Simple, Heavy, and Effective

 A.K.A “Simple Workouts + Heavy Training = Effective Results”

C.S. dragging a sled on the cover of his book "Ultimate Strength."  Read on to discover why you MUST drag or carry different objects in order to maximize your results!

I have written about it so many times that you wouldn’t think it needs repeating, but the truth is that it does!  I’m talking about getting “back-to-the-basics”, about our inability to stop making things so complicated, and just do simple, hard, basic, result-producing workouts.  And I also think that the truth is that we will always need to remind ourselves of this because it is in our nature to make things “complicated”, to always be searching for some more complex but somehow “better” program that will produce results even quicker for us.  Even though we really “should” know better, and even though we do know better, we tend to always make this mistake.

And this goes for myself, as well.  Maybe not so much with barbell training, although at one time I would have been quite guilty of that, too, but I definitely still make this mistake when it comes to “spirituality” or “recovering from injuries” - a couple of areas where I try to convince myself that there really might be better, more “speedy” ways to get where I’m trying to get to.  But then I come to my senses, and realize that what goes for one thing often goes for all things.

For the sake of this (relatively brief) post, we will stick with the subject of lifting, and save whatever I have to say on martial arts and Budo Zen for another post.  Of course, that also doesn’t mean that there won’t be some overlap here, that easily applies to other areas, but for brevity we will concentrate on lifting.

Just because you need to “stick with the basics” and keep things from becoming too complicated doesn’t mean that you can’t have some variety, or shouldn’t have some variety, naturally built into the program.  It also doesn’t mean that you can’t do a variety of different programs.  (We’ll get around to this shortly.)

The title of this post could also be a formula: simple + heavy = effective.  Because if you keep things simple and heavy - staying within a few training guidelines - then your lifting will be effective.  With all of what I have written so far in mind, here are some tips to get the most “how” out of what has been said, some tips for application of the “simple + heavy = effective” formula:

• The two most important aspects of  barbell-centric training are always going to be “simple” and “heavy”.  By this, I mean that it’s always going to be important to train with a few basic, heavy barbell and dumbbell movements as opposed to anything else.  This, however, doesn’t mean that workouts which are effective will always be similar.  For instance, you may get great results, as a competitive powerlifter, by training your squat and bench press on one day per week, and your deadlift and bench press on a 2nd.  It’s only two days per week of lifting, but it fits the bill.  So does a high-frequency training program where you do a couple of heavy sets on all of your muscle groups 4 to 5 days per week.  They are very different programs, but they are both simple and heavy.  And those two things are more important than any “programming” that is often more about personal preference.

• Try following the “two-barbell rule”.  What is this “rule”?  I wrote about it a few years back, although I’m sure others have written about it even if they didn’t call it the same thing, and it is just as simple as it sounds.   At the start of your workout session, before you do anything else, do two barbell exercises first, then move on to the rest of your session.  This works well whether you train full-body, or split your workouts over 5 or 6 different body part splits.  Just make sure your two barbell movements are big “bang-for-your-buck” movements, the harder the better.  For instance, if you enjoy full-body workouts, begin each session with squats, deadlifts, power cleans, overhead barbell presses, snatches, or bench presses.  Any two of those exercises would be great, and, of course, there’s no reason that the entire workout can’t be with that list, or something similar.    If you like splitting your body into multiple sessions, the same two-barbell rule still applies.  And don’t be afraid to get creative when it comes to your split exercises.  My two favorite leg exercises (assuming I’m not lifting full-body) are bottom-position squats and deficit sumo deadlifts.  As I once wrote, they’re the two best exercises no one ever tries!

• Learn to do the “minimum that is required.”  By this, I primarily mean exercises.  If you’re a powerlifter, then you need little other than the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift.  Some additional exercises are needed, especially when a lifter is not “built” for one of the three lifts, but even then you don’t need too much.   For instance, when I competed in powerlifting, I was very “built” for the deadlift and the squat.  I had well-developed - and strong - glute and glute-hamstring “tie-in” muscles needed for both lifts.  I also have very long arms which was the main reason I was able to deadlift 600 pounds in the 181 pound class.  But my bench press - for that very same reason - always sucked.  This meant that I did need a couple of extra movements added to my upper body sessions, such as close-grip bench presses, California presses, JM presses, plus plenty of lat and front shoulder work rotated into the workouts.  But even then, the workouts still followed the principle of “simple and heavy” as a week of workouts might look something like this:

• Sunday: Squats: work up over 8 to 10 progressively heavier sets until I hit a max set of 5, or a max triple, double , or single.  After that, I would typically drop down in weight, and do a few more sets of 5s or 3s, but only if I felt I needed it.

• Monday: Bench Presses: Work up over 8 to 10 progressively heavier sets the same as the squats.  Once complete,  I would then do a few sets of chins, followed by some close-grip bench presses, or some board presses of various heights.  But usually I did no more than 1 or 2 “extra” upper body movements.

• Wednesday: Deadlifts or deadlifts off blocks.  Work up to a heavy double or single over 8 to 10 sets.  When this was done, I would typically do some light “speed” pulls or I would do some more squats.  As the Russians were fond of saying: “In order to squat more, you need to squat more.”  I took that sentiment to heart, but if I did squat more than once per week (which I very often did, sometimes squatting 3 times per week) I only did one “heavy” squat session weekly.

• Friday: Speed bench presses with bands or chains for 8 to 12 sets of 3 reps.  Some days, if I felt fatigued, this would be ALL that I would do on these days, but most days I worked my triceps and my lats really hard with at least one exercise for each of them.

• In addition to squatting and doing some sort of pull weekly, make sure you are overhead pressing every week, in some fashion, as well.  Bench presses were listed above as an example for a powerlifter, but if you’re not a powerlifter, and even if you’re just a “recreational” lifter after a big chest, you really don’t need as much flat bench pressing as most (men) think they do.  Besides, bench pressing in all of its multitudinous varieties does not build as much overall mass as overhead pressing movements!  Overhead pressing movements are superior, especially when you perform them standing.  Trust me, you would get MASSIVE - not to mention incredibly strong - by training little other than squats along with an assortment of pulls (deadlifts and cleans of various sorts) and different overhead pressing movements.  That is a truly simple, heavy, but result-producing method of training.

• Anytime someone comes to me for advice about building muscle and “looking good” the first thing I find out is what kind of exercises they do.  I want to know this before I know anything about how often they train, or what kind of sets and reps they do, or even their background and goals.  Because if they’re not squatting, pulling, and overhead pressing every single week, then I know they’re not going to get the results they could be getting by replacing other movements with those.  Every once in a while, however, I’m surprised and find that the questioner does squat, pull, and overhead press.  But I’ve never had anyone tell me they do those three things and they drag or carry heavy objects.  But I think when you combine all 4 of those things in a simple, heavy program, you magnify the results ten-fold!  So make sure you are flipping tires, dragging sleds, or carrying heavy dumbbells or barbells in an assortment of various ways for distance or for time.

No matter what “new” things some trainer comes up with, and no matter what new exercise or new piece of equipment someone invents, just remember that simple plus heavy will always equal effective.