|
|
By
Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems |
|
Whether or not they realize
it on a conscious level, the majority of people who lift weights
for bodybuilding purposes regard fatigue as the primary goal
of training. This has always struck me as odd and unproductive,
yet all the current trends in modern exercise culture support
my premise.
In fact, two of the most popular
exercise trends today, Tae Bo and Body Pump, are superb examples:
|
 |
In Tae-Bo, the participant performs
hundreds if not thousands of pseudo martial arts maneuvers to music
within the course of a single class. After one year of regular Tae-Bo
training, the quality of your martial arts skills will be somewhat
less than a beginning martial arts student on his first day of class
at the worst dojo in town, but the quantity of techniques you will
have performed will exceed what a 10th degree black belt has experienced
over 25 years of training.
Nevertheless, most participants are
happy with the program— after all, they leave the class thoroughly
exhausted.
I also have warm and fuzzy feelings
about Body Pump, which is essentially an aerobics class with miniaturized
rubber barbells. The class participants perform endless “squats,”
“bench presses,” and other conventional strength training
exercises (even “clean & jerks”!), modified to fit
the class structure involved, and the lack of proper equipment and
proper instruction.
Body Pump is quintessentially high
on quantity, low on quality. Like Tae-Bo, people love it because
they leave the class sweaty and exhausted. Here’s a new concept:
pain, discomfort, and fatigue should be the (sometimes) unavoidable
side effectsof training, not
the GOAL of training.
For example, if a bodybuilder’s
objective is to gain lean body mass, he or she may often experience
fatigue and discomfort during the process of training.
But success is judged by the ability
to gain lean mass, NOT the ability to suffer the side-effects of
training. If a trainee can gain 10 pounds of muscle a month without
breaking a sweat or tearing a callous, I’d call that success.
If they end up losing some sweat or experiencing some soreness along
the way, I’d still call
it a success.
Most trainees are amazingly unaware
and unconcerned about making progress though — as long as they’re
suffering along the way. You never hear someone say “Today
at the gym, I’m going to make a sincere attempt to exceed my
best 3-rep performance on the front squat.” But you always
hear people saying “Yo—
let’s do sets of 100 on the squat till we puke!”
If you can relate to the latter reference,
let me save you some time— open a 20oz bottle of coke and mix
in about 3 teaspoons of salt. Get a large bucket ready, and attempt
to drink the entire bottle in one chug. This will give new meaning
to the term “Body Pump.”
Last week, I received an e-mail asking
my opinion about how frequently I recommend training to failure,
since a colleague of mine had apparently recommended once every
three weeks. This question reflects the immense state of confusion
that most people are laboring under.
Let me state this again: the goal
is to make continual, gradual progress. Occasionally, along the
way, you may reach failure as you push your limits to the maximum,
but failure is NOT the goal! It is NOT something that you should
put in your schedule, much like a lunch meeting!
Personal training is not immune to
this phenomenon. Interestingly enough, people seem to revel in what
a personal trainer will do TO you, not what they can do FOR you.
A trainer who fails to make his clients sweat, or who fails to leave
his clients in a partial state of paralysis after a workout will
be a disappointment to his clients.
Often, workouts are designed for this
sole purpose (to create a high level of fatigue), rather than to
elicit a training effect. I’m not sure if I blame trainers
for this. After all, if you don’t give the client what she
wants, she’ll find another trainer who will!
Where Does Our
Obsession With Fatigue Come From?
Over several years of training, many
athletes learn to form an association between effective training
and the side-effects of that training. In other words, during the
month of July you trained hard and made a lot of progress. During
that month, you were frequently sore, and your joints ached. In
August, you were on vacation, and didn’t train at all. According,
your skills and fitness levels declined. Before you know it, over
years and years, you learn to develop an association.
That association is deceptive, however.
Just because you’re experiencing pain from your training doesn’t
mean your fitness levels are improving. And conversely, effective
training doesn’t always hurt.
I once worked with a college level
football player who hired me to prepare him for the NFL combines.
Of particular concern was an upper body strength test which involved
bench pressing 225 pounds for as many repetitions as possible. Our
goal was at least 25 reps, and my client could perform about 13
reps with that weight when he hired me. (Incidentally this particular
test is somewhat idiotic, since it tests strength endurance, rather
than absolute or speed strength, which are the target motor qualities
in football).
This particular athlete had a tremendous
work-ethic. This is a great quality to have when you’re an
athlete, but it also leads one down the road of association pain
with success— often a big mistake. In any event, he was used
to training in the weightroom for 5-6 days a week, for 2-3 hours
at a time. This was aside from all his football training, sprinting,
and so forth.
Knowing that strength endurance is
based on absolute strength, the first part of the program I wrote
for him focused on improving his single repetition maximum, or the
most weight he could lift for one rep, but not two. This number
was about 315 pounds when he hired me. 225 is about 71% of that
number. I hypothesized that a weight he could lift 25 times would
correspond to roughly 60% of his “1RM.” So our goal was
a 1RM of 365 pounds, which, multiplied by .60 gives us 225.
Improving absolute strength typically
requires heavy resistances, but low repetitions and ample rests
between sets. This type of training is difficult, but does not leave
you feeling “trashed” like a typical bodybuilding-type
workout (composed of high repetitions and minimal rests between
sets).
I got a call from my client after
he had been on the program for about 12 weeks. “How’s
training?” I asked him. “Well, I don’t know”
he replied. “I really don’t even feel like I’m training...I
don’t usually even break a sweat.” I could tell he was
enormously concerned. “How is your bench press performance?”
I asked. “Oh— that’s doing great!” he exclaimed.
“I did a 355 two days ago!”
I then asked “Look, do you just
want to be in pain all the time, or do you want your performances
to improve?” In the silent moments that followed, I could almost
hear him make a new association. He had in fact, improved his bench
press from 315 to 355 in only 12 weeks. Upon reflection, it suddenly
occurred to him that this was more improvement than he had made
over the past 3 years combined— years where he was in almost
constant pain and exhaustion from his herculean training schedule.
Now of course, don’t lose sight
of the point— I’m not suggesting that everyone in the
reading audience automatically tone down their training...I’m
simply suggesting that we all do a bit of reflection in an effort
to clarify our objectives.
The “All-Pain, No-Gain” Workout Program
Now, as I said earlier, I do realize
that if I don’t give you what you’re looking for, you’ll
just go to someone else who will. The following is a lower body
workout that will REALLY trash you. Trust me on this one.
Note: at the commencement of each
workout, I recommend picking up the phone, putting the receiver
off the hook, and dialing “9” and “1.” In this
way, should circumstances dictate, all you’ll need to do is
to dial the last “1” for immediate medical assistance.
(Lower Body— Mondays, Wednesdays,
& Fridays)
A: Depth Jumps
10 sets of 10 reps
Rest: 15 seconds
Notes: Select a box that is 66% of
your height. For example, an athlete who stands 6 feet tall should
use a 4 foot tall box. Use bare feet and land onto concrete surface
wearing a 50 pound weight vest. Upon impact, tense up as hard as
possible, visualizing that you are trying to drive your feet through
the concrete.
B: Downhill Running on Stairmaster
“Gauntlet”
10 intervals of 3 minutes duration each
Rest: 30 seconds
Notes: This is the Stairmaster unit
that resembles an escalator. Most people use it improperly—
here’s the right way: face backwards and step down 3 steps
at a time— you’ll have to basically jump down from step
to step, due to the distance between the 3 steps. Continue for 3
minutes or until your tibea shatters and punctures through the skin
on your shins. Rest 30 seconds and repeat.
|
|
C: Super-slow Stiff-legged
Deadlift (100’s)
1 set of 100
Tempo: 30-0-30
Notes: That’s right—
100 reps where each rep lasts 60 seconds. Look— if
you want just “average” pain, follow some one
else’s program. If you want REAL pain, professional
level pain, this will do the job. Stand on a bench and make
sure to touch your shoelaces with your knuckles in the bottom
position (rounding your low back will be necessary to accomplish
this).
Cool-down: take a one hour
Tae-Bo class immediately after your work sets.
That’s it. Don’t
waste precious time twitching around on the floor trying
to stave off a coma— those muscles need lycopene, and
they need it NOW!
Post-workout meal: 6 sliced
tomatoes with hot fudge sauce. The lycopene ingestion must
be immediate (the hot fudge delivery system will help to
speed it to your muscle cells). Feels just like Deca. Well,
kind of.
|
|
|
|
Got a Website, Blog
or Newsletter?
CLICK HERE to learn how you can republish
Charles Staley's
articles on your site for free!
|
 |
|
About The Author
|
His colleagues call him an iconoclast,
a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The
Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches
miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled
in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’
methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious
results. His counter-intuitive approach and self-effacing
demeanor have lead to appearances on NBC’s The TODAY
Show and The CBS Early Show.
Currently, Charles competes
in Olympic-style weightlifting on the master’s circuit,
with a 3-year goal of qualifying for the 2009 Master’s
World Championships.
|
|
Learn More
About
EDT Training!
You can build
muscle and strength and burn fat in as little as 15 minutes,
3 times a week with EDT...it works for EVERYONE
- male, female, young, old...your body simply has no choice
but to get results!
Click
here to learn more
and get your copy today!
 |
|
