Choosing How To Exercise

One of the biggest problems with many arguments about how people should exercise is a focus on short-term rather than long-term results and on the effects of a single variable while often ignoring many others affected by it. When comparing different exercise methods it is important to consider all of the following:

  1. Being strong, fit, and healthy should be a lifelong pursuit.
  2. Any method of exercise can be effective if it is done hard, progressively, and consistently with a reasonable volume and frequency for the individual.
  3. Not all exercise methods are as efficient, safe, practical, or easy for everyone to adhere to.

Over time the difference in the results that can be produced by different exercise methods gets increasingly smaller, becoming insignificant after a few years. However, the differences in the total time invested, the wear on your body, the risk of injury, and difficulty of adherence continue to get larger over time. While there is a lot of variability in individual goals and how they can effectively train for them (including non-physical exercise goals like stress management), the time factor, risk potential, and adherence should always be considered when designing exercise programs. What do you want out of exercise, and what are you willing to do in exchange for it?

If two or more methods produce the same results over time but vary in the risk of acute and overuse injuries, choose the safer one.

If two or more methods produce the same results over time and are equally safe but vary in the volume and frequenty required, choose the more time efficient one (unless you value spending time in the gym as much as or more than the physical benefits of exercise).

If two or more methods produce the same results over time and are equally safe and efficient but vary in practicality or ease of adherence, choose the one you will be more likely to adhere to for the long run.

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  • Jason Crabtree Jul 2, 2017 @ 14:22

    The last paragraph where you talk about “ease of adherence” really hit home. (sorry, pun not intended!)

    I have been doing the 3×3 method as in the gym, it is so practical. Over 3 sessions in the week, alternating exercises makes sure the variety is there.

    Yet, I was for the 1st month doing a slow cadence of approximately 4/4. Now, doing such intense contractions made me anxious every workout day from the moment I woke up. The leg exercises (squat, leg press and Bulgarian Split Squat) are horrendous in terms of pain yet going straight from them (taken to failure of course!) and then slow dips, chins, bent over rows.etc takes you into a pain zone so bad, it is literally torture.

    Unable to bare it, I switched to a 1/5 cadence where I start the positive extremely slow and as soon as I feel the muscles I wish to use working, I finish the rep aggressively, staying slow enough to safety stop where I need to.

    Changing to this has.made me look forward to my workouts again as the level of exhaustion and muscular fatigue at the end if the workout will.be the same, but the faster positives and slightly shorter TUT has made it fun again.

    I guess I feel more “powerful” with aggressive positives.

    Anyways, it has made me actually like my workouts.whilst still progressing in weight and TUT as quickly as before.

    • Drew Baye Jul 7, 2017 @ 11:44

      Hey Jason,

      You should not perform the positive anywhere near a one second cadence. Most people’s form is horrible at even half that speed. You would be better off doing the exact opposite and moving as slowly as you can smoothly instead, while still keeping your total TUL within a range that is effective for you.

      You should also avoid any kind of loaded unilateral squats and stick with bilateral squats, leg presses, and deadlifts for your compound lower body exercises.

      Safety and effectiveness should never be compromised for the sake of making exercise fun. Fun isn’t even on the list of things to consider when designing an exercise program. In fact, if something makes an exercise more enjoyable it is the opposite of what you should be doing. To paraphrase Arthur Jones, if you like an exercise you’re doing it wrong.

      The goal of a workout isn’t to feel powerful. It is to efficiently load and stress the target muscles, and doing so should make you feel anything but powerful. In fact, the better your form the more difficult an exercise should be relative to the load used. I suggest reading How To Get Better At An Exercise

      • Mark Jul 13, 2017 @ 18:23

        Hi Drew,

        I get your point about the aim of exercise being effectiveness, not being enjoyable – however the issue of adherence that was mentioned is a big factor.

        As Jason mentioned, you can start to dread each workout – which can easily lead to giving up.

        I like the idea of the HIT approach (primarily time efficiency), however whenever I try it, within a few weeks I start to feel like I just can’t face the workouts – and eventually drop off from this method. The straining just seems to take too much of a toll on brain and body.

        I’m not sure there is a solution, just saying that if something makes people feel bad, they aren’t going to adhere to it in the long-term.

        • Drew Baye Jul 14, 2017 @ 15:15

          Hey Mark,

          I a person starts to get bored with or dread their workouts that is usually a good sign, an indication they are doing it consistently and with a high intensity of effort. Exercise is supposed to be very hard, and if it is done correctly it is very unpleasant. It is not supposed to be fun or entertaining.

          I suggest reading The Teeth Brushing Analogy

  • Dean Curtis Jul 3, 2017 @ 0:14

    Lots of wisdom in this post folks. LISTEN to what Drew is saying. He has been doing this a long time and knows how to keep clients coming back and exercising for the long haul.

    Nice work Drew!

  • Steven Neid Jul 6, 2017 @ 8:27

    Drew,
    As an avid Arthur Jones/Nautilus devotee and owner of a complete 25 piece Nautilus EVO circuit, my question to you on this topic is this:
    Wouldn’t the best training protocol be to implement a 1 set to failure drop set format for each exercise?
    For instance; Vertical Chest Press:
    Begin with 4 very heavy but slow controlled reps with the whole weight stack (for instance), followed by 4-8 more intense reps with 2/3 stack?
    It would seem that would be extremely beneficial and meet all of the requirements (TUL, Heavy stimulation, etc.).
    I understand this might not be practical for trainees who don’t have selectorized equipment, but for me a quick weight change can be done in seconds.
    Interested to know your thoughts and as always, thank you for your consideration!
    Steve

    • Drew Baye Jul 7, 2017 @ 11:25

      Hey Steven,

      In most cases a breakdown or drop set doesn’t provide any benefit over a straight set to momentary muscle failure. The only time I do these with clients is if they fall short of the target TUL range, but not for the sake of increasing the load since it isn’t as important as relative effort (Morton, R. W., Oikawa, S. Y., Wavell, C. G., Mazara, N., Mcglory, C., Quadrilatero, J., Phillips, S. M. (2016). Neither load nor systemic hormones determine resistance training-mediated hypertrophy or strength gains in resistance-trained young men. Journal of Applied Physiology J Appl Physiol. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00154.2016. Even with selectorized machines and someone else to change the resistance the extra step isn’t worth bothering with, and these kind of training techniques can even be counterproductive if overused.

      Post-failure techniques like forced reps, breakdowns, rest pause, static holds, and finishing negatives can be effective training techniques and valuable teaching tools when used and performed correctly. However, when overused or performed incorrectly they can do more harm than good. Resist the temptation to use them in your workouts too frequently or indiscriminately.

      These techniques are considered more advanced because they require more skill to perform correctly (for both trainees and the assisting partner or trainer), not because they are necessary or provide any significant advantage for advanced trainees. In fact, the better you get at exercise the less often you should need them. Think of them as “intensity training wheels” to help you learn to work harder, that should come off as your ability to push yourself improves.

      • Steven Neid Jul 7, 2017 @ 14:50

        As always, Thanks Drew! Your wealth of knowledge on the topic is gold.
        Steve

      • Eric Jul 11, 2017 @ 15:03

        Drew, what is the TUL range to determine a resistance increase 60 to 90 seconds,60 second minimum, increase load once 90 seconds is achieved?

  • Putra Jul 15, 2017 @ 12:39

    Hi Drew,
    I’m a newbie in HIT and superslow rep. i’ve completed my 6th week of working out with very good progress on some muscle groups using the 10/10 cadence with a max 90 second TUL. And my next workout will include a 90kg Leg Press. At 80kg, i can feel the heavy pressure on my joints even though it’s not in any pain whatsoever. Is it safe to do this without any warm ups even when i’ve got over 100kg?

    In my other exercises, i’ve always come to a muscle failure at the 2nd positive (i always start with the negatives first with all the exercises), so i keep on failing at around 50second-ish at bench press, neutral grip chin up, dips and overhead press. Should i lower the weight or keep going with the same weights?

    • Drew Baye Jul 27, 2017 @ 8:57

      If you have healthy joints and you’re not feeling pain in them during an exercise you do not need to warm up for it.

      If you are consistently failing at the same time on some exercises try reducing the weight by about ten percent. If your TUL doesn’t increase with the weight reduction it may be an indication you need to reduce your target TUL range for those exercises.

      • Putra Aug 2, 2017 @ 6:52

        By reducing the target TUL, do you mean it’s time for me to add more weight with lower target TUL?
        e.g : i’ve bench pressed 25kg with failure at 50s, so by the next workout, i should increase the weight to 27,5kg with target TUL of 50s?

        does it mean that my muscles aren’t geneticaly able to go over, say, 50s TUL for said exercises? is that a good thing or a bad thing?

        • Drew Baye Aug 4, 2017 @ 11:11

          Some people have a lot of difficulty exceeding a particular TUL without a significant reduction in resistance. Those people often make better progress by increasing the resistance slightly whenever they are able to reach that TUL on an exercise than continuing to wait until they achieve a higher TUL. Most people seem to do well with a 60 to 90 second TUL which is why I recommend it as a starting point, but some people do better with lower or higher TULs.

  • Shane Aug 6, 2017 @ 21:22

    one of the most exciting things about hit for me is how nervous i get before my workouts, the feeling of liberation after, and not to mention all of the things that go on during the workout. personally i have found that 4/8 neg emphasized reps are the best way for me to challenge my bodies ability to produce movement. the after effect of a neg emphasized set to static failure + thorough inroad concept feels much more complete and exhausting. i feel as though i am able to perform each rep with more fluidity and strategize the performance of each rep during the exercise to a greater extent. this is all in comparison to the standard 4/4.

    • Drew Baye Aug 20, 2017 @ 11:17

      I now just move as slowly as I can smoothly during both the positive and negative and don’t worry about the specific cadence, and prefer this to everything else I have done before because it allows me to focus more on efficient loading, and because it allows for the greatest average tension relative to time under load.

  • shane Aug 9, 2017 @ 14:09

    one of the most exciting things about hit for me is how nervous i get before my workouts, the feeling of liberation after, and not to mention all of the things that go on during the workout. personally i have found that 4/8 neg emphasized reps are the best way for me to challenge my bodies ability to produce movement. the after effect of a neg emphasized set to static failure + thorough inroad concept feels much more complete and exhausting. i feel as though i am able to perform each rep with more fluidity and strategize the performance of each rep during the exercise to a greater extent. this is all in comparison to the standard 4/4.

    • Drew Baye Aug 12, 2017 @ 11:12

      I have also found going even slower seems to work better, and have gone back to an unrestricted, very slow speed of movement. I will be writing more about this in future posts.

  • DJ Aug 16, 2017 @ 21:04

    Hey Drew, I’m really liking the slow sets and less frequency! Thanks for all the helpful information on here and videos on YouTube. I do feel a little nervous doing slow sets of deadlifts and bent over rows.(I don’t have access to a upright row machine). I just feel like I could pull something going into the 8th to 10th rep. Am I doing something wrong?

    • Drew Baye Aug 21, 2017 @ 14:58

      Assuming you don’t have any pre-existing injuries or conditions requiring extra caution you aren’t going to pull a muscle or injure yourself as long as your body position and movement is correct and you are moving slowly enough to be able to reverse directly smoothly. If you’re not sure you’re going slowly enough, go even slower.

  • Shane Oct 9, 2017 @ 18:35

    Drew,
    since your reply to my comment above i have also been experimenting with an unrestricted slow speed of movement. so, in relation to this i seem to have pretty good motor control and can move very slow without segmentation and it seems the better i get at a specific exercise the slower i can move. this has been kind of tricky as far as record keeping goes because the slower im able to move the less mechanical work i perform. should the goal be to move as slow as possible without segmentation regardless of mechanical work? even if that means 1-2 very slow repetitions?
    thank you,
    shane

    • Drew Baye Oct 14, 2017 @ 10:16

      In most cases mechanical work is not very important. Tension over time is. The effectiveness of isometrics proves mechanical work is not necessary to stimulate increases in muscular strength and size. However, there are some situations where more mechanical work may be more beneficial due to the role of muscular contraction in venous return.