https://www.cbass.com/infrequentworkouts.html “I have recently concluded that the recovery precepts I have lived by, taught and championed for decades are wrong. It was ironic in that I had been considered one of the leaders of the less-is-better school of training. My mentors trained less than their mentors and put gaps between training sessions. I thought we were on the cutting edge of rest and recovery. It turns out our definition of less might not have been less enough.” Reassessing Recovery. Train as a Unified Whole, rest as a Unified Whole: Marty Gallagher, Raw columnist for Iron Company and strength training visionary, January 31, 2020 “Train hard, train briefly, train infrequently,” Arthur Jones repeated over and over again. Split routines, he maintained, make no more sense than eating or sleeping for a particular part of your body. Except for a short time when I was trying to find my way onto the physique stage, I have followed that advice with great success. The end result has been ~45-minute, one-set, whole-body weight workouts once or twice a week. Marty Gallagher has revisited that approach and come up with some insightful conclusions. Marty is a national and international coach and a prolific writer. No armchair quarterback, he was a Teenage national Olympic lifting champion in 1968 and three-time World Master Powerlifting champion. I first became aware of him close up through Austrian sport climber Jurgen Reis, who visited with Marty and his wife several times at their home in the mountains of south central Pennsylvania. Shortly after that I read and commented favorably on his encyclopedic manifesto: The Purposeful Primitive (Dragon Door Publications, 2008). When Marty talks lifters listen, especially powerlifters. * * * I have said that strength training boils down to two indisputable factors: Progressive Overload and Rest. Legendary Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman summarized it brilliantly: “Take a primitive organism, say a freshman. Make it lift, or jump or run. Let it rest. What happens? A little miracle. It gets a little better. It gets a little stronger or faster or more enduring. That’s all training is. Stress. Recover. Improve. You’d think any damn fool could do it. But you don’t. You work too hard and rest too little and get hurt.” (Bowerman by Kenny Moore, Rodale, 2006) Marty Gallagher fills in the details for strength training. He tracks training and powerlifting records over time—and comes up with a prescription going forward Powerlifting Records Climb as Frequency Declines After touching on the flawed science behind bodybuilders training every body part three times a week, Marty moves on to powerlifting history. “Primal powerlifters discovered that they couldn’t cope with benching 500, squatting 600 and deadlifting 700 three times a week. These early power pioneers of the 60s and 70s took the radical step of cutting the overall training volume by 1/3rd. Instead of training a muscle three times a week, they cut back training each muscle (and lift) to twice a week.” By the 80s top powerlifters were benching 600, squatting 800 and deadlifting 900. Volume was cut back another third—by training legs on day one, resting the next day, training chest on day 3, resting, training back on day 5, and resting the last two days. In short, they trained each lift once—over the course of a week. While one body part was being trained, the other two were being allowed to recover. That was the idea. Marty says they were headed in the right direction, but took a wrong turn. “The flaw in our thinking was in failing to consider that the entire body was never allowed true rest… It is an irrefutable truth that insofar as improving strength and speed, performance can only improve when the athlete is fatigue free… Performance would have been better if that same athlete had been fully and completely rested.” This new line of thinking came from his chance rereading of Charlie Francis’ book Speed Trap, first published in February, 2011. Francis was in turn influenced by contact with top Eastern European and Soviet track and field coaches. Their influence completely changed his then orthodox approach to training. They all came to the conclusion that any degree of fatigue degrades performance. Full Recovery for Peak Performance Taking a step back, this line of thinking also holds that training should be done “when totally and completely rested.” That it made no sense to train at 102% of 79% (of rested capacity.) Here’s Marty’s bottom line: Recovery should not be thought of in terms of body parts – recovery should be thought of as a whole-body event – recovery is about the entire body recovering, fully and completely, before engaging in another high intensity training session. In strength training, a good case can be made for lifting once a week, do all progressive resistance training for the week on the same day in the same session. Then rest everything for a full week. Train the body as a unified whole and then rest the body as a unified whole. This way muscles (and Central Nervous System) are stressed together and then rested together. He acknowledges that recovery varies from person to person and depends on the fatigue you bring to the workout. “If you kick the hell out of a different section of your body every 2-3 days,” you are not likely to be recovered. You can, of course, stay active between workouts. My Take A major snow storm blew in over our mountain while I was working on this piece. We almost never have snow here in Albuquerque, so it messed things up. It prevented me from going to our gym for my Tuesday whole-body weight workout. I thought about doing the workout a day or two later, but that would crowd our (Carol & mine) Saturday interval and foothill training session. That got me to thinking. First about the need to be recovered for both workouts, and then the “two day lag rule” which says you don’t really feel the effects of a workout until the second or third day after. Putting the two together, it occurred to me that doing the workouts back-to-back might be a good plan—actually better than my Tuesday and Saturday schedule. My current workout plan gives me four days rest after the weight session and three after the interval-foothill session. Doing the two back-to-back would give me five full days of recovery after both workouts. I would, of course, continued doing my Morning Motion and walking on rest days, to keep my body moving and aid recovery. Hats off to Marty—and the snow storm. The combination has me thinking in a way I wouldn’t have otherwise. Change is good! * * * I've just had my first Friday and Saturday workouts, and they both went really well. The extra days of rest and a few new exercises ramped up by enthusiasm for lifting. My concentration and effort were excellent. My gimpy lower back even felt better during my cool-down walk after the workout. Foothills on Saturday were surprisingly good. I could feel the weight session in my lower back and legs, but it didn't slow me down. I tackled a hill I haven't tried in some time. My resting heart rate stayed well under 60 (57-58), suggesting that I tolerated the back-to-back workouts well. I now have five days of active rest. Thoughtful change really is good. These breakthrough sessions prompted me to get out Ripped 2, written at 45, to see what I had to say about "The Age Factor." After quoting several exercise physiologists and citing a number of bodybuilders and track athletes who were at or near their best over 50, I wrote this about my plans for the future: Personally, I intend to do my best to hold out against aging. In fact, I'm going to try to get better. I know the aging process will eventually get me, but I'm going to put up a fight. Dr. Pollock says, 'If a person stays injury free and can stay motivated, the changes of aging can be held off for a long time.' I believe him, and I plan to back up that belief with action. I was clearly gung ho, but I wonder if I could've envisioned still looking for ways to get better 37 years later. Clearly, I'm not as muscular or fit as I was at 50 or 60 (I believe my physiquepeaked at 60), but I'm still widening the gap between me and my age group peers. I'm still fighting the aging process with everything I've got. Staying motivated and always looking for sensible ways to improve is about as close as you can come to holding off Father Time.
This is pretty much where I am presently, although my resistance workouts last about an hour, after which I tack on about 6 minutes of ~HIIT. Also, I do 2 sets for 3 of the exercises. And in my case, once or twice a week means exactly that: 2 workouts one week and one workout the next. And so on. One notable difference, though, is that Bass wrote that his physique peaked when he was 60. Judging by the pictorial on his web site, I'm not sure I completely agree, but he was certainly holding his own. I'm 61 and, in my case, I am several pounds lighter and not as lean as I was in my, say, 40s or ever early 50s. I still have a ~reasonable physique, a few pictures of which I posted last summer when I was 60, but it ain't what it used to be a decade earlier. However, as with Bass, I do think that the gap between me and my age group continues to widen. So I'll try to take some comfort there.
Here is the full article that Bass referred to in his piece: https://www.ironcompany.com/blog/reassessing-recovery/ Reassessing Recovery - Unified Rest Equals Unified Gains JANUARY 31, 2020 • RAW WITH MARTY GALLAGHER & RESISTANCE TRAINING TAGS: RECOVERY Reassessing Recovery. Train as a unified whole, rest as a unified whole. I have recently concluded that the recovery precepts I have lived by, taught and championed for decades are wrong. It was ironic in that I had been considered one of the leaders of the less-is-better school of training. My mentors trained less than their mentors and put gaps between training sessions. I thought we were on the cutting edge of rest and recovery. It turns out our definition of less might not have been less enough. First, some recovery basics. Effective progressive resistance training is traumatic. The athlete uses the barbell and dumbbells to target a lift or muscle or muscle group. A successful workout stresses the body and the targeted muscles to such a degree that, as a defensive measure, the body builds more muscle in order to cope with the self-inflicted trauma that is hardcore free weight training. How long does it take for the body to regain hemostasis, how long does it take for the body to normalize? That depends on the severity of the workout, the individual, and your definition of normalize. We know this, if a workout is taken before the body has truly normalized – not partially normalized – results will be subpar. How could they not be? How could a “rested effort” not be superior to a fatigued effort? Experience teaches that big muscles take longer to normalize than small muscles. It takes longer to recover from handling heavy poundage then light poundage. It takes longer to recover from a set of 5-reps with 405-pounds in the deadlift, fully and completely, than it does to recover from a set of 10-reps in the bicep curl with 100-pounds. Old school bodybuilders would train every muscle three times a week. This high-volume moderate-intensity approach was based on flawed science. It was erroneously believed that unless a muscle was trained every 36-hours it would degrade, go backwards, any muscle and strength gains made would disappear if a muscle was not continually trained. Primal powerlifters discovered that they couldn’t cope with benching 500, squatting 600 and deadlifting 700 three times a week. These early power pioneers of the 60s and 70s took the radical step of cutting the overall training volume by 1/3rd. Instead of training a muscle three times a week, they cut back training each muscle (and lift) to twice a week. In the 1980's elite powerlifters were bench pressing 600, squatting 800 and deadlifting 900. There men cut the training volume another 1/3rd. Now each muscle or muscle group was trained once a week. Hit a lift or exercise one time every seven days and rest for the next six days. By performing a lift once a week, recovery was maximized. Or so we thought and assumed. The classical powerlifting template lays out as follows… Day 1 Squat, hamstrings, calves Day 2 off Day 3 barbell bench press, flat dumbbell press, incline dumbbell curl, nose-breakers, pushdowns Day 4 off Day 5 deadlift, power clean, barbell overhead press, seated overhead dumbbell press Day 6 off Day 7 off While the legs are recovering from the stresses they were subjected to during the Saturday squat session, why not hit a bench press and arms session two days later? Chest and arm work won’t interfere with leg recovery. On Thursday hit a deadlift and overhead press session. The flaw in our thinking was in failing to consider that the entire body was never allowed true rest. Every few days, some section of the body was being blasted, traumatized, brutalized, in another high intensity training session. If the body is jolted every few days does the lifter ever fully, truly, recover? If the trainee is traumatizing some part of the body every 2-3 days, when is the athlete ever truly rested? Why is the rested effort so important? Because it is an irrefutable truth that insofar as improving strength and speed, performance can only improve when the athlete is fatigue free. Regardless how good performance is when over-trained, performance would have been better if that same athlete had been fully and completely rested. Who could argue that a truly rested athlete performs better than that same athlete fatigued, to a greater or lesser degree? My recovery reevaluation occurred with a chance rereading of Charlie Francis’ book Speed Trap. Francis takes the reader along as he undergoes his evolution from elite athlete into elite coach. Starting in the 1970s, he developed personal relationships with top Eastern European and Soviet track and field coaches. Their input completely changed his (then) orthodox approach towards speed and sprinting. Iron Curtain coaches stressed that all out, 100% sprinting should only be done when “completely rested.” And further, the only way to improve all out top speed was to sprint when totally and completely rested. Any degree of fatigue degrades results. Sprinters of that era (and this era) would mindlessly run “all out” every day. Factually, they were running at 100% of their fatigued best. Running as hard as possible every day ensures a sprinter never runs fully rested. Francis would cancel one of his elite sprinter’s all out top speed workouts if he detected any hint of fatigue. If he heard uneven footfall as the sprinter walked or warmed up, he’d say “Not today, you need more rest.” When in doubt he would err towards more rest. His sprinters were human thoroughbred racehorses, V-12 Testarosa Ferrari Berlinetta, lightning fast, yet fragile and prone to blowouts when going at 102% of their awesome capacity. Francis learned how to teach sprinters to go all out safely and consistently. A big part of staying safe when going all out is only going all out when fresh. When an elite athlete runs as fast as humanly possible, when an elite athlete lifts as much as humanly possible, the body is at its most vulnerable. There is inherent danger in doing more than you are currently capable of – however this is how you become capable of doing more than you are capable of. There is no sense, the Russians reasoned, to run at 102% of 79% (of rested capacity.) To improve top speed the sprinter needs to run at 102% when 100% rested. Put differently, all out running when fatigued cannot improve all out top speed. Regardless if its sprinting or powerlifting, an athlete going all out when fatigued will have a subpar performance and risks injury. What is the solution? In strength training, a good case can be made for lifting once a week, do all progressive resistance training for the week on the same day in the same session. Then rest everything for a full week. Train the body as a unified whole and then rest the body as a unified whole. This way muscles (and Central Nervous System) are stressed together and then rested together. How long recovery takes varies person to person and depends on the severity of the workout and the severity of underlying fatigue the athlete brought into the workout. For the sake of regularity, let us assume that back and leg muscles take seven days to recover and chest, shoulder and arm muscles recover in five days. If you kick the hell out of a different section of your body every 2-3 days, when does a full and complete whole-body recovery take place? What if all strength training takes place once a week? On the same day and time. No strength training of any kind for the next six days. In a single session, perform squats, bench presses, deadlifts and overhead presses. If you have the time and energy, add power cleans and some arm work, biceps and triceps. All on one day, all in one session. Then take the next six days off from strength training. You can do other athletic conditioning or sport drills – just no strength training for the entire week. What better way to ensure recovery than six full days of complete rest? Recovery should not be thought of in terms of body parts – recovery should be thought of as a whole-body event – recovery is about the entire body recovering, fully and completely, before engaging in another high intensity training session. One aspect of the recovery process the Iron Curtain coaches alerted Francis to was that in addition to full and complete muscular recovery, the central nervous system needed to be fresh and rested. The CNS becomes agitated, overexcited and overwrought by mental stress. Extreme physical stress also adversely impacts the CNS. Muscular recovery and CNS recovery are not synchronized, synonymous or linked to one another. Recovery is multidimensional. There are a myriad of effective protocols, tools, modes and strategies designed to accelerate recovery…massage, steam, sauna, whirlpool, ice bath, nutrition, post-workout replenishment, etc. Multi-time world powerlifting champion Kirk Karwoski and I coach a bunch of local powerlifter/athletes at a rural location at the base of the Catoctin Mountains. Regular guys from a small town gather every Sunday to squat, bench press and deadlift. This is the only time this group can gather. We do all three lifts on the same day. Most will do some overhead pressing and arm work after the three lifts. Others just do the three lifts and leave. That is it for the week. The lifters obtain the benefit of Karwoski and my merciless coaching. 90% of our Sunday crew are unable to train during the week for a variety of reasons. These men are firemen, electricians, warehouse and construction workers that have neither the time nor energy to train during the week. Despite being relegated to training once a week, these men are, to a man, making sensational strength and power gains and concurrent increases in lean muscle mass. The conventional wisdom is, ‘Oh, too bad, if only these guys just had more time to train, they’d really get results!’ These men are, through necessity, blazing a new recovery paradigm. Is the goal to embark on every strength training session fresh and rested? It should be. These lifetime drug-free men are training once a week are getting dramatic results, week after week, month after month, year after year. We are in our fifth year and many of our lifters have been with us since the beginning and have yet to plateau. Don’t tell us once-a-week training doesn’t work – we have too many flesh-and-blood examples that prove otherwise. The old saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” These rural trainees, forced by necessity to “only” strength train once a week, are inadvertent recovery pioneers. They might be the new Mothers of Invention. I guess that makes Kirk Frank Zappa. About the Author As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book “Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method" and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.
Here’s the thing that I don’t get. I’ve come across a number of articles online referring to one or more studies concluding that older people need to work out more often than their younger counterparts in order to increase, or even just retain, muscle mass. I understand that age-related sarcopenia looms larger as we get older. However, the older we get, the more recovery time we need between workouts, all else being equal. So where, exactly, does that leave us? If you have seriously worked out for any length of time, and especially if you are at least middle-aged, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.
I think it depends on what type of workout, the intensity of the workout, and maybe most importantly, the quality of your recovery. When doing full body I have found I need two to three days to fully recover. Splits take a little less time. Quality sleep, some mediation, relaxation, and doing things that bring you some joy along with proper nutrition are I think the bigger factors, especially as we age.
In addition for recovery and overall health I have been practicing cold shower therapy since the beginning of the year. Took a couple weeks but here are the benefits I have experienced. I have had a pain in the ass jock rash for what seems like forever managef with OTC medications. That's gone, completely gone. For the past few years I have needed an afternoon nap. Gone, no need at all. General soreness in muscles has improved quite dramatically. Some chronic lower back pain has improved a good 75 percent. I strongly recommend you look into it.
Sure, but one such study in question probably accounted for these variables if it is to have any credibility: https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exerc...r-people-must-work-out-more-to-keep-muscles#1 Who knows, though. If the intensity was not significant, then volume (in this case by way of frequency) probably compensated somewhat. Yeah, I'm going with that.
Try as I may, I don't see it happening. In the summer of 1999, I was in Tortola for a couple of months, part of which time I spent in a rental. There was a hot water heater fore the shower that, when activated, worked very quickly. I didn't know how to turn it on (don't ask), and for a few days I didn't bother trying to figure it out. And so, until then, I started each day with a cold shower. And even though this was in the Caribbean, I did not like it. So the idea of doing it in Canada holds absolutely no glamour for me.
Here is how I began the routine. I started with my usual warm shower. When finished I slowly dialed it back to cool, not cold. That was the first few times. After that each day I dialed it back more and more. Took about 2 weeks to get to actual cold water. Today I have found what I thought was a warm shower was actually pretty damn hot. I now start with luke warm/cool, dial it back to cold and while the first few seconds are a holy shit moment, it really isn't all that bad after 30 seconds or so. It feels much colder on your head and face than on the rest of your body, so I focus more on the body. I usually last about 2-3 minutes in that cold water. I'm telling you, it's worth a try for a few weeks.