Progression and Sessions: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...


If there is one word that should always accompany the domain of "strength training"- whether high-rep, low-rep, or middle of the road- it should be the word "progressive." Without progress, a trainer is just bunnying around spending time in a gym just to kill time between dates and beer parties. But HOW progressive IS "progressive?" Let us see...

Just this past week on my discussion board, I saw someone suggest that unless a guy can go into a session and do better than he did before- like if on a given day, he is under the weather, mentally stressed, or has stubbed his big toe- he really shouldn't go and should consider waiting a day or two. Basically the attitude is that unless you can progress each time, you aren't progressing. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you are a strength trainer and you have aspirations of being able to lift more and perform progressively better each session, you're in the same boat with people who want to challenge Michael Jordan to a game of one-on-one: you are living in a dream world. There is no strength trainer who was ever worth his chalk who could always progress each time he re-entered the gym. If that were the case, I think you'd be seeing a lot higher poundages listed in the world record books (at least before the classes were disassembled, anyway).

The term "progression" does not at all refer to being able to do better each session; it is not a term that can be confined within such simplistic yet impossible boundaries. Progression includes being able to take the good with the bad, working through bad sessionsin order to make the good ones even better. It includes lifting through sessions in which you are sniffly, mentally fatigued, sleepy, and yes, sometimes even injured. Common sense will tell you that there ARE times in which you absolutely shouldn't lift; a day off never killed anyone. Likewise, your judgement will tell you that something is wrong when you end up having more bad sessions than good ones. But when you take a day or two - then three, then a week, etc.- away from lifting because you won't be able to "progress" from your last session, you are doing something that is not only counterproductive but foolish as well.

Perhaps one of the biggest, most crucial parts of being a trainer thatmany people miss is that training is supposed to serve to IMPROVE the weaknesses, not work around them. When you feel tired from your day at work and you are supposed to do squats that day, don't give up on the session so easily- go to the gym and DO the squats, just like you normally would. It wouldn't be uncommonfor your totals for that day to drop well below the normal totals that you are used to getting. You may feel like a failure- asn as well you should, because you HAVE failed. But I guarantee you- GUARANTEE you- thatyou will have done more to help yourself than you think.

Keep in mind that strength training is a life-long (or at least reasonably so) commitment, and that progression should be measured accordingly. If you are going to be a weekend warrior, go ahead and base success or progress by each session and feel free to take all the time off that you like. But if you are going to be a real strength trainer, understand that there has to be some room for failure in order for there to be more room for success.

Just some useless thougths from a narrow-minded old man!