Too many folks expect linear, incremental improvement and that’s just not realistic. I don’t care if you are a sprinter, a general athlete, a triathlete or someone who is looking to lose fat and gain muscle, if you train “Balls to the wall,” then at some point you will run into that wall and hurt yourself. And don’t we train either to train for another day or for a sport?

Too many ill informed trainees and trainers think that training should be a near death experience. As Pavel Tsatsouline has so eloquesntly put it, if someone wants to die just have them do 10,000 swings. Anyone can train that way. It requires no planning and no thought and it won’t help you get where you want to be. I’m shocked how many athletes train with no process or program. My workout today took all of 10 minutes. It was intense but short.  Dense in other words.  And you can’t keep running the same program over and over without cycling.

Check this out. Let’s say I’ve got an athlete who wants to get stronger in the dead lift. Now that person can pull 200 lbs. Their goal is 350. They won’t get there adding 10 lbs per session incrementally. They will cycle until they wash out of it, take a week or so off and then start with say 210 and start again. It’s effective, better for injury avoidance and requires a bit of patience. So many will get washed out and quit at that point.

Workouts that take on the characteristics of competition should also be avoided.  As Gray Cook, RKC has stated, “There is a reason the NFL plays games just once a week.” It’s not effective, healthy or smart to go all out every workout. Still, shows like “The Biggest Loser” have gained amazing amounts of traction simply by the sheer size of the audience. The viewers watch as the contestants are put through vigorous “training” over and over again. What has happened is that is far too many folks think that high intensity training is the be all and end all. And it’s not.

Here’s what’s so seductive about this type of training. You sweat, you suffer and you feel your heart beating madly. Clearly, you are working hard. Hard work must thus equal results. Not so fast Buster!

If you work out like that or your trainer makes you train that way you are asking for injury. It’s just like the saying, “To the man with the hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” Well to some folks, every training session seems like that nail. And High intensity training is the hammer.

Getting results isn’t quite that simple. If I’m an elite sprinter, then I will  have a training program in place that cycles out of low, medium and high intensity.  If a new coach came in and made me run 50 100% sprints in every workout, I can guarantee that any speed gains achieved prior would be lost. You can’t train at high levels for long and improve your speed.

Strength is the same as is conditioning. You have to back off and then regain your momentum and blast back through. That is one of the main concerns I have with some of the kettlebell training logs I see out there. (Or any WODs or such stuff) It’s too much. And it’s a lot like competition. Workouts should be cerebral and thought out. Not willy nilly.

Depending on how often you train (and if you aren’t training for a specific event) you probably want to consider training really hard once a week with some easier more moderate work done as well.  I can assure you that you will feel better. Your results will reflect that your using your brain and you will spend less time training. Keep in mind though that intensity is relative. My old hard workouts are easy now. My hard ones today wouldn’t have been possible a year ago.

Ease off the throttle a bit and you will like what happens.

Sandy Sommer, RKC

As you probably are aware, kettlebells are my preferred mode of strength and conditioning. Recently I finished the Viking Warrior Conditioning Conditioning Cycle and am deeply immersed in a new raw strength cycle that Marty Gallagher put together for me. Marty is one of the most respected minds in the world of strength training and Pavel Tsatsouline has mentioned Marty as one of his mentors.

My current training is a blissful marriage of my take on Enter The Kettlebell, Power To The People and Marty Gallagher. The union lasts until October 2, 2009 and at that point I will take a week off and then attack the Viking Warrior Program again.

Here’s what my training looked like for the week.

Monday I weighed in at 194 pounds on the dot. Since I commenced my current program 6 weeks ago I have added 10.8 pounds of body weight. I’m as lean as I was when this started on June 1, 2009. Around May 15, 2009 I weighed 181.1 and was 11 % body fat. I will test again in mid August but I think I am around the same body tissue ratio.

Each day this week I started my workout with Turkish Get Ups. I find this is really one of the best compound movements to do in order to get the juices flowing and the joints properly lubed up.

Monday Wednesday and Saturday I did ETK. Lots of ladders and low reps for the clean and press. I am looking to build raw power. I should mention that with the added weight I haven’t gotten much bigger. Just a lot denser and that is my goal. Density and not size. In addition, I rolled the dice and did the prescribed one hand swings. My hip power is growing and growing.

Tuesday I did narrow stance conventional deadlifting. Mark Chaillet and Marty Gallagher tweaked my form slightly a few weeks ago but I was pretty solid having learned a lot from Doc Cheng in June and it is paying dividends as my pulls are improving mightily. I also did straight bar front squats and pull ups along with pistols.

Thursday I started with heavy loaded cleans with the next bigger bell above my pressing and did heavy snatches too. Then back to dead lifting.

Friday all I did my Pull ups.

I’m seeing steady improvement in all my lifts. Even the Pull ups though I’ve added mass. Very excited about this and will keep you posted.

Please email me any questions and be sure to leave your thoughts and comments as well.