Supertraining: 3 types of maximal strength

Being strong is more popular today than it has been since bodybuilding dropped the lifting component in the 70s. Guys are tired of being small and wearing skinny jeans, girls are tired of guys being small and wearing skinny jeans, and everyone appreciates the difference. Athletes in every sport from Tiger Woods to Walter Payton to Rich Froning, Jr. know the value of being stronger than the competition. So what are we talking about when we talk about strength? It seems like a pretty simple thing to define, and in some ways it is. Starting out simply, strength can be defined as the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to produce force in certain circumstances. This is intuitively how you would define strength. Let's nuance this just a little bit by splitting the idea of strength into 3 categories: absolute strength, maximal strength, and the training maximum.

Absolute Strength

Researchers talk about absolute strength which is represented by maximal involuntary muscle contraction. You would reach that state if we hooked some electrodes up to your muscles and turned it up to 11. Your body won't let you contract with absolute maximum force because you would literally break bones and tear muscles apart. For our purposes as athletes interested in getting stronger, absolute strength does not have much bearing on what we do in the gym or in sport.

Maximal Strength

In real life, we usually measure strength in the amount of weight you can move in different planes or exercises. Competitors in the strength sports measure strength in squats, deadlifts, clean and jerks, odd object lifting, and a variety of other tests. This is typically represented as maximal strength or the maximum amount of weight you can move with a voluntary muscle contraction. Voluntary muscle contraction means you are willing yourself to move, for example, flexing the muscles in your arms to do a pull-up. Maximal strength is also represented as a competitive max, since it is usually tested only in competition.

Expressing maximal strength through the competitive lifts takes a huge toll on the body and can take days or even weeks to fully recover from. For this reason it is normal for more experienced strength athletes to take time off immediately following a contest to allow for their body to return to normal after the high physical and emotional stress of a meet. In many cases returning immediately to training after setting new competitive maxes can lead to injury as the lifter is over stressed and does not have time to recover for the new training cycle. Trying to set new competitive maxes day after day would very quickly lead to overtraining and quickly going backwards in your training.

Training Maximum

Unlike the competitive max, the training max is the most weight that a trainee can move on any given day without significant psychological excitement. The training max will change daily based on a number of factors including fatigue, sleep, nutrition, and emotional state at the time of the training session. Training in this state is usually preferable. By calmly approaching your bar each lift, you can continue to train at a high level for the rest of your life. Getting psyched, screaming, and being slapped in the face might work for a competitive max, but it will generally lead to burn out or become a crutch for training in the gym.

Using a training max is very useful for newer trainees especially. Programs like Beyond 5/3/1: Simple Training for Extraordinary Results* by Jim Wendler and Brandon Lilly's The Cube Method* both encourage lifters to work with 90% of their competitive max as the basis for training percentages. This allows you to make progress while using submaximal loads which are less stressful to your body, especially your joints and connective tissue. It is also less emotionally and mentally taxing than knowing you have to go to the gym every day looking for a training 1 rep max. If you have ever trained in a system that requires that kind of performance, you know how it can take over your life. I recommend it only for the most dedicated competitors who will give the required effort to recovery and have time to train at that level on an ongoing basis.

Moving Forward...

Here it goes... we'll have a handful of other articles on the nerdy stuff and then start moving into topics like periodization, methods of training, Prilepin's table, and other Russian strength training secrets! If you have questions on this article, post to the comments or ask in our facebook group.

*If you choose to purchase either of these strength training books, I will receive a small portion of your purchase through an affiliate program. That being said, I have and recommend both of them to people looking to strength train intelligently. I will never recommend anything that I have not used and seen results from in the past.

I'm just not that into you

You know that guy right? The one that no matter what you want to talk about, somehow it's always going to be about him. That guy is your favorite... right? He can turn any story about any topic in life into a story about how he did it bigger or better or first. That's bad enough all by itself, but what if you were paying him your hard earned cash to talk about something else? What if you hired *that* guy to talk to you about your mental health? Imagine sitting down with a counselor and all he wants to talk about is his day, his interactions with his spouse, his friendships... you get the picture. It would be ludicrous! You're paying this guy to help you think through your own life, and he won't even let you talk about it. He should be paying you!

If that picture is so crazy, why do so many people do the exact same thing when it comes to hiring a coach? (Pay attention to this if you're a coach!) If you've ever hired a personal trainer to coach you, chances are good that this is exactly what you paid for. You had some very cursory meeting where you got to talk about your goals, and then they were soundly ignored in exchange for the only program that the trainer knows how to implement.  Or even worse, the trainer just superimposes his goals onto you. If he's training for endurance sports, then that's the only way for you to lose fat. If he's a bodybuilder, you better start liking long heavy sets of weights. Everything you said you wanted went out the window after your first 10 minute consultation before he grabbed the clipboard template and got to work remaking you in his image, because let's face it... he's just not that into you.

That is so frustrating, right? I got frustrated typing it out! So what should a good coaching relationship look like? A real coach is a listener first and an expert second. All the expertise in the world won't do you any good if it doesn't apply to the problem at hand. A good trainer will actually listen to you when you tell them what you are hoping to accomplish by hiring them. When you tell them, "I'm not looking to compete in powerlifting, I just want to get a little stronger and be able to keep up with my kids." They actually listen and design a program that will let you slowly build strength and work capacity while staying safe. On the other hand if it's building serious strength and sport performance, they will get you on track.

A great coach will even tell you if you're talking to the wrong guy! If you came to me and asked for an ultra distance running program, I would find someone who knew what they were talking about and connect you with them. It's your coach's job to get you to the goals that are important to you. It's their job to help you refine and articulate your goals. It's your job to make sure you find a good coach.

I like to think that I'm a pretty good coach. If you're looking for someone to help you refine and reach your fitness and training goals, keep an eye out. We'll be releasing an introductory program at a limited time monthly low price for training just as soon as the details are ironed out. In the program you will receive daily training tips and programming, personal access to me through google hangouts to talk training and goals, and nutrition tips to help you build the body you want. The group will be limited in size to maximize the amount of attention you can receive from a coach. If you are going to the gym, but have no idea what to do, or you've hit a plateau and need a few tweaks to start making gains again, keep us in mind. In the meantime, head over to facebook and join our group and start following me on instagram @disruptivefit.

Crush Your Monday!

I woke up this morning well before the alarm was set to go off.  I'm usually up at 4am to get to work on Mondays.  I looked over and the clock said 2:20am.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up, made some coffee, and sat down at the computer.  While I was sitting there, sipping coffee, I thought to myself, "Self... why would you waste this opportunity on hulu and facebook? Let's go train!"  And that's what I did...

Started with some squats up to 480...

Then a little less fun on the bench...

Overall, I got in a pretty productive training session before 5am today.  How are you going to go out and CRUSH your Monday!?  You can follow me on instagram @disruptivefit and check out our facebook group.  Get busy!

Supertraining for Supertrainees

There are books, and then there are books. You pick up a book when you want to enjoy a good story or pick up a few pieces of useful information. You look for a book when it's time to get serious about a subject.  It should be comprehensive, chock full of proven information, and perhaps some innovation. If it's good enough, it becomes the standard by which all other books in the genre are judged.

Supertraining is a BOOK. The upside is that it contains nearly everything you could ever hope to know about building strength and sport performance.  The downside is that it contains nearly everything you could ever hope to know about building strength and sport performance. It's the kind of book most people start reading but never finish because they don't have the lengthy amount of time necessary to read and absorb the information.

So what? Am I writing a book review to scare you away from buying and reading Supertraining?  No way! If you have the time, background knowledge of exercise science, and desire you need to read this book. But let's be realistic, if you're going to read it to really know it, it's going to take about a year of your life. That's where I come in.  We're going to set sail together for distant shores as I take on a pretty big blog project simplifying, applying, and explaining the lessons of Supertraining in terms so easy anyone can crush it.

Like I said, this is a pretty big project, so I'm going to need your help. Pitch in with questions about the topic. If it's a good article, share it with your friends (unless you're competing for new PRs, then keep the secrets to yourself).  If you do go out and buy Supertraining, start reading it and post questions to our facebook group page if you have any. We're all going to get a lot out of the process, so stay motivated and get ready to get STRONG.

P.S. If you want to buy Supertraining, and you don't mind supporting me through an affiliate link, snag it below.

Supertraining [Paperback]

P.P.S. - I guess it's time to let you guys know I'm working on an ebook on building Disruptive Strength.  Keep your eyes peeled for a release sometime in 2014!

The Arrow and The Airplane

When you're thinking about direction for training and the outcomes you are trying to achieve, it can be helpful to think in metaphorical terms.  To that end, let's compare and contrast some of the traits of an arrow and an airplane.

An arrow is a short distance tool.  A quick google search showed that the world record arrow shot is just under 500 meters, roughly the length of 5 football fields.  Historically arrows allowed people like the Mongol nation to take over the known world.  They have put food on the table of untold numbers of hunters throughout the history of the world.  In spite of their usefulness, arrows do have some draw backs.  What if your food is walking by at a distance of 600 meters?  You'll need some other tool to harvest it.  What if your target moves after you've fired?  There's no opportunity to change the course of your arrow once it's in flight.

How does the arrow relate to training ideas?  In some ways it's like a short term goal or strategy.  Is there a use for arrows in training?  Of course there are.  You might be a MMA fighter and your 8 week training camp leading you to peak conditioning for a fight is like an arrow.  You aim at a target a short distance away and fire.  There isn't much time to tweak and adjust your aim.  You fire the arrow and hope for the best.  For a powerlifter it could be the body weight cut leading into a big meet.  You know you have to shave off 10lbs in a relatively short time to make weight so you aim the arrow and fire.  These are some short term, quick strategies that are useful in the right context.

On the other hand, we have the airplane.  The longest passenger flight recorded was a 2005 Boeing voyage covering 13,423 miles without touching down.  That's just about 236,245 football fields.  This is like setting your overarching goal for training.  If your airplane goal is simply to be active for life, then it can make lots of connecting flights.  Maybe you start out in high school sports, try out powerlifting or weightlifting or running for awhile, make another stop in recreational sports or hiking, and continue picking up new physical hobbies as you move through life.  That's awesome, and if that describes you, keep it up!  It could mean setting a course for a particular target like becoming as strong as you can in the snatch and clean and jerk so you can compete, or being as fast as you can at a marathon.  The pilots (your coaches) can fine tune the course so that the airplane arrives on time, in the right place, and in one piece.

Whatever your goals are, make sure you're using the right tools to reach them.  If you aren't sure how to reach your goals, reach out to a coach who will work with you to help you.  My number one criteria for a coach is that they should be able to tell you why you should do what they are telling you in a simple, clear fashion.  If it's all big words and mumbo jumbo, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.  You want the best co-pilot for your flight that you can get, so don't settle for sub par coaching.  Whatever you're doing, whatever goals you're chasing, enjoy your flight!