What do I need to do to get stronger?

I'm really glad that I am getting this question so often.  It means your priorities are straight, that you know that everything is really derivative of max strength.  A stronger athlete will have a better time on the filthy fifty all other things being equal, because each rep is relatively easier.

So you want to get stronger.  Great.  How? 

Step 1: You have to stop guessing on your training weights. 

If you come into the gym, look at the board, and then decide in your head what you will do, you are guessing.  You don't know what each workout prior has been, or how your performance was.  Neither do I.  I'm your coach, not your personal trainer.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for logging your workouts. 

Once you have a brief history of your workouts, you can see what weights you use for what exercises for what reps.  Then, and only then, will you have the opportunity to make sure that every workout you progressively load your muscles.  This is the definition of a Personal Record (PR).  On our strength workouts, you can slowly increase the weight each lift until you start missing.  That is why we have fractional plates, so you can make the jump from the 25# plates to the 35# plates over the course of weeks and months.  You don't just jump 20# on a press.  You have to work up gradually, and the only way to do that is if you know where you are.

So, start utilizing your Success Journals!!  Or bring in your own composition book from Walgreens, I don't care, but you have to track your workouts, and the best way to do that is on paper, so you can easily see what you have done previously.   I commend Gina, Jenna, and Kate for updating the comments so they can look back and see what they've done (notice only the ladies do this!) but I do recommend having a physical paper trail.  It's a lot easier to see your progression at a glance than loading up a number of webpages.  

You have to have a place for comments, rather than just the numbers as well.  Whether weight felt easy, heavy, or pass-out heavy.  And on met-cons, how it felt so you have an idea of proper scaling next time.  This cannot be overemphasized.

YOU MAY KEEP YOUR JOURNALS AT THE GYM.  Feel free to keep them on the left column of our cubbies.  Try to individualize yours so you can tell at a glance which is yours (I was partial to ESPN the magazine covers and full page photos in college, but I'm a huge dork).   Eliminate the barriers to this.  Buy a notepad or bring in your journal and keep it at the gym where you use it.  If it is at home, how does that help?

Once you have done this, we can move onto step two.

 

Workout of the Day

4 rounds for Max reps

60 second kettlebell swing

60 second rest

Run 400m in 120 seconds

60 seconds double unders

60 seconds rest.

Post reps and weight for kb.

Comments

[Gina]

Gina: 35lb KB, 184