Density is the Mother of Invention

For the past year or so I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out my training philosophy.  You know, some fitness professionals have "strength" or "hypertrophy" as the main component of their training philosophy.  A powerlifting coach will be all about intensity and volume, generally choosing one or the other as their "philosophy".  A coach with more of a physique focus will focus more on "reps" and "sets" with short rest periods a their "philosophy". And we all know personal trainers whose philosophy appears to be "activity".  You know those guys (and gals) who have their clients doing all kinds of movements in the name of "variation" but who have no sense of "progression". Just this week in San Diego I saw a female trainer in a commercial gym running a client through a sequence of one-arm overhead kettlebell lunges, planks, and burpees. I have no idea what the heck she was trying to achieve, but the client looked just as confused as I must have. "Confusion" seemed to be her philosophy.

After much contemplation and experimentation, I have arrived at my personal training philosophy: "Density". Training density is the amount of work divided by time. Well, Mr. 3Sigma, how do you figure out how much work and how much rest?  The answer is that it's really up to you.  Consider this example.  As many of you have seen in my LinkedIn articles I moved to some specific kettlebell training goals during 2018.  One was KB man makers (video here).  I started at 24kg and the goal was to do 20 in 30 minutes. I eventually got to 20 pretty fast, but I had no sense of pacing. 30 in 30 minutes was next and that took a few months. Once again, I went out like a Ferrari and came in like a dump truck, doing the first five reps in less than three minutes and then doing the last five in almost six minutes.   When I eventually got 30 it took me almost exactly 30 minutes. 40 reps was next and I busted my ass and nearly passed out several times, but I got stuck on 38 and then started to regress.

Last Friday I got 40 reps in just under 30 minutes. How did I do it? I took the number of reps I wanted and divided it into 30 minutes. It meant that I had to do each rep in 45 seconds.  So I marked off every 45 second interval for 30 minutes and did a rep on that time.  It worked. I still almost passed out, but I did so knowing that I had both improved by 50% as well as maximizing my training density. 

This is my philosophy. Take a simple combination of movements and work to improve the number of repetitions in a fixed period of time.  This gives you three sets of variables to work with: movement combination, load, and time.  For a Type A trainee it will be hard to accept that a full effort at 15 minutes is equal to an hour of jacking around looking in the mirror and checking e-mail, but it is.  As an executive athlete you have limited time but also need to feed your competitive appetite.

Here's all you need to know about the 3Sigma "system"

1. Pick a series of movement complexes of between three and five movement (e.g. man makers)
2. Choose a load that you can handle for 15, 20, or 30 minutes. Starting light is assumed.
3. Use reps for time or time for reps.  
4. Set a baseline and then improve incrementally in each session.

Hit your goal? Add time or weight. This 4-step process can be applied to barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells, sandbags, or any implement that requires you to move a load. What does that mean?  It means that if you drop the implement it would make a noise when it hits the ground. That's it.  Resistance banks don't make a noise when they hit the ground. Machines don't hit the ground at all.  Barbells, kettlebells, big ass tires, sandbags, boulders, and dumbbells will all make a noise when they hit the ground. That's what you need to use.

That's it. I will be posting up complexes and goals in future blog articles.