This year I decided to get into weightlifting as my primary training mode again for several reasons:
- It’s fun! There’s nothing like the feeling of standing up a heavy lift
- It is more in line with how I coach people now. Most of my current clients are on some form of strength focus + interval training, so it makes more sense that I practice for myself what I write for others, and we all improve together
- As I turn 38 this year, it is becoming more clear to me that less really is more, and the structure and meticulous approach of good weight training better lends itself to health and longevity than anything else I have tried. But why is that?
It would seem intuitive that lower intensity, and perhaps more varied training would offer some unique benefits over the years. And there is some truth to that, but not in the ways you might expect.
Lower intensity training needs to be defined, and workouts designed to facilitate this. Often lower intensity just means “scaling” otherwise hard workouts. 20 minute workouts with slightly less difficult exercise variations, are still 20 minutes of continuous effort: a significant amount of training stress. The only ways I can think of to keep the intensity low in this setting is to either wear a chest strap heart rate monitor and stay under a certain BPM level (which is still only a correlate to stress), or to do some very structured resting. I don’t know anyone that does this.
EMOMs (Every Minute On the Minute format workouts) are popularly used as “lower intensity,” but if the work period is half of the minute or more, or heavy loadings are used for even shorter periods of time (e.g. a single 90% clean and jerk every minute), that easily becomes high intensity training again.
Now, I still believe that if someone is very mindful of their intensity level and lifestyle factors, a CrossFit type training program can be managed and perhaps optimally blend the best of all the main domains (conditioning, strength, and skill). But with so many more moving parts, it can be quite difficult to do.
Some people thrive on this complexity, and enjoy a never ending puzzle with many dynamic pieces. I see this in mostly young people who are more in it for the excitement and challenge than the long-term health outcomes. The older you get, the more a simpler way to maintain a modicum of fitness, and have it be more predictable, becomes appealing.
From a coaching as profession standpoint, one thing becomes clear: we need models that deliver. How do you think it would go over if, in your professional job, you said to your boss: “I have this super awesome idea, but my confidence in my ability to deliver on it is about 50/50”? When we coach people on their health, we have a responsibility to deliver reliably.
A nice feature of lifting and untimed workouts more generally: you can control the intensity level by writing the percentages to be used, total repetitions/volume, and track these things reliably over long periods of time (weeks, months). Most of the time is spent in the 70-80% range, and we can adjust the goal for the day based on how you look moving, and bar or body speed more generally.
A memory hole story: I still remember doing 30 rounds of “Cindy” circa 2014 (20 minutes of: 5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 Squats), and being in great shape that workout feels great. I could probably still do close to 15 rounds now if I worked myself up to it, but I don’t wanna!
Why? Because of the tradeoffs. I would either have to:
A) take some days off after, because that much volume would leave me sore for days
B) do more smaller versions of that workout over the course of weeks to build myself up to being able to do handle the volume without being so sore after
C) Increase my recovery practices = time, to try to bounce back sooner
D) Some combination of the above
All of this would be geared towards improving at these 3 specific movements a particular format, while neglecting a lot of other aspects of fitness. The X-factors for me (and I think for a lot of other people) are time, function, and specificity.
Time: I don’t want to train more than 3-4 days per week anymore, and not longer than 60-90 minutes on any one day. Same for spending my “free” time doing contrast showers, more than 15 minutes of mobility, ice baths, or whatever the latest massage therapy is. I like having time to do other non-fitness things.
Function: I also like the predictability of how my body responds to well-programmed workouts that are limited in scope. I don’t want to be sore for days and laugh-grimmace about how epic that crazy workout was. I’d rather get out of bed and walk my dog without a limp.
Specificity: Because of time, I have made reasonable concessions on the breadth and depth of my goals, and acknowledge that I may not be able to outrun a bear up a steep mountain if the situation calls for it, and that’s ok. I will settle again for basic metrics of health, like body comp, A1C, good range of motion, being able to walk a few miles and run for a few minutes, being able to put on my pants and tie my shoes without pain, and maybe risk not being “fit enough” for some wild scenarios. Honestly aside from MIL/LEO/First Responders, I don’t think most fitness fanatics really care about fitness as a survival tool. Doing really hard workouts is just a secret handshake.
But what about variety — isn’t it the spice of life? Yes it is!
You can get variety by doing more niche movements in your warm-ups and mixed accessory work. Basic Tumbling, Parkour, Brachiating (look it up!), climbing exercises, Handstand exercises, Breakdancing moves… Turkish get-ups!
Turkish get-ups are a popular “odd” movement. You can do 10 of them at the end of a 500m Row + 400m Run, but why? Just do 3-5 each arm as part of an untimed circuit. Boom, variety.
Keep the fun in your training, that’s what will make it last. Keep the focus on your long-term goals throughout your training, that’s what will make you last.
Coach Mauricio