“Yes”, Eric answers slightly sluggishly, but still promptly, after I ask him if he still wants to train today. We’ve already gone through our warm up and gone on to our workout. Weights he is normally breezing through for a warm up look slightly heavy. Rest times are longer, grimace faces are more grimacey (note: call websters. Get grimacey in dictionary).

That particular day was a big day for Eric and I. He was going to do 5 sets of 5 with 200 lbs on the trap bar deadlift. This may not be much to write home to Louie Simmons about, but that 200 lb mark is a big one for trainees. Considering we had been doing 5×5’s with 95 lbs several months before, this was a big one. 1 or 2 sets in it was very clear that the 5×5 of 200 lbs we sought after just wasn’t going to happen. So what do you do now?

Anyone that has been working out or training clients long enough has experienced this at one point or another. There are so many contributing factors that can lead to feeling like crap in the gym. Sickness, lack of sleep, stress, under-eating, the dreaded and often misdiagnosed overtraining. All of these can lead to a 10 lb dumbbell feeling like an F-350.

The first answer many have is to pack up the gym bag and go home. While this is sometimes not necessarily the worst answer, it’s not always the best. What happens when your client (or you) still want to train? That need to feel some sort of weight in your hand, that endorphin rush, that relief and sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing your workout. Those benefits that are not simply physiological changes to the body. Not to mention the client wanting to get their money’s worth on top of that.

Barring a situation where staying in the gym would truly be a detriment to their/your health, the answer is to train. Now before you go and try to set a squat PR when you’re feeling like crap (although it has most definitely been done), that’s not what I’m trying to get at. The plan has to change for the day.

Grand illusions of setting a rep pr or doubling your volume should probably take a back seat for the day. Use this time to work on the boring stuff that you don’t generally find yourself doing. This could be technique/form work on lifts you’re not proficient in. Working on mobility requires very little effort but pays dividends in training. Light conditioning/cardiovascular work will help get some blood and sweat flowing while not overly taxing the body. Chances are many of you could use some heart rate elevation regardless.

Even low intensity exercises such as body weight squats, planks, push ups, pull ups (depending on your proficiency), or crawls will get you moving without kicking your ass. That’s your main goal for the day: not beating yourself up. Your body and mind are already having enough trouble battling whatever is currently ailing you. Don’t barrage it with loads of extra stimuli that will ultimately just dig yourself a deeper hole. It’s always ALWAYS better to recover faster and get back to your normal routine than it is to kick yourself when you’re down and keep yourself there. Live to fight another day, as the saying goes.

As for Eric, we took it easy that day. We worked on deadlift technique, did some light goblet squats, then called it a day. The next Monday he smoked his 5 sets of 5 with 200. I’d say taking it easy for a day paid off just fine.

(Picture Info: Golden Age strongman/bodybuilder George Eiferman play’s a trumpet while holding a 135 lb barbell overhead)

Welcome to my blog, Strength is the Glass. After many months of deliberation, procrastination, and maybe just good ole’  laziness, I decided it was finally time to put the myriad of random thoughts pertaining to training and fitness bouncing around my brain into digital writing. You won’t find an abundance of technical information, nor 100% grammatically correct writing for that matter. There are enough trainers smarter than I already proliferating the web with technical training jargon. You won’t find typical sugar coated motivational personal trainer pieces, although I hope you are occasionally able to find motivation through my musings. I won’t try to sell you training sessions, although I’m always open to “spreading the gospel” to new people. What you will find is honest writing, whether that is to your liking or not is your prerogative.

I am not an elite athlete. I am not an excellent writer. I am by no means an expert in exercise science. I don’t live on a diet of chicken breast, broccoli, and brown rice. What I am is a man that has developed a love over the last decade for picking heavy stuff up, and getting others excited to do so as well. My posts will rarely be heavily researched, as the content will be heavily drawn from not only my experiences of the last 14+ years as a coach, a lifter, a personal trainer, and a martial artist; but also as a normal person that realizes that life is not meant to be lived in the gym. Along with that I will occasionally post snippets of my own training, not out of any intent to claim my methods are superior, but only to let them be known and to perhaps enlighten others. So let’s get started.

What the hell does “Strength is the Glass” mean, anyways?

I first heard this term several years ago by a strength coach named Brett Jones. I’ve never really read any of his other work, nor do I know if much of it exists. But this one quote alone was enough to change my entire perception on strength training, and fitness in general. In his metaphor, strength is the glass and all other facets of fitness were the liquid. As strength grows, so does the amount of liquid that can be contained in the glass. You will be able to train conditioning longer and more intensely, motor control issues than can affect mobility and bracing will begin to alleviate, and technique will be easier to pick up because you will be able to worry less about strength being a limiting factor. No, strength training does not automatically make these facets of fitness better. It just allows you to make them better. And that’s why strength is so important.

Outside of just a performance aspect, strength is a powerful feeling. Strength is addictive. Strength takes patience. Strength takes discipline. Strength sure ain’t easy, but damn it is it worth it. Strength is there when the rest of your life feels like it’s trying to shove your own shoe down your throat. In the the words of Henry Rollins, “Friends may come and go, but 200 lbs is always 200 lbs.” I’ve found few things more satisfying or rewarding in life than adding something as small as 10 lbs to my deadlift, even if it took a year to do it. My goal is to get as many people I can to feel the same way. Hopefully this blog can get a few of you to catch the iron bug as I have.