I’m a REALLY big nerd.
When most people go on vacation they do a whole lot of nothing and when they do read something it’s usually not “industry related”.
I’m guessing the economists of the world are not on the beach going, “WOW, this expose on the European debt crisis is just fascinating”…….then again they are economist….bad example, my bad. (I kid, I kid)
That said isn’t that the whole reason people go on vacation in the first place to get away from work?
Well as I said, I’m a nerd so I do things like read issues of the Strength and Conditioning Journal and books about training to “get away from work”.
My latest entry into nerd-dom lead me to, Easy Strength: How to Get a Lot Stronger Than Your Competition-And Dominate in Your Sport
First off I bought mine on the Kindle. It’s about $20, which, I know can be a turn-off for books on the Kindle, being that most are $9-15 and we all go, “Is it really worth it?”. Well, it is….
It’s always better to spend $20 on a book that gives you a ton a value than $10 on another book that gives you none. Which, coincidentally I also did during this same trip.
First off, the info is VERY good. If you train yourself or deal with athletes there is a ton to rediscover or learn.
Second, the book is looooooong. So if you just want a lot of content for your money, you’ll get that too.
The basic theme of the book is:
DO NOT OVERTRAIN!!
As my clients hear all the time, “more isn’t better, better is better”
Training with the end goal of being smoked will only leave you tired and in the same place, if not over trained and regressing. Leave something in the tank.
If you show up every day and breathe hard and get tired and sweaty, you may consider yourself to be successful at exercise. By contrast, training can only be judged as a success if it works- that is, if after an appropriate amount of time you can clearly show improved capacity for physical work- Brian Petty
Some great take home points:
- 10 Intense (80% of 1RM or more) reps is usually enough.
- 6, if we’re “working up” in weight or using heavy (90%+) singles….. Don’t do this often
- If you play a collision sport you NEED hypertrophy work (armour building).
- The older you are the more you need hypertrophy work.
- You can’t go all out all the time without eventually breaking.
- Plan and perform repeatable workouts…if you can’t fathom doing it again it probably wasn’t a good idea.
- Don’t change stuff wholesale or on a whim…variety is fine, program hopping is not.
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