Go Fit Yourself

      Let me paint a scenario for you: You join the gym and start hitting it HARD 7 days a week. Sure 2 or 3 of those days are your "cardio" days, and sometimes you take a Zumba class. But you are going hard in the gym and you feel great. Now jump to one month later: You are dreading going to the gym because it is squat day and you are still beat to shit from your bench day (the day before). Your ankles and hips hurt, you are getting snippy with your significant other, and you feel almost depressed. You haven't lost an ounce of bodyfat or gained an oz of muscle and you are sitting on the couch, waiting for your pre workout to kick in for some chemical motivation.      You have officially done what millions of trainees have done before you: went too hard too fast and skipped "recovery". The process of gaining strength, and therefore muscle mass, is referred to as the "stress, RECOVERY, adaptation" cycle. The stress is the hour or so you spend in the gym...

      "Volume is the driver of growth." Trainees have heard this time after time from coaches that don't quite understand the stress, recovery adaptation cycle. Well let's put on our thinking caps and pretend that you are talking to a 6 year old. Ask the kid: "Which will get you bigger: 10 curls with 10 pounds or 5 curls with 50 pounds?" The answer is obviously 5 with 50. The only way to get to doing curls with 50 pounds is to GET STRONGER. The only way to get stronger is to lift heavier weights each session, adding a pound or 2 per workout in a training cycle.      But if volume was the driver of growth, you could just do 10 sets of 10 with 10 pounds and you would get bigger and stronger. But I ask you, who has gotten bigger and stronger with light weights? The answer is obvious and right in your face: no one. You knew these things, in your heart of hearts, because it is common sense. However, exercise "science" will give you 20 different "me...