Extra Workouts
In my earlier years I spent my summers working at various Bible camps. It was basically a 24 hour per day job six days per week. The job included plenty of recreational and game activities, so exercise was built into the job, but there wasn’t much chance to work out with weights. My first few summers I didn’t have a car, but I eventually got one and had access to a local YMCA where I could go for a weight training workout one day per week on my day off. I learned something from that summer
I had already tried the recommendations of those who believe in low frequency training by working out once per week and even once every ten days. It generally does not work for me, and in my case, it is a perfect method for getting weaker, but an exception to this was the one summer when I could go to the YMCA once per week. During these once per week workouts, my squat actually improved. However, my upper body strength went down from lack of exercise.
Extra Exercise Seemed to Help
Why did my squats seem to improve this one time when it had never worked before? One reason was that I was constantly running up and down hills and steps that were built into the layout of the camp. Add to that the running and games we often played during our recreation times, plus I did a lot of jumping on a trampoline. I would spend about five minutes on the trampoline three to five times per week. Somehow, all of the extra exercise was the right kind of exercise to help my squat improve, but at the time, I didn’t really understand the reason for my improvement.
Another lesson I learned came during the years when I worked out with weights three times per week and would go running on the days in between my weight lifting workouts. There would be occasions when I was coaching sports after school (I was a teacher), and by the time I had a chance to go running it was dark. In my neighborhood it really wasn’t safe to run at night so I would go home and substitute the run with a 20 minute workout where I continuously changed from body weight squats, to lunges, to pushups, to dumbbell swings (kind of like kettlebell swings). I did not usually go past 10 reps per set for these exercises because I had already found over and over again that sets of high reps with light weights is a good formula strength loss. But when I kept the reps to no more than 10, suddenly my weight training workouts would get easier and my strength would increase.
Extra Exercise Helped Again
I might train like this for four to six weeks before going back to running again. I probably went through this process about three times before I finally figured out that these extra body weight workouts were actually beneficial instead of detrimental to my weight training workouts. Before that, I thought that the increase in strength must have been a strange coincidence. I had always thought that body weight exercises were too light and that doing them on my off days would probably just make it more difficult to recover from my weight training workouts, but it just wasn’t the case. It seemed to help and it worked every time.
Eventually I learned that light workouts in between heavier workouts can be beneficial for strength training. If you work a body part between one to three times per week, you can do some body weight training on your off days by doing six to eight sets of 5-10 reps using bodyweight squats, or lunges, and pushups. I’ve tried doing slow laborious pushups and they can actually be counterproductive to my weight training workouts. The reps should be strict with a full range of motion, but they should also be quick fast reps. The extra workouts might make you sore and take away from your strength for the first three to five days if your body is not accustomed to the extra workouts. But once your body adapts to the extra workouts, you will probably find them beneficial.
Take a Week off from Extra Workouts Every Third or Fourth Week
Take a week off from the extra body weight workouts every third or fourth week and your body will over recover (or overcompensate) during that week and you may end up feeling stronger than ever. This doesn’t mean that doing less is always better, but it can be better for a strategic period of time. Then go back to the extra body weight workouts again for two to three weeks before taking a week off. These extra workouts should not be hard strenuous workouts. They should be brief energizing workouts that you can do within fifteen minutes. Extra workouts are not a brand new idea that I came up with. For more information and other perspectives on extra workouts, you can visit these links at the Westside Barbell website [Extra workouts] [Extra workouts part 2]. Best of training to you.