Are you making progress?
There is a difference between sustainable programming for career longevity and performance as opposed to only chasing pain.
Key Takeaway
Challenge workouts, or sessions designed to just make you feel incredibly tired, are fun, but should not be used on a regular basis in a well-structured training program.
I am talking about the โanything goesโ sessions that leaves you completely exhausted. For a trainee with a good aerobic/strength base doing a workout like this should be kept to about once a week at most. It is also crucial that you aren't doing them at a time when they might interfere with your duties as a police officer, firefighter, or tactical professional.
Now, despite feeling like you worked hard, overusing these sessions will be counterproductive in your long term progress. Unfortunately, first responders and tactical populations seem to fall in two groups; one that barely trains and one that feels like they need to go into cardiac arrest every session. The reality, like most things, is you need to be somewhere in the middle.
Before you train, ask yourself the following:
What are my goals?
Does this session help me achieve them?
How does this session build on itself? (Progression?)
When will I be able to have another productive session? (i.e. will this end in excessive soreness that will seriously impact other training?)
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This is Key:
Will this workout impact my performance on the job?- Read twice.
Challenge Workouts or High Intensity Methods
I was a strength coach in mid 2000โs when everything had to be a Tabata interval. For the purposes of this article Iโll use this method to make my point. Although there is no shortage of other random workouts you might see on social media that will throw you down a flight of stairsโฆfor timeโฆthis at least has some structure that I can use to frame my argument.
The Tabata protocol consists of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated for 4 minutes. Doing these with front squats, goblet squats, ECHO bike, sprints, various kettlebell movements, etc. is a โfunโ workout and if you really push those 20 seconds it will destroy you. It can be used to train your lactic capacity or even as quick fat loss focused session. I say โcanโ because all of these protocols hit people differently.
If youโre in good shape, then yes during each 20 second interval youโll be able to maintain some power output through the entire 4 minutes. In the end, youโll train your ability to repeat short power outputs while fatigued.
If you arenโt in very good shape, it will turn into a weak display of some kind of anaerobic threshold session as you try to survive the 4 minute torture. By the second minute youโll be barely moving during each interval, and donโt worry youโll probably be in a gym with a coach telling you how โgoodโ youโre doing.
Now here is the key: How do you measure and make progress on this over the long term? Add weight? Decrease your rest to 5 seconds? Add more intervals? Increase interval time? Add more 4-minute sets?
Now you could do some of those things, but generally speaking this method is somewhat capped. If youโre really pushing yourself on those 20 second intervals repeating another set is really tough. What about repeating it again during the training week? Repeat it again a third time? How many weeks can you keep doing this? Do you think doing this workout might impact other extremely important days like dedicated strength work, self defense, skill training, or most importantly, your job performance?
This is the biggest issue with training like this. These sessions often are not nested within the big picture of a real training program or even a work schedule. Feeling tired should not be the only goal. More importantly, it should not accomplish the very opposite of what youโre trying to achieveโฆimproving your job performance.
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80/20 Rule
What does all this mean? That rule that I have seen used by many strength coaches, and one that I have adopted, is that 80% of your training should be low to moderate intensity- which does not mean easy - it just means you shouldnโt be totally trashed at the end of the session. Then maybe 1-2x a week you really push your training.
This leads to sustainable progress over the training year. Notice I did not break things down into days, weeks, or months, but the entire year. This is a lifetime of training that we are trying to look at and the reality is if we become too short sighted we often end up spinning our wheels even if we are technically working very hard in the gym.
To keep it simple for the average dudeโฆlets say we added 2-5lbs on our bench press each month during the entire year. That is 24-60 lbs on your max at the end of 365 days.
Of course, as you become more advanced that improvement will get smaller but I am trying to illustrate the power of consistency and essentially the training version of compound interest. If this bench press improvement was your goal, and to get there you maxed every week, do you really think this improvement would occur? Or do you think at some point you would get injured?
Now apply this concept to your overall training program and lifestyle. Does it make sense to constantly smash yourself in the gym?
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Closing
I know there are people out there who make a good living telling others how weak they are when they arenโt killing themselves everyday. It sells books, creates a following, and is often convincing. Some of these individuals will even rely on a prior military background that can look impressive to people who havenโt served.
I can also tell you that some of these individuals pushed themselves so hard outside of work in their gym and running sessions that they were constantly injured and never actually did much during their military careers.
Putting that aside, there is usually nothing wrong with pushing yourself once a week or so, assuming the activity is reasonable and youโre in good enough shape to handle the volume. This is particularly true if you follow Fallen Hero workouts like we have at We Go Home. I understand the significance of participating in these but I would still use caution instead of just randomly throwing them into your training week.
This isnโt me giving you permission to ruck 20 miles and then jump into a HYROX. I know if youโre in your twenties youโll scoff at this but whether you like it or not as you mature in these professions you will see the value in not only training hard, but also smart.
