How to train in two easy charts

Last month we read The Muscle and Strength Pyramid by Eric Helms as a team. Awesome stuff and highly recommended if you want to get into the weeds to really think about your training. Eric Helms has a great way of taking something seemingly complicated and making it simple and easy to understand. Some coaches may seem to know a lot because they use incoherent word salad when there isn't really much substance behind the facade. Helms is fresh air in this department because of his experience and clarity. He includes several 'here's what you need to know' tables throughout the book. With all credit to him, I'll share a couple:

Put the important things first

Not every training variable is created equally and many trainees will worry too much about minutiae before laying the foundation. This is what Muscle and Strength Pyramids is all about; what is important and how to get the big stuff right. Taking a look at the table above answers a lot of people's training questions. Worry about Intensity and Volume before tempo, and if you can't make it to the gym every week don't worry about anything else.

Do you enjoy your training enough to train hard at it?

This one is great. A pleasant reminder that training is supposed to be fun :). If you hate your training, it is not likely you'll make it a part of your life for the long haul. The true benefits of training only happen after years and years and so longevity is a necessity in any successful training career. Have an exercise that you love? Great, do it! As long as it provides results, it feeds the circle

But wait hold on. This circle works upside down too! See?

Pretty cool huh? Can't get your training unstuck? Maybe you need to put the pedal to the grindstone and squeeze out some progress. Getting strong is fun too, and and it all feeds the circle. Results are the only output here, so if you need to get your training going again, think about adding some fun stuff and step it up and train hard. The next thing you know you'll likely be doing both

Thanks to Eric Helms for this awesome book, make sure to check him out on FB and IG, and let me know what you think about getting your training unstuck.