There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
Remember that acronym, as it is applicable to all aspects of life.
Training hard takes a toll on your body. And, if you want to get mutantly strong and superiorly conditioned, then you have to work for it, but you also have to accommodate for the cumulative stress and fatigue that comes along with that.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
Work hard. Rest hard. And eat hearty.
Som and I are tapering off this week, and drastically rolling back our volume, density, and intensity, in order to allow our bodies to recover a bit before our next cycle.
We are again returning to the easy strength program, for the sake of keeping our movements properly greased.
The easy strength routine works deceptively well. I have to admit, I was a little perplexed and quite curious when I got done with my first easy strength workout. I had to do a double take when I gazed at the clock, trying to figure how my workout only took fifteen minutes. I then went to wipe the sweat from my forehead, only to realize there was none.
How on earth could a fifteen minute workout, where I don’t even break a sweat, make me stronger?
Well it did…and here’s why:
Strength is largely about neurological efficiency in regards to certain movements, not necessarily morphological adaptations. What that means, is that strength is more about practice, and less about putting on muscle mass. Yes, you can get strong without getting big. And you should!
What easy strength allows you to do, is to practice a couple multi-joint, compound movements everyday, without running the risk of overtraining, since the volume is tactically spread out evenly over the week, and the density per day is so low. The intensity fluctuates from day to day as well, often inversely of the density.
Now I would not recommend this as an end all be all program. But for most in season athletes, this is perfect. It is also effective to use for a back off period, as it allows you to effectively recover while still promoting strength gains.
For our easy strength routine, we selected the following movements to practice throughout the week.
Deadlift
Bench Press
Military Press
Pull Up
Front Squat
Leg Raises/Ab Roller
You may also wish to add in a ballistic movement as well, such as jerks or snatches, but we opted out of that, as we will still be getting most of our conditioning from our martial arts training.
Here is a video log of our easy strength workout from Monday. Enjoy!