CHAPTER FIVE
DRIVING GTG HOME
• Driving GTG home: Fluctuating
• Compressing GTG in ten words or less
Driving GTG home: Focused
Kickboxing legend Bill Wallace took up fighting with one injured knee and he could kick with only one leg. So ‘Superfoot’ did twice as many kicks with his healthy one. He was one weapon short so he made his remaining weapon superior to his opponents’ two. The rest is history.
The fewer skills you practice, the better you could get.
The “grooves” for different moves live and die by the laws of the jungle: they compete with each other. The fewer drills you practice, the better you are going to get.
Generally do not practice more than two unrelated exercises in the GTG manner. Follow a more conventional routine with less volume and frequency for other exercises should you decide to do them.
Driving GTG home: Flawless
Practice must be perfect. When it comes to max strength training, perfection, in addition to strictness of form, implies high muscle tension. Research by Russian experts such as Robert Roman clearly points to muscular tension, rather than fatigue, or reps, as the key to strength.
Practice must be perfect. Max strength training perfection implies high tension.
High tension demands five conditions: significant external resistance, application of the High Tension and Power Breathing techniques, limiting the repetitions to five per set or less, approaching each set relatively fresh, and moving fairly slow.
Regarding “significant resistance,” you do not have to live on a diet of max singles; this would burn you out in a hurry. But at least you should perceive the resistance as “moderately heavy”.
The reps are slashed for the same cause of maxing the tension. Strength researchers have established beyond a shadow of a doubt that best “pure strength” gains are made when the repetitions are limited to five and under. Strength is a skill and skill practice must be specific. Low reps are specific to max strength. Do not rep out regular pushups if a one-arm pushup is your goal. Do not bother with Hindu squats if your goal is a one-legged squat or a pistol. I explain why in Power to the People! but no explanations should be necessary for this self-evident point.
Low reps are specific to max strength.
Driving GTG home: Frequent
“…there is no earthly reason why any man of a year’s experience in weight training cannot perform [a bodyweight clean and military press],” stated Charles A. Smith in a 1947 issue of Ironman. I do not need to tell you that these days it is easier to find an honest biceps measurement than a bodyweight military press, even at a ‘hardcore’ gym.
Smith continues, “The reason why the records in the press have reached such astonishing heights...is because of this intensive application of specialized training in the press. [Russian champion] Novak presses every day, likewise [American champion] Davis…There is only ONE secret of success in pressing—and that is to press and press and press on each and every occasion you get near a bar. The record holders in the press actually use this method when they are in training to better their records.”
The more often you practice, the better you get.
It is elementary, Watson: the more you do something the better you get—as long as you avoid fatigue and overtraining. In a German study, training every other day delivered only 80% of the strength gains of daily training—and working out once a week yielded only 40%. It does not mean that you cannot train less frequently; you just will not gain as much strength.
Taking Sundays off is a good idea though. It will help you stay fresh. It is a good idea to stop your strength training a few hours before sleep as it has a tonic effect.
Driving GTG home: Fresh
Do as much as you can while staying fresh. It is a fine balancing act that requires discipline. Doing too little will slow down your progress. On the other hand, doing too much to the point where you get sore and weak, also sets you back. Listen to your body and err on the side of doing less rather than more.
Practice fresh and stop before your skill starts deteriorating. In other words, stop before you get tired.
“Remember, you should always feel stronger after your training than before you started. If you feel weak after a training session, you’ve overdone it.” stated Midwestern strongman Steve Justa in Rock, Iron, Steel: The Book of Strength. If previous conditioning gives you trouble with this statement, just repeat: strength is a skill. Strength is a skill. Strength is a skill. And a skill is best practiced when you are fresh.
“…you should always feel stronger after your training than before you started…”
Freshness is another reason why low reps are preferred. Contrary to the bodybuilding mythology, low reps are easier to recover from. That means more frequent practice. That means more strength.
“Once I was in the performer’s tent of a big circus, chatting with a very famous trapeze performer,” recalled Charles MacMahon in his 1925 The Royal Road to Health and Strength. “Just before it was time for him to do his act, he walked over to a nearby ring, hooked the first and second fingers of his right hand around it, and chinned himself twice with his right arm. Then he did the same with his left arm. He did this to “warm up” for his performance, and he told me that it was all the exercise he took outside his performance; except when he had to practice for a new stunt. Everybody knows that it takes more strength to chin once with one arm that it does to chin twenty-five times with two arms. The funny thing is that it causes far less fatigue. The performer knew that, and that is why he was so economical of his time and energy.”
Low reps are easier to recover from.
That means more frequent practice.
That means more strength.
Do not push to muscle failure or even close to it. Such balls to the wall training severely increases your recovery times and thus compromises your training frequency. There are other reasons to avoid failure. You learn what you practice. Why train yourself to fail? Practice to succeed! I have taken apart the flaws of training to failure in detail in Power to the People! should you care to know why.
Failure is not an option.
Most of the time do about half the reps you are capable of. Occasionally do less or more and come within a rep or two short of failure.
The balancing act between frequency and freshness is a tricky one. It requires listening to your body and patience in building up the volume and frequency. Instead of suddenly jumping into a routine of doing a set every hour every day, start with one or two easy sets a day. A few weeks later, add another set on alternate days. Then build up to three sets daily, etc. You get the idea: build up slow. Eventually your body will be able to handle an amazing workload—but it will not happen overnight.
Fatigue is not an option.
Driving GTG home: Fluctuating
In order to get good at something you must practice it specifically.
On the other hand, if you keep doing the same thing you will eventually plateau.
So effective training must be different and the same simultaneously! A puzzle for a Zen master.
What is the answer to the koan?
Train “same but different.”
Practice variations of the same exercise. It is more effective, more fun, and less likely to develop overuse injuries.
Varying the sets, reps, proximity to failure, etc. also serves the purpose of keeping your training “same but different” for continuous progress. Russian lifters swear by this approach which they call ‘waviness of load.’
It is better to do 10 total reps today, 30 tomorrow, and 20 the day after than 20 every day.
Marine vet Nick Nibler, RKC, has had great success with the “same but different” approach personally and with his “victims” at CrossFitNorth.com, a Seattle personal training gym he co-owns with Navy SEAL vet Dave Werner, RKC:
“I really wanted to hit the pull-ups hard…However, I didn’t want an overuse injury or to have the training turn into mindless reps and sets that would quickly turn into a burden. So I decided to put a little variety in the program. I do pull-ups nearly every day now, but I try to never repeat the same workout twice. I put as much variety into the training as possible. I do weighted pull-ups with a kettlebell one day, use only bodyweight the next and sometimes perform many reps of assisted pull-ups with my feet in a loop of surgical tubing draped over the bar.”
“The hard men with high mileage”: spec ops vets Nick Nibler, RKC, and Dave Werner, in their Seattle gym. Courtesy CrossFitNorth.com
Note that the ex-jarhead mixes pure strength and strength endurance training. It works if you need both. If your focus is pure strength you should vary your reps in the one to five range. Remember, “different but the same.”
“The intensity changes every day too. Sometimes I’ll push it to my last good rep on every set and on other days I may only do 50-70% on each set for just a few sets. Ladders are great too. It is also useful to change the metabolic environment as well. Some days I’ll try to stay as rested as possible between sets and space them out all day long. Mixed in to this there will be days when the pull-ups are part of a short circuit of exercises that I’ll try to blow through as fast as possible. Another aspect that changes every day is the bar. I’ll do pull-ups from a well supported bar, one that is wobbly, from a set of rings, from 2 hands on 1 rope and finally from 2 ropes hanging side by side. If the body needs a real change of pace, I get on the Concept 2 and row for a bit that day. This kind of active rest that works pulls in another plane has been very beneficial. I usually notice an increase in some aspect of my performance after a day or two on the rower. My work schedule and social obligations provide random days off so there is no need to plan those. They seem to come along at just the right time too.
“This approach to training has been very productive for me. My body never knows what is coming next and it seems to adapt very quickly to whatever training load it encounters. It is a very interesting program as well. Figuring out what variables I am going to focus on each day has turned the training into a game and kept it interesting. As for the pull-ups, I have never been able to do so many.”
Listen to this hard man with high mileage.
Waving the load properly includes knowing when to cut back: if fatigue builds up or when you are about to test for a new PR.
Cut back on your training if fatigue builds up or when you are about to test for a new PR.
Strength training and strength demonstration are not the same thing. The notion that you should break personal records every workout is nothing but a fairy tale. The less frequently you try for a PR, the better. Maxing every two weeks is a good guideline for beginners; every two months is more appropriate for experienced strength athletes. The elite should only try for PRs a couple of times a year.
And you should plan for it. A simple and effective taper is one or two easy days and one day off before a test. Using the 5RM pistol with a 53 lb. kettlebell as an example: your regular day, Tuesday might be 10x2@53lbs; Wednesday is the beginning of the taper with 5x2@36lbs; Thursday is an even easier day, 5x1@36lbs; with no negative, and Friday is a day off. On Saturday you should be able to put up six or even seven reps with a 53lb. kettlebell. You have gone over the five-rep limit and are ready for the 72-pounder!
Precede a strength test with one or two easy days and one day off.
Backing off is also in order if you have accidentally overtrained. If you are feeling tired, sore, and weak cut your volume or total weekly reps approximately in half until you are feeling fresh and raring to go. This is just a rough guideline; serious overtraining calls for more drastic measures.
Serious overtraining accompanied by symptoms such as overuse injuries or disturbed sleep is the result of stupidly refusing to listen to your body. Don’t do it!
On the other hand, occasional mild overtraining is a lemon that can be turned into lemonade by an experienced strength athlete. “A river with a dam has more power,” as a Lithuanian saying goes.
Back off immediately and you should see great gains, provided your overtraining is mild and you have backed off in time.
Some experienced strength athletes who are very attuned to their body purposefully push into slight overtraining and then taper and peak. Beginners are not advised to overtrain on purpose; it takes skill to pull out of a steep dive before crashing. But if you do accidentally do too much you will know what to do.
“A river with a dam has more power.” Mild overtraining followed by a taper might lead to great strength gains in experienced athletes.
Summing up GTG
• GTG pistols and one-arm pushups only. If you choose to do other exercises as well, train them separately on a more conventional routine
• Employ super strict technique
• Apply the High Tension and Power Breathing techniques
• Select exercise variations that feel “moderately heavy”
• Lift at a moderate to slow speed
• Limit the reps to five per set and less
• Strength practice six times a week, if possible in multiple mini-sessions, and take Sundays off
• Do not push to muscle failure or even close to it. Most of the times do about half the reps you are capable of. Occasionally do less or more and come within a rep or two of failure
• “…feel stronger after your training than before you started…”
• If you did overtrain slightly cut the volume by 50% volume until you are feeling fresh and raring to go
• Build up slow
• Practice variations of the same exercises. Constantly vary the sets, reps, and proximity to failure
• The less frequently you try for a PR, the better. Max every two weeks if you are beginners; every two months if you are an experienced strength athlete. Precede a strength test with one or two easy days and one day off
Summing up GTG even more
If you have the attention span of a ferret on a double espresso, here is the Reader’s Digest version of “Grease the Groove.”
• Only two exercises and their variations
• Moderately hard
• Tense
• Half the reps you are capable of, but no more than five
• At every chance, but never to fatigue
Compressing GTG in ten words or less
As the old Russian army joke goes, a sergeant is showing a squad of recruits around a tank. He says that there is a radio transceiver on the tank. A recruit asks, “Excuse me, sir, is the radio on transistors or microchips?”—“For the idiots I repeat: on the tank.”
Here is the “tank version” of GTG. Brute strength does not get any more bare bone than this.
Minimize
• The number of exercises
• Fatigue
Maximize
• Tension
• Frequency