The Training Wave

Manual (transmission) vehicles are becoming more and more a thing of the past, relegated to car enthusiasts who want the extra control and experience, and to people who have purchased a car from an earlier era. One of the things that people will hopefully learn early on when driving a manual vehicle is the increase in power and the comfort of the car when the gears are used effectively. Ideally, the car will shift into a new gear when it is starting to approach a higher RPM, but not so high that the car is screaming at the driver. If someone chooses to shift too early the car either lacks power or, in some cases, the engine stalls.

Good strength training mimics the shifting of gears. You want to start out easy, building your RPMs with a weight that you can easily get started with, and continue with that weight until you’ve become very comfortable. At this stage you have a high number of reps on the board and when you jump up to the next bell (or gear in our analogy) you’re already within the comfortable range. People often strive to jump into the next gear as soon as it is theoretically possible, but by doing so, remove the margin for error, and increase the likelihood that they will overreach and cause themselves problems either immediately, or at some point in the future due to the additional strain that they have placed on their system. There are times and places where it is important to redline an engine (for the young’uns - an ancient term for when you use a very high RPM) and to push your training, but it isn’t all the time, and it’s usually to refine the system that has been used effectively for the majority of the time.

Most good training cycles will run for between four and twelve weeks, and will start easy allowing the trainee to build structural qualities and to improve or renew skills with greater margin for error, from here, the load or volume will increase (as in RPM) before reaching a peak that should create a physical shift for the person relative to their goal. The initial period is important as it allows the person momentum to safely reach the top gear (which could be more reps, more comfortable reps, or a heavier rep or reps) before the whole cycle kicks off again.

Drive your body well. Don’t be someone who’s constantly struggling to shift through the gears. Be patient, get your reps in to the point that the jump to the next weight is easy, and enjoy smooth progress from bell to bell for an extended period of time.