Three Types of Workouts

I was digging through articles by one of my favorite strength coaches, the inventor of the goblet squat, none other than Dan John. I’m currently doing a kettlebell swing challenge of his own creation and was looking on his website for some reports of this challenge when I stumbled across a clip of Dan John talking about types of workouts he expects to have. These aren’t his favorite back squat or bench press or pull up workouts either. Neither are they his favorite set and rep schemes. Instead, we’re talking about how the workouts feel subjectively during and afterwards.

One out of five is pretty good, things go smoothly, no complaints.

Thee out of five are check the box - get in, get out, nothing magical but you got the work done even if you had to go through the motions or lacked motivation.

One out of five are trash. Tired, something feels off, don’t want to be there, everything feels heavy.

It was a nice reminder that each and every session in the gym isn’t going to be heroic. Most of them are going to be blah, some will be bad and some will be good. They all keep you moving in the right direction and they’re all a normal part of training at the gym.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain