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Other/Mixed Do you like to go to dark places?

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Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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Part of what I enjoy about training is seeing what I'm made of, it's an addiction. It is not in an attempt at thinking it is required to improve performance but as a way of improving my own resilience. I find myself pushing strength instead of practicing strength not because I feel I have to but because I simply like to.
 
I like to push near the edge of my ability every 2 weeks, typically with conditioning as my 1RM strength progressions have always been a slower process which works out well from a safety perspective. At 41, I would rather keep playing than be on the IR list.
 
Well when I think dark place in regards to training, I think of conditioning. Something like swings where your body never really stops it just keeps getting more unpleasant. This doesn't tempt me at all. Infact that's what I love about S&S style conditioning. I give it everything for 10 swings and by the time the effect catch up with me, all I have to focus on is breathing and recovering. Now when people do 500 or 1000 swings there is the competitive part of me that's like "you gotta do that". Thankfully it's well overbalanced by the part that knows what a simple snatch test feels like :p

I find myself pushing strength instead of practicing strength not because I feel I have to but because I simply like to.
Most definitely. I've found it's a short term pleasure though. Eventually I fail to surprise myself and now I have to wait while for my "everyday max" to catch up to the "Psych Max". And man I hate that feeling when the body shuts you down and the weight just falls, esp in a press. It's like being a teenager again and getting grounded. "Sorry kid your just not being responsible with your vehicle right now, I'm gonna have to take the keys."
 
Compete at the TSC or a powerlifting meet every 6 months - it's a great way to focus your training and to test yourself.

-S-
 
Well when I think dark place in regards to training, I think of conditioning...
In addition to conditioning, I also find dark places with 1RMs, partials, heavy carries, high-rep single movement accumulations.
Compete at the TSC or a powerlifting meet every 6 months - it's a great way to focus your training and to test yourself.
It's weird that I don't have a desire to compete at anything though, never really have.
 
I think it's more a matter of what you're training and volume. I think practicing the struggle without a volume to induce injury is definitely considered training.
 
Training is doing the proper stimulus to induce a good recovery cycle before your next session. It's based only on your ability to recover, not how hard you can push it on a given day. Just having fun and blowing it out is fun most of the time, but a lot of it too often doesn't leave you better off over the long term. Lot's of people need something to make them work harder to get it right, but others need something to rein them in some. Just depends on where you want to be in a year...
 
There exists such a thing called ego. And according to modern fitness gurus, it should succumb daily to the "no pain, no gain" mentality.
Research has existed since at least 2003, showing, proving, and describing, how "maxing out", pushing the limits, and "proving yourself" daily is not only bad for you, but causes more damage than good. On this forum alone, there are numerous, intelligent, proven, reliable, and relevant professionals and experts that preach and follow a "less is more" training methodology. What more will it take to show that good programming, consistency, and patience win the day when it comes to being strong, having strength, and being able to move whatever, whenever?
If you are struggling, you are not training, you are struggling, plain and simple.
Leave the programming to those more qualified, and enjoy the fact that they are offering their advice and expertise for free.
 
Ghosts of conversations past can creep in and shut down discussion. I'm not sure I see an interpretation of the OP that claims constantly pushing strength is training. I don't see no pain no gain either. It looks like it's written to acknowledge the potential problems. The question is, I think, do you enjoy it? As @Matts says are you someone who needs to push your natural tendencies, or someone who need to rein them in?
 
I think it's more a matter of what you're training and volume. I think practicing the struggle without a volume to induce injury is definitely considered training.

Could you please explain this in some detail? Thank you.
 
What I mean is that training thresholds comes in many forms and that inadequate recovery between efforts, I think, ultimately reduces your thresholds. Looking at thresholds from a peak perspective, without starting from a recovered state, I do not think the peak can get as high and that after enough time, certain peaks will not be balanced with others and cause an injury. I don't believe that frequent testing of the same thing is necessary, just that testing in general is very beneficial from the mental perspective and that the body does need to be exposed to stimuli (both mental and physical) that force adaptation and those stimuli are not all connected. A regular diet of 70-80% efforts first requires that you have dug deep to find your 1RM. Even something as simple as fitting in a training session can be a struggle. For me, that mental hurdle of digging deep to overcome a struggle is fulfilling and I enjoy what it provides to the rest of my training.

The original intent of the thread wasn't to discuss ego as a component of training but I'm comfortable taking it there. I do believe that that pain does in fact equal gain. However, more pain does not equal more gain. I think practicing/pushing your thresholds is very beneficial to your training. Perhaps it's my definition of pain or dark places that is confusing. Anything that pushes a person to something new or uncomfortable can be a dark place. For some, it might be as simple as not missing a single training day for 30 days straight, or to simply force yourself into sticking to a program for longer than a week, etc. There are so many components that makeup balance, I think a person can visit thresholds regularly without "overtraining" any single component.

Many aspects play a role into how often I go to dark places (my definition being things that require I do not give up). For a physical example, the less eccentric loading and the lower the volume, the higher the frequency I can visit that thresholds and adequate recovery drives it. Testing yourself comes in many forms and each contributes to your success in different ways. I believe that testing yourself and pushing your thresholds is absolutely necessary and more beneficial than not.
 
A regular diet of 70-80% efforts first requires that you have dug deep to find your 1RM
Yes, I think that is assumed in these discussions. It follows that, if you're doing math based on a soft 1RM, you can operate at a "higher" level because it only appears higher.

That said, different people respond differently to different percentages of effort. Someone who has a lot of endurance might get very close to their 1RM repeatedly without overtraining, while someone with less endurance (we could speculate about muscle fiber types as well as about training experience) might need never to even touch 90% in training if the goal is to be able to give 100% for a single rep at a specific date and time.

There are so many variables . . .

-S-
 
There are so many variables . . .

Sir, how do you get to the point where you can identify "most" of these and thereby attain the ability to effectively and safely coach, teach, instruct, mentor, and plan for students and peers?
 
Experience.

Although not a trainer my entire life, I began teaching professionally in 1971. I continue to learn about teaching, even after doing it for 45 years.

-S-
 
I get where BroMo is at with this. A dark place may be different to each of us based on our back grounds, experience, and general pysche.

For instance, a 5 min. Snatch test can be a dark place to go depending on what you put into it. You wouldn't do that every day but to throw yourself into it and know that you did when you're done is a gratifying feeling for some.

Wind sprints for some would be a dark place, but they are a means to an end.

For me 20 rep squats are a dark place. I would love to do them but having to endure the next several days of back pain wouldn't be worth the gratification. So I don't, just like I wouldn't do wind sprints everyday or run a marathon every day.

If you are constantly testing your abilities, you are no longer "training".

But don't many train to test their abilities? Have you ever had someone who doesn't train ask you why you do what you do? Once I was out of competitive sports I continued to train and someone ask me why. When I set down and thought about it, it never occurred to me that some don't do this and don't understand the want or the need to train. Why would you climb Mt . Everest, swim the English Channel, or jump out of a perfectly good air plane.
 
I get where BroMo is at with this. A dark place may be different to each of us based on our back grounds, experience, and general pysche.

@Bro Mo thanks for taking the time to articulate your thoughts.

My paradigm is stress; and combined with the wisdom of decades, I am likely blind to your ideas. If you approach thresholds in exercise, you are setting up an environment for life changing injury--not always though, and even likely, this is less common. But if your overall stress is low (and you're young), I would say go ahead and infrequently run the redline. The largest problem is that collective stress cannot be measured.
 
This logic works both ways- maybe with a steady, well-tailored program, that seemed like cruise control by comparison, there'd be much more success. I've done it both ways different times of my life, and it's still always surprising how much more progress there is after a few years on "cruise control." It's never too late to try it out...

Trust me Matts, that was tongue in cheek. Ciampa does snatches with a 40K on his easy days, he's not on cruise control. Well, what most would call cruise control, but probably cruise control for him. But you're right, when things get busy and maybe stressful it's time to cut back. Take a breath but not quit training altogether. It's times like that that you need a little training time too. Just like sometimes it's fun to go to that dark place. Neither I nor do I believe BroMo are advocating crazy life altering workouts day in and day out. But its fun to go to the stadium and do some carries up the stairs sometimes and find out that you still have quads when they burn like hell.

When I really want to go to a dark place I just put on some "The White Buffalo".
 
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