WINTER IS UPON US

 

Training During the Coldest Months of the Year

My garage gym, where I train no matter the weather.

     Okay, so a couple of mornings ago, when I started writing this, I was going to write—or, at the very least, I had every intention to—the 3rd part of my current “New Year Resolution” series, the latest being on fat loss (or at least it will be when I get around to writing it).  But, with the weather being 12 degrees outside as I sat down to my keyboard and started writing, and with much of the country that cold—or even colder—I have instead opted to write a piece on training in the winter.  Which is what you are now staring at, so I hope you find it informative, or, at the very least, somewhat interesting if not entertaining.

     A few months ago in early October, about two or three weeks after the start of the Fall season, I wrote an essay on training in the fall.  So, with winter most definitely upon us, I thought I’d do much the same for our current season…

     Now it must be said, first and foremost, that this essay is not, for the most part, for those of you who only plan on training in a heated, temperature-regulated facility such as, you know, a gym during the winter months.  Don’t get me wrong; some of the following advice does apply to average gym-goers, but even if you train at a gym part of the time, I would encourage you to do some training out-of-doors at least some of the time, no matter the weather—heat or cold, whether arcticly frigid or tropically hot, just get outside and train.

     I happen to enjoy training outside even when it’s wintry and glacial—not that “glacial” actually occurs in Alabama, don’t get me wrong, but we southerners think it’s glacial, or at least frigid and icy-cold when the thermostat drops below 32 degrees fahrenheit.  Of course, there are some very occasional exceptions, such as the last couple mornings and, well, pretty much all day on Tuesday of this week when it didn’t even get above freezing, which is a rarity in the Deep South—the city I live in, for instance, recorded its coldest day on record that day, just to give you an idea of how abnormal it was.  Anyway, even though I’m not necessarily a “fan” of winter, I really do enjoy training outside even when it is truly frigid.  In fact, I’ve had some of the best workouts of my life in cold weather.  I remember quite clearly the very first time that I deadlifted over 550 pounds because it was in the single digits outside,and none of my workout partners wanted to train as we typically did (in my garage), although I did manage to get my workout partner Puddin’ to at least show up, although he pretty much spent the entire deadlift session huddled up next to the heater/radiator trying to extract some warmth before gripping the frozen barbell for some heavy pulls.  Which brings up the first “problem” for extremely cold training if you’re a powerlifter (or just a “lifter” in general): no gloves.  If you’re a powerlifter, you do NOT want to train with a pair of gloves.  You don’t use gloves in competition, and, besides, they’re not a good training “tool” anyway, and, in fact, I don’t think anyone has any business ever lifting in gloves.  Like ever.  You want to build a strong grip, strong hands, and calluses that make lifting rough barbells a breeze, and you can’t do that if you train with gloves.  But it does make cold training a little uncomfortable when it’s below freezing and the barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, and whatnot feel as if they are frozen solid when you put your hands around them.  What Puddin’ and I did on that particularly cold day a couple of decades ago was to place my radiator close to our deadlift bar for about a half-hour, and warm it up just enough so that the bar was at least tolerable when callused fingers wrapped around knurled barbell.  The other thing you can do here is wear gloves between sets but take them off as soon as you do your lift (If you can’t even handle that, then perhaps serious, hardcore strength and power training simply isn’t for you.)

     Cold bars aside, there are some other preventive measures you need to take before training in the icy air.  The foremost thing is to warm up properly.  Colder muscles are much more susceptible to injury—sprains, strains, and tears are all more likely if your body isn’t properly warmed up.  So if you’re going to train in cold temperatures—it doesn’t have to be below freezing; it can be in the 40s and 50s even—make sure you do a thorough warm-up.  Do some light stretching, and then, if you’re going to train heavy, take your time ramping up to a really heavy weight.

     Without looking back over my workout log from all those years ago, I can tell you almost exactly the kind of ramps I would have done when I hit that single-digit temperature, 550 lb deadlift.  In all likelihood, the sets looked something such as this:

• 135x5 reps

• 225x5 

• 250x5

• 275x5

• 305x3

• 340x3

• 365x2

• 400x2

• 430x1

• 450x1

• 475x1

• 520x1

• 550x1

     Which makes for 12 sets before hitting a max deadlift, but none of the sets were even close to being “tough” so there was little risk of injury from not being properly warmed-up.  Even if you’re not capable of lifting that heavy, you should still take your time working up to a max lift, just make smaller “jumps” from set to set as you ramp up in weight.

     No matter what time of the year it is, you need to be squatting each week, picking heavy stuff off the ground each week, pressing heavy weights over your head every week, and dragging or carrying weights or other “odd” implements each and every week.  And winter is a great time for doing all of your carrying and dragging out-of-doors.  Of course, if you read my post on lifting in the fall, you will know that fall and spring are my favorite times for lifting outdoors, but I do it year-round; I just make some adjustments if it’s either really cold or really hot.

     When it’s cold out, I typically only train outside a lot when the sun is shining.  (Technically, I suppose I always train outside, since I train in my garage, and I never leave my garage doors shut when training, but that aside…) And when it’s really cold, I make an adjustment to my typical routine: I do my dragging and carrying work first as opposed to the middle of my workout (typically fall and spring) or at the end of my session (as with summer training).

     Now at my age, I also start each session with a long walk to help me warm-up, and this isn’t a necessity for younger lifters, but make sure you do warm-up well regardless.  Once I’m warmed up enough, I then either drag a sled, perform some farmer’s walks, or do a loaded sandbag carry, sometimes even up a hill.  The reason I do this first for my winter training is that I like how it warms my body as a whole, not just my joints and muscles for training.  I like to feel as if I’m almost working up a sweat when training in the frigid air, or I actually do work up a sweat if I have the energy for it.

     Another thing I like to do in the winter is more than one form of loaded carry.  If I carry the sandbag or do farmer’s walks, then I follow that up with some form of sled dragging.  If I do sled dragging first, then I add either sandbag carries or farmer’s walks second.  By the time I perform two loaded carries, I’m ready to head into the garage for some more “typical” barbell training.

     When it’s damn-cold outside, but the sun is out, it means that it’s also colder inside of the garage than out of it, so by performing loaded carries or dragging movements first, I’m warmed up even more for my barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell movements that follow.

     Unless you’re a bit older (like me), then winter is the time for adding weight to the bar and one’s body.  It is—and always has been, let’s admit it—the season for bulking.  This means that it’s time for some hard and heavy-as-hell lifting for not just packing on the mass, but for packing on the strength to go along with it.  (If you are 50 years-of-age or older, then you can still use this time for adding on weight, but you need to make sure that the mass you are adding is as lean as possible to aid your cardiovascular health.)

     Here’s an example training session to explain what a workout might look like during the cold winter months:

1. Farmer’s Walks: Perform 3 or 4 sets for distance.  You can also perform these while walking up a hill or while utilizing a thick bar to make it even harder.

2. Sled Drags: Perform 3 or 4 sets for distance.  You can do these while either walking backward or forward.  Mix it up so that you perform it in a different way at alternating sessions.

3. Bottom-Position Squats: Ramps of 5s, then 3s, then singles.  As I demonstrated above in my frigid deadlift workout, take your time to work up over heavy sets of 5s, then 3s, and, finally, singles until you hit a near max weight.

4. Bottom-Position Bench Presses: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and 1s. Same methodology as the BP squats.

5. One-Arm Dumbbell Clean-and-Presses: Ramps of 5s, 3s, and 1s.  Same methodology as the previous two exercises.   Make sure you give equal thrift to both your left and right arm.  For each set, make sure you clean and press it on every repetition.  So when you are performing sets of 5 reps, for instance, ensure that you set the dumbbell down on each rep so that you are cleaning each one.  The beauty of this exercise is that it takes care of both “picking heavy stuff off the ground” and “pressing heavy stuff over head” in one movement.

     The above is a good example of the kind of full-body workout you should utilize, but keep in mind that you don’t have to train your entire body at each session, although I do believe that full-body training is, in the mean, the most effective way to train for almost every individual looking for more size and strength.

     If you prefer more frequent training sessions, but sessions where you train the lifts (or muscle groups) infrequently, then try training on a daily (or near-daily) basis, but do only one carrying or loaded exercise, and only one barbell or dumbbell movement on each day.  An example program might be something such as this:

Day One

• Farmer’s Walks: 2 to 3 sets for distance

• One-Arm Overhead Dumbbell Presses: 5 sets of 3 reps.  After a couple of warm-up sets, pick a weight where you attempt 5 sets of 3 reps, but only the last set or two should be really difficult.

Day Two

• Backward Sled Drags: 2 to 3 sets for distance

• Bottom-Position Squats: 5 sets of 3 reps.  Same set/rep methodology as Day One.

Day Three

• Sandbag Carries: 2 to 3 sets for distance

• Flat Barbell Bench Presses: 5 sets of 3 reps

Day Four

• Off

     Keep in mind that this is just an example.  Pick whatever loaded carry and compound exercise that you want.  If you follow this example, however, then train for another 3 or 4 days in a row before taking another off day.  You can return to some of the same exercises, or pick entirely different ones at that point.  It’s entirely up to you.  Just make sure to always trade “hard” exercises for other “hard” exercises, and not hard exercises for easy ones.

     If I’m honest, though, in the winter I prefer to do more voluminous workouts such as the first example above, as opposed to more frequent, but much less voluminous workouts, which I prefer for the summer months.  Once you have warmed up with some loaded carries, I think it’s good to take advantage of that, and utilize 3 or 4 movements in your session that work your entire body.  By the time you are finished, you may even feel invigorated by the cold air, and feel even more energized by the workout.  In the summer months, when you do the above workout, for instance, you are going to be hot, sweaty, and exhausted—which is also good, I must admit, but we’ll save those benefits for when I write about summer training.

     Along with training, make sure you’re eating big during the coldest months of the year.  Eat a lot of soups, stews, and “slow-cooker” meals loaded with different meats, starches, and beans.  When trying to get big, those are the primary macronutrients that you should be consuming anyway.  But they taste particularly good in a hot soup when the weather has plummeted outside, and you’re looking for a dish that’s warm and comforting indoors.  Well, it can be both warm and comforting and it can be a bulk-builder; don’t forget that.  For meat, eat some beef and chicken, of course, but don’t be afraid to include some game meats, and/or some organ cuts—liver tastes much better, for some damn reason, when it’s below freezing outside.  For starches, eat plenty of oats, potatoes, and rice.  And make sure that you’re eating a lot of beans—black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, navy beans, chickpeas, you name it; they’re all good sources of carbs, protein, and fiber.

     Okay, I suppose that’s enough for this slightly untidy, somewhat rambling post.  No matter what form of training you do this winter, or what manner of eating you undertake, make sure they are both geared towards getting big.  When the spring hits, you can return to more “conventional” methods.  We are seasonal creatures, after all, and I think that’s exactly how it should be.