place and there’s nothing wrong with it—just like there’s nothing wrong with non-specific training. In fact, quite a few of our general foundation programs are non-specific and the only desired outcomes are general fitness, increased work capacity, increased technical proficiency, and injury proofing.

I would recommend foundation programming to anyone because these outcomes are incredibly beneficial for any athlete. However, if for example, your primary goal is to row 2,000m in 6:49, then general foundation training is not the optimal way for you to achieve that goal. This is not to say that you cannot row a 6:49 2k by working hard every day that you find yourself in a gym.

What I am arguing is that that approach is suboptimal and could potentially be a big waste of your time and energy if your stated goal is actually very specific. Work smarter, not harder! Use a rowing specific program for a rowing specific goal.

Managing Training Fatigue

I think it’s important and valuable to remember to cycle your focus in the gym and keep things fresh. One simple way of avoiding training fatigue (which I think is how many of us end up walking into a gym and throwing work at ourselves for the sake of sweating) is to focus on specific energy systems cyclically.

We cannot (optimally) stay in a power endurance phase all year. Eventually, you’ll burn out or simply bury yourself under a mountain of fatigue. The same can be said of a hypertrophy phase, a strength phase, a power phase, or an endurance phase. Sooner or later you’ll reach the point of diminishing returns.

It is incredibly important to program deload weeks into your own training to avoid injury or training fatigue in general, but if you feel like you’re not putting in the kind of effort necessary to really improve in the first place, or you’re just not psyched to get into the gym and work hard, then it’s probably time to either take a week off or switch your focus.

In the case of a general physical preparation (GPP) athlete, this can be as simple as changing energy systems (strength to power, power to power endurance).

An athlete who competes in a specific sport should maintain a similarly cyclical focus (hypertrophy, strength, power, power endurance, endurance, or whichever energy system is relevant to that particular sport) to stay sharp and avoid burnout.

For example, a powerlifter who competes in the back squat, deadlift, and bench press can likely benefit greatly from an off-season hypertrophy phase with some smart exercise variation to avoid overuse injury and burnout. If competition means barbells, then throwing in some higher volume, lower intensity dumbbell work and some front squatting could be very beneficial.

Honest Self Assessment

As with most things in the gym, this comes down to being honest with yourself and/or your coach about what you want out of the gym and what you’re actually doing in the gym. Your goals, whether general or specific in nature, depend absolutely on the intent behind the work.

Make sure you understand your “why” and then be sure the work you’re doing will get you there.

The post The Truth About Training Versus Exercising appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

There are lots of things that scare me. My close friends would recognize this and probably have a good laugh at my expense. I’m scared of heights, I’m scared of the ocean, and I’m scared to feel out of control. But regret scares me a lot more than all of those things. So, while these things do scare me, I try not to let them lead me away from experiences that I know I’d regret not having.

I experience fear in the gym all the time. Fear can be healthy. Fear lets you know that you’re doing it right. Growth occurs through adaptation to stress. Without fear or at least a little anxiety, you feel safe. Safety in the gym, unfortunately, leads to homeostasis—something at which the body excels. But not all fear is equal.

Not All Fear Is Equal

I got roped into a powerlifting meet a week or so ago. One of the women who started training at my gym about six months ago has a combined Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting meet in February that I’m training her for—she very graciously asked if I’d coach her at the meet. Of course, I said yes, and then somehow that turned into her inviting me to join her as a competitor.

My gut reaction was to say absolutely not, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had to do it. I ask people here all the time to go to those places that scare them. In some cases, terrify them. I ask people to do all kinds of things they’ve never thought of doing. They trust me because they know I’ve been there before, that I’ll lead the way, and that they’ll have my support through success and through failure.

Nothing scares me more than feeling like a fraud. Not heights. Not water. Not even failure. So, I said yes. Now that my training is ramping up beyond 80% of my 1RM, I’m encountering some very healthy fear. It’s the same kind of dread that I feel all the time right before workouts like “Jonescrawl” or “those burpees suck” or a Triathlon.

It sounds something like this in my head: “This is really going to hurt.” And that’s usually closely followed by this mantra I repeat to myself: “I’m only going to do this once. I never want to do this again because I won’t leave anything out there. I’m emptying the tank. I’m never doing this again because it will be physically impossible for me to go faster. This is everything I have.”

I trust myself completely in power endurance events. I have fear, obviously. But I’ve been to the edge again and again and again and I’ve never failed myself. I’m no great athlete. I’m not competing directly with anyone else. People will always row faster than me. People will ski faster. I’m competing with myself to live up to the best version of me that I can possibly be. It’s only me versus my potential.

The Role of Fear in Training

I’m in the process of learning how to apply that mindset to weightlifting. Much of adopting this mindset comes back to residual self-image and psychology. I might not intrinsically think of myself as an athlete or even “athletic,” but I do know I’m capable of using 100% of my ability to work hard.

And now, for some reason, I have a lot of difficulties applying that label to myself when it comes to weightlifting. This difficulty is probably a product of my teens and twenties when I was really suffering from undiagnosed Crohn’s Disease and I was languishing in the 130s, desperately trying to keep weight on, feeling tired and exhausted all the time.

I’ve never been particularly strong or powerful, and I’ve allowed myself to feed that self-image with negative self-talk. I’ve taken steps this year in addressing that negative self-talk and self-image. It started with getting my nutrition together. I hired a nutrition coach and we’ve worked together to find something that works for my health, my body, and my training.

I took the better part of six months to focus on finally putting muscle on my frame. I’ve never wanted to have that “victim” mentality and I had to face the fact that this myth was one that I’d been telling myself. I’d always felt that it wasn’t in the cards for me to be big and strong and powerful. It was a lie. I’d been acting like I was a victim of circumstance. I was afraid.

Fear Is the Bottom Line

Fear. It all comes back to fear. I’d been afraid of the truth. I was afraid to try and change myself, to really try and become something else—and fail at it. And really, there’s nothing sadder than the kind of deep regret for the things you want in life but never did, all because you were afraid to risk failure. So, I really tried.

On paper, it wasn’t really that hard. It was picking stuff up, putting it down, resting, recovering, picking heavier stuff up a little more, putting it down, eating, and sleeping.

In reality, it was having to not care about my abs. I had to have a coach tell me that yes, I did deserve that food because I was working hard. I had to sell my bike so I wouldn’t be tempted to ride it everywhere and self-sabotage all of the weightlifting and eating I was doing.

I had to talk myself out of nights out with friends to get that extra hour of sleep. It was constant self-esteem battles every time I wanted to take my shirt off on a walk outside or at the pool because I didn’t look or feel as lean as I wanted to. It was taking time off from the things I love in the gym to actually see these things through.

And now I’m having to do the same thing with weightlifting. After a year of doing nothing but things that scare me, maybe you’d think that I’d conquered it by now. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I ever will.

What I’m busy doing is walking up to the barbell and not thinking about the weight, not looking at the bend in the bar, but reminding myself of all the things I’d regret if I don’t take this time I have and wring every ounce of potential from it. Failure is hardly the worst thing that could happen.

The worst that can happen is having fear talk you out of that last rep, or that 5th set of doubles or whatever that thing is that you’re busy telling yourself you want so badly. The worst thing that could happen is for you to always wonder what you could have done.

The post The Role of Fear appeared first on Breaking Muscle.