This Workout Will Get You Stronger — Come *HILL* or High Water
One of the Stranger Things in life is that you’ve not tried this already.
There are a few “prime guarantors” of success in strength training:
- Consistency (how long you stick to your training)
- Volume (how many reps you do in a workout or program)
- Specificity (how much you stick to a particular exercise)
The details that you fill in (sets, reps, frequency, exercise selection, etc.) will determine the direction you can go, but the above details are the fuel that will get you there.
However, as with anything, there are a few caveats.
For example:
Volume — as important as it is — can really start to eat up your time as it climbs higher and higher. And if all you’re after is a good, solid workout, dedicating several sessions per week to one single movement to help improve your strength in it can get a little boring.
Plus, you risk garnering some gnarly overuse injuries or muscle imbalances if you end up climbing too high with your volume — sort of like a modern-day Icarus boldly (but mistakenly) flying too close to the sun, only to have the glute on his hastily fabricated wings melt.
The same, by the way, goes for specificity: too much of the same thing and you’re almost guaranteed stagnation and overuse issues after a while.
All hope is not lost, however.
For my money (and yours!) one of the most reliable methods is to make sure you continue to improve your base levels of strength and movement.
Without a doubt, the best way to do that is this: keep gait-pattern movements in your training.
Your gait pattern is your walking pattern, and while it doesn’t sound very powerful (or sexy, to be honest), it’s the movement that most defines you as a human. And what better way to get inhumanly strong than by being as strong as possible in the way that humans were made to move?
Now, while our gait pattern is usually defined by our walking, it is fortified by a few other movements — such as crawling and carrying.
Both of these movements will add muscle and strength in every single nook and cranny of your Soft Machine and will make just about every other strength movement you do feel like child’s play.
And that means that you’ll be able to keep building even more strength in your favorite exercises in less time AND without having to work yourself into a corner with your training where you’re doing too much volume just to reach your goals. Win-win!
Carrying is a pretty straight-forward affair: Pick up something moderately heavy and carry it. “Stand at attention” and just go for a walk.
Crawling is the same: keep your head up and “walk” on all 4s using the opposite limbs. Easy-peasy!
Wanna make things even MORE challenging?
Crawl backward up a hill, then forward back down. Catch your breath a little bit, then pick up a kettlebell and walk to the top of the hill and then back down again (carefully, I might add). Repeat this for 10–15 minutes, resting as little as possible, but as much as necessary.
You can probably imagine with the carry up the hill will look like, so no need for a video there.
Your workout will look like this:
A1) backward crawl up hill, forward crawl down hill
A2) carry kettlebell up hill, walk back down (make sure you don’t walk backward down the hill. I insist)
Do this every once in a while to spice up your training (and gaining).
Suggested soundtrack: “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush. You’re welcome.
On that note, if you like training that:
- Gives you more strength than it takes from you
- Improves your stamina and resilience simultaneously
- Powers-up every nook, cranny, crevice, and corner of your Soft Machine
Then you just might like my 9-Minute Kettlebell and Bodyweight Challenge.
As the name indicates, it’s just 9 minutes long, and it’s designed to be done WITH your current workouts — NOT instead of them.
Even cooler:
Many find that it actually amplifies their strength in their favorite kettlebell and bodyweight moves, like presses, squats, pullups, and more.
And best of all, it’s free.
How free?
I’m talkin’ freer than the 4th of July, my friend.
Get thee thine own copy here => http://www.9MinuteChallenge.com
Have fun and happy training!
Aleks Salkin
