Article Takeaway: 8 Laws of Strength Training by Bret Contreras

I am one of those guys that reads something everyday, whether it's a book, magazine, or blog post. I also listen to podcasts and watch videos. There is so much good information (and bad information for that matter), that I thought that I'd share some things that I read, hear, or watch here on my blog. 

The first article that I want to share is 8 Laws of Strength Training by Bret Contreras (check out the full article here).  In this article, Bret goes over his 8 laws of strength training, which are...

1. You must train consistently.
2. You must work hard and smart.
3. You must consistently stimulate the musculature of the entire body.
4. You must get markedly stronger compared to when you started, especially on compound movements.
5. You must warm up.
6. You must use good form most of the time.
7. You must consume adequate nutrition.
8. You must sleep well and avoid persistent distress.

I'll let you read the article to fully understand how he describes these 8 laws, but what I wanted to do is put these 8 items in order, not necessarily of importance, but in order of how often the rule is not followed.  This order is based off of what I see in the populations that I work with, not necessarily the way it is overall. 

1. You must train consistently.
Bret's first law is probably the law that I see broken most often, not by actual clients, students, or athletes I work with, but by others who come up and ask me why they are not seeing the results they want.  I can put the people that don't train consistently into 2 categories.  First are the ones that just don't train that often.  They train once one week, two times the next, and not at all the following week and wonder why they are not getting the results they want.  The other group is those that train more often, but follow not type of set schedule.  Although this group will see better results than the first group, they won't see the same results that they could get as if they had a schedule they followed and committed to a set number of workouts per week.  This is where picking a program that fits a person's schedule and ability makes a big difference.

This is not what they mean by
a colorful diet!

2. You must consume adequate nutrition.
This just comes down to the fact that you can't out train bad nutrition.  This can be that a person is eating too much, too little, or just eating crap.  You must have a diet that fits your goals, whether that is to lose weight, gain muscle, gain strength, and/or perform better.  Having a poor or incomplete diet will lower the chances or slow the time it takes you to reach your goals.




3. You must consistently stimulate the musculature of the entire body.

Don't let this workout be better than yours!

I see this mistake most often in athletes, both tactical and sport athletes, including the weekend warriors out there.  This is one area that the ladies working out at Curves do better then many athletes (they use machines to work all parts of the body).  Too many athletes focus just on their "mirror muscles".  This leaves them with strength imbalances because the fronts of their bodies are much stronger than the back of their bodies.  This results in many shoulder injuries, low back pain, hamstring pulls, and knee injuries.  For your upper body, make sure to include some type of rows along with either pull up or lat pull variations.  For the lower body, include some type of dead lifts (full and/or Romanian), hip raises, and/or stability ball leg curls. 

4. You must get markedly stronger compared to when you started, especially on compound movements.
There are many ways to determine if you are getting stronger, it's not just about how much weight you can lift.  It simply comes down to determining if you are progressing in your workouts.  That can be lifting more weight, doing more reps, completing the same amount of work in a shorter period of time, or doing more in the same amount of time.  Your body will adapt to the work you do, and if you don't progress you will not continue to get results you are expecting.

5. You must sleep well and avoid persistent distress.

Rest & relaxation are more
important to performance
than most people realize.

When I have clients or athletes that are doing well with the 7 other laws here but are having trouble keeping up with their goals, I immediately look at stress and sleep.  It's amazing how many times there is a relationship between a slowing in progress to a busy time of the year at work or finals time at school.  Also, things like relationship troubles, death of a loved one, or a major change in routine has affected progress.   During these times it's important not to ignore your progress or your stressor.  The key that has helped many people I have worked with is try to manage both.  We have modified workouts when needed, whether it was shortening up the time, substituting complex exercises for exercises that are more familiar, or adding in yoga or another activity that the person finds enjoyable and relaxing.  Also, we've worked on finding healthy things outside of training (not eating or drinking) that helps de-stress their lives.  And finally, try to prioritize sleep.  Much of the recovery process in the body happens during you sleep, so this becomes even more important when someone has more stress in their life.

6. You must use good form most of the time.
Again, this is one that the athletes are more guilty of than my general public clients or phy. ed. students.  Using poor technique can result in pain and injury, as well as a plateau in performance.  People that don't use good form generally fall into three categories.  First, are those that think they know it all, because they've always done it this way, and don't want to change.  These are the ones that annoy me the most.  Stop with the ego, learn how to do it, and see better results.  Second are those that use good technique much of the time, but when it comes to testing or a difficult set, it all falls apart.  A person can get by with a slight drop in technique and still be ok, but you can't let it all go down the crapper.  The last group is those that just have never been taught the correct technique, and that's where coaching comes in for those that have a coach, and for those that don't have a coach should do some research. 

7. You must work hard and smart.
This was a tough one to put this low, because in general I think work ethic is a huge reason many people don't succeed at their goals.  I then thought about it, and if the general public followed the 6 rules above this one, they would still have some success.  Working hard and smart can come into play when a person wonders why they use to see better progress.  Often, it's not both of these that a person is guilty of, it's one or the other.  They're are many folks in the gym that work their butts off but are not training smart.  That could involve some type of overtraining or not following one of the other 7 rules.  Also, there are people that do their research and use a well designed program, but just are afraid to go past their comfort level.  When both are put together, that is when most people start to get over that training success hump. 

8. You must warm up.
A few years ago this may have been higher on the list, but there is much more written about warm ups in popular media today.  Although you can get results without doing a warm up, a warm up will help reduce the risk of injuries.  What many people don't realize is that a warm up can also significantly help increase performance.  There are many different ways, systems, and routines for warming up.  I like to use correctional and basic bodyweight exercises in the warm up so that correctional exercises are not taking up time later on, and so that they are actually done.  For sport athletes, I also like to include movements that relate to their sport, like speed & agility mechanics.  Specific weightlifting warm ups should be done for exercises where you will be doing a high percentage of your max strength.  As you get further along in the workout, less warm up sets will need to be done, if any.


I thought this was a great article by Bret Contreras that really just puts these rules straight forward.  Make sure you include all of these rules in your training to better your results!

Crossfit or not to Crossfit?

One of the newest fads in fitness is Crossfit.  Crossfit involves difficult, usually shorter in duration, workouts that can incorporate a mixture of olympic lifting, powerlifting, kettlebells, bodyweight exercises, running, and plyometrics.  Each day there is a different workout that involves a variety of exercises that is usually done with a goal of completing as many reps in a given time or completing a given amount of reps in as short of time possible.  So in short, Crossfit workouts are generally short, intense, random workouts. 

The Positives

One thing that Crossfit well does is that it gets people working.  Although the workouts are difficult, people seem to get addicted and stick with it.  It also builds in competition, with others and with one's self.  This keeps many people motivated to keep working hard to improve.

The type of exercises used are also a plus.  The exercises are almost exclusively ground-based, multi-joint movements, with stationary bikes and rowing machines used on occasion.  People are not just going on a circuit of fixed-motion machines, they are performing good exercises and pushing themselves doing them.



The Negatives

Although the exercises used in Crossfit are often great exercises, many of the exercises can be very technical for a beginner, and if done improperly can lead to injury, either acute or chronic.  The chances of injury from lack of technique can be increased or reduced depending on the gym that you go to.  Just like any style of training, you'll find good coaches and not so good coaches at Crossfit gyms.  The good coaches will make sure to teach proper technique and only give workouts to their clients that the clients can handle.  The individual pictured to the left is not ready to have dead lifts in his Crossfit program as he needs to correct some technique issues first.  Some coaches/trainers don't do this because Crossfit workouts are often done in group settings and it takes work to individualize workouts when working with a group.

Another negative is that Crossfit workouts often won't follow a progressive program.  This can again lead to possible injuries and possibly slow down the development of the client.  Again, a good coach can help improve this situation by designing workouts with some type of progression in intensity and exercise selection.

Crossfit for the Sport Athlete? 

In general, I wouldn't recommend Crossfit for sport athletes.  Crossfit workouts can lack the specificity of training needed for most sports.  Also, as mentioned before, the lack of proper progression can result in the athlete not learning the fundamental movements that are needed for their sport.  Also, all athletes have some areas that are weaker than others, and it is important to improve these weaknesses, but Crossfit workouts may often not work on improving these weaknesses.

Crossfit type workouts are intense and difficult, and that is why they can be used occasionally to help increase the athletes' work capacity and mental toughness.  This would mean that these type of workouts would be used to supplement the main program in a similar fashion that coaches have used strongman activities in their programs.  We supplement them in by either using them in times between switching programs, or by using mini workouts as a finisher to a regular workout.

With this said, one athlete that I would use Crossfit workouts with often are actual Crossfit athletes.  Now with the emergence of Crossfit Games, athletes whose main goal is to do better on specific Crossfit workouts will need to do these workouts.   I would also include some olympic weightlifting, power lifting, and functional training workouts with these athletes as well because these workouts will help improve their strength in the lifting exercises that are used as well as jumping ability and injury prevention.

Crossfit for the General Public?

Although Crossfit wouldn't be my first choice for the general public or even a weekend warrior, I would promote it if it is something the person is excited about and it's something that gets them to workout on a regular basis.  I would just suggest that everyone does their homework to find a coach/trainer that will teach proper technique and assign workouts that fit the ability of their clients.

I would say that I'm not neither pro- or anit-Crossfit.  I think, just as many other training systems, it can be used within a well thought out and well designed program, but I wouldn't use it as a program all in itself.  This is just my opinion.  Do your research, learn technique, work hard, have fun, and reach your goals!