Glenn Pendlay of MDUSA recently wrote a pair of articles titles, “How to write an Olympic weightlifting program” (Part 1 and Part 2). They are a good review of the basic principles for Olympic weightlifting. Believe it or not, many weightlifters get away from this foundation.
For example, there are assholes online who pose as weightlifting “experts” just because they trained with some random Chinese coach for a month. This means they “understand the Chinese weightlifting” system and miraculously gained the aptitude to teach it. Whatever the FUCK that means.
Anyway, I prefer Pendlay’s approach to weightlifting because he does it like a Socratic student who acknowledges there is plenty to learn.
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it, is knowledge.”
–Confucius
“…surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know.”
–Socrates
Personally, I don’t think Pendlay needs to approach it this way; he could get away with being an asshole about what he knows. But that’s not his style because he honestly still learns stuff every day; I like that. Let’s highlight some of the lessons from his two-part article.
Part 1 concerns itself with snatching, clean and jerking, and squatting. Again, read the Pendlay’s articles for his explanation and reasoning, but it’s good that he took the time to point this out. So many people will watch videos of successful international lifters and decide to emulate them. Monkey see, monkey doo doo in their singlet. I wrote about this concept in a triumphant “I proved my point because you’ll click on anything that says sex and shows a bit of T&A” post, “Sexy Isn’t Always Better.”
Part 2 actually provides enough information for a weightlifter to program his training for several years. He points out how weightlifting success selects certain training principles: not doing anything greater than triples on the Olympic lifts, typically not squatting prior to the lifts, and organizing them effectively throughout the week. But one of the things I like the most about Pendlay’s message is:
Keep a workout log, and take good notes. When you change your program, try to change one thing at a time, and give the change a reasonable amount of time to work before you abandon it. Approach things in a systematic way, and with every week and every success and failure you will add to your knowledge of how your body reacts to training and what you need to do to snatch more and clean and jerk more.
This may even sound painfully obvious to some of you, but I’d be willing to bet that you recently waffled your way through what was supposed to be a systemic approach to programming. Most of you guys just want to be told what to do — JUST GIVE ME A PROGRAM.
Read Glenn’s articles, particularly Part 2, and you’ll walk away with a good vision of a quality weightlifting program. Lift heavy, but vary your work load throughout the week. Accumulate work above 80%. Reserve sessions later in the week for maximal attempts. Pick a rep scheme, whether it be singles, doubles, or triples, and try to push it for 4 to 8 weeks. Once you start to stall on one scheme, transition to the next (exhaust triples, then move to doubles). Once you do go through this cycle a few times, vary the sessions in a week. Doubles on Monday, triples on Wednesday, and then maximal stuff on Friday? Sounds like a plan — but the point is to have a plan. Like Glenn said, “Remember that success in weightlifting is defined by snatching and clean and jerking more. It is not defined by having a huge squat or carrying an impressive workload in training” or by doing a bunch of random exercises. Pay attention to guys that simplify programming. Listening to them will help you more than a fool keyboard warrior claiming secret Chinese knowledge.
My last six nights have looked like this: camping in the truck, camping in the tent, Great American Beer Festival shenanigans, local brewery Shenanigans, GABF shenanigans, and then camping above 10,000 feet in the snow. Needless to say I was a bit knackered after all that adventuring and drinking — IT’S WHAT DUDES DO!
During those six days I trained twice, not including hiking and the inevitable core workout that comes from off-roading for hours at a time. While the first time was at CrossFit Lodo on Friday, the second time was at the gym hotel (which was equipped with machines and dumbbells up to 100 pounds). This is a short guide on training with limited time or equipment, but is mostly focused on being in a different location (as opposed to trying to get a workout at home).
This pic from the Great American Beer Festival is to make you jealous you didn’t go.
The Basics
Think about what the foundations of your fitness or performance entail: strength, mobility, and endurance. If you’re exclusively a strength athlete, that will include power and swollertrophy. High intensity conditioning and muscular endurance would be relevant to an endurance athlete, fitness competitor, or even “applied fitness” trainees (a term we use in FIT to signify someone who requires fitness for their job, like a fireman or soldier). Mobility is inherently important to all trainees and provides the capacity to get strong and muscular. At the very least your skewed training schedule will give you time to work on your mobility, and that may be enough for some people. You can create a workout that fits your training style, but you can also do something simple to “get the blood flowing”. Increasing the heart rate and moving through a full range of motion — not necessarily at high intensity — can aid recovery, relieve stress (especially if you’re on a busy work trip), and provide a positive stimulus to fuel regular training after returning home.
Bring as much as you can.
If you literally won’t have any equipment, you can improvise with what is available to you. For example, chairs can be dipped on, stepped on, or used to elevate the feet for push-ups. Otherwise bring as much small pieces of equipment as you can. Light bands and a jump rope can easily fit into a carry-on bag for band pulls and very light conditioning. Otherwise bring your mobility gear and work on your problem areas.
What’s the goal?
Now that you clarified what type of trainee you are and have acquired available equipment, what is your goal for the session? If it’s just to get the blood flowing, just jump rope and do some calisthenics. If you are a strength and power athlete, then use speed and explosive work. If you are a general trainee, then use assistance exercises to aid the strength lifts or catch a contagious, World Health Organization-worrying pump. If you are an endurance, applied fitness, or conditioning trainee, then use the light weights and your body weight for higher rep sets for muscular endurance or go ahead and get a high intensity conditioning workout.
Explosive Work
This is probably the most under-utilized style of training in limited environments, yet the most effective. If the dumbbells only go up to 50 pounds, then press them (with a neutral, palm-in grip) for speed doubles or triples on the minute. Hold the dumbbells and do speed squats or deads. Do three pull-ups on the minute as fast as you can. Use different jumps like squat jumps (i.e. preceding the jump with a full squat), high jumps (i.e. jumping as high as you can), broad jumps (for horizontal distance), triple jumps (i.e. same as broad jumps, but using the landing of the first and second jumps as an immediate stretch reflex for subsequent jumps), or bounds (i.e. jumping for horizontal or vertical distance off one foot at a time. In the past I’ve alternated jumps with presses on 30 second intervals.
Keep the speed or plyometric structure simple and do two or three reps on a 30 to 60 second clock and do 5 to 10 sets. The idea of timed plyo work is to demand that the muscle fibers contract as fast as possible while fatigued — the fact that they are doing it in a fatigued state is the thing that they aren’t adapted to (i.e the adaptive stress). Speed work will help improve rate of force development and neuromuscular efficiency.
Assistance
If you’re tired, unmotivated, injured, or have crusty mobility from sitting all day and don’t want to jump around, just hit some assistance exercises that will either push your main lifts or give you some maximum jackage. The former may include dumbbell or banded good mornings, weighted lunges, or even holding a heavy dumbbell and do Zercher or front squats. The latter could include a few sets of dumbbell bench or press, triceps press downs, pull-ups, dumbbell rows, or weighted back extensions. Oh, and curls. Do at least one thousand repetitions of your choice curl and then go out of your way to tell everyone about it (i.e. co-workers, hotel employees, children in the swimming pool, etc.). It’s the curl that will give you the most bang for your buck since it hits both heads of the biceps and incorporates the brachioradialis of the forearm.
Notice that most of these exercises are compound movements that will improve the main lifts, but still improve muscularity. Realistically you could forego all of this advice and just do shirtless chest flies in front of the mirror while chewing gum, but I digress.
You may also remember “When In Doubt…Train Your Back“, a post I wrote about training the back side when short on time. But don’t forget other necessary exercises like farmer’s walks and side planks. Having a whacky schedule is the perfect opportunity to do pre-hab exercises or improve your grip.
Conditioning
It’s really not hard to get a solid high intensity conditioning workout in with limited equipment. In FIT I give plenty of examples, but aim to use compound, multi-joint exercises that use a lot of musculature to use a lot of energy to create a deficit in substrates for a quality adaptive stress. If that sentence doesn’t make sense, then read through FIT because we break it down Crayola style there.
Just Do It
The biggest issue with training during a weird schedule is actually getting off your ass and doing it. On Saturday, we were hungover and tired. In a few hours we were going to jump back into the fray at the GABF, but I decided to get a quick workout in the hotel facility. After a bit of jump rope, dumbbell bench, dumbbell front squat, machine rows, banded good mornings, and back extensions, we felt much better (I did press and weighted pull-ups the day before, otherwise I would have pressed the DBs and done the pull-ups). When you’re on a trip that has halted your training, strung you out, and possibly left you hungover, a quick muscle contraction workout will help immensely.
GoRuck is growing. What started as a small company making high quality packs quickly turned into a challenging adventure type event that is set apart from the en vogue “adventure races”. Again, I don’t know what en vogue means, but I think you can take penicillin for it.
I originally wrote “Challenge Yourself — GoRuck” to provide another avenue of competition, introspection, and to introduce what GoRuck is. I then attended their challenge in Washington D.C. and wrote “GoRuck Challenge Review“. I think the challenge itself is a valuable learning experience relative to the individual. In retrospect, I re-learned that part of leadership is getting people to do things that they don’t want to do when they don’t think they can do it. I also learned how hard my body can be pushed on limited resources before complications arise. In my case, I didn’t get enough water (I let others refill their water systems during the short breaks), but it took eight hours of grueling activity before the cramps started. “Grueling” includes over an hour of smoking PT, carrying a 1,200 pound log with the class for a couple of hours, carrying various people for several hours, running a 5k, and more all while carrying a 40 pound pack and often carrying other objects (team weights like a full jerry can or fire hose). I’ve since completed round trip mountain summits of 16 miles and over 8,000 feet of elevation change with no qualms about my ability to complete it. I had the confidence to know that it would take a lot more physical exertion before bad things happened.
The dogs with the GR2 ruck (middle) looking out over Huntsville from the North Ogden Divide, Utah
The GoRuck Challenge is worth it. It will obviously be hard — for some people it’ll be the hardest thing they’ve ever done and an epiphany in their lives. At the very least it’ll give you an appreciation for what the military and SOF community goes through in their selection, every day jobs, and deployment.
As a side note, the GoRuck gear is of the highest quality I’ve ever seen. Critics often balk at the price, but I’ve compared my GR2 (the largest pack) with 511 gear, and there is honestly no comparison. I’ll do a review on my pack on my personal log since it leaves the scope of 70sBig.com, so look out for that if you’re interested.
A lifter’s approach for training for a GoRuck will be unique. I pointed out some basic points about preparing for an event in the GoRuch challenge review post (under the spoiler below). These general recommendations apply to anyone, yet they didn’t dive into specific programming.
[spoiler]
– Program the S&C portion around the rucking; it can and will jack up the structures for efficient strength/conditioning training
– Commit to daily mobility work; rucking bashes the shoulders, neck, thoracic and lumbar spine, hips, knees, and feet. Learn your problem areas and keep them up to speed; if you slack, they will fail.
– Progress rucking slowly; your body is not ready for 50+ pound rucks for several hours. Start light and short, and linearly progress it slowly.
– Cap the weight at 50 pounds and don’t run; there’s no need to run in training because it puts too much stress on the body. Just trust me. Some infantry guys may need to run a LITTLE bit in training to prepare for a 12 mile road march, but it can fuck things up.
– Progress the overall program slowly; the body won’t be hitting everything full speed with the addition of rucking. Don’t try and squat close to your repetition PR; allow your structures and system to adapt to the new straining stress.
– Aim to toughen the feet. I wore issue desert boots until recently for the sole purpose of toughening my feet. I had a blister in March 2011 on my first ever ruck (a friend was, uh, breaking me in), and the second time I had a blister was a month or so ago when I did 8 miles in 2 hours (some of it on sand). The boots are shitty with no custom work to make them more comfortable (blister was on the back of the heel). I recently got a pair of Rocky C4 deserts and wore them during the challenge (they are similar to Nike Free deserts, but the Nikes rubbed on my pinky toes too much for my liking). I did not have any blisters, and the 12 hours of the GRC was four times as long as I’ve ever gone with a ruck on. Also, my feet were constantly wet (streams, water fountains, rivers, etc.), which is the worst thing for blister development, but I didn’t have any problems.
– Learn about blisters and how to prevent them. This book is the best available if you’re a noob. It would be relevant if you’re into hiking or mountain climbing (I am). Learn how shoes and socks should fit. I wore dress socks under moisture-wicking socks to reduce friction on my feet; it was the first time I did it, and I had zero problems (other than really pruny feet from being wet for 12 hours).
– Learn proper hydration and electrolyte consumption. My longest ruck or hike has been three hours. When the sun started coming up, I started to have some small cramps in my quad (we had to do walking lunges). I was soon the TL, and my various parts of my legs from the hip down tried to seize on me during our movement (have you ever had your adductor muscles cramp?). I later had a full-blown calf cramp in the swamp. This all could have been prevented with better hydration; by the time I needed the water, it was too late. I had a water bladder, but I emptied it several times and couldn’t keep enough water in me. I opted several times during my TL stint to give my water to other people so that we could make time. The problem is that I have a lot of muscle mass, and it burns through water like an engine does gasoline. In the future I would have two bladders and drink on them constantly. My last several hours would have been much easier had I done so (I was pretty hobbled).
[/spoiler]
I’ve rucked or hiked at least once a week almost every week for over a year now. Behind the scenes I work with various military and SOF personnel and rucking gives me perspective on their demands. Recently, I’ve done a lot more adventuring to include more longer, lighter efforts. My week may vary between a 60+ pound hour walk with the dogs in hilly terrain or an 8 hour, 16 mile affair with over 8,000 ft of total elevation change with about 30 pounds. Throughout all of this time, I’ve maintained or improved my strength, lean body mass, and body composition. I’ve hit PRs or almost PRs in the Olympic lifts several days after 15+ mile hikes. I’ve also bounced ideas off of various infantry and SOF personnel around the world; they are the guys that have the most experience with it. I’m giving you my perspective to validate the ideas presented below.
Most of all, this means I’ve learned what not to do. I’ve trained after brutal hikes and at best had poor training sessions and at worst tweaked something. It’s given me insight on preparing guys for combat, but it’s given me insight on how to arrange training in order to be an adventurer. Can you complete a GoRuck with little training? Of course; there’s not much you can do to prepare for a kick in the balls. However, the experience doesn’t have to be injurious. But it all starts with the basics.
A Good Foundation Helps
This should be obvious, but having a basic capacity will facilitate quality ruck training. Guys in the military are often exposed to PT in basic training before loaded with a ruck. The exposure increases until they are finally doing a 12 mile road march, or other service equivalent, in a combat arms job. So it should be for you. If you have existing injuries in the ankles, knees, hip, or back, then work to eradicate or improve these issues prior to loading your body.
You’ll perform better and your body will hold up better when it’s strong. If you’re reading this site, then you won’t be entirely weak, so the real issue is getting you ready to handle rucking stresses. This stuff should be progressed in a respectful manner. I know 30 pound doesn’t seem like much, but put it on your back and walk for 45 minutes. Every non-military guy I know who has tried it was humbled.
I think that some basic pre-rucking qualifications for a non-conditioned lifter will be to run a mile or jump rope for five minutes without complication. Both are simple tasks that every human should be capable of. If either causes significant soreness (mostly in joints), then it would behoove the trainee to adapt to these activities. After all, the GoRuck will have some running, especially in a fatigued state.
Tough feet are important to prevent blisters. As part of the foundation, start going outside with your shoes off. Walk your dogs without shoes and spend as much time as you can outside. This will help harden the feet which only augments them when they are in a boot. If walking on concrete is painful, then toughening the feet is a useful and necessary human skill. You’ll be amazed at how sheltered people’s feet are.
Get Time Under The Ruck
The next important point is that you’ll need to get time under a ruck. Is it possible to do the event with zero rucking preparation? Yes. But if you read the challenge review, a kid named Ray didn’t have any preparation and he was hurting. Ray contemplated quitting a lot, but to his credit he finished. Yet he was literally hobbling to the finish because his feet and ankles were so badly beat up. While CrossFit can prepare folks for elongated activity, specificity is necessary because there’s no substitute for accumulating time with weight on your back.
Waterfall Canyon near Ogden, UT prior to the GoRuck Challenge. I carried about 20kg of rocks up this short trail wearing short shorts.
Start out light and short; 25 pounds for half an hour will do it. If you get done and think, “No sweat! That was easy!” Good. We don’t want to induce harm. Ruck at least once a week and at most three times a week with at least one day of rest in between sessions. If you’re going to train on the same day, then ruck after lifting. After any rucking session, if it spanks you, then repeat the weight and duration again before advancing either. Progressing the load or duration too quickly can inhibit your lifting and even result in an injury. Even minor tweaks from rucking can prevent squatting for a month.
I suggest only doing one or two ruck sessions a week. Feel free to do them on the road, but I prefer trails. You won’t necessarily need to worry about speed; the GoRuck is a team event instead of an individual speed event for time like the Army’s 12 mile road march.
If 25 pound for half an hour was fine, then increase the duration by 15 minutes. Increase duration before increasing load. Work towards an hour with 25 pounds, complete it a couple of times, and then increase the weight to 30 to 35 pounds. If the 25 pounds for an hour was hard, reduce the time to 45 minutes when increasing the weight, otherwise repeat 60 minutes. Your goal is to increase the amount you can carry for one hour. It’s not necessary to exceed 50 pounds — your six bricks plus water/food will weigh about 35 pounds during the challenge, and then submerging your packs in water will add another 5 pounds or so. The weight will range between 35 and 45 pounds for a male, so working with anything over 50 pounds isn’t necessary and can be injurious.
Once you have moved your hour-long ruck over 35 pounds, and you have the time and the gumption, you can start pushing into longer movements. Cap the overall duration at 3 hours, but it isn’t necessary to go above 2 hours, especially since you need to lift during the week. I didn’t do anything over 2 hours before the challenge (I did one movement that went 8 miles in 2 hours on flat terrain with the dogs, who slowed me down to take dumps). Whenever you increase the duration, stick with 35 pounds. For the sake of a GoRuck Challenge, you won’t need to do 2 hours with 50 pounds, so just progressively add 15 minute intervals with 35 pounds. If your body feels banged up, just repeat that same session again before progressing.
At most, you’ll handle 50 pounds. At longest, you’ll go 2 to 3 hours. Stick to around 35 pounds for the longer movements. If you are going to ruck twice a week, then do one short, and one longer. You’ll want more rest after a longer movement, so do it on a Friday or Saturday and rest throughout the rest of the weekend.
While Rucking
Aim to move out with purposeful strides. Meandering like a tourist will be better than nothing, but during the GoRuck your speed can be very slow (when carrying things) or a decently paced run. It’s better to be accustomed to a mall walk. I’ve heard of people getting sore calves from rucking or hiking; don’t aim to “toe off” of the ground, aim to drive your heel back. You want the larger posterior chain muscles to be your motor instead of the smaller calf muscles.
Always bring water. I usually didn’t use it on the hour long movements, but it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Some people have the idea that they will train to plan for lack of water and food, but this is a bad and stupid idea. Don’t put yourself in harm; there’s not really anyway you can prepare for the mental aspect of a GoRuck.
If you’re going for longer movements in the wilderness, then plan accordingly. Snacks, water, flashlight, fire starting capabilities, knife, and gun if you have it. Turn your phone on sleep if so you have battery if necessary and put it in a ziploc bag if rain is on the forecast. Bring a whistle so you can make a bunch of noise if you break a bone and can’t move. When you don’t respect nature, that’s when it’ll bite you in the ass. The same goes for asshole people who may try to take advantage of you or harm you; it’s up to you to protect yourself.
Keep an eye on your feet; they are the most important aspect of rucking. If the feet are blistered, it’ll hinder everything you do. Properly fitted and broken in foot wear is vital. I like to wear boots and have used GI desert boots an infantry friend gave me. They used to chew my feet up decently, but now, without any custom work done on them, they are my most comfortable boot. I have confidence that I can move up to 20 miles without blisters. Note that I purposely wore them in the beginning to toughen my feet. I bought a pair of boots that are similar to the Nike Free boots to use for the GoRuck. They worked splendidly despite my feet being completely wet the entire challenge; I didn’t have any blisters. However, they gave me heel blisters in the first 45 minutes of climbing Ben Lomond, a mountain in the Wasatch Range in northern Utah. I ended up dealing with the blisters for the next 7 hours. Test your foot wear in climbing up hill, going down hill, and on flat terrain. You don’t want your heel to rub on the way up or your toes to smash the toe box on the way down. Most people wore trail running shoes at the challenge and seemed to not have any foot issues.
Lifting Around the Rucking
How to structure the weekly template is most relevant to a trainee. Never train the day after a GoRuck. At best general fatigue will limit the session and at worst you may have lingering joint soreness that is tweaked during the lifting. Always have at least one day of rest after a ruck. For longer movements, take two days of rest. I’ve taken as many as three or four days of rest after long hikes (specifically before an Olympic lifting session).
If you train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, then you can ruck on Saturday. You could also ruck on Wednesday after training. If you rucked on Tuesday or Thursday, then the subsequent training day would need to be modified to be less stressful. There was a point where I did a short/heavy ruck on Thursday, a light lifting session on Friday (barbell rows, weighted pull-ups, and farmer’s walks), followed by a long/light ruck on Saturday. I still lifted on Friday, but I removed any movements that would have been affected by the Thursday rucking. The MWF had a “heavy-medium-light” approach.
If you train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, then the best days to ruck would be Tuesday and Saturday. Tuesday’s ruck would be followed by a complete day of rest, and the Saturday morning session will allow the rest of the weekend for rest.
If you only aim to ruck once a week, then Saturday is probably the best option to avoid interfering with your lifting schedule. If you progress it well, as indicated above, then you shouldn’t have any joint or muscular issues. The most likely interference will have to do with limited mobility. Walking with 40 pounds for an hour and then trying to hit a seamless snatch a couple of days later are dichotomous methods of training. Prepare to work on your ankles, calves, knees, hips, and shoulders in preparation of avoiding problems from rucking (future posts will include mobility solutions).
In addition to lifting and rucking, add some calisthenics once or twice a week. If you’re limited on time, just use pull-ups, push-ups, and squats. It’s easy to do a quick “5 rounds of Cindy” after a training session. “Cindy” is a CrossFit workout of doing as many rounds in 20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats. Don’t worry about 20 minutes, just work on doing timed sessions of 5 to 10 rounds. Add up your total number of reps for a given exercise and make sure this total progresses appropriately. If you up and do 100 pull-ups in a day (dead hang, of course), then you’ll probably have lingering soreness that interferes with pressing, benching, or deadlifting (fatigued shoulder extensors would not help keep the bar against the legs). You’ll end up doing sit-ups and flutter kicks at the challenge, but you’re going to do so many calisthenics beyond fatigue it doesn’t really matter. As long as you have a decent strength, mobility, and endurance (i.e. fitness), you’ll be fine.
The GoRuck Challenge is supposed to be hard, especially for a goober civilian who has never walked over ten miles with a load. By adding correctly programmed rucks into the training, you can adequately prepare for the challenge while still maintaining your normal lifting schedule. Getting time under a ruck will make the experience less agonizing and let you be a relevant member of the team instead of shutting down and ignoring the world. The challenge is designed to get harder through the night. By preparing for the event intelligently, you’ll be able to more effectively make a contribution to the team. Especially when the going gets tough. And the cadre will make it GoRuck Tough.
Women come in different types and heights, thick or slight. Yet the time for training is always right…
Two good things will come out of this post: a) the admission that I am a crappy poet and b) regardless of body type, a woman can always improve her lifting efficiency.
Generally speaking, people in their first few years of lifting will have muscular limitations that hold back their potential for progress. Despite the fact that I’ve been lifting for 12 years, it wasn’t until the last couple of years that my musculature distribution — and therefore balance of strength — was balanced. Athletes who have competed in sports their whole lives may exhibit good balance when they start training again, but it’s also the fact that their training history facilitates improvement better than those without an athletic history. In other words, a life-time athlete can address imbalances easier than someone who has recently started training for the first time.
This is especially true for women. Society kind of filters women out of athletics once they leave high school. Sure, I’ve known some tough gals that are in the military, regularly train, or still compete in recreation sports after their sport career ended, yet there is a higher percentage of girls who stopped physical activity once they received their high school diploma. A portion of them attended college and primarily studied, partied, or immersed themselves in social activities at school, and their body adapted to the lack of training stress. Women will have a harder time getting into and excelling in training because of this lack of activity along with the hormonal differences. This, of course, doesn’t apply to all women, but occurs enough even in “active” girls to the point that they need special focus to build certain musculature to avoid an imbalance.
But what is a musculature imbalance? Does it mean their glutes aren’t firing? Barring some kind of abnormal pathology, no. An imbalance means that a muscle, or area of muscles, are under-developed to the point that other muscles have assumed more responsibility in a given movement. An extreme example is the classic experiment with rats; their gastrocnemius (the superficial calf muscle that looks like a “hoof”) was severed, and their soleus (the deep muscle that sits under the gastroc) grew to compensate for the lack of plantar flexion in the ankle. However, in humans, our muscles aren’t normally cut out, and all of the muscles are certainly being activated. It’s just that some muscles may not be contributing to a given movement like they should.
This can be due to many variables. One is that the trainee lifts weights with inefficient mechanics that don’t distribute the force application across the muscles. Another is that the trainee lacks the mobility to achieve proper positioning, therefore not having efficient technique. Poor posture and mechanics can lead to poor mobility, and vice versa. A previous or existing injury can alter mechanics over time or acutely, and create inefficient technique. All of these variables are linked to each other in that they can be the result or cause of one another. This is also why mobility is so important in order to train properly. Even if mobility and mechanics are decent, it can be difficult to perform a movement and use the correct musculature. For example, a pull-up can be done with an emphasis on pulling with the back or the arms. The former is correct and uses larger back muscles associated with shoulder extension while the latter is incorrect and over emphasizes the elbow flexors.
What are common imbalances in women? Typically girls don’t have poor mobility, other than the standard “sitting down for hours each day” hip issues. Instead, they have weaknesses. The most common weaknesses in women are: upper back, lower back, and hamstrings. Interestingly enough, these are the same weaknesses with males too.
When trying to improve the strength and musculature in a lesser advanced trainee, large compound (i.e. multi-joint) exercises that can be loaded are optimal. Pull-ups, rows, and chin-ups are the stock solution for building the upper back strength and musculature. However, many girls aren’t able to do a pull-up, and this inhibits the area’s development. They need to regularly work towards achieving a chin-up, and then later a pull-up. “Developing A Pull-up” and “Programming Pull-ups” show how to do this.
All women can do some sort of rowing to help this musculature. While barbell rows (AKA “pendlay rows”) are effective, I wouldn’t mind if they used a chest supported machine row, like the Hammer strength kind, for 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 10 reps. Egads! Machines!?! Yes, they can facilitate proper muscle activation. Drop them in as regular assistance, drop sets, or even part of the active rest in a high intensity conditioning workout. They’re more effective at helping the area than jumping pull-ups. Note that I would prefer to not worry about single arm rowing — it’ll just take more training time and reduce the load on the structures. Avoid allowing lots of “English”, or body movement during these rows. That kind of stuff is permissible for stronger trainees to allow heavier loads, but it doesn’t apply to someone who has deficient musculature that needs to be worked through a full range of motion.
Don’t be afraid to use the lat pull-down machine with an underhand (chin-up) or overhand (pull-up) grip. 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 10 reps can help progress towards that first chin-up. Vary between heavier loads with fewer reps and lighter loads with reps. It doesn’t really matter; it’s more so the fact that the area is receiving regular, accumulating work. If a woman trains her upper back twice a week for six months, it’s more important than if she did it once a week with an anal approach to the set/rep scheme.
Building the upper back is important because it plays a role in shoulder stabilization and external rotation during any press, bench, or overhead movement. The area also plays an isometric role during pulling, especially the deadlift. For example, if the upper back rounds when the bar comes off the floor, then the shoulder position shifts, which results in the bar creeping forward. When the bar moves forward from the body’s balance point, the lower back will typically round to compensate for the inefficient lever arm. Therefore, you could say that the upper back helps keep the lower back in place during deadlifts.
Extreme hamstrings
Anybody who has read the site regularly knows that I’m a huge proponent of RDLs to build the hamstrings in non-advanced trainees. They are simple to do, don’t require any special equipment, and are crazy effective at building the hip extension component of the hamstrings. Other exercises to use are Good Mornings, glute ham raises (GHR), and banded good mornings. As with all assistance exercises, they can be done for 3 to 5 sets of 5 to 10 reps. I would hit the weak or under-developed areas frequently. The only programming note is that if something like RDLs make the girl too sore to deadlift or squat in her next session (and she’s eating enough protein), then use a lighter stress movement, like banded good mornings, in the preceding session.
As for the lower back, standard lifts like the squat and deadlift will strengthen it over time, but thinner girls will benefit from some direct work. Simple weighted back extensions for 3 to 5 sets of 10 work very well. If the gym has a reverse hyper machine, you probably go to a cool gym, so use that too. The RDLs and Good Mornings from the previous paragraph will also apply some back work too.
Programming these assistance exercises may seem overwhelming at first, but don’t stress it. For lesser advanced trainees, full body sessions work best because they apply a solid systemic stress (whereas the “one lift a day” programs don’t apply good systemic stresses in lesser advanced trainees). A given session can include a main lift (like squat or deadlift), a press, a posterior chain exercise, and an upper back exercise. Technically the two assistance exercises could be done in a circuit if time was an issue. And this type of session would still allow time for a quick 10 minute high intensity conditioning workout at the end of it. There’s not reason a session should be over 75 minutes, and the lifting could really be done in 60 minutes easily (e.g. 20 minutes for the first two lifts, 10 to 15 for the assistance, followed by 10 to 15 for the conditioning).
If a girl had weaknesses or muscular imbalances, following a basic plan like this consistently will turn into progress. Other weaknesses and imbalances can occur, yet these are the most common. Remember that when dealing with assistance work, it’s not about how much weight is used, it’s about how much quality work the muscle receives. Whipping the torso back during lat pull-downs or rows won’t effectively work the shoulder extensors and upper back. At the same time, the main lifts (squat, bench/press, deadlift) shouldn’t be allowed to progress with mechanics that highlight specific weaknesses. Letting a woman deadlift as heavy as she can without any hamstring tension and completely rounded back is standard ego lifting and irresponsible. Get quality reps consistently over time with good technique, and these imbalances will fade away.
In the three year history of this website, one of my main sources of writing material has been learning from my own mistakes. If I educate you about why something I did was stupid, then hopefully you won’t make the same mistake. Today is one of those days.
I strained my hamstring in the first couple minutes of a flag football game last night. I had done a couple of movement prep exercises, kick swings, some sprints, but it was all condensed into a several minutes. I returned a kick off with a full sprint. Then on the first play, I ran an out route, caught a pass, and was sprinting along the sideline when the left proximal (upper) hamstring yanked. I’ve never pulled a muscle during a sport. This was the second game and we’ve had a few practices, so it’s not like I just got up and started sprinting without any adaptation. I blame my lack of sufficient warm-up.
There is a traditional school of thought that says a good warm-up can prevent injury. There is another school of thought that would say the warm-up only serves a performance enhancement purpose and does not prevent injury or improve flexibility (this is actually the view point of Dr. Kilgore in the “Getting Ready to Train” chapter of FIT). It’s accepted in the physical therapy world that warm-up and mobility work can prevent injury. There are also many studies that show a decreased rate of injury after warming up (though the studies could be crappy or irrelevant). My experience in sport, sport coaching, and strength and conditioning coaching gives me the opinion that good warm-ups can prevent certain types of injury. At the very least Kilgore would have to concede that dynamic stretching can improve flexibility, because he experienced an increase in ROM after doing kick swings in the 4 week case study we conducted on high intensity conditioning!
Warming up for a sport like flag football is different than warming up in the gym. Let’s briefly discuss the benefit of warming up, general warm-up methods, and some specific methods dependent depending on what activity you are about to do.
Benefits of Warming Up
The first part of a warm-up is a general warm-up. Traditionally this involves yogging, jump roping, or rowing and aims to physically warm the body up. At rest, the body holds most of the blood volume in the visceral cavity — primarily the trunk. The blood focuses on all of the organs and the digestive processes. This is why if you eat a meal in cold weather, you feel even colder after eating. It’s because the focus of the blood flow is in shifts to the gut area reducing the blood (i.e. warmth) in the extremities. During a warm-up, the body starts shunting blood to the extremities in response to their increased use and activity.
Adrenaline is released to increase the heart rate and dilate the capillaries to allow for more efficient oxygen transfer to the muscles. It increases synovial fluid production, which acts as a viscous lubrication between joints. There is a lot more going on — like increased metabolism, glycogen being broken down for readily available energy, and increased enzymatic activity — but the result is that the body is better prepared for movement and activity. Most importantly, it increases the extensibility and pliability of muscle fibers and increases force production and speed of contraction.
This can all occur from several minutes of general warm-up. Let’s look at a few different activities that would qualify as a general warm-up.
General Warm-up
The beginning of a warm-up doesn’t have to be limited to running or rowing. Anything that increases the body temperature and takes the joints and muscles through a full range of motion (ROM) will work. Calisthenics are often used since they aren’t too stressful and usually include full ROM movements. Doing a short circuit of some push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and maybe some jumps will prep the body nicely. Personally I like to foam roll first, do whatever mobility I have planned (which isn’t a lot at this point), some movement prep, and then dynamic stretching.
Mobility is the term that means any specific manipulation that improves ROM or function to achieve better positioning for the workout (i.e. stuff like MWOD). Note that the ability to hit proper positioning, AKA efficient mechanics, is probably the single most important factor to reducing chance of injury. If you are sprinting, lifting, and moving with inefficient mechanics that place lots of stress on structures that aren’t designed to accommodate them, then it’s no surprise that injury will result. Good mechanics start at the feet and travel up through the body.
Movement prep is a term that I’m using to refer to non ballistic movements that would take joints and muscles through a full ROM. This would include stuff like walking and side lunges. I would include an example video, but almost everyone who teaches movement prep stuff is so god damn annoying and I don’t want to give them the traffic. (Edit: Here is an example from the USTA — just ignore all of the idiosyncracies).
Dynamic stretching refers to a stretching method that uses momentum to move the segments through the full ROM the joints would allow if it were done passively, but not exceeding the passive ROM (which would turn into “ballistic stretching”, which is forced beyond the passive ROM). This is pretty similar to movement prep, but faster. This would refer to torso rotations, shoulder circles, and kick swings (front/back and side-to-side). I’ve seen dynamic stretching poopoo’d, probably because it is interpreted to be ballistic stretching (which can be harmful). However, I’ve done it every training session for over a decade and have only once pulled a muscle in sport activity (which was last night). N=1 is irrelevant, but I think static stretching is effective at acting as that general warm-up through a full ROM, and I have always liked the way my muscles have felt after doing it. If there were a physiological explanation, I would expect the mechanism to be related to the muscular innervation associated with the fibers being stretched at speed followed by their immediate contraction. It’s not like it’s a training tool to improve the stretch-reflex, but in my opinion it helps prep that system for activity.
In reality, any of the above stretching techniques could probably be used by itself to act as a general warm-up. I pride myself on my mobility, how it allows for proper functioning, and how it acts as a preventative measure during activity, so I go through a few minutes of each of these phases. Again, n=1 doesn’t matter, but the length and type of your warm-up will be dependent on a) how sore and stiff you are, b) how immobile you are, c) the type of activity you are about to perform, and d) your adaptation to that activity.
Specific Warm-up
There is a lot of variability in what to do in a specific warm-up, because it’s relative to the planned activity. Barbell training will only require the standard light and progressive warm-ups with the bar. Even the strongest people in the world will begin with light barbell warm-ups. The number of warm-ups will be dependent on the person. For example, I know that I benefit from having a couple more warm-ups in my press and bench compared to my squat or Olympic weightlifting movements.
There are stories of guys walking up to a bar and deadlifting 600 pounds with no warm-up whatsoever, but consider them the exception. Warm-ups can’t prevent every injury, but they are still necessary for optimal performance. I remember a quote from either Starting Strength or Practical Programming that said, “If you don’t have time to warm-up, then you don’t have time to train.” This was in reference to the specific barbell warm-up, but good advice nonetheless.
Shari Onley of the Australian Lingerie Football League sprints in tryouts. American football has a good history of comprehensive warm-ups.
Whereas preventing injury in lifting activities is probably more dependent on general mobility, sports with aggressive movements (i.e. sprinting, starting and stopping, changing direction, etc.) are probably more dependent on a good warm-up to prevent injury. A structure like the hamstring is subjected to many more stresses and demands in a football, soccer, or rugby play than it will be in a back squat.
Specific warm-ups will need to include pieces or variations of the contested movements in a progressive manner. Start by using active movements in a controlled setting. Line drills are typically done in football or track and consist of walking frankensteins, high knees, butt kicks, and short sprints. Ladder drills could be used to prep the lower body for lateral and ballistic movements. (As a side note, I love the idea of programming ladder drills as a general warm-up. It helps maintain or improve athletic ability and allows a ballistic adaptation in the lower legs.) Follow these activities with short sprints, lateral shuffles that turn into a straight ahead sprint, and making cuts (i.e. changing direction) that turn into sprints. Had I had more time, I would have progressed my pre-sprint warm-up a little better (general warm-up, back pedaling, side shuffling, etc.), ran some passing routes (that include change of direction and sprinting), and done a few more sprints.
The drills that are used should be relevant to the sport or activity. A warm-up for volleyball would include more shorter, agility-focused foot work drills, jumping, and sport specific practice (passes, digs, hitting, etc.). Martial arts will probably have more movement prep and mat work before specific strikes or throws.
Note that the above strategy is the basic approach to every football practice and game warm-up. Good coaches combine “warming-up” with “skill practice”. Sure, injuries still occur in sports despite comprehensive warm-ups, but you can’t put a number on the injuries that are prevented. Not to mention many injuries are the result of external force trauma (e.g. a player falling into the side of a knee) or poor mechanics (e.g. player twisting their knee when the cleat is stuck in the turf). And who knows, perhaps if I would have warmed up better, I still would have strained my hamstring. However, are you willing to jump into aggressive movement without prepping the pliability and power production of your structures? It’d be stupid to do so.
