Why Recovery Time and Training Efficiency is Ten Times
More Important Than You Think
Have you ever seen the guy in the gym who pumps iron for two or three hours every day? You see him every time you go to the gym and no matter how long you stay, he stays longer.
You might be impressed by this guy…but you shouldn't be. I want you to think of him as a Neanderthal. He's a guy who uses the lowest possible technology and intellect to solve a simple problem. He does twenty hours of work when fifteen minutes would do the job better.
More Bang for the Buck
The purpose of lifting weights is to trigger an adaptive response in the body. That response is to build more muscle tissue. This happens when muscles are forced to operate at a higher intensity of output than normal. Intensity is measure in work per unit of time.
So all you have to do is get each muscle group to hoist more weight per minute than you did the last time. And even if that maximum stimulus lasts only five seconds, it will trigger the desired growth. In fact, those five seconds will trigger more growth than grinding out the same twenty sets on same five exercises using the same weights as your last workout.
It's like getting a suntan. Five minutes in full July sunlight will stimulate more tan than two hours sitting in the shade.
Here are four ways to get more bang for your buck:
Use the one exercise that allows you to hoist the most weight for that muscle group. For example, to work the quadriceps you could do squats or hack squats or leg extensions or the leg press. But if you experiment you'll discover that you can use the most weight on a leg press. Do that. Perform one all out set on the leg press then move to the next muscle group. If you can't increase the weight on a particular exercise, use a power rack or a Smith machine to reduce the range of motion and lift the weight in only your strongest range. The muscle building stimulus works whether you move a weight one inch or two feet. After all, it's still your muscle that is forced to hoist that weight, the distance is not the most important factor, the weight is.
Divide your workouts into an A and B routine that each involves half of the muscle groups. This allows you to work harder each time you visit the gym because you do fewer exercises.
Write down what weight you use on each exercise so you can be certain to add a bit more each time. Four hours in the gym is meaningless if the intensity of overload (weight per minute) does not increase.
Less Wear and Tear
Exercise is stress. Every time you do a workout your body must fully recover before any growth will take place. It's obvious that recovering from hours and hours in the gym will take longer than recovering from five or six exercises that last two minutes or less each. This point is completely missed on the Neanderthal who never fully recovers and – because he insists on working out every day – has to decrease the intensity of his workouts in order to complete them.
If you think of exercise as medicine this issue becomes crystal clear. Suppose you had high blood pressure and needed to take a medication for it. You'd want the lowest possible dose that would place your blood pressure within the acceptable range. You would never subject your body to five or ten times the dose necessary to achieve that goal because it places unnecessary stress on your body. But the Neanderthal would. He just uses the “more is better” philosophy and in doing so he exposes himself to more wear and tear on his body and greater risk of injury.
When you walk into the gym, ask yourself what the minimum dose of exercise is that will trigger a strength increase in your quads, chest, biceps or whatever muscle groups you are working that day. Take the minimum dose and leave the gym.
More Time Outside the Gym
Which brings me to the most important point. Use your new strength and health to enjoy life outside the gym. If you build muscle for martial arts, go practice your techniques. If you build strength for rock climbing, get out of the gym and go enjoy climbing in the great outdoors!
The Neanderthal spends far too much of his life in the gym because he doesn't know any better. He uses a low technology and limited intellect and he suffers greatly for it. The greatest things in life pass him by while he vainly sweats in a gym.
Fewer Exercises
One of the biggest mistakes you’ll see in the gym is people who do many exercises for each muscle group. This is not necessary. Muscles grow though an adaptive response to the intensity at which they are forced to work. Intensity is measured by the amount of work done per unit of time. You will actually achieve better results in less time if you perform one very high intensity exercise per muscle group. For example, some people will work their chest by doing 3 sets of cable crossovers followed by 3 sets on the pec dec and finally 3 sets on the bench press. Our studies have shown that 90% of trainees will actually receive better results by performing one set of all-out, super high intensity bench presses of either 8 reps or 5 to 10 seconds of a static hold.
This is great news to everyone but it is particularly good for those of us who are over forty because performing multiple sets of multiple exercises is very depleting. Yet it is just not necessary.
Fewer Workouts
The three biggest lies in strength training are “Monday, Wednesday and Friday”!! Fixed strength training schedules don’t work for very long. The goal of every workout should be to increase the intensity of work done compared to your previous workout. As intensity increases your body needs more time to recover (especially as we get older!) so workouts have to be spaced further apart. This is more good news to everyone except the exercise addict. When you begin a strength training program you might be able to work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, provide your body can fully recover with just one day off. But as you get stronger and start hoisting some really heavy iron, you WILL need more time to recover. So your third or fourth week might allow you to train on Mondays and Thursdays. Two weeks later you might only be able to see increases in intensity if you train one day per week. After a month of that you will need to train only once every ten or fifteen days. I work with advanced trainees who now lift weights once every six weeks and they see improvements in every exercise on every workout.
The truth is you can achieve your optimum muscularity by working out with precisely engineered workouts that contain clear goals about as frequently as you get a haircut. That’s very welcome news to those of us who just want results and don’t use the gym as a social gathering place.
I want you to use a higher technology that lets you get out of the gym with all the health benefits of strength and fitness and the maximum time to go squeeze the juice out of life!!
Peter Sisco is co-author of Power Factor Training, Static Contraction Training and other books. He is also the editor of the five-book "Ironman's Ultimate Bodybuilding" series.
| The LIFETIME STRENGTH e-book shows you how to get maximum results in minimum time.
| | | Copyright © 2007 Peter N. Sisco and Precision Training, LLC. All rights reserved. |
|
|
