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!

Goals: Lasagna, Onions, Parfaits, and Ogres

What do lasagna, onions, parfaits, and ogres have in common?  Layers.  They all have layers.  What's so important about layers?  They make your goal setting manageable and appropriate to where you are all the time.  People are more alike than different in my experience, and when faced with a list of goals they would like to accomplish, most will try to accomplish them all at once, in one day.  That's very nearly impossible for all but the most unusual people.  To put that another way, if you put those kinds of expectations on friends and family, no one would want to be around you.  It's unfair, unreasonable, unrealistic, and about 11 other uns that you don't want applied to your plans and expectations.

So how do we start thinking in layers?  It's simple, but requires a little bit of patience.  If you haven't read my post on setting SMART goals, you might want to bounce over there and read it before you continue.  Layering goals doesn't make as much sense when you don't have clear goals to work with.  I'll use a real world example to try to make this as clear as possible.  I've been talking with a friend about her goals and plans for the year.  She did a pretty good job of making them concrete and clear. Now she has to figure out how to put them in motion in a complementary fashion so that it will work.

Here are the goals:

1. Lose 10lbs of body fat in 6 months achieving 18% body fat and maintain that indefinitely.

2. Do a Crossfit workout of the day or cardio session lasting at least 20 minutes 3 times per week.

3. Strength train at least 2 times per week with a progressive plan which is TBD at the moment.

4. Cut out mindless snacking.

5. Increase water intake to half of body weight in ounces per day.

6. Increase hip mobility to the point where I can sit cross legged on the floor with knees 20 degrees off the floor or less in 1 year.

7. Mobility work 2x per day (AM/PM) every day.

8. Mobility workout at least 1x per week.

9. Complete a yoga class at least 2x per week.

There are a few ways to approach this, but I like the idea of starting with the easiest steps first.  What is easiest will be different for everyone, but here is one way to layer in these goals in order to be more successful in the long term.

First, I would suggest hitting the daily hydration goal.  Drinking half of your body weight in ounces per day is a good starting place for people in temperate climates.  If you live somewhere very dry and hot, you probably need to up that a little bit to keep up with the environment.  After hitting that goal for 2-3 weeks, add another layer.  Second, choosing one of the training goals to start tackling.  I'm of the opinion that if you only have time to train either strength or endurance, you should choose strength.  In short, a task is only an endurance task if you're strong enough to complete it more than once.  In this example that means layering in goal 3, to strength train in a progressive manner 2 times per week.  For less experienced trainees, strength training twice per week can make a big difference.  Once that becomes consistent I can add another layer.  Third, I would add in some cardiovascular training.  In this example that is CrossFit workouts that will help her to burn fat and stay "in shape".  You can see how adding a layer at a time and allowing it to stick is a more helpful way to approach this than just doing everything at once and almost immediately running out of gas.

The real magic of this system is what happens when life gets hectic, as it will from time to time.  Time off is unavoidable.  Maybe it's travel for work or a vacation that derails your expectation to strength train twice per week.  Maybe it's an illness or injury that keeps you from doing your cardio.  It could simply be flagging motivation, you could be tired of working so hard all the time.  Whatever the cause, we all have the challenges and pressures of real life to deal with.  The trick is knowing how to deal with them while still accomplishing your main goals.  When your fitness goals all require a time investment, you have to know which ones are most important, and when to pursue them.

When I think of my training and goals as layers, I remove a layer or two and strip my training down to the bare minimum during the chaotic periods of life without doing away with the core habits that will help me to stay healthy and fit.  When things have settled down I can reintroduce the layers that I had to strip away and get back to pursuing a broader range of goals.  So next time you're thinking about what you want to accomplish and the list looks to big to get through, be an ogre.  Implement your goals in layers and find out that you really can accomplish what you set out to do without being completely overwhelmed in the process.

The Minimum Effective Dose

More is always better right?  Well... not always.  In fact, maybe not very often.  An age old trap for lifters is thinking that if I just do a little more work every time I go to the gym, I'll keep getting closer to meeting my goals.  So you keep going to the gym and hitting it hard, sometimes twice a day, week in and week out. You start to notice that your shoulders are aching when you wake up in the morning, but you've got a deadline for your goals so you have to keep adding weight.  Then your knees start to hurt, but you need to get a few extra sets of squats in.  You're not sleeping that well.  Even worse, your progress has come grinding to a halt.  Now what?  It seems like adding even more work is the ticket to get the numbers moving again, but where is the motivation to train?  You're hurting, tired, and stuck.  So let's rewind, what should you have done?

Training is like medicine.  You administer a dose and look for a response.  You don't prescribe chemotherapy to someone suffering from a cold.  You tell them to go take some over the counter decongestant and wait it out.  It's the minimum effective dose.  If you start at the nuclear option, there's nowhere else to progress if that doesn't work.  In addition, most drugs have side effects.  The less of a drug you can take to get the desired effect, the less you have to deal with the side effects.  Thinking of training in this way means, I'll do the least amount of work in the simplest possible way that will garner a training effect.  It limits the side effects (excessive soreness, joint pain, potential injury) and it leaves me with options for increasing the dose when the current dose stops working (different set and rep schemes, more sessions, etc.).

We can look at this from a variety of angles.  If you're training for strength and a simple progression of 3 sets of 5 reps will allow you to make progress, why make it any more complicated than that?  Pick all of the low hanging fruit you can, because progress is going to be much more difficult in the future.  There's no need to add bands and chains and specialty bars when you're a new lifter.  There's no need to rotate workouts every week or to do odd lifts to build your basic movements.  Simply practice the basic movements with enough weight on the bar to allow you to make progress.

If you're a crossfitter, do the WOD with weights and movements that allow you to move with the highest possible quality.  Get used to your body and learn how to use it.  You probably don't need to be training 2-3 times per day, 6 days per week at this point.  Get your 3-5 training sessions in per week and allow time for recovery.  When the progress stops, then you can address the reasons and perhaps the next step will be to up the dose.

If you're a runner, follow a plan that doesn't run you into the ground 365 days out of the year.  I think the reason so many runners are injured is that they don't have an off season.  Repetitive pounding on your ankles, knees, and hips is going to take its toll.  Build your running to your competitive season and then bring the dose back down to allow your body to recover.  Couch to 5k programs are great, if they get you off the couch and prepared for a 5k.  However, it could be that you should take a slower progression towards being the runner you want to be to allow you to make progress over a longer period of time.

So take a step back and look at your training.  Are you doing too much?  Do you go into workouts recovered and ready to work hard, or are you feeling beat up and tired?  If the goal is progress, and it should be, then you need to keep the goal the goal rather than just doing work for work's sake.  Look for the minimum effective dose that will carry you towards your goals.  Be smart, stay healthy, and train hard!

If you enjoy these blog posts, please take a minute to click the little buttons below and share them with your friends.  I think these are training messages that can make a difference to help you reach your goals, and would love to share this knowledge with as many people as I can.  You could also take a moment to join our facebook group.  Last plug, follow me on twitter and instagram @disruptivefit for updates on training and new posts. It's full of trainers and lifters who enjoy some discussion and are a great resource for training questions.  Thanks for reading!

Reset

"...have you tried turning it off and then back on again?"

You can hear the tech support guy's tired voice intone over the phone the first step of every technology troubleshooting process ever.  He's said it so many times to so many people, many of them inexperienced enough with technology that turning it off might require a few steps, that the phrase has lost its meaning to him.  It's a wonderful thing to keep in mind that it's almost always possible to reset the system.  It seems like that is part of the natural process of things in life, although sometimes it can be forced upon you if you are not diligently keeping tabs on what's important.  Because everything in the world falls apart when energy is not being spent to keep it together and we have limited energy and attention to keep it all moving, we'll be faced with the need to reset a variety of things at various times.  So what does that look like?

As a husband and a dad, I need constant resets in family life.  It's easy to take the people who are always around you for granted.  So I need to reset my attention and where I spend my energy to make sure that I'm working on keeping family a priority both in day-to-day life and in the big 30,000 foot level decisions we make.  Otherwise people tend to drift apart due to the universal principle I mentioned above, everything tends towards falling apart.  In this case I like to reset by unplugging from the nonessential parts of life, focusing on my family, and then plugging in the other stuff little by little.

As a business owner and as an employee I need constant resets.  If you aren't diligent in what you are doing as your trade, it's pretty easy to get in a rut and start mailing it in.  Once things get stale, you aren't doing your best work, no innovation is likely, and someone who is still hungry and having fun will be vying for your spot.  My favorite reset from working is camping, but we all need some kind of break to turn it off so we can turn it back on again.  Recreation is literally re-creating yourself through play and various pursuits you enjoy so that you can return to work refreshed with some new perspectives and ideas to keep things moving forward in new and interesting ways.

As a lifter I need regular resets.  If you continuously load your body with more and more work, you will eventually either bench press a school bus or you will break.  While I've seen a few guys who looked like a bus was not out of the question, it's more likely that you'll develop tendinitis or tear a muscle or some other malady if you never reset your training to give your body a rest.  If you don't respect your body and always ask more and more of it, it will let you know that that is unacceptable.  You can't treat your friends and loved ones like that or you won't have many left hanging around you.  While an injury can be a huge set back, sometimes it's your body's way of forcing a reset.  If it happens to you, take the time to consider why it happened.  Are you pressing towards your goals with too much haste, not allowing for things like recovery and rest?  Are your goals even realistic?  Have things been hurting for awhile, but you're ignoring it or treating it with your daily regimen of vitamin I (ibuprofen)?  Maybe it will go away is a five word phrase that leads to failure.

Since this is mostly a training blog, let's think of a few ways your training could be in need of a reset.

1.  You've stopped making progress.  This is the clearest sign you need to rethink things and take a new angle on your training.  If something you were doing was working and now it is not, you need to assess and make adjustments.  Dan John famously said that everything works... for about six weeks.  When you stop getting stronger, it's time to reset.  That could mean changing exercises or doing the same exercises with different implements for a little while.  More likely just changing the load, sets, and reps will do the trick.  The newer you are as a lifter, the less variety you need in your training to keep making progress.  The simplest reset is just to knock about 10% of the weight off the bar and then build back up.  It seems like your going backwards, but the reset gives your body some much needed recovery and allows you to train long term rather than burning out in a few months.

2.  Your technique is falling apart.  It's pretty common for technique to suffer as you approach 100% effort on a lift.  While some small changes in technique might be okay, big changes under a load can lead to injury.  The easiest example for this is squatting. When I have a lifter who is making great progress in bar weight but they stop squatting all the way to proper depth because they are afraid they'll be stapled to the floor at the bottom, it's time for a reset.  In this fashion a trainee can unload the bar some, get a little rest, and practice the exercise for more reps with less load on their body.  As they progress back up in weight the rest and the skill practice lead to new personal records.

3.  You've lost interest.  Let's face it... squatting every week for your whole life might be a little boring for some people.  It's probably the best way to be really strong and durable, but only if you do it.  So if your program is so boring that you're avoiding the gym, it could be time to step back and reassess what you're doing and why you're doing it.  Then you can reset by setting up a new program that adds in a little variety or perhaps add a training partner for a better training environment.  This one also requires a critical eye for program hopping.  If you're making progress on your current program, don't hop around looking for shortcuts.  There aren't any.

4. You're injured.  It happens, and when it happens if forces you to reset.  This could be a car accident that was an acute and totally unexpected injury, but more often for trainees it's something that was totally avoidable.  You've been ignoring all of the warning signals and pushing your body to failure.  You haven't been eating enough of the right foods or sleeping enough or drinking enough water.  That knee has been aching for months, but you haven't stopped to try to figure out why.  When something finally breaks, your body is forcing you to slow down and reset your training.  Early injuries in lifting tend to be smaller than when you're strong enough to move weights that will really break your body when your technique is sloppy or you're over-trained.  Listen to your body and respect it by taking advantage of the above resets and you can probably avoid this type of reset.

Resets are a natural part of life and required to continue making progress.  While it seems like a step back, a simple adjustment to the way you think about resets will make them a constant companion and friend.  Rather than thinking of it as losing ground, think of it as an artist who upon finishing a part of his masterpiece steps back to see how it fits with the whole.  If it adds something to the piece, it stays.  If not, it gets reworked to bring everything together.  Stand back, take in the whole picture, and reset what is necessary.

Every Rep Is Practice

I spend a lot, maybe even most, of my time in gyms.  I'm blessed to coach and lift in environments where people are really working hard, but even though I get to train in solid gyms, it's pretty common to see people going through the motions.  It can happen for a variety of reasons, but I think the biggest one is inattentiveness.  When you are not present for each and every rep of a training session, you will get less benefit from your training and you will create bad habits that have to be retrained in the future.

Every rep you complete of every exercise you do is practice.  Whether you are practicing for grace and perfection in your squat or for wobbly broken knees and a back that is out of position on your heavier sets is up to you.  The biggest offender is warm up sets.  As you unrack the empty bar, you should move with the same precision and purpose as a world record attempt.  Ed Coan talks about the methodical nature of his squat set up in a recent podcast with Mark Bell.  He made the point that because every rep was identical and intentional that when he came to the heavier weights (and he knew about heavy weights with a 900lb deadlift at a body weight of just 220lbs) it was just like the light ones in technical execution.

Musashi, famed Japanese swordsman and author of the Book of Five Rings, when talking about training said essentially the same thing, only about 500 years before me.  He wrote that when one trained they should do so strongly and with purpose.  There is no sense in wasted reps done without attention to detail, striving for perfection.  In weight lifting they build bad habits that can lead to injury and missing your full potential as an athlete.  In sword fighting, it can get you killed.

Knowing that just going through the motions sucks the life out of your training, how do you stay present for each and every rep in a training session?  Start by simply making an effort to be aware of what you are doing.  Feel your breathing, your balance, your position as you move through your warm up sets.  Strive for perfection as you prepare your body to work hard.  Intentionally set aside intruding thoughts as you train.  When it's time to squat, it's time to think about squats.  When the work report or assignment from school starts to creep in, set it aside and practice focusing on the task at hand.  When your attention is divided, you will not work as hard and the work will not be as effective as a result.  Realize that this is a practice and it will take practice to master it.  When you are making an effort to stay focused on one thing, you will probably notice how distracted you tend to be as you move through a training session.  With time and discipline, you will be able to be fully present and fully immerse yourself in your training.  That kind of 100% effort, stretched out over a long period of time is the way to maximum results.  Remember, every rep is practice.  As you practice, you will develop habits.  Your habits will dictate your results.  Put your full attention into every rep, every day and watch your training take off.

Goals: Direction

Direction is one of the most difficult things to find in life, just ask any 23 year old college graduate.  For the last 16 years someone else has been setting their goals.  It starts with colors, shapes, and letters and ends with some pretty complex arrangements of colors, shapes, and letters.  But now you're a graduate.  No more teachers and institutions directing your path.  So what will you do now?  It's up to you.  For a few motivated grads, this means that the world is their oyster, full of opportunity.  For many, it's a paralyzing task to try to determine the direction for the next 50 years of life.

I find the gym to be a pretty decent analog to life.  One of the most difficult things for many trainees is deciding on a direction to take their training.  Sure, there are a few who seem to effortlessly glide into an intelligent program and solid goals, but for the most part that is not the case.  In my case, I trained for nearly 10 years before really understanding what I was doing and why I was doing it.

At its worst a lack of direction can lead to rampant program hopping, over-education, and a discouraging lack of progress.  At best it leads to mediocre training that is too diluted to bring any real results.  Couple this with poor habits outside of the gym and you have a recipe for landing back on the couch in 2 months or less.  While we all secretly wish we could just lay on the couch instead of going to the gym from time to time, we all know that it will not end well.

Your direction in the gym should be determined by your long term goals.  If the direction of your training is not relevant to what you are trying to accomplish, it just doesn't make any sense.  You might need to hire a coach to help you think through and plan the action steps to move you towards that goal.  Setting the direction of your training is a lot like investing, most people don't do that without good advice from a qualified professional.  While what happens with your money is pretty important, I'd argue that keeping your body healthy and ready for any necessary task is probably a little more important.  So don't skip working with a qualified coach to keep an eye on your overall program and to help keep your training moving in the right direction.

Once you've set your course, it's time to put your head down and grind it out.  Stop reading all the fitness magazines offering you 3 weeks to huge guns and a tight butt.  Stay the course and continuously move in the direction you have chosen.  Don't be in a hurry to see results.  Instead, focus on the process of getting a little bit better every single day.  Direction is a long term process.  It will guide the next 20 years of your training.  That means there might be small tweaks and course corrections, but huge shifts should be fairly rare.

In summary, setting the direction of your training is hugely important.  Start with your goals, talk with a coach, put your hand to the plow, and get to work.  Don't constantly watch the scale or become preoccupied with numbers on the bar.  Do be preoccupied with doing the next right thing, every single day, for the rest of your life.  If you miss here and there, it's not going to be a problem because the overall direction of your training is going to keep you moving.  It's when you lose your direction that you find yourself back on the couch.