Training Lessons Learned

Last Thursday was NOT a good day.

You all know I’m a pretty positive person, and I do my best to let things roll off my back.  So just suffice it to say when I don’t have a good day, it’s NOT a good day.

Luckily, my good friend/online training client/soon-to-be-intern Eric Oetter was in town and we decided to get a quick training session in that evening.

We started off with some big, compound lifts – close-grip board presses with chains, and weighted chins.

After that, it was on like Donkey Kong.

I was hitting up some tricep work while Eric worked on his pulling technique, and then we decided to finish off with some biceps (aka biceptz).  I had no clue what to do, so EO offered up an idea:

Crazy 8′s

I can write about these today with only minimal shame, as the lingering soreness has finally diminished a bit.  Here’s the premise – Crazy 8′s are basically a ladder for your biceps.  Grab a relatively light weight, sit at the end of the bench, and do the following:

Perform one rep

Take about 5 seconds

Perform two reps

Take about 5 seconds

Perform three reps

Take about 5 seconds

You work your way up to eight reps, and then all the way back down. And one more thing: You can’t drop the dumbbells in between sets!  You have to hold them the entire time.

So we finish that entire bicep workout in 5 minutes, and let me tell you, the pump is ridiculous.  (Wow, I really sound like a bodybuilder here).

I kid you not when I say I was sore until TODAY!  Yesterday (Wednesday), things had started to subside a bit, but for the past 5 days just getting my elbow into full extension was not only a stretch, but a subtle reminder of what an idiot I am.

This little lesson reminded me of a few things:

1 – As Brett Jones said in our Podcast, “I do stupid really well.”

2 – Something “new” can definitely cause a reaction to your body (i.e. newness can equal soreness).

3 – That “soreness” doesn’t necessarily equate to “good.”

4 – That just about anything we do can make us sore, or tired, or not want to lift our arms over our head.  In that same vein, just about anyone can do these things to us – it doesn’t take a great coach or trainer to take someone out behind the woodshed and put a beating on them.

But here’s the underlying question – does that mean its good training?

Does that mean we’re going to get something out of it?

And this one is really important:  Is this something that we can use consistently, over-time, to get consistent and reproducible results?

Don’t get me wrong – there’s a time and a place for stupid, balls-to-the-wall training.  It pushes our physical and mental thresholds, and takes us to places we probably haven’t been to in a while.

Smart, basic training principles, however, aren’t quite that sexy.  But they’re also a hell of a lot more effective over the long haul.

Stay strong

MR

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