3 Keys to Sticking with a Strength Training Plan

1. Consistency over intensity. Everyone wants to be heroic when they first start. Instead, focus on showing up. Some of your workouts should be easier or shorter initially. Aim for 2-3 days a week instead of the overly ambitious 4-5. Play the long game and you’ll stay healthy and make it a sustainable habit.

2. Do a private session - strength training is not one size fits all. There are no exercises, weights or pieces of equipment that are perfect for everyone. If you’re nervous, doing a private session with a coach and getting properly assessed will determine what ranges of motion you have, things to stay away from and give you some measurable goals to improve upon.

3. Talk to someone! Figure out an action plan, create some measurable and attainable goals to hold yourself accountable. This won’t work if you decide to do it on a whim. Talking to a coach means you have someone on your side looking out to help you stick with your new habit.

Ready to start? There’s two ways to get involved at Gain.

If you’ve got some experience and are comfortable around the gym, our 3 session trial membership is right for you.

If the gym sounds intimidating, and it’s been a while since you’ve exercised, we recommend starting with a 3 Pack Private Training Session.

Get started now!

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Training Session Breakdown By Category

Here’s a general breakdown of a training session at GAIN by categorizing the movements by intent. Strength training is the main event, with some accessory work, direct core training and usually conditioning. Of course, this is a generalization. Each individual member has a training plan designed for them and their abilities.

These categories provide the framework to build out a training session and eventually a long-term program.

A. The main event.

The exercises at the start of the workout are typically when we’re focused on building strength. Movements stay consistent, i.e., goblet squats and deadlifts, but rep ranges, volume and intensity undulate to allow for maximum long term adaptation. Keeping your body healthy and ready for action outside of the gym, rather than just beating you up.

B. Accessory work.

These moves pay to do regardless of weight and intensity. While we track progress on the main strength piece, accessory work is more about consistently exposing your body good movement rather than short term progress.

It’s helpful to think of loading here in 3 levels.

• Bodyweight. Not feeling intense exercise? Push ups, ring rows, lunges and split squats are all beneficial even without the extra load. This keeps your training going even when the circumstances aren’t perfect.

• Standard load. Your usual weight for split squats, one arm rows and db floor presses. This is a comfortable load you can do any day of the week for 8-12 reps.

• Push it. When the movement is crisp or if you’re feeling confident, go heavier-than-normal. Touch this weight every 4-8 weeks.

C. Core.

Less is more. The more you can slow down and concentrate on trunk specific work, the better pay off. Your stability will thank you, and you won’t continue reinforcing bad bracing mechanics.

D. Conditioning.

Get sweaty. Create distance or calorie targets for the time duration. Occasional tests, i.e., 5 minutes for max distance or 20 minutes for average watts, measure progress and build pacing context for future training sessions.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

The Summer of the Perfect Program

As an exercise science major, a majority of my classes were focused on program design and exercise selection.

How could you maximize perform outcomes by controlling the variables you could control. I loved it.

We learned about what exercises paired with each and other and which pairings to avoid, how to order exercises, proper rest period timing and building macro and microcycles. Using that knowledge and a little bit of creativity, you can create a training program. It was really clear to me; if you weren’t strictly following a perfectly designed training program, you were just wasting time in the gym.

At the time I was playing hockey and I trained to get better on the ice. One summer, I became obsessed with having the perfect program, it killed all of my progress.

If I missed a day or two, I would throw away a whole week to start fresh on Monday. Eventually, this led to program hopping - I’m not making progress on this plan, I’ll create a new one! And the cycle would start over. Eventually I stopped trying at all.

Of course, it wasn’t the plan’s fault. It was my inability to stick with it. Or rather, my inability to get back on the horse. To just keep going with pretty good rather than thinking I needed perfection.

That summer was crazy. I was working full time as an ice truck driver, taking a college class, interning at a gym and training for the upcoming hockey season.

Trying to be perfect halted any progress I could have made. Instead of starting the program over and over again, I should have just kept going, even with some missed days. Sure, the plan wouldn’t be perfect or ideal, but the benefits of doing something far outweigh what you get with nothing.

As we enter day 10 of the habit challenge, keep this in mind. Being perfect all days isn’t necessarily the point. The point is to build a new habit. For some of you, that means the day after you lose your streak is the most important to start back up. Avoid quitting just because it isn’t perfect.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

October Get Together

Join us this Friday 10/13 for a GAIN Beer Night @ Liar’s Bench Beer Co.

We’re meeting there at 5pm, and will be hanging for a couple hours.

See you there.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Friday Thoughts #6

• Do you ever consider how many books worth of social media you consume each year? Sounds a little frightening when put like that. That idea, and our relationship with books is explored here. This video was sent to me by a GAIN Blog reader, and I really enjoyed the ideas they explored about our relationship with books and reading. It seems particularly revenant with our habit challenge currently underway.

• Shoutout to Hannah. She was doing a high rep/lightweight bench press workout the other day in our garage gym. She got pinned on the last round and no one was around to hoist the bar back to the rack. She pulled off some incredible maneuvering and rolled the bar to her hips and got out from under it. A very impressive feat of strength and athleticism. Also, an unfortunate thing most that happens to most lifters at least one. I’ll never forget the time it happened to me.

• Check out this article about moment arms and forces of the squat. I brushed up on this after a discussion with someone after they back squatted for the first time ever. When they mentioned it’s hard, I said something along the lines of yes, the barbell is trying to crush your soul.

• Highly recommend you don’t have 3 Crumbl cookies for dinner like I did last night. Even if you can’t decide on which flavor to get.

• In better nutrition advice, I’ve been putting these pre-made vanilla Jocko protein drinks in my morning coffee. It tastes delicious and gets me an extra 10-20 grams of protein depending on how big my cup of coffee is.  Grab one the next time you’re in the gym to put in your coffee - hot or iced.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Habit Check In

Today is day 5 of the Daily Habit Challenge.

By now, you should have all the details about your new habit worked out. You may need to dig in and answer a lot of questions about your routine, that way you can build you own habit process.

Things like, what time of day do I do this? But don’t just say in the morning, be as specific as you can - as soon as I get out of bed, or once my first cup of coffee is done, or as soon as the kids leave for school. Look for certain cues that can spark the habit. Something along the lines of; I’ll have a protein shake as soon as I get home from the gym.

Take a look at your calendar. What’s coming up in the next week to 10 days? Are the any disturbances to your habit? Traveling, dinner, things like that that may get you out of your routine. What can you start doing now to hedge against it? For most habits, just recognizing you’ll have some difficulty for a couple days is all the fine tuning you’ll need. Depending on your habit, obviously.

If you’re surviving off pure willpower, that will run out of gas soon. Create a routine by asking yourself lots of questions. Get specific as you can. That’s how you make it a permanent part of your life, no longer requiring willpower.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Bored and Okay

Yesterday I completed workout 25/40 on the program I’m following, called Easy Strength. Each of the 25 workouts has been exactly the same. Two sets of back squats, probably some dips, maybe some pull ups, and a kettlebell complex to warm up.

People keep asking if I’m bored. It couldn’t be further from the truth. The simplicity of the workouts are keeping me engaged. There’s no decision on what to do, I can just start training. Sure, I’m starting to want a little variety. But craving variety for the sake of variety kills peoples’ progress in the gym.

Instead of needing something new to entertain you, bask in the boredom. Get comfortable with it. Doing the same thing over and over again is what the majority of training is, and how to properly build real strength and conditioning.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Balanced Feet

When I'm coaching someone through a movement, any movement, one of the first things I draw my eyes to is what their feet are doing.

Ideally you should be balanced between the ball of your foot and heel.

Are you shifting all your weight back and letting your toes lift up in the air?

Or are you too forward, so I can see a little daylight underneath your heel?

It's a small but significant change, to find balance on your midfoot.

It's universally applicable to all things athletic.

The shortstop doesn't shift their weight back as they get ready to field a ball. A basketball player is on their mid foot before jumping up to grab a rebound. Even when I'm trying a kick flip my skateboard, I'm balanced on the mid foot.

The gym is where we practice movement, and if done correctly, the movements and skills we practice will transfer seamlessly to other parts of our life.

Don't get caught on your heels.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Not Perfect

Here we are in October and the Daily Habit Challenge is underway!

Here are a few things for you to keep in mind.

• Starting on the beginning of the month means absolutely nothing. If you didn’t start yesterday, no one cares. Get going today and don’t get hung up about it being perfectly clean.

• You should have a system to track your habit. Old fashioned calendar with a big X through each day, a habit tracking app or a recurring reminder through your iPhone’s built in Reminders app are all viable options. The satisfaction of checking it off keeps you engaged in the process.

• When we decided to undergo this challenge as a gym, I asked Coach Taylor to list the top 3 reasons people won’t stick with their habit, here they are.

• You get “bored” halfway through so you stop.

• You’re unwilling to start up again after stopping or missing a day or two.

• You don’t have clear enough guidelines, or made too big of a habit, so you never really start.

• Lastly, to reiterate many of the points above, we’re trying to make positive change, not striving to be a perfect. Don’t let the illusion of perfection stop your in your tracks! Be consistent not heroic.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Friday Thoughts #5

• If you’re still coming up with a habit for the Daily Habit Challenge, here are 5 easy picks for you:

  • Walk 7500 steps each day.

  • Eat 100g of protein every day.

  • 10 minutes of rolling and/or stretching at night before bed.

  • Lay down and take 10 big deep breaths before drinking coffee in the morning.

  • Do 25-50 kettlebell swings/push ups/bw squats/etc.

• Tracking your habit is key to your success. It provides a reward for the habit and will reinforce the desired behavior. Here are a couple options:

• Old fashioned calendar. Print out a calendar of the month, write your habit on top, stick it somewhere obvious and cross off a box each time you complete your habit.

• Reminders App. This built in app to the iPhone is way underrated. Set up a recurring reminder to ping you each day at a specific time for the whole month. This is my preferred method.

• Third party app. When we did this last in 2019, I used a free habit tracker app called Done. That one is still around along with countless others.

• I’m past the halfway point of my Easy Strength program. The goal is to accumulate at least 40 workouts - simple, to the point, hard but not too stressful. People keep asking if I am getting bored. Not at all, I’m relieved. It’s easy knowing exactly what I’m going to do that day. I can procrastinate my way out of training by figuring out what to so sometimes, but not with this, I just start squatting.

• After my big mountain run of the summer, I took off 6 weeks from running. Last week’s Seacoast Cancer 5k was the first time I laced up my running shoes since. I ran it with Hannah and the boys in the double stroller. It was some of the most fun I’ve ever had running.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

My 2019 Daily Habit Challenge Experience

Originally posted September 2019, during our last daily habit challenge.

For many years, I’ve been terrible at push ups. That wasn’t always the case, until about 6 or 7 years ago when I had a shoulder injury I couldn’t seem to get past. While they no longer aggravate my shoulder, I’ve stayed away from this simple fundamental exercise for no reason other than by taking many years off them, I became quite bad at them. A set of 10 is maximum effort and never mind being able to do 20 or 30 in a row.

Instead of practicing them and slowly building up my tolerance, I became someone who doesn’t do push ups anymore. I would occasionally do a few sets here and there, and every single time, proclaim that I need to spend more time doing them but not do any at all.

When the September Habit Challenge started, I knew that’s what I needed to work on. For the last 8 days, I’ve done 30 push ups everyday. After the first day, I thought I might need to lower the number to 20, or maybe only 15. It was hard, harder than I wanted it to be and felt they should be. I went slow, did small sets and spread them out throughout the whole afternoon. Same thing the next day. On the fourth day though, I cranked them out in two sets of 15!

Practicing everyday has allowed me to adapt to doing push ups. They feel good on my shoulders, my range of motion is becoming better and I feel stronger doing them. Sometimes, when we want to get better at something, we need frequency in order to improve. When I was doing push ups once a week, I didn't see the progress like I am while doing them everyday.

When something is important to you, or you want to improve, add in some daily practice as a way to kickstart your improvement and build some momentum. As legendary strength coach, Dan John, says, if it’s important, do it everyday.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Do the Math

I posted this video on Instagram yesterday, announcing the October Habit Challenging and laying down some ground rules. I wanted to expand on one of the points from the video. I mention zooming out and trying to see how the habit can positively compound over time. The best way is to build perspective, and you can do that by doing the math.

Let’s say your habit is to do the couch stretch for 2 minutes per leg each day.

Four minutes per day sounds unremarkable. Maybe even so unremarkable you’ve already written it off as too easy for your habit challenge. But, let’s say you listen to my advice, and take on the challenge of 2 minutes per leg per day.

The first week, you do exactly the minimum amount.

7 days x 4 minutes each day = 28 minutes of stretching in one week!

But here’s where it gets interesting.

The next day, day 8, you feel great. And your body is actually feeling better after the stretching session, so you start to look forward to it. On day 8-10 you end up stretching for 4 minutes per leg. Doubling your original habit time. Days 11, 12 and 13 are back to normal, just 2 minutes per leg. But on day 14, you have some extra time and end up doing 5 minutes per leg!

7 days x (8+8+8+4+4+4+10) = 46 minutes of stretching!

On week 3 your body starts to crave it. You aim to do 5 minutes every single day. Expect that you miss two days this week, you had some travel and it just didn’t workout. But instead of quitting, you get back on the wagon because you’ve done the math, and realized, even though you missed a couple days, you’re crushing because you beat last week’s total stretching duration, without even trying!

5 days x (10+10+10+10+10+0+0) = 50 minutes of stretching!

Do the math on your habit. Build it out and see how it looks in two weeks, four weeks, or a couple months down the line. Expect mishaps, they happen. It’s important to get back to it the next day. I should note, this is another reason why lowering the bar, and starting with a small habit, pays in the long run. It creates momentum and before you know it, your 4 minute stretching session is a 10 minute stretching session. Let’s get to work!

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

October Habit Challenge

On October 1st we will be starting a daily habit challenge. You will choose one new habit to add to your daily routine for the entire month. The goal of this challenge is to kick start an improvement in some area of your life - physical, mental, nutrition. Creating a new habit can be difficult, but taking on the challenge with others with provided accountability will improve our chances to make a lasting change.

Selecting a specific and measurable habit is the most important aspects of this challenge. We want to avoid choosing vague habits like “eat healthier” or “workout more”. The more specific the habit is, the better. A few examples include walking 8,000 steps, eating 2 servings of vegetables, or reading 10 pages - these are clear and concise, realistic and achievable. We recommend choosing from these 3 categories: physical (steps, reps of an exercise, mobility, etc.), mental (meditation, reading, breathing, etc.), or nutrition (servings of fruits/veggies, multivitamin, hydration,etc).

It is important to remember that this a challenge that is meant to test you. You will have to make changes and plan ahead for this habit to become part of your daily routine. If you miss a day, the challenge is not over. We want to encourage everyone to give their best effort for the full 30 days. Oftentimes when the motivation and excitement of the challenge wears off you may want to stop altogether. But the days when you complete your habit when you don’t to are the most important. Meeting that resistance and continuing on is where changes are made. It teaches discipline.

To take part in the challenge, sign up on the sign up sheet located on the whiteboard near the coaches’ desk. From there, the we will let you know if you habit is approved and will provide accountability with weekly check-ins. There is no cost to join and the more people who get involved the better. Remember, no habit is too small.

Taylor Reuillard

@tailored_strength

Stroller Running

I originally posted these tips earlier this year when I was getting out for some runs with Nolan in the stroller. Yesterday, I had my first stroller race-setting experience, and I figured it would be a good chance to post a refresher of my favorite stroller running tips. It was cool seeing so many other families out with their strollers yesterday at the Seacoast Cancer 5k. Both Nolan and Elliot has a great time zigging and zagging down the race course.

• It’s much harder. Pushing that heavy thing down the road is hard. Don’t underestimate it. Our neighborhood is full of subtle ups and downs, and with the stroller they are much more noticeable.

• One hand only! In order to keep that fluid and smooth stride, you’re got to have some arm action. I place one hand in the middle of the stroller handle and pump my other arm, trading frequently. Avoid running with both hands on the handle if you can.

• Side by Side. If I’m really trying to open up my legs and get moving, I run adjacent to the stroller. If I don’t, there isn’t enough room for my legs to open up.

• Walk it! The goal of my stroller run last week was some easy volume. I threw my chest strap on to monitor my heart rate. I wanted to keep it under 150 beats per minute. This meant, I walked much more frequently than I would have had I not been pushing the stroller. Those slight climbs added up. Instead of feeling frustrated, I plan on that happening when stroller jogging.
  

Stroller running ins’t ideal. A little awareness of your position and how you're moving can make a big difference. Get out there!

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Friday Thoughts #4

Welcome to Friday thoughts, where I piece together half-formed posts, share ideas, or anything else that’s on my mind this morning.

• Secondary Goals. The best goals are multifaceted, and that’s what’s going on with Easy Strength for me. The main gain is to do 40 squat workouts in a pretty short period of time with the intention of hitting a big lifetime PR before the year is over. But that goal has presented opportunities for other things. By filming all my squats I can play with my camera settings, try different angles I hadn’t thought of and tinker with editing them. A few days into this squatting and posting challenge I created for myself I realized it would be a good chance to get better at filming and editing, because just like the squats, I’m doing it everyday.

• I enjoy challenges like this. Doing something everyday. It’s how the blog started. I was inconsistent for years until I committed to posting something on here 5 days a week. Practicing a daily habit, even if only temporarily, jump starts your skills, creates motivation and discipline, and hopefully, kickstarts other positive habits that are part of a healthy lifestyle. WIth that being said, keep a look out for GAIN’s upcoming habit challenge.

• The two best books about habits are: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear.

• The two simplest, most accessible, most life changing daily habits are stretching or rolling while watching TV at night instead of slouching on the couch and getting more daily steps. Simple but not easy.

• What is one thing you could add to your life everyday? Remember, it needs to be hard but not too hard, ultra specific, and you should probably cut in half whatever you initially thought of. Meaning if you jumped right to, I will walk ten thousands steps everyday, but currently don’t even know how many steps you do get, you should “lower the bar” and create and more realistic target, relative to how much you’re currently walking, not just a nice round number, (which is where the whole 10,000 steps thing came from, it just looks and sounds good).

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

My Foot Journey

originally posted 9/24/2020

I recently listened to a wonderful podcast all about the evolution and subsequent devolution of our feet.  In the episode, Dr. Peter Attia interviews Dr. Irene Davis, a researcher and expert in all things feet and running mechanics. I’m also on my third (or fourth) reading of Sapiens, which I can’t recommend enough. It’s a deep dive into the origin of humans. All of this of course, coincided with the birth of my son. This got me thinking about his development, and specifically, what kinds of footwear we’ll put him in as he’s growing up. Shoes have barely been around for most of human history when you stop and realize that we’ve been walking around on two feet for almost two million years. 

The podcast recommends minimalist footwear, more time barefoot, and staying away from maximally cushioned running shoes. Today, however, I want to share with you my foot journey and how I curated my healthy, resilient feet and why I’m not always so fast to recommend a minimalist shoe for everyone. 

It all started in 2010.

I was in college and I was spending the summer interning and training hard for the upcoming hockey season at a strength and conditioning gym.

One day, someone brought us in a copy of Born to Run. If you’re not familiar, McDougall’s book is a wonderful exploration of running mechanics and history of human beings using running to survive. 

I was anti-running at the time. I was bad at it, it always hurt and I found it incredibly boring. I did however appreciate the ancestral perspective of the book. Of how humans needed to run in order to track down game to eat. Something Harari talks about in Sapiens as well. Back then of course, there were no Nikes, no Hokas, no shoes at all. Just bare feet on earth. That made sense to me. I found it fascinating at how adaptable we were.

Throughout the book McDougall makes reference to a Vibram Five Finger shoe. 

Training barefoot was not a new idea to us at the gym. For years we had been doing our deadlifts in socks and squatting exclusively in Converse Chuck Taylor’s. We didn’t do it for health reasons though. We did it for performance. We knew that if our heel was on the ground, instead of raised up by a sneaker, we would transfer force better, and therefore lift more weight. 

Now, let me back up just a bit. 

While we were spending time training in the gym barefoot, my feet certainly were not in good condition. I had spent most of the past 18 or so years jamming my feet into hockey skates. My little toe had disappeared under my foot, and my three other toes had wedged themselves together. Like most other hockey players, I had developed bone spurs on my heels, aptly named Bauer bumps after a brand of skates. 

As I read McDougall’s case against modern footwear, I couldn’t help but feel singled out. His argument made sense to me. I needed to get myself a pair of these five finger shoes. 

If you’re not familiar, the Vibram Five Finger shoes are exactly what they sound like. A glove for your feet, if you will. Comprised mostly of neoprene, each toe has it’s own individual sleeve, forcing them to spread out. On the bottom is only a thin slice of rubber there to protect you from hot surfaces, but if you stepped on a small jagged rock, you would really feel it. 

After I found a pair, I did something unintentionally intelligent. I only wore them while coaching, probably just a few hours a day. My toes hurt and my arches were sore but I was committed to doing the natural human thing. I only wore them while coaching because they’re silly looking and smell bad.

After a while I started deadlifting in them and then before I knew it I was doing all my training in them. 

Fast forward to that winter and I couldn’t stand putting them on they smelled so bad. It was just my luck that New Balance came out with the first shoe in their minimus line at the time. A new concept, this shoe was designed for strength and conditioning, had a wide toe box to let your toes spread, had no arch support, and had only a few millimeters difference between the heel and the toe of the shoe, something known as drop, which I had learned about in Born to Run. 

Since these looked like normal shoes, I wore them much more often than the five fingers. To my luck, my feet were ready to spend more time in this style of shoe since I had spent the summer building my tolerance.

Over the years, my toes continued to spread out, my bone spurs have completely disappeared and I try to exclusively wear minimalist shoes, which were barely a thing back when my journey started.

Nowadays, footwear is swinging the other way.

It’s common to see maximally cushioned, high arch, high heeled shoes, and I think we’re missing the boat. Born to Run is to blame for this too. See, after the book, thousands of other people were inspired like me and went out to get themselves some five finger shoes. Runners everywhere ditched their traditional shoes and went right back to training with a less protective, much less forgiving shoe and all of a sudden, minimalist shoes had a bad reputation because so many of these people got injured.

As the shoe’s popularity was grew, Vibram did something stupid. They said their shoes will prevent injuries. They didn’t recommended starting slow, building your tolerance and not trying to do too much too soon. Remember when I said I did something unintentionally intelligent? That was starting slow, only wearing the shoes for 12-15 hours a week at first. I didn’t do any running in them and also worked on stretching, rolling and improving mobility in my feet and ankles. 

This led to a somewhat-famous lawsuit, which in my opinion is why maximalist shoes have now become so popular.

People wanted to throw these Five Finger shoes on and expected their running technique to transform into a fluid natural stride like the Tarahumara Indians in Born to Run. It’s not that simple though. Just like it took my feet years and years to start looking more like hockey skates than feet, it takes years of dedication to bring them back to a more natural state.

The reason I’m not too fast to recommend a minimalist style shoe nowadays is because I worry people will expect too much from them too soon. An ideal way to dip your toes in the water is to wear them just at the gym. They’re better to train in. Period. You’ll be more stable, have better balance and wearing them for 3-4 hours a week will slowly let you build up a tolerance to more barefoot time. If you’re a runner, it may take even longer since you’re not going to want to start over. I think running in a shoe your comfortable in while spending some time with shoes off when not running is a good start.

When you’re home, I recommend making sure you get some time with nothing on your feet and you’ve probably seen a lot of people walking around the gym in just their socks, another great way to start rebuilding your feet. 

The key point is that your feet were designed to be barefoot. Humans walked around with nothing down there for far longer than Nikes have been around. We’re really good at adapting, which is why it might take you a full year or two until you start feeling more comfortable in a more barefoot style shoe. Expecting too much from your feet is what gets people into trouble and, as I mentioned above, led to the pendulum swing of ultra cushioned shoes that do the exact opposite of what we need. 

Today, I still spend as much time in a minimalist shoe as possible. In the podcast, Dr. Irene Davis defines a minimalist shoe and something you can fold up and put in your pocket and has zero difference between the height of the heel and the height of the toe. I realize there’s utility in other shoes and don’t spend all my time in a zero drop shoes. My trail/mountain running shoes have a bit of a lift (4mm) and I even have a cushy pair for days on the trail when I’m feeling beat up. I also wear high heeled olympic lifting shoes when practicing my cleans and snatches.. 

In summary, your feet are important and jamming them into dress shoes, high heels and traditional sneakers will slowly deform your feet and transform them into something different. Remember, don’t drop your current footwear and go total minimalist yet. Start slow, a few hours a week is enough to build your strength and tolerance. If you play the long game with this I promise it’ll be worth it.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Team Cupcake Seacoast Cancer 5k

The Seacoast Cancer 5k is this Sunday at 9am!

If you haven’t already, you should sign up for Team Cupcake.

Kendra, who created the team and is an exceptional baker, is a long time member of the gym, and one of the strongest people I know. She’s been having breast cancer treatments for the past year and this is her team.

Even if you can’t run, you can still sign up or make a donation on Kendra’s behalf.

Hope to see you out there on Sunday!

SIGN UP FOR TEAM CUPCAKE

Justin MIner

@justinminergain

How Power Relates to Strength

I came across this passage in the Easy Strength book, and sharing it here will be a good opportunity for us to go over power, and how exactly it’s different, but related to strength.

The following quote is from researcher and professor Vladimir Zatsiorsky:

“It is impossible for athletes to generate a large force in a fast movement if they cannot develop similar or even greater force values in a slow motion. But don't overemphasize the role of maximal strength in power production [either]. To be a strong athlete does not mean to be a power athlete. It is true that all elite power athletes are very strong people. On the other hand, not all strong individuals can execute movement powerfully when combining large force and high velocity.”

In other words, you can’t be powerful without having requisite strength and technique.

Here’s how power is defined:

Power (watts) = work (joules) / time (seconds)

This equation states power is the rate of doing work.

Imagine you’re deadlifting at the the gym. The first lift, you just bend over a pick it up slowly. You have the strength to do it, but there’s no urgency to the lift. On your next attempt, you brace hard, take a deep breath and turn on every inch of your body. You drive your feet down and the bar is moving 5 times as fast as your previous lift. That’s power, and you can try to add power to most of your lifts in the gym. Adding intention and speed to push ups, ring rows, bench presses and squats will likely make them feel easier since you’re recruiting more muscle fibers.

Why is thinking about power important? In a seminar a couple years ago I learned that after the age of 40, power declines nearly 2% every year and strength declines 1%.

That means you lose power twice as fast than strength as you age.

Then best way to not lose it is to use it frequently. Do those medicine ball throws hard, move the barbell quickly and be snappy on your kettlebell swings. Not only will your technique and abilities likely improve, but you’ll also be exposing your body to rapid, explosive movements more regularly, and maintaining your power with your strength.

In closing, here’s one more quote from Easy Strength, from Thomas Kurz:

“Slow squats with huge weights will increase the athlete's maximal strength but they will not develop explosive strength. For someone with insufficient maximal strength slow squats may increase explosive strength but then the weight will not be huge.”

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

When Momentum Becomes Destructive

It’s remarkable how much your body can adapt to training stimulus. The key to the whole thing working though is recovery.  That’s where the adaptation actually occurs, and without adequate rest and recovery, you’re leaving performance on the table.

That’s why yesterday, even though I was on a hot streak, and I really wanted to keep my streak going, and film myself doing some easy squats, I knew a rest day would be more beneficial. It had been 12 days straight of squatting, and my body was quite used to the stimulus and volume, but I was thinking ahead.

Even though I felt good, by the end of this week, my body could have started feeling too fatigued or sore and achy. To hedge against that, I decided to skip the squats yesterday.

I’ve learned my lesson from riding the momentum too much with running. There’s been many times I’m having a great training week, I roll it into the next week without skipping a beat, to only end up taking 4 days off the following week cause I’m trashed.

Going into this Easy Strength, I wasn’t sure if I would take a rest day or not. Rest days, are of course an integral part of the plan as written, but I like to dabble in the extremes. After all, each of the 12 workouts has taken me less than 10 minutes start to finish and I always have the equipment readily available. Making it a daily practice was part of the appeal for me.

In closing, I felt like if I had squatted yesterday, I would have been doing it only to keep the streak going. The real goal here is to get freaky strong, so in keeping the goal the goal, and not letting momentum become destructive, I broke the streak and took and rest day, and today, I feel invigorated because of it.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Friday Thoughts #3

Here’s this week’s list of random thoughts on my mind.

• If you didn’t know, my son Elliot turned 3 yesterday! The old cliche, the days are slow but the years are fast totally rings true.

• Speaking of years going by fast, there are only 108 days left in 2023.

• It’s hard to imagine you’ve made it all the way into the third bullet point of this blog without having seen my video about Easy Strength and what it’s all about. But on the chance you haven’t, check it out HERE.

• If you have been following along, today is day 11. I haven’t squatted yet today, but my body feels like I’m going to stick with 225 pounds again. I’m feeling good about this because last week I had to take two “deload” days and only squatted 135. I expected the same to happen this week but I’m responding to the load and volume differently already. I may go a little heavier today with a rep scheme of 5-3-2. This would give me the opportunity to figure out an appropriate weight jump to use for next week. In other words, should I jump to 250, or would I be able to handle 275?  Either way, I’ll only do the weight if it feels easy, that’s the whole point.

• I saw this term, principle based creativity, and it perfectly sums up my program design process. I have certain principles, rep schemes, movement patterns, loading strategies, etc. Working within those principles allows me to be more creative because it provides constraints and direction. I’m of the belief that program design is both an art and a science. Having principles guides program design and through that you can develop your own style.

• That’s all for today, see you next week.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain