Category: Training

  • Weaponise the jazz mindset

    How a jazz player approaches his craft stands in stark contrast to that of a classically trained musician. Whereas classic music is about perfectly playing the right notes, jazz is about improvisation. A talented jazz musician can, and probably has to, adjust his playing on the fly each night.

    To react to the other musicians he’s playing with or to change the vibe of the audience. Adding notes to a solo or pulling back while another player takes the spotlight.

    In classic concerts, you get to enjoy the talented playing just the same. But when you buy a ticket to a classical concert, you know you’ll be getting the exact thing it says on the tin.

    With a jazz gig, though, there’s always a certain element of improvisation to it. You never know exactly what you’re going the get tonight.

    Approach strength training like a jazz musician.

    Injuries often happen when we’re stuck on doing what we’ve always done. I used to love training with barbells and (relatively) super heavy weights. And I kept getting myself injured. After a while, longer than I’d like to admit, I realised I had tied a part of my self and who I was to the way I trained.

    I had to two options. a) keep going back to the heavy weights and keep feeling like shit, or b) let go of the part of me that’s tied to the barbell training. And find a different way to get to my goals.

    Now, all that sounds much more elegant in writing than what it was when I was going through it years ago. But I guess that’s the benefit of hindsight. Besides, writing this blog is about as elegant as I ever get. So please don’t take that away from me.

    When you weaponise the jazz mindset for your own fitness, you let go of being married to a one way of training.

    You become more adaptable. You move the focus away from the method. And towards the results. Instead of having a one method to get to your goals, you can use whatever training style or exercise selection feels good for your body.

    With the jazz mindset, you can change your training because of an injury or let go of an exercise because your body no longer feels good doing it.

    You can adjust your training sessions based on your time or equipment availability. Instead of doing nothing because you can’t train the way you’ve always trained.

    Jazz mindset means dropping the dogma. If the latest science no longer supports the way you’re doing things, you’ll be open to moving on to something else. Instead of trying to grind a gear that ain’t moving.

    Essentially, you become an agnostic of fitness.

    – J

  • Getting stronger with less work

    Training itself doesn’t get you stronger, fitter, and healthier. You get all those things because of how your body reacts to the training you’ve done. Nothing new there.

    You want your workouts to stimulate the positive reactions in the body. You know, hormones and stuff. The ones that encourage your body to pour energy into making you a more capable human being. Whether that means not getting out of breath when catching the ferry after a long lunch on the sauce. Or absolutely owning the steepest side of the mountain when skiing.

    You don’t want the body to think it’s under attack after each training session

    When this happens, the body will limit some or all of the resources needed for the positive reactions that progress your strength, fitness, and health.

    It will instead spend the resources on what it understands as trying to keep you from dying. Mostly figuratively speaking. (But not always. The long term consequences are a blog for another time.)

    The more severe this staying alive reaction, the less you have to show for your training efforts. You cannot progress when the conditions in your body aren’t favourable for progress to happen. You’re wasting your time. In fact, you might get worse.

    Stuff that can trigger a staying alive response

    The negative kind, that is. Not the restoring Bee Gees disco vibes.

    This first list you’ve heard before: not eating enough calories, carbs or protein, eating mostly rubbish, high stress or other psychological issues, not sleeping enough, dehydration, too many Sunday afternoons on the sauce, listening to Justin Bieber, watching The Kardashians…

    Pretty much anything that makes you feel something isn’t quite right. Whether it’s in your body or the world as a whole.

    Then there are the negative consequences of training too hard

    Approaching each training session like it’s a battlefield. As if you’re David and the stoic kettlebell, the personal trainer in the sleeveless shirt and sleeve tattoos, or the fitness instructor in those tight spandex is Goliath.

    But training too hard doesn’t mean going heavy. Because if you can go heavy, have at it. But you have to do it without the triggering the negative reactions in the body.

    Which brings us to the juice I’ve been squeezing in this blog.

    Training too hard = ignoring the need to rest

    The battlefield mentality means limiting rest periods and not letting the body recover enough for the next set. It’s about chasing tiredness. Treating each workout as an opportunity to figuratively beat something or someone into your embracing submission.

    Such as dominating an hour HIIT class (an oxymoron in itself) or a workout with rests that are on par or less than the work set durations. And then measuring the success of that based on how tired and sore you feel.

    Because getting tired still doesn’t mean getting better.

    Getting tired doesn’t even mean just getting tired. Getting tired means getting worse. It forces the body to pour its resources into staying alive instead of improving.

    And things only snowball when people do this multiple days straight. Something not too uncommon for fitness class enthusiasts. Eventually, they get to a point where they wonder why their strength, health or fitness isn’t improving. And why, despite all that effort, they’re not witnessing the promised sexification when they look in the mirror.

    But wait! There’s more. The risk of injury also goes up. Muscle activation and coordination take a hit when we’re tired. As you can see, it’s an all around shit show for the ages.

    Fitness junkies (Hey I should know. I was one.) are not seeing results because their body thinks it’s living under constant artillery fire. It makes little sense to spend energy on worrying about improvement or longevity when the immediate focus is on survival.

    Great things happen once you appreciate the importance of rest

    You’ll remove the handbrake that’s holding back your progress. You’ll see and feel your strength, health, fitness and body composition improve.

    And you’ll turbo charge those results because you can now train harder without triggering the negative reactions in the body. You will notice how much more power, strength and energy you can drive into each set. Instead of feeling like you’re paddling against the current in a river of melted cheddar.

    The upside of prioritising rest in the workout is that you don’t need as long breaks between sessions. Even if you went hard in the training.

    But limiting rest in both the workout and between the workouts? You cannot have both and still expect to see great results.

    Your work:rest ratio shouldn’t be less than 1:1

    Anything less than 1:1 work:rest only makes sense when your training loads are so low (for you) that it wouldn’t deliver the positive training response anyway. Rested or not. Which makes me question why anyone would go that light in the first place…

    Unless it’s for the social or mental benefits. In which case, yes. I am all for it.

    If your work set takes 45 seconds, you need at least 45 seconds of rest to get the most out of the work you’re putting in. And the closer you are to your max effort, the longer you need to rest. Both in strength training and in cardio.

    You’re not a powerlifter. But to use them as an example, their rests are often five times their work sets.

    Now, obviously you don’t need rests that long since your goal is to not win a powerlifting meet. And since training is unlikely to be your number one priority in life, it’d be ridiculous to ask you to spend a few hours on your training each time you do it. Let alone to ask you to rest most of that two hours.

    All of us want the best possible return for our training investment

    But we have families, jobs and whatnot. To get any meaningful training done, we have to settle for shorter rests.

    And accept that most of us are not getting the best possible response from our body to build our strength, fitness, and health. But if we’re as smart with our rest as we are with our training, we can get pretty close. Ideally above 80%.

    To get to that, aim for 1:1 – 1:2 work:rest ratio. Erring on the higher side. And take care of the other aspects that boost your body’s positive response to training. Stuff we covered earlier.

    You’ll probably end up doing less work compared to the past. But the work that’s left is going to be hard. And then you need to rest even harder.

    Getting >80% return for your training is good enough for anyone whose job, income or survival doesn’t depend on being Batman or Sarah Connor for 24/7.

    I happily put my spoon into that soup.

    -J

  • The best thing I’ve done for my own training

    The older I get, the more I am appreciating short strength workouts. Even if the short workouts are by necessity. With two young kids, a coaching business and freelance writing, there’s only so much a man can fit in.

    But after two years of Covid imposed short strength workouts, I wouldn’t go back to longer session. Even if I’d figure how to go from 24 to 28 hours a day. A hindrance I am still trying to solve.

    When in the past I’d set aside an hour for training, I now get in about 30 minutes. Including the warm up. Obviously, living in the tropics cuts down the need for an extensive warm up. After three or four specific warm up exercises, I can focus on workout specific warm up during the first few sets of the actual training session. If I’d live in a colder climate, I’d take longer to get ready.

    So, time-wise my workouts are half of what they used to be. But the actual amount of work isn’t as low. Since I am training at home, it’s mostly distraction free compared to the gym environment where I was constantly chatting to people.

    At home, I do most of my workouts when the kids are not at home. And I train at the end of the workday to not get pulled back to the work stuff. Podcasts don’t count!

    That’s an unnecessarily long-winded, but a very Joonas-like way of saying that when I train, I can actually focus on training. And get a decent amount of work done in a short time. The goal is to hit 16-18 total work sets within each session. Which is roughly about two thirds of what it used to be.

    That and avoiding complete failure in each set means that I am fresher immediately after the session. And (usually) my patience is on the nicer side for the rest of the afternoon.

    All of that and the fact that my strength levels haven’t taken a noticeable drop means that my short workouts are here to stay.

    But before you go halve all your workouts…

    Short workouts are not for everyone.

    If the training time is the only time you move during the week, you benefit from longer sessions. Get as much movement in as you can when you can. While pulsing between intense and less taxing movements in the actual workout.

    But if you’re already active daily and strength train 3 or 4 days a week, try shorter workouts. I think you’ll be surprised. In a good way.

  • Graceful fitness isn’t about never training hard

    You can, and probably should, push your limits.

    But because I harp on so much about reasonable workouts and a balanced approach to health and fitness, some of you might think that I am against intense workouts.

    If that’s the case, it’s on me for not being clear enough. Something that my wife would likely agree on.

    Here’s a snippet of a recent text message conversation I had with a client who’s dealing with long-Covid. I’ll share her comment and my reply here slightly edited as it’s a nice overview (for once!) of the whole graceful fitness idea I go on about.

    Client’s comment, shared with permission:

    “If I remember your story correctly, I think you’ve learned this for yourself as well. Train smarter, not harder. (But you have to admit – it was kinda fun to push the limit and just exhaust oneself every now and then?)”

    My reply:

    “In the past it [the way I trained] was as hard as possible for as long as possible for as often as possible. Now it’s mostly shorter workouts <45min, mostly medium intensity. Some days I get into the workout and everything just feels off. I stop and go for a walk instead. Occasionally, when I feel really good, I’ll push it.”

    ”You don’t have to settle for only doing medium workouts for the rest of your life. Just know when to push it and when to hold back.”

    There you have it. Hope that clears it up a bit.

    -J

  • I finally cracked the code

    1.4.2022 Letter from Joonas’ desk.

    I’ve finally discovered how to deliver anyone older than 40 years of age outstanding results.

    And I’ve packaged it into a new coaching program. It’s the end product of a decade of searching, studying and extracting the truth.

    Unlike my previous attempts that I’ve labelled simple but not easy, this one’s both. Simple AND easy.

    I am embarrassed to say the answer’s been right in front of me for all these years. Yet, I haven’t been able to see it. My tunnel vision and narrow minded thinking have been clouding the deepest dips of my soul. And as a side effect, my eyes haven’t acknowledged the circulating universe.

    I feel sorry for any of my past clients. I’m sorry I didn’t see this earlier. But it’s not too late.

    This program is nothing like you’ve seen before.

    A complete game changer. Simple and easy results to get to your strongest, healthiest self. While having the body you’ll be proud to show off. In fact, you’ll never want to wear clothes again.

    You can see results quicker than you ever thought possible. And I promise you will keep them for life.

    In the past, this would’ve sounded too good to be true. Arrogant even.

    So what’s new?

    A new training program? No. The principles of smart strength training still hold true.

    A new revolutionary approach to eating? No. Reasonable eating habits are still the way to go.

    The results are in. And they’re incredible.

    I’ve seen 65-year-old men look like Ryan Reynolds, move like Bruce Lee, and have the strength of Ving Rhames. With the golf swing of Arnold Palmer and lungs of Clarence Clemons.

    As for women? A recent transformation turned a 55-year-old into the spectacular combination of all the Charlie’s Angels, circa 1976. With the water polo skills of Ashleigh Johnson.

    All in just 12 weeks. While eating whatever they wanted.

    Are you ready for the secret?

    They were all forgotten in the thick, unforgiving forest for centuries. Gaining energy and expanding. Until now.

    Healing crystals from Mongolia. Each crystal fell off an asteroid that landed on earth during the early years of the Arghun Dynasty.

    For maximum effect, each crystal is individually wrapped in foil and sprinkled with dried yak hair. Before carried on to a flat mountaintop, placed in a semi-circle at the end of a rainbow, and set on fire with a lightning. Waiting for the perfect rainbow and lighting combination can take decades.

    But I felt like that wasn’t good enough.

    So I had each crystal blessed by a one-eyed Finnish shaman. One blessing session takes a week and can only happen above the arctic circle. It involves repeatedly chanting the lyrics of Underneath Your Clothes, a hit single from Shakira’s 2001 Laundry Service record. Except that in the chant, ‘clothes’ is replaced by ‘foil’.

    This makes the crystals glow in the dark*. They’re a real attention grabber on your bedside table.

    What does this program cost?

    What would it be worth to you if this could solve all your health and fitness problems, for life? Well, these healing, energy balancing crystals can do it. They did for me.

    You are probably thinking tens of thousands of dollars. Hundreds of thousands even. But no, I don’t want you to refinance your mortgage.

    I want to help you.

    I will sell the total package for $750 (including shipping and GST). And I’ll also throw in a reindeer horn. Which has also been hit by a lightning. Although unintentionally. But still.

    Alternatively, you can also pay me in teriyaki tofu sandwiches.

    CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW!

    But be quick. Once they’re gone, there won’t be more. Unless I can find another asteroid. Which is a lot of fucking work.

    *There is also slight chance that some of these crystals are Soviet nuclear waste. Results may vary. 

  • Getting Stronger is Hard Work

    The late afternoon sun hugs the field. The two tired brothers have worked since the early hours of the morning. Now they’re getting the last of the day’s harvest done.

    Bob, the younger of the brothers, is inherently lazy. Trying to get the harvest done with him is like dealing with a toddler insisting on using a hammer to eat a kiwifruit. A patience testing endeavour.

    Ron, the older of the two, with his sleeves rolled up, is throwing bales of hay on to the rusty cart. And after each bale he’s muttering words of encouragement to his brother.

    Unless Ron wants to do all the work himself he needs to spend most of the days directing and asking Bob to lift another bale of hay onto the truck. Otherwise Bob would spend his time lounging on the ground, getting a tan, and chewing a long piece of grass while half humming lazy renditions from the Grateful Dead catalogue.

    But with Ron’s determination and gentle encouragement Bob does his part. As the sun starts to set the brothers climb onto their beat up John Deere and chug across the field to get home.

    At home Ron pours a small Scotch.

    He hands it to Bob and tells him to go have a bubble bath. Meanwhile Ron himself, organised to a fault that he is, heads to the kitchen to cook a hearty bean stew and potatoes. 

    The brothers have a meal together and go over the state of the field. Ron maps out the plan for tomorrow’s work and promises to Bob that tomorrow’s work load won’t be any worse than today’s.

    After the meal, with the weathered floorboards creaking, Bob makes his way to his bedroom to retire for the night. Ron stays up to pack the leftover stew, potatoes and thick peanut butter sandwiches ready for tomorrow’s lunch.

    The next day on the field is more of the same. 

    And the one after. And the one after that. At some point each day Bob will hit his limit and insist on returning to lounging on the ground and work on his tan. And unless Ron wants to finish up the day’s work all by himself, he has to encourage Bob to get up and pick another bale of hay. 

    Each day, despite Ron’s promises of easier tomorrows, Bob does a bit more than what he did yesterday. 

    —

    Ron is the driving force of the brothers. If he wouldn’t force Bob out of the house and put on his underwear and ask him to do more work, Bob would spend his days sitting at the kitchen table playing solitaire, without his underwear. While trying to get a tan through the kitchen window.

    We’re all Rons. Bob is our body. And toddlers should only use hammers in mattress lined houses.

    Our body is inherently lazy

    They want to exist in a world where they can rest on the bales, get a sick (but healthy) tan and hum the great songbook of the 70s. Like Bob, our bodies want an easygoing existence where it’s possible to get by only doing what’s absolutely necessary. 

    The body yarns for a world of, and here’s a big word, equilibrium.

    Just turning up to train isn’t enough. 

    Lifting the same amount of hay as yesterday doesn’t lend itself to progress. If all we do is the same thing over and over in each training session, Bob never progresses. He has no reason to because his current existence is his definition of that aforementioned, and here’s that big word again, equilibrium.

    We have to keep shoving Bob forward to improve.

    And the only way to do this is training. Conditioning to improve our heart and lungs and all that anatomical stuff that connects those two to wherever they’re meant to connect. Cutting down calories to burn fat. Resistance training for strength. To take the next step, to get that extra rep, and to go that little heavier.

    Well, hard manual labor on the farm works too. But let’s face it, neither you nor me are doing none of that. I, for one, don’t even know what a tractor looks like.

    So we make this deal. 

    We challenge him in the training. Then we make a promise and lie through our teeth. We promise that if Bob sits in a warm bubble bath, eats his potatoes and gets stronger during the rest between the workouts, the whole thing will feel easier next time.

    So Bob sits in the bath and repairs himself with the false hope of renewed, ah big word, equilibrium. And the next time is indeed easier for him. 

    Yet we, Rons, can’t help ourselves and take another step on the path of betrayal. We take off the nice person mask and reveal our true self to Bob by making the training even more challenging come next time.

    Lucky for us Bob’s tangled in a groundhog day. 

    Thanks to our body’s short emotional memory we can keep repeating our false promise day after the day. We act all nice, pour a Scotch, run a bubble bath and serve chilli. We even add a thick layer of peanut butter on those sandwiches to really elevate Bob’s Stockholm Syndrome.

    The next morning Bob climbs on to the beat up John Deere whistling “Friend of the Devil”. Sure, he complains how he would rather play solitaire and get a tan. But with some non-abusive encouragement, and the hanging carrot of a future peanut butter sandwich, Bob eventually does a bit more. And it’s the same cycle all over again.

    We do all these devious acts for the benefit of our body 

    If we want to keep getting stronger, fitter and more resilient we have to make training uncomfortable. Not a pseudo-military spew town. But we have to keep challenging what we’ve previously done in a reasonable and sustainable fashion.

    Yes, there is wisdom in sticking with the same until it feels a bit easier. But we can’t get stronger by doing the same months on end. There comes a time on the farm when progress requires picking up that heavier bay of hay.

    Of course, if we’ve reached a point of strength where we feel content, things change. It’s ok to turn up to repeat what we’ve always done for the sake of maintaining what we’ve got. 

    That’s fine too. Because sometimes Bob needs a tan. And Ron needs to calm the… down and sit himself in the bath.

  • How To Warm Up And Be Less Like Britney

    Yes, warming up can seem like an annoyance at times. Especially when you’re in a hurry and just want to get into it.

    But skipping the warm up, or worse, doing it like a sloth means leaving some of the potential results hanging uncollected on the hooks of missed opportunities.

    The purpose of a warm up

    Get more out of the workout

    Cold muscles don’t contract as well as warm ones do. By warming up you increase the blood flow into the muscles making them, and I risk sounding like a car mechanic working on an adult movie set, lubricated and ready to contract.

    More oxygen in the muscles allows them to contract and relax quicker. You’ll perform better and milk more benefits from your workout.

    Possibly lower the risk of injuries

    Although science isn’t conclusive on this, it would make sense that injuries are more likely to happen with cold muscles. Purely based on the slowness of contraction and relaxation when compared with warm muscles.

    Let’s focus on the fact that training injuries happen when the force applied exceeds the tissue tolerance. It would make sense then that as warm muscles contract better, they are more likely to counteract the force demands.

    Excite the nervous system

    Warming up the muscles and joints is one thing. “Warming up” the nervous system is another. Again leading to a better muscle contraction.

    Get in the right headspace

    This is the brain content of a typical adult on any given day:

    “I am soooooooo over Simon sitting next to me at work. What’s his deal anyway?!? Does he really need that much cologne? Smells like he got it from the discount bucket in Target.”
    “Did little Timmy remember to take his lunch box to school? Gosh, I hope he eats his peeled apple slices.”
    “We really need to find a solution to get our company through this merger. Maybe I should call Melinda…”
    “What should I make for dinner?”
    “How good are these pants!”
    “I wonder if my wife wants more woolly socks for her birthday?”
    “Ok, what was I doing again…?”

    Ideally a thorough warm up will allow you to bring your focus to this:

    “Fuck Simon. Time to train.”

    How to warm up

    The purpose is to start easy and gradually ramp up so you’re ready to get after it when it counts. I like to think of the warm up as a gradual progress of reducing ground contact. Start on the ground, progress to standing and finish with locomotion before adding power and speed.

    It could be as simple as this:

    1. 9090 breathing
    2. Kneeling heel rock
    3. Snoop Dog steps into rotation
    4. Squat to stand
    5. Lateral squat
    6. Single leg hip swing
    7. Carry variation

    This could also be much longer. A warm up for someone in their 60s might take 25 minutes and include a variety of movement work. For someone deconditioned returning to fitness the whole workout might look like a warm up.

    Then comes the power and core work.

    I really see this part of the program still part of the ramping up. We are now taking movements and making them more explosive. One for the upper body, one for the lower body, plus a core exercise thrown in the mix.

    8. Kettlebell swing
    9. Wall power push up
    10. Side plank to rotation

    Again, adjust these to what’s right for you and your setting. Med ball slams and throws are brilliant choices when training in a gym. Not so much when training on the third floor of an apartment block at 4am.

    Technically your first one or two sets of each exercise in the strength training session are still part of the warm up.

    You’re practising the movements of the training. Start with a lighter weight and build up to a one or two work sets where you really push it.

    You can’t really tell where the warm up finished and the training started

    The whole warm up should feel like you seamlessly transition from warm up to training. In terms of gradually ramping up from awful to awesome, think transitioning from Britney to Batman.

  • Walk Away To Come Back Stronger Another Day

    Strength, power and cardiovascular fitness forms the foundation for longevity. And these qualities have to be constantly nurtured to stop them from crumbling. They need the integrity that comes from frequent practice.

    Yet there is a point of diminishing returns. A point of too much. Be it chasing some random ego-driven numbers with weights, running ourselves to the ground on the trails, or pushing that one extra set or rep when it clearly doesn’t matter.

    Should I stay or should I go?
    Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

    Strength, power and cardiovascular fitness forms the foundation for longevity. And these qualities have to be constantly nurtured to stop them from crumbling. They need the integrity that comes from frequent practice.

    Yet there is a point of diminishing returns. A point of too much. Be it chasing some random ego-driven numbers with weights, running ourselves to the ground on the trails, or pushing that one extra set or rep when it clearly doesn’t matter.

    As I am closing in on a full decade of working with clients, and twenty years of training myself, this is one of the guidelines I try to drill into people’s heads (including my own) the most:

    It’s okay.
    You’ve done enough.
    Walk away.
    Come back another day.

    Not only is it a solid advice, it also rhymes. Which in itself is a great thing in any sentence. And means that because of the poetic beauty in it, it shouldn’t be argued with.

    Listen to the sweet whispers of your body.

    This can be tricky, and sometimes we abuse it to get away from doing the good quality work. It’s a skill to differentiate between mentally not feeling it and feeling off physically. A skill that usually gets better as the training age increases.

    What often acts as a good guide, unless you’re feeling like an absolute dirt, is just starting the workout. Just by completing the movement prep and the first set of training can bring a newly found glory to the body and mind. That’s a sign to keep going.

    The opposite is true too. If after the movement prep the body and mind still feel like they’ve been a pinata for a bunch enthusiastic kids high on birthday cake while practising their latest karate moves, it might be better to walk away. Literally, a walk instead might be a good idea.

    Only quality reps matter.

    It’s often that “one more set” that will leave us feeling like a bag of runny donkey poo for days, even weeks. Injuries, muscle strains and general shadiness usually happen in the vicinity of trying to do a few more.

    Quality reps deliver results and leave you feeling semi-fresh. Piling shitty reps on top for the sake of quantity usually does nothing good, but leave you tired. And being tired is not a measuring stick for the success of a training session.

    Compare previous results before “I’ll do one more”.

    Checking what you’ve done in the past can act as a guide to whether you should do more. If you’re feeling great and one more means just a bit better than in the previous workouts, go at it. Be great. A savage, if you must. Whatever adjective that gets you going will do, really.

    If you’ve already done a bit better than before it might be better to walk away. You’ve done enough. Insert the rest of the rhyme here and whistle away.

    And if you’re constantly feeling like you’ve been run through a meat grinder it’s time to investigate what’s up.

    If you’re like most of us it’s unlikely that you’re training too much. But it could be that you’re training too much for what your body can handle with whatever else is going on in your life. And it often comes back to the basics of not enough sleep and food, of too much stress.

    Let’s do just enough to keep getting better.

  • Why I Rarely Use Barbells

    Chains. Metal.
    Photo by John Salvino on Unsplash

    The gym-less self-isolation training hasn’t been a challenge for most of my clients. Not because any of them have proper gym set ups at home. But because when we train at the gym it’s mostly with kettlebells, dumbbells, resistance bands and bodyweight. Stuff that’s easy enough to set up at home.

    Sure, there are some aspects we are now missing. Cable pulley system-machine-whatever-you-want-to-call-it, the power work with medicine balls, trapbar deadlifts and the access to landmine exercises. The last being just about the only thing we use barbells for.

    I’ve gradually used less and less of barbells over the years. And it’s probably been three or four years since I’ve cut them out almost completely for new clients*.

    Barbells emphasise a one dimensional view on progression

    Go heavier. That’s really it. You get better by increasing your numbers. Sure, you can add pauses and all the other stuff to get stronger. But focusing on barbell lifting emphasises increasing the weight on the bar. That’s a fact in people wired in barbell lifting.

    Great for powerlifters competing in lifting the biggest possible weights, but not so much for people who just want to be and look fitter and healthier. Let’s face it, how much does a healthy adult really need to lift anyway?

    Using barbells makes people more prone to injury

    All the barbell lifts are way too easy to load excessively heavy. Because it’s possible to pile on the weights with the bar already elevated in the rack, you don’t have to bypass the body’s self-limiting brilliance: the need to build a base of strength to get the bar into the starting position.

    Making barbell squat into a self-limiting exercise.
    Imagine if before even trying squatting the weight you’d have to clean it into the rack position. But no. With a squat rack all the trainee has to do is to walk under the bar, create tension against it and walk it away from the rack.

    And that’s why I like goblet, and front squats with kettlebells.
    There is no way most people can lift as heavy when the weight is held in front of the body. The pull forward is just too great. And there’s the grip strength which adds another element of difficulty to the lift.

    Smells like goblet squat spirit.

    Besides, for this to even work, you have to lift the weights to the starting position first. Another safety check to pass before earning the right to squat with them.

    What about barbell loaded hip thrust?
    I love the hip thrust. But not with a heavy barbell. A heavy weight sitting on my hips? Trusting that my back and pelvis can handle it? No, thank you.

    Besides, there is something off-putting about loading things so heavy that you have to use a cushion to reduce the pressure of it on the body.

    The case against barbell loaded bench and overhead press.
    I refuse to help someone get heavy dumbbells in the starting position of a dumbbell bench press. If you can’t get them there yourself, you haven’t earned the right to press with them.

    Compare this to barbell bench press where people can just load the bar and un-rack it. Regardless of it being too heavy or not.

    Benching with a barbell also forces the hands and therefore the shoulders to follow a specific pattern. Where as when benching with dumbbells or kettlebells (one arm floor press) the hands can rotate freely. It just feels nicer for most people. Same goes for overhead press variations.

    Deadlifts make an occasional exception to the rule.
    Most people feel better using a trapbar instead of barbell when deadlifting. Compared to barbell the trapbar allows the weight to travel closer to the mid-line of the body, which just feels nicer on most backs.

    There is the occasional client who still works on barbell deadlifts, just because it feels better for them. But these clients are few and far between. Even still, we often elevate the weight off the ground for them.

    But what about when your arms get tired before your legs?

    Most people’s argument against using goblet or kettlebell front squat is that it’s usually the arms that get tired before the legs. That it’s impossible to go as heavy with kettlebell front squat compared to barbell back or front squat. True.

    And on that note, here’s a snippet from Charlie Weingroff’s The Concept of Lowest System Load:

    “Effort does not equal results.  We know this.  And Newton’s 2nd law says force is force is proportional to the mass of an object along with the acceleration of motion.  In theory, there has to be more mass of the kettlebell to increase more force.  But there can also be more acceleration.

    For instance, in performing a proper hard style KB swing with 20-30% of the individual’s bodyweight, force plates register almost 4x bodyweight.  A 200 lb man can swing a 24 and create 800 pounds of force into the ground.  I am guessing there are many more 200 lb individuals swinging 20s, 24s, and 32s than pulling 8 and 9 wheels.

    So the example here suggests that we MAY be able to accomplish ONE of the same things using an implement of 15% the load.”
    – Charlie Weingroff

    As I mentioned earlier, something happens when the weight in your hands is held further away from your body’s base of support. Because your centre of gravity shifts forward you need more strength relatively to the weight you are holding, which creates an experience of a harder lift.

    The exercise will be harder to complete, but it is likely easier for your joints and nervous system. By driving the weight up fast, you should be able to get similar benefits with lighter weights. Making the return of investment much higher. If this matches your training goals, you win.

    And if you get to a point when the grip really becomes the limiting factor, switch to single leg variations. One leg requires less loading compared to two.

    Safer alternatives for barbell lifting

    Squat alternatives

    • Kettlebell/dumbbell goblet hold or kettelbell rack variations for squats.
    • Split squats, lunges, rear foot elevated split squat to reduce the load on the back (load one leg, one back vs two legs, one back) and the grip.
    • Single leg squat variations.

    Deadlift alternatives

    • Trapbar, kettlebell and double kettlebell deadlifts.
    • Single leg deadlifts.
    • Skater squats.

    Hip thrust alternative

    • Single leg hip thrusts.

    Bench press alternatives

    • Dumbbell bench variations.
    • 1-arm kettlebell floor press.
    • Push up variations.

    Overhead press alternatives

    • Landmine press variations.
    • 1-arm kettlebell press variations.

    My clients are not powerlifters

    Hence we do whatever works so we can get to them to their goals in the safest, most efficient way possible. And for most, barbell doesn’t fit into that equation.

    *Unless the barbell lifts are something that the client want to do and get good at. Then we work on them like any other.

  • Minimalist Strength Training for The Housebound

    Big enough to swing a kettlebell around.
    Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash

    I like to think of myself as a minimalist. Not a hardcore minimalist who takes only chewing gum and a stapler to go on a zombie hunt. But a minimalist nevertheless.

    I have a somewhat nihilistic view towards most of the gym equipment. Although I work at a gym (Except now. Cheers, COVID-19. You dick.) with options galore of training equipment, I often set imaginary restrictions on the equipment I can and can’t use.

    Working with these invisible rules is a sort of creative outlet, I guess. Besides, time is of an essence with a young family. One equipment training makes the whole session more efficient. Which is sort of nice now when most of us train at home.

    Let’s cover everything you need to have and know to master full body strength workouts at home. Even better, take the kettlebell to your backyard or a nearby park for some rays. If you have the luxury to do so.

    Equipment

    One kettlebell

    A weight that is challenging for 10-12 reps of single leg deadlifts. For most people, 12-16kg will do just fine.

    Here’s one you can order. Or you can try to rummage Amazon for one. 

    Two square metres of space

    Ideally without any kids, glass, or pets in the immediate vicinity.

    Your body

    Makes the training somewhat easier.

    Warm up

    Let’s keep it simple. Repeat the following warm up for 5-10 minutes, depending on how cold you’re feeling on the day.

    1. Snoop Dog doing Spiderman x 5 per side
    2. Squat to stand x 5
    3. Standing march x 10 per side

    Strength exercises

    Choose one exercise from each column for the day’s workout. Complete them as a circuit:

    Lower body → upper push → upper pull → core

    Exercises – choose one from each column

    Lower bodyUpper pushUpper pullCore
    Single leg deadliftPush upReverse snow angelHigh tension plank
    Swing or 1-arm arm swingSingle arm floor pressNaked batwingsBear squat
    Goblet squat1-arm pressSplit stance rowHigh tension side plank
    Split squatHalf-kneel bent press1-arm 1-leg rowCrawl

    Programming

    Choose one of the rep ranges: 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, 12-15*.
    *Batwings and planks, do the reps as powerful exhales through pursed lips. *Crawls, take one step forward and one step back. Repeat other side. That’s one rep.

    Aim to complete as many rounds as you can in 20-30 minutes. 

    The goal is to do a strength workout, not mindless high intensity I-forgot-my-name-fuck-the-form-I-am-Troy-is-it-Christmas-yet cardio. After completing a set of one of the exercises, wait until you can comfortably talk before moving to the next exercise.

    Then take a bit of extra time after completing a full circuit of the four exercises. Get some water and admire your glistening figure in the mirror. Maybe open the curtains to give the neighbours something to look at.

    Never lose your form. Even if it means that you can’t complete the rep range you set out to do. You can always try again another day.

    Progressing

    If you did 3 rounds last time, try to beat it. Again, don’t sacrifice form to get there.

    When the weight is good for some exercises, but too heavy/light for others

    If it’s too heavy simply do less reps. If it’s too light you can get creative with pauses, increasing tension, or doing 1.5 reps. Since I am all about tables and columns today, let’s make this into one.

    ExercisePauseTension1.5 reps
    Single leg deadlift5 seconds at the bottomUp to 5 seconds on the way downn/a
    Swing or 1-arm arm swingn/aShould be tight as it isn/a
    Goblet squat5 seconds at the bottomUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way down, halfway up, down, up
    Split squat5 seconds at the bottomUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way down, halfway up, down, up
    Push up5 seconds at the bottomUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way down, halfway up, down, up
    Single arm floor press5 seconds in the middle of the rep on the way downUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way down, halfway up, down, up
    1-arm press5 seconds in the middle of the rep on the way downUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way down, halfway up, down, up
    Half-kneel bent press5 seconds in the middle of the rep on the way downUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way down, halfway up, down, up
    Reverse snow angeln/aUp to 10 seconds per directionAll the way down, halfway up, down, up
    Naked batwingsn/aShould be tight as it isn/a
    Split stance row5 seconds at the topUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way up, halfway down, up, down
    1-arm 1-leg row5 seconds at the topUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way up, halfway down, up, down
    High tension plankn/aShould be tight as it isn/a
    Bear squat5 seconds at the topUp to 5 seconds on the way down and upAll the way up, halfway down, up, down
    High tension side plankn/aShould be tight as it isn/a
    CrawlStep, spend 2 seconds suspended before touching the groundMove in slow motionn/a

    Sample Strength Program

    6 minute warm up we covered earlier.

    10-12 reps of each exercise with a 16kg kettlebell.

    1-arm swings → 1-arm press → split stance row → crawl → longer break.

    Repeat for 20 minutes.

    To recap

    You can get heaps done with a whole lot of nothing and a bit of creativity. As long as you have a kettlebell, a small space and a body, you’re golden.

    The hardest part of this housebound living is not deciding what to do with training. The hard part is actually doing the training when you’re stuck on your computer and struggling to switch off work.

    Or, if you’re like me, you might have a kid demanding some of your attention. And rightfully so. Being a parent is awesome. More the reason to keep the training short and simple to get on with the other things that matter in life.