Active Versus Passive Recovery
In that context, a question I have gotten enough times to make it worth addressing is whether active rest or passive rest is ‘better’. That is, is it fundamentally better to do something for active recovery or better to just take the day completely off. Not surprisingly, not even coaches and top athletes can agree on this so today I want to look at both the concept of active and passive rest as well as some potential benefits and drawbacks to each.
Beginning Weight Training Part 4
And with that I want to jump straight into examples of three different beginner programs. The first is the Starting Strength program as developed by Mark Rippetoe (and reproduced here in full with his permission). The second is a beginner program as outlined by my mentor, it would represent another standard approach to a barbell based routine based around the big compound movements.
Finally, and primarily to offend the barbell purists, I’m going to reproduce the basic machine-based program that I used with the majority of my beginners. Again,keep in mind that those folks were almost universally folks seeking general fitness and health and I usually only had 3 workouts to get them roughly competent in the weight room. In different contexts, I taught different movements.
Beginning Weight Training Part 3
I had originally wanted to wrap up today but, as usual, I’m running long and I’ll have to do a fourth part on Friday where I look at some specific programs. Today, I want to look at some issues related to loading parameters for beginners including intensity, volume, frequency and exercise selection. Quite a bit of research has actually looked at these topics in beginners (I’m unaware of much on exercise selection) and that goes a long way towards guiding the development of proper beginner programs.
Beginning Weight Training Part 2
Today I want to continue by looking at what the specific goals of beginner training are, that is what specific adaptations and things are trying to be accomplished when setting up a beginning routine in the weight room. As I’ll come back to when I finish up next Tuesday in Part 3, the goals desired, along with some science I’m going to bore you with go a long way towards helping to design a good basic beginning program.
Beginning Weight Training Part 1
For the most part, articles and information about beginner’s training isn’t terribly popular. This is because, with literally no exception I have ever run into in nearly 20 years of doing this, everybody thinks that they are more advanced than they are. It’s simply human nature, nobody wants to think of themselves as a beginner or noob. In the world of training and dieting the consequence of this is that folks tend to jump into advanced training or diet interpretations long before they are either needed or useful or they have developed the necessary fundamentals.
How to Be Your Own Coach
Many months ago, I attended part of Dan John’s excellent A Philosophy of Strength Training seminar held her in Salt Lake City as part of Dave Draper Days (if you’re interested, there’s a 4-part DVD Set with the entire thing captured including some comments by yours truly). In any case, during the seminar, one question that came up from one of the attendees was “How does someone coach themselves?” Dan gave a usually thorough, but I fear somewhat undirected, answer (a problem Dan has is that his brain has so much great knowledge that he often gets side-tracked by it).
The Importance of Context
So why is it in the field of nutrition and training that the majority seem to think in absolutes where the context of the situation is never taken into consideration? Because as often as not, it isn’t. Rather, individuals will state in absolute terms, regardless of context that such and such is good, or bad, or best, or worst. Squats are good, squats are bed,carbs are good, carbs are bad. Saturated fats are good, saturated fats are bad.
Choosing a Reliable Personal Trainer
A question I get from time to time is how to choose a personal trainer. And while many are happy to work it out on their own and train by themselves, the simple fact is that many people do benefit from personal trainers. Whether it’s from a motivational/accountability standpoint or simply having an ‘expert’ teach them how to train, there are benefits to be had.
Keeping the Power Inside the Bar
I honestly don’t remember anything that the guy told me except for the one thing I want to talk about in this article. It’s a piece of advice that resonated for some reason and that I still adhere to to this day. Quite in fact, I force this particular habit on every lifter I work with until I get them doing it too.
Becoming an Expert – Deliberate Practice Part 2
And that’s because any old practice doesn’t seem to be sufficient. The second part of Ericsson’s model and the part I want to focus on today is what type of practice seems to be related to the eventual development of expertise in a given domain. I’ll finish up by looking at some criticisms of some of Ericsson’s ideas to answer the question “Can everyone become an expert?” and then try to reach some kind of actual point.
