No Pain, More Gain
“No Pain, No Gain”
While a great motivator and a classic phrase to help get the best out of our clients, I disagree. The idea behind this saying is that we need to destroy ourselves in the gym or on the track, wherever you may be training, in order to grow. While this can be an efficient way to train, it isn’t for everyone and it only works if you absolutely obliterate the body in every session. This, in turn, leaves the athlete feeling painfully sore for 3-4 days. Sometimes that means not being able to walk, run, go up stairs, scratch your back etc. I prefer to train multiple areas of my body 4-6 days a week. Reason being, I believe it is much more practical, efficient and sustainable.
Practicality is important when its comes to our fitness routines. If your routine isn’t easy to implement, then you’re less likely to do it. Lets say you’re on vacation, have a short work week, holidays are coming up, catch a cold, really anything that throws your routine off. Usually this means you’re going to miss a day or two of training. In these situations, it is much more practical to get in a 20-30 minute training session. This way your muscles receive stimulus for growth but you aren’t wasting time and aren’t in pain for days on end.
More than anything our fitness routine should be efficient; maximizing productivity and minimizing time wasted. This is where rest periods come into play. How much time you spend resting in between your sets makes a huge impact on the difficulty of your training. Performing 100 push up in five sets can be easy with 60-90 seconds rest, but cut that rest time to 10-15 seconds? You may not make it to the third set! When training multiple areas in the same session, you can work one group of muscles while the other rests. For example, after 20 push ups, jump right into squats. While your upper body is resting, your lower body is working and vice versa. More importantly, your heart continues to pump and if you repeat the superset for a few rounds you will definitely get stronger, and can achieve hypertrophy (muscle growth).
Lastly, you need to make sure your routine is sustainable. Gains in strength, muscle and endurance are results of dedication and consistency. Exactly why I believe stimulating your muscles multiple times a week is a much more efficient and sustainable way to train. Say you want to get better at playing soccer, how often would you train? Once a week for 5 hours or 5 times a week for 1 hour? Although both accumulate to 5 hours of training, the daily routine is much more likely to bring you success. Training daily allows you more volume while creating less damage.
Let me explain. If you wanted to train your legs, because its what everyone else is doing of course, you might decide to have yourself a “leg day”. On said day, you’d squat, dead lift, leg press, lunge, hip thrust and then top it off with leg curls AND extensions! In order to complete all of that, you would need long rest periods, all that stimulation to the same muscles in minimal time is not possible in less than an hour. You’d feel proud of yourself as you crawled out of the gym and let everyone know that you cant move because: “leg day”. Thats option one. Option two consists of the same exercises, the same amount of weight and even more repetitions, just spread out across 3-4 days. This way, your muscles get more stimulation for growth but your not limping around the office or school all week. And, you spend much less time in the gym and more time enjoying your life!