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Brendon Rearick sent me this in an e-mail about an article he is working on. Another great quote from John Maxwell in his book Today Matters. This little reminder applies to everything in life from health, to relationships to your professional life.

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“If you neglect enough todays, you’ll experience the “someday” you’ve always wanted to avoid”

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For me, training purely for raw strength is the most enjoyable pursuit in the world. The beauty of this endeavor lies in its simplicity. There is no secret ingredient or special sauce in the recipe.

Tasty but not effective for strength gains...

It all comes back to one common denominator: Your time spent under the bar.

Some are more genetically gifted than others, but what Pavel says is true: “Strength is a skill”

You have to learn to be strong and get good at lifting. Treat it like a sport and practice. You don’t always have to go hard but you’ve got to get in the gym and practice your skill. Practice pressing, practice squatting, practice dead lifting and practice whatever else you want to be strong at. The best lifters have practiced.

Don’t get fancy. Be “brilliant at the basics.” Learn Dan John’s essential movements: Squat, Hinge, Press, Row and Carry. Call me bias to Boyle, but I think you should get proficient at a single leg movement as well. All together that gives you 6 things to work on. 6 things. That’s not a lot to ask for. Practice the patterns DAILY and load them a few times a week. Do this for years and progress the pattern variation and intensity accordingly.

Slow, consistent progress is key. Don’t worry so much about Russian Periodization Models or the new Delt/Arm routine that Jimmy Gunz has in this months Muscle and Fitness.

Bill Starr’s 5×5, Jim Wendlers 5/3/1 or Dan John’s Mass Made Simple are all that 90% of people in this world need to reach their strength training goals.

I’ve been using Wendler’s 5/3/1 for my main lifts for years now and it hasn’t failed me yet. It goes like this. Find your max. Base your training numbers off 90% of that.

Week 1: 60% x 5/70%  x 5/80% x 5+ (last set as many as possible, 5-9 rep range)

Week 2: 65% x 3/75% x 3/85% x 3+ (last set as many as possible, 3-7 rep range)

Week 3: 70% x 5/80% x 3/90% x 1+ (last set as many as possible, 1-5 rep range)

Week 4: Deload

Don’t miss reps. Learn to accept starting with lighter weights on the bar.  Getting pinned because you wanted to impress the yoga pants on the elliptical is stupid and only impedes progress. Lift sub-maximally and set rep records weekly. If you did weight X for two more reps than you did last phase then you got stronger. At the end of each phase, if you are hitting your numbers then bump your max up 2.5 or 5 lbs. If you missed stay where you are. Adapt your numbers and repeat. Do this for years, consistently. I’m not kidding.

You need to stop over thinking accessory work. Ask yourself this: “What do I suck at?” Answer honestly and then go train that quality. Realize that Pareto’s Law applies here. You’ll get 80 percent of your results from 20% of what you do (i.e. your main lifts). The accessory work is exactly that, accessory. It’s there to supplement what you are already doing. Pick what needs work and train it. Wendler likes to prescribe 5 sets of 10 on assistance work. I do this and think it works great, but choose what works for you.

Here are my favorites…

Pulling: Chin-Up/Pull-Up Varitions, DB Row, TRX Row, Batwings, Sled Rope Pulling

Pressing: Close-Grip Bench, Floor Press, Board Press, OH KB Pressing, Push-Up Variations, Single Arm Pressing

Knee Dominant: Lunge Variations, Front Squat, Single Leg Squats, Heavy Sled Pushing/Dragging

Hip Dominant: SLDL, GHR, Hip Thrusts, RDL

Core: Anti-Rotations Press outs, Carrying Variations, Rollouts, Landmine, Cable Chops and Lifts.

A good choice for assistance work..

Your soft-tissue quality will certainly take a beating if you’re training hard, so take care of it. Think about a race car that never take a pit stop. Your body is no different. You can’t get stronger if your knees and shoulders go to shit.

Know where your mobility and stability weaknesses are and have a consistent soft-tissue maintenance routine. Use the roller and lacrosse ball daily. Stretch everything, do your mobility drills and movement prep work. Go get massage treatments periodically. This stuff is easy to do and not very strenuous so if you skip it you’re just being stubborn and lazy. 

Eat to support what you’re trying to achieve. You won’t get bigger and stronger if you’re eating like a little girl. Consistent protein, starchy carbs, a variety of fruits and vegetable and post-workout shakes everyday is the key. Don’t waste your money on the XXX Super Sizer Mass Gainer at GNC instead, learn to cook quality meats and vegetables and don’t be afraid of having seconds.

Finally, learn that there will be ups and downs. Realize, that strength gains won’t be linear.

Think about it like this:

Lifting is like baseball, you won’t hit home runs on every swing. Sometimes you’ll hit singles, sometimes you’ll walk and even strike out. Month to month, you will have a lot of workouts that are “pretty good”, some that were “awesome” and a few that “flat out sucked.” Realize it’s not about the grand slams, it’s about your on base percentage. Keep in mind, the best lifters, just like the best hitters don’t miss often. Great hitters consistently get on base, similarly the best lifters consistently put in their reps year round.  This assures long-term progress and a pretty good batting  lifting average.

Thanks for reading,

Kevin

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• Categories Strength Training

My favorite part of coaching at MBSC is training my  6 AM adult group on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Some may think I have lost my mind for finding so much enjoyment in waking up at the crack of dawn to work with this group of aging, often flawed group of adults but I highly respect my athletes who continually wake up early to wage their war against injury, obesity and atrophy. I think it’s pretty damn impressive that I can get a dozen people in their 3x a week to train BEFORE they go to work. If you think that’s impressive how about the 25+ Brendon Rearick has on Tu/Th mornings!

When creating the adult program for my group the biggest problem I found was the widespread movement dysfunction and past injury history. Sure we had plenty of people who needed to lose weight but I’m a firm believer that if you fix nutrition and re-train movement first the weight will come off. From hips to backs to shoulders I had a rag-tag group of adult athletes who needed to be re-trained how to move. When I first started doing this they couldn’t squat, they couldn’t hinge, the push-ups sucked and we were all around pretty damn weak.

I knew that we had to start from square one, be patient and get brilliant at the basics. I think the most successful piece of the whole program was the movement prep and warm-up that Brendon and I came up with. Every workout starts with soft-tissue work and a circuit of correctives for all the major patterns and the most prevalent dysfunctions we saw in the population. For the warm-up circuit we borrowed ideas from Dan John and the FMS to take the essential movements and do them EVERYDAY. As weeks progressed, the correctives progressed and movement improved. Now, looking back it’s amazing how far we’ve come. It’s pretty cool to see some of our adults completely change their movement and actually start to become pretty good lifters! Check out below as I break down our approach.

Foam Roll/Lax Ball SMR

• Roller: Glutes, Hamstring, Quad, Erector, T-Spine, Lat
• Lax Ball: Calf, Pec, Cuff, Hip Flexor, Quad Tendon

Stretching/Mobility

• Box Hip Flexor IR Stretch
• Leg Lowering Progressions
• Hip Rotator Stretch (Pigeon)
• Posterior Capsule Stretch
• Adductor Hip Rocking

Mobility/Activations

• Breathing Progression
• Cook Hip Lift
• T-Spine Extensions/Rotations
• Wallslides
• Psoas Activation Progression
• Ankle Mobility
• Rotator Cuff Strengthing
• Core Activation

Warm-Ups

• Squat Progression: Toe Touch Squat > Squat Pressout > OH Squat
• Split Squat Progression: Static Split Squat > Lunge > Lunge with Ball
• Hinge: PVC Pipe Good Morning or KB Hinge > KB/DB Deadlift > Swing
• Push: Push-Up Progression
• Pull: TRX Row Hold > TRX Row
• Carry: Farmer, Suitcase, Goblet, Overhead or Heartbeat
• Lower Power: Box Jump/Shuttle Jump > Single or Double Hurdle Jump > Bounding
• Upper Power: Medicine Ball Progressions: Chest Pass, Side Toss, Slams

Check out the videos below where I show the progressions phases 1 and 2. Also if you want to join the fun at 6 AM sign up here: www.bodybyboyle.com/programs_adult

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“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing”

&

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure”

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The Greatest.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

Whenever you think you’re too tired to finish something, keep working. Always finish. Whether you’re in the gym, at home or at work, keep working till you finish what you set out to do. The time spent working on the front end is what will determine your level of success on the back end. Be a finisher.

-Kevin

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