Now, some of you may already
be doing low repetition, pure strength work, but I
believe that most people don't. Most people who do resistance training are using either machines or free weights or some combination of those, or perhaps are using body weight. And they tend to focus
on repetition ranges from about five and usually
more like six repetitions out to about 10 and
perhaps 15 repetitions. Now, of course, doing resistance training in repetition ranges of
five to 15 reps per set provided it's done at
sufficient intensity, so either to failure or close to failure, of course, in good form,
is tremendously beneficial. It can help build strength,
it can enhance hypertrophy. There is tremendous value to training in those repetition ranges. But when I sat down with Dr. Andy Galpin to discuss resistance
training specifically, he made it very clear that
at least for some portion of one's yearly training
cycle, so perhaps eight weeks or 10 weeks, or in the case
that I adopted it, 12 weeks, there is tremendous benefit
to training in the three to five repetition range
and maybe even lower. So the second tool of
training specifically for strength in this three to five repetition range
is something that I started to incorporate after I sat
down to record that series. And I'll just tell you a few of the benefits that I've experienced and then I'll tell you
the specific protocol that makes it very easy to do this. The most obvious benefit to me
was that I got much stronger and that that strength persisted
such that when I went back to using higher repetition ranges, so typically I train
with weights or machines in the six to 10 repetition range, sometimes a little higher,
sometimes a little lower, but never before had I
specifically trained in the three to five repetition range exclusively for a period of 10 to 12 weeks. And when I did that, I of
course gained strength, but that strength stayed with
me such that when I returned to higher repetition ranges, I could use more weight in good form. And that, of course, enhanced strength and hypertrophy further. In addition, there was
another effect that was, at least to me, very unexpected, which was that my cardiovascular training
improved significantly. Now, why would this be? Because typically a three
to five repetition set does not elevate the
heart rate for long enough that you would consider it
cardiovascular training. And of course, the rest periods between those sets is pretty long as well. So even if heart rate goes
up during those heavy sets, it's going to go down
during those long three to five minute rest
periods between those sets. But what I noticed was
that my overall posture and my ability to maintain
cardiovascular output while using good running form or good rowing form was
also vastly improved. And the logical interpretation
of why that would be is simply that the muscles got stronger and those same muscles
are being incorporated into the cardiovascular,
let's call it endurance work that I'm doing on other days. And therefore, I can carry out those cardiovascular training sessions in better form for longer periods of time. I actually felt much stronger during my cardiovascular training as I got much stronger moving
these heavier weight loads for low repetition sets. And then the third specific
benefit that I noticed is that when training heavy for three to five repetitions per
set, I didn't get sore. And this to me was an incredible benefit because typically when I
train in the six repetition to 15 repetition range and
I take those sets to failure or near failure, I do experience
some soreness the next day. Ordinarily that soreness isn't so intense that it prevents me from doing any of the other sorts of workouts that I do. And for those of you that have visited that Foundational Fitness Protocol, you know that I hit each
major and minor muscle group once per week directly as well
as once per week indirectly, that's the overall
structure of that program, in order to allow sufficient recovery between those resistance training workouts to be able to make continual progress. Now, by training in this three to five repetition range that
Dr. Andy Galpin suggested, I was able to improve my strength, improve my cardiovascular
output, reduce soreness, I also just felt better overall, I had a lot more energy
after those workouts than I typically do after my resistance training sessions when I use higher repetition ranges. There are just a number
of different things that made me feel, wow, this
is really a powerful protocol. And of course, moving heavier weights in the gym feels good too. It feels good to get stronger. At least there's a positive
feedback loop there for me, and I think for most people. And I should also mention
that for those of you that are averse to doing
heavier resistance training in the three to five repetition range because you fear that it will
make you too big or too bulky, training in the low repetition ranges is actually more geared
towards increasing strength and is shifting away somewhat
from increasing hypertrophy or muscle size. So that's a great benefit for those of you that want to be strong and also want to maintain cardiovascular fitness, but you don't want to add muscular size. And of course for all of you
that want to add muscular size, it's well established that
increasing your strength will allow you then to return to patterns of hypertrophy training that will allow you to
use heavier weights, and therefore induce greater hypertrophy. So there are, oh, so many reasons to incorporate these
strength training protocols. So the way that Dr. Andy
Galpin suggested one do it and was the way that I did it is use this three by five protocol. The three by five protocol
is very straightforward. It involves doing three to five
exercises per workout, okay? So if it's a workout for legs,
it's three to five exercises. If it's a workout for
some upper body muscle, it's three to five exercises. Three to five exercises for
three to five sets per exercise, three to five repetitions per set, and three to five minutes
of rest between each set. In addition, he emphasized that one can do those workouts
three to five times per week, although I'm going to put in asterisk next to that last statement because I found that I couldn't do the
three by five protocol say for legs specifically
three to five times per week. I realized that might be
possible for some people, but I'm somebody who, like
many of you out there, either doesn't have the time or doesn't have the recovery
capacity to train my legs three to five times per week,
even though I acknowledge that there are probably ways to do that that would still allow me to
recover, it just simply starts to impede into other areas of training. It starts to impede other areas
of life like work and family and sleep and all the rest. So what I did, and what
I'm suggesting you try, is for any existing resistance
training that you're doing to take a period of eight
or 10 or ideally 12 weeks and do the vast majority, if not all of that resistance training, in the lower repetition range that's designed specifically
to induce strength adaptations and to not pay attention to whether or not you're hitting that
same muscle group three to five times per week. Rather, if you train your
legs once or twice per week, to simply do all of the work for your legs in that three to five repetition range. If you train an upper body
muscle or muscle groups, chest, shoulders, back once
per week or twice per week, to just stay within that
three to five repetition range for those work sets, right? Warmups can include a few more reps. And then to adhere to this,
three to five exercises, three to five sets per exercise, three to five repetitions per set, and three to five minutes between sets. Now, the one exception to
this that I incorporated was that for very small muscle
groups, so for instance, the rear deltoids or for
neck work or for calf work, to not rely purely on
three to five repetitions, but maybe to work in a
range of anywhere from five to eight repetitions, so
still fairly low repetitions but not so low that it restricts you to three to five repetitions. The reason for that is that I, and I think a lot of people
out there, find it hard to fatigue those smaller
muscle groups adequately with good form when restricting oneself to those low repetitions. However, for big compound
movements like presses and squats and deadlifts and glute ham raises and things of that sort,
maybe even leg extensions and leg curls, which are
isolation exercises, of course, to really restrict oneself to those three to five repetition ranges that take you to failure or near failure. I listed off the benefits of doing that that I experienced, and I'm confident that you will also
experience a lot of benefits. So just to remind you what
some of those benefits are, you get stronger, which feels great, that occurs within your weight workouts, but it also carries over to your endurance training sessions. I also noticed that when
returning to higher repetitions for resistance training,
so after 12 weeks, shifting away from three
to five repetition ranges and going back to training in the six to 10 repetition ranges mainly, occasionally up to 12 or 15, but really mainly restricting
to six to 10 repetitions, that you can move much
heavier weights in good form and thereby induce more hypertrophy while still also continuing
to gain some strength. And another benefit was,
again, reduce soreness compared to when training with
higher repetition ranges and more mental freshness, is I guess the only way to describe it, when training in those
lower repetition ranges. I don't know about you, but when I finish a really hard hour long
resistance training session done in the sixth to 12 repetition
range, there's a certain type of mental fatigue that even
if I eat properly afterwards, even if I hydrate properly,
that it tends to sap a bit of my mental energy later in the day. But that the training at the three to five repetition range
did just the opposite. It actually enhanced my
focus and my cognition, my overall levels of physical energy, which is great because it allows you to do all the other things that we're required to
do throughout the day. And by the way, it'll also allow you to get more of that Zone 2 Cardio. [MUSIC PLAYING]
