This week I've decided to post the
workouts ahead of time. There is nothing particularly special about this
week in comparison to every other weeks programming but sometimes it is tough
to see how things come together as a whole when they are split up. It’s easier to see how each workout
compliments the next and the last when they’re all written out together. Also, it's a good way for me to show
that if you are consistent, present and committed each week your work in the
gym will be thorough and more importantly enough. If you are in class
everyday giving each of these workouts 100%, your fitness needs will be
satisfied. There is no need to be adding strength work with some additional squat
cycle and no good reason for added high intensity interval conditioning with sprints or additional max efforts. If you can look at these workouts collectively and tell me
which part of your fitness is going to be missed I’m all ears. You do not grow stronger by doing more,
you don't become more cardio-efficient by doing more. The secret to both
of those things is to train hard when you train and let your body heal and
adapt while you are not training. I promise you that if your goal is to
become healthy and fit, the work in the gym is much more about quality than it
is about quantity and the work outside of the gym is just as, if not more
important. You should be taking care of yourself during the time between
these workouts by choosing the right foods, getting enough sleep and giving
your muscles and body a chance to adapt to the training by letting it
recover. If you are consistently working hard following these workouts and not seeing results I'm certain it is solely because your diet and/or recovery is shit and not because you need to exercise more.
There is a ton of information out there that can easily make you
feel like you aren't doing enough but you have to keep your goals in mind.
The goals of a specialized or a professional athlete are very different from
the goals of someone that just wants to be stronger, more fit, and more
prepared for their everyday life tomorrow than they are today. Yes, professional athletes are training
for hours at a time sometimes twice a day but they are not living through the
daily stresses of the average person, raising kids and working eight plus hours
a day. They are sleeping more than 10 hours a night, having their meals
professionally calculated and prepared for them and also doing hours of
bodywork (massage, stretching, new-age therapy) daily. So unless that is you, you need to make
sure you are getting the most out of your time in training and your time in
recovery and be thinking less about where you're going to crush your next workout on
your off days and more about how well you're going to recover from the one you just did. Believe me I
get it, I want to workout 6 times a day to, but it's just not effective
or conducive to any of my goals in the gym or my everyday life. The way adaptation works
is by muscle stimulation and recovery, the idea is that the stimulus (workout)
breaks down the muscle and then it adapts by rebuilding and recovering
stronger. Nowhere in there is stimulation on top of stimulation. Obviously because that will never give
you a chance to rebuild and secondly because you will never get a quality
workout if you are continually stressing your body and making it so you are
just physically unable to give any one workout 100%. Adaptation is
directly related to discomfort so if you are forced to just hang out in your
comfort zone every workout you aren't going to benefit like you would if you
were able to break out of your comfort zone every time you worked out. So
all in all, it's not that you need harder workouts, it's not that you need more workouts;
It is that you need to go harder in your workouts more often and then reap the
benefits of that. This does not at
all mean that you can’t be physically active on the days between your time in
the gym or that I'm saying you should lay around like a slug on your off days. It just means that you should recognize the difference between training
and applying your training to life.
On the off days you can most definitely be applying your training to
your life by taking a nice recovery run or bike ride or practicing your sport
of choice, learning a new skill or working on something that you suck at. The difference between practice and training is the purpose;
the purpose of training is to become stronger or more efficient under stress,
so let your days at DBSC be your training days and go hard with the purpose of
getting stronger in mind. The purpose of practice is to learn and get better at
something. The time to learn is
not when your body is under stress it should be done at a much easier relaxed
pace and/or load so that your body will not need to heal from it. Working
technique or skill in a sport is not the same as breaking down your muscle or
taxing your nervous system like these intense workouts do. The intense work is done if you came to class, take advantage
of it and focus on your skills and technique.
If it is an actual gym movement that you want to practice go for it but
go lighter than you would on a training day and drill the movement, it’s not
the time to shoot for a personal best when recovering from the workout the day before.
If you want to do some accessory work in a gym that’s fine to, just have
a purpose and ask yourself if the work compliments the workout you are
recovering from or does it clash with it?
Doing ten max effort sprints on the track the day after a 5X7 heavy back
squat session probably doesn’t compliment your recovery at all but an easy 2-3
mile run at a comfortable pace might help flush out your legs, get some endorphin's pumping and won’t overstress
your nervous system at all which will allow you to come in the next day and hit
the workout at 100%. So just be
mindful when working out between classes and don’t fall into the idea that more
is more because I promise it will catch up to you if you do. There is no SAFE way to rush strength
gain or overall fitness it takes time and consistency and I believe the overall
goal should be longevity in both of those things. Believe that the training will work, don’t try to rush it, just show up, work hard,
recover and repeat. I train people the way I train myself because I want to be strong
and fit for a long time and continue to get stronger and more fit for as long
as I can, not just on the last day of some crazy intensive 8 week lifting
program. Why? Because after the eight weeks what happens? I’m going to be right back in the gym looking to work out again, it’s a journey not a destination, keep that in mind.
Monday:
Conditioning:
Teams of 2 complete
As many rounds as possible in 20 Minutes of:
20 Box Jumps
15 SDHP 75/55
10 Push Press75/55
Partners Alternate rounds
Strength:
Back squat
7-7-7-7-7
Wednesday:
Conditioning:
For Time:
Run 800m then:
2 rounds of
18 Clean and Jerks 115/75
18 Toes to bar
Then:
Run 800m
Strength:
Weighted strict pull-ups (or most
difficult progression)
5-5-5-5-5
Friday:
Conditioning:
5 rounds for time of:
15 Wallballs
12 Deadlifts 185/135
9 Lateral Burpees
Strength:
Deadlift
10-3-10-3
Saturday:
Teams of 2 Complete 6 Rounds for Time of:
150 Double Unders
100 Airsquats
80 Situps
60 Pushups
40 Walking Lunge steps