Lift Heavy, Not Hard

There's no secret that in order to get stronger, you need to lift heavy weights. But should you be going heavy every week? Should you only train certain lifts 1-2 times per week in order to recover properly, or can you train the same lifts every day?

I believe that you can get stronger by lifting substantially sub-maximal loads (around 40% 1RM) on a daily basis, with the odd day where you spike the intensity up higher (above 80% 1RM) to challenge the CNS more. The reason I believe this is because strength is a skill. Your body gets better at recruiting muscle fibres to handle more load in a certain position, so the more you practice this skill, the better your body will become at firing muscle fibres for that skill. Let's take the trap bar deadlift as an example. If I did the trap bar deadlift everyday, at sub-maximal loads (40%), for low sets and reps, I would become very efficient at this particular pattern and when I attempt to go heavier I will have built a solid pathway in which my body can rely on to efficiently move the weight. I effectively get better at that exact pattern. Think of a golf swing that needs work. First, you get better at balancing, timing, and the pattern of the swing. Then, you start to add power and distance to your shots.

This mindset builds the basis of our philosophies here at Holistic Fitness. Practice the key movement patterns everyday so that you build efficiency, balance, timing and of course strength and power in the most important movements. One of the key philosophies we have is to train heavy, not hard. Use enough load to stimulate a response but leaves you feeling just as fresh as when you walked in the door.

Once every few days or so, if you're feeling good and recovered and your body is feeling like it's in tune with what you're trying to do, crank the weight up a little bit and test the patterns resilience. Doing things this way teaches the body that it's OK to load this pattern at higher intensities and your body will reward you with a stronger and more resilient version of itself.

Practice the key movements everyday in some capacity.