People
will often ask me for workouts to do on off days at home and they're
surprised and wonder why it's way easier than anything they've ever seen me write on the board. Sometimes they'll tell me about something they did at another gym in between
classes and are surprised when I'm not as fired up as they expected
about it. While I'm definitely happy that they are taking on an active
lifestyle and working to stay fit outside of class, sometimes I wonder if
they are getting why we only have classes on certain days and why our
classes are structured the way they are and also why we have some of the
toughest programming/workouts around and in return, best results as far as
overall fitness goes in the local area. The truth is, THIS STUFF IS HARD, I write it
hard on purpose and it deserves RECOVERY. When I'm in the gym I want to
train hard and effectively this is also the only way I want to train
clients. I'm not a fan of calling anything over-training, I'm not afraid
of over-training. What I would rather refer to and what I'm not ok with
is under-recovery. Of course, this is all relative to the individual.
Some of us have higher tolerances for stress, more demanding jobs,
shorter sleep needs, longer days, whatever. A lot of things determine
our individual tolerances for what we can handle. Age, history of
physical activity and overall consistency in training are all huge
factors when we are looking for that perfect balance of work and
recovery and this is my job to seek that balance for you. Yes, we train
in a group and basically all of us have the same work to do each class
but I try to write the workouts each week so that all of you are getting
a broad, all inclusive range of fitness with varied rep schemes, loads
and time domains which in return trains multiple energy systems, muscle
groups and physical skills. IF YOU COME TO CLASS I believe you will
build excellent physical preparedness.
I try to do this so that IF YOU WORK HARD IN THE GYM, its enough. Once
you start using the days in between to add your own workouts or do Joe
Blows, "Crush your soul" workout from XYZ fitness down the road you are
no longer following the intended program. I'm not saying don't do it,
I'm just saying to recognize this fact and to choose wisely. Otherwise,
don't blame me when your joints and central nervous system explode from
the lack of recovery they get. (This
isn't going to happen but most likely you'll just end up dragging ass
through every workout you do, in the gym or out and have constant pain)
So, how
do we choose wisely? First we need to remember what this is all
supposed to be doing for us. We should all be looking to have what we do in
the gym serve us outside of the gym, meaning we work hard in the gym so
that regular life is easy. It isn't supposed to be that we workout so
much that regular life is now impossible because I'm never fully
recovered from the last workout. Also we should be looking for overall
fitness, meaning in whatever way life decides I may need to use my body
outside of the gym, I'll be able to, whether that's raking the leaves or
carrying your kid down a flight of stairs in a fire. I believe in
order to achieve this level of overall fitness we need to train with
variance because basically whatever you have not prepared for will be
the thing that takes us down when we need to use it in the real world.
The same thing happens if we train the same thing too much, something
else lacks and also that thing we keep repeating is probably making something hurt and again leaves us
to fail in answering the needs of real life. So on off days, we should
be asking ourselves what have we not done in class and also what is
going to allow me to still put forth a solid effort in the next class.
Most of you know the drill by now, in class we're most likely going to
work at pretty high intensity for roughly 15-25 minutes and then lift
heavy at low intensity focusing on strength, skill and proper form with
increasing loads to build strength. So the days between classes really
should be focusing on recovering from that work giving those areas of
our body/fitness/energy systems time to recover and adapt to the stress
we put on it during class and finding things and staying in heart rate
zones that actively may help us move or feel better. What we shouldn't
be looking to do is mimicking the same type of stressors on our off days
which will only further stress our bodies and systems never giving it a
chance to recover and therefore never giving it a chance to adapt or
feel ready for anything life puts in our way. So, what are those
things? What are some safe alternatives to yet another 100 squats in the
garage or whatever else you're dreaming up with the fat kid who calls
himself a trainer at the gym across town?
- Stretch.
Call it yoga, call it romwod, call it mobilizing, call it whatever you want but
if you have the 20 minutes to lift or throw yourself through another
conditioning workout, instead of guessing which body parts we’ll be
working in class the next day, work on lengthening the ones we used
yesterday. Take the downtime to relax your central nervous system (which
is the opposite of a class workout) and allow this stretching to open
you up, bring fresh oxygenated blood to areas that might need it after a
hard workout and set you up to move better overall.
- 20-30
Minutes Easy Jog/bike/row/swim - some will call it a recovery run but the
key word here is easy -we want to stay in our aerobic zone and move our
body with a lower heart rate than that of which we workout in - an easy
way to look at this is a pace that we could have a conversation with
someone while running and not be out of breath. This will again bring
some fresh blood in, move out some muscle waste or lactic acid and burn
some extra calories for the day in a more relaxed zone than that of
which class demands.
- Perfect Calisthenics - think short sets with perfect movement in mind - get
better at the common movements like pushups, sit-ups, pullups and airsquats
not to failure and not to exertion - move with purpose with the idea
of practice and efficiency in mind - keep total reps of each movement
between 30 and 50 and sets to 10 and under and make them perfect - Having
the ability to move your body efficiently and independently through
space is what will be the deciding factor as to whether or not you end
up in a nursing home or not so practice the basics often and you’ll be
better for it, do it consistently and see how all your other
movements benefit as well - believe me there is nothing worse than
seeing seemingly fit people do basic movements poorly, don’t be one of
them do them right or not at all.
- Practice difficult movements with light
loads - movements like cleans, jerks, snatches and overhead squats
always have room for improvement. The way we get better at these
movements is with practice, the way to practice is with a controlled
heart rate and low stress - work on building muscle memory and use loads
under 50% of your max in any of these movements. Drill singles, video
yourself, analyze what looks right and wrong, break the movements down
with pulls, drops and pauses. This will be easy on your body but also
allow you to move and feel like you accomplished something and fix the
small things that class doesn’t always have time to focus on. Leave the
PR’s for class and try to get better at moving correctly.
OR Lastly, just
take it easy, go for a walk, play with your kids, learn about something
new, maybe even practice a sport or take a lesson in something. Be OK
with the fact that with consistent attendance you have and will have
done enough work and if you are eating and sleeping right in between classes
you will see the results from it. Less is more, I promise you. You
can’t rush fitness, you can’t cram it in and you take shortcuts to it,
the way to true fitness is with consistency, longevity and balance. Trust the process, work hard and it will come.
Class at 5PM and 6PM Today
Conditioning:
As Many Reps as possible in 3,5, and 7 Minutes of:
60 Box Jumps
40 Wallballs
30 KB Sumo Deadlift High Pull 53/35
20 Power Cleans 115/75
10 Strict Pullups
*Rest 2 Minutes between AMRAPS
Strength:
On the 2nd Minute for 14 Minutes complete:
1 High Hang Power Clean + 1 Hang Power Clean = 1 Power Clean
Start @ Roughly 65% 1RM Power clean
Climb AFA
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