MORE OR LESS; WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TRAINING SMART
There is a chance that doing less will give you more in physical training. I’d like to elaborate on that idea and offer practical means to establish suitable frequencies and intensities of training. But first I’d like to set the table with a very general outlook on what matters when determining individual doses of physicality.
Nothing I offer is essentially hard science or of a concrete consensus. It is more the insight I’ve gathered over my years looking into the realm of physicality – applying, adapting, and adopting the various concepts I’ve picked up along the way. I’d like the following to guide the complete noob to physical culture, and assist the already invested in getting their efforts worth. I’m going to avoid reductionistic language and isolating perspectives of the nervous system, myofascia, digestive system etc because before we know it we’ll have dived into the quantum realm of biology talking about the origin of consciousness, how music is everything, and that all we need is love. Let's start with differentiating between two areas of physicality.
Practice V Training
The first consideration is to distinguish between training and practice. Practice is something I consider to be an activity with a structured focus at an intensity that could be performed daily, or at least of a higher frequency than training, and indefinitely. Practice is tuning techniques, acquiring skills, improving coordination, and/or tending to the integrity of the body to support recovery and desirable aging. Again, this isn’t a concrete consensus, more the lens through which I view practice. It could in a way be perceived as the development of movement quality.
Training is different in that it is intentionally stressful. There is a specificity to training where an intended demand is put upon the body in the form of physical stress so as to provoke an adaptive physiological response. This is referred to as the SAID (Specific Adaptation to an Imposed Demand) principle in program design. We can thank the world of sports science for identifying general demands that pressure transformation.
General guidelines to get stronger suggest pulling and/or pushing around 80% + of your one rep max in a given resistance exercise, for somewhere between 2 to 5 times, over 2 to 5 sets, while resting somewhere between 90 seconds to 5 minutes between sets. To increase muscle mass less weight is recruited (approx 60% 1rm), more reps (8-12), fewer sets (2-3), and less rest (60 - 90 seconds). During the session, the fibres that make up a muscle are damaged by the workload, intentionally. Providing no further insult has been endured by the tissue, and the necessary nutrient supply has been met, not only do these fibres repair to a stronger quality, more of them grow. The right dosages here are the ticket to board The Gain Train, choo choo.
The same is basically true of cardio training. Induce physical stress at the right intensity and duration so as to encourage a physiological response, and don’t do it again until recovery has occurred. Then repeat increasing the demand incrementally.
Training is like immunisation. You microdose a poison so as to stress the immune system into an adaptive response so as to handle a larger, more threatening volume of the same poison. Too much poison will make you sick and too little won’t have the adaptive pressure to encourage change. If you get it just right, your tolerance for that stress will increase.
Training could be perceived as quantitative development, or the development of work capacity – the ability to do more, handle more, and/or endure more (physical) stress over longer periods of time.
Training + Practice
Training and practice merge where high physical stress and the acquisition of skills happen within the same task. An example of this would be the handstand push-up, or sparring at the competition level while focusing only on a singular pattern, say a specific takedown like a double leg.
Some people tend to lean more into the how much while others into the how well. Some do neither and stay within box checking attendance, never stressing themself enough, nor giving focus to regulated coordination.
You might already see how one complements the other and how developing work capacity can shift a training task to practice. Training the body’s integrity to hold your weight inverted makes hand balancing practice accessible, and from a competent handstand, the training of handstand push-ups can commence. Training up your horsepower takes you from running a treadmill to a mountain providing the necessary skills are practiced along the way.
Before we go any further I’d like to point out that it is not such a linear progressive swinging from practice to training, with occasional meetings in the middle. The management of training and practice dosages is part of the art and science of program design. Any session can include both at different ratios depending on the desired outcomes. The takeaway from differentiating is primarily understanding the energetic investment cost and reward. Training alone tends to cost more energy and requires more recovery time than practice alone. Training facilitates the growth of work capacity and horsepower, and practice improves movement quality and self-regulation, the result being the improved ability to play and perform.
As the capacity to manage physical stress and complexity expands so too must the demands. The perceived physical stress itself will remain relatively similar courtesy of improved physicality. And this is the point.
Once you figure out your dosages there is a certain liberation from perceived and actual limitations. What once would have been beyond your capacity is now play.
Dosing
I have tried multiple strength training SAID variations over the years. In my mid-twenties I tried the New High-Intensity Training that came from the Nautilus ’70s and 80’s bodybuilder culture, which was one session a week, lifting, pulling, and pushing to complete failure on each machine of the gym. Intensity was king here. This sure didn’t work for me, but perhaps that is because I didn’t have the physical foundation and/or wasn’t using anabolic steroids. I also wasn’t nutrition educated at the time.
I tried Poliquin’s German Volume training in my late twenties when during one phase I was performing routine sessions of 10 sets of 10 back squats with 60 seconds of rest between. Volume was considered king. It sucked and it worked. I buffed out. I was also comprehending the value of nutrition and sleep at the time.
In my early thirties, I was an online student of Ido Portal. This was a commitment of two sessions a day for 6 days a week of strength, mobility, and handstands. I began this while literally building Café Move the centre. Volume and Intensity were King and Queen. It almost put me into a psychiatric ward. I got stronger, buffer, and exhausted – It was absolutely unsustainable for me.
I’m 39 now with two children, emotional baggage, a business, multiple interests both physical and creative, a fleet of projects, and all the stresses of life that come with the times. Each of which contributes to my overall physiological load. I don’t repair at the rate I used to and I have far more obligations than in the good old days of weed and video games post-training. Yet I am as fit and strong if not more so than in my twenties. This, I think, is down to finding my dosage.
Dosages of physicality are a blend of volume, intensity, and frequency, relative to the overall physiological load, governed by the outcome.
Volume, Intensity, and Frequency
I’ll outline my current physical practice and follow by discussing each of these three factors above.
On average I strength train once to twice a week for approximately 30 minutes with a maximum of 4 exercises per session. Generally, I choose exercises as; one for speed (eg skipping for a song), one for strength, (eg overhead press 2-5 reps), one for range of motion (eg split squat 8 reps), and one for endurance (eg kettlebell snatch 20 reps each side). I perform 2-3 sets and rest actively for two minutes between sets.
I train BJJ two to three times per week (sparring every session) and swim once to twice a week (distance and sprints).
Within each of these sessions I integrate practice, be it coordination routines during weight lifting, technical drilling in BJJ, or stroke dynamics and breathing regulation in swimming. This is approximately 5 to 6 hours of training investment per (168 hours) week.
Most mornings I practice recovery-enhancing movements. Some of you may be familiar with practicing these coordinations with me in workshops or private sessions or seeing snippets that I share online. I take time to be outside moving as gently as possible, not to be mistaken for slowly, to encourage fluid flow through, and elasticity of, tissues. I gain insight into where I may be generating inflammation. I can then encourage blood and loading to the area to support healing, as well as conduct myself accordingly in training to reduce further insult. These go on for about 30 - 40 minutes including standing still. No matter how groggy I was before these I am a far better person (to be around) afterward.
I give myself infinite flexibility and vary frequencies and intensity relative to my condition (the load on my physiology). In other words, I don’t flog myself under the influence of a tyrannical ‘should’ that may have stowed away in my mind. My self-flogging days are over. I’ll always show up because I’ve practiced doing so. But I won’t always turn it up, because that may cost me days or weeks of training and practice, and most importantly to me, clarity of mind.
Intensity
70% is the general sweet spot of perceived exertion. The Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a subjective metric that can be used to determine and track the intensity of your training. 10/10 would be eyes bursting out of your head with a heart bursting through your chest, whereas 0/10 is effortless. An RPE of 7/10 throughout the juicy parts of a training session is a sensible guideline. In other words, in a session, if you apply 70% of your all-out effort you should be able to train/practice again consistently, with a low likelihood of injury, and the energy and appetite to do so.
A training appetite, like dietary, is a good gauge of… let's call it vigor. It too must be nurtured to have any hope of having a healthy relationship with physicality. Binge training will ruin your physical habits (and body) just as starvation will. If you finish a session, are satisfied with your effort, and looking forward to the next time, you've nailed it.
Reps in Reserve
A simplified method would be to recruit the reps in reserve (RR) approach. Knowing the rep ranges for a given physiological response means we can skip 1 rep max testing for practicality purposes. We can instead train to the best of our ability within the rep ranges to ‘failure’. A failed rep is the one you couldn’t do. Failure could mean the rep that couldn’t be performed within exertion limits (RPE), or with safe execution. A rep in reserve means I could have done one more rep but cease the set to manage energy and risk. 2 RR means that I am training with a parameter to cease the set when I subjectively sense I could do 2 more decent reps. The bottom line is choosing rep ranges and rest periods for the desired outcome as detailed above.
Volume
In a quantitative practice where you are measuring work capacity, overall volume is, of course, King. Measuring the numbers is essential for gauging progress, or the lack thereof, so as to dial in the dosage blend for you. Volume could be the overall number of reps, the amount of weight pushed or pulled, and the speed, distance, or duration. Whatever is being measured, the numbers will determine the necessary recovery time and or fuel required. Simply put, if the numbers aren’t going up and your RPE is a steady 7/10, you are either training too frequently, undereating, undersleeping, or other influences on your physiological load are hindering your ability to recover ie psychological stressors. In my experience, it's usually under-eating and under-sleeping, even when a person thinks it's external stressors. I’ve heard many an “I’m so stressed” replaced a month later by “I didn’t realise I was so wrecked.”
Frequency
Not being wrecked is the foundation goal of recovery, and training frequencies is a good place to start examining. Some people recover from a session in 2-3 days while others take 10. Getting this wrong can cost you all your efforts. The only way to determine your recovery rate is through a record. I am an advocate of having a journal for my sessions and I also appreciate the value of the specificity that current tracking tech can offer be it Whoop, Oura, Garmin, or whatever. If the numbers aren't going in the direction you’d like, rather than having a tantrum, take note. Maybe you need more time between sessions. Maybe you're hungry. Maybe you overspent.
One objective way to gauge recovery is to record a session's performance in rep quantity and rate of perceived exertion (RPE). Let’s say on Monday you perform one set of 8 push-ups, a second of 7, and a third of 6, leaving you with a total volume of 21 push-ups. With a subjective sense of effort reading 7/10 RPE. By the following Monday, a successful recovery would mean you could perform 21 or more overall push-ups at a 7/10 RPE or less. Anything less than that amount of reps means you haven’t recovered and either need more time between sessions and/or need to reflect on sleep and nutrition.
Caveats for consideration
Some people need 10 days between strength training sessions and others 3. It is totally individual specific and without records, a person is completely swinging in the wind aimlessly, often over-spending energy-yielding no return, or worse, continually damaging tissue. Some are under-training both in frequency and intensity and not putting enough stress on their body to provoke adaptation.
Those under 25 years of age recover faster than those over it. Generally speaking the further you are from 25, the slower your recovery rate is and the more difficult it is to maintain and grow muscle.
Another caveat is that psychological issues affect muscle tone, quality, and recovery rate, and increase injury likelihood, so stressful periods of life need to be taken into consideration when dosing frequency and intensity of physicality.
‘Protein’ is an Ancient Greek word roughly translated to ‘of first importance’. Most people I meet with poor tissue quality are under-consuming protein. In general, I don’t enjoy getting into this topic for the risk of riling up somebody who is social media educated. Standard guidelines are to consume 1-3 grams of protein per kg of body weight daily. Like I said people get weird about food, *cough* most likely because they are malnourished and irrational *cough cough*. The origin and quality of protein are both personal choices and resource-dependent. It is worth noting that getting the full spectrum of essential amino acids from non-animal sources is absolutely possible but significantly complex for consistent meal preparation. I have no experience or advice to offer in that regard.
Overtraining/under-recovering can have an effect on mood and mental clarity, as does under-moving. It’s worth noting irrationality, irritability, lethargy, and other negative mood states, as well as general availability, composure, and focus when determining your dosages. The world might not be on fire, you may just need more sleep. We might not all be doomed, you may just need to blow off some steam.
In Summary
In my clinical practice, a common denominator amongst those managing pains and injuries is having the dosages wrong — both too much and too little of all the above variables. The overtrained or perhaps better put, the under-recovered, require assistance in their recovery. And the undertrained are in need of physiological stimulation. Again I’m being quite general but truthful nonetheless.
If and when you get it right, your practice itself will be both physical therapy and physicality expansive. You will not only be willing and able to play, you’ll also desire it. Your practice itself will have a play quality to it, a dance with life, because you can.