Does your training make sense?
I don’t mean that as some grand, philosophical question (at least not today).
I just mean, do the things you’re doing actually support what you’re trying to achieve?
There’s an exercise I see a couple times per week that makes absolutely no sense.
A standing dumbbell external shoulder rotation.
If you aren’t sure what that is, click here for a video (it’s 10 seconds long).
It’s a truly pointless exercise because it does nothing for the muscle it’s supposed to be training.
Why?
Gravity.
Gravity pulls downwards.
The muscle they’re trying to train in this video, rotates the arm backwards.
So the dumbbell he’s holding serves literally no purpose other than to make his bicep work harder.
He’d get the exact same benefit from this exercise by holding nothing.
Now how would you fix this exercise?
Either by laying on your side (so gravity would be fighting the action of the target muscle) or by using a different piece of equipment (such as a cable or a band).
Even better, probably don’t do it at all unless you’re actively working to rehabilitate your rotator cuff. There are better exercises that will work as a preparatory movement for your shoulder.
Now I picked that specific video for a reason.
It’s a video from T-Nation, one of the biggest training outlets on the planet.
Which goes to show, just because you get training advice from a “trusted” source, doesn’t necessarily mean it makes sense.
We still have to think about our training.
Does it make sense?
Does the movement do what it says it’s supposed to do?
Does the movement help you at this moment in your life?
If not, then we need to change it.
Sometimes, we might need to get rid of an exercise entirely.
Other times, it just might not be appropriate right now.
Personally, I love back squats.
Well… love/hate.
They’re really difficult.
Which is kind of the point.
And they’re not appropriate for everybody.
In fact, without pulling up a bunch of programs, I’d venture a guess that not even a quarter of my current clients will do a back squat this week.
Why?
It just isn’t a good fit.
For some people, I doubt it will ever be appropriate.
My 75 year old client who is new to lifting weights and has a ton of kidney problems doesn’t need to learn to back squat.
She just needs to put on whatever muscle mass she can as fast as is realistically possible so she can move better.
So we’re using a lot of machines.
My other client has incredibly long femurs, so back squatting is really awkward for her.
So we do front squats and Bulgarians.
And for a lot of people, they’re just not appropriate at this moment.
A bunch of my runners are working towards summer races and a really heavy bilateral movement just takes too much away from the running.
We’ll probably be doing them again come late fall/early winter.
Your training has to make sense.
The movement has to do what it says it’s doing and it has to support your overall goals.
We could do the same thing with running workouts.
If you’re limited by your VO2 Max… then we have to do workouts that put pressure on that system.
And how do we put pressure on that system?
Spend some time at a really high HR (over 90% of maximum).
One of the most efficient ways to do that is to do 3-5 sets of short, 2-4min intervals with a similar work-to-rest ratio.
Such as 5x3min hills.
Warm up for 10-20 minutes to get yourself moving and make sure everything’s ready to go.
Start at the bottom of a hill with a shallow to moderate grade (you still want to be able to run well).
Run up that hill hard for 3 minutes – hard enough that you question your life decisions a little bit by the end of the rep.
Jog down the hill for 3 minutes – really easy so that you stop questioning your life decisions and can convince yourself to do it again.
Repeat 4-5 times.
VO2 Max work feels kinda bad.
If it doesn’t feel kinda bad, then you’re probably not doing VO2 Max work.
Now again, is this appropriate for everybody?
No.
It’s an unpleasant workout designed to help people get faster.
If you don’t want to get faster or aren’t in good enough physical condition to do a really hard workout, then don’t go do that.
But unless you’re really new to running, that’s what “VO2 Max” training probably looks like.
It’s not 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.
That’s a different workout that trains a different system.
Your training should make sense.
If it doesn’t, then you should probably make some changes – at least if you want to hit your goals and avoid wasting time.
If you aren’t sure whether or not your training makes sense, that’s okay.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
And if you’d like someone to look at your training and give you some insight…
Just send me a message.
I’m more than happy to help.