By Daniel Jauregui
As BHIP begins its return to in person programming and classes, I wanted to do a breakdown of the training you’ll all be doing at the rig. Many of you have likely found ways to be active and exercise within the confines of your quarantine, but the stimulus for adaptation that you can provide for yourself at home might not be quite the same intensity as in person classes. It’s also entirely possible that you haven’t been able to train in any capacity for the last year, and that’s okay.
Regardless of what you’ve been able to do, you can always start improving now. Just note that as you do start to make your way back to classes and using heavier equipment, you should take things extremely slow. Training is a process that takes a long time, and you need to give your body ample opportunity to adapt to any stimuli that it’s not currently accustomed to. This means keeping your weights light, resting when you need to, and not trying to rush back to your previous levels of fitness immediately. Start easy and progress from that point.
There are 3 primary areas of focus that we’ll dedicate our time to with the in person BHIP programming this spring.
Focuses of the Program:
Building Strength
Developing Inactive/Weak Musculature
Improving Joint Stability and Mobility
There’s some overlap between these points, but the general idea of what we’re trying to accomplish is highlighted by each one. Strength is the most important physical quality because it lays a foundation for all of the other ones. You cannot have a high work capacity without first building a base level of strength. It’s also something that virtually no one has been able to train in a year because it requires loading, and will therefore be the first point of emphasis. Some of you may have bought some 10 lb dumbbells, and while this is better than nothing, it is nowhere near the level of loading needed to create increases in strength in most exercises. Luckily, there’s lots of weights at the rig.
The second point of emphasis isn’t entirely distinct from the first, but muscular development will come more from lower intensity and higher volume exercises. It’s possible you’ve done a good job of maintaining your muscle mass and keeping relevant muscles active throughout the pandemic, but it’s more likely that you didn’t. Quarantine created an environment in which it is very easy to be sedentary for the entire day and not have to walk or go anywhere for hours. As someone who has experienced this, I can confidently say that the one hour of exercise that some people do is not anywhere near enough to counteract the effects of sitting. Postural muscles, gluteal muscles, musculature of the trunk, and probably many other things will not be where they were previously.
The last point also ties into the fact that most of us have been sitting so much. When you sit, things get both tight and weak. Your feet, ankles, and knees grow weaker because you’re literally not using them. Your hips, shoulders, and upper back grow tighter because they’re stuck in static and usually poor positions endlessly. Your main exercises and the simple act of going through gross movement patterns will help with some of this, but more activation and mobilization exercises will be necessary to help make sure you’re ready to handle more difficult positions and higher intensities.
All of this to say that the program will be very strength focused for the time being. We’d like to give you access to all of the things you haven’t been able to do for a while. As we progress and become more conditioned to handling load and working out in masks, we’ll be able to add onto this with some other exercises and modalities.
The Program: Linear Progression
Since you’re all just returning to lifting, the program to help you get stronger isn’t complicated; we’ll use a method called a linear progression. This means that we’ll hold most of your training variables constant, but increase the load by a small amount every time you train. This micro increase in loading between training sessions will feel negligible, but when done consistently over time, will eventually produce a big change and lead to a large increase in your strength levels.
After getting past our initial phase of training and figuring out how heavy to go, the goal will be to add 5-10 lbs to the bar every week. Here’s what a linear progression might look like for the back squat over the course of a month:
Week 1: 3x5 95 lbs
Week 2: 3x5 105 lbs
Week 3: 3x5 110 lbs
Week 4: 3x5 115 lbs
In week 1, our example lifter squats 95 lbs for their sets with ease. The next session, they decide to add 10 lbs and go to 105. This feels a little more challenging, but is still entirely doable, so from here they choose to only add 5 lbs in subsequent weeks. The difference between each training session is small, but from week 1 to week 4, this individual would’ve added 20 lbs to their squat.
That’s the general idea of a linear progression. Everyone progresses at different rates, but each of you will try to apply this model to yourself with the guidance of your trainers. Here are a few other notes to help guide you and keep your training as safe as possible in the immediate future.
Guidelines:
Start very light. I overemphasized this point last week because it’s critical that you all leave plenty of room for progression. Keep in mind most of you are currently adapted to no load whatsoever, so even if something feels easy, there are changes that will happen in your body to help better prepare you for when the weight actually does get heavy. Just enjoy the fact that it’s not hard right now.
Weight increases are optional. If you perform your sets and decide that it was too difficult for you to increase the load the following week, then don’t. You can always repeat a weight or even decrease the load and restart the process of building back up. Be as conservative as you want to with your training, and ask a trainer when in doubt.
Always keep the load increases small. It should never be more than 10 lbs for barbell exercises. Remember, the whole point is micro increases between sessions that add up to significant changes over time.
Stay consistent! We’re only training in person 2 times a week right now, and I recommend all of you do something else at least one other day of the week. If you miss one of your only 2 training sessions in any given week, that’s a great way to slow down your own progress.
Don’t worry about your previous strength numbers. If you stay consistent, you can get back to that point and beyond, but focus on where you are right now and what you can do to get a little better every session.
Lastly, keep up with your recovery. This is important in any training program and includes sleeping, eating, mobilizing, and more things that leave the scope of this post.
In our next blog post, Cindy will dive into some recovery methods you can use to help keep your body prepared for more intense training.
