Kettlebell Throwing the Baby Out with the Bath Water: Have we taken AGT too far?

[rickyw]

Park bench and bus bench programs complement one another. It’s all about periodization. When you plateau with one style of training or need a break from it, switch to the other.

I’ve used A+A and S&S successfully over the years to relieve general stress and improve work capacity through some very chronic high stress life situations when bus bench programs would have likely burned me out. But sometimes you need a jolt of a program to get you up to the next level.

 

[Bret S.]

My son is 16 and wants to get stronger for climbing and parkour. I gave him a routine for all around strength and explosiveness. We'll see if he sticks with it or not.
I started weight training at 18, with a goal of size and strength gains saved money for a 300 lb Weider olympic set and a bench. I made some squat racks from 2x6's and got to work. Having no idea what I was doing started bench press, squats and curls all with a barbell pretty much daily. I ate everything in sight and went from 160 lbs to 200 in a year. It was 1978 on the South side of Chicago and we played tackle football pick-up games. The guys that used to knock me around got a little payback and it was good! Instant respect.. From there I read The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold and was on my way to 20" arms and 245 lean lbs.
So I told my son he can pretty much make gains just looking at the weights (almost). He can't really make a mistake as long as he does something.

Fast forward to today and I'm most comfortable at around 190 lbs. What I want is lean flexible strength for life and martial art training. I recently went up to 210 and didn't like it. I can still jump pretty well but the landings are getting harder.

Training lately has been mostly GT and AGT is my new toy. It's great for recovery and I'm really on a roll with it. I'll be 60 soon and recovery is getting harder. However I still really enjoy GT training and have no intention of abandoning it.

 

[offwidth]

I'll be 60 soon and recovery is getting harder.

Tell me about it...

 

[Steve Freides]

Tell me about it...

All joking aside, what I see in the elderly is what I call a “stop event.” E.g., someone I know in their mid-80’s who wasn’t an exerciser at all but walked, played cards once a week, went to church a couple of times a week, etc. One bad cold that hung on for a couple of weeks started a big change for the worse - a couple of weeks with no activity, then all of a sudden, health issues start coming up. Dizziness, blood pressure issues, etc. and the cold doesn’t quite go away, either.

Recovery is absolutely key in many aspects of life and at many stages, and it does seem to matter more and more the older we become. At age 63, I try to err on the side of caution in my training more than I used to, and I trust my instincts more than I did when I was younger about what and when to train. The most important training goal is to remain healthy enough to continue training.

-S-

 

[The Nail]

The most important training goal is to remain healthy enough to continue training.

Strong contender for comment of the year!

 

[offwidth]

Well said Steve, and very true.

 

[Oscar]

@Steve Freides , a question regarding your latest post: do you think recovery can be trained?

For instance, if the 80 year old man you mention was strength training and pushing himself once in a while, would that have helped in coping with all those issues?

 

[Steve Freides]

@Oscar, an interesting question - one can achieve the same effect by becoming stronger. When the effort required by any specific task represents a lesser percentage of effort, that lesser relative effort requires less recovery. In this way, we don't train recovery but rather train strength so that less recovery is required.

Now, that said, yes, I do think one can train recovery. You're a Buteyko student; I suspect, like me, you've experienced an improved ability to slow your respiration rate, and I believe if we measured, we'd also find your heart rate recovery improves when you're able to breath calmly sooner after a given effort.

And if you'll forgive me being particular here, I don't think "and pushing himself once in a while" is necessary. Pushing one's self once in a while will usually result in better/faster/more improvements, but improvements can still take place without doing that.

-S-