A recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (1) claims SuperSlow is less effective for muscular hypertrophy than traditional reps.  Thirty four women were divided into four groups, a SuperSlow (SS) group, a traditional strength (TS) group, a traditional endurance (TE) group, and a non-exercising control (C) group. Each group performed these two times during the first week and three times each of the following five weeks. The SS group performed six to ten repetitions at a 10/4 cadence with approximately 40 to 60% of their 1RM, for a time under load (TUL) of approximately 84 to 140 seconds per set and an average of 336 seconds per three sets. The TS group performed six to ten repetitions at an approximate 1/1 to 2/2 cadence with approximately 80 to 85% of their 1RM, for a TUL of approximately 18 to 30 seconds per set and an average of 72 seconds per three sets. The TE group performed twenty to thirty reps at an approximate 1/1 to 2/2 cadence with approximately 40 to 60% of their 1RM, for a TUL of approximately 60 to 90 seconds per set and an average of 225 seconds per three sets.

While the TS group used a load between eighty and eighty five percent of their one rep max, the SS and TE groups only used loads between forty and sixty percent due to the longer TUL. The researchers should have but did not also include a SS group using a load and TUL matched to the TS group.

After six weeks the TS group had greater improvements in cross-sectional area (CSA), myonuclear domain size (cytoplasm per myonucleus), and myonuclei number than either the SS or TE group, which had similar results, although the SS group had greater improvements in CSA than the TE group. If the researchers had only included the SS and TE groups which were matched for load and TUL they would have had to conclude slow repetitions are more effective, all else being equal. If the study had also included a SS group using a load and TUL matched to the TS group that group would have had results which were comparable to or better than the TS groups as well, which is exactly what happened in Wayne Westcott’s SuperSlow studies (2). It would not surprise me if the omission of a lower TUL SS group was intentional, considering the NSCA’s bias against high intensity training.In Westcott’s studies the SuperSlow groups performed a single set of four to six repetitions at a 10/4 rep cadence and the traditional strength training group performed a single set of eight to twelve repetitions at a 2/1/4 cadence, both for a TUL of approximately 56 to 84 seconds per set. In both studies the SuperSlow groups’ exercise weight loads increased on average 50% more than the traditional groups.

The Herman-Montemayor study does not show that SuperSlow repetitions are less effective than traditional repetitions for improving muscular strength and size, since the results of the SS group were actually slightly better than the TE group which used traditional speeds when roughly matched for load and TUL. What it does show is that all else being equal a higher load and shorter TUL is more effective (comparing TS and TE) for hypertrophy, at least in the short term. This is consistent with what I found in my own experimentation with long (80 to 160 seconds) versus short (40 to 80 seconds) TULs when using SuperSlow. While either will improve muscular strength and size in the long run I and the clients I used it with had better results with the shorter TUL. Keep in mind that what I am calling a shorter TUL is actually still relatively long compared to sets performed at traditional repetition speeds, but since only one set is performed the cumulative TUL is similar to that of multiple sets performed at traditional speeds. If your goal is to maximize improvements in overall functional ability including cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning while minimizing your risk of injury you should not perform sets that are too short, though. As a conservative starting point I recommend using enough resistance that you are able to achieve momentary muscular failure between around thirty and ninety seconds, and beginners should start at the higher end of this, between around sixty and ninety.

Moving slowly during exercise is not going to reduce your muscular strength or size increases as long as you reduce your repetition range to compensate for the longer repetition duration so you are able to achieve momentary muscular failure within a reasonable TUL. It is also important to consider that if you are training hard, progressively, and consistently with a reasonable volume and frequency you will eventually become as strong, muscular, and well-conditioned as your genetics allow regardless of the specific repetition cadence or training method you use, however slower rep speeds and more joint-friendly exercises and repetition methods are much safer in the long run and brief, high-intensity training will produce the same results much more efficiently.

For more specific recommendations on repetition speeds read Repetition Speed Recommendations and High Intensity Workouts.

References:

1. Herman-Montemayor, Jennifer R., et al. “Early-phase satellite cell and myonuclear domain adaptations to slow-speed versus traditional resistance training programs.” Journal of strength and conditioning research/National Strength & Conditioning Association (2015).
2. Westcott WL, Winett RA, Anderson ES, Wojcik JR, Loud RL, Cleggett E, Glover S. Effects of regular and slow speed resistance training on muscle strength. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. 2001 Jun;41(2):154-8

In exercise, like many other things, there are a few basics that really matter and a whole lot of things that matter very little or not at all. This is best described by the Pareto principle, also known as the 80-20 rule, which states that for most things about eighty percent of our results are due to only about twenty percent of what we do. To put it differently, a lot of what we do doesn’t have nearly as much of an effect on our results in the long run and spending a lot of time thinking about and discussing it while ignoring the basics is like “polishing brass on the Titanic.” To get the best results from your workouts it helps to know the difference so you can invest your time and effort more efficiently.

Ultimately, getting results from your training comes down to just a few things; you have to train hard, progressively, and consistently, with enough volume and frequency to stimulate continuous improvement in all major muscle groups but not so much or so often you overtrain, you have to eat and sleep well, and you have to use reasonably good form so you don’t wreck yourself in the long run. If you are doing all of this you’re on the right track and eventually you will develop as strong and conditioned and aesthetically impressive a physique as your genetics allow. If you’re not doing these anything else you are doing isn’t going to make much of a difference.

Intensity of effort matters. Regardless of anything else you do in your workouts, if you are not training hard enough you are not going to stimulate much of an adaptive response. If you don’t ask your body to do something that is extremely demanding at your current level of functional ability, you’re not giving it any reason to increase that level. Minimally, you should train hard enough that when you finish an exercise the targeted muscles should be so deeply fatigued that you would not have been capable of completing a few more reps. Ideally, you should train hard enough that you achieve momentary muscular failure on each exercise.

Training progressively matters. As you become stronger and better conditioned you must increase the demands of your workout to continue to provide a stimulus for further improvement. If you don’t keep them challenging they won’t be effective. Over time you should work to improve your form, increase the resistance you use and/or reps you are able to perform for each exercise, and increase the pace of your workouts (the work to rest ratio, how fast you move between exercises not during).

Training consistently matters. While you don’t need to work out very long or very frequently for good results, you do need to workout on a regular basis if you want to improve. Use it, or lose it. The body adapts to both use and disuse, and if you’re not challenging your body with hard workouts frequently enough it is not going to maintain the ability to meet the challenge.

Workout volume and frequency matters. If  you don’t perform at least one exercise which effectively targets each major muscle group including smaller muscle groups like your neck, forearms, and calves, you will not develop an overall balanced and proportional physique or strength. Instead you will have aesthetically and functionally weak links detracting from both your physical appearance and capability. If you don’t perform enough exercises in each workout to make challenging metabolic and cardiovascular demands your conditioning will not improve. If you don’t work out frequently enough you will not progress quickly. However, if you perform too much exercise, too frequently, you can overtrain which depending on the degree will also slow or even stop your progress.

Eating right for your goals and getting enough sleep matters. If you are not eating and/or sleeping well you will not be able to put as much effort into your workouts and your body will have a harder time recovering from and producing the adaptations stimulated by your workouts.

Training with proper form matters. If you perform exercises correctly and with good form you will be able to provide an effective stimulus more efficiently and with less wear and tear on your body and less risk of injury. You can train effectively with poor form – and there are many people who do – but the goal of exercise should not just be to stimulate improvements in your functional ability and health, it should also be to avoid undermining them in the long run by causing damage or injuries that compromise your mobility.

What doesn’t matter nearly as much? Almost all of the other things many people and trainers – mostly who don’t know what they’re talking about any way – get worked up over and waste time arguing about. While there may be specific instances where some things are more or less advantageous or practical than others, and there may be some situations where these are important, for the most part they make much less difference in your long term results than the above. Keep in mind I’m not saying these things don’t matter at all; they don’t matter anywhere near as much as many people seem to believe and unless you are pushing the extremes of your physical performance or physique development they don’t deserve as much attention as some people give them.

So, if you’re not getting the results you want from your workouts, before you start to worry about whether you should be doing a fewer or more reps or a different repetition method or exercise for a specific muscle group, or changing the time of day you work out, or using a different type or brand of equipment, or whether you should be using a particular supplement before or after your workouts, ask yourself if you’re doing everything above. If the answer is no you need to focus on getting and keeping these in order before worrying about anything else.

When I was invited to speak at a men’s self-improvement convention in Tampa last year I planned to talk about principles of exercise performance but since it would have overlapped a lot with both Bill De Simone and Dr. Ellington Darden’s presentations I decided at the last minute to talk about the proper mindset for high intensity training instead.

In the talk I explain how most people’s thinking about exercise performance and programming is backwards and how you should think about exercise to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, and safety of your workouts, and answer questions from the audience on making exercises harder, training to momentary muscular failure, and training at home with limited equipment.

If you have a question about any of the topics discussed in the presentation please post it in the comments below!

Question: Thanks for your article on teaching children to exercise. Your arguments about telling if a child is ready to perform HIT exercise seem mainly based on the ability of a child to be serious and mature enough to get involved in training. I have always learned children should not perform weight training as long as they are still growing because resistance training would impair longitudinal growth of the bones. What’s your take on this?

Answer: Proper strength training will not stunt a child’s growth. The belief that it does probably resulted from people confusing correlation for causation when observing the stature of athletes in sports like Olympic weightlifting, power lifting, and gymnastics which require a high strength to bodyweight ratio. Shorter limbs are advantageous for these activities because they provide better leverage for lifting, so people who are shorter will tend to select themselves for and perform better in them. These activities don’t make people shorter, they are just more attractive to shorter people because they’re easier for them so you’ll see more short people participating.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are sports like basketball and volleyball. These activities don’t make people taller, they are just more attractive to taller people because their greater height and reach is advantageous so you’ll see more tall people participating. Proper strength training will no more stunt a child’s growth than playing basketball will make them grow taller.

The reason I emphasize proper strength training is that while strength training is one of the safest things you can do if you’re doing it right it can be very dangerous if you’re doing it wrong. Cases of spine and growth plate injuries which negatively effected height were caused by injuries resulting from improper performance. According to a 2009 review on research of strength training in children and adolescents from 1980 to 2008,

The case reports of injuries related to strength training, including epiphyseal plate fractures and lower back injuries, are primarily attributed to the misuse of equipment, inappropriate weight, improper technique, or lack of qualified adult supervision.

If children are taught to strength train properly their risk of injury is incredibly low. For general guidelines on proper strength training read the following articles elsewhere on this blog:

Safety Considerations for Exercise

How To Train Intensely Without Wrecking Yourself In The Process,

How To Correctly Use A Barbell, And How NOT To

Dahab, Katherine Stabenow, and Teri Metcalf McCambridge. “Strength Training in Children and Adolescents: Raising the Bar for Young Athletes?” Sports Health 1.3 (2009): 223–226. PMC. Web. 12 Sept. 2015.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting a lot of questions on bodyweight training and timed static contractions so in this Q&A I will cover a few of the most common.

Question: Why are you only doing bodyweight workouts now? Do you really think they’re as effective as training with barbells or machines?

Answer: My workouts are actually a combination of bodyweight exercises and timed static contractions using either a heavy nylon strap or my UXS bodyweight exercise station for resistance, rather than pure bodyweight workouts. I have a few reasons for switching, but the main one is to be better able to provide effective workout alternatives for clients and readers who travel frequently or are active military and do not always have access to equipment, or who prefer to train at home and either don’t want equipment or don’t have the space or budget for it.

Although I’ve been training people and have taught and performed bodyweight exercises like chin-ups, dips, and squats for over twenty years now, it is not enough to extrapolate from free weight and machine training principles and techniques when teaching other bodyweight exercises. There are significant differences between these modalities, most notably in scaling difficulty and resistance progression, and it is necessary to have sufficient experience performing bodyweight exercises to really understand the differences, constraints, and advantages and to be able to teach them effectively.

As for effectiveness, how you train is far more important than what equipment you use, or whether you use any at all. And, if you know how to perform them correctly, bodyweight exercises are just as effective for improving general functional ability, health, and physical appearance as free weight and machine exercises. I discussed this in more detail in Q&A: Maximizing Muscular Strength and Size with Bodyweight High Intensity Training and Bodyweight Versus Weight Training. As a bonus, bodyweight exercises and timed static contractions are far more space, time, and cost efficient. They can be done anywhere you have a little room to move. You can finish one exercise and start the next as quickly as your conditioning allows without having to set up or wait for equipment. They can be done with no equipment, or equipment which can be bought or built very inexpensively.

Question: How can I make bodyweight exercises I have difficulty with easier and make bodyweight exercises I find easy harder without using a counterweight or weight?

Answer: The difficulty of an exercise is related to the resistance the target muscles work against, which is mostly the product of weight and lever. When you perform an exercise using a barbell or a machine you adjust the resistance by changing the weight. When you perform a bodyweight exercise you adjust the resistance by changing the average lever, which can be accomplished by modulation of range of motion, timing, load distribution, or different combinations of them. I explain how to do this with dozens of exercises in the Project Kratos program handbook.

Another option is to use timed static contraction protocol. A timed static contraction is a type of isometric exercise which involves contracting the target muscles against an immovable object for a specific amount of time, usually in stages with gradually increasing effort. Because the resistance is always exactly equal to the force you are applying, regardless of how weak or strong you are the difficulty of a timed static contraction is never too high or low for you to perform it effectively. I frequently use timed static contraction pull-downs and shoulder presses on the UXS with new clients who can not perform a sufficient number of chin-ups or pike push-ups at the lowest difficulty level (these can also be done with straps) and timed static contraction belt squats with clients who are getting too strong for squats at the highest difficulty level as an alternative to performing them unilaterally.

Steve Maxwell, black belt senior world and pan american jiu jitsu champion, the first person certified to teach Gracie Jiu Jitsu in the USA, and the first American to earn a black belt from Relson Gracie has been using the Project Kratos program with some of his clients and athletes and recently shared the following with me, including his unique method of performing timed static contraction belt squats,

I have placed a number of guys on the program with some of my own variations. All of my clients have had great success. I’ve had several people relate to me that they can hardly believe how strong they feel and would have never believed such a thing possible without weights. The hip belt squat for example. It’s amazing how you can feel the strength and power in the legs from that. Walking up stairs, running or sprinting, one can feel the increased strength in the legs…

After Steve shared this with me I bought a two-inch wide towing strap and tested this out, and found it to be just as intense as the set up I was using but far more comfortable since the strap does not dig into the thighs nearly as much as the chain on most dip belts. Also, a belt or nylon strap is much easier to take with you than a heavy platform and can be used for a variety of other timed static contraction exercises (also covered in Project Kratos).

Question: How can I effectively train my grip with just bodyweight?

Answer: Chin-ups, pull-ups, rows, and other hanging exercises performed for sufficient duration will improve your grip strength considerably, but if you want to focus specifically on forearm and grip strength you can perform timed hangs holding the bar with just the ends of your fingers and thumb, or holding onto a strap or rolled up bath towel hung over the bar. You can also perform timed static contraction gripping and wrist extension and flexion with a bath towel by rolling it tightly then either crushing it or twisting it in opposite directions with each hand, then repeating for equal time with the directions reversed.

This could be done with a length of pipe (I use the dipping bars on the UXS for timed static contraction grip and forearm exercises) but a towel is more versatile and portable. Unlike a pipe, a towel can be rolled into a pad for timed static contraction neck flexion and extension, hung over a branch or bar for pull-ups and rows, and used for a variety of other exercises like timed static contraction rows and infimetric lateral raises and rear-delt flys.

Grip and forearm exercises should be performed at the end of your workout so they do not interfere with your ability to maintain your grip during hanging exercises like chin-ups, rows, and leg raises.

As parents we are responsible for teaching our children the value of health and fitness and how to achieve and maintain a high level of both throughout their lives. We teach them to eat the appropriate types and amount of food to provide their bodies with the energy and nutrients they need to feel and perform well and maintain a healthy body composition. We teach them how to wash and bathe and care for their teeth and hair to maintain good hygiene and minimize their risk of diseases and infections. We teach them to get enough of both physical activity and sleep because of the contributions these make to health and fitness. When they don’t want to do these things we are responsible for making the decision for them because we know how important they are. No matter how many times your child might tell you they don’t want to brush their teeth or eat their vegetables if you are a responsible parent you make them do it anyway. Exercise should be no different.

Why? Because while all the other things I mentioned are important for building and maintaining a fit, healthy body, a proper exercise program is by far the most effective way to improve all of the the general*, trainable** factors of functional ability and is an absolute requirement for maintaining these in the long run:

1. muscular strength and endurance
2. cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning
3. flexibility
4. bone and connective tissue strength
5. body composition

If your children are already physically active aren’t they getting exercise? No. Contrary to popular belief general physical activity does not qualify as exercise. While sufficiently demanding physical activities can have beneficial physical effects, exercise is an activity specifically designed for the purpose of effectively, safely, and efficiently stimulating improvements in functional ability. For example, the primary purpose of running, jumping, climbing and swimming is locomotion not exercise, and unlike squats, chin-ups, and other proper exercises these activities do not efficiently work muscle groups against significant resistance in accordance with muscle and joint function for the primary purpose of stimulating improvements in functional ability and are relatively ineffective for that purpose by comparison.

Children need both exercise and physical recreation but it is important to make a distinction between the two. If people assume recreational activities provide effective exercise they are less likely to engage in an actual, proper exercise program and obtain the benefits thereof. Also, when people try to turn physical recreation into exercise they take some of the fun out of it defeating the primary purpose of those activities. When you combine the two you end up with something that is both less fun and less effective for improving functional ability. Don’t do it. Make time for both instead.

Whether your child is ready to begin an exercise program depends on their ability to understand and follow instructions and whether they are mature enough to take it seriously. Some children might be ready earlier, some later. If you’re not sure whether they’re ready, wait. If your child sees you working out they may try to emulate you, and this should not be discouraged, but if you don’t think they’re ready to work out on their own they should not be allowed to use real weights or machines unsupervised since these can seriously injure or kill a child if misused. In this case, I recommend telling them they can use the equipment but only when you are with them supervising (being in the same room is not enough, you have to pay attention to what they’re doing) and only if they use it correctly.

Children should be taught basic, compound bodyweight exercises first since these are the easiest to teach and learn and help develop good habits that will carry over to free weight and machine exercises if they choose to use them later. Most bodyweight exercises are safer than free weight exercises because although there is a slight falling risk there is no risk of dropping a weight on themselves, and bodyweight exercises are less likely to encourage “ego lifting” than exercises performed with weights. Bodyweight exercises are also a better option than machines for younger children since most machines are designed for adults and too large for them to use correctly.

The first few months of training should focus more on learning and practicing general exercise safety and proper exercise form than effort, and children should be taught that how well they perform each repetition of an exercise is far more important than how many repetitions they perform. Only a few exercises should be taught at a time, and the child should be allowed to become proficient in these before new ones are added. Children should only be encouraged to perform an exercise more intensely after they are able to consistently perform it with good form.

I recommend starting with a shorter version of the Kratos workout from the Project Kratos bodyweight training program handbook, with the exercises taught and performed in the following order:

1. Squat
2. Chin-up
3. Push-up
4. Hip Raise
5. Crunch
6. Heel Raise

Start with only the first three and gradually build from there. Normally you should only perform one set of each exercise, but in the beginning these three can be performed for three circuits as a 3×3 workout to provide more form practice and a greater cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning effect. If you do not have a chin-up bar or an adjustable suspension trainer there are isometric substitutes for these exercises which require no equipment at all covered in Project Kratos.

Consistency is important if you want your child to develop good exercise habits but it is neither necessary nor beneficial for your child to exercise more than three times a week on non-consecutive days once they develop the ability to train with a high level of intensity. Since a workout should take less than thirty minutes to complete it should not be difficult for most children to find time, but if yours has a particularly busy schedule even only one or two workouts per week can be highly effective if performed properly and with sufficient effort.

Some children make take to exercise enthusiastically while others may stubbornly refuse at first, but regardless, if you teach them to exercise properly and help them to make it a habit in the long run they will thank you for it.

*Improvements in general factors of functional ability affect your ability to perform any physical activity, while improvements in specific factors like skill do not transfer between activities.

**Some general factors of functional ability like musculoskeletal geometry and neurological efficiency are genetically dictated and not improvable through exercise.

Contrary to the claims of a lot of trainers and coaches who really should know better, performing an exercise to the point of momentary muscular failure – the point at which you are unable to continue the exercise with proper form – does not increase your chances of being injured. If you are injured during an exercise it is because some part of your body was exposed to more force than it could withstand. This excessive force usually results from 1.) moving into or through positions where there is excessive compression and/or stretching of tissues because the path and/or range of movement is inconsistent with the function and range of one or more of the joints involved and/or 2.) from rapid acceleration during the turnarounds between the positive and negative phases of the repetition. Proper exercise form imposes a resistance on the muscle groups you are targeting while avoiding all of these problems.

Proper exercise form involves moving along a path and through a range of motion that is consistent with the function of the joints involved. Poor exercise form is the opposite, and is comparable to attempting to perform a joint lock or destruction on someone; if you wish to damage someone’s joint you apply a force to it which either causes it to move in a direction it is not meant to or to move further than it is meant to. You don’t want to do this to yourself during exercise.

Proper exercise form also involves moving slowly enough to reverse direction smoothly between lifting and lowering and minimize the variation in force encountered due to acceleration, and to maintain proper body positioning to avoid offloading resistance to muscle groups other than the ones targeted by the exercise. Poor exercise form is the opposite, involving quick, jerky turnarounds and lots of unwanted involvement from other muscle groups which can increase risk of injury by generating a high level of force which may be transferred to the load through many weaker structures. The difference between using a slow speed of movement and smooth turnarounds and using a fast speed of movement and fast, jerky turnarounds is like the difference between bungee jumping with a bungee cord and a metal chain. Unless you are stupid or suicidal you wouldn’t bungee jump with a chain, and you shouldn’t move quickly during exercise for the same reason.

Nothing about training to momentary muscular failure in and of itself increases the force your body is exposed to during an exercise. When momentary muscular failure occurs it just means you are unable to continue the exercise in the prescribed form. If your form is consistent the forces your body encounters during the first rep of an exercise, the last rep, and every rep in between will be the same. As long as you do not alter your form when you reach failure to reduce the difficulty of the exercise for the for the sake of completing more repetitions you will not be injured. If you do alter your form, the compromised form is the problem and not momentary muscular failure. How you perform each repetition is far more important than how many repetitions you perform.

When you reach momentary muscular failure it is because fatigue has momentarily reduced the positive (concentric) strength of the muscle groups involved to below the level necessary to continue lifting the weight or maintaining the proper body position. This does not, however, mean you will be unable to hold the weight and will drop it on the floor or yourself, or unable to lower it in a safe manner. This is because your muscles have different levels of strength when contracting concentrically (lifting a weight), eccentrically (lowering a weight), and isometrically (holding a weight). Your muscles can hold more weight than they can lift, and they can slowly lower more weight than they can hold, so even if you are unable to continue to lift a weight you will be strong enough to hold it and to lower it under control.

While it is possible for your grip to fail during an exercise you will tend to lose your grip gradually, because your negative strength is greater than your isometric strength; slowly enough that you will be aware of it when it starts to happen and have time to safely set the weight or yourself down and either end the exercise or re-set your grip. This is usually only an issue with pulling movements like deadlifts, chin-ups, pulldowns, and rows. During pressing exercises as long as you use a proper (full) grip and have normal, healthy hands and wrists there is no reason you should ever lose your grip and drop a weight on yourself. Any exercise performed with a barbell above you should be done inside a power rack or with good spotter stands with the safety bars adjusted to the proper height. A spotter helps, but I don’t recommend relying solely on a random person at the gym to spot you effectively.

You are not going to “burn out” your central nervous system by training to momentary muscular failure. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, “The negative effects on the CNS are not due to training to failure, but rather overtraining. The microtrauma caused by training leads to an inflammatory response. If the body is not allowed adequate recovery time between workouts, chronic inflammation results, and cytokines involved in inflammation start to act on the CNS causing the various symptoms associated with overtraining. These cytokines can also affect the hypothalamus, causing increased cortisol levels. I suspect the myth about training to failure and CNS “burnout” resulted from attempts at increasing the intensity of exercise without the necessary reduction in volume.”

Over a twenty year period I’ve personally instructed hundreds of clients through tens of thousands of high intensity workouts consisting of hundreds of thousands of exercises performed to momentary muscular failure, and not one has been injured as a result. Many of these trainees were over sixty, and a few of them were in their seventies and eighties when I trained them. I know a lot of other high intensity training instructors who have been doing this with the same zero injury rate. If training to momentary muscular failure really increased the risk of injury it would be reasonable to expect at least a few injuries over so many years and so many workouts, but this simply isn’t the case. I can say with absolute certainty that training to muscular failure does not cause or increase risk of injury, and that poor exercise form is the problem.

I suspect the real reason some trainers claim training to momentary muscular failure increases risk of injury is that most trainers’ idea of “proper” form – and that includes many trainers who claim to teach high intensity training – is actually very poor. Of course, these trainers believe they know what proper form is (they don’t), they believe they are good at teaching it (they’re not), and they believe their form and their clients’ form is not the problem (it is), so when they or one of their clients are injured they must blame something else. It is easy for them to blame training to failure for injuries when they don’t understand the real causes and it gives them a convenient excuse to not work as hard as they ought to. However, regardless of what they might believe poor form is what causes injuries and not training to momentary muscular failure.

Question: Some HIT experts make a training program consisting of twelve exercises and some have only six or three. And some start with nine and after few months ask to reduce it to six.  What is your opinion about this issue?

Answer: All of those numbers are right for some people some of the time, but none of those numbers are right for all people all of the time.

First, a few definitions so there’s no confusion. A workout is a single exercise session. A program is a system or plan for exercising over weeks or months which includes multiple workouts and guidelines for their performance (frequency, protocols, pace, etc.).

There is no one number of exercises per program or per workout that is ideal for everybody. Minimally, your program should include at least one exercise which effectively works all the major muscle groups (those which produce movements of the arms, legs, trunk, and head), and you may wish to perform one or two additional exercises for muscle groups you need to focus on for sports or work performance or for balanced physique development. Whether you should perform all of those exercises in a single workout or divide them into two or more smaller workouts depends on your goals and your response to exercise.

It is also important to keep in mind that not all exercises place the same demands on your body, and how many you can or should do depends on which exercises you’re doing. There is a huge difference between performing a workout consisting of squats, chin-ups, dips, rows, and presses, and a workout consisting of heel raises, wrist curls, wrist extension, neck flexion, and neck extension. Both workouts include five exercises, but the first works much larger muscle groups and is going to have a much greater systemic effect and place more demands on recovery. Workout volume has more to do with how demanding the exercises are than how many there are.

Assuming you want to improve overall functional ability and not just muscular strength and size your workouts should include at least enough exercises to create an adequate systemic demand to stimulate improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic efficiency. This depends on which exercises you perform, how hard you are able to perform them, and your current level of conditioning.

If you divide the exercises in your program over several workouts you should not divide them so far that a lot more time passes between performing exercises for individual muscle groups than they need for recovery and adaptation or those muscle groups will not improve as quickly.

The general principles of exercise are the same for everybody, but the best application of those principles will vary depending on your goals and how your body responds to exercise. Because of this, any specific program or workout should be viewed as a starting point from which adjustments may be made to tailor it to your body and your goals, and not as something that is set in stone.

For more information on this read High Intensity Workouts.

Question: Does mental stress affect workout recovery? If so, if reducing stress is not possible should people prone to psychological stress reduce workout frequency?

Answer: A high level of mental stress can negatively affect sleep, hormones, and immune function which can hamper recovery from and adaptation to training; however, exercise has been shown to reduce stress and improve people’s ability to cope with it so it may benefit someone under a lot of stress to exercise more frequently rather than cutting back. Over the years I’ve trained a lot of people in high-stress professions – doctors, lawyers, law enforcement officers, fire fighters, teachers, etc. – and many of them listed stress-relief as one of their reasons for exercising and expressed feeling less stressed during and after their workouts.

Last Saturday a client called me shortly after his workout to thank me, saying he’d been having a particularly stressful week and felt much better after his workout (a modification of the bodyweight 3×3 from Project Kratos). Another client with a stressful job made a similar comment the week before, saying he loves his workouts despite the intensity because of how he feels afterwards. I think the reason for this is a properly performed high intensity workout requires such intense concentration and focus that it tends to drive thoughts of anything else out of your mind for a while, including whatever is worrying you or causing you stress.

If you are worried about overtraining and don’t want to add another workout or feel you must reduce your workout volume and frequency you can substitute another activity that occupies your mind. Read books. Hike, climb, kayak, cycle, or just go for a walk. Spend more time with friends and less time with the people who cause you stress. Study a martial art. Go to the pistol or rifle range and spend an afternoon shooting. Learn or practice playing a musical instrument.

I am not a psychologist, a psychiatrist, or an expert on stress management, so the following is just an opinion and speculation based on my experience. Your mileage may vary.

Although there may be exceptions, for most people I think it is possible to reduce stress and/or learn to handle it better. History is full of examples of people who remained relatively calm and collected and just dealt with extremely stressful situations, and much of what modern humans living in industrialized nations consider stressful is nothing compared to what most of the humans who have ever lived had to cope with daily just to survive. I’ve had my share of stressful situations, some of which I handled very poorly and some of which I handled very well. In retrospect the difference had less to do with the specifics of the situations and more with how I chose to think about and react to them. Accept that bad things happen, that it is pointless and counterproductive to worry or stress out over things outside of your control. Instead, focus on what you do have control over and what you can do and keep moving forward. Fix what you can, learn to cope with what you can’t.

If you’re so stressed out you think you need to reduce your workout volume and frequency to avoid overtraining then being overtrained is the least of your worries. Your priority should be doing what you can to reduce stress and improve your ability to cope with it, and since exercise benefits this it would be a mistake to cut back.