Tag Archives: skill
Getting strong is easy, unless you don’t train these three elements that is.
Filed under Fitness, Nutrition & Health
What’s your doctrine?
In fitness you’ll find many tomes.
Each has its own unique benefits, limitations and place in the realm known as physical culture.
You can probably guess I’ve followed a few over the years.
Becoming embroiled in one thought process is easily done, especially if it’s spoken with enough conviction. In the 70’s we had body building, the 80’s had step, the 90’s was functions training and the last couple of decades brought us CrossFit & HIIT and more recently Movement Culture.
As mentioned above, all have their good points and in truth once you find one that keeps you consistently training you’ll feel great, or at least a part of something bigger than yourself.
I’ve personally been in the industry a fair while now, a literal lifetime when compared to the age of some young adults just stepping in to the field.
In this span I’ve seen trends come and go.
Plus there are a few things that have stayed and will always remain important.
- Strength
- Mobility & Movement
- Health
- Enjoyment (purpose)
You might love running, if so cool you go run just be aware of what running is lacking from the above (strength).
Perhaps you’re a powerlifter, great just be sure to fill in the missing gaps (health, mobility & movement).
I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.
On a personal note I don’t really care what people do so long as they are doing it for the right reasons, that being it means something to them that is at the live of their very soul, none of this superficial bullshit, got no time for such pointless things.
Do you love what you do?
No, really, can you say without any doubt you love what you do (in the gym, this kinda applies for life as well – just saying).
If you have any hesitation or have to justify your answer then somethings not right.
You’ll find many a doctrine in fitness, ideal if you find one that have the elements mentioned above that’s the most optimal one, however it’s also rare.
Enjoy,
Ross
Oh, before I forget, it’s okay to create your own style you know. Learn from all the single views of the big picture and eventually you’ll have quite the impressive view to which you can then give back to the realm of fitness by creating something of your own.
Filed under Fitness, Nutrition & Health
“Box Jump” – an abused exercise
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***Plateau Breaker Series***
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Stuck on Repeat, it’s not so Bad
Repeatable training sessions, chance would be a fine thing in this day and age.
Morning All,
We’ve all done some crazy ‘one off’ training sessions over the years, however they are not really repeatable and as such nothing more than a little bit of a challenge.
Having something like this every now and again is good for the soul, it leaves us feeling rather pleased with ourselves, so long as they’re only every once in a while.
Sadly this attitude has been applied to every training session in a lot of peoples arsenal.
Repeated sessions like this, while it can indeed be done, will not yield any benefit or long term progress because these sorts of things are not training, they’re testing.
If you go in to the gym, you’re there to train and build up your max/fitness/etc, not to test it because if you’re constantly testing you get nowhere and eventually burn out.
Take these two arbitrary examples:
100×1 – Overhand Deadlifts at 140kg – a one off session
2-3-5-2-3-5 – Overhand Deadlifts, wave load – repeatable
One will leave you feeling accomplished and be great for the Gram, the other can be down two maybe three times a week for several months and allow you to build some great technique, strength and skill in the DL.
Pick your poison, because it’s in the dose as they say.
How do your training sessions stand up?
Are they repeatable yet progressively challenging enough to elicit progress or nothing more than haphazard gym fuckery?
Give it some thought.
Enjoy,
Ross
Repeatable training sessions, chance would be a fine thing in this day and age.
Filed under Fitness, Nutrition & Health
One move to rule them all
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A Month of Madness
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Rest for Strength
“If you really want to be strong the rest period is 5-15min between sets, if you have the time, that’s crazy long.” – Pavel Tsatsouline
Many will often say they never have that kind of time, however if you are to program effectively then you can potentially get that amount of rest, it’s a hard mindset for people to adopt as people these days chase fatigue.
I’d suggest you take some time to dig in to energy systems and how they work. In the latest revision of ‘Periodisation’ by Tudor Boompa you’ll find a great chapter on this topic and why a long rest is optimal for performance/strength.
If you are interested in strength then here are some examples of how you can achieve the above rest.
A1 – Press x2-3
– Rest 3min
A2 – Pull Up x2-3
– Rest 3min
While a small amount of effort is required in the pull up you are getting in a good amount of rest before your next pressing set.
A1 – Press x2-3
– Rest 3min
A2 – Pull Up x2-3
– Rest 3min
A3 – Farmers Walk x20m
– Rest 3min
I’m sure you can see where this is going in regards to potentially adding in extra movements or even just adding more rest if the weights require it.
A1 – Press x2-3
– Rest 5min
A2 – Pull Up x2-3
– Rest 5min
A3 – Farmers Walk x20m
– Rest 5min
What would the loads be? 85% of max and above, however if that was the case it would be preferable that you just take a decent rest, however if you feel you need to be doing something then a super set or tri-set option is a good one.
Remember that strength is a skill.
Enjoy,
Ross
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6 Reasons Front Squats are awesome.
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A different take on Eccentrics.
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