A Recovery-Based Training Plan

I recently published a social media post and podcast concerning training frequency with the idea that training must be based on one's ability to recover and the importance of considering other activities into the weekly training volume.

While I no longer compete in powerlifting, heavy deadlifts are still a staple in my training program.

I have been experimenting with spreading my weekly training plan over two weeks in order to maximize recovery from my max effort training sessions and my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training.

My training has always followed Louie Simmon's conjugate method using a weekly plan as follows:

Monday: Max Effort Squat/Deadlift
Tuesday: Lower Body Extra Workout (focusing on joint integrity and/or restoration exercises)
Wednesday: Max Effort Bench Press
Thursday: Upper Body Extra Workout (focusing on joint integrity and/or restoration exercises)
Friday: Dynamic Effort Squat/Deadlift
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Dynamic Effort Bench Press
*In addition I practice Taijiquan and qigong 4-5 days per week, stretching and mobility work daily, and would usually perform some sort of cardiovascular training 2-3 of the training days.

This past January I began training BJJ and immediately realized I could not maintain my current strength training plan. You cannot keep adding high stress training activities and expect to recover properly. Since my BJJ schedule is regular class on Monday and Wednesday morning and usually an open mat workout on Thursday I decided to adjust my strength and conditioning to allow for optimal recovery while still hitting hard training sessions.

While it is common for a microcycle to last 7 days, I decided to spread my weekly training microcycle to 14 days and shift the days to keep high stress activities like the repeated effort and dynamic effort strength training sessions on the same days as my regular BJJ classes, and my max effort days were adjusted to the end of the week so I have the entire weekend to recover from the hardest lifting days. This allows for more recovery days between the higher stress training days. After a couple of weeks I am doing well with the training plan.

My current training plan spread over 14 days is as follows:

Monday: BJJ nogi class, repetition effort upper body strength training
Tuesday: low intensity cardio and upper body restoration exercises
Wednesday: BJJ gi class, dynamic effort lower body strength training
Thursday: occasional BJJ open mat training, low intensity cardio and lower body restoration exercises
Friday: max effort upper body strength training
Saturday: off
Sunday: off

Monday: BJJ nogi class, repetition effort lower body strength training
Tuesday: low intensity cardio and lower body restoration exercises
Wednesday: BJJ gi class, dynamic effort upper body strength training
Thursday: occasional BJJ open mat training, low intensity cardio and upper body restoration exercises
Friday: max effort lower body strength training
Saturday: off
Sunday: off
*I still practice Taijiquan and qigong usually 4-5 days a week in addition to the Taiji classes I teach each week as well. I include stretching and mobility work daily as well.

Taijiquan and qigong has been one of the best practices I've added for health and longevity.

Since I don't compete in powerlifting any longer and my goals have shifted more to health and longevity, I have found that more frequent, lower intensity training sessions seem to be the way to go. Instead of having two max effort workouts weekly, I only have one. I will also make adjustments based on daily readiness (I use the Morpheus recovery app to monitor this) and back off on max effort days if I am really run down in favor of submaximal effort work.

In fact all of my pressing work is submaximal or repetition effort at this point anyway. My shoulders and elbows are pretty beat up from jiu jitsu training and there really is no need to push the bench press heavy at this point any way. I have found high rep presses with the bandbell bar, push ups and dumbbell/kettlebell pressing work, along with plenty of single joint accessory exercises for the shoulders, lats/upper back, and arms to be much better on the joints while still getting in plenty of quality muscle work.

In addition I have eliminated squats performed with a regular straight barbell in favor of belt squats, Hindu squats, and specialty bars like the safety squat bar or even the Buffalo bar. This seems to be much better on my shoulders as well. Pretty much the only lift I push to a true max effort anymore is the deadlift and that only happens every other week. I have found this to do wonders for my recovery between sessions and every training session I am pretty amped to lift.

The Tuesday/Thursday workouts are purposely low intensity. For conditioning I stick to lower intensity cardiovascular training, since my BJJ workouts are much higher intensity at this point. In addition I tend to do a lot of single joint exercises with bands for joint integrity - exercises like pushdowns, pullaparts, leg curls and good mornings all performed with bands for very high reps are great for restoration and joint health. I sometimes do some light club swinging or kettlebell conditioning on these days as well, and basically live on abdominal/torso work.

Banded single joint exercises done for very high repetitions are excellent for joint integrity and injury prevention.

All in all this helps promote a much greater recovery while allowing me to put greater effort into the harder training sessions.

There is no one best training program. It is crucial to understand all training methods and variables and how to implement them for your own level of readiness. You can only improve from training that you can fully recover from. That is optimal training and it is never static, the program must evolve as you become stronger and attain greater levels of conditioning. Simply put, if you are not able to recover you will not progress.

For more training tips and information be sure to follow my YouTube channel (click here) and my Strength and Health Podcast (click here).

Stay Strong AND Healthy!

-Scott

Recovery-Based Training for Athletic Performance.

I recently received a question regarding a video I posted concerning the strength training plan of my combat athletes. The question was about the fact that I have them max out every week during their regular training sessions. They generally have two intense strength training sessions per week, one being devoted to the maximal effort method and one being devoted to the dynamic effort method. I have always built my training around the information and work Louie Simmons has presented over the years, what he refers to as the Conjugate Method. Basically the dynamic effort training session is focused on lifting submaximal weights with maximal acceleration and the max effort training session focuses on lifting maximal loads. We do exercises for reps, power, endurance, etc. as well, but these are the main focuses of these two primary training sessions.

Proper training and restoration allows my BJJ athletes like Logan Santos, 2017 IBJJF Nogi Worlds silver medalist, to train at maximal intensities on a weekly basis. Weighing 155lbs he is deadlifting 405lbs with 115lbs of band tension and 40lbs of chain.

The question concerned the athlete's ability to recovery from the high degree of stress associated with the maximal effort method. I decided this would be a great topic for a blog article because his question was very valid, especially since this trainer utilizes a very similar approach to training that I do and found frequent max effort training sessions to be detrimental to his athletes. Thus he made adjustments to keep his athletes progressing. This is a trait of an excellent trainer and coach as the most important factor in the training process is progress. If athletes cannot recover from their training sessions they will not progress and have to deal with over-training and potential injuries.

BJJ athlete Chris Jones, gold medalist in the 2017 IBJJF Pans, Masters Worlds, Nogi Pans & Nogi Worlds, utilizes a variety of high rep band exercises for joint health and injury prevention.

This brings up the point that training must be recovery-based. This is why static training programs do not work in the long term or for highly qualified athletes. It is also a theme I see reiterated between two people I consider my mentors in the strength and conditioning industry. Louie Simmons is constantly saying that the body adapts to the demands placed upon it - the principle of specificity / specific adaptation to imposed demands. To get stronger we have to do more work. Joel Jamieson is someone I credit for many things, mostly that conditioning - particularly development of the aerobic energy system - is a massively overlooked component in the training of athletes, and that training must be recovery-based in order to provide results.

There are many factors that go into properly recovering from training, including but not limited to:

• Nutrition
• Rest / Sleep
• Conditioning
• General Physical Preparation (GPP)
• Restoration Measures (massage, ice, heat, contrast, etc.)
• Recovery Workouts
• Technology (HRV monitoring systems, heart rate monitors, etc.)

Through properly implementing the recovery strategies listed above and staying consistent with their training, I have never had an issue with any of the athletes I train being unable to recovery from the work they do in my gym. That's not to say people don't have off days. Injuries, poor sleep, poor nutrition, external stress, etc. can all impact one's physical readiness. That is a reason I am a huge fan of using heart rate monitors in training as well as something that monitors and tracks daily readiness. For a while now I've used Joel Jamieson's Bioforce HRV and recently switched to his new product, Morpheus. In addition to monitoring HRV (heart rate variability) Morpheus factors in daily training, sleep and activity when calculating your daily readiness. Having this type of information allows you to make adjustments to your training each day to ensure that you are training optimally.

Joel Jamieson's Morpheus system is a game changer when it comes to recovery-based training.

One of the greatest impacts on my athlete's ability to recover from training and competition has been placing a great deal of emphasis on aerobic energy system development. Cardiovascular training has gotten such a bad rap in the fitness industry and it's a shame. Many people act like doing aerobic work will make your muscles atrophy and your strength disappear, but this is far from true. Granted if you are an olympic lifter or powerlifter there is no need for extreme aerobic capacity, although having some aerobic development is important to facilitate recovery. However if you participate in sports like MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and practically every other sport outside of the pure strength sports, aerobic capacity is extremely important. Shockingly many of the combat athletes I've worked with have had relatively poor levels of aerobic capacity, something I feel is due to the negative press aerobic training gets. The fact is combat athletes need high levels of aerobic conditioning in addition to appropriate levels of strength, power and anaerobic energy systems development. The more conditioned my combat athletes get, the better their recovery and ability to tolerate high intensity and volume in training.

Grappling Central Podcast host and BJJ player Ryan Ford uses sled dragging as a means of building aerobic capacity.

Keep in mind when you are developing your training plan, or training plan for your athletes, one size does not fit all. First understand the physical requirements of the sport, then assess where you, or your athletes, are at in relation to those requirements. When you understand these things, it is very easy to build an optimal training plan. Constantly reassess and work to raise volume and intensity over time and most importantly ensure that you, or your athletes are recovering from the demands of the training program.

BJJ athlete Braulio Galvao has no problem getting plenty of restoration and recovery in his training!

Stay Strong AND Healthy!

-Scott

scott@eptsgym.com

www.eptsgym.com

Scott Shetler's Strength and Health TV - Episode 8: Restoration and Recovery.

In this week's episode I talk about restoration and recovery and why I feel these methods are under-utilized. One of my mentors Dr. Ed Thomas has said that "fitness shouldn't hurt" and that training should be restorative.

I think this becomes even more important as we age, as I know many people who cannot train at high intensitites very frequently due to not being able to recover from heavy training like they could when they were younger.

I also talk about the appropriate recovery methods to implement for sympathetic or parasympathetic dominance.

We need to become smarter about our training and having a good handle on restoration and recovery measures is the first step.

I hope you enjoy this week's episode and if you have any questions or suggestions for future topics please leave them in the comments section below!

Click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel to receive updates on future shows.

Stay Strong AND Healthy,

-Scott