4 Tips for Serious Lifters

Loaded Carries - one of the 4 tips for serious lifters

     I have been lifting weights since, I think, 1986 or ‘87, when, for either my 13th or 14th birthday, my father bought me one of those cement-filled, plastic DP weight sets replete with a flimsy bench.  I’ve come a long way since then - in other words, I’ve gotten friggin’ old - but I’ve never stopped lifting, and I’ve seen a LOT of different exercises, workout routines, and training programs (some good, most not) done by a lot of different people.  In other words, in 36 (maybe 37) years of training - and paying attention - I’ve seen damn near anything and everything you can think of in the lifting world.  And so I’m also pretty sure that in another 36 (or 37) years, the following tips will be just as good then as they are now.

1. Consistency Trumps Everything

     “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop.” ~Confucius

     One thing that the above paragraph tells you is that I’ve been consistent.  If you’re going to train for (almost) forty years straight, consistency is the one thing needed above all else.  And it’s the one thing needed above all others even if you only plan on training for the next 3 months in order to fit into a suit (or a dress) for an upcoming wedding.

     I think one of the best ways to stay consistent is through frequent “small” workouts.  At least until you get into a rhythm of training and realize that consistency - or lack of in this case - will no longer be an issue for you personally.  This is one reason - but definitely not the only one - that I recommend high-frequency training.  The daily ( or almost daily) training builds consistency, and it’s not a “chore” because the workouts will often seem easy, and if not easy then short, which mentally makes it easier to show up for each session.

     In his book “The Art of Taking Action: Lessons from Japanese Psychology” author Gregg Krech discusses the importance of steps - even really small steps - as a means of building momentum: “A small step doesn’t get you very far, and generally we judge a value based on distance.  If your workout today consisted of jumping rope one time (one revolution), you probably didn’t burn many calories or lose much weight.  On that basis, we tend to discount small steps.  We want to take giant steps that allow us to move forward quickly in large leaps.  With a Dorothyesque click of the heels we hope to get from here to there, even when “there” is nowhere in sight.  The true value of small steps is often ignored.  They involve motion.  We go from not doing something to doing it - even in a minimal way.  According to the law of physics, we go from being a body at rest to a body in motion… Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most extraordinary intellects of his time.  He realized that when an object is at rest it will basically stay at rest unless something influences it.  It’s also true that when an object is in motion it will basically stay in motion.  This is what we refer to as momentum.  This is why small steps can be so valuable.  They offer momentum at a fairly low cost.  In other words, it takes very little effort to create momentum.  One pushup, one dish washed, one photo organized, one paragraph written in your novel-to-be.  Have you gone very far?  No.  Do you now have momentum?  Yes!  And once you have momentum (you are in motion), you are more likely to continue in motion.”

     This is one reason that, even though training only 2x weekly can be very effective for a new lifter, I don’t often recommend it, only because I know it’s hard for a new lifter to take too much time off between workouts.  After three days of not training, she just might decide that she really doesn’t want to workout that bad after all.

     This may not be the case with you, don’t get me wrong.  There are some folks who just, constitutionally, don’t like the sound of lifting weights every single day, even for short, “small” workout sessions.  These lifters know they would do better with more infrequent training.  If this is you, then fine, but it’s been my observation that more frequent workouts do keep one motivated, or, at the very least, they build motivation over the first few weeks from the daily habit of lifting.

     The most important thing here is to stick with it, to get in motion and stay in motion, and to string as many workouts together as you can without missing a prescribed session.  You can have the best workout program on Earth.  You can take the best, most cutting-edge supplements.  You can eat a “perfect” diet for building muscle and losing body fat.  And you can get fantastic sleep and plenty of growth-inducing rest.  But if you don’t do all of that consistently it simply doesn’t matter.  So, yeah, consistency trumps all else.

     And one more little thing about consistency before we move on to number two: be consistent with your program.  Don’t jump around from workout to workout, not doing one program consistently for a single period of time.  Remember what our old friend Vince Gironda said (oft-quoted by me), “Are you on a training program or are you just working out?”  Get on a training program, stay consistent, and the results will come.

2. Squat Heavy & High

     “Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in.” ~Mark Rippetoe

     Since the dawn of the anabolic era - which would be the 1930s, by the way - there has been one form of training that has reigned supreme over all others: the heavy, high-rep back squat!

     In years past, in fact there was one routine, and one routine only, that was seen as the holy grail of mass-building protocols: the 20-rep squat program.  I first read about this program more than 30 years ago in the pages of Iron Man magazine, and then in the pages of Randall Strossen’s book “Super Squats”, which I devoured in one sitting upon receiving it in the mail.  But the nucleus of the program goes back 90 years ago, to the 1930s, when Mark Berry became the editor of Alan Calvert’s Strength magazine, and began to tout heavy, high-rep squats in the pages of the magazine.  Berry was a lifter himself and the coach of the American Weightlifting team.  He didn’t need much proof that heavy, flat-footed squats built serious amounts of muscle.   He trained with Henry Steinborn and Sig Klein, both massive strength athletes who attributed much of their gains to the heavy barbell squat.  But the proof also stared him directly in the mirror, for he had added over 50 pounds of bodyweight to his own frame, which was not a large frame by any standards.

  “With the aid of squat racks, a number of Mark Berry’s students in the 1930s used heavy, flat-footed squats.  By working up to weights in the 300 to 500 range, they started to gain muscular bodyweight at previously unheard of rates.  The gains in this period that resulted from these methods were so conspicuous that Mark Berry was said to have ushered in a ‘new era’ as a result of his emphasis upon intensive training of the body’s largest muscle groups.  The Milo publications were filled with dramatic success stories based on these methods.” (from “Super Squats”)

  The formula for the 20-rep squat program is an easy one:

High Rep Squats + Milk + Lots of Food and Rest = GROWTH

  Before we go any further, let me say this for any of you who may be doubting the efficacy of heavy and hard squatting: If you are not squatting, you might as well not even train.  The squat is just that good of an exercise.  So just imagine what can happen to your physique when you train the squat hard?

  “Development of the leg-hip-back structure forces growth throughout the body.  By training hard on the squat—whether for low, medium, or high reps—you will automatically experience a carryover effect elsewhere.  As your squat improves, so will your potential for growth everywhere else.  If you want big arms and shoulders, your first priority is that the leg-hip-back structure is growing and becoming powerful.” (ibid)

     Hard to believe, but it’s been almost one-hundred years since Berry ushered in the high-rep squatting (not to mention GOMAD) era of unheard-of gaining, but this is one form of training that will still be around 100 years from now.  It is simply THAT effective.

3. Moderation Sucks

     “Fat loss is an all-out war. Give it 28 days - only 28 days. Attack it with all you have. It's not a lifestyle choice; it's a battle. Lose fat and then get back into moderation. There's another one for you: moderation. Revelation says it best: 'You are lukewarm and I shall spit you out.' Moderation is for sissies.” ~Dan John

     Although John’s quote was related to fat loss, the same principle applies for building strength and/or muscle mass.  Sometimes, not all the time but we’ll get to that shortly, you need to just buckle down and attack your workouts with everything in your power.  If you want to get as strong as humanly possible on just one lift, then attack it with a “Bulgarian-style” method of training that particular lift every single day for the next month.

     No longer in existence is a blog run by a strength coach named Nick Horton called “The Iron Samurai.”  I have no clue what happened to Horton - he simply fell off the radar.  But he was a heck of a strength coach that believed something that is going to seem almost heretical to many of you reading this, and that was: overtraining doesn’t exist.  His words, not mine, but he has a valid point.  Here are some words of his that I had previously published in a blog post over ten years ago.  Here is what he said then:

     “Overtraining is a medical syndrome that some people get themselves into. But… it is EXTREMELY rare, and YOU have never had it.

     “I want you to avoid ANY thought of overtraining. In all of the years I have been coaching, I have not EVER overtrained a single athlete. Ever.

• CNS fatigue is not overtraining.

• Feeling tired is not overtraining.

• A loss of appetite is not overtraining.

• Being massively sore is not overtraining.

• Watching your numbers and performance fall is not overtraining.

    “All of that is part of the adaptation process. You are SUPPOSED to feel like you are getting your ass kicked during a loading phase. If you didn’t, you weren’t loading hard enough.

     Lifters always come up to me saying that they have been feeling tired and sluggish, and they wonder if it is time for a deload/taper. My answer is nearly always NO. Why? Because feeling like shit is part of the point.

     “You don’t get stronger by only doing light weights that feel easy, do you? Of course not. You force your body to deal with weight that is actually TOO heavy to do comfortably to FORCE the issue. That’s what progressive resistance is all about.

     “Loading and deloading are simply applying those progressive resistance principles on a grander scale. A well-designed loading phase FORCES your body to adapt to a stressful situation. Without a massive amount of stress you don’t get to have massive gains. Sorry, that is just reality.

     “Slow gains are very common in the gym in large part because people don’t do enough work. My programs produce infamously fast gains because I make people do more. It’s not magic, it’s nothing special, it is just focusing on the ultra basics in a big way.”

     That may seem a little extreme to some of you reading this, especially if you’ve not been exposed to the Bulgarian method before this essay.  But I hold it to be true, especially for short periods of time throughout the training year.  After a couple months of “regular” training, try switching over to a Bulgarian-style program where you max out every day on your squats for a month straight.

     You see, moderation sucks… until it doesn’t.  That’s right.  After a period of hyper-focused, almost extreme training, it’s good to take a break and get back to a more “typical” program.  But you’ll never understand that unless you also spend some time doing the extreme stuff to begin with.

4. Loaded Carries are What is Missing in Your Strength-Training Arsenal

     I have spent a lot of time over many years talking to a bunch of lifters about their programs - and helping them as much as I can.  When I’m speaking with someone about lifting that I haven’t spoken to before, or someone who is new to lifting, I typically ask if they are doing (what I call) “the big four.”  If this isn’t your first time at Integral Strength, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.  I inquire if they are: 1. Squatting heavy weights each week; 2. Picking heavy stuff off the ground each week; 3. Pressing heavy stuff overhead each week; and 3. Dragging or carrying heavy stuff for time or distance each week.  I have been surprised at times that (occasionally) lifters will actually tell me that they squat heavy stuff, press heavy stuff overhead, and pick up heavy stuff off the ground - yep, on occasion a lifter will tell me that she is doing all of that each and every week; shocking.  But I have yet to find anyone who tells me they do loaded carries each week in addition to the other three.  (In fact, I doubt I’ve ever had anyone tell me that they do loaded carries each week at all.)  So I’m pretty sure that this is another tip that will never go out of style, because it will always be necessary to remind folks the efficacy of this form of training.

     Luckily, this generation of lifters have seen things such as “Highland Games” competitions or the World’s Strongest Man on television (or the internet, I suppose) and so at least lifters are familiar with what it is that I’m talking about when I ask.  And if lifters do any sort of loaded carries, it’s typical farmer’s walks - most lifters can at least walk around the gym with a heavy pair of dumbbells.  But add in some other movements such as sled drags or sandbag carries.

     When lifters add in heavy loaded carries on a regular basis, they’re often surprised by how quickly they start gaining muscle again, or how much it improves their other lifts.  (it’s also great for working a muscle that needs to be rehabilitated - maybe a slight muscle pull or some concerned soreness - by the way, due to the lack of “eccentric” involvement.)

     The bottom line: start dragging, carrying, or pushing heavy “odd” implements, and be prepared to be - if not amazed - very satisfied with the results these movements bring.