From a general perspective, the essence of variety in reality consists of two parts; varying the intensity level and/or varying the exercises. Personally, I believe that the first of these is the most important one, but that doesn’t mean we should neglect the latter. If you’re interested in reading more about a simple way to manipulate your intensity levels, I suggest you take a look at this post: (link to Understanding Overtraining).

When it comes to choosing your exercises, you need to apply some basic logic - don’t just mindlessly subscribe to someone else’s point of view (including mine). We are all individuals, with unique abilities, needs and goals. Yes, we are also all humans (well, most of us anyway) so there are of course some basic commonalities that we all share as well.

In this context, these commonalities consist mainly of the way our bodies respond to a certain stimuli. For instance, higher intensity naturally elicits another type of adaptation than lower intensity, and full body movements elicit another type of response than isolation exercises. Note that neither of these is wrong, or – as some people would have you believe - constitute some kind of heresy. So yes, you have my permission to do low-intensity triceps kickbacks – but if you do, just don’t expect to become any stronger.

In my opinion, one of the best variations of the basic squat is the front squat. Compared to the back squat, the front squat involves the quadriceps to a greater degree, but at the same time it takes away some of the effort from the hamstrings. So if you replace the back squat with the front squat, you might want to give some extra attention to the back of your legs by adding another exercise like the romanian deadlift - but for now, let’s focus on the front squat, beginning with a short overview of how to perform the movement.

How to perform front squats:

- The bar is placed in front of the head, resting on your shoulders and upper pecs close to your throat. This position may feel uncomfortable at first, but you’ll get used to it with a little practice. The grip is usually a bit outside shoulder width, depending on how flexible you are, and the elbows are pointed forward.

There is also an alternative grip that can be used when front squatting; the cross-armed grip. There is nothing inherently wrong with using the cross-armed variation, but I recommend that you only use this in a power rack, since your arms are placed in a way that makes it harder to drop the bar safely in the case of a failed lift.

- Feet – or, more specifically, the distance between your heels - are about shoulder width apart, or possibly a little wider. Let the toes point in the direction that is natural for you, meaning that if your toes are pointing slightly outwards when you stand or walk, this is the direction that your toes should point when you squat.

- Take a deep breath and hold it to maintain intrathoracic pressure during the movement, which makes it easier to maintain the posture needed to perform the movement safely. You need to focus on keeping your upper body upright the whole time. Contract your core and try to push your elbows upwards. This will help you keep the back straight.

- Squat down at a controlled pace as far as you comfortably can with good form, keeping the torso as upright as possible by contracting your core and keeping your elbows up. As is the case with all squats, initiate the movement by sitting down rather than bending your knees. Don’t pause at the bottom, focus on immediately pushing upwards through your heels.

As I mentioned above, there are basically two grip variations you can use for the front squat; the clean grip or the crossed-armed grip. Unfortunately, both these variations have their drawbacks. The cross-armed grip is somewhat unsafe in the case of a failed lift, and the clean grip can feel very uncomfortable if you lack the necessary flexibility or have relatively long forearms.

Since this discomfort can affect your focus on the most important part of the movement; in essence, keeping your upper body tense and upright, I recommend using straps instead. Using straps will relieve some of the tension in the forearms, without sacrificing the control of the bar, making it possible to maintain good posture and balance during the ascent.

Since I have relatively long forearms, using straps when front squatting made a significant difference for me. However, don’t become too dependent on the straps – if possible, use them as a way to progressively increase your flexibility. Also, don’t make this into some kind of weird triceps exercise, pulling too hard on the straps - just keep the straps tense enough to maintain balance and control of the bar. Focus on pushing your elbows upward, not pulling with your hands.

Besides working your quadriceps, the front squat will prepare you for further adventures in Olympic lifts or variations thereof, if you’re so inclined. The front squat is part of such lifts as the full clean and the clean and press. Good luck!

Related posts:

• Building Bulletproof Joints
• Understanding Overtraining
• Fitness: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Immediately after you injure a muscle, use ice to stop the injury process if you have it available. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, applying ice to reduce inflammation is standard procedure when it comes to muscle injuries. After this initial, “acute” phase – which probably is about 1-2 weeks after the injuy occurred - you need to start to actively rehabilitate your injured muscle.

This is done by performing one or several exercises that directly works the injured area through full range of motion. Start by doing 2-3 sets of somewhere between 20-30 repetitions, using a very light weight. If you do more than one exercise, do the same for that one. Usually, this will still hurt - and that’s just fine. The pain normally becomes less intense at the end of each set. Ideally, you should apply ice to the injured area after the workout, but if you don’t have ice readily available it’s OK. However, try to apply ice to the injury at least once a day. I usually apply ice for about 15 minutes, then remove it for the same amount of time, then apply ice for 15 minutes, remove it etc, and go through this procedure 2-3 times.

Next workout, do the exactly same thing. If possible, increase the weight used by a very small increment – as small as possible. If you can’t, stay at the same weight as the day before. It’s very important not to rush things, but to gradually increase resistance in small increments, but this doesn’t have to be done every workout – it’s perfectly OK to stay at the same weight for several workouts in a row.

Try to perform this rehab workout at least every other day. This should be seen as a minimum recommendation - I have used this method with good results doing up to 6-7 rehab sessions a week, which I believe was optimal for me at that time. Listen to your body and remember that the pain should decrease towards the end of each set, and – with time – become less intense at the beginning of your rehab workout.

Some years ago I successfully used this method to rehabilitate a stubborn biceps injury. Would it have healed anyway, one might ask? Yes, I guess so, in time. But I’m convinced that using this technique decreased the time needed for the injury to heal substantially - as well as minimizing scar tissue in the muscle belly. It took about 4-5 weeks for the pain to disappear completely, and I haven’t had any problems with this area since.

Remember, the keys for success with this method a very gradual increase in resistance, full range of motion and frequent us of ice. Good luck!

Related posts:

• Building Bulletproof Joints
• Understanding Overtraining

The purpose of this post is to examine the concept of hypertrophy a little closer; how it really works and ways we can change our approach to hypertrophy depending on the results we want. I’ll try not to get too deep into the lab coat stuff, and instead keep things simple and practical.

When a muscle is subjected to the kind of stress created by resistance training, it adapts by growing. This growth is called hypertrophy. There are actually two types of hypertrophy; sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy. Now, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is what happens when your muscles become bigger, but without a corresponding increase in muscular strength – the density of the muscle tissue is actually decreased. This kind of hypertrophy is common in the field of bodybuilding, where the primary focus is to elicit an increase in muscle size. Myofibrillar hypertrophy is what happens when the density of a muscle is increased, which leads to greater strength gains - but doesn’t increase the size of the muscle to the extent that sarcoplasmic hypertrophy does.

In reality, pure myofibrillar or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy never occurs exclusively – instead, muscle growth is always a mix between these two types of hypertrophy. But we can – by the way we choose to train – tip the scale in favor of one or the other.

So, which one is better? Well, that depends on your goals!

From a sports perspective, athletes that need to be strong and able to move fast should focus on developing myofibrillar hypertrophy while keeping sarcoplasmic hypertrophy to a minimum – since they’re not interested in carrying around excess body mass that only would slow them down. Also, a higher degree of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy means that the body’s ability to transport oxygen to the muscles become decreased, making your muscles tire faster. As a contrast, other athletes may need to be both heavy and strong to be as effective as possible – for example, a lineback in American football.

The choice is really up to you. If you’re mainly interested in performance, you want to focus on eliciting myofibrillar hypertrophy. If you’re mainly interested carrying around as much muscle mass as possible, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is the way to go. Regardless of which kind of hypertrophy you want, there are some central aspects that you need to understand. Namely:

Number of reps
First, understand that different rep ranges creates different muscular adaptations. For sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, it’s been estimated that you should keep the number of repetitions between 8-12, at 60-80% of you 1 repetition max. For myofibrillar hypertrophy, do between 1-5 repetitions at 80-100% of your 1 repetition max.

Time under tension
Time under tension means the time it takes to perform a repetition of a specific exercise. As a rule of thumb, the speed of execution for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is slower than for myofibrillar hypertrophy – about 5-10 seconds per repetition compared to about 2-3 seconds per repetition.

Rest between sets
Completely opposite to the logic that applies for time under tension, rest between sets needs to be shorter for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, about 1-3 minutes. For myofibrillar hypertrophy, recommended resting periods are normally from 3-6 minutes. The reason for this is the usage of heavier weights – weights closer to your 1 repetition max – when focusing on myofibrillar hypertrophy, which stresses your nervous system more, thereby creating a need for longer rest between sets.

But wait! Isn’t it bad, immoral or even illegal to train for looks? Well, some people would like you to believe that, but there’s really nothing wrong with focusing on building a good looking physique. A goal doesn’t have to be strictly performance related to be worthwhile. It’s another matter completely that most professional bodybuilders of today are chemically enhanced freaks.

As I’ve explained above, bodybuilding type training focuses on building big muscles in a way that by some are considered to be non-functional. Of course, if you aim mainly for power and speed, this is an important consideration. However - most people that aren’t professional athletes don’t have strictly performance related goals, and while I believe that it’s a good thing to focus parts of your training on performance, I also think that there’s nothing wrong with training for aesthetics. Don’t subscribe to anyone else’s rules – make your own, based on what makes sense to you.

Related posts:

• Understanding Overtraining
• Functional Training: A Practical Definition

What is a joint anyway? Well, a somewhat simplified definition is that a joint is made up of tendons and ligaments. The ligaments are made up of slightly elastic, fibrous tissue, connecting one bone in the body to another bone to help stabilize a joint. Tendons are another – although similar - type of fibrous tissue that connects your muscles to your bones, in essence making it possible to move your body by transferring the force initiated in the muscles.

It’s an undisputed fact that your muscles adapt at to a training stimuli at faster rate than your tendons and ligaments. Up to a certain point, your joints will become strengthened by regular strength training – if you perform these with good form and a full range of motion, but to ensure that our joints are able to keep up with the increased strength – gradually leading to the usage of heavier weights - we need to pay special attention to this area.

My personal experience is that it’s very beneficial to focus on strengthening your joints from the very beginning of a training program, even though most people don’t handle that much weight when they’re just starting out. Nevertheless, this is generally a period of time when the body is unaccustomed to weightlifting, which makes it logical to direct some focus to the parts of your anatomy that we know are less adaptive to this particular kind of stress. It has been estimated that your tendons and ligament has the possibility to increase in strength and size up to about 20 % - not that much compared to your muscles. In resistance training, the novice stage is also when the greatest strength adaptations are taking place, and since muscles adapt at a faster rate than tendons and ligaments, it seems only logical address these weak links specifically at the time when the development of strength is the fastest in the training history of an athlete.

However, it is also essential - if you want to increase your chances of staying strong and injury free – to take a long-term, prehabilitative approach to the health of your joints, even after you’ve moved on from the novice stage. As your training progresses, you gradually move closer to your genetic potential - and as you do, the rate at which your body adapts to a certain stress slows down. As this happens, you spend more of your training time lifting loads that are relatively heavy, in the context of the amount of weight that your body can potentially handle – which also means that you impose more stress upon your body within a certain period of time. The more you can prepare every part of your body to handle this stress, the better are your chances of staying injury free. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, staying injury free should be the first priority for every athlete, professional or nonprofessional, since this is the single most important factor to be able to progress and to gradually become stronger and fitter. Also, if you do injure a tendon or a ligament, these are often harder to heal completely than your muscles.

My own experience has led me to conclude that one of the best ways to build strong joints is to regularly perform static training. Some people recommend using partial movements to strengthen the joints, but I believe that partials really aren’t necessary – and that it’s both safer and more beneficial to use static training – meaning, moving as little as possible while working against some kind of resistance. However, I don’t think it’s possible to be completely immobile – since the mere maintenance of a static position in reality means using very small movements – but I do believe that this is what we should be striving for. By consciously minimizing movement while working against a heavy resistance, the tendons and ligaments are directly stressed in the position in which they are the strongest.

We have tendons and ligaments all over our bodies, but I’ll focus on three of the most important joints when it comes to strength and conditioning work; the knees, the elbows and the shoulders. Let’s start with the knees:

In my experience, the best way of strengthening the knee joint is to use a variation of the squat – which is really more of a static support position. It is very simple; get in under the bar as you normally would at the beginning of the squat, and lift it up by straightening your legs. Hold it like that for about 20 seconds, and then carefully lower the bar back to the rack again. Do 3-4 sets of these, resting as long as you need between sets.

Now, there are a couple of things to think about when doing this exercise. First, you need to use relatively heavy weights to get the maximum benefits of this position – I’m talking about more weight than you can lift in your one repetition max in the regular squat. For instance, if your maximum one-rep squat is 200 pounds, the weight used in your static support position should be about 30% above this - at approximately260 pounds. If you can use even more weight, fine – but don’t ever use more weight than you can safely handle.

It’s extremely important not to let your form collapse in this position. Focus on maintaining a straight and strong position, avoiding any rounding of the back– just like you normally would at the beginning of a regular squat. Also, for safety reasons this exercise is preferably done in a power rack. You should place the bar as high as possible in the rack, minimizing the movement needed to raise and lower the bar. These can be done about 2-3 times a week, either directly after your regular squats or as a standalone exercise at any other time during the week. Either way, be sure to warm up properly – we’re doing these to avoid injuries, remember?

The next static position focuses on the upper body, and more specifically – from a joint perspective - on the elbows and the shoulders. The position originates from the field of gymnastics, but you don’t have to be a gymnast to perform it. It is called “front lever”, and is done either with the use of a chinning bar or with gymnastic rings. I prefer gymnastic rings due to their overall flexibility, but a chinning bar works equally well in this particular context.

Start by gripping the bar just a little wider than shoulder width. From a hanging position, bend your legs and lift them towards your chest while leaning your upper body backwards, ending up in a position where your back is parallel to the floor and your knees are tucked against your chest. In this position your lower back will be slightly rounded, and that’s just fine. Now, hold this position for as long as you can without letting your form deteriorate – focus on keeping your elbows straight. Try holding this position for a minimum of 20 seconds, for a total of 3-4 sets, resting about one minute in between sets. If 20 seconds is too much for you, aim for 10 seconds instead and increase the number of sets to 5-6. As you become more proficient, increase the number of seconds in each set. Remember - the key to this position is that you keep your elbows as straight as you possibly can.

Working on the front lever has the added benefit of working your core, so it might not be the best idea to perform this exercise in the same workout as heavy deadlifts. I recommend using this as a standalone exercise, or maybe together with some of the other static positions described in this post – about 2-4 times a week. For those of you that can hold this position for 20 seconds easily, first increase the time per set. When you are able to hold the tuck version of the back lever for about a minute, increase resistance by moving your knees away from your chest and start over with 20 second sets. As your become stronger, you can increase the resistance in this way by gradually moving your legs further away from your body, ultimately ending up with completely straight legs. However, for the purpose of safely strengthening our joints, I believe that the best way is to keep working on the easier variations and instead increase the time per set.

The next static position I regularly perform is a wall supported handstand. Most people have probably tried this at one time or another; at least I now I did when I was a kid. It’s really very convenient since you don’t need any equipment apart from your own body and a wall. Place your hands on the floor close to a wall, just a little wider than shoulder width apart. Next, kick up with your legs to a handstand, with your feet lightly leaning against the wall for support. As with the front lever, work on holding this position for timed sets. Aim for 3-4 sets of 20-second sets to start with. Focus on keeping your arms straight and actively pressing upwards from your shoulders during the whole set, trying to reach for the roof with your toes. Your shoulders should be right next to your ears the whole time.

Another exercise that I find very useful for the shoulders is simply hanging from a chinning bar or from a couple of rings. This position helps maintaining a full range of motion at the shoulder joint, which is very important for long term shoulder health. As with the handstand position described above, actively focus on keeping your shoulders close to your ears and try to reach for the floor with your feet.

How you choose to integrate these static exercises into your training program is really just a question of personal preference. You could do one or two of these at the end of every or every other workout - or create a mini workout where you do all of them in between your regular training days. I recommend trying both approaches.

Related posts:

• Hypertrophy for Dummies
• Fitness: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
• Fitness Manifesto for The Young at Heart

How does things like that happen, really? Is it a 0 somewhere in the code that suddenly decides it wants to be a 1? One that looks around and feels the grass is probably greener on the other side of the binary fence? Like: “Those 1’s…man, they’ve got it made. They’re better looking, have better benefits…they’re 1’s, for God’s sake. We’re 0’s. Zeros. I can’t take it anymore, I’m gonna be a 1 too. There. Oops…what happened? Did I do that?” Or something like that.

Who knows?

Anyway, the site is back up again (which is obvious if you can read this ), but the restore resulted in the creation of a lot of junk characters in most of my posts - probably because I sometimes copy and paste these from a word processor.  I think I’ve cleaned these up now, but should you notice strange characters in any existing posts, please let me know.

Lessons learned: more frequent backups.

No related posts.

When talking about overtraining, we need to differentiate between the process of overtraining - sometimes referred to as overreaching - and the potential consequences if the overtraining process is allowed to persist for too long. This can lead to overtraining syndrome, a relatively severe condition which can take a very long time to recover fully from – you know, the kind of physical and mental state where you just want to curl up in fetus position in a corner of your apartment and start talking to the cockroaches.

So what constitutes overtraining, then? Well, this can become as complicated as we want to make it, but what it boils down to is that your body has become fatigued. When I first started training I really didn’t understand what was happening when my progress started to slow down, eventually coming to a halt or even start to decline. Of course, I was only 12 years old at the time - this was in the late 70’s. My teenage logic advised me that the correct response to this dilemma must be to train even harder, until some older athletes at my local gym (yes, over-the-hill guys somewhere in their late teens) took pity on me and told me that I was probably overtraining. Of course, these guys didn’t know much more than that, but at least they pointed me in the right direction.

Simply put, strength training stresses your body, and your body needs time to recover from that stress before you hit the weights again. If you don’t give your body the chance to recover, you’re creating an imbalance between training and recovery which essentially pushes yourself further down the overtraining spiral.

There are a lot of different factors involved in the relation between training and recovery, but research suggests that a major part is related to the state of your central nervous system - commonly referred to as the CNS. The mechanics of the process is as follows: when you perform a certain exercise, the CNS sends an impulse to the muscle, making the muscle contract. However, the quality as well as quantity of these nerve impulses - and hence, the muscle contractions and the way you perform the movement - depends on what shape your CNS is in at any particular moment. Needless to say (but I’m doing it anyway ) - if your CNS is fatigued, your performance will suffer. So, how do we manage our training intelligently, avoiding the curse of overtraining and keeping the CNS fresh and capable? Well, first we need to examine the concept of intensity a little closer.

The level of intensity in strength training depends on a number of different aspects; the amount of weight that is lifted, how many repetitions that are performed, how many of these repetitions that are done with maximum weight, and the volume - how many sets - in a specific training session. In relation to the CNS, the most significant of these aspects is the amount of weight. Using lighter loads, while keeping the volume (sets x repetitions) high doesn’t fatigue your CNS to the same extent. Training at a higher level of intensity means that your CNS will become fatigued faster and need more time to recover. Does this mean that we should avoid training at a higher intensity? No, of course not. Maximum effort training - meaning, lifting weights that are close to your own 1-repetition max - actually also improves neuromuscular coordination, increasing the CNS’ ability to coordinate and distribute nerve impulses. In that sense, the CNS responds the same way to the training stimuli as the rest of your body; it adapts to the stress that we impose upon it. The trick is to find the appropriate balance, doing just enough to elicit an adaption that makes you stronger and fitter, while avoiding going over the top. In a perfect world, there would be a universal blueprint for this; clearly stating what constitutes “just enough”as well as “too much”. Unfortunately, we’re stuck in a world where no such blueprint exists, so we have to wing it. The good news is that we don’t have to be right 100% of the time. Occasionally overdoing it is actually not that big a problem.

Understanding variation

To make sure that we don’t get stuck in the overtraining process for too long, we need understand how to incorporate variety into our training. Some people misunderstand this concept and think that they need to confuse the muscles by frequently changing exercises. There’s nothing wrong with varying your exercises now and again - as long as you don’t do something extremely stupid, like substituting deadlifts for triceps kickbacks - but it’s really much more important to vary your intensity level. This gives your body - and above all, your CNS - a fighting chance to recover. Also, don’t confuse neuromuscular fatigue with muscle soreness. Muscle soreness is the result of a microtrauma in specific muscle tissue - like your biceps - that really has nothing to do with the state of your CNS, and - more importantly - isn’t an indication of overtraining.

Incorporating some planned variation into your training program doesn’t have to be all that complicated, at least not in a basic level - let’s face it, most of us are not peaking for the next olympics. Consider the following example:

Week 1: You perform an exercise; let’s say the squat, for 3 workouts in which you use weights at approximately 80 percent of your maximum weight for a particular rep range. If your 5-repetition maximum (5RM) is 200 pounds, this means that you would use 160 pounds for week 1.

Week 2: Again, 3 workouts, but now at 90 % of your 5RM, which would equal 180 pounds.

Week 3: The same 3 workouts, now at 100 % of your 5RM.

Over a course of 3 weeks, you have moved from 80 to 100 % of your maximum in a particular rep range. I used 5’s in my example, but the logic is the same no matter how many reps you do. What now? Well, in week 4, you could perform what is known as a deload. Deloading is nothing else than cutting back on intensity, giving your body a chance to recover. Depending on the level of fatigue, this could mean stepping it down to 70 % for your three workouts, or doing just one workout at around 85 % of your 5RM - or doing no strength training at all the fourth week.

This can become a little confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. The whole point of the deload is to allow some recovery to take place, without losing your hard-earned gains from the 3 weeks of progressively heavier training. I personally don’t feel that taking a whole week completely off is necessary (unless you are very fatigued or have some nagging injuries). I feel that a better way is to keep the number of weekly workouts constant, and instead cut back a little on intensity, by doing 8 or 10 repetitions at about 70-75 % of my maximum for that particular rep range. Because overall intensity is lower, your CNS will get a chance to recover, while you still do enough work to maintain your strength gains. As an added benefit, working with lighter weights also gives you a chance to focus on fine-tuning your technique.

So, to summarize, the whole 4-week cycle looks like this:

Week 1: 5 rep per set at 80 % of your 5RM.

Week 2: 5 reps per set at 90 % of your 5RM.

Week 3: 5 reps per set at 100 % of your 5RM.

Week 4: 8 reps per set at 70 % of your 8RM.

OK, so now you have progressively escalated the intensity, and deloaded in week 4. The next step is simply to start over again. But since you need to keep progressing, your starting point for this cycle won’t be exactly the same as the last one. If you estimated that 80 % of your 5RM was 160 pounds in the first cycle, I suggest you add about 5 pounds to all your lifts the second time around. Likewise, in the 3rd cycle, you would add another 5 pounds to all lifts. Don’t get caught up in specific percentages, though - use the example above as a template, and make whatever changes that makes sense for you. For example, you might choose to start at 70 or 90 % instead of the proposed 80 % - or you may choose to prolong the progression cycle (the weeks prior to the deload week) for another week. Some may feel that starting a cycle at 20-30 % below your maximum isn’t necessary, but I believe that it is a good idea. For one thing, starting at a lower intensity gives you the time to develop good technique and build a strong foundation, which gives your tendons and joints a chance to keep up with the increasing stress generated by the progressively heavier weights.

As you can see, this general template can be customized in a multitude of ways to accommodate your specific goals and circumstances - however, it also works pretty well just as presented. If this stuff is new to you, my advice is to start with the basic template as it is presented above. When you feel like making some changes, be smart about it. Some people fall into the “total makeover trap” and change just about everything in their training program at once. The problem with this approach is that it makes evaluating what works and what doesn’t work damn near impossible. A much more intelligent way would be to change one factor at a time; either the intensity or the length of the progression or the way you set up your deload week.

And finally, don’t overthink things. Just start doing, and the details will unfold at their on pace.

Related posts:

• Faster Healing of Muscle Injuries
• Fitness Manifesto for The Young at Heart

OK, so what does this mean? Well, simply that different people have different needs and goals. For example, the specific training needs of a marathon runner would obviously differ significantly in comparison to those of a powerlifter. In both cases, the overall purpose is to enhance performance — but the specific purpose, e.g. running 42 kilometers as fast as possible, or lifting as much weight as possible — is very different.

Of course, even these very different specific purposes can share some commonalities. But my point is that functional training — although fairly easy to define on an overall level — will become substantially more complex when talking about the specific needs of individual athletes. When taking a closer look at possible commonalities, one might argue that certain exercises are universally applicable; in the sense that they are functional or beneficial for you regardless of your specific purpose. One might further argue that the squat and the deadlift are examples of such universal exercises.

However, if we broaden our perspective to include athletes such as wheelchair basketball players, we immediately realize that the squat wouldn’t be a very functional exercise in this case. We could of course exclude athletes with some kind of physical disability when trying to narrow down the area of universally functional training, but what would be the point of that? A wiser, more logical conclusion would be to simply realize that truly functional training always has to be defined and applied on the individual level. And although I am using the term athlete here, I’m not necessarily referring to professional athletes. Even if you’re training mainly to feel or look better, there always is a specific purpose to your training – a purpose that sometimes is clearly defined, and sometimes more vague.

So if there is no universally functional training, then is there such a thing as universally nonfunctional training? The short answer is of course — no. Instead of talking about functional and nonfunctional training as if these were two absolutes, we need to realize that it’s all about the specific purpose, and that this purpose should dictate the way we train. For example, chins may be regarded as a highly functional exercise by the wheelchair basketball player, while the marathon runner most likely would feel that doing this exercise would be a waste of time – or, in other words, nonfunctional.

So What About Beach Work?

What about training primarily for aesthetics? C’mon, that must really constitute nonfunctional training, right? Actually, I don’t think so. Again, if the specific purpose is what dictates the degree of functionality – which it is — you would naturally choose exercises that fulfills this purpose. I know, I know – advocating training for looks only is not the politically correct stance today. But if this is what motivates you and makes you go to the gym, I say go for it. And although some people just won’t admit it, we all want to look good naked. Don’t let anyone else set your goals or define your purpose for you.

Basically, the squat and the deadlift are really, really good exercises if you can perform them safely.  Personally, I squat about three times a week and deadlift about once a week. However, I sometimes do biceps curls as well — for aesthetic reasons. A couple of times a week I run intervals or perform some kind of GPP (General Physical Preparedness) drills. Combining heavy, full body movements with isolation exercises and GPP has proven to be the best combination for me in relation to my specific purpose. And although people advocating traditional functional training are saying that isolation exercises are unnecessary, that heavy full body movements are more functional (here we go again) as well as more effective in relation to aesthetics – I just don’t agree. For me, a combination gives me the best results. After over 25 years of training, I don’t just think it is the best combination for me, I know it is. Essentially, I do what is most functional for me without comparing myself to anyone else. Since I believe that everyone’s purpose is unique, any comparison with someone else simply wouldn’t be useful in evaluating my progress.

Conclusions

I believe that the most useful way of looking at functional training is to use a universal perspective. Using this perspective, my definition of functional training is as follows: Training that enhances performance in connection to an individual’s specific purpose. For this to make sense, we always need to make the connection to a specific purpose, which in turn always must be defined on the individual level. For me personally, this insight has freed me from the limited viewpoint of functional training as either to general or to sport specific. The general perspective seemed too general to be of any real use to me — and the overall message always seemed to boil down to do full body movements, without taking individual preferences or goals into account. The sport specific perspective is built on the opposite premise, and seemed too specific, too narrow for a nonprofessional athlete such as myself. The purpose of my training is not to enhance performance in any particular sport, but rather to enhance performance in the sport of life, if you will.

So, what’s the purpose of your training? If you don’t think you have one, think again. You may be more or less unaware of the purpose, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

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2. Do explosive movements. Had Luca Brasi moved a little faster, he might have been able to avoid the knife through the hand and the subsequent garrotting. Instead, he’s sleeping with the fishes.

3. Keep the carbs low. Too much pasta will make you grumpy and triggerhappy.

4. Whenever possible, take a walk instead of driving. Your car may be wired to explode, and the walk will burn of some of the calories in that delicious cannoli.

5. Run intervals. If a man with a gun is after you, you will need all the speed and stamina you can get.

6. Stay fit and healthy. If the man with the gun does catch up with you, your chances of surviving the gunshot wounds will be better if you’re in decent shape.

7. Stretch. You may need to hide in strange places, where some flexibility can come in handy.

8. Take some time for professional, uninterrupted massage therapy. Two words: Moe Greene.

9. Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do some triceps kickbacks. But, uh, until that day, please keep doing dips instead.

Have I missed any? Please let me know…

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Well - no. I just shamelessly stole the title. Not just for fun though, but also because I think it makes sense when thinking about fitness and strength training - and especially applied to particular exercises. In this article, I will try to dispel the confusion regarding why some exercises should be incorporated in your training - and likewise, why I believe that some exercises or exercise variations should be avoided.

In the fitness world of today, I see a lot of confusion regarding which exercises to use to produce a particular result. I sometimes ask people why they are using a particular exercise in their training program, and the reactions I get to this simple question can be very interesting. Some people actually do their best to motivate the use of their chosen exercise, often by listing several (incorrect) reasons. One example is: “I only bench press in the Smith machine because it’s better for the shoulders.” Others admit that they really don’t know - and simply state that it was recommended to them by a friend, or something like that. And some are actually slightly offended by the question. Asking about peoples’ training programs can be a very sensitive area, probably because it requires them to actually think about their training.

I assure you - it’s not in any way a habit of mine to assault other people in the gym, with the intention of trying to force them to see or do things my way. My experience is that on-the-fly-advice in the gym seldom goes down well, even if it’s sugarcoated and delivered with the best of intentions.

So - what exercises should we use then, and why? Of course, this will to some extent depend on what your particular goals are. In a previous post I have written about the importance of thinking about the purpose of your training. If you don’t have any clearly defined goals, I suggest you take the time to formulate some; one or two is often enough. But don’t make this harder than it is - I’m a strong believer in simplicity, and that you should simplify everything as much as possible. If you want to lose or gain weight, use a weight goal as your primary goal. For example, if your current weight is 220 pounds, your goal may be to get down to 200 pounds within 3 months. Always give your goal a specific deadline - otherwise it doesn’t really classify as a goal.

You might also want to define one or more secondary goals. The secondary goals are goals can be described as somewhat “softer” goals, in the sense that they cannot be allowed to dictate your training in the same way that your primary goals should. Also, don’t have more than one primary goal. The reason for just having one primary goal is to always know what your priorities are. If you have more than one primary goal, your goals may turn out to contradict each other and create confusion about what to prioritize. Your primary goal is what keeps you on course, the compass needle that makes you keep squatting when you’re really dying to do triceps kickbacks.

Naturally, the purpose of your training can and often will shift over time. Just keep things simple and focus on one primary goal at a time.

However, I also believe that there are some exercises that can be classified as good regardless of your goals. For instance, I think it would be a great idea to deadlift, even though your goal may be to lose 20 pounds. Using the deadlift as an example, it would most likely speed up your progress, making it easier for you to reach your goal. Used correctly, the deadlift is one of those compound exercises that, among other things, will induce a hormonal response in your body that actually makes losing fat easier. Obviously, if you only did deadlifts a couple of times a week, this would probably by itself not be enough to make you lose 20 pounds. There’s also The Bigger Picture to take into account; if you are like most people, you would also have to make some adjustments to your diet - as well as your cardio - to optimize the weight loss process.

For obvious reasons, this article isn’t meant to cover every exercise that was ever invented - but rather to serve as an overview, using the categories of good (exercises I recommend that you do), bad (exercises you shouldn’t do), and ugly. So, on a basic level, which exercises are good, which are bad, and which are, umm, ugly? OK, here we go:

The Good

The Deadlift: As stated above, I believe that this is a really great exercise. Why? Well, first of all, it is a full body movement - in the truest sense. Performed correctly, the deadlift will involve virtually all the muscles in your body, with special focus on the lower back. The muscles in your lower back are extremely important in supporting you lumbar spine, which, for obvious reasons are crucial for your overall health and mobility.

The Squat: Many people regard the squat as a leg exercise, but that’s not really the whole truth. Yes, the legs are the part of the body that moves when squatting, but like the deadlift, the squat is really a full body exercise. But in a similar fashion to the deadlift, which focuses mainly on the lower back, the squat focuses mainly on the leg muscles more specifically the quads, buttocks and hamstrings. However, for the legs to be able to perform their part of the work, the rest of the body - essentially everything that is below the bar - must work isometrically, stabilizing the body during the movement. This is also true for the calves, providing a stable platform for the rest of the body.

Dips: Simply one of the best pressing exercises there is. For most people, dips are easier on the shoulders than the bench press while also involving more muscle mass. Resistance is easy to adjust by using dip belt, and you never have to worry about getting stuck under the weight if you are training alone.

Pushups: Probably the second best pressing exercise there is. Like the dip, the pushup involves moving your whole body and can be adjusted in a multitude of ways. Resistance is a bit harder to adjust in the pushup, but a good solution is using a weighted vest. Depending on your goals, you may also want to give the one-arm variation a try.

Pull-ups/chin-ups: Good old regular pull-ups, done in front of the neck, is probably one of the best back exercises there is. Also, there are a lot of great variations you can use as your strength increases; apart from the obvious choice of doing them weighted, you might want to try the one-arm variation, or why not towel/rope pull-ups, which have the added benefit of strengthening your grip?

Olympic lifting variations: The reason for incorporating variations of olympic lifts in your routine, is that they contain an explosive component - these lifts simply cannot be done slowly. Lifting relatively lighter loads faster has been proven to increase both explosive strength and maximum strength. There are a lot of different variations to choose from - I recommend starting with a dumbbell variant, since they are usually much easier to learn, while still giving you more or less the same benefits. Moreover, practicing the dumbbell variations will also give you a feel for the basic groove of the movement, making it easier for you to transition to using a barbell.

The Bad

Triceps kickbacks: I still see grown men doing this, believe it or not. C’mon, if you want to isolate your triceps (which is OK), please pick an exercise that makes you perform some actual work. The myth seems to be that it “gives you a good pump”. But the problem is that apart from giving you a good pump, I have yet to see some evidence that kickbacks does something worthwhile for your triceps. Again, please pick another exercise, like lying triceps extensions or even pushdowns.

Behind the neck shoulder presses: I’ll make this one easy for you: Don’t do anything heavy behind the neck, including pull-ups or lat pulldowns. There really is no point. For most people, this is an unnatural position for the shoulder girdle, making a number of small but important muscles in the shoulder area work too damn hard, which can cause any of a number of different - but all of them painful - problems. You might be able to get away with doing things behind the neck for a while, but for most people it’s just a question of time. So - no heavy pulling or pushing behind the neck.

Leg extensions: Essentially the legs version of the triceps kickback. But while the triceps kickback makes it virtually impossible to handle heavy weight in the movement, due to the unsupported position of the arm, the supported position of the leg extension makes it possible to handle heavier weight, relatively speaking. The main problem with this is that the leg extension, biomechanically speaking, is an open chain exercise. An open chain exercise means that your feet (in this case) are not in contact with a stable platform while performing the movement, which increases the stress on the knee joint - especially at heavier weights - often resulting in an injury sooner or later.

Kipping pull-ups: I know that many people advocate kipping pull-ups, but I still believe there’s no good reason to do them. The kipping movement can be very, very hard on the shoulders. You might be able to get away with doing kipping pull-ups for a while - years, even - but chances are that they’ll eventually catch up with you. Substituting your regular pull-ups with some kind of olympic lift variation, like the dumbbell snatch, will both give you all the advantages of the pull-up, and the power component that the kipping provides - while taking less of a toll on your shoulders.

OK, so what about the ugly exercises? As I mentioned earlier, ugly exercises, in this context, are exercises that may look a bit strange at first. However, sometimes these weird looking exercises are simply good exercises disguised as bad ones. Here are my personal favorites:

The Ugly

Turkish Getup: The Turkish Getup is a movement that used to be performed regularly by 19th and 20th century strongmen. You essentially start by lying on your back, extending a dumbbell upwards in one hand - and then you simply stand up, all the while pointing the dumbbell in the same direction, keeping your arm straight. The old-timers actually used a barbell, but I recommend that you start with a dumbbell (or a kettlebell), adding weight slowly as you become more proficient. After a while, if you want to transition to a barbell, I suggest starting over with just the barbell, and add weights in small increments. The barbell adds a lot of instability to the exercise, and if you haven’t taken enough time to refine your technique, you’re setting yourself up for a shoulder or back injury. This exercise really involves your whole body, something that will become apparent at heavier weights.

Saxon Side Bend: This is another old school movement, designed to work your core - more specifically, your obliques. The movement itself is simple enough; just stand holding a couple of dumbbells overhead and bend slowly at the weights to the left and to the right. The key to this movement is moving slowly, using light weights, and focus on bending at the waist. Believe me, if you don’t know where your obliques are, this will become painfully apparent the next day!

If you’re not sure how to put the information in this article to practical use, don’t worry. I will cover these aspects more fully in coming articles, both from the perspective of how to perform specific exercises, and how to sensibly structure your training program.

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Being the middleyoung man that I am today, knowing and applying these principles 25 years ago would have been of great benefit to me. I believe that they are really universal, in the sense that they will work for anyone that applies them intelligently. So, without further ado, here we go:

1. Don’t blindly trust the “experts”
The problem with many of the so-called experts or gurus in the fitness world of today is that they really don’t want you to think for yourself. They have a program for you, and they want you to do it. Some offer online advice - if you’re doing the program. Results are promised - if you’re doing the program. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that these programs are all bad, or that these coaches are intentionally lying to you. This is not my point. My point is simply that you need to think for yourself. I don’t know if you have noticed, but many of these experts/gurus/coaches even disagree with each other.

Does this mean that you should never listen to coaches or read books about training? No, of course not - there is a lot of useful knowledge out there. Most often, you will also get some results by doing their programs. But I’m here to tell you that you can get better results by critically evaluating this information through a filter of your own goals, experiences and talents.

Starting today, accept full responsibility for your body even if this means disagreeing with the “experts”.

2. Focus on quality contractions
This might come as a surprise to some of you, but it’s not the weight on the bar that is important — it’s the quality of the contraction, which isn’t always the same thing. In essence, the harder your muscles can contract, the better the effect of the particular exercise. For example, Pavel Tsatsouline talks about the importance of creating high tension in Power to the People, advising us to consciously focus on flexing while lifting a certain weight. However, I believe that there is a more efficient way. My experience is that trying to consciously create a maximum contraction by focusing on flexing, will in practice NOT produce an actual maximum contraction. A better, more efficient way, is to use your body to reduce leverage.

To give you a concrete example: think of plain old push-ups. This basic exercise can be manipulated in numerous ways to increase resistance, forcing you to work - contract - harder, the more difficult progression/less leverage you are using. For example, try moving your hands further down towards your waist and then perform a push-up (you will probably need to point your hands outwards as well to save your wrists). Depending on your preference, you could also move your hands further up, past your head, or closer together. A different variation is to elevate your feet instead, from just a little to a full-blown handstand push-up. Or how about the one-arm push-up? The common denominator for all these variations is that they, performed correctly, will force you to contract progressively harder. What particular variation you choose will of course depend on the desired result.

3. Slow down
No, I’m not trying to introduce a new fitness concept where you perform all you exercises in slow motion. Wait a minute, I guess someone already did that!

I’m talking about performing below your maximum performance level for a longer time period than you might think is necessary. What do I mean? I’ll explain the concept using the bench press as an example. Let’s say you start with 150 pounds on the bar, doing 3 sets of 8 repetitions. Since you want to become stronger, you then would need to progressively increase the weight on the bar while keeping the number of repetitions constant. So, if you started with 150 pounds, and the 8 repetitions didn’t feel too hard - the logical step might seem to be to add some weight to the bar next time. I would like to suggest that you don’t. Instead, use the same weight for two or three sessions in a row - and then add some weight to the bar. This way, you will still progressively increase the weight, but at a slower pace. Don’t buy into the crap that you MUST add weight to the bar every training session. By slowing down the pace of the progression, you will give your central nervous system ample time to recover, while also letting your joint and tendons getting used to the weight as well as the movement itself. Muscles has a tendency to adapt at a faster rate than your tendons and joints, which means that while your muscles may be able to handle a certain increase in load, the same increased load might be too much for your tendons or joints, resulting in an injury.

4. Have fun, or else…
Yep, you gotta have fun when you train. Not fun like laughing-your-ass-off in the gym (it’s hard to squat while laughing), but you gotta find a way to enjoy the process. You may think that it is enough to stay focused on the outcome; losing weight, packing on x pounds of muscle etc, but it really isn’t — especially not long term. I’m telling you — you need to find a way to enjoy the process, or one or two things will eventually happen:

1) You will drag your ass to the gym or to the track, but you will just be going through the motions, and your heart won’t be in it. This will work for a while, but eventually your results will start to suffer more noticeably. It’s a downward spiral which will affect your motivation, which in turn leads to…

2) …this: Your motivation will take a nosedive. You will start making up creative excuses not to train. Soon, you will stop altogether for a while, using your creativity to come up with explanations for why training never really was all that important to you anyway. Of course, deep inside you will still know that this is BS. You will probably start again, but at a lower level of fitness than necessary, essentially flushing a big part of your progress down the toilet…

So - of you currently find yourself somewhere in this downward spiral, what to do? The short answer is: something else. Just try something else…anything that may give you the results that you are after. If you are trying to get in shape, maybe taking up boule wouldn’t be the smartest approach. For example, you might switch from training with weights to bodyweight training, or from interval running to swimming. You get the picture. The process is always more important than the outcome, so find something that is fun and that works, and stick with it. If you focus on enjoying the process, the result will take care of itself. Enjoyment also brings with it a sense of flow, making your training — even though you’re working really hard — seem almost effortless.

5. Understand the concept of variety
Variety is important, both for the mind and the body. Without variety, your body will adapt faster and your results will suffer. However, varying your training doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to change your whole workout every other week. Don’t get suckered into the mindset that you have to do certain exercises. For example, I believe that squats and deadlifts are great exercises, but there are a lot of people that have become strong, fit and healthy without doing these regularly - or even at all. Also, doing the same things day-in day-out gets downright boring, and boredom kills motivation, so spice things up once in a while by doing something different. However, use variety intelligently. Don’t change everything at once — instead, try replacing one or two exercises at a time, keeping the base of your program intact.

6. Move fast
The human body is made to move, and at least some of the time you need to move fast. This really doesn’t have to be all that complicated. For example, if you are normally doing squats, just remove of some the weight and speed up the movement, moving as fast as you can with good form. Usually, somewhere between 50-75% of your normal weight does the trick. This accomplishes two things: first, you allow your body to get some rest from heavy training while still practicing the movement, and second, these high-speed variations will improve your ability to produce force, which in turn has been shown to have a positive overall effect on strength development.

7. Don’t move
Yes, you heard me. Don’t move. What do I mean? Well, I believe that most of us would benefit greatly from incorporating a static, or isometric, component in our training. This is more or less the dark horse of fitness and strength — misunderstood and hence discarded by many. Studies - as well as my own experience - have shown that an intelligent use of static training is good for both your joints and your overall strength levels. How? Well, there are numerous ways to add isometric training to your program; holding a weight in a static position, or pressing against an immobile object (like a wall) - or the more advanced variations, like the planche from the field of gymnastics.

8. Follow the 6-week rule
Whenever you add a new exercise to you training regimen, stick with it for a minimum of 6 weeks no matter what. This will ensure that you give yourself enough time to start seeing some of the potential benefits. If an exercise is new to you, start out slowly, using light weights and focus on good form. It will most likely take you some time to develop good form when incorporating a new exercise, so be patient. It’s nothing magical about exactly 6 weeks, but I have found that this time span is a good rule of thumb; it’s long enough for you to be able to evaluate the potential of the exercise, but - if it’s not right for you - it won’t stunt your progress too much.

9. Be an athlete
Whoever you are, no matter what your current level of physical fitness is, and whatever your fitness goals are, start looking at yourself as an athlete. Being in the mindset of an athlete can be very different from being in the mindset of a person who just wants to get in shape. Looking at yourself as an athlete also means that the way you look at the world changes; it changes your perspective. For example, an athlete might look at a meal first and foremost as providing the body with quality fuel, whereas the person just wanting to get in shape will look at a meal using different criteria, such as taste. Using the criteria of taste will produce a very different result from the criteria of fuel, and everything starts with cultivating the right mindset.

10. Age is just a number
This may be the most important principle of all. Often, people fall into the trap of looking at themselves as being unable to do something, or feeling limited, only due to the fact that they have reached a certain age. Don’t buy into this crap! Know that more than anything, age IS just a number, and that you can do anything you set your mind to. Don’t use age as an excuse to live life below your potential, whether it comes to fitness or anything else. Just take a look at Jack LaLanne, who at the age of 70 swam 1.5 miles while towing 70 boats with 70 people. Oh, did I mention that he was handcuffed and shackled at the time? At 94, Jack still works out for two hours every day!

Got it? Good! The practical application of these principles will be covered in more depth in individual articles, so stay tuned.

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