Johnypullups
New member
1. Injury and overtraining:
These two things have a direct correlation. In terms of my recent back injury, I would have to place pretty much all of the blame on overtraining, and perhaps a very, very small amount of the blame on a brief lapse in concentration.
After looking over my training in the past 6 months or so, I can see clearly that I let things get way out of hand. I was training in a similar fashion to Arthur Saxon and his brothers, a training style which boarders on lunacy. In hindsight, I'm really surprised I got away with training in that fashion for as long as I did. Check out a typical kettlebell day for me over the past six months, and I think most of you will agree that the amount of work was extreme and really unnecessary:
1. 2 bells clean and press- 3 or 4 sets or rest pause
2. weighted chins- - 3 or 4 or more sets
3. 2 bells snatch- 3 or 4 sets or rest pause
4. stiff arm pullover- 2 or 3 sets
5. 1 bell swing snatch- 2 or 3 sets
6. 2 bells deep deadlift off blocks- 2 or 3 sets
7. 4 bells deadlift- work up to heavy set of 10-15 reps
8. hanging leg raise- 2 or 3 sets
9. neck work and sometimes calf work
With the exception of the neck and calf work, every exercise on that list hits the low back, shoulders, and legs either directly or indirectly. In the last couple of months I did tone down that amount of work slightly, but then the above factors must be added to the introduction of heavy half squats, Olympic squats, and bottom position squats, OFTEN PERFORMED ON THE SAME DAY IN MULTIPLE SETS. To be blunt, I was really an injury waiting to happen.
In terms of half squats, check out the following quotes.....
Fred Hatfield's feelings on half squats: "worthless and dangerous".
Dan John's feelings on partial movements: "extremely easy to overtrain on them, particularly if using full range movements on the same training day".
I was doing to much of to many things, end of story. I think many of us can relate to this, for a couple of reasons. One, it is the American way to think that more equals better. Two, it is only human to believe that if a little bit of this or that does me some good, then some more might do me more good. This simply is not the case.
All of this leads into............
2. The important as well as insignificant aspects of strength training:
What are the important aspects of strength training? Well, I used to have a little motto in regards to training (and life in general, really), which I certainly strayed far, far away from in my past six months:
"When in doubt, Simplification is what its all about."
Isn't that the truth? When you break strength training down, it is really an incredibly simple art/sport ( I don't believe it is a science. The physiological changes in the body because of strength training might be a science, but I really don't think training itself is).
In training, there are really only a few things that ultimately matter, and as far as I'm concerned the following list covers those few things:
1. placing sufficient stress on the muscles
2. getting adequate rest
3. getting adequate nutrition
4. progression
5. working as many muscles as possible utilizing as few exercises as possible. In other words, doing the least amount of work necessary to see results.
What more need be said? Productive training is really as simple as that. To many people (myself included), become overly concerned with training a "variety" of movements, for the sake of working the muscles in a "variety" of ways.
For the record, I'm not talking about bodybuilders and split routines. We all know how absurd that type of training is. What I'm talking about is people who know what productive movements are and end up using WAY TO MANY OF THOSE PRODUCTIVE MOVEMENTS. That is exactly how I lead my body into a state of overtraining and eventually injury. Just look at the list of lifts I was doing in ONE training day that hit the same muscle groups! I could have cut that list down from 9 exercises to just clean and press, pullups, and one arm snatches one day and some sort of squat on another, and gotten superior results. And I probably wouldn't have hurt myself either.
The truth is, if you pick only 2,3 or at most 4 of the really big, result producing movements, you will cover all your bases. Check out the routines of some of the biggest, strongest, and fastest men in history, and they will all have this trait of ultra simplicity in common. If you need concrete examples, do some research on Tommy Kono's, Doug Hepburn's, Norb Schemansky's, and numerous other lifters training, and you will see what I'm talking about.
In summary:
1. Simplify your training!
2. Do the least amount of work possible necessary!
3. Eat and sleep well!
Not exactly rocket science, huh?
These two things have a direct correlation. In terms of my recent back injury, I would have to place pretty much all of the blame on overtraining, and perhaps a very, very small amount of the blame on a brief lapse in concentration.
After looking over my training in the past 6 months or so, I can see clearly that I let things get way out of hand. I was training in a similar fashion to Arthur Saxon and his brothers, a training style which boarders on lunacy. In hindsight, I'm really surprised I got away with training in that fashion for as long as I did. Check out a typical kettlebell day for me over the past six months, and I think most of you will agree that the amount of work was extreme and really unnecessary:
1. 2 bells clean and press- 3 or 4 sets or rest pause
2. weighted chins- - 3 or 4 or more sets
3. 2 bells snatch- 3 or 4 sets or rest pause
4. stiff arm pullover- 2 or 3 sets
5. 1 bell swing snatch- 2 or 3 sets
6. 2 bells deep deadlift off blocks- 2 or 3 sets
7. 4 bells deadlift- work up to heavy set of 10-15 reps
8. hanging leg raise- 2 or 3 sets
9. neck work and sometimes calf work
With the exception of the neck and calf work, every exercise on that list hits the low back, shoulders, and legs either directly or indirectly. In the last couple of months I did tone down that amount of work slightly, but then the above factors must be added to the introduction of heavy half squats, Olympic squats, and bottom position squats, OFTEN PERFORMED ON THE SAME DAY IN MULTIPLE SETS. To be blunt, I was really an injury waiting to happen.
In terms of half squats, check out the following quotes.....
Fred Hatfield's feelings on half squats: "worthless and dangerous".
Dan John's feelings on partial movements: "extremely easy to overtrain on them, particularly if using full range movements on the same training day".
I was doing to much of to many things, end of story. I think many of us can relate to this, for a couple of reasons. One, it is the American way to think that more equals better. Two, it is only human to believe that if a little bit of this or that does me some good, then some more might do me more good. This simply is not the case.
All of this leads into............
2. The important as well as insignificant aspects of strength training:
What are the important aspects of strength training? Well, I used to have a little motto in regards to training (and life in general, really), which I certainly strayed far, far away from in my past six months:
"When in doubt, Simplification is what its all about."
Isn't that the truth? When you break strength training down, it is really an incredibly simple art/sport ( I don't believe it is a science. The physiological changes in the body because of strength training might be a science, but I really don't think training itself is).
In training, there are really only a few things that ultimately matter, and as far as I'm concerned the following list covers those few things:
1. placing sufficient stress on the muscles
2. getting adequate rest
3. getting adequate nutrition
4. progression
5. working as many muscles as possible utilizing as few exercises as possible. In other words, doing the least amount of work necessary to see results.
What more need be said? Productive training is really as simple as that. To many people (myself included), become overly concerned with training a "variety" of movements, for the sake of working the muscles in a "variety" of ways.
For the record, I'm not talking about bodybuilders and split routines. We all know how absurd that type of training is. What I'm talking about is people who know what productive movements are and end up using WAY TO MANY OF THOSE PRODUCTIVE MOVEMENTS. That is exactly how I lead my body into a state of overtraining and eventually injury. Just look at the list of lifts I was doing in ONE training day that hit the same muscle groups! I could have cut that list down from 9 exercises to just clean and press, pullups, and one arm snatches one day and some sort of squat on another, and gotten superior results. And I probably wouldn't have hurt myself either.
The truth is, if you pick only 2,3 or at most 4 of the really big, result producing movements, you will cover all your bases. Check out the routines of some of the biggest, strongest, and fastest men in history, and they will all have this trait of ultra simplicity in common. If you need concrete examples, do some research on Tommy Kono's, Doug Hepburn's, Norb Schemansky's, and numerous other lifters training, and you will see what I'm talking about.
In summary:
1. Simplify your training!
2. Do the least amount of work possible necessary!
3. Eat and sleep well!
Not exactly rocket science, huh?
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