Why we think training "M.A.D." could be the answer to achieving further results!

Hey Transformers!

One of my fantastic Team Transform members – Josh Bryers – wrote up for me an awesome little article on why it’s important to progress with your training in order to see results, and he broke it down in a cool, fun way that is easy to remember and understand. So I thought I’d share his thinking with you all in today’s blog post, and include my own thoughts on the subject as well.

To begin, I think the basis of why Josh wrote this is because he see’s his fellow members wanting to achieve results in accordance to their individual goals, but might not necessarily be making the positive changes needed in order to achieve those results. Basically, your average people don’t like lifting heavy-ass weights. Now obviously nutrition plays an undeniably important part in any result, and we have talked about this several times, but sometimes I think where people can often go wrong is although they might believe they are training hard and doing all that is required, they are massively under-estimating their capabilities and aren’t progressing as needed. I think more often then not, I witness people get to a weight that seems challenging at the time, and they spend session after session doing the same exercise on that weight, without even considering the fact that it has become far less challenging then it initially was, and therefore it’s time to try the next weight up.

Now obviously increasing weight is only one way in which we can progress in training, but it is often the easiest to implement. One thing that brings me a lot of joy as well as humour, is watching members that have been doing for example a sumo deadlift with a 12kg Kettlebell, only to eventually try a 24kg and be surprised at quite how comfortably they can do it. When starting out and learning exercises, getting the technique right, I encourage members to lift an easier weight, but eventually there needs to be progression otherwise your body will become accustom and use less energy to do the required task, thus resulting in a plateau. One thing I love in sessions is a little thing I like to call “forced progression”, where the weight someone would usually use is already taken, so they have no choice but to lift the next weight up.

We have talked about needing to progress, but more importantly is the why? and Josh has written down the following formula to help explain, as seen below: Work = Force x Distance

He then broke it down to make it easier to remember and understand, when rearranged we can see that: Work = MAD

Why Does this matter?

If your sole purpose of training is to burn more calories and lose more weight, than it is critical to consider these 3 key elements. If work is measured in “joules / calories” and burning more calories than you are eating allows for weight to be lost, than it is extremely important to maximise the amount of work done per training session. During your session, this can be achieved three ways.

(1) Increase MASS: This is typically the easiest to implement provided extra weight is available. It’s really simple, just lift heavier weights! Note: If you are limited by the amount of weight you have available, I would then recommend to increase the time your muscles are under tension, by increasing the tempo. e.g Squatting 4sec down and 2sec up as opposed to 1sec down and 1sec up.

(2) Increase Acceleration: This is of course the opposite to increasing time under tension, as we look to perform the movements at a faster rate. This can be done with explosive movements, but harder to do with isolated exercises. Note: Understand that we aren’t talking about simply doing biceps curls ridiculously fast for lots of reps. We are talking about incorporating explosive exercises such as cleans, snatches, jerks, swings, sprints, box jumps, etc. and then increasing your explosive power on those exercises. In the example of a snatch, you are trying to reduce the time it takes for the weight to get above your head.

(3) Increase Distance: By increasing the distance we move the weight it is possible to increase work. In certain exercises this can be difficult and limiting however, as we only have a set range of movement for most exercises. e.g. Arm length extending in a shoulder press. Maximising the full range of motion of each exercise can result in greater muscle activation and therefore the work will be increased. Other examples of increasing the distance in exercise but without the use of a weight would be a prone (plank) or supine hold. The further your arms/legs are extended away from the middle of the body the more difficult the exercise becomes, therefore increasing work required.

So now we have talked about how you can increase the productivity of your workouts, take a minute to think about your own training, and if you have been incorporating either of these things. If you are honest with yourself and you know that you haven’t, there’s no better time to progress than right now! On your next workout I challenge YOU to challenge YOURSELF and progress to the next level. Never settle for where you are at right now, because everyone is capable of greater things, and slow/small progress is better than no progress!