A 100Strong note for Newbies
If you’ve booked into a Newbie pack with us @100Strong (two personal training sessions + your first class), or if you’re just curious, and would like to know not only WHAT we do in our training, but WHY we do it, then read on…
First, it’s worth mentioning that we’re not a generic gym. We don’t throw you into thoughtless workouts and unsupervised circuits that aren’t adapted to your needs. Every workout @100Strong is a bespoke workout.
In your first session we will talk about your needs and goals—because you’ll be following bespoke workouts based on them. Issues like injury management, correcting posture, or rebuilding a post-baby bod, will all be factored into your program. We can gear programs toward weight loss and endurance with lighter weight, higher repetition training; or more towards muscle and strength building with low repetition heavier lifting. ALL workouts are functional and increase athletic performance.
Unfortunately many of us—including the past me—have based our workouts and nutrition on BS marketing ideas mixed with a workout plan better suited to someone else. So it’s important for us @100Strong to not only listen to your goals: we help you define them further. This way you can be sure your workouts are based on sound training principles and considerations unique to you, like age, workload, stress load, dietary preferences, injuries, and so on. If you’re not clear on this from the beginning you won’t achieve first-rate results.
Then we train! We start by teaching you big lifts like barbell squats, kettlebell swings and snatches, and bodyweight exercises. In this process we uncover your weaknesses and imbalances and iron them out with assistance exercises. In my 15+ years of experience, I’ve seen clients who’ve spent 1000s of $$ or more on training and still they haven’t nailed the basics of technique, breathing, and core balance. If you’re content following mindless workouts and not seeing progress then don’t bother with this process. But if you’d like to experience thrilling progress and performance gains + longevity and an injury-resistant body, then learning proper foundations followed by structured workouts meant for YOU is required. It’s also where things get exciting: our clients typically see more results in three months of training with us after years of plateauing in conventional gyms.
From hereon your pathway to the future Spartan you must be applied in ranked order, which means focusing on the most important training principles first, because not all training and lifestyle implements are equal. It makes no sense to devote 80% of your focus to actions that yield 5% of your results. You must apply the most high-yield actions first.
That order goes something like this…
Start by choosing whole-bodied movements
I’m going to assume that you don’t have the time (or will) to train twice a day six days a week, like a fitness model. Training everything separately—like cardio from strength, and individual muscle groups—takes time. A lot of time. It also tends to create a less natural-looking physique.
Doing mostly whole-bodied movements, like barbell squats, chin ups, kettlebell snatches, and so on, gets the most amount of work done in the least amount of time. This translates as results. I’ve had the pleasure of training with world champion athletes who’ve got there with 3-4 sessions a week, and it’s also how I personally train.
Popular Instagram exercises like glute bridges, crab walks, planks, and bicep curls, might get the likes, but the pros use these kinds of exercises sparingly and get the job done with big whole bodied movements. If you want the same results as a pro, then do what pros do.
2. Master technique
Mastering technique is not only about safety and not looking like a cretin; it’s the only way to progress. Think about not only today’s training session; think about 50 sessions from now. A lone workout doesn’t deliver results, a block does.
By hitting depth on a squat, full extension on a press, and full swing on your snatch, you improve your 50th workout from now. And this is progress. It’s also how strength training becomes physiotherapeutic, by strengthening the right balancing and core muscles and correcting posture. Ignore this process and you’ll never progress.
3. Train consistently and build workload before attempting to train intensely
Forging the training habit is more important than feeling good in your sessions or training at 100%. One big sabotage belief is that it’s not worth training if you don’t feel 100% or put in 100% effort. It’s BS. If you wait till you feel good you’ll be waiting a lifetime.
Some good news I have for you is that elite strength athletes don’t often train at 100%; they most often train at 75-85%, occasionally dropping down to 60% on bad days. Over time you acquire the ability to train more intensely, but it only comes with time.
Someone training three times a week consistently will acquire the ability to train intensely better than someone who pushes for it sporadically. It’s also about injury resistance and wellness: joints and connective tissues get stronger when you train—not just muscles. Consistent 80% loads build them more strongly and safely than inconsistent heavy sessions do.
4. Add slight variations
This is where a big reeducation is required because fitness marketing ruined people’s ideas on training with lines like “never do the same workout twice”. CrossFit and F45 are the worst offenders, and FYI the world’s best Cross-fitters don’t randomise their training, they follow structured programs.
If you want to improve you’ll have to do the same workout twice. You’ll have to do the same lifts—like barbell squats and kettlebell snatches—thousands of times.
To keep it fun, and to work on different aspects of strength, we vary reps, sets, and do slight variations of lifts; sometimes short and heavy, sometimes light and long, sometimes back squats, sometimes front squats, and sometimes one leg squats.
This middle path maintains consistency whilst maximising gains.
5. Train intensely
Intense training isn’t for beginners; it’s a skill that you acquire with time. Consistency and volume (building and maintaining the habit) is ranked above intensity because the skill of training intensely happens over time, as a byproduct of consistency and experience.
Get good sleep and rest and nail steps 1-4, then this step will take care of itself.
6. Occasionally overreach
I frame six-week (or shorter) challenges as “overreaching periods”. I do them by either training harder and longer, or by consuming fewer calories.
What happens when newbies do six-week challenges is they end up running purely on willpower, which is unsustainable. After a few weeks—when their willpower runs out—they return to their former selves + some.
100Strong is not a quick fix gym and we help you get to your optimal self the pro way, by changing 1-2 habits at a time and taking a few months to get there.
Once you get there and have a firm foundation, you can overreach from time to time. That way when you’re done you’ll fall right back onto your positive habits. Training unsustainably from time to time is good if it’s done on top of the right foundation.
7. Nutritional side note
Without diving too deeply into this subject (which would take too long to cover), unless you can consistently consume 1.5grams + of protein per kilogram of body weight, enough water, and enough fibre (which is something like 5 cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit EVERY DAY), don’t attempt anything else.
If you hit these targets consistently you’ll lose fat, gain muscle, and feel sustained doing it. Our approach is to make every lifestyle implementation as easy and enjoyable as possible, before digging into willpower. Depriving yourself of protein and fibre is depriving yourself of satisfaction, which leads to failure.
OK, so I guess this intro to our gym turned into an extended guide/rant. It is my experience that following the above-mentioned steps in order is the most effective way for any normal person to get fit. It’s how we do things @100Strong: following structured and time-tested methods, tailoring them to each individual, and leading towards a goal.
Workout this way and we believe that you can add 20 (or more) quality years to your life. It might sound exaggerated but remember just one generation ago we had boomers smoking like chimneys, spending hours of unprotected time in the sun, and at one point guidelines deemed it healthy to drink three alcoholic drinks per day.
By training with us we believe we can make your 30s your new 20s, your 40s your new 30s, and your 50s your new 40s.
We can make you strong for life.
