Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

I am sure many of you are busy writing New Year Resolutions which involve lifting and training. My personal goals are are very simple - stay injury free!

There will be no competing this year, no chasing weights I don't need and no pushing to the limit when it's not required. I will work hard of course but the need to push my body is really not required at the moment.

I still intend to lift 3 times a week. This will be basic as usual. However, I will include some of the bodybuilding I have been doing recently as it's made a nice change and has taken the stress off my joints a great deal. I will be continuing with my mobility and hope to do more yoga. I also want to push to get in a couple of cardio or high intensity interval training sessions in each week. This I hope will keep my body fat lower than it has been.

The only time I will be pushing hard is during my work environment when 100% is required to produce a solid performance. I am hoping this will keep the injuries to a minimum. I have also been getting regular osteopathic treatment and I will continue this as it has helped a great deal.

I still feel as a competitor in Strongman I have much more in me. I don't think I ever really peaked as a lightweight strongman. I hope to make a comeback of sorts in my 40's (2 years away now!) and take on the younger guys on the world stage.

As I get older I am really interested in pursuing sport as recreation and not so much competition. Feeling good is more important to me than aching and creaking and popping pain killers all the time.

We'll see where this takes me.

As for you guys - let's give you something to think about over the holiday period.

Older but wiser training tips for 2009

Feel strong. Back off!

When everything feels strong and is going well in your training, consider backing off. The body likes to peak and then recuperate. Enjoy the strong times without the fear of injury or pain.

Get your technique down in all of the main lifts.

Ugly lifting is way too common these days. I personally hate it! Get your squat, deadlift, press, clean, bench and chin form perfect and reap the rewards. Give me a smooth 500lb deadlift over an ugly, hitched 550lbs deadlift anyday.

Compete in competitions not in the gym.

Frankly, no one cares what you lift in the gym if when you compete you come last or middle of the pack. Friendly competition is fine but save the psyching up and aggression for when it counts.

Don't be an internet hero.

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! I've said it before and I'll say it again - NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU LIFT!!!

Try something new.

There are so many avenues to health and strength that sometimes the gym seems a bit redundant to me. Here's a few things to consider trying in 2009. Squat with a different bar (Safety, Cambered, Top Squat etc). Go on a PROPER diet. DO some mobility work or yoga or pilates. Try some light strongman events. Lift a rock. Climb a tree. Try training like one of the greats such as Vince Gironda or Reg Park. Specialize on a weakness such as those spindly legs or pencil neck. Take a barbell to the park and do lifting and sprinting. Try EDT, Tabatas, HIT, 20 reps squats, Dogg Crapp training, Isometrics, Pre-exaustion, Chains, Bands, Complexes, 3x3, Smolov, German Volume Training, 50 reps sets, Pack of Cards, Speed Work, Heavy Partials, Ladders, The Transformation Program and the list goes on and on. Don't just read it or think it DO IT!

Beyond Strong wishes everyone and safe and happy Christmas time and successful 2009.

Nick

From my good friend Spike Cherrie for Xmas.

Comments

[Richard Scott]

Merry xmas good tips will be adopting sum of those defiantly the modility work. keep up the good work.

[trigg]

Merry Christmas and happy new Years, Nick.

Over the last year, I have made some subtle changes to my training program that have proved to be very effective for meeting my personal goals. The sad thing about lifting is that the older one gets, the more one learns about it, and all those wonderful lessons learned can’t be used in the “peak” of our vitality and potentials. They come too late! However, even in my early 40’s, I continue to make progress and get stronger.
What have I done over the last 12 months to improve?

1. I stopped worrying about muscular weight gain, and started worrying about healthy eating. I lost about 15 lb. (from 180 lb. to the 165-170 range), and got leaner and more muscular as a result. No more, for me, is there some sort of need to “get big”. I still drink my shakes and am concerned with getting adequate calories. But ‘adequate” means to maintain good muscular weight, not constantly trying to gain it. Nothing wrong with “getting huge” if that is your goal or dream, but heavy BW doesn’t “fit” me, nor at my age is it really necessary or healthy.

2. I keep my focus on basic barbell and traditional “cable” moves. I have never been a big user of machines, even when I owned 10 pieces of Nautilus. Things like the supplementary (not primary!) cable row, pressdown, or pulldown are good stuff. But the meat and potatoes are basic barbell and dumbbell moves. Presses, rows, squats, deads, and the like.

3. I use full range movements. I am back working in a commercial establishment for the first time in around 15 years. Can’t count the folks doing the half presses, half squats, half curls and so on. I let those presses come down the chest or shoulders, squat at least to parallel, do my curls form full extension to full contraction, etc.

4. I have sped up the pace of my workouts. My rest periods, even when working heavy, are relatively quick. If I need to “max out” (which is rare these days) I might take a bit of rest. Otherwise, I am down to 1 to 1.5 minute periods between sets. I have accomplished this by remaining completely anti-social in the gym, and the use of an MP3 player. I will give the occasional spot, or ask for one, if necessary. But, past the polite head nod or “good morning”, I speak to no-one during my training time.

5. I am training on a Mon-Wed-Fri . schedule, but have a rotation of 4 daily routines. That means every given week, one “routine” doesn’t get worked. Also any given week, the “Monday” routine is different from the last Monday routine, the Wednesday from the last and so on. This keeps me fresh and motivated, as well as provides some recovery and down time each week from something worked pretty hard for the last 3 weeks.

6. I am cycling my weights on a basic Prilepen schedule. Working the percents and the total tonnage. Not constantly chasing the increases week to week, but letting them cycle up over time.

7. Now this last item is for me, specifically. But I think it has value as a generality to most anyone. In all the long years I have been training, I have pursued the traditional power style back squat, and have never been any good at it. This is based a lot upon how I am built, leverages wise. After I blew my knee out a few years back, it never even got back to (relative to me) decent levels of the past. So now I use the front squat and the straight leg deadlift as my lower body moves. I go heavy on the deads, and keep the front squat only in the “moderate hard” level, and follow it with some heavy and hi-rep leg sled work. All the straight leg and conventional dead work I have done in the past, and continue to do, has my “core” of hips and low back well under control, in terms of strength and stability. I utilize the front squat to keep my quads toned and because I feel like everyone needs to do some sort of squatting, and the leg press is where I put my “blood and guts” anymore in quad work. I realize that this sort of focus is not for everyone, nor do I recommend it to anyone in particular. But I am not powerlifting or needing to pursue and sort of competition style lift, so rather than constantly pound away at a lift I have never felt very comfortable with, I have let the ego about it slide and gone to a combo of moves that suit me well, and meet my specific needs. Every “young” lifter should pursue the power style back squat if he or she can. But if you are not a powerlifter , it is not necessarily the “best” move for the lower body (if something like heavy front squats, overhead squats, high bar squats, Olympic lifts, etc. are more suitable).

8. My supplementation program is focused on health and not trying to get ‘steroid like results.’ Other than creatine, my pills and potions are based around good digestion, good urinary health, maintaining good lipid profiles, high immune response, and the like. For me, my supplements have become part of my life insurance plan.

Because of this “new approach” which is really just a combination of things that I used to do individually at various times, but never tied all together into one package, my training has really taken off at age 41, and fast approaching 42. Other than the leg press, my rep schemes still fall under 5 or less for the bulk of my work, and it feels good to unrack the 110’s and up on the d-bell bench from time to time when very few people in this gym even use them for rows, and those that do press them (at least those within 20 lb. heavier than me in BW) tend to do half range presses with them and at 10-20 years younger in age. Can’t say that I have escaped the need to impress from time to time, even if it is just imagined!

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