Three-Week Kettlebell Workout: Power Endurance/Strength

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In case anyone’s interested in a medium-term workout, here’s the one I’m doing.  I’ve spent a good bit of the past several months deadlifting and side pressing.  To a large degree I’ve followed one of the programs out of Pavel Tsatsouline’s Power to the People.  So now I want to convert some of that strength into power–and I want to generate power repeatedly–i.e. power endurance.  So here’s what I’ve designed.  Follow along if you’d like and please let me know your results.

Pre-Workout:

All workouts are preceded by a combination of Z-Health Neural Warm-up Levels I and II.  I mobilize various joints such as feet and hands, knees and elbows, hip, shoulders, pelvis and spine.  I want to wake them up fully before I start to generate a lot of force.  I want to make sure each individual joint is read to go before they start working together.  Next comes the warm-up and workout prep.

The warm-up involves body weight movements that resemble the workout movements.  The workout prep consists of the main lifts I’ll use for the day but with a light load.  Here’s how the workout might go:

Body weight goblet squat: 6 reps

Lateral lunges: 6 reps

Crossing lunges: 6 reps

Rotating T: 6 reps

Cross-crawl patterns: 20-40 reps

Get ups, light swings, snatches, presses, high pulls

The Workout, Week 1:

– Monday
1) One-arm snatches: 5 each arm followed immediately by
Swings: 20 two- or- one-hand
Repeat 3x as fast as possible.  You track my heart rate and the time it takes to complete this circuit.  This will show your progress.

2) Clean & press + pull-up ladders: 1, 2, 3 x 3 sets
Here’s how this works. Clean and press a kettlebell for one rep on each arm then do one pull-up.  Next, clean and press for two reps each arm followed by two pull-ups.  Then perform three cleans and presses each arm followed by three pull-ups.  Perform this process three times.  Rest between sets as needed.  This isn’t a race like the previous circuit.  Use perfect form!  No hunched struggling pull-ups.  Use an assisted pull-up machine or a partner if you need help.

– Wednesday
1) Double kettlebell snatches: 5 reps followed immediately by
Swings: 20 reps
Do this circuit once only.

2) Repeat Monday’s clean & press + pull-up ladders x 3 sets

– Friday
1) Repeat Monday’s snatch and swing circuit twice.

2) Repeat the clean & press + pull-up ladders x 3 sets.

Week 2:

Perform the same snatch and swing circuits but move up in weight if the circuits become easy.  As for the clean & press + pull-up circuit, you’ll add one set.  This means that you’ll do 4 x 1, 2, and 3 reps.  (You did three sets of 1, 2, and 3 reps in week 1.)

Continue to use perfect form.  Stop early if you need to.  Don’t go to out-and-out failure.  The work should be challenging but not impossible.

Week 3:

Week three is essentially the same.  You may need to move up in weight on the snatches and swings.  Stay with three sets on Monday, one set on Wednesday and two sets on Friday.  Experiment with one- and two-hand snatches and swings.

Add another set to the clean & press + pull-up ladders.  So that’s 5 x 1, 2, 3, reps.

Simple right?  Shouldn’t necessarily be easy though.  Following this workout I plan to return to deadlifts, various overhead and side presses, and the overhead squat–and who knows what else?!

Strength Training for Runners: Part II

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These make you faster. Lift them. Don't run with them.

In Part I of this post I discussed some of the evidence and ideas behind the idea that distance runners benefit from explosive movements and heavy strength training.  In Part II I’ll discuss some of the exercises and workouts which you might incorporate into your current program.

First, when we talk about strength or “resistance” training programs we can think of several methods including plyometric or jumping exercises, weights, hill running or running with parachutes attached to the runner.  This discussion will focus on jumping exercises and weight exercises.

Jumping Exercises

Also known a plyometrics, these exercises include but aren’t limited to the following:

Be careful with depth jumps.  Impact forces generated from landing off of a box can be enormous depending on the height of the box involved.  Think of box height like you would weight on a bar.  Start with a low box and work up to higher boxes.

Weight Exercises

These are total body exercises employing barbells.  Avoid machines like leg extensions and leg curls.

Frequency

Plyometric and strength work should not be used more than three times per week.  Rather than simply pile this work on top of your endurance work, two sources (here, here) suggest replacing 20%-30% of endurance training time with explosive or weight training.  The point being that you don’t need to spend very much time doing this work in order for it to be effective.

Reps & Sets

– Bounding: You may think of bounding in terms of distance or reps.  This is short duration/short distance.  For example, bound the length of a basketball court or for 20-30 yards.  Or bound for up to 10 reps.  Start with two sets and add one set per week up to 10 sets.  Recover fully between sets.  THIS ISN’T ENDURANCE WORK.

– Box jumps, power step-ups: Go no higher than 10 reps.  Use the same set scheme described above.  Recover similarly.

– Depth jumps: Again, be careful.  Go no higher than six reps per set and no higher than 10 sets.  Recover at least 30 seconds between jumps and recover fully (up to three minutes) between sets.  Only use depth jump workouts once per week.  Progress to depth jumps only after several weeks (2-3) of jumping and bounding.  Don’t start with depth jumps.

– Weight exercises:

Lift heavy and always use perfect technique.  The rep range is 1-5.  Work to the point where you know you can get one more rep and stop.  (For more on this topic, read Train to Success Part I and Train to Success Part II.)  You may get more reps just get them in subsequent sets.  Use as few as two sets when you begin and progress over the course of weeks to as many as 10 sets.  (10 sets of 2 reps for instance.)

A good method of tracking your lifting is to multiply weight x reps x sets.  For instance: 200 lbs x 3 reps x 5 sets = 3000 lbs.  If you’re doing three workouts per week then you can add the totals together to get your weekly score.  Follow the 10% rule for running with your weight program, that is add no more than 10% per week either through weight or volume to your weekly score.  You may use the same scoring method for your jumping work.

Jumping or weights?

You could use an infinite combination of jumping and/or weight exercises but why not keep it simple?  For example, you could use one jumping exercise exclusively for all workouts for one to three weeks then use one weight exercise exclusively for the same amount of time.  Take a week off then start over with new exercises.  The research suggests that it doesn’t take a lot of time or many exercises to get the results you want.

Workout intensity should build over the weeks.  Take a break then start over at a slightly higher intensity than where you previously started.  Your workouts may vary during the week.  Don’t set your workouts in stone.  Depending on how you feel you may use higher or lower volume (reps and sets) or you may vary your intensity (weight).   All of this variation is known as known as periodization.

Is it working?

The research suggests these methods work to increase running ability.  One way to make sure you’re progressing is to test yourself.  This is fairly easy.  Select any distance you want (1 mile for instance) over a standard course.  Run the mile each week and track your time, average heart rate and rate of perceived exertion (RPE).  If you are progressing then your run time may decrease, and/or your average heart rate may drop, and/or your RPE may drop.

What else?

Remember to taper your gym work as you would your running work.  Don’t start a new strength program in the middle of your season.  Start this program before the competition season.  Workouts should be brief and robust.  Done correctly, these workouts should not negatively impact your run workouts.  To that point, strength workouts should be separated from your hard running workouts.  Both your strength workouts and your runs should be high-quality.

Engage in some sort of dedicated joint mobility program before, after and possibly during your workout.  Z-Health is a fantastic method to prepare your body and nervous system for hard work.  Addressing joint mobility and joint awareness will keep you pain free and performing at your highest potential.

Don’t lift weights in your running shoes!  They’re not made for that.  Running shoes put your heel up on a wedge which may promote hyperextension at your low back.  Further, the squishy cushioning will impede proprioception or your sense of how to interact with the ground.  Choose a flat-soled shoe preferably with a thin sole.  The Converse Chuck Taylor is a good choice as are Vibram 5-Fingers.

(Are you sure I won’t bulk up???)

YES!  If you could bulk up you would’ve already bulked up.

In conclusion…

It may seem counterintuitive that distance runners can benefit from heavy weight lifting and explosive jumping exercises.  These things don’t much resemble distance running!  However the evidence is in and it’s growing.  Don’t waste your time in the gym doing high-rep/low-weight lifting–stuff that feels like endurance work in other words.  Leave the stuff that feels like endurance work… for… well… endurance work!    Use your time in the gym to build strength.

Strength Training for Runners: Part I

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Many runners I speak with in the gym believe that in order to improve their running, they need to lift weights in a fashion that’s similar to running.  That is, they believe lifting very light weights for many many reps (thus creating an endurance-like situation for their muscles, heart and lungs) will lead to better performance.  Conversely, many endurance athletes see no reason to lift heavy weights.  They often believe they’ll become muscle bound and/or injured.  (Besides, when was the last time the winner of a 10k stopped to deadlift for three reps?)  The fact of the matter is, runners–both sprinter and distance runners–will benefit from lifting heavy weights and/or explosive movements.  There.  That’s what I have to say.  Now let me explain…

Strength is  your friend.

Strength is like money: No one ever complains that they’ve got too much.  (Please let me know if, after a race, the 2nd place finisher said to the camera, “I’d probably have gotten first if I’d just been a little weaker.)  Stronger muscles will propel you faster and/or further.  Our view of endurance however may clash with our view of strength.  They may seem like two very different concepts.  We may think that endurance is strictly a heart & lung thing.  Strength and endurance aren’t that different though.  Strength and endurance are very strongly linked.  And for the endurance athlete, improving muscle strength will also improve his or her endurance.

Several studies have indicated strength training increases endurance performance in cross-country skiing, running (here, here, here) and cycling (here, here, here).  Explosive exercises and very heavy strength training (1-5 RM) have been researched and shown to improve running economy, anaerobic power, and lactate threshold.  (Further discussion and references can be found here and here).   Thus, exercising in a fashion that’s very different from running–that is a very few seconds of explosive movement and/or lifting very heavy objects a few times will benefit an activity done at a much lower intensity for a much longer time.  So while it’s obviously vital to engage in your endurance sport of choice in order to improve in that sport, the addition of the right strength training protocol will increase your performance.  What’s at work here?

Physiology

Endurance performance is more than just the heart and lungs.  Several sources (here, here) have suggested that neurological and muscular factors play important roles in endurance performance.    We know this because several of the above studies show an increase in performance with no improvement in VO2 max.  That is, the heart/lung function didn’t improve–but something did!  Improvement in running economy is indicated in several studies. 

We should consider a couple of effects of explosive and heavy weight training.  First, the muscle fibers used in running are likely made stronger via these methods.  Thus muscles can generate more force and a more powerful stride.  Second, more muscle fibers may have been drawn into action, again making for a greater ability to drive forward during stride.  The results from either of these situations is that we should be able to use less energy to run just as far and as fast as before–AND we should be able to run farther and faster period.  Great!

What about muscle and weight gain?  

Many runners are worried about gaining weight from lifting too much heavy weight.  The fear is reasonable in that any sort of weight gain will likely slow down a distance runner.  (The right amount of new muscle mass in a sprinter however may be beneficial.)   The reality is though there is nothing for a runner to fear from lifting heavy.   There are several reasons.

First, putting on lots of muscle is mainly a function of eating.  To put on mass, one must eat like a grizzly bear: several sizeable meals per day (not just snacks), gobs of meat, lots of all sorts of food.  This sort of eating can’t be done unconsciously.  There must be intent

Second, we have the genetics issue.  It’s very likely that people gravitate to endurance running because they’ve been dealt a hand of genetic cards that facilitates running.  This same hand of cards DOES NOT facilitate growing large muscles.  Thus there is often a self-selection process that sees certain people participate and excel in endurance sports while others may tend toward strength-and-power sports or bodybuilding–activities that in order for the participants to excel, require large amounts of muscle mass. 

Third, explosive and heavy strength training doesn’t build big muscles.  (Huh?)  These methods are far more stimulating to the nervous system than they are to actually growing bigger muscles.  That is, we’re looking at getting the brain to cause more muscle fibers to fire in order to create an explosive movement or lift something heavy.  A different process is at work for growing muscles, and this process is better stimulated by lifting moderate weights for roughly 8-15 reps. 

To give a further example, if we look at sports involving weight classes (boxing, wrestling, martial arts, weight lifting, power lifting for example) we see that many of these athletes need to get stronger without gaining weight.  Otherwise they’ll end up in a weight class in which they can’t contend.  These folks need to get stronger but not bigger.  (Sound familiar?)  How do they do this?  They lift heavy.

Next, I’ll discuss workouts based on these factors.

Train to Failure or Train to Success? Part II

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In Part I of this post I gave evidence that training beyond our limits or “training to failure” may not be the best

This guy could never fail.

strategy for enhancing athletic performance (or just every day performance for that matter.)  Training smarter but not necessarily harder is a concept worth considering.  The correct amount of training at the correct intensity is key, not just more more moreharder harder harder!! Observations and instruction to exercise at an appropriate intensity are found in both the endurance running world and the strength and power realm.

Tim Noakes’ Lore of Running is a superb text for anyone who’s a serious runner or run coach.  At the other end of the physical performance world is Pavel Tsatsouline’s Power to the People!. This is also an excellent book on very heavy strength training, primarily the deadlift and side press.  Both books encourage top physical performance through very hard work.  Both authors though consistently tell readers that most workouts should essentially be moderate in intensity.  Running workouts should not be races.  Weightlifting sessions should not be hell-bent-for-leather torture fests.  Rather both activities should leave the participant feeling energized.

Scottish ultramarathoner Bruce Fordyce is quoted in Lore of Running:

“My training advice is going to be different… because I place my emphasis on rest and recovery.  I do believe in hard training, but there is only so much hard training that the body can take. , and the timing and duration of any hard training phase is very important.  During the hard training phase, never be afraid to take a day off.  If your legs are feeling unduly stiff and sore, rest; if you are at all sluggish, rest; in fact, if in doubt, rest.”

Further advice from other running coaches cited by Nokes includes:

  • New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard: “You can’t train hard and race hard at the same time.”
  • American coach Jack Daniels:
    • “Don’t leave your race on the training track.”
    • “Alternate hard and easy days, in fact only two to three hard days per week.”
  • American exercise physiologist Stephen Seiler:
    • “Build the program around two high-intensity interval sessions per week.”
    • “Most of the non-interval training should be at fairly low intensities.”
    • “If you are not training easily enough on the easy days, you will not be able to train hard enough on the hard days.”

So we have words from the endurance running world on the importance of focusing your hard efforts to a few specific workouts.  As well you should balance these high-effort bouts with truly easy recovery work.  How about the other end of the spectrum?  How do we train for maximal strength without failing?

“If after your exercise, your bath and your rub-down, you feel fit to battle for a kingdom, then your schedule is right.”
– Earle Liederman, Secrets of Strength, 1925

Power to the People! presents the idea of training with very heavy weights–not to the point of fatigue.   The idea being that it’s tension of the muscles via lifting very heavy weights for a very few reps (five or fewer) that leads to greater strength, not the fatigue of the muscles that occurs when using many reps.  Tsatsouline states:

The most intelligent way to develop strength is to lift much heavier weights than than most weekend warriors play with but to terminate your sets before your muscles fail.”

Further,  he cites Russian strength expert Robert Roman:

“…besides, as the result of fatigue [from many reps], the last reps of a set are performed against a decreased excitation of the nervous system.  This impedes the formation of the complex conditioned reflex loops needed for further strength development.”

So in practical terms, what are we talking about?  The experts are suggesting that most of our workouts should be of the submaximal variety.  Don’t make every run a race.  Make your races races.  If your running workout consists of 20 sprints then at the end you should feel like you could run 22 sprints.  If it’s a long-run day then you should finish knowing you could run one more mile.   Feel good at the end!

When lifting, terminate your sets before total exhaustion sets in.  End the set and/or the workout knowing you could lift a few more reps.  Feel that you’ve conquered the workout, not that the workout conquered you.

Am I advocating easy workouts?  NO!!  What I’m suggesting is that your hard efforts should be very focused and specific.  Don’t dillute your hard work by trying to go hard all the time.  (If you do, you’ll probably just be going “medium-hard.”)  Further, your hard work must end in success and not in sloppy failure.  Otherwise you will only have set the stage for more sloppy work.  Work very hard when it’s called for and balance the effort with easier efforts, relaxation and restoration.  Then come back to the next hard workout ready for success and new achievements.

Train to Failure or Train to Success? Part I

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Nike says “Just Do It.”  The people in Gatorade commercials look like they’ve worked within an inch of their lives.  The Crossfit mascot is a character called Pukie the Clown.  “I want you to push me,” is something trainers hear all the time from clients and potential clients.  Classes known as “boot camps” are have been very popular the past few years, complete with yelling, hollering and foot-dragging exhaustion.  We want to “test our limits.”  What’s the observation here?  If some exercise is good for us–then a whole helluva lot must be extra super awesome!!! That’s how we do it in America right?  Some = Good.  LOTS = GREAT!!!  This type of thinking sells but does it actually result in greater physical ability?

I’m reading a great book in Pavel Tsatsouline’s Power to the People!.  It’s very much making me rethink the way I train my clients as well as myself.  The book is all about heavy strength training–not bodybuilding mind you.  We’re talking strength not size.  Interestingly, I’ve noticed some parallels to advice given in the classic running book by Tim Noakes, Lore of Running.  How could it be that training for the expression of brief maximal strength might share anything at all with endurance running?

Key points of advice given in both texts amount to this: Train to the point of success, not to exhaustive failure.  As Noakes puts it:

The single most important reason most runners are prone to overtraining is, I believe, that we lack the ability to make an objective assessment of our ultimate performance capabilities.  We simply will not accept that we are mortal and that we have a built-in performance range beyond which training and other interventions cannot take us.  We believe that the harder we train, the faster we will run, and we ignore the evidence that indicates that this is blatantly untrue.  Thus we train harder and run worse.  And then, in the ultimate act of stupidity, we interpret our poor races as an indication that we have undertrained.  Consequently we go out and train even harder.

Similarly, Pavel states:

“From Eugene Sandow to Yuri Vlasov, the strongest men and women in the world have never trained to failure!  Cut the ‘do or die’ rhetoric, take a long hard look at yourself, and tell me what are your odds of becoming another exception?  If ‘training to failure and beyond’ is so hot, how come your bench has been stuck at 185 lbs. since Arnold’s first movie?”

Also from Pavel:

“Ed Coan squats 875 lbs. x 3 and calls it a day although he knows he could’ve fived that weight.  Heavy training not to failure sure worked for Coan who has set nearly eighty world records.”

Is this surprising information?  Maybe not if we consider the nervous system and the SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) principle.  Simply stated, our nervous system always adapts to exactly what we ask of it. 

If we swim a lot then we tend to be able to swim.  If we ride a bike frequently then we adapt to bike riding.  If we lift heavy weights then we tend to get stronger.  (Also, if we sit hunched over a desk for enough of our life, we tend to be hunched.)  To the point of this post, if we train the nervous system to move our bodies successfully in clean, efficient form be it running, lifting, rock climbing, getting groceries–whatever–then we are training to succeed.  If however we spend enough time going to failure–that is to the point where our technique becomes sloppy and inefficient–then the nervous system says, “You want to practice doing this exercise in poor, sloppy form?  Okay.  I’ll adapt to that.”  Thus we develop poor, sloppy movement patterns.  The result of prolonged poor movement may be tendonitis/tendonosis, bursitis, arthritis–all sorts of itis-es: pain, in other words.

So what does success feel like?  We’ll find out in Part II of this post.

Exercise Demo: Squat to Press

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Preparation:

  1. Stand in good posture with feet shoulder width apart and feet facing forward.
  2. Hold a barbell, dumbbell(s) or kettlebell(s) at clavicle height.

Execution:

  1. Perform a squat as low as you can while maintaining good form and posture.
  2. Drive back upwards with the legs then press the weight or weights fully overhead.
  3. Return weight(s) back to clavicle height.

Tips:

  1. You may use one dumbbell or kettlebell to create an asymmetric load, and thus a different exercise.
  2. You may vary your foot position: feet wide/narrow, staggered stance with one foot slightly ahead of the other, toes in/out, or any combination of these positions.  Again, this will create a slightly different exercise.

Ski Conditioning

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The ski season is very (VERY!  VERY!) close at hand and appropriate preparation is in order, so here’s a plan I put together.  Several capacities are key to good skiing performance: endurance, flexibility/mobility, strength/power, and power-endurance.

The periodized plan is composed of three four-week training blocks with each block separated by one week off.  The first two training blocks consist of three gym workouts per week.  The final block has two gym workouts per week.  The week off should allow for thorough rest and recuperation prior to beginning the next block.

Emphasis is placed on training a certain capacity in each block, but the other capacities are trained as well so that nothing is lost as the plan progresses.  For instance, though strength is emphasized in the first block, endurance and balance training also takes place.  The skiing performance capacities I’ve addressed and my thoughts on each are as follows:
1.    Endurance (already established over the summer through running and biking): I must have the endurance to stay on the mountain all day at altitude.  The endurance base will be maintained over the course of the plan.
2.    Strength: Skiing is very thigh-dominant thus I must have very strong legs to ski well.  A strong trunk and upper body is essential for powerful turns.
3.    Mobility/Stability (two sides of the same coin): Effective ski technique requires tremendous hip and leg mobility during turns, especially at high speeds.  While the legs and hips must be mobile, the trunk typically must be rock-solid and stable during turns.
4.    Power: Strength must be transfered to power.  It’s not enough to be strong and slow to ski well.  I must be able to express strength at high speeds.
5.    Power-endurance (Here’s where the training gets very specific to skiing.): Skiing requires one to be powerful over and over again for several minutes.  Then the skier typically gets a rest of several minutes while he or she rides back up to the top of the mountain.  So it’s not enough to be powerful once and then rest.

Here’s the plan:

  • Block 1: Strength & Mobility
    • Strength Day
      • front squat: 3-6 reps, 4-8 sets
      • bench press: 3-6 reps, 4-8 sets
      • face pull: 8-12 reps, 3-4 sets
    • Balance Day
      • single-leg squats from a box
        • heel reach forward
        • toe reach back
        • toe reach forward
        • rotational squat
      • single-leg bent over dumbbell row
      • single-arm overhead dumbbell press with frontal plane hip drive
    • Mobility Day
      • multi-directional lunges with varied arm drives
      • dips
      • rotating cable pulls from various angles
    • Endurance: running and biking throughout the week
    • One week off
  • Block 2: Power
    • Day 1
      • multi-planar jumps/hops: 6-10 reps, 3-4 sets
      • barbell clean to front squat: 3-5 reps, 4-6 sets
    • Day  2
      • Kettlebell swings: 8 reps, 3 sets
      • Kettlebell swipes or chops: 5-8 reps, 3 sets
    • Day 3
      • long jumps: 6 reps, 3 sets
      • dumbbell or barbell push press: 3-5 reps, 4-6 sets
    • Endurance: same as block one
    • One week off
  • Block 3: Power endurance
    Due to the high stress of these workouts, only two are performed per week.

    • Day 1:
      • barbell complex
      • clean
      • front squat
      • bent row
      • Romanian deadlift
      • floor press
      • followed by multi-planar jumps/hops
    • Day 2:
      • Kettlebell complex (may vary widely)
        • snatch
        • clean
        • chop
        • press
        • swing
      • running or rowing intervals

Gym Junk: Ditch the Machines and Get Fit

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Boot camps and non-machine exercises are the gist of the New York Times Fitness Column for September 23, 2009.  The article notes the growing popularity of fitness boot camps and group training.  Frequent features of such classes are low-tech whole-body movements such as squatting, lunging, push-ups, pull-ups, jumping, running, crawling.  These are the movements of life.  Such movements are very effective for anyone wanting to improve not only their physique but also their ability to function in real life.  The emphasis here is on movement and not on individual muscles.  (Guess what, when you pull, you use your biceps, your back and shoulders.  When you push, you use your triceps and/or your chest, and/or your shoulders.  When you squat or lunge, you use your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.  There’s no need to think about all those little body parts when you move!)

In contrast, what do we typically see in gyms?  Oceans of chrome coated weight-stack contraptions designed to work individual body parts.  How do these machines work?  First, typically you sit or lay down.  (That’s nice and easy and very comfortable right?  It’s also a great way to conserve energy—which is exactly what you don’t want to do when you exercise.)  Then you have to figure out how to adjust any number of seats, back rests, chest rests, foot rests and/or handles.  Confusing stuff.  If you don’t adjust the machine properly then at a minimum you get a poor exercise; at worst you risk injury.  So after sitting or laying down, adjusting a bunch of confusing pieces you then get to move one body part in one plane of motion only.  Wow.  A big, heavy, complex machine and you get one little exercise out of it…  Meanwhile what does real life require of us?  We must bend, reach, pick up, put up, throw, catch, pull, push, climb and sometimes even crawl.  No gym machine really allows for much of this stuff.

In contrast, if you use your own trunk and limbs to run, lunge, crawl or climb—or if you get really wild and pick up a dumbbell, or a kettlebell, or a barbell, a medicine ball, a rock, a log, a sandbag, a chain or whatever in the world that’s heavy and just lying there—then a universe of movements is available to you.  These movements look a lot more like real life.  Through these types of movements the body is conditioned in an integrated fashion: arms working with legs and all of them working with the core while you stabilize yourself.  You’ll use more energy.  You won’t get the same workout twice and you’ll have a lot more fun.  The article’s writer says it well:

“While such rough-hewn techniques and gear may look old-fashioned, they comport with a modern shift away from developing individual muscle groups and toward so-called functional fitness, which refers to overall strength and comfort in performing everyday activities, like lifting, walking and reaching, along with cardiovascular health.”