Why You Shouldn't Listen to Your Physical Therapist

Physical therapy is a great field and ever-evolving. It's filled with practitioners who are intelligent, highly educated and frequently just want to help people. These are all good things. Unfortunately physical therapy in it's current form has some severe limitations. As with most things, the issue is not the field itself. The field is moving in the right direction. The problem is the individual clinicians.

The main issue with the average therapist is not one of capability or education. You can't be what they are or do what they do if you lack either. No, the problem actually happens to be the place from where they precede; in other words, the motivation that drives their practice. My initial foray into human physiology came through the window of human performance. Most of my education and research was driven by the pursuit of lifting massive amounts of weight, running absurdly fast and being able to hit things with the force of a sun-drunk Superman. As such, the paradigms that I developed in my mind on how to deal with and improve human movement dysfunctions all had their basis in performance enhancement. On the flip side, most therapists' educations begins deeply embedded in the hippocratic oath: the desire to do no harm.

This is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. It's situational. If you are elderly and your body is all jacked up from years and years of misuse, you have a low pain tolerance and all you really want to be able to do is go up and down your stairs then the therapist who's main goal is not to hurt you may be entirely capable. This is a fairly hyperbolic example but there are plenty of cases where the desire to fix as much as you can while never hurting your patient is entirely useful. Not everyone is trying to become a monster athlete. Physical therapists are incredibly effective at getting you back to baseline because it is exactly what they are taught to do.

The system breaks down when you're dealing with people like me, or, chances are if you're reading this blog, someone like you. If you are always trying to push yourself to be bigger, faster and stronger then taking "do no harm," approach is like driving with the parking brake on. No matter how much you floor the pedal it's still going to hold you back.

As long as we have therapists telling athletes not to lift heavy and to keep their arms below overhead if it hurts their shoulder we're going to have a damaged field. These are simply not acceptable responses. Yes, of course there are going to be situations where the damage to the patient is so severe that there are activities they will no be capable of, but if you are willing to clear a patient to go play college football yet you still advise them to not lift heavy weights then, simply put, you're a f*cking idiot. So, you think this person's body is capable of performing dynamic, multi-planar movements at explosive speeds and possesses the physical integrity to take hits that are thousands of pounds of force and they're going to be okay... but performing repetitive exercises in a controlled environment is dangerous because the load is too high? Seriously guys?

The problem, once again, comes from the initiation of the advice. Most physical therapists don't care how much you can squat or bench press. All they care about is that you are pain free and you don't have inflammation. Therefore all of their recommendations and modifications have this goal in mind: don't go past parallel on a squat, don't deadlift heavy weight, don't do overhead presses and for the love of god don't ever lift more than your bodyweight because all of that stuff might hurt you. If that's all I ever cared about I would never get out of bed in the morning and as a clinician if these are the goals for your patients you're f*ckin' up.

That being said both Grey Cook and Kelly Starrett are DPTs and not only are they brilliant clinicians but they are spearheading the movement in the field to integrate strength and conditioning into clinical practice. I am a huge fan of their philosophies and practices because they believe what I believe: whether you're rehabbing a post surgical joint or improving the efficiency of a power clean it's all the same thing. Healthy is healthy, disordered is disordered and no matter how you slice it movement is movement.

So that's my rant for today but it raises an important question I think. You all know how I feel about the average personal trainer and now I'm telling you you can't trust DPTs either? But then whoever shall I trust for all of my exercise science needs?!?! Who?!?!

RELEVANT. Really. Batman is always relevant. 

My goal was not tell you that PTs are bad. They're not. Nor was it to tell you that they don't know what they're doing. They do. This post, like a few others, was more aimed at broadening your horizons and helping you guys see the big picture a little bit better. If you are an athlete you need a PT who understands and respects that. You need a PT who can show you how to do what you want to do better and prevent you from re-injuring yourself, not a PT who tries to prevent re-injury through avoidance. Becoming Invincible is about confronting your weaknesses head on and beating the sh*t out of them until they become strengths. Next time your PT tells you not to do something ask them why. If their response is anything other than "your joint is so compromised that doing this movement in any way will absolutely lead to injury," then it might be time to start looking for a new clinician. 

Do me a favor though? Don't use this post as an excuse to talk to them like they're dumb. They may not be perfect for athletes yet, but that same therapist who told you not to break parallel with your knees might have just helped a little boy walk for his first time. It's all relative, kids. 

Good luck and good lifting.

Cheers. 

Self Soft-tissue Mobilization (How to Use a Foam Roller)

So you've probably seen these things. They're all over the place nowadays, in gyms and sporting goods stores. You might even see them at a chiropractor or  a physical therapy clinic. Many of us are familiar with the bitter sweet combination of pain and relief they bring to sore, battered muscles. Others of us are probably asking themselves a very simple and totally reasonable question:

"What the hell are these weird looking foam tubes?"

Well, my post-workout recovery challenged friends, this weird looking foam tube might just be your new best friend. I covered this subject briefly in a previous post but I only really addressed what it's good for, not how to use it. The foam roller is one of the cheapest and most versatile tools for self soft-tissue mobilization (SSTM). Sounds fancy and science-y (and frankly I'm not sure it's a real term) but what it means is that this simple foam cylinder can help unglue immobile tissue, increase joint mobility and range of motion and ultimately help make you bigger, more bad-ass and a bit closer to becoming invincible.

So, how does it work and how do you use one? First, a quick anatomy lesson.
Our muscles and our musculoskeletal system is not one single, contiguous unit. Just like an engine in a car it is a large, functioning system made up of a number of smaller pieces. First and foremost (because this is a Strength blog, damn it) are your muscles:

As you can see your muscles are made up of several smaller units that are all wrapped into bundle and each bundle is made up of similarly smaller units wrapped in similar bundles. Uhm, right. I think that made sense. Anyway, each one of these "bundles" is surrounded by fascia, a type of woven connective tissue that holds everything together. At any point in any of these units a number of things can happen. 

You know how when you go to get a massage they work out all those nasty "knots" in your muscles? This is one of the ways that tissue gets glued down. A "knot" is a group of fibers that at some point contracted and then failed to relax all of the way. In addition to this, all of your tissues need to be be able to slide over one another well enough to allow motion. If some of your muscle tissue is tied down because of some type of scar tissue (frequently referred to as an "adhesion") then the tissues can't move properly which means you can't move properly.

In addition to our muscles we also have tendons and ligaments. Our tendons attach muscles to bone and our ligaments attach bones to each other. Similar to muscles, ligaments and tendons can also become victim to some type of adhesion or get locked down and become immobile due to local inflammation or muscle stiffness. What I mean is this, your tendons attach your muscles to your bones so if the muscle being attached is tonic (partially contracted) the tendon may be pulled tighter than it should at all times which will reduce the motion of the antagonist muscles (the muscles that move the joint in the opposite direction i.e. bicep-tricep, quad-hamstring etc.) and may lead to joint stiffness, pain and lost range of motion. Honestly, you're probably not going to be doing a whole lot of tendon or ligament mobilization with a foam roller. This is usually pretty specific soft tissue work that a trained clinician performs with their hands but I figured it was worth mentioning. 

Ligaments! (That's a foot, in case you weren't sure.)

Tendons! (And this is an elbow. Really. Swear.)

Finally, we can't forget about our big beautiful epidermis. That's a fancy word for skin. Get your mind out of the gutter. While skin isn't a contractile tissue nor is it truly structural, it can still get tacked down the way your muscles, ligaments and tendons do to an extent which can ultimately lead to the same problems. If you're movement's not good then you can't exercise....um...good-ly. Right. 

Skin! Totally how it looks in your body. Same colors and everything. Come on, would I lie to you?

So we've got a few different types of tissue that love to get all up in each others business and cause more physiological drama than a Mean Girl with a Facebook app. So what do we do? Enter your White Knight: Sir Foam Roller of Mobilization.

Sigh. Sometimes even I realize how bad my jokes are. Anyway, these things come in all sorts of shapes and sizes some as simple as a round piece of foam like those pictured above and then theres some crazier ones. Like these. 

If you're new to foam rolling I would recommend starting with the simple, basic foam roller. The more complex variations like the two pictured above tend to be made of a harder material (PVC pipe or something similar on the inside as opposed to foam) and are therefore more painful. They are also ridged or pointed so that you can apply more direct, focused pressure to certain tissues; something that you'll need a little experience with SSTM before you can realistically or effectively approach.

Now that you understand the anatomy and you've acquired your weapon of choice, let's talk about how to use it. It would be wonderful if simple laying down and rolling back and forth on it was effective and I think a lot of personal trainers and fitness publications out there would have you believe this. Hell, I've seen DPTs prescribe this kind of activity to patients. It might feel better for a little while but if you're just fumbling around you're hardly going to effect any kind of significant or long lasting change. In order to do that, you need to have a purpose and a plan. 

Foam Rolling Techniques

1. Intermittent Pressure - This is basically rolling back and forth on a knot. I know, I know. I just told you absently rolling around is pointless and I'm not retracting that statement. The purpose of intermittent pressure is to locate a knot or a location of tied down tissue (these are indicated by a sharp increase in pain when you pass over them. Trust me, you'll know.) Now, using the foam roller as your divining rod and the sensation of pain as your indicator, locate the limits of the knot. Once you've found them, stay inside them and roll back and forth while deliberately attempting to relax your muscles. Continue doing this until you feel a change in the tissue. You can keep doing it for as long as you can stand it but once you've gone a minute or two and feel like nothing's changed, you're probably done with that location for the moment. There's only so much you can fix in a single application.

2. Constant Pressure with Contraction/Relaxation - This is the method that I personally think sucks the most in terms of pain. You begin initially with a similar technique as Intermittent Pressure to locate immobile tissue.  Now, instead of finding the outer limits of the pain, find the central, most painful location. Apply constant pressure and then contract your muscle fully and hold for a few seconds. Once you start to relax do it slowly and consciously, don't just let your muscle go slack in a second. You should be able to relax further than you did when you initially placed the pressure over the muscle. Once again, repeat the technique until you feel that you've effected enough of a change or you feel like nothing significant is happening anymore.

3. Constant pressure with joint motion - Again, begin by locating what feels like tacked down tissue. Now, while maintaining pressure on the tissue, begin moving the joint that muscle controls through it's range of motion. Attempt to move it as much as possible in as many directions without significantly hurting yourself. This type of mobilization is great for breaking up adhesions or scar tissue. You know how sometimes when you have a loose thread on a shirt, if you try to pull it off it just pulls out more thread and keeps unraveling? Well, what do you do in that situation? You hold down the end of it and try to pull off the thread without unraveling more. This functions under the same principle. You pin down one end of the adhesion and try to remove it by moving the adhered tissue underneath it. As above, continue the technique until you feel you're no longer getting anything out of it.

Now that you understand the techniques, a few precautions to pay attention to:

-These mobilizations can take anywhere from 1-10 minutes, in some severe cases maybe even more. If you're spending 30 seconds on the foam roller you're not trying hard enough.

-while a simple foam-core roller may be effective initially, eventually you'll probably need something harder to get deep into your tissues particularly if you're muscular. More muscle is great, but it means more tissue that can get knotted and tacked down and the denser the muscle the harder it becomes to create deep enough pressure to effect change. 

-these mobilizations are uncomfortable. They should not be painful. While some people would claim semantics the truth is that there is a significant difference. In the words of Dr. Kelly Starrett, "don't go into the pain cave." His point is that we are capable of doing some terrible things to ourselves if we go hide in our mental caves and we can shut out an immense amount of pain. Do not do this. If you need to go into the pain cave to deal with your mobilization you are most likely doing it too hard and damaging something.

Or you might be a wimp. But it's probably the first thing. Probably. 

So there you have it, go grab a foam roller and get rolling. You can apply these techniques to just about any muscle in your body. Don't let the floor restrict you, you can put a foam roller up against the wall or on top of a table and lean on it if you have to. Be creative but reasonable. You can also use a tennis ball, a lacrosse ball or even a rolling pin. Anything that will give you consistent, constant pressure. I used a barbell to roll out my quads the other day. It was fan-frigging-tastic. Really.

You can find foam rollers pretty much anywhere these days but my favorite equipment company is Rogue. You can also find a pretty wide selection at Perform Better (which is where the therapy company I worked for purchased theirs) but they can be a little overpriced at times. 

Well, I'm off to go watch my friends boyfriend do something absurdly badass and a little insane. Maybe if you guys are lucky I'll even tell you about it when I get back. Have a nice weekend kids. Good luck and good lifting.

Cheers. 

On the Subject of Substances - How Alcohol Makes You Fat and Why Caffeine is Magic

So did you guys hear about A-Rod? Yea...the pro baseball slugger who got caught using performance enhancing drugs? Gasp. Conspiracy!! Deception!! RAGE!!

For real people?

First of all, none of us should be surprised. We say we aren't but that's bullsh*t. Inevitably there's always someone who says what we're all thinking, at least in part: "How could someone with so much be so stupid and risk it?" 

 Tell me something. If there was a substance out there that had negligible health risks, was easily accessible and would likely guarantee to double if not triple or quadruple your yearly salary wouldn't you take it? Yes, I'm sure plenty of us would hold true to our principles and refuse to cheat but don't be an a$$hole and try to act like you can't understand the draw. Quick side note, I'm sure there are plenty of you reading this going "but...but...steroids are bad for you! they cause cancer and death and...stuff." All I would say is that's....well researched.

The subject of steroids in sports is simple and should come down to only one thing. They cheated. There are rules against using steroids and they broke the rules. Whenever people try to spark a moral quandary into whether or not the use of steroids is wrong it's laughable if not outright hysterical. Come on guys, really? Can't we at least have enough perspective to see what's happening? You're caught up in the stigma.  

People ask me about supplements a lot. Some of the things that they say boggle my mind. Is creatine a steroid? (no), will caffeine help me burn fat? (yes), do they make glutamine from insects? (no...wait...what?) Some of it's simple - they just don't know. I have an education in this subject and they don't. Reasonable. What cracks me up is the people who blatantly think that all sports supplements are suspect and potentially evil, as if all supplement companies are in fact the machinations of some lab coat wearing mad scientist who wants to simultaneously poison our bodies and empty our bank accounts. 

Personally I believe much of this is related to our view of steroids. "it's not natural!" Yea, well neither is deadlifting 495. NEXT. "It has stuff in it that was chemically engineered so it must be bad for me." Right, just like all of those life saving medications the pharmaceutical industry provides us (at ludicrous cost) which are also chemically engineered. Not natural must mean infectious and evil, right? Wrong, now put the hemp seed smoothie down. NEXT. I just don't want to put that kind of stuff into my body, you know? <-- this? this right here? This is the one that cracks me up the most. Oh you don't want to put a powerful ergogenic aid that may significantly alter your functional biochemistry into your body? Meanwhile they're nursing a hangover with a Starbucks latte and four Advil.

Some of you may already know this but if you don't, listen up (or read...whatever). Alcohol and caffeine likely have a more significant impact on your cognitive, metabolic and musculoskeletal functions than anything you can buy at GNC or Vitamin Shoppe. For example:

ALCOHOL

and all the bad stuff it does to your body

disclaimer: I love alcohol. Big fan. Not saying stay away, just saying be aware. 

1. Alcohol makes you fat. Legitimately, and it's not simple due to the excess of calories in a beer. Even that skinny martini you're drinking could be short circuiting your weight loss attempts. We're all familiar with the main macronutrients, right? CHO, Fat and protein. They are differentiated by their functions in our body but ultimately what they are truly identified by (and what determines their function) is their chemical structure. Protein has amine groups, carbohydrate is composed entirely of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen and triglycerides (fat) are three long(ish) chain fatty acids attached to a glycerol. Now, interestingly enough glycerol is actually an alcohol which is a compound of a different chemical structure (it has a hydroxyl (OH) functional group attached). Generally speaking alcohols are either ethyl (drinkable) or methyl (poisonous). 

Our body has different ways of processing each compound and different preferences. In addition, the type of activity you prefer alters which substance you will preferentially burn for fuel; endurance athletes burn fat more readily than a powerlifter for example.  Generally speaking however, your body burns carbohydrate --> fat --> protein, in that order. Alcohol unfortunately rolls in and shoves everyone else out of the way like the drunk bastard it is. If you have alcohol in your system your body will burn it preferentially for energy over anything else. In other words consuming alcohol with a meal, while frequently fantastic, pretty much ensures that your metabolism is going to store those other nutrients. This is why simply observing the caloric content of a beverage may not spare your waistline. It makes all the other calories you consume stick to your ribs that much more. 

2. Decreased quality of sleep - Heavy drinkers (more than 3 drinks most days of the week) get less REM sleep and all of the benefits that come along with it. Refer to my post on sleep for more details. The reason for this is that alcohol consumption overstimulates production of GABA in your brain, a chemical compound that aids relaxation and helps us fall asleep faster but concurrently makes it more difficult for us to get deep, restful sleep. Go figure. 

3. Decreased testosterone production -  Not examining any other factors, if you drink 3 drinks a night your testosterone production may go down by as much as 7%. Considering the fact that testosterone helps build muscle, burn fat and increases awareness and cognitive function, this is clearly not the most positive thing. 

4. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - The myriad negative effects that consuming alcohol can have on your baby if you are expecting. I really have no patience for this sh*t. You can drink a glass of wine from time to time but if you've got a baby on the way and you're hitting the jack like a sorority girl during rush you need to be slapped. Hard. 

5. The obvious stuff - everyone knows that alcoholism is bad and that alcoholics are riddled with heart disease, liver problems and other health issues not to mention the indirect consequences on your life and livelihood. I don't think I should have to go into detail about the stuff you guys probably already know. This includes avoiding high calorie, super sugary alcoholic cocktails if you're trying to lose weight but again, I really shouldn't have to tell you that. 

Now for some good news. You know that part where i mentioned testosterone production? Well the thing is a 7% decrease really isn't that much. You can actually increase your production by up to 200% just by altering your diet. That means that if you did so, even if you drank, you could still be up by 193%. Seems good to me. On top of that, while alcohol does suppress fatty acid oxidation it actually increases insulin sensitivity and action. I think it's also worth mentioning that as long as your alcohol consumption remains reasonable (1-3 drinks/ day some days of the week) you can moderate ALL of the negative effects of alcohol consumption through diet and exercise.

So we've discussed alcohol, one of the omnipresent substances of the day. Let's move on to coffee or more specifically, caffeine. 

Caffeine

and all the awesome stuff it does to your body

or: Why Coffee is Magic

Caffeine is a powerful hormone stimulator. Yep, hormones, the group of biological compounds to which all popular PEDs belong. That macchiato you're drinking actual does some of the same things. Caffeine has a whole bunch of effects on our body but many of those that we understand can be attributed to the production of the following compounds:

1. Glucagon - This pancreatic hormone is the counterpart to insulin. Where insulin signals for storage, glucagon signals for usage. Glucagon activates an enzyme called hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) which catalyzes the reaction that cleaves stored fats into free fatty acids (FFAs) that your body can then use as a fuel source for beta oxidation. In other words, increased glucagon leads to increased fat loss not solely by increasing metabolic rate, but by also increasing your bodies ability to use FFAs as a fuel source. 

2. Adrenaline (epinephrine and norepinephrine) - Caffeine stimulates the production of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine which are synthesized in the adrenal gland of our brain. These hormones have a vast array of effects including but not limited to:

-increased awareness

-increased energy levels

-increased cognitive performance

-increased muscular force production

-increased rate of nervous system transmission

-bronchodilation (opening of the passageways of your lungs)

-increased capacity and function of long term memory

Adrenal hormones were designed by evolution to turn us into superhuman badasses in a time of need. They essentially supercharge all of our physiological systems that are directly related to physical/athletic performance. They also up-regulate HSL (just like glucagon) which leads to increased fat burning.

Now despite the fact that I love caffeine second only to my dog Cody and my man Bats, it does have some significantly negative aspects. For one it's a highly addictive substance with risks of chemical dependency. Secondly it can lead to increased blood pressure as it seems to have it's own vasoconstrictive properties in addition to those of epinephrine, which it increases. It may also decrease insulin sensitivity because it appears to have a negative effect on removal of glucose from the bloodstream but I can't remember where exactly I read that at the moment. It can also lead to anxiety, tremors, and impaired motor function when consumed in high amounts or by high-risk individuals.

It's probably worth mentioning that sometimes people confuse the effects of caffeine and the effects of coffee because for many of us they are one and the same. As far as this post goes, the effects that I've listed are SPECIFICALLY referring to the consumption of caffeine. Coffee beans contain a number of antioxidants and other compounds in addition to the stimulant. Here's a graphic I found that lists some of the extraneous effects of coffee both negative and positive.

Alcohol and Caffeine are powerful compounds that are also culturally omnipresent. The purpose of this post was not to tell you they're bad for you because they aren't. In fact both compounds actually offer a myriad of health benefits when consumed in a reasonable, moderate manner. Do you have to take them? No, of course not, although it is worth mentioning that in general people who consume a moderate amount of alcohol and caffeine are healthier than those who consume an excessive amount of either or none at all. Granted, this could be entirely based on the fact that the moderate consumption is due to the moderate and balanced lifestyles of the consumers but that would probably make entirely too much sense. I can't be a real fitness guru using calm, sound logic like that. No way. 

So next time someone tells you they're on a cycle of creatine and something in your brain says, "tell them they're going to die!!!" just remind yourself that you probably took a more dangerous and potent substance to wake up this morning, if not to relax last night. Stay tuned this week for another post delineating what supplements are actually useful, what they do and how to use 'em.

As always, good luck and good lifting.

Cheers.

Sleep Your Way to Superhuman (Post Workout Recovery 2.0)

Eat. Move. Sleep. Those are the requirements for becoming a physically functional human. We spend hours on our workout plans and maybe even more on our diets, but how often to we worry about how much we're sleeping? I've always known that sleep is incredibly important but, like most things, It wasn't until I had a recent reminder placed firmly in front of my face that I started to acknowledge it again.

For the last couple of weeks the air conditioning in my house has been shot. It started around the time of the epic heat wave in early July and our AC unit isn't that big so I figured it was probably just overcome by the temperature outside. Then there was that day the power company lowered the electrical output to prevent a blackout...yet another reason why my AC might not be doing so hot. I can be a fairly patient person with some things so I figured I would wait out the heatwave and then everything would get back to normal. Unfortunately I was wrong.

A few nights ago I slept for maybe two hours. The night after that it was the same followed by a third night where I almost didn't sleep at all. F*ckin' sucked, frankly. I'm usually a pretty sound sleeper regardless of noise or stress or whatever else but the one thing that kills me is heat. I can't sleep well in a hot room. Can't do it. The day after that I was so thoroughly sore and exhausted for no good reason that I got in touch with my landlord. Luckily he's a family friend so as soon as he learned of the problem it was handled rather quickly.

So my landlord shows up and figures out that apparently my room mate had been running the heat (brilliant!!) which had overtaxed the AC unit. As a result, the cooling coil had frozen over and no air could get around it... or something like that. I don't know anything about HVAC so when I was told this my brain starts showing me images of little cartoon wisps of air decked out in everest gear trying to climb a huge block of ice and falling repeatedly all while making sound effects from that video game Lemmings. Occasionally it would swap them for the Ice Climbers from Super Smash Brothers but mostly it was Lemmings. I would love to tell you this internal image was the product of sleep deprivation and hallucinogens. I would really love to tell you that and not be lying.

Long story long, my AC came back on last night and I slept like a baby coddled in cold air. I think I I slept for ten hours and I felt f*cking fantastic when I woke up this morning. My back feels great, my hips feel better (my hips are kind of messed up from kicking things; another story for another day) and my shoulders feel like there was never anything wrong to begin with. Considering the sad state my right shoulder is frequently in these days, it was a pretty amazing shift.

Then I realized that was the first time I'd slept for more than six hours in weeks, maybe months. The only other times I'd slept longer than that were substance induced and, chemically speaking, the rest you get from that type of sleep is hardly comparable to real, GH-drenched REM-full sleep.

I wrote a post a while back about how to recover following a workout. You can find it here. I wrote all this stuff about different substances and therapeutic modalities you could use to help cope with post workout soreness and performance decreases and I included sleep as an afterthought. Seriously. I went back and added sleep in after initially publishing the post which is kind of hilarious. You want to know the keys to post workout recovery?

KEYS TO POST WORKOUT RECOVERY 

Listed by hierarchy of importance

1) Sleep (8-10 hours minimum. This is NOT F*CKING DEBATABLE)

2) Nutrition - adequate protein intake (.7-1g/lb of body weight/day) and enough healthy fat and carbohydrates to replenish depleted fuel stores (+ a little more if you're trying to bulk up)

3) Appropriate training volume/incorporate rest days (If you workout 2x a day 7 days a week your issue is not recovery it is complete lack thereof. Training volume should be appropriate and beneficial and should never be high enough to contribute to significant tendon and ligament damage)

4) Active Recovery - MOVE. Moving incorporates temperature therapy by warming up your muscles through activity and increased circulation which increases pliability and range of motion. It incorporates the benefits of compression by flexing and contracting your muscles which has a pumping effect on your lymphatic system and it helps to recover last range of motion by UTILIZING the range of motion.

5) Daily movement and mobility drills - joint mobilizations and exercises specifically designed to increase range of motion. Too expansive of a topic to cover in a couple sentences but MobilityWOD.com is free and can help set you up with a personalized, daily mobility program.

And....yeah. That's pretty much it. I went through all of the other stuff like stretching and icing and NSAIDS in my other post and to a degree they still have their place but they are more for dealing with acute problems or trauma and generally shouldn't be a part of your regular recovery routine. If you need ice and ibuprofen to recover from every workout then you're going way too hard (and you're kind of an idiot for not realizing it already. I mean c'mon.) So now that I've highlighted the importance of sleep I want to talk about something that happened while I was sleep deprived.

I was still going through my routines and my normal workouts regardless of my zombie-like energy levels and they were fine. Not spectacularly good nor spectacularly awful, just fine. Two days ago, however, I decided I was going to go for a short run. I'd been outside mowing the lawn and I was already kinda warmed up (read:profusely sweaty) and after I finished the yard work my body was like, "nah dawg, don't be a b*tch. We good. Let's go do some sh*t," because apparently my body speaks like a stereotypical inner city youth in a cliche 90's flick about life in the ghetto.

So I went for a run. It was awful. Really awful. Poison ivy on a sunburn awful.

About seven minutes in my entire body was like, "yo dawg what the f*ck? This ain't what we signed up for yo! This is bullsh*t, we're out." Luckily by that point I was only about a minute away from my house so I hoofed it back. I was dizzy, out of breath, my head hurt and I had trouble seeing straight. Honestly my first reaction was, "I'm in terrible shape," and I got pretty f*ckin' angry at myself. I'm supposed to be some paragon of fitness hollering at other people to work harder and go faster and here I'm borderline hugging a bucket after running less than a mile? Pathetic. Truly Pathetic. Then I checked my mileage. For reference, I stopped my running clock at 8:27.

I ran a mile and a half.

Somehow in my sleep deprived stupor I ran a mile and a half at a 5:40/mile pace. I am not a runner. Never have been. I enjoy running and go through spats of heavy mileage for a few months at a time but I'm hardly one of those people who laces up their running shoes even if theres a hurricane/tornado/baby-eating alien invasion conspiring to prevent your workout. If I couldn't find my Ipod before a run I'd be like well, I guess I should just jump rope and hit the bag. At least I've got a round timer here. Right, good excuse Bob. You godd*mned pansy.

Point being I've never run a mile that fast in my entire life. To be quite honest a 5:40 mile isn't extraordinarily fast for people who RUN but I'm not one of them. Hence my overwhelming desire to deposit my breakfast in a toilet following my little jaunt. That being said, despite my somewhat impressive performance I felt like I was going to die for the remainder of the day. My back hurt, my hips ached, even my shoulders were sore. I went from fitness paragon to elderly war veteran and all it took was eight minutes of physical activity. Honestly sleeping for ten hours and waking up with all of those sensations gone was what drove me to write this post as it personally re-acquainted me with the truly restorative powers of good sleep.

It is true that we all need different amounts of sleep: everyone's biology is different. This fact is not an excuse to sleep four hours a night and claim that's all your body needs. I think we unfortunately pride ourselves on doing too much. We look up to the people who run a business and a family while still maintaining their health and fitness along with several intense and impressive hobbies. We always say there aren't enough hours in the day and the easiest way to change that is by reducing how much we sleep. We then intellectualize it and explain it away by saying well I don't ever feel tired so I must not need the sleep. You're wrong. The reality is that you've adapted and your body is making do. Our bodies are capable of making some extreme adaptations for the sake of survival. That is not an excuse to force them to do so unnecessarily. Don't believe me? How about another list. People like lists.

Why Sleep Deprivation is BAD:

1) Sleep Debt - Sleeping only an hour or two less than your body requires per night over the course of a week puts your body in the same biochemical state as if you had not slept for 24 hours and it can not be remedied with a single night of sleep.

2) Insulin sensitivity - Again, if you sleep only 1-2 hours less per night than you're supposed to you have significantly increased blood sugar levels. lack of sleep interferes with your bodies ability to recognize and metabolize sugar which significantly impairs athletic performance and may lead to insulin resistance.

3) Decreased GH - Our GH production peaks during our REM cycles. Fewer REM Cycles --> less GH --> less recovery, more fat, less muscle mass and less of the numerous benefits that growth hormone provides.

4) Decreased alertness/awareness, decreased mental acuity and cognitive performance.

5) Weight gain - lack of GH hormone release and insulin sensitivity combined with decreased energy levels and mental focus can lead to secondary weight gain - I'm not sure of whether or not lack of sleep can cause weight gain in and of itself.

So the important thing to note is that while these things will all occur from a single night of missed sleep, it is unlikely you will feel the effects from just a one or two hour deficit. It's chronic sleep deprivation that's really bad and also something that most of us, especially the really driven career focused individuals among us are both susceptible too and likely suffering from. Remember, just because you can do it doesn't mean it's optimal and Becoming Invincible isn't about surviving, it's about maximizing our human potential. What's the point of giving your body the appropriate stimulus for beneficial physical remodeling (exercise), all of the best materials for the remodeling (nutrition) and then giving yourself less than ample time to actually PERFORM the remodeling? Muscle grows in your bed, not while you're in the gym. Don't shortchange your progress by overlooking a simple and often easily remedied issue. I mean, come on, who doesn't like a little extra sleep?

Oh, one last thing. On the topic of my increased performance during a period of exhaustion I read a paper recently that somewhat addressed this issue. The paper investigated performance differences in cyclists who were exposed to extreme temperature (100+ degrees) and extreme fatigue (24 hours without sleep). Interestingly enough the findings were that the heat exposed group's performance was significantly worse than both the control and the sleep deprived group. The sleep deprived group, on the other hand, actually exhibited slightly improved performance over the control with an interesting alteration: despite their ACTUAL performance they all BELIEVED they were doing terribly. In other words while a single bout of exhaustion may not significantly affect your individual performance, it will likely significantly inhibit your ability to judge how well you're doing. 

All I would say is this - while it is clearly obvious that losing sleep for a single night may not affect your performance in a single competition, prolonged sleep deprivation and exhaustion will slowly shut down your ability to progress. Remember, working out is not about a single performance; it's about steady, measurable progress over time and progress requires adequate rest. Now go get your sleep on. (Or if you're one of those weirdos with a 9-5 do it tonight...just...not too late, all right?)

Good luck and good lifting.

Cheers. 

How to Be a Badass

One of my longest standing clients is an incredibly nice guy. He's wildly successful, wealthy, intelligent and frankly parties harder than I do these days. He also happens to be something of a lady when it comes to training.

I know. It's harsh. He's a great guy and I'm very fond of him but there's no other way to put it. It's an unfortunate truth. I sure as hell didn't make him that way and I've been doing everything in my power to break the habit. Some days are better than others. The truth is that he's come a long way since we first started working together but in his mind he still looks the same as he did when we started and therein lies the problem: in his own mind he is eternally frail and weak. He's always apologizing to me about not being stronger or being tired which drives me crazy. When was the last time you apologized to your financial planner for not making enough money? I don't give a fuck where you're at. You called me and you signed up. You decided to take the steps to make the change. In my book you're already moving in the right direction so stop feeling sorry for yourself. I tell him all the time that I don't understand why he talks about himself like he does and that he needs to stop. As I said, some days are better than others.

The thing is this highlights a central issue to fitness and many would say a central issue of life as a whole. The place from which you precede mentally colors and informs your entire experience; the place from which you precede defines who you are. If you believe you're a frail, whiny little bitch then guess what boss? You're a frail whiny little bitch. How many times have we been told this by how many different people? Call it whatever you want. Positive thinking, visualization, realization, positive self image, whatever. Here at Becoming Invincible we have a different way of looking at it. Here, we call it bringing out the badass.

Being a badass isn't about your muscles or your body fat percentage. It's not about your facility with violence or your hatred of others. James Dean made it famous in Rebel Without a Cause: being a badass is an attitude; a perspective. Dean did his own thing and didn't care how he was perceived. Rich Froning, the current two-time CrossFit Games champion, has been quoted saying he'd rather pass out than quit. That's the attitude I'm talking about. That's what it means to be a Badass.

It's about not quitting or slowing down. It's about going as hard and as fast as you can until your body simply will not let you anymore. It's about attacking your workout; attacking the weights like your life depended on it every time you head into the gym not because your life actually depends on it but for no other reason than that's how you do it. That's all you know and that's the only way it can be done.

When I was younger I used to program these crazy workouts. They were intense and inventive, the kind of stuff you see in late night infomercials and 80's training montages. They were immaculately designed, incorporating every different kind of exercise and modality and leading to me spending hours in the gym. I thought I was doing pretty well because if you were looking at my programs, I mean, how could I not be succeeding? Of course the ugly f*cking reality is that no one judges your fitness by what you wrote in a notebook. They judge it by what you can do: how hard you can hit, how fast you can run and how high you can jump. The complex, intellectually realized physique contained with in the pages of my little black notebook was just that: complex and intellectual. My actual physical self was kind of lame.

I was missing the key ingredient. I had the knowledge and the means but I didn't have the x-factor. I hadn't figured it out yet. My foray into MMA changed that for me real quick. I was going up against guys who'd never opened a book on strength and conditioning or perused a single website for nutrition facts and they were bigger and stronger than me. Physically speaking they were better in every aspect even though they had next to no clue what they were doing in the weight room, I actually remember thinking their conditioning programs were laughable and on paper they were. Again, however, fitness doesn't happen on paper.

How could it be? How was it that these guys who knew absolutely nothing were walking all over me in a field I was supposed to be an expert in? Simple, really. Turns out getting punched in the face and kicked in the leg helps you turn on your inner badass real fast. These guys didn't have the know-how but they had attitude to spare. No matter what the task or the exercise you gave them they would charge into it pedal to the floor and redline their engines for the duration. They would go and go and go until they were finished or unconscious because in the ring those are your only options. You finish the fight or your opponent finishes you. There's no room for anything in between.

There's two central tenets to what makes your inner badass so essential to your training and the first one is heart. There is a pretty extensive cultural mythos surrounding this concept. We have movies like Rocky and Rudy, underdog sports stories where an individual lacking in talent makes up for it with hard work and determination. You see it in actual sports coverage and even news stories. Every American loves the scrappy little f*cker who isn't the biggest or the best but will never stay down and never stop fighting and why? Oh, come on. You know why. Because that guy, the one who never stops, is an incredible f*cking badass. We want them to win and some part of us wants to be them. The easiest way to start is by never letting your workout beat you. Don't stop because you're tired, don't change your program because it's too hard. Finish the work you set out to do and don't leave until the job is done. Period.

Rocky loses the fight and we all loved him anyway for one simple reason: he never gave up. I can tell you something about coaches and most people in my field. We are infinitely more impressed by those who struggle and almost fail than we are by the super-athletes who crush everything. Watching a lion take down a gazelle is impressive, sure. Witnessing the sheer physical beauty of their movement, the perfection of their muscles and their nervous systems so perfectly attuned to this specific task can be enrapturing. Watching a house cat do it, however, is something else entirely because no one would've believed it if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes. That lion is something of a badass because it was gifted with physical badass-ery when it was born. That house cat on the other hand? That house cat is a badass because it just did something it should never have been able to do and who knows, maybe if you keep watching you'll get to see it happen again.

There's a pretty common stigma in fight gyms that embodies this idea. Obviously trainers love working with gifted fighters, but they also love working with the guys who can't fight for shit but won't ever stay down. Too often newbies are scared away from grungy, sweaty, authentic fight gyms because they're intimidated; they think everyone's judging their lack of skill. The simplest way to earn their respect is also one of the best ways to start tapping into your inner badass.  Stand up. Keep moving. Becoming invincible isn't about never failing. It's about never staying down. 

The second supremely positive aspect of the inner badass is intensity. Those MMA guys I was training with brought a fire to their workouts that you don't see everywhere. It didn't matter if they were hitting the heavy bag or doing sidelying leg raises. No matter what the task was they attacked it with all they had until it was done. I've said it before many times and I'll keep saying it until everyone starts paying attention. Intensity is the most important variable when it comes to training, bar none. You can increase volume, duration, load and frequency but if you're at 25% intensity nothing else is ever going to matter. Sorry kids.

Because this pig is a badass. Duh. 

I have a friend who's boyfriend is something of a nutcase. He doesn't have any kind of background in fitness nor is he particularly educated on the subject outside of his own experience. That being said he is easily one of the most aggressively fit humans I've ever personally met and when I say aggressive I mean f*cking AGGRESSIVE. Everything he does is about harder, faster, longer. He tries to make every task as hard as he thinks he can handle and then does his damnedest to beat the sh*t out of the task anyway. He may not have had the best programming when he started but it didn't matter. Would he have done better if the programming was more scientific? Sure, it's possible but no amount of programming can make up for the intensity that he brings to his workouts. He's also never participated in a combat sport to my knowledge but I'd take him in a fight over almost any jerkoff in a Tapout or Affliction t-shirt anytime because I can tell you right now who's going to give up first. If I had to choose between two athletes, one who knows everything inside and out but doesn't have the fire in his stomach and another one who doesn't know very much but jumps right in and assaults every task he's given, you can probably guess which one I'm going to pick every time. It's an easy choice.

So what does this mean for you? Well, it depends on where you're at, frankly. If motivation isn't your issue then I apologize for not being useful to you today, my b. If you are, however, like the multitudes of people out there who get too embarrassed or give up too quickly when you workout, we need to talk. Why are you stopping? Who gives a shit what that guy behind you on the treadmill thinks? Who the f*ck is he? Do you know him? Does he matter? Oh, you don't want anyone to see you struggling? You're in a gym. You're supposed to struggle. Don't ever be embarrassed because you're doing stuff that's difficult for you when it seems like everyone else around you is having an easy go of it. You're doing it right. They're doing it wrong. It's that simple. You're using the gym as it's meant to be used, as a crucible on which you can try your physical limits by fire. The third and final aspect of the badass is the attitude of untouchability. You're not there to impress strangers. You're there for you and you've got work to do so get to it. Do your thing. Be a badass. There's always going to be haters and naysayers but in the words of 311, "fuck the naysayers 'cuz they don't mean a thing."

We weren't all born physically gifted and mentally tough. A lot of us weren't born with either but you know what? There were a few professional athletes that weren't either. They became invincible all on their own by pushing and fighting until they could tap into their inner badass at will. Impressive, yes, but they aren't special. With a little hard work and a lot of determination you, too, can be a badass. After all, in the words of Bruce Lee, "it is not the larger man who wins in a fight. The victor is he, who in his head, has already won."

Good luck and good lifting. Happy Friday.

Cheers.

You're Better Than You Think

An unfortunate truth I've come to accept is that I'm a hater. Have been for a long time. I don't think it's entirely accurate in my mind, but my friends would probably disagree. It's not so much that I'm an angry or resentful person I just have an incredibly low tolerance for bullshit and niceties for the sake of being pleasant and not hurting peoples feelings. If you've spent any amount of time reading my blog, you've seen examples of this. Most people probably wouldn't choose Embrace The Suck as the title for their first post.

But I'm special.

Like I said I've never seen myself as a hater other than for a few years back in high school and early college and I blame that on angst. Yeah. Angst. Whatever-the-f*ck that might be. I'm a strength and conditioning professional. My job is to take people and make them better. You can't sharpen a blade with a feather and you don't build machines with pillows. Being nice and pleasant for the sake of being nice and pleasant serves me no purpose in helping people acknowledge their flaws and beat them into submission with cold, hard iron (and occasionally ropes and rubber bands). Doesn't mean I'm not a nice guy nor does it mean I'm not a positive person. You can't do what I do well if you aren't a positive person at heart and I genuinely believe you can't do what I do if you don't care about people.

So, yes, in between all the cursing and ranting and veiled insults the reality is that if you're here and you're taking the time to read my thoughts I care about you. Really. Tough love is still love at it's foundation.

My sister posted this on my FB timeline literally as I was writing this post. She's so sweet.

So what's the point of me telling you all of this, you may ask. Well, I felt I needed a lenghty preamble to justify the unabashedly, wholeheartedly positive thing I'm about to tell you. What I want you to know is this. If you go to the gym and you work hard, hell, if you work hard at any aspect of your life, really truly, there's a good chance you're doing better than you think. Too often we get caught up in what we or society decide is a definite indicator of something when it may only be a partial indicator or in some cases may be completely irrelevant.

Story time. I have a friend who goes through spats of fitness and then binges of unhealthy life. Whatever direction he goes in he goes freakin' hard. When he works out and diets he does his research and intelligently programs his workouts; sh*t he even CHARTS his diet plan dude (something I don't necessarily encourage or find healthy but another story for another day). He loses weight like it's his job but then gets discouraged and throws all his progress out the window for months long binges of Dominos and McDonalds. You know why he got discouraged last time? Because despite all of his effort he did not yet look like a Men's Health cover model.

Three cheers for steroids, airbrushes and photoshop. Hip hip, hooray!

I spent hours trying to convince him that wasn't a realistic standard when he was in the throes of his workout heavy lifestyle. He would just get mad and dismissive; tell me that I wasn't being productive and one time he even accused me of jealousy. You're right. Me telling you that you shouldn't compare yourself to someone who makes a living by looking pretty is due to my own personal jealousy about....what...exactly? I wasn't trying to cut him down I've just seen this road traveled thousands of times. It's well worn and even though it looks like it's going to the top of the mountain when you're half way up it dead ends at a painfully high cliff. That's where you need to change your game plan. You can either go off the obvious and easily traveled beaten path to forge your own trail to the top or you can do what an unfortunately high number of people do: you can fall right back down.

This whole series of thoughts occurred to me this morning. I have a client who I just started working with about a month ago. Her initial goal was to drop thirty pounds. In a month. Because that's super realistic. I was totally honest with her about what she could expect in thirty days, but lo and behold 26 days later she's feeling incredibly discouraged because she thinks she's maybe a little skinnier but still looks the same as she did 4 weeks ago. As my client I empathize with her but a huge part of me is always incredibly frustrated by this response.

I'm not going to tell you that working out, for me, has nothing to do with aesthetics. Of course I like the way it makes my body look. Hell, that's why I got into it in the first place. There's no pedestal for me to stand on there. What I would say is that as my journey progressed I became much more interested in what fitness allowed me to do. I was a fat kid who used to get my ass kicked when I was younger. Now I can outrun and out play most of my friends and I'm the guy everyone calls when they need some heavy stuff moved around their house. Yea, I know, being everyone's go to guy for manual labor may not sound exciting but coming form the kid who used to get picked last for dodgeball I gotta tell you, being picked first for anything physical is pretty fantastic. 

Another one of my clients, my longest standing client actually, totally gets this. It's a huge part of what makes him so amazing to work with. He's gotten stronger and built a lot of muscle. He's even lost some weight. Without fail, however, the thing he always brings up to me is how easy it is for him to do everything now. Now, my client is 53, so it may be a little difficult for some of us youngsters to understand just how important basic day to day functionality is but at least once a week he tells me a story about something he did easily that all of his friends were having trouble with while sporting a huge smile on his face. He's made some of the best progress of any of my clients for three simple reasons: he's consistent, he works hard and he never gets discouraged.

Getting frustrated you don't have a six pack or the shoulders of a professional gymnast after a month of working out is like being angry you don't have a ferrari after being employed for four weeks. Yea, you know what, some of us are just lucky. Some people have the genes or the connections to end up with a six pack and a ferrari and not have to work much for either. Chances are you're probably not one of these people. It's no big deal, you just need to re-align your priorities. 

The reason my client this morning frustrates me is because she moves immensely better today than she did a month ago. I know she had lofty girls of looking like a beauty queen in her bridesmaids dress (which, cmon, we all know it doesn't pan out that way. It ain't yo wedding, ladies) but this is a girl who never played sports or did anything physical her whole life. She has no foundation to work off of. She can't hold her body with proper posture or maintain the correct position of her joints for a huge number of exercises. I know some of you guys want to just jump in and start hammering away but it doesn't work like that. You have to walk before you can run. You need to learn arithmetic before algebra and algebra before calculus.

 Now I understand that it may take a trained eye to see the significant improvement in her movement capacity, but even she can see that a month ago she was struggling with fifteen lbs. for certain lifts and now she's using twenty fives with significantly better form. These are the benchmarks I wish people would focus on. I mentioned this briefly in my post about setting goals. You need to choose something concrete and measurable and I think it bears repeating here. All she's doing is looking in the mirror and watching the scale. She didn't notice she went from a 30 sec plank to a minute plank until I told her. She didn't realize she can get through a series of tabata intervals now without taking a break when a month ago she was struggling with half of that load. I point these things out to her and they make her happy for a bit, but then she notices something else about her physique she doesn't like and we're back at square one.

We all have insecurities that plague and torment us; pushing us to think we're too fat or too ugly, too slow or too stupid. This internal struggle is one of the defining aspects of human experience. We are our own worst enemies and overcoming that obstacle is one of the greatest accomplishments on the road to Becoming Invincible. We must all become masters of ourselves in order to achieve our greatest potential. I'm hard on people because I'm hard on myself and it has been incredibly productive in pushing me to do more and be better. I'm hard on you guys because I care and because I believe you can be better, otherwise I'd just be wasting my time. Society puts absurd pressures on us to embody unrealistic ideals of beauty and I'm here to remind you guys it's bullshit. I'm sorry if I do it in an abrasive manner. The reality is that we've all got too much on our plates to allow an imaginary societal hive mind guilt trip us for not looking like dolls. F*ck that noise.

We've all got goals and we've all got hurdles. Life isn't easy and we all know that.  All I would ask is for you to stop kicking yourself for not being at the finish line already. Becoming Invincible is a journey and a long one at that. Sit back and enjoy the ride. You're doing better than you think you are.

Good luck and good lifting.

Cheers.

Do Less - Get Stronger

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, frankly. It's one of those things that seems to be a facet of every question I answer or at least somehow related. I touched on it a little bit in my post about recovery and I've mentioned it elsewhere but I think it's entirely deserving of it's own post...so here it is.

Hey...hey you. All that stuff you're doing...all those plans..all those workouts all those hours.

Staaahp. Stop it.

I have a friend who likes to do all sorts of crazy sh*t all the time. She works out like four hours a day six or seven days a week. Honestly there is an enormous part of me that is impressed by her and totally digs her drive to beat the ever-lovin' shit out of herself on a regular basis. The thing is then she comes to me and asks me questions like, "how do I recover faster? Why am I always sore?" Questions I answer by way of making this face:

Or at least I do in my head. She's fucking scary when she's angry. And she totally lifts, bro. Like...a lot...haven't you been paying attention?

Anyway I think a lot of people have unfortunately fostered a "more-is-better" attitude when it comes to working out, particularly when their main focus is trying to change the shape of their body. Well, I'm trying to get skinnier so I should just try to burn as many fuggin' calories as I possible can in any way possible right? No, dummy, not right. Not completely wrong, but not right either. 

The most common mistake I see with people who don't have a lot of experience with programming workouts is the almost hilarious amount of volume they're doing. Some people show me their workouts and they're in the gym for like an hour and a half, running four miles and then lifting for almost an hour; doing twenty or thirty sets and hundreds of reps all under the paradigm of "more is better." There are a handful of cases where this is the case and we'll get to those later. For right now we need to focus on a simple truth when it comes to strength training: less is more.

Professional bodybuilders train each body part once, maybe twice a week. Professional powerlifters train the main movements 1-2 times a week as well. These are the athletes that occupy the upper echelon of strength sports. If they only train each body part once or twice a week, why are you doing more than that?

I recently finished reading a book, Practical Programming by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore. I've mentioned Rippetoe before a couple of times, most notably in my post "Superhuman Strength."  He's the author of Starting Strength (what is generally regarded as one of the best introductions to barbell training) and a bit of a pariah in the fitness field because, well, he's f*ckin' EXTREME. He had widely publicized falling outs with both the NSCA and the CrossFit organization. Still, from everything of his I've read, he definitely knows what's up when it comes to lifting a lot of heavy sh*t. I don't want to do Rippetoe and Kilgore a disservice by giving out any of the information in their book for free, but one of the overarching themes in all of their programs was simplicity. Every workout plan was 3-4 workouts a week, 3-5 movements per workout. In certain cases they recommend a fair amount of accessory work (athletes with sport specific needs, for example) but even so the workouts are straight forward. Squat, press, deadlift, pull, push run. 

That's pretty much it.

It's hard for some of us to swallow the less is more pill. I was definitely one of them. When I was in college I would workout six days a week for about two hours a day, sometimes going back to the gym two or more times per day. That sh*t was crazy and stupid and I wish I hadn't done it. While I was in very good shape, I'm also pretty sure all of that overuse is why I have a torn labrum in my hip and likely a torn labrum in my shoulder as well. This is the primary reason why working out too much is no bueno. I've said it before and I'll say it again, overuse injuries got their name for a reason. You don't want one, don't overuse your sh*t.

The second reason and perhaps more important to some is that the beneficial adaptations that occur in your body from working out happen while you're resting, not while you're in the gym cranking out your fourteenth set of burpees or running your twenty third mile. Think about it like this: your body is a construction site with your cells being the work crew. Each workout gives your crew a new biological blueprint of how it needs to improve your body. You need to let the crew finish the alterations from the last blueprint before you interrupt it with new instructions of something else to change. If you are never adequately rested you're turning your body into a poorly maintained construction site full of a bunch of pissed off (read: inflamed) workers who're tired, annoyed and less efficient at following any of the repair plans you give them. 

The great thing about recovery and workload tolerance is that it can be trained. There are some people out there who can work out for four hours a day and get some kind of benefit out of it. If you've been a regular exerciser for two to three years or more then you probably need a longer, more complex program than a newbie could get away with.  For the record when I say longer I' talking the difference between working out for a little more than an hour versus forty five minutes, not justifying your psychotic four hour a day, seven day a week exercise binges. That sh*t, if it's happening, has got to stop. Like, now. 

Thing is you can build a lot of complexity in by lengthening your work periods and altering your schedule; you don't have to build unnecessary complexity into each individual workout that will lead to it taking an eternity. Let me explain. A brand-spankin'-new, just off the couch from lazyland exerciser may be able to see progress by using the same workout three days a week. Someone who's been working out out for a month or two on the other hand might benefit from using two workouts and alternating them: workout A-Mon, B-Wed, A, Fri and so on. As your training requirements increase in complexity you can use three or four different workouts over the course of a week, or widen the particular interval to two weeks and use 5-6 different workouts. For example:

Workout A (Monday)

Back Squat

Overhead Press

Deadlift

Pull Up

Workout B(Wed)

Power Clean

Bench Press 

Front Squat

Chin Up

Workout C (Friday)

Back Squat

Overhead Press

Power Clean

Chin Up

Workout D (M Week 2)

Deadlift

Bench Press

Front Squat

Pull Up

Workout E (W Week 2)

Front Squat

Overhead Press

Power Clean

Chin Up

Workout F (F Week 2)

Deadlift

Bench Press

Back Squat

Pull Up

So right there we've got a two week workout schedule that only uses eight movements in six workouts and doesn't repeat a single identical workout...and that's doing a full body workout each day. If we split it into two days, either upper body/lower body or push/pull and do four days a week (day 1/push-day 2/pull, repeat) then making a multiple-week cycle becomes even more simpler=. 

For most people interested in general fitness you probably wont need a perfectly periodized six week at at a time strength training program. My point was more to highlight that you can keep your workouts fresh and varied enough to stimulate progress fairly easily. This actually brings me to my next point. Since we're on the subject of factors that contribute to progress you guys need to know something. You absolutely can not make up for lack of training intensity with increased duration. Quality wins over quantity every single time. If you didn't leave it all out their on the gym floor you can't make up for it by doing an extra set or running another semi-slow mile. If you half assed it your first time out, do you really think half ass-ing it some more is going to make a significant difference?

At the risk of repeating myself I'm not saying everyone needs to go balls out meth-monkey style, running wind sprints and doing power snatches until they paint the wall with the semi digested remains of last nights lasagna. I'm just saying that if you're not putting in a real effort during your workout then putting in extra time with the same level of effort isn't going to change anything. On the flip side, if you are putting in a serious effort then you don't need to be in the gym for hours. Not to mention the fact that your muscles and joints probably can't handle the repetitive, high-intensity loads that you're subjecting them to if you do that.

There are cases where this kind of training has its purpose. The military, for one. Soldiers need to be strong, fast and capable of enduring the extreme. On top of the physical demands of their profession there is an enormous mental aspect to this type of brutally repetitive physical punishment. Building mental toughness in soldiers is just as important as fostering physical integrity. To that end, if you are preparing for any type of competition or event that involves hours upon hours of physically demanding activity then you're probably going to need to train for hours and hours. One of the oldest and most accurate fitness aphorisms is that the best way to prepare your body for something is to do it.

Which brings us full circle. If your main goal is to get bigger and stronger or to create some type of physical change in the way you look, frequently a higher intensity, well designed program is significantly more effective than a lower intensity program of higher volume or even a program of similar intensity with higher volume. In terms of your body serious change means growth (muscle growth, specifically) and your body needs rest to grow (and food. Preferably meat. Muscles love meat.) Every type of exercise is a different tool for the toolkit and there are situations where extreme duration programs may have a valid use. Shit, if you f*cking love working out and as far as you can tell you're happy and healthy because you spend most of your time in the gym, running or at yoga then I'm not gonna be the guy to tell you to spend more time on your couch. 

Becoming Invincible is all about setting goals and working hard to accomplish them. Self improvement takes time, effort, and a well designed plan. My point is not to dissuade people from engaging in a surplus of physical activity. There are few things that drive me crazier than the couch jockeys that talk down to fitness enthusiasts about how their bodies are going to fall apart and they're going to get hurt if they keep doing so much. Shaddap. That's not what I'm saying. All I'm saying is that if your specific goal is to get bigger or stronger, your programming should stay simple, intense and err on the side of rest. 

Take home message? If you're training mainly for strength: 3-4 large compound movements per workout/ 3-5 sets per movement/3-5 repetitions for set. Rest should be 1-5 minutes between sets depending on the overall workload. If you are looking for some hypertrophy you can go up to 8-12 reps per set, but I would stay at 4 sets or fewer. As always, the weight should be high enough that you can complete each set with perfect form but could not do any additional reps per set. Failure on the final set is not necessary but acceptable. 

Now get out there and go kick some ass. Good luck and good lifting.

Cheers.