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I have this odd relationship with the local blue jays. Every night, before I go to bed, I put out some peanuts. In the morning, I wake up to them squawking and barking while they hop and pop on my balcony. This noise wakes me up and I start my day. Now you can argue that I should invest in an alarm clock, and, honestly, I use one if I have to get to the airport by five. But, on most days, my feathered friends wake me up pretty much at the same time. Of course, if I don't put out peanuts, I get up earlier as they object mightily to my oversight. You see, I believe in community. So much so, that I'm going to leap into the key point of this article here: You'll never make your long-term goals in fitness without community. Now before I go too far, you can see where a future, seemingly contradictory article will be heading: You can't make your goals unless you have the courage to train alone. But that article is for another time. Since all of us need to spend a little time on both sides, let's take a look at the difference a community makes.
The Three P's There are three "P's" in training in groups, and each is important, so important that you may gloss over them and ignore the fundamental importance of the concepts of path, passion, and program. Let's look at each.
The Path Although I don't use it professionally, I have a master's degree in history. It really does come in handy in my social life, even though I don't make money from it. You see, as you age, you tend to become fascinated by certain odd things. I have a friend who reads everything he can find on Custer's Last Stand, so much so that he has a list of names of his friends whose last names are somehow mentioned in the musters of the battle. I can't imagine anything sexier than meeting a woman at a party and telling her that someone with her family name died at Little Big Horn. So, what happens is that people will begin to talk about their interest in Little Big Horn or D-Day or the Battle of Hastings or whatever, and I follow along well. But, when the Little Big Horn guy talks to the guy who's fascinated by the assassination of JFK, they have a disconnnect. As my professors taught me, I'll teach you: They don't understand the connections; they don't see the links.
The Passion The next key for understanding the role of community in fitness training is passion. As I've noted before, its roots are in a Latin word meaning "to suffer." I love training. I really do. And, because of my great love for training, I also enjoy the suffering. As I recount the scars, the surgeries, and the battles of my athletic career, I can feel the surge of the rising heartbeat and the hair standing on end. Like Patton said, "By God, I love it." Yet, it's hard to get that fired up about three sets of eight with a medium weight on a military press machine. So, to fire one's passion, meet with a group of buddies and train. I've had the rare opportunity of having Mark Twight bring over the elite of the elite to train with me in my backyard. True, they have a skill set in some things that simply stagger me, but lifting weights and pulling sleds simply staggers them. So, while the meat is on the grill, we sweat, strain, and vomit.
The Programming Everyone seems to be an expert at programming now. I've decide that I'm clueless about it, as I get emails almost daily asking me for a program to do this or that or this. I can't seem to help anyone in this area for a number of good reasons. First, I don't know the first thing about you or your situation. Second, when I say do X and you do Y, thinking that Y is X, I'm so lost in the algebra that I can't catch up to you. Which is why I love programming with a group.
A Group at Work Let's look at an actual workout based on these principles. Recently, my Coyote Point group used all of these principles. Here's what we did: First, we have two rules: Don't get hurt. (Okay, here comes an old, beat up joke, but pay attention. The overriding rule here is not to get hurt. The joke is simple: You ask what the second rule is and I say, "Don't get hurt." There's your ab workout as you laugh hysterically for several minutes. Or not.) Second, part of the workout is driving to the park, unloading your equipment, catching up on the lives of the others, and talking about what we're going to eat in a while.
I Go/You Go Training I think that this ratio of work, literally one to one, is a valuable hypertrophy-training trick. You have just enough rest to catch your breath before you're back at it. Don't go heavy here, but for movements that'll give you a pump, this is ideal. I love these for basic bodybuilding moves (please don't make me say "curls"), but they also work for harder things like squat variations and some presses. If you want to see how interesting this can be, get a partner and do a machine overhead press. Agree to a weight and simply go back and forth, I go/you go fashion for several minutes. Note how quickly you feel the heat in your shoulders.
Staggered Chain In a perfect world, you could train like I train people. We randomly, without any concern for weight, toss our kettlebells into a long line on the ground (you can do this with dumbbells, too). Then, starting with the left hand, do an exercise (I prefer the clean and press), and walk down the line of kettlebells switching hands each time. Next time, start with your right hand. As long as you do an even number of times through, you'll balance out both hands. Recently, we laid out 15 kettlebells in a row and did each three times for two loops. The number of presses in five minutes was ninety reps. This is the way to do volume work!
Follow the Leader If you're in a gym, you have an ideal way of group training, and you don't even know it. You can also do this without a group by simply training on any piece of recently vacated equipment. Not long ago, we did this variation with a group of twenty people at my old facility: Farmer's walk Sled pull "Judy" carry (Judy is a 150-pound bag named after someone I don't care for very much) Kettlebell swings Military presses Easy run (to a playground) Pull-ups (on a jungle gym)
What Those Little Birdies Taught Me There's a great lesson in my odd relationship with the blue jays, the peanuts, and waking up: We all seem to get what we want with less effort than going at it alone. Use the same concept to take yourself to your goals.