The realm of exercise science, just like any other field of science, is constantly growing as we find new evidence and introduce new ideas on how to quickly and efficiently become greater athletes. Athletic trainers all over the world are being praised for their abilities to design these new creative workouts, with all these fancy pieces of useless equipment and movements that make absolutely no sense to me. Sometimes when you study something too hard and narrow your scope too far, you lose sight of the big picture. Let’s face it – we’re not all looking to get drafted into the NFL or compete in the Crossfit games. Those people are freaks of nature and their bodies can handle bigger workloads than yours. So let’s stop following in their footsteps and stick to the basics. Here is my list of rules that every Average Joe needs to follow to become a well-rounded athlete looking to improve his/her physical health while avoiding injury.
- Stick to the Big Lifts
You can curl a dumbbell repeatedly for an entire hour, and I promise you the guy standing next to you doing weighted pull-ups will see much more growth in his biceps than you. How? Muscles don’t grow just from isolating and exhausting them. In order to grow, you have to force your brain to release Growth Hormone and IGF-1 into the bloodstream so that it can attach to a target muscle and start rebuilding. The key to getting these anabolic hormones to release is to cause the greatest amount of stress on your body as you can with one movement. The bigger the muscle group you work, the greater the oxygen demand, which in turn causes the greatest surplus in hormone release. This is why the Big Lifts are so essential. They include: squats, deadlifts, lunges, chest and shoulder presses, dips, and pull-ups. Stop doing wrist curls and calf raises. Replace them with a big lift that recruits their involvement and you’ll see much better results.
2. Play
You dedicate all of your time training to improving your strength or cardiovascular endurance. But that’s all you’re doing – training. You need to put your skills to the test every once in a while. Call up some friends to play a sport, sign up for a competition, take a dance class, or just wrestle with your dog in the backyard. Don’t let your body feel like some machine with limited range of motion and figure out where your weak points are located.
3. Change Your Routine Occasionally
In order to make progress, you have to cause your body to adapt to the motions you follow every week. If every single workout was new and confusing to the body, it wouldn’t know how to prepare itself for the coming week. But if you follow the same routine every week for months on end, your body will become so adapted to what you’re doing that it won’t make any changes anymore. So try doing as I do – use the same lifts, but invert your volume vs. intensity ratio every week or two weeks. I like to alternate between heavy strength training weeks where I follow a 5×5 powerlifting routine, then switching to a lighter hypertrophy-based week using less weight but with a high rep count, between 15-20 per set. In another article, I will address this matter further. Strength and hypertrophy training yield different results even at the cellular level. It’s good to keep a balance, which brings me to my next rule…
4. Balance, Stabilization, and Isometrics
Training big muscle groups is the big idea behind a smart training regimen, but if your form is not 100% perfect and symmetrical, it’s easy to develop imbalances and weak points just asking to be exacerbated into a major injury. The best way to keep your body calisthenically sound and ready for anything you throw at it, is to take a day every week to focus on your isometric holds. This includes anything that causes no movement of the joints, but an activation of the muscle to keep your body still. Planks, Supermans, reps with a 5-10 second pause, or using an unstable surface. Just don’t be that guy trying to impress the degenerates by squatting 315 pounds while standing on a Bosu ball. These workouts should be relatively light, calm, and concentrated. Take the time to focus on your form and correct any issues you might see or feel. My best recommendation is to practice some yoga. It’s the best way to activate those fast-twitch muscle fibers while also stretching and calming the mind in a peaceful setting.
5. Rejuvenate
Get plenty of sleep, get a deep tissue massage, get adjusted by a chiropractor, take a warm magnesium salt bath, sleep in on Sunday morning, ease your mind with whatever form of stress relief works best for you. There’s no point in beating yourself up with exhausting total body workouts and coming in the next day if you’re too sore to move. Make sure you give yourself enough time to recover. Otherwise, you’re just beating a dead horse.
6. Eat Right
Following an exercise routine without a healthy diet is like going on a road trip without first getting an oil change that is long overdue and filling the gas tank. You need to fuel yourself with what your body needs to function properly. You are what you eat. If you don’t supply yourself with adequate nutrients, your body won’t perform at its maximum potential and your immune system will follow suit. Your meal plan should be a reflection of your physical goals. Bulking up, leaning out, gaining strength, and training for a triathlon all require their own specifically tailored nutrition regimens. Make sure you are following the one that matches your goals.
Follow these rules and I promise you, you’ll get the results you want.
-TJ Williamson, NSCA-CPT
KDS-Strength 