I received this question from Sean over in England the other day and it’s a great one on slow vs. fast training.
“Hi Logan. You said in a post before that it is better to lift quickly to develop strength and power. Is this the same with exercises like pushups and squats. The Convict Conditioning book recommends a 2/1/2 second exercises. Another guy recommends taking 4 seconds in the lift and lower phases. I’ve even heard that this 4/4 phase supposedly increases growth hormone by 4,000%!! What would you recommend for bodyweight exercises? BTW. My laziness causes me to hate these slow reps!
“
First off there is no difference in what sort of weights you use. Whether a barbell, kettlebell or your bodyweight, it’s merely resistance to your muscles. For this reason there isn’t any difference in how you use one resistance versus another.
There are many people who would argue on both sides of this argument, training slow or fast. I am of the opinion that you should primarily exercise quickly. Fast if not fast as possible in many cases.
There are certain exercises that must be done quickly or they can’t be done. Olympic lifts, the ballistics with kettlebells, various kinds of jumps and more. In this case the answer must be fast. No way around it.
Then there are all the exercises that can be slow or fast. Some call these grinds. Press, pushup, squat, deadlift, curl, pullup etc.
The ideas behind lifting fast:
- You become what you train. Want to be explosive and fast? Then train that way.
- You’re going to be able to do more (weight or reps) by lifting quickly rather than artificially limiting yourself by going slow. In general that is exactly what we’re seeking to do.
- Even with a heavy weight, you seek to lift it as fast as possible. If it is near your limit, this may be slow, but you are attempting to go as fast as possible.
- Just because you are going fast doesn’t necessarily mean you are bouncing the weight, using momentum or anything that may take away from the movement. It can still be strict and fast. Although you can sacrifice form and strictness for speed which many people do.
The ideas behind lifting slow:
- Its safer. Without bouncing or momentum, that is change of direction at speed, you’re less likely to hurt yourself.
- It takes more strength to lift a weight slowly than quickly. A person that can do a single handstand pushup at full speed is not as strong in the movement as someone who can lower under a four count and raise up at the same.
- It takes more control. While this is tied in to the point above, by going slow you may activate more of the surrounding musculature as it seeks to stabilize. There is no cheating by swinging into any movement.
Whether you train slow or fast, if you know of any main points I missed, feel free to share them below.
Just try sprinting slow...oh wait, you can't!
For the reasons above I think lifting fast in general is better. Lifting slow can be mixed in every once in awhile to work your body in a different way. It’s also great for displaying the strength you have. But in general I don’t believe you should always train that way. This is regardless of what sort of exercises you do, bodyweight or iron weights.
I think you can do the programs found in Convict Conditioning with a fast tempo and make the same if not better progress. You may want to mix it up from time to time, and test yourself against the benchmarks laid out in the book in a slow manner.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. We’ll be talking more about fast training and some recent experiments on next week’s call with Adam Glass. Have you joined us on Super Human Training?
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bodyweight Exercise, Lifting Technique by on Jul 30th, 2010. 16 Comments. 
Hill sprints are always an excellent choice
There are many possible circuit training ideas. I’m going to list some just off the top of my head.
- Pick three exercises. Do each one for a minute before moving onto the next with no rest. Repeat this all for five rounds.
- Pick a strength exercises that you can only do for one to five reps. Have a conditioning move you can do a hundred reps in. Go back and forth between the strength exercise and conditioning exercise for a number of rounds. (This builds the ability to apply maximal strength while fatigued. Great for fighters.)
- Have 10-20 exercises of varying difficulties. Do as many reps of each before moving onto the next. Keep track of the reps for each exercise and your total time.
- Have an implement like a kettlebell on one end of a field. Do a set number of swings with it. Sprint to the other side of the field. Do a bodyweight exercise like pushups. Run back and repeat.
- Pick a number of exercises to work the whole body. Do a set followed by jumping rope for a minute. Go onto the next exercise then jump rope for a minute. Continue in this pattern stopping after you’ve done each exercise or just going once through them all.
There you have five potential workouts. With variations of each you could use these for the rest of your life.
Personally I like to mix it up with my circuits. Plan something then go after it. As long as you keep track of your workouts you can do something similar a month down the road and see how you’ve improved.
Alternatively, you can add a few reps or a bit of time to each exercise thus making each circuit harder. Do this on a regular basic and you have a formula for improvement.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. As for calve work as David mentioned about his Convict Conditioning Routine I haven’t directly worked my calves in even distant memory. Sprinting and/or jumping rope is all you need.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Kettlebells, Workouts by on Feb 11th, 2010. Comment.
David asked a follow up question regarding his Convict Conditioning routine. “Two questions: I forgot to ask, how would you add grip, neck, & calf work in there too; and can you give a more in depth outline of circuit training – how you would plan it?”
In today’s post I’ll cover hand strength training. For grip work I would train the hands two or three times per week. You could probably even get away with one session a week and still make good gains. Pick one to three exercises each time and go after it. These are the main types of hand strength but these are the main ones. Depending on your goals you may need other exercises.
Wrist levering – This can include wrist rollers, sledgehammer leveraging, dumbbell wrist curls, etc. Even handstands are good.
Crushing grip – This is usually done with steel spring grippers but can be trained in other ways.
Working the pinch grip with a block weight
Pinch grip – Pinching plates is the easiest form, block weights are great too, and then you can do feats like card and phonebook tearing.
Support grip – This is any type of holding. Kettlebell swings certainly work this. Farmer’s walk is probably one of the best exercises.
And many exercises cross over in different area. Bending nails works the wrists and your crushing and support grip. Plate curls will work your wrists and pinch at the same time. If you’re short on time I’d advise doing exercises that give you more bang for your buck.
Also for better hand health you should look at doing exercises like finger extensions especially if you go heavy into working the grip.
You don’t need to do heavy volume. Just one to a few sets is all you really need for your hand strength training.
In the next couple posts I’ll cover neck training and circuit training.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Hand Strength by on Feb 9th, 2010. 1 Comment.
I received this question the other day after my post on Convict Conditioning, and since it was well thought out I’m going to give an in depth answer.
Hey Logan,
You obviously have far more experience than me and I don’t even compare to you in terms of strength/conditioning. You’ve done an awesome job from what I can see! I’d like your opinion, please I read Coach Wade’s “Convict Conditioning” and I want to do the “Big Six” moves!
Goals – strength in the “Big Six” and mutant conditioning.
Preference for the kettlebell swing.
‘Decent’ recovery abilities.
Equipment – barbell, dumbells, 35lbs & 70lbs kettlebells, & pullup bar.
Not much money.
I was planning on trying out the ‘Veterano’ routine with swings three times a week (light, medium, and heavy swing days). A concern–over training with back bridges and swings.
Do you think this a great way to reach my goals?
Is ‘Veterano’ not enough strength work?
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you & God bless!
David
Considering your goals and equipment, I think what you have laid out is a good plan. If you want to get good at these moves you should do them. Adding in a conditioning component with the kettlebell swing makes it even better.
For those of you who don’t have the book yet the Veterano is a routine that consists of doing a few sets of one of the six exercises each day. In my opinion, since the volume is already kept minimal I believe this program would be better with more frequency.
These moves require a high degree of strength but also a high degree of skill. So practicing them more often should result in faster gains. One thing I learned from Pavel is that its better to do one set of an exercise everyday then six sets one day a week.
For this reason I would modify this routine to do two exercises each day instead of one. One arm pushups and bridges. Handstand pushups with hanging leg raises. And one leg squats with one arm pullups. This way you do each move twice a week instead of just once. Adjust the volume if you have to but I think this will give better results.
I wouldn’t worry about overtraining with the bridges and swings. If you’re knew to bridging or swinging just be sure to ease into it.
A light, medium and heavy swing days is a good way to approach it but I personally never liked light and medium days. When I train I want to go hard all the time. If it works for you do it but here is how I’d approach it.
While swings are one of my favorite exercises I caution you against relying on just one movement for your conditioning. When you do this you may become real efficient at that movement and your conditioning may not actually improve that much.
Its good to have a conditioning goal like a number of swings (see Bud Jeffries recent Kettlebell Swing article) to go after. But its good to have some variety too. Personally I would focus on swings one day a week and do some sort of circuit conditioning on another day. You can mix swings and snatches with other exercises like sprinting, burpees, jumping rope or many others. This’ll give you a different feel and end up being better for your endurance.
In fact this is what I am doing in my training right now except I’m focusing on kettlebell snatches instead of swings.
I hope that helps you out and if you have to ask any follow up questions. Be sure to let me know how you progress.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you want to check out Convict Conditioning, click here.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Workouts by on Jan 27th, 2010. 7 Comments.
Today I want to talk about two different sorts of Convict Conditioning and which one you might want to try.
I know a guy who recently got out of prison after spending just a couple months inside.
We got on the subject of working out while he was there and the stories he told me where ridiculous. This is close to an actual overheard conversation he heard:
“Let’s see, we did chest and arms yesterday so today let’s work our pecs and biceps. And then tomorrow we’ll go big and do some benching and curls.”
Zero leg work. Zero back work. In my opinion, the bench press and curls can be part of an effective program. PART. Not the whole damn thing!
And the worse part was he said three people in the whole place could bench 225 lbs or more. You’d think if you only did a couple exercises you’d at least get good at them.
And most would do heavy cheat curls with…80 lbs. I wish I could show you his imitations of their atrocious form. And moving from barbell curls to preacher curls to isolation curls and so on. The advanced guys might…MIGHT do a few one arm rows.
When my friend was doing pullups (yeah I know, a real ‘out there’ exercise) one inmate asked him if that worked the shoulders. He was the only guy doing pullups in the whole place!
This whole conversation started when I showed him Convict Conditioning, a recent publication from Dragondoor. On the cover is a man in the middle of doing a one arm handstand pushup. Must be very different penitentiaries for this colossal chasm of difference in training.
Considering I do lots of training with bodyweight exercises (and have my own courses devoted to two of the moves found inside – bridging and handstand pushups) I bought the book and read through it. In it Paul “Coach” Wade takes you through 6 exercises which lead up to some impressive feats. These include:
One Arm Pushups
One Leg Squats
One Arm Pullups
Hanging Leg Raises
Stand-to-Stand Bridges
One Arm Handstand Pushups
Each exercise is broken down into ten progressive steps. These steps take you from remedial exercises (usually the first 3-4 steps) up to these advanced moves.
That’s a real important thing most people don’t grasp. Making bodyweight exercises progressive isn’t as easy as throwing another plate on the bar. And in all training progression is the name of the game. So I have to applaud the effort of systematizing the progression as its laid out in this book. I don’t 100% agree with every one in here (for example some jumps in steps are small and some are real big) but overall it’s really good.
Now, I can do four of these moves but was particularly interested in the progressions he used for the other two, as they are exercises I‘d like to do one day. (I’ll let you guess which of the two exercises are quite a bit more difficult then the others.)
For anyone wishing to do the same I recommend getting Convict Conditioning and applying what you learn inside. It’s well worth it.
Even if you just did this routine you’d be fairly well off. Of course you really should add conditioning work as well and hand and neck training but besides that it’s a great program.
Anyone who wishes to train should master their bodyweight to some degree before touching any other training tool. You don’t have to be able to do all six of these moves but being at steps 5 or 6 in the progressions would not be a bad idea.
You can get Convict Conditioning by clicking here.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. I would never recommend a product I do not believe it and use myself. That being said I will be paid a small commission if you buy this book by clicking on the links on this page. After all I am running a business here. For the price its an excellent value.
P.P.S. Be sure to also check out this follow-up post on Convict Conditioning Routines.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise by on Jan 6th, 2010. 9 Comments.
