How to get in shape: know step 1

I wanted to take some time to objectively clarify what strength training is. Well, as much as possible, because I have recently been reflecting upon Descartes and the notion that we cannot be sure anything exists outside our own mind. So, therefore, objectivity may be impossible and subjectivity inevitable, since my mind is everything.

Existential crises aside, it becomes apparent quite quickly when one takes a stroll down Google Avenue browsing for strength programs that strength could be anything from a 500 lb. deadlift to lifting a pint glass to your lips for reps. So, let’s make sure we are all on the same page so I stop getting emails saying you play golf for strength training.

What is the first principle of strength training?

I always like to look at all questions like an onion. Not that I have any great passion for onion-based imagery, but everything has layers. You have to peel them ALL away to get to the “first principle.” That is a piece of information that cannot be broken down any further. We have to be reductionist. At one point in time, elements were “elemental,” but now we know that elements like gold, hydrogen, and adamantium (oh wait, that’s a fictional one) are made up of atoms and that atoms are made up of protons and neutrons, which in turn are made up of quarks. Maybe at some further point out in the far far away, quarks and gluons will be further reduced.

Everything we do in the gym can be reduced down to a first principle and this includes strength. There are different types of strength, like isometric strength and speed strength and maximal strength, and they all have something in common. This is that they create force against a resistor. In some cases, the floor or wall may be the resistor, other times a kettlebell or barbell. But you’re always creating force.

How do you increase strength over time?

It should follow on from this that for strength to increase over time, force must increase over time. This is why I have been saying the barbell (followed by dumbbells and kettlebells) is king. This isn’t because I personally love cold steel crushing me top down into the floor, but because the barbell is incrementally loadable. It will also be incrementally loadable out into the future way beyond my capacity to continue incrementally loading it.

This incremental loading we can call “training with intent.” This is because it was an intentional training effect. If you go to Zumba and start to find it easier to pick up your grandchildren, this was ACCIDENTAL. A bit like some waves washing over your feet as you walk along the beach. You might enjoy the feeling, but it wasn’t what you set out to do. Strength training is the opposite. It has intent.

In order to get fitter, stronger, faster, or more healthy, we all need to follow a training plan. But which plan is best? Listen in the following player as Get-Fit Guy’s Coach Kevin explains.

This “accidental” outcome is also called the novice effect or the picking of low-hanging fruit. This novice effect, where detrained or untrained people make improvements at metrics not being directly trained, is why so many programs are able to claim to be strength-building. I looked at the UK National Health Service recommendations on strength training for older people and number one on the list was “carry your grocery bags.” Ok, so then what do we do when a novice adapts to this? How far out in the future can we incrementally load the grocery bags and how big would the bags need to become to facilitate continued strength gains? Carrying groceries is NOT a strength training program. But it IS harder than sitting on your butt watching Maury Povich. So it DOES create adaptive stress.

What is adaptive stress?

Adaptive stress is how we all get stronger. An external stressor occurs, the body doesn’t like said stress, and it adapts to ensure that it isn’t stressed in the future by the same event. A bit like how the immune system works against a virus. The problem is that anything that isn’t an actual strength training program soon reaches the point in time where it stops being a stress and adaptation stops. It is at this point that stress must increase to drive further adaptation. Since strength is an adaptation to force production, then the force required to overcome the external stress must increase.

What is quantification?

This ongoing accumulation of exposure to ever-increasing stress means something else has to happen for things to be intentional and not accidental. That is quantification. You absolutely must know how much force was produced last time so you can increase the force production this time. If the last time was the Zumba Latin dance mix, what do you do this week? Dance the Latin mix a bit faster? Upgrade to the Ibiza classics Zumba mix?

Basically, anything that doesn’t have intentional, quantifiable increases in force production over time isn’t a strength training program. And that, my friends, is the first principle.