Transcription
A lot of people who would like to train more for strength train more often for strength. Do strength and endurance work. The challenge sometimes isn't just scheduling it. It's that we feel depleted and tired afterward. Have you observed this? And is there a way to use strength training or other forms of training to improve cognitive function? Because I, you know, again, as you pointed out, only compromises not solutions. But I do see a world in which one could use their physical training to give them a, uh, for lack of a better word, a boost into the day. So you're getting stronger, you're developing your your health, and you're also able to then lean into your day with with more focus and attention. That would be the ultimate scenario.
Yeah, well, there's obviously we're looking at a zero-sum game. So there's, you only have so much, you know, your resources are limited. One thing that will absolutely help is fragmentation. It's been proven that dividing up a given workload into smaller chunks allows you. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's endurance training or strength training or some cognitive work. You're able to you're able to do more, and that's one thing that to consider.
The other is, uh, obviously the, uh, feedback. You know, you have to listen to your body. Pretty much. Soviet stressed very much that you have to take the cybernetic approach. You have to have the feedback. No matter what the training plan says, Mario says, you have to listen to you have have to listen to that feedback. And freshness in the Soviet system of strength training, and not just in weightlifting, freshness was paramount.
It's even better. Let's talk about how track athletes in the Soviet Union trained for strength. And that's more that's would be even more applicable to a lot of the listeners because they definitely didn't spend two and a half hours in the, you know, in the gym. So Professor Vladimirov, he was a head coach and, uh, he was one of the first to implement heavy lifting for the for the track after right after the Soviets decide, hey, look at these Americans, you know, lifting heavy weights, Bruce Randall and Paul Anderson and Canadian Doug Hepburn. So these lifters, he has absolutely says, always do low reps. So they would never do more than three, four reps, even with the lightest weight, even with the warm-up weight. They spent a lot of time doing just singles and doubles. And it was absolutely essential that they stayed fresh. And part of it was just the how they felt. Part of it is the performance, how well they jumped and so on, how they felt after.
So they found if you're really obsessive about it, you have that tonic effect that lasts at least until the next day. And the tonic effect is both for your strength, for your power, but, uh, also for, you know, your cognitive functions as well. But it's also very, very interesting that here's an idea, uh, do a bench press before the next day before you're competing the jump or do a heavy squat the day before you're competing as a thrower. So it's again, it's very interesting how the opposite part of the body stimulating that was, uh, was very, very helpful, very interesting phenomena.
So they found if the strength work is is familiar and non-exhaustive, it absolutely facilitates whatever is that you do afterwards. And, um, restricting the, this is where the difference, this is where track athletes were very different from a lot of other people. They tried to restrict their volume as much as possible of strength training, in part because, well, they had to do other things and because they had to stay fresh. So, uh, if you look at the volume, if you look at generally speaking, how many repetitions that you want to perform per exercise per, uh, for training session, and again, these are purely empirical numbers. They come from Soviet weightlifting, but they were also applied in track. So the minimal volume is 10 to 20 repetitions total, so minimum. And, uh, optimal is 20 to 30. Maximal, it becomes 30 to 50 in that window. So when you're looking at 20 to 30 reps, maybe on the lower end right there, you're going to build strength. And if you also are going to not go to failure and rest sufficiently between sets, unless greas unless you're greasing the groove, you need to look at at least 5 minutes, pretty much. And that's both for neural and biochemical reasons. But more is really bad.
Unfortunately, really a lot of it is just comes down to listening to your body and just using your judgment. I wish I had any better. I wish I had any bad answer here. I think it's a terrific answer. I like to leave the gym with some gas in the tank. H because, well, I get paid to think and to speak, as it were, uh, not to lift. But and many great thinkers in the strength world, starting from Leiderman back a 100 years ago, to, uh, to Soviet weightlifting, uh, authorities like, you know, Voronov and Roman, and, uh, later on, somebody like even Steve Justa was a very colorful individual, just brilliant, brilliant, uh, strength athlete, um, a farmer from Nebraska who just came up with some fantastic protocols. But he would say that you've got to finish stronger than when you started. I love that. And that theme is very much permeates, uh, professional or high-level strength training, where this mentality of a workout or try to get smoked or pumped or throw up in the bucket, they they would look at you as just insane.
One of the reasons that also Soviets restricted the number of reps in the squat because you do sets of 10 in the squat, you're going to definitely put on some mass, no question about it. But one of the reasons they restricted that, very few people did sets of 10 except for heavy weights who were had a hard time bulking. And even more is like, okay, that's too much cardiorespiratory stress. And even though Soviet weightlifters did some general physical training like cross-country running or playing soccer, but they're not trying to get their cardio on the lifting platform. That was just made no sense whatsoever. So restricting the reps will go a very long way. Restrict, uh, increasing the rest periods to at least 5 minutes would go a very long way. And restricting a number of exercises because people don't realize that you're using different muscle groups, but still using the same brain, you're still using the same adrenals, and, uh, all that stuff really adds up. But so I would say two during one practice, one training practice, maybe two, maybe three exercises, max lifts. And nothing wrong with doing just one. And yeah, if you want to, you know, do your curls and whatever calves later, that's fine. But you can tack it on in the end or you can do it totally separate. Those things don't really zap you. You can just come in on a separate day and just do your enjoy your calf burn. Love it. [Music]