EASY STRENGTH
OMNIBOOK
Dan John
Foreword
Frank Leonard
Copyright © 2022 Dan John
Foreword © 2022 Frank Leonard
All rights reserved.
easystrengthomnibook.com
ISBN-13:979-8-9874938-0-9
Also by Dan John
40 Years with a Whistle
Attempts
Now What?
The Hardstyle Kettlebell Challenge
Can You Go?
Before We Go
Intervention
Never Let Go
Mass Made Simple
From Dad to Grad
Easy Strength (with Pavel Tsatsouline)
Fat Loss Happens on Monday (with Josh Hillis)
To John Powell
As I was typing the final edits and insights of this work, John Powell
passed away. John, as you will find in all my writings, was one of my
heroes. His wisdom and insights propelled me into a far higher level of
athletic skill and coaching ability. I will miss him. I will miss his
extremely dry sense of humor. I will miss our “quick errands” that ended
up being road trips. I will always remember his open arms to anyone
who wanted to be better. I am a better man because of him.
To Josephine
You inspire me to dance.
To my friends who died that August day
I will never forget you. I will forever honor you.
I would also like to thank Laree Draper for changing my life. She
reached out to me years ago offering to host my first DVDs then
encouraged me to write my first book, Never Let Go. Her editing skills,
as well as her ability to encourage me to stay on track (an issue I have),
shape my career and writing. This Omnibook could not have been
finished without her support and guidance. Thank you for all you have
done for me and my family.
Foreword by Frank Leonard
Introduction
What’s an “Omnibook?
On Growing Up with Reader’s Digest
A System for EVERYbody
The Structure of the Omnibook
The Fundamentals of Easy Strength
Pavel's Quote
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
An Important Interlude: Dr. Dan Cleather on Progression
Easy Strength is “Simple” in My Head
The Basic “Top 10” List of Easy Strength
Two to Five
So, can I train three days a week?
What about training FOUR days a week? Or ONE day? Or…?
Two-Three-Five
How Many Lifts Per Session?
Two-Lift Programs
Using the Movement Matrix
Two Days a Week with Two Exercises or Fewer a Day
Can I Do Mass Made Even Simpler?
Three Lifts a Day
Five Lifts a Day
How Many Sets Per Lift? How Many Reps Per Lift?
Reasonable, Doable, Repeatable: The Secrets of Success
Just a Quick Insight
Rolling Averages
Let’s Start with the Simplest Plan
Training the Old School Way
A Timely Email from Bill Hinbern
How Do We Know Easy Strength Works?
Another important interlude from Tim Anderson
The History of Easy Strength
The Droot of Easy Strength
Another Important Interlude from Yogi Berra on Training Theory
The Basics of Easy Strength: A “Conclusion”
The Quadrants
The IMPACT of the Strength Coach
Quadrant One
Training in Quadrant One
Quadrant Two
Training in Quadrant Two
Quadrant Three
Training in Quadrant Three
Quadrant Four
Training in Quadrant Four
Coaching from the Easy Strength Vision
Does Easy Strength Work for Every Sport?
Using Easy Strength with Sports
Easy Strength and the Experienced Athlete
Cooks and Chefs
Addressing the Issues of Easy Strength
Understanding Heavy
Sorta Max, Max, and Max Max
Variation in Easy Strength
Warnings about Variation and the American Show, The Office
An Important Interlude: Jordan Derksen on Easy Strength
Training the Heart and Lungs…and Arteries and Veins and…
Cardiovascular Work and Easy Strength
Even Easier Strength
Power Laws, Life, and Living
Gather Benefits
Warmups and Easy Strength
Easy Strength across a Lifetime
Beyond the Basics and Successful Aging
Okay, Which Easy Strength Approach is Best?
Low Intensity, Low Volume
High Intensity, High Volume
High Intensity, Low Volume
Low Intensity, High Volume
Frequency
Duration
Ballistics, Grinds
Men and Women
Is This Enough?
The Basics of Easy Strength: Another Conclusion
Advanced Easy Strength Techniques
Easy Strength: The Game-changer
Tension and Tempo across the Movement Matrix
Cueing and Coaching: Appropriate Information at the Appropriate
Time
Tempo and the Ballistic Family
The Hangover Rule
Stretch Reflex
My Second Game-Changer: Loaded Carries
Loaded Carry Variations
Loads for Loaded Carries
Easy Strength Doesn’t Always Fit
Easy Strength and Squatting
Push/Hinge or Pull/Squat or…?
What’s with Squats and Easy Strength?
An Important Interlude: The Great Percy Cerutty on Squats
Training without Racks: Using the Clean
Can I Use Kettlebells with Easy Strength?
How Does One Fit Easy Strength into a Real Life?
Back to the Bus Bench
My Two-phrase Summary of Goal Achievement
Peaking Programs and/or Goal Achievement
Is Easy Strength “Minimalist?”
Three Words to Explain Training
Level Changes
MY Greatest Secret!
Incorporating Level Changes and Groundwork
The “SHOCKING” Cardiovascular Aerobic Miracle of Level
Changes!
Conditioning for Sport
Conditioning that Supports Performance
What’s the Next Step?
Easy Strength for Fat Loss
Easy Strength for Fat Loss (ES4FL)
A Final Point on Easy Strength for Fat Loss
Concluding Thoughts
A Perfect Day of Easy Strength
Conclusion
Appendices
Taylor Lewis and Easy Strength
Easy Strength for Fat Loss THROUGH O Lifting!
Tension, Arousal, and Heart Rate…the Master Skills
The Original Transformation Program
The One Lift a Day Program
The Hypertrophy and Recovery Program
10 of the Many Lessons I learned from Coach Maughan
Who is Dan John?
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Foreword by Frank Leonard
Strength as a Legacy
Easy Strength Omnibook is a unique, expansive, and fascinating guide to
achieving strength and maintaining it across a lifetime. The book
provides a practical “do this” regimen accompanied by a thoughtful
discourse on “why” the program works. The book then closes with great
advice on “how” to deliver results across a lifetime. In Easy Strength
Omnibook, author and strength coach Dan John is giving the world a
legacy of strength. Whether the modern fitness world will accept the
legacy is to be determined.
The mix of practical advice with philosophical reasons in Easy Strength
reflects the personality of the author. Dan John is both a worldrenowned strength coach and an educator with advanced training in
history and theology. I was fortunate to have “Mr. John” as a religion
and ethics teacher from age 13 to 16. His teaching style, which is evident
in Easy Strength Omnibook, is to make the essential facts clear. His
lectures and writings then point to grander horizons that prompt those
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interested to question facts and pursue deeper truths.
In Easy Strength Omnibook, you get the essentials of push, pull, hinge,
squat, and loaded carry. You’ll learn how five easy workouts per week
build foundational strength. You’ll also learn how to vary the workouts
every few weeks to ensure continued gains. From there, Dan also guides
you in training toward goals by classifying yourself into one of his four
workout quadrants. Finally, for the advanced reader, Dan offers up a
movement matrix that ties together all his recommendations in a visual
“Do it Yourself” guide.
Ultimately, the genius of Dan John is that he’s guiding the reader back
to the goals that are important in life. Can I comfortably pick up my
newborn all day? Can I grab my 10-year-old and lift her up in an ecstatic
hug? Can I get this 40-pound piece of luggage through a modern airport
with a mile between gates? If you want “killer abs” or to “max out,” go
forth to any modern fitness site. If you want to be strong, read this book.
Those interested can also follow Dan’s journey through 50-plus years of
strength and sports training. You can see how the kids of South San
Francisco were onto something when they designed barbell lifting
programs without squat racks or benches. Pick it up, put it over your
head, press it, or squat it. You’ll learn how the training world went in
wild directions in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming overly pumped up and
far too interested in “going for the burn.”
There are also numerous hidden gems throughout the book. The section
on training for children and teenagers could be a book on its own:
“Playgrounds and swimming pools are the habitat of future greats.”
In Easy Strength Omnibook, one could argue that Dan John is addressing
a fundamental issue disrupting our culture. Society’s recognition of the
virtue of physical strength declined as humans moved to offices and
away from manual labor. Fitness became more about giving people a 30minute escape from their day in the office or a way to wake up because
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most people don’t sleep enough. Dan wants you to ask if that approach
to fitness and wellness makes sense.
The trope of the gentle giant exists for a reason. The truly strong are
often calm, fair, and caring. The more we can lift, the less we ask others
to lift. The stronger we are, the less we fight petty grievances with
others. The benefits of strength training extend far beyond merely
looking good, which is what so much of what modern “lifting” has
become.
Easy Strength Omnibook provides a roadmap to strength for all ages and
body types. The challenge is to the reader: Are you willing to focus on
strength as a goal?
Frank Leonard
Mr. Leonard is a healthcare executive and former venture capitalist. He
received his AB in history from Harvard University and an MA in the
history of international relations from the London School of Economics.
He was recently grateful to the Easy Strength program after he pulled a
200-pound man from a lake up onto an elevated dock.
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Introduction
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Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions. This is my solution.
The world of fitness is a funny place. If you sat down with my mom in
1950 and asked her how to stay in shape, I’m pretty sure you’d get the
same look from her as you would if you sat down to ask my
grandmother in 1900.
You’d get a funny look, a quizzical look. Back in the day, one simply
didn’t need to “stay in shape.”
Life kept everyone in shape. The world wars, the economy, the limited
availability of cheap carbs (especially sugar), and the reality that
walking was the primary means of transportation kept people “in shape”
without having to consult the Promised Land of lotions, potions, creams,
and pills to shape and sculpt their way to eternal abs. My dad once told
me that most of the soldiers he served with in World War II had never
eaten three meals in a single day before enlisting in the army.
From my observations at America’s amusement parks, we’re now in a
time where the shape of staying in shape is much rounder than in the
past.
Most of the solutions to this issue bring more problems than they solve.
It’s a rare week that someone doesn’t post some idiocy on social media
that anyone with any experience or common sense (the rarest of senses
in my judgment), wonders why the effort was taken to post this
nonsense.
It’s a rare day I don’t get an advertisement that some miracle pill or
program will instantly burn (incinerate!) my fat.
You want to lose fat? I’m not trying to sell you any of the following
training ideas, but these are the three best things to put you in the fat loss
“zone,” according to recent research:
Walking
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Sitting
Sleeping
Exhaustive death-march training is great for advertisements but getting a
full night of sleep and walking around throughout the day is far better
for fat loss. Most people, as I understand, are getting their sitting in
daily.
The fitness field can be used to change, save, and turn lives around. It
can also be—and often is—the problem itself. My problem? Here:
Lifting changed my life.
Lifting has saved my life.
Lifting has turned my life around.
There: My problem is that lifting has always been there for me.
And…that’s the problem.
To repeat: Lifting can be, and it often is, the problem itself.
My answer to almost every question is to lift weights. I, of course,
received this groundbreaking answer from my coach, Dick Notmeyer,
who never found an issue, in the gym or in life, that couldn’t be solved
by more front squats and more protein. Lifting does solve a lot of
problems, but the follow-up question brings more problems: What do
you (me, you, anyone) mean by “lifting weights”?
As I always tell people: Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.
This book, Easy Strength Omnibook, is my solution. My solution is
nothing new, nothing truly exciting, and certainly nothing
groundbreaking. It’s the classic lifting tradition. So, to explain Easy
Strength, including the nuances while striving to avoid the splashiness
and flashiness of modern fitness writing, I turned to the book that
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changed MY life.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 8
What’s an “Omnibook?
I must attempt to pay my great debt to J. K. Doherty and his classic text,
Track and Field Omnibook.
When I was a young lad, my brother, Richard, drove me to the Track
and Field News headquarters. Back in 1971, one could still walk in,
order back issues of the magazine and buy the books sold all in the same
warehouse. We walked in and Richard bought me Track and Field
Omnibook. J. K. Doherty summed all of track and field in one massive
edition. The book includes the history, the techniques, the ideas, the
coaching, the plans, the schemes, the tactics, the training, and the great
coaches and athletes in one volume.
This is what “Omnibook” means in Track and Field Omnibook. It’s all
about everything…in one volume.
I devoured that book. Everything you think is new about training can be
found between its covers. By the way, I’m on my third copy of the first
edition of the book. Twice now, I’ve read and reread the book so much
that the covers have fallen off. I still often read the notes in my original
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copies from 1971 and 1987 and marvel at how I keep relearning the
same lessons.
I’m continually amazed at what I find in the first edition:
Plyometrics? Yes…in the high jump section.
Kettlebells? Yes…sprinkled throughout the book.
Olympic lifting and everything else? You bet…everywhere.
And, of course, there’s more. Coaching and training ideas drip off every
page. Wholistic/holistic training bookends Doherty’s writings and I still
apply his teaching concepts each and every day.
Richard bought the book to help me throw the discus farther. In the
section on the discus, I read this:
“During the months of July, August and September, our throwers
work entirely on their own. From October until January we have a
program of lifting weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We
work on the discus form on Tuesday and Thursday. During the
winter months from January to April we are able to work indoors
in our fieldhouse. We then lift on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,
and throw on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. During the
competitive season from April to July, we lift on Monday and
Wednesday and throw Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
On the days we throw, we like to complete our practice sessions by
doing sprint work consisting of 30, 40 or 50 yard sprints.”
The writer’s name was Ralph Maughan, the head coach at Utah State
University. Not long after reading this, I told my sister, Corinne, “I want
to go to Utah State University and throw for Coach Ralph Maughan.”
It was a journey for me to grow from a 118-pound freshman discus
thrower to a 231-pound junior college transfer, but my life changed
forever when my dad called to me in my upstairs bedroom and said I had
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a phone call.
“I’m Ralph Maughan from Utah State University and I would like to
offer you a full-ride scholarship to throw for us here.”
Goals can be achieved; dreams can come true.
J. K. Doherty’s book taught me the basics of training and the art of
discus throwing. The book introduced me to Coach Maughan. After that,
I did the work and reaped the prize(s). I offer you Easy Strength
Omnibook, in part, as a thank you to JKD and Coach Maughan.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 11
On Growing Up with Reader’s Digest
As a warning to the nitpickers who review books on various sites on the
internet, I want to be clear about this:
Yes, I have published some of the material in this work on my site, on
forums, in articles, and in some of my earlier books. To truly be an
Omnibook, I had to include a lot of things from hither, thither, and yon.
You’ll find that my deeper dig into the quadrants is based on my book,
Attempts, but is fully edited and reviewed. In Attempts, I followed the
basic format given to us by a fabulous book, The Essays of Michel de
Montaigne. As I noted then, the term “essay” in French is probably best
translated as “attempts,” but no American student will ever forget the
essay sections of practically every high school and college exam.
Montaigne would raise a topic and “attempt” to discuss it in depth. I feel
this is a bit of a lost art, at least in fitness, as most people seem to strive
for the single, solo, and solitary answer for all the questions of fitness,
health, longevity, performance, and body composition.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 12
Most fitness authors offer us a binary option for answers:
A: My Way
Not A: The Highway
I’ve strived in my coaching and writing career to always explore other
options besides the clear, true, and honest path I offer to my athletes and
clients. Humbly, of course, my options are always the best.
I am just joking. Well, maybe not.
So, like my book Attempts, I offer you bite-sized readings (generally) on
topics the journey through learning, teaching, and adapting Easy
Strength has taken me so far. One could certainly pick up this book and
dig in from the first page and read to “FIN.”
I learned this in high school French: “Fini” is when one finishes a task;
“FIN” is when a movie or book is finished. You’re welcome for this
language lesson. And I could be wrong about this—foreign languages
are not my best talent.
Or one could simply flip open practically any chapter in the book and
enjoy a few quick insights. If your interests are in one direction, start
with that section or chapter. When I read Doherty’s Track and Field
Omnibook, I found some of the best training ideas in the jumping
section, some of the funniest reading in the coaching sections, and lifechanging ideas in the section on holistic training.
Not long ago, I was standing in line at a grocery store and saw an article
on reading on the cover of Reader’s Digest. It included a fairly long list
of books one should read in life. I bought the magazine and read the
article. After reading the article, I tore it out and put it in my journal to
reference later.
Next, I started reading the articles on the best meal in every state, the
value of a particular supplement, some uplifting material to keep us
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going in life, and a variety of jokes, games, and quizzes. I then
remembered my first cross-country flight and how I went on the plane
with just the newest edition of Reader’s Digest. Before movies on
planes, we read books and magazines for the six or more hours in the air.
By the way, the guy next to me smoked a whole pack of cigarettes.
Things have changed a bit flying in airplanes; there used to be more
clouds in the cabin than in the sky. It wasn’t fun for nonsmokers.
Oh…that guy next to me? That was my dad.
Reader’s Digest also offered quarterly book digests. During summer
vacations, I’d read these abridged versions, as almost every vacation
home or cabin in America had these on the shelves. I read Pearl Buck’s
The Good Earth, James Hilton’s Goodbye Mr. Chips, and Theodore H.
White’s The Making of the American President 1960 on a weekend
when summer storms kept us inside. Another T. H. White, Terence
Hanbury, wrote The Sword in the Stone, among other great books.
As I review Easy Strength Omnibook, I see some parallels with my
youthful reading of Reader’s Digest and the wonderful book
abridgments. I want you, gentle reader, to feel comfortable picking up
this book and gleaning a few insights as you find an odd minute or two.
If you have the time and inclination, I hope the book feels fresh and
alive as you turn page after page into chapter after chapter. I know that
some stories and ideas repeat. “Repetition is the mother of
implementation” is the sign I used to have on my desk as an
administrator.
In truth, coaches, like parents and teachers, probably can’t say the same
thing over and over enough. And some readers, like my daughters did
when they were in middle school, might roll their eyes at the repetition.
Of course, as a strength coach, I believe in repetitions.
My goal for the reader is to quickly learn and understand the basics of
the Easy Strength method. I feel that learning to lift is a lot like learning
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to swim; you can read every book ever written on swimming, but sooner
or later, you must dip your feet in the water. Much of this book is written
to encourage you to experiment and train with the concepts I share
between these covers. I don’t want to bog you down in graphs, charts,
obscure terminology, and bloated formulas.
I want you to enjoy some heavy lifting, not heavy reading.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 15
A System for EVERYbody
The Easy Strength system is something that has value for literally every
human person who strides the Earth. Not long from now, I’ll be opening
a gym on Mars and will include specific instructions for training on the
Red Planet.
Easy Strength reflects the great tradition of strength training. When I
pull some of my dusty old books and magazines off the shelves in my
office, I’m usually humbled by the clarity and simplicity of the authors
and athletes of our past. The human body hasn’t changed much in the
past century, so the methods that worked for the greats of strength
training 50 or a hundred years ago should still work today.
True, my father stared at the screen during the first moon landing in
1969 and said, “I read this in science fiction books and it’s happening
right now.” He walked outside with me and, on an oddly clear night in
the fog bank known as South San Francisco, we stopped, and he stared
at the moon. Yes, technology changes fast; DNA takes a few extra years.
Much of what I’ve learned about Easy Strength comes from my female
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athletes and clients. Many of the early adopters of this protocol were
elite female kettlebell enthusiasts who took on strength challenges. The
feedback was nearly always the same:
“It was so simple, so easy…so, I stopped doing it.”
We’ll discuss the phrase “I said it was simple, not easy” many times in
this book. Yet, there’s a truth about Easy Strength: It’s simple. It’s easy.
I often quote the comedian Jerry Seinfeld when I discuss elite training.
He wrote this in his book, Seinlanguage:
“But the pressure is on you now. This book is filled with funny
ideas, but you have to provide the delivery. So when you read it,
remember: timing, inflection, attitude. That’s comedy. I’ve done
my part. The performance is up to you.”
If you join the journey of Easy Strength, this book is your travel guide,
your map app. As you embark on the path remember this:
“I’ve done my part. The performance is up to you.”
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The Structure of the Omnibook
The book is broken into four parts. The first part, “The Fundamentals of
Easy Strength,” provides the basics of the entire concept. If one simply
wants the “Do this” of the book, read those first five chapters of this
section. The “Top Ten” and the “Two to Five” chapters will give you
more than enough to begin your journey.
The second part continues with the concept of quadrants. This idea took
me the better part of a decade to refine and explain. Essentially, we
adapt the Easy Strength methods to one’s sport or goals. Most of us (just
to save you some time) start off in QI and live our lives in QIII.
Part three, “Addressing the Issues of Easy Strength,” discusses the
ongoing lessons of the Easy Strength voyage. The first three chapters of
this section will provide most people with the quick answers to the
common questions people ask about the system.
Part four, “Advanced Easy Strength Techniques,” introduces the
methods we use in performance sports and collision occupations. We
also discuss topics that impact both athletes and the general population
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using Easy Strength. The discussions on loaded carries and squats are
well worth your time.
Part four also contains our recent explorations into Easy Strength for Fat
Loss.
As always, I’ve added additional material as appendices for ideas I
reference in the book. These are extremely helpful for further insights
for those digging deeper.
Enjoy.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 19
The Fundamentals of
Easy Strength
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Pavel's Quote
“For the next 40 workouts, pick five lifts. Do them every workout.
Never miss a rep— in fact, never even get close to struggling. Go as
light as you need to go and don’t go over 10 reps for any of the
movements. It is going to seem easy. When the weights feel light, simply
add more weight.” ~ Pavel Tsatsouline
I did this exactly as written.
It worked.
I then spent the next two decades explaining these six sentences to
people.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 21
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
In 1943, Merrie Melodies, also known as Looney Toons, gave us one of
the great cartoons of history: Tortoise Wins by a Hare. The frustrated
Bugs Bunny, who along with The Three Stooges dominated my
childhood television watching, loses to the “slow and steady” Cecil
Turtle. In my primary education, we were taught many of Aesop’s fables
and I relished the simple truths of every story.
I don’t want to spoil the whole story for you, but Cecil did have a trick
up his shell. No matter, the concept of the tortoise defeating the hare (or
bunny in this case) cemented in my brain a concept I fully believe as a
coach, teacher, parent, and grandparent:
Slow and steady wins the race!
Of course, as an athlete I tried to find every shortcut. I discovered, as
most of us do, that the long route usually turned out to be the shortcut!
Easy Strength reflects our good friend, the tortoise. The shortcut is
showing up every day. The secret is coming back. The “burn before
reading” spy folder mystery insider’s secret is no secret: We must enjoy
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the weeks or months learning the movements and adding more, whatever
“more” might be at the time, to make the exercises progressively
heavier.
It’s a secret like “buy low, sell high.” The secret is no secret.
By the way, an editor of a magazine once edited my little joke “burn
before reading.” You see, burn AFTER reading is what you’re supposed
to do. Burn BEFORE reading is funny.
Laugh until you’re ready to proceed.
This concept has been used in sports and most of life since Coach
Aesop, the author of The Tortoise and the Hare, blew his whistle and
took notes on his tablet. Every time I pick up an older book or sit with a
great coach, the same lesson, slow and steady, appears.
Earl Nightingale, an author and speaker who changed my life with his
simple wisdom, quoted William J. Reilly quite a bit in his early
recordings. It took me a bit of work to find material on Reilly and I’m
now the proud owner of several of his books. In the book that summed
most of his work, How to Get What You Want Out of Life, Reilly tells us
a story:
For instance, when I first went out for the two-mile run on the
college track team, the coach gave me a stop watch.
“Just jog around the track today,” he told me, “and time yourself. It
doesn’t make any difference how slow you go to begin with.
Tomorrow, jog a little faster. The important thing is to improve
your time a little bit each day.”
If, at the outset, the coach had had me run the two miles alongside
a seasoned veteran, I would have been licked before I started.
Don’t compare yourself with anyone else.
Reilly published the book the year I was born. I wish I could have read
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that section that year and applied this knowledge. I didn’t.
Many years later, Kenny Moore’s book, Bowerman and the Men of
Oregon, came out. Moore quoted the great Oregon track coach (and
famous cobbler) in his book from 2006:
Take a primitive organism, say a freshman. Make it lift, or jump or
run. Let it rest. What happens? A little miracle. It gets a little
better. It gets a little stronger or faster or more enduring. That’s all
training is. Stress. Recover. Improve. You’d think any damn fool
could do it. But you don’t. You work too hard and rest too little
and get hurt.
A little bit of work. Then rest. Repeat.
Arthur Drechsler reminds us in his voluminous volume, The
Weightlifting Encyclopedia, that Coach Bowerman:
“(I)dentified three “cornerstones” of training in any sport:
moderation, consistency, and rest.” By moderation, Bowerman
does not mean that an athlete should not train hard. High level
performance can only be achieved through excruciating effort.
However, in the overall context, training must not be so extreme
that it leads to a loss of motivation, overtraining or injury, the three
biggest threats to any athlete’s performance.”
To repeat: A little bit of work. Then rest. Repeat.
Dr. Phil Maffetone—his work illuminated my career in understanding
the difference between health and fitness—reminds us simply in his
book, Get Strong:
Training = Workout + Recovery
Simple.
To repeat: A little bit of work. Then rest. Repeat.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 24
As a side note, nearly every professor I had in college ran cross-country
or track and field in high school and/or college. I’m still convinced
there’s magic in the discipline of running for academics. Most great
writers tend to also be avid walkers, so maybe there’s something there.
Barry Ross, the great sprint coach, nudges his sprinters into condition for
races from the indoor 60-meter dash to the 800-meter run by simply
walking for 12 workouts, three days a week for four weeks. There was
one rule: Each time, the athlete had to w-a-l-k a little bit farther. No
jogging and no running. The key was to just go a bit farther.
Of course, if one chooses to go fast on day one, day 12 is going to be
bad. It’s like what Coach Ralph Maughan taught us about tempo in
discus throwing:
“You can start slow and go fast. Or you can start fast and go
faster.”
Being brilliant university students, we figured out that the former
worked better than the latter. I’ve been assured that Coach Ross’s
athletes did the same.
Slow and steady wins the race. Easy Strength is the journey of a
thousand reps that begins with the first set (with apologies to Lao Tse).
We start reasonable and add load reasonably. Slow and steady.
With this slow start to Easy Strength, let’s begin.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 25
An Important Interlude: Dr. Dan Cleather on
Progression
Dan hired me to teach at Saint Mary’s University in Twickenham,
London. He’s a prolific writer with a keen understanding of the human
body…and the human mind.
“Start light and progress slowly.”
From The Little Black Book of Training Wisdom
Dan later changed this to “Start light and progress DELIBERATELY
slowly.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 26
Easy Strength is “Simple” in My Head
Easy Strength is simple in my head. “Simple, not EASY” is probably
something I say too much. It’s “simply” this: We’re trying to get
stronger, and the hardest part is dedicating 40 days to a singular focus to
“get stronger.”
For those of you who don’t know my “Simple, not easy” story, let me
repeat it. Years ago, the great discus thrower, John Powell, was teaching
a clinic. “The discus throw is simple,” John told the group. He went on
to explain the four basic human movements (twist, step, twist, jump) he
used to teach the throw at the time. A boy tried to mimic John. The boy
fell on the ground.
“You said it was easy!” the boy complained.
John walked over to the boy, “I said it was simple, not easy.”
Generally, the most important things in life are simple. Maintaining a
clean house, loving your children, walking, appropriate eating, and
sleeping soundly are all simple. Easy? Just talk to someone who has
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 27
issues with the simple things in life.
Easy Strength is simple.
The concept that makes Easy Strength work reflects how we learn most
things in life. If you want to learn to type, the instructor does NOT
scream in your ear:
“Left pinky finger on the A…now!!! Hit it and move on. Go!
FASTER!!!”
I like this idea. But, watching my grandchildren learn to move from
simple head movements to rolling, to crawling and then, it seems,
immediately into sprinting, has taught me that true learning tends to
happen when people aren’t fearing for their lives.
Easy Strength is all about nudging the load up in various exercises by
practicing and repeating the same movements over days, weeks, and
months. With this calm approach, the systems of the body rewire and
adapt, and we soon find the weight on the bar or bell is too easy, so we
go heavier.
Put together enough of those “go heavier” moments and soon you’ll be
stronger than you’ve ever been in your life.
The directions are simple:
“Pick five lifts. Do them…”
Over and over in my coaching career—and life, as I think about it—
simply PICKING a few things from life’s buffet and sticking to it seems
like a commonsense success formula. When I find successful people,
almost universally they found something in their life and focused on it.
Successful people do something important: They do something and keep
doing it!
Earl Nightingale said this better:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 28
“Men credited with all kinds of ability, talent, brains and know
how, including the ability to see into the future, frequently have
nothing more than the courage to keep everlastingly at what they
set out to do. They have that one great quality that is worth more
than all the rest put together. They simply will not give up! When a
man makes up his mind to do something then it's only a matter of
time. Staying with time takes bulldog persistence. This seems to be
the entrance examination to success—lasting success—of any
kind!”
Since my first newsletter in 1996, I’ve argued that there are three keys to
success:
1. Show up
2. Keep going
3. Ask questions
Easy Strength’s programming supports these basics truths of human
adventure. We’re going to show up and keep going. We’re going to not
give up.
And that’s “it” for Easy Strength: We aren’t going to give up. We’re
going to show up…and keep going.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 29
The Basic “Top 10” List of Easy Strength
I tend to overthink. I tend to overwrite. Obviously, I could go on and on
about this. To save you some frustration, let me give you the basic Top
10, the 10 Commandments of Easy Strength (I need to copyright that
“10 Commandments” thing), the 10 Keys to Easy Strength.
1. Keep the exercises to a minimum. Most compound, multi-joint
exercises work well. Generally, the overhead press, the deadlift,
the pullup, and the ab wheel work the best.
2. Lift two to five times a week.
3. The repetitions should be in the one-to-five range. There’s magic
in doing doubles and triples.
4. The TOTAL volume daily is around 10 reps per exercise. But if
you’re just doing singles, you probably only have six good reps in
the tank. These options work best:
⁃
Five sets of two
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 30
⁃
Two sets of five
⁃
Three sets of three (Honestly, if I could do it all again, I
would ONLY recommend this)
⁃
A set of five, add weight. A set of three, add weight, a double
(5–3–2)
⁃
Six progressively heavy singles
⁃
One easy set of 10 (tonic day)
⁃
Generally—most of the time—stay with the same load for all
sets. However, with the 5–3–2 and the six singles, add load.
5. Rest as appropriate between sets. If you have time, rest up to five
minutes (which is a LOT of rest), but add some easy relaxation
drills or self-massage, or, as we do at our gym, Tim Anderson’s
Original Strength.
6. Always finish a set KNOWING you could have done two or more
additional reps with the load. For some, that might be loads as high
as 90–95% of their one-rep maximum. For the more experienced
lifter, it could be 70% (or less!) of the one-rep maximum. The
more experience you have in the weight room, the lighter the loads
for the first few weeks. When in doubt, go lighter.
7. If on that occasional wonderful day you’re feeling oddly strong, go
heavy. Feel free to lift a personal record for singles or repetitions.
However, hold back from doing what I call a “Max Max Max”
effort—that once-in-a-lifetime, “circle the wagons,” “unleash the
dragons” effort. Stop adding load when feeling you could have
done more with judges, an audience, and hundreds of cameras and
reporters. Save your best for THAT day.
⁃
After this kind of effort, ease off for few workouts either on
that specific lift or move on to another appropriate variation
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 31
(military press to incline bench press, for example).
8. Vary the workouts both in intensity and load. This is the “art” part
of Easy Strength. See the chapter on Even Easier Strength for how
I formalize this for my athletes.
9. Using Easy Strength in-season simply requires reducing the
volume. For years, I dropped squats in-season to two sets of two to
keep strength levels up without overtraining. Three sets of two is a
nice compromise to the realities of the stresses of competition and
the need to continue to maintain the feeling of “I’m still training
hard.” Some athletes literally crave that feeling.
10. THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT: Finish your workouts feeling
stronger (better!) than when you began. Always walk out the door
with the idea that you could have used more load for more reps.
Keep coming back!! If something doesn’t feel right or the loads
feel heavy, stay lighter and come back tomorrow.
Once again, we see the “secret” of success is keep coming back!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 32
Two to Five
So much of my development as a coach began in 1993. That’s when I
began my annual trek to Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Many of
my favorite memories of training, coaching, and parenting come from
my weeks there each summer for 25 years.
We’d gather to teach the discus, shot put, hammer, and javelin. I once
played beer pong with three world record holders (and me!) in the
discus, shot put, and hammer. The evenings were crucial; we’d gather
after the final session, eat bad snack foods, and talk deep into the night
about training and coaching. Bill Witt, Mike Rosenberg, Greg Henger,
and Lonnie Wade (among many, many others) would share ideas and
secrets.
I woke one morning to see my notes:
“2–5 days a week. 2–5 lifts, 2–5 sets, 2–5 reps.”
I believe we summed all elite training and the entire swath of Easy
Strength with a bit of shorthand. I remember looking at this and realizing
I had a matrix for success as a coach, but I needed to sort out the various
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 33
issues.
Let’s discuss each aspect of this formula and see how we can organize it
a bit.
Two to five days a week.
I’m sure that a fully sponsored, fully funded, “assisted” athlete can train
a wee bit more than five days a week. For the rest of us, especially those
of us who choose to compete clean, five days a week in the weight room
are plenty. My favorite brand of Easy Strength is five days week with
my “magic formula” that assumes the workouts will be something like
this in a typical five-day session:
•
One great workout
•
Three punch-the-clock workouts
•
One, well, I-did-my-best workout
I wrote this in Never Let Go:
“In a group of five workouts, I tend to have one great workout, the
kind of workout that makes me think in just a few weeks I could be
an Olympic champion, plus maybe Mr. Olympia. Then, I have one
workout that’s so awful the mere fact I continue to exist as a
somewhat higher form of life is a miracle. Finally, the other three
workouts are the punch-the-clock workouts: I go in, work out, and
walk out. Most people experience this.”
Obviously, people on social media NEVER have a bad day.
I do.
That’s the truth: I have bad days.
My favorite method of using Easy Strength is five days a week. I like the
repetitions; I like the discipline of going to the gym. When we started
working on Easy Strength for Fat Loss, those extra workouts and walks
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 34
seem to add up on the calorie expenditure side and made the fasting and
eating cycles a bit more palatable.
Of course, if one is doing an extended fast, “palatable” seems to mean
something else.
So, yes, training five days a week works.
And training two days a week works too.
One of my great leaps of improvement happened years ago after a
discussion with the late, great Goran Swenson. He told me he progressed
unusually well by only lifting two days a week.
What? I’m sorry…two days a week?
At the time, he was one of Sweden’s best discus throwers and I was
competitive here in the States. I thought he was kidding me, leading me
on. We trained together at the Upper Limit gym, and he was not only
telling the truth, but he was coaching me on how to progress. The
original template was simply this:
Day One
•
Snatch
•
Squat
Day Two
•
Bench Press
•
Clean
He also did some unusual things for the times but that are common now.
He tended to add some jumps after lower body exercises and some
explosive med ball throws after the bench press. He did some sprints
during his throwing sessions, but basically you see everything right here.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 35
Everything. There is nothing behind the curtain.
I tried it and instantly made progress in my lifts and throws. When I
work with elite athletes, I keep this template in my pocket. Certainly,
this might not be enough for less-skilled or less-experienced athletes, but
it’s candy to this older, overtrained man.
In-season training continues to be an ideal time to weight train twice a
week. If you use Easy Strength (or any other training method), the
competitive season is NOT the time to make great leaps in strength…or
any other quality. Most athletes in most sports can handle two weekly
full-body workouts during the season.
My friends in Major League Baseball often tell me they work in twoweek blocks:
Those two-week blocks might take six weeks!
These baseball players have 162 games in the REGULAR season, plus
preseason, playoffs, travel (a lot), hotels, life, and just about everything
else the sport can throw at them. Little injuries compound in flights and
strange hotel beds and then reality kicks in: Maybe I’m supposed to train
today, but I can either compete or prepare to compete.
Players’ contracts reward playing time, not training time.
Ideally, early in a season, athletes train after a local competition or the
day after a competition. Many professional athletes—where the seasons
seem to get longer and longer—find that the only time they can train is
after a contest. It’s not unusual to see an athlete getting a few lifts in
before a press conference. I think it’s best to train at least three days
before the next contest and so fitting in those two days seems easy.
Except it’s not!
I was told that one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time barely left the
therapy pool every day. Watching retired athletes simply walk is often
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 36
heartbreaking—the wear and tear of high-performance costs them dearly
after the fans leave the stadium.
At the highest levels, the athletes are training at the margins. Like elite
race cars, they’re one fast turn from disaster. Strength train as best you
can and get done what you can. That perfect program we all agreed to do
six months before the season started certainly didn’t include the flu,
snowstorms, injuries, travel issues, and possibly a million other factors
that impact high performance.
Do what you can.
Yes, training two days a week works.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 37
So, can I train three days a week?
In my journal from 1993, I have a note to myself: “I seem to do best on
lifting three days a week.” Oddly, I’ve discovered, rediscovered, and rerediscovered this truth over and over in my career. So, just to remind
myself:
“I seem to do best on lifting three days a week.”
Oddly. Sadly. Simply.
I have about three good weightlifting workouts in me each week. True, I
train daily, but one of those days is a light, tonic session and the other
day is now usually mobility and a long walk. Whenever I begin to push
out those easy sessions and swap them for harder workouts, my
Doomsday Clock starts ticking downward. It’s not “if” but when I get
hurt, injured, or sick.
I can Easy Strength five days a week, yes. But if I’m Olympic lifting or
really pushing something, l can only train hard week in and week out
about three days a week. It’s been the way most people have trained
since the beginning of lifting. My hero, Tommy Kono, did just this
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 38
approach.
Kono won multiple gold medals in Olympic weightlifting, uncountable
record lifts, and was crowned Mr. Universe. You might want to listen
when someone talks about Tommy Kono.
So, yes, training three days in a week works.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 39
What about training FOUR days a week? Or
ONE day? Or…?
Of course, the question comes up: Can I train four days a week?
Yes.
One of the best things we did as American football coaches was to adopt
and adapt Jim Wendler’s 5–3–1 template for high school boys. High
school boys are wired differently and can do a lot of volume. A LOT of
volume.
We simply moved to four days a week for the major lifts and then did
whatever we could with the athletes the rest of the period. We did
tumbling, bodybuilding, kettlebell work, speed work, and maybe a dozen
other things. We did a lot because an American football player needs a
lot of qualities. The week looked something like this:
Day One
•
Back squat
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 40
•
Everything else
Day Two
•
Bench press
•
Everything else
Day Three
•
Deadlift
•
Everything else
Day Four
•
Military press
•
Everything else
It worked well. They seemed to get stronger, and we won a lot of games.
When the athletes graduated, they knew the Olympic lifts, power lifts,
kettlebell world, and a host of training methods they’ll use for a lifetime.
I hope you see where we’re going here: Done correctly, just about any
reasonable number of weekly training sessions will get you on the
journey to achieving your goals.
I almost omitted one-day-a-week training. Marty Gallagher told me an
interesting thing not long ago: Many of his best clients only train one
day a week. Read that again:
They train one day a week
One. Day. A. Week.
Wow. Marty the Master explains it this way:
Every week a small incremental goal is established and attained: a
mere 10-pound weekly bump in squat and deadlift poundage each
week for 12 weeks results in a 120-pound increase over the jump-
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 41
in weight. A mere five-pound a week increase in the bench press
and overhead press results in a 60-pound increase over the 12week cycle starting weight.
Once-a-week strength training subtleties and nuances…
Attain periodized weekly goals. Be realistic—most trainees start
cycles off way too high.
First four weeks: velocity! at the cycle’s start, all weights
manhandled, maximally explosive
Start each cycle with light weights, ingrain full range-of-motion,
archetypical techniques
Loaded, controlled, precise eccentric followed by explosive
concentric
Second four weeks: techniques are mastered, the real training
commences
Reps are cut, poundage increased, learn to embrace and fight
through sticking points
Cycle a periodized bodyweight goal—go up or down—don’t stay
the same
Don’t burn out on squats: don’t shoot your wad at the beginning of
the workout!
Benches can take more work: different grip widths, put more space
between squats or deads
Regardless of the exercise, work up to one top set and move on
Third four weeks: At the cycle’s end, poundage peaks, grind sets
in, pure low-end torque is created
Hit your realistic weekly numbers and you have done your job
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 42
I do not consider once-a-week strength training as an end-all be-all
that sweeps all that has come before it off the table. I do think once
a week strength training deserves a seat at the table and please
don’t tell us this can’t or won’t work because we have way too
many flesh-and-blood examples of the uber-elite who have used
and improved with extended doses of this uber-minimalistic
approach. I train a bunch of regular guys every Sunday and we
have documented their sensational gains.
https://www.ironcompany.com/blog/subtleties-once-weekstrength-training
So, yes, training one day a week works.
Mister Ripped, Clarence Bass, the bodybuilder who brought his body fat
levels to 2.4%, has been lifting and training for over 70 years. Yes, 70!
As I read his work, I admire his ability to change his programming as he
makes minor adaptations to life, living, and everything else.
Recently, I did a complete reread of his 10 books. Bass utilizes nearly
every combination of choosing how many days a week he trains through
the decades. There are three-day, four-day, one-day, and nearly everyday training insights through his career. I include his experience to
highlight the idea that something as simple as “how many days a week
should I train” will be a question answered by understanding your
current goals and life situation.
Over a few decades, things WILL change!
Before someone asks…yes. Yes, you can do six or seven days a week
and the bulk of people (ha! the “bulk” of people) seem to train NO days
a week and…
Overall, for most people, the “best” practices are:
•
Lifting two days a week
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 43
•
Lifting three days a week
•
Lifting five days a week
Oddly, this 2–3–5 insight continues to show up in every other aspect of
Easy Strength. When I explain Easy Strength, usually, I always fall back
on 2–3–5.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 44
Two-Three-Five
If you know me, you know I love Fibonacci numbers. I think most of us
in lifting love them too. I wrote this for Chip Conrad years ago:
Many know my addiction to the Fibonacci numbers (1, 2, 3, 5, 8,
13, 21, 55, 89) has been a lifelong issue. I was number 89 in
football (I have a famous story, “F--- you 89!” worthy of retelling)
and my programs live in the world of 3 x 8, 5 x 2, Big 21, and Big
Five 55.
If I see a lifting program with four sets of seven, I toss it in the garbage
heap. Sure, three sets of eight, five sets of two, but four sets? Heresy!
Filius Bonacci, son of Bonacci, wrote Liber Abaci in 1202 and
introduced the western world to zero…and this wonderful sequence.
Today, Filius Bonacci is immortalized as Fibonacci. I sometimes think
programming starts and finishes with his insights on numbers.
Maybe not just sometimes. Maybe little Filius was on to something.
As a coach, when I break up the year, I tell my athletes the year is made
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 45
of four 13-week seasons. Often, I see their eyes glaze over because
many people think the seasons are 12 weeks. They’re quickly doing the
math to see that 4 x 13 = 52.
Why is this important? Well, it comes down to math. If I only focus on
2–3–5, those three options with four things (number of weekly sessions,
number of exercises, number of sets, and number of reps), I only end up
with 81 choices. If I toss in the one and the four, I must deal with 625
options.
And…I’m a bit of a nut: If it’s not a Fibonacci number, I get a bit weird.
Yes, I know I need to deal with this issue. I’m waiting until the NEXT
millennium to sort this out. Be patient.
If you decide to train the 81 choices of 2–3–5 for the four things, you’ll
start repeating just before the third year of training (and you’d really
have to do some math and rigorous journaling and reviewing). With 625
choices, it would be difficult to see what is or isn’t working over the
decades.
So, for simplicity, let’s just use the 2–3–5 options.
You, of course, are free to figure out those 625 options and send them to
me with a self-addressed stamped envelope to my office. The address is
Dan John, c/o Santa Claus, Main Street, North Pole—and remember to
send this AFTER the year 3001 because as I said, I’m waiting for the
next millennium.
Please include appropriate postage.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 46
How Many Lifts Per Session?
Since bodybuilding began dominating the worldview of lifting weights,
it’s difficult for many to know that great athletes had stellar careers by
doing the basic basics:
Power lifts (squat, bench press, and deadlift)
Olympic lifts (press, snatch, and clean and jerk)
I grew up with towering figures in the discus ring who thought variation
was going from a 500-pound bench press for reps to doing 400-pound
incline presses for reps. The magazines—basically sales rags for
questionable supplements—noted that this kind of training was wrong,
and the correct approach was to terrorize the triceps, pummel the pecs,
and blitz the biceps.
Watching people “terrorize” themselves with barely any weight never
actually impressed me. The lack of results was another clue that this
kind of training didn’t work for most people. When I first started lifting,
I had this idea that my actions should lead to results. I’ve always strived
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 47
for better results.
Always.
At the tender age of 14, I thought about my future. I had some faith that
I could live 50 more years and took out my journal. I thought to myself:
“What would be the TWO best exercises to do at the old age of 64
or 65?”
I decided that this combo would be the BEST:
Power clean and press
Squat snatch
Be careful what you think about as you’ll become it! Fifty years later, I
was doing my variation of Easy Strength for Fat Loss with Olympic
lifting (again…worst-ever title for a program) and started doing these
two exercises:
Power clean and press
Squat snatch
I shared the story with my training group, and we all laughed out loud
about how smart a teenager can be about some things. We withheld our
stories about how stupid a teenager could be about other things.
Somewhere back in the early 1970s, I did my first experiments with
minimalism. Pat Flynn has authored several books and focused one book
on generalism. He explains the difference between minimalism and
generalism in this post:
We mentioned how being a minimalist doesn't (necessarily) mean
doing very little. It means doing just enough to maximize
efficiency and effectiveness.
Efficiency = doing things right.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 48
Effectiveness = doing the right things.
Someone can be efficient (say, have great running technique)
without being effective (picking the best activity for their goals).
Running is awesome, if you want to improve cardio and—well,
running. But running isn't the best choice for building upper body
strength. Do you see what I'm getting at?
As well, someone can be effective WITHOUT being efficient.
Poor technique, haphazard programming (sets, reps, etc.). They
could be doing the right things, but doing them POORLY.
The minimalist's goal then is to do THE RIGHT THINGS RIGHT.
Dang, that's good. That's a slogan!
Anyway, understood in this sense—and this is something I
mentioned to Dan, and he liked it!—minimalism almost becomes
trivial. Like, understood as such, who would ever want to be
anything OTHER THAN a minimalist? The answer is only an
idiot, is who. Hey. I knew an idiot once!
But does this make minimalism unimportant? Certainly not.
Because we all need frequent reminders to strive for that ideal
intersection between doing the RIGHT things and doing those
things RIGHT. Minimalism provides a framework, a perspective,
to help you ask the RIGHT sort of questions, and then
PRIORITIZE activities (and structure), so you're not wasting time,
money, energy, etc.
Some goals—like becoming a world golf champion—require great
effort. In which case, being a minimalist may mean doing a LOT
of stuff. SPECIALISTS don't negate the point.
However, when it comes to being an expert GENERALIST, or
somebody who wants to become good to great (or at least fairly
competent) across a broad range of abilities, is actually a pretty
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 49
reasonable pursuit. Fitness-wise, I'd say it takes no more than 15–
30 minutes per day, 3–5 times per week of intelligent
programming.
https://www.chroniclesofstrength.com/dan-john-on-minimalisttraining
As you can see, Pat and I agree on a lot. When it comes to exercise
selection, you can do two lifts, like I offered at age 14, or you can do a
lot more. Keeping with the theme of 2–3–5, let’s just offer these options:
Two lift
Three lifts
Five lifts
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 50
Two-Lift Programs
Pavel became famous offering two-lift workouts. Let’s look at some of
his combinations:
1. Bent press
2. Kettlebell snatch (from his original RKC book)
1. Kettlebell swing
2. Turkish getup (the later Program Minimum)
1. Side press
2. Deadlift (from Power to the People)
Pavel and I were joking once at dinner that if he would have used the
bench press and deadlift, no other strength book would have ever been
written!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 51
Dick Notmeyer, my original Olympic lifting coach, basically had us
do…the Olympic lifts! Joe Mills, the late great Olympic lifting coach,
also basically just had his athletes do this:
Snatch
Clean and jerk
Both Dick and Joe were famous for their athletes coming through in the
clutch. One thing I can tell you about focusing on the competitive
platform movements in every session is that the easy day is the contest.
I’ve seen a few people argue for something this simple:
Press variation
Squat variation
Frankly, this is how many of my teammates trained in college. It wasn’t
fancy but blended with hill sprints and lots and lots of track and field
training, it worked well.
My final example comes from my experience with two fulltime careers,
daughters in middle school, and very little time on my hands. I wanted to
lift in the state meet, but I could afford almost no time to train. Oddly, I
used this template BEFORE meeting Pavel and starting Easy Strength:
Snatch-grip deadlifts (two sets of five)
Overhead squats (two sets of five)
During the rest periods, I worked on my Olympic lifting techniques with
a light bar.
I went six for six and broke all the state records. My workouts lasted
about 15 minutes, five days a week. As I often say:
“It worked so well, I stopped doing it!”
Clearly, there seems to be a formula to simple two-lift training
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 52
programs:
A big upper body movement
A big lower body movement
As we’ll discuss in the push-pull-hinge-squat quadrant discussion, it
might be a “better” idea to focus on what you’re naturally or emotionally
better suited for. I’m push/hinge, so I LOVE the idea of bench press and
deadlift. Others might want to do pull ups and squats…and good for
them.
It’s possible to make some general suggestions about combining the
two-lift-a-day option with the number of times a week an athlete trains.
Let’s just look at the movement matrix:
If I can be allowed to make a gross oversimplification, if you’re doing
two movements from the far left of the matrix or even from most of the
strength training column, you might be able to train five days a week.
On the far right, the Olympic lifts and maybe the triads, it might be best
to focus on just three days a week. The anti-rotation work would be an
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 53
interesting study, but my experience with most of the options lead me to
believe we’d be looking at two sessions per week. Obviously, one could
do more sessions. If you experiment with this, let me know how it goes.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 54
Using the Movement Matrix
I’m proud on my movement matrix. I first scribbled out these ideas in
the early 1970s and I continue to tweak the exercise choices. The idea is
simple: Fill in the appropriate exercise choices for the fundamental
human movements (push, pull, hinge, squat, loaded carry) across the
spectrum from no movement (planks and isometrics), traditional lifting,
appropriate anti-rotation work, to ballistics (explosive work).
This academic exercise demanded I think with a different emphasis. As
much as I like planks and isometrics, it quickly became apparent that so
many of the movements I use are literally “moving planks.”
So that’s what I started calling some of these movements. The goblet
and overhead squats, the suitcase and farmer walks, and most of the antirotation movements demand “planking” while moving. I often hear
trainers bark out, “Engage the core.” I can’t imagine overhead squatting
300 pounds without “engaging the core.”
Somehow, engaging the core makes me think of a diamond ring and a
bended knee. I might not completely understand this phrase.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 55
There were other issues. Like, I kept finding gaps in the pull section.
Fortunately, suspension trainer systems gave us the one-arm row and I
started teaching this move with heels together, knee squeezed together,
and an emphasis on full-body tension.
Engage the core!
For most athletes, I use the matrix as a road map. If an injury sets an
athlete back, we can regress any movements back to planks as
appropriate and still vigorously train the other movements. One athlete
had a badly torn triceps muscle, so he simply did what he could on
pushes and pulls, and aggressively worked on the squat family across the
matrix, hip thrusts, and all loaded carries. He was able to rejoin playing
in the National Football League far sooner than we expected.
For demonstrations on how to use the matrix, I usually go right to left.
Generally, people asking questions about the movement matrix are a bit
more advanced. When I first coached, my athletes all did just the two
far-right lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. Basically, this combo
covered the whole matrix.
My athletes did well. Well, of course, they did. These were Division One
athletes with years of lifting and elite abilities. It took a while to figure
out the “rest of us.”
I had one reader tell me he was just doing squat snatches and loaded
carries…especially suitcase carries. If you look at the chart, the snatch
takes care of the push, pull, hinge, and squat. Adding some loaded
carries covers all the basics.
Sliding back to the triads, I had a military friend ask me what to do if he
added push jerks. We pulled out the chart and I pointed out that this
covered the push, pull, and hinge. He asked if he should “just” do front
squats and prowlers as a workout…with the push jerks. So:
Push jerk
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 56
Front squat
Prowlers
For someone who wants to cover the essentials of training in a limited
time, I applaud this idea.
One-arm bench presses and one-arm suspension trainer rows can give a
bored athlete a break if the reps and sets are appropriate. Tossing in
something like goblet squats followed immediately by sprints (“lift and
sprints”) basically covers the whole matrix and is a lot of fun. It’s much
more challenging than you might think.
One-arm bench press
One-arm suspension trainer rows
Lift and sprints
This would be an excellent in-season maintenance and conditioning
program. Since so many people are still stuck in the loop of “go for the
burn” bodybuilding, it’s hard to explain this kind of workout without
actually doing it.
I’m not sure how to explain this better. The matrix is a tool to help you
ensure your program is covering the fundamentals—feel free to make
your own with any additions or subtractions. I use the matrix to see
what’s missing when I work with a single athlete or a huge collegiate
program.
As I note time and again, usually the “missing” exercises, the gaps, are
the full movement of the squat and loaded carries. Just adding goblet
squats and suitcase carries can revitalize a training program.
Some programs are simply cut and pasted powerlifting programs. These
can be amazing programs, but many athletes and members of humanity
need some ballistic work, loaded carries, and anti-rotation work. Even
the most elite performers need to take some time going back to the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 57
planks and basics lifts on an annual basis. Neophytes might need to be
exposed to the advanced movements simply to see why a position like
the squeezed top of a glute bridge will continue to be a foundational
piece of the performance puzzle.
With the basics of programming (sets, reps, and some understanding of
volume, intensity, and density), the movement matrix can swiftly
become part of a toolkit for sustainable, repeatable physical
improvement.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 58
Two Days a Week with Two Exercises or Fewer
a Day
In-season athletes and perhaps most people with life’s little surprises,
two days a week of just two exercises might be worthy of consideration.
Very often, in-season strength training is more for reassurance rather
than progress. I’m fine with losing strength during a long track or
Highland Games season…but not TOO much strength!
The more experience you have, the longer the buffet table of options
becomes. I had a lot of success with training a movement just once a
week but doing complementary work the other days. When I first wrote
about this kind of training, the One Lift a Day program (OLAD), it
became an internet sensation.
I’ve written extensively on the OLAD program. OLAD’s roots come
from 1960s Olympic lifters. I had success with this template in the
1990s:
Monday: Power snatch
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 59
Tuesday: Front squat
Wednesday: Squat cleans
Thursday: Off
Friday: Jerks
Saturday: Moderate, “meet-like” total for both snatch and clean
and jerk
Sunday: Off
Of course, at the time I had decades of O lifting under my belt and had
begun raising a family and building my career(s). These workouts took
about 45 minutes and left me feeling fairly refreshed.
When you first look at OLAD for Olympic lifting, it might look like a
lot of different exercises, but they’re all variations of the two
competitive lifts. Therefore, I think the discussion of OLAD belongs in
this minimalistic two-exercise section. In my head, the OLAD program
fits here.
You are free to disagree.
Finally, for those of you seeking a minimalistic mass program, maybe
try one of these:
Handstand pushups
High-rep back squats
or
Dips
High-rep back squats
or
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 60
Chins
High-rep back squats
Note: For mass, you can’t get away from the tried and true high-rep back
squats. And food. Lots and lots and lots of food. And sleep.
Maybe I should write a book, Mass Made EVEN Simpler. (I already
have a book called Mass Made Simple.) MMES in 10 words:
Two lifts, two days a week, food (lots!), and sleep.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 61
Can I Do Mass Made Even Simpler?
We finished off the last chapter with a simple program:
Two lifts, two days a week, food (lots!), and sleep.
I often get questions about training programs. When I first began doing
this, I made a lot of assumptions. It took a while to figure out the
problem was mine:
I assumed someone wanting to do an Olympic lifting program had
an O bar and knew the lifts.
I assumed someone wanting to do an advanced kettlebell program
had a kettlebell.
I assumed…a lot.
Now, especially with the danjohnuniversity.com Workout Generator’s
ability to answer these with an artificial intelligence skillset (not me
bashing my head against a wall), I start EVERY discussion with two
things:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 62
What equipment do you have?
What lifts do you know?
It’s because of the email I get:
Dear Dan,
Can I do Easy Strength with a bag of oatmeal and some
paintbrushes?
Your biggest fan,
BigGunz22
And another example:
Dear Dan,
I’m 72 and I want to learn the O lifts and compete at the highest
level…maybe the Olympics. What is an Olympic lift?
NeverSurrender17
The names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Coach,
I want to add hills to my training, but I live in area with no hills or
mountains.
With slight edits, that’s literally an email I once received. My ability to
move mountains is, at best, overstated.
With the standard barbell (the 310-pound/140-kilo set), you can almost
train your whole lifetime if you choose to do the basics of O lifting. If
you email me and tell me you outgrew the bar, I will follow up with:
So, you clean and pressed 310, snatched 310, and clean and jerked
310???
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 63
Cuz…that’s really good.
If you only deadlifted and squatted this number, well, that’s fine too.
I have 32 kettlebells in my garage gym. I can do a lot of different things
because I have a lot of kettlebells and I know what to do with them.
For bodyweight, if you’re reading in this reality, you have all the
equipment you need. Exercise selection will be great for some parts of
the body and difficult for others.
If you have lots and lots of equipment and know lots and lots of
exercises and have some level of mastery, you have, well, lots and lots
of options. When someone asks about an exercise or competition, I stop
and think for a moment.
I work out the logic like this:
1. Do you have the proper equipment?
⁃
If no, Don’t do this!
⁃
If yes, continue.
2. Do you know how to do the movements?
⁃
If no, Don’t do this!
⁃
If yes, then I have no further objections!
Once you begin doing the movements, then we need to coach you and, at
least, provide some cues for you. Cues are the one or two action words
to help an athlete during the performance of a movement. I use very few
of these.
“Go! Go! Go!”
“Stay tall”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 64
“Squeeze!”
It’s easy to spot a poor coach or trainer. During the effort, the poor
coach will spout anatomy, history, biomechanics, Newton’s Laws, and
sorcery all at the same time as the athlete attempts to listen, comprehend,
fix, adjust, and basically get lost.
As the late Brian Oldfield used to tell me, “You can’t think through a
ballistic movement.”
Cues, used often enough, are those massive global points that just let the
athlete know you care.
Sometimes, that’s enough.
True coaching is in the progressions and regressions of teaching and
mastering a movement. I have three basic methods of teaching the discus
throw (and, in honesty, I barely remember the third as I rarely use it) and
the steps are simple. Of course, to rehash John Powell’s famous line: “I
said it was simple, not easy.”
Good coaches wait for the right moment to correct and review. It might
be between sets; it might be months later. Failing under the lights of
high-level competition doesn’t require the addition of, “You know, you
should have caught that ball.”
Most people figure this out on their own.
First, we need to understand that Mass Made EVEN Simpler with
barbell exercises is just what lifters did before the magazines selling
supplements told people to blitz, burn, and terrorize their muscles into
submission. I’m not sure I can explain it better than:
Do the basic lifts.
Get the reps and sets.
Come back when you’ve recovered and…repeat the process.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 65
My second point is obvious if you know your iron game history.
Nothing is new. Before I was born, lifters could turn to Harry Paschall’s
Program Two:
1. High pull and press (also known as the “continuous clean and
press”), a warmup movement
2. Curl
3. Rowing
4. Bench press
5. Squat
6. Deadlift
That’s great. Sure, we can nitpick (because that’s all we seem to do in
modern training) about the order of lifts, but I give this program my
highest praise: This is pretty good!
With barbells, picking a few basic lifts and getting the load and reps up
over time is the most well-worn path in the world of bodybuilding. That
young Austrian boy, Arnold Something-or-other, gave us this template
when I was a mere youth:
Exercise
Barbell squat
Wide-grip barbell bench
press
Chin ups
Behind-the-neck press
Barbell curl
Bent-knee situp
Sets
4
Reps
10
3
10
3
4
3
Max
10
10
3 or 4
Max
Arnold’s training partner, Franco Columbu, recommended this:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 66
Standing press, 4 sets of 12
Bench press, 4 sets of 12
Squats, 5 sets of 12
Lateral raises, 4 sets of 12
Triceps bench, 4 sets of 12
Biceps curls, 5 sets of 12
This is how most people trained when I was young. Well, not the squats.
If you simply add straight-leg deadlifts to this program, you’ll find the
shot put and discus throw strength program for scholastic boys outlined
by J. L. Mayhew and Bill Riner back in the early 1960s. My early
journals before I learned the Olympic lifts from Dick Notmeyer
basically represent this kind of training.
Speaking of the discus throw, Paul Gill, who still holds the discus record
at Notre Dame University (set in 1970!), trained and learned from fourtime Olympic gold medalist, Al Oerter. Oerter’s training over his long
career was three days a week of throwing and three days a week lifting.
His lifting was as follows:
Bench press
Squat
Incline bench press
Dumbbell flies
Curls
These were all done extremely heavy for five sets of five. Anyone who
wins four straight gold medals at the Olympics must be studied in my
humble opinion.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 67
As you can see, we’ve come a long way to find little has changed since
Paschall. (Paschall died the week I was born. I swear I had nothing to do
with it).
Again, feel free to argue with the details or nitpick the exercise
selections, but these programs work.
Frankly, a program that works is far better than most of the nonsense we
usually see.
You may want to reread this part of the sentence: “a program that
works.”
Can you build mass with kettlebells? This question always reminds me
of the quote from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: “How
very wet this water is.”
I think the answer is obvious. In case you’re still confused:
Yes, you can build mass with kettlebells.
I think two movements are king, the double-kettlebell front squat and
double-kettlebell press. The inner tube pressure, what I call “anaconda
strength,” is so great for those front squats that the trainee can skip a lot
of other things.
These two kettlebell movements can be an outstanding mass-building
program by themselves. At our gym, we’ve tested some remarkable
programs just using these two lifts and they work. Just squats and
presses. Three days a week. Lots of squats and presses.
Small point, gentle reader: These are REALLY hard programs!
My approach to mass building is always about the load and intensity.
Different equipment helps for variations and overcoming past injuries.
Sometimes simply changing the grip or joint angles by switching from
one piece of equipment to another can prevent injuries.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 68
I enjoy using multiple pieces of equipment in training. I think we can
build mass with practically any tool. My lifting matrix reflects how we
can use all kinds of equipment to produce results.
I use bodyweight, suspension trainers, kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells,
trap bars, sandbags, hills, and cars to increase mass.
Combining different pieces of equipment can be fun. Certainly, pushing
cars up hills is a workout worthy of discussion. Be sure to have someone
at the wheel…and good brakes.
To bring this whole point to a logical finish: Yes, it’s possible to build
mass with Easy Strength protocols. The concepts have been with us a
long time and these concepts work.
If.
If YOU put in the work.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 69
Three Lifts a Day
I’ve been collecting workouts, programs, training ideas, and a potpourri
of lifting ideas since I first popped my Ted Williams Sears barbell over
my head. In 2002, Mike Rosenberg and I discussed my theories of
lifting. We came up with this:
Put weights over your head.
Pick weights off the ground.
Carry weights for time or distance.
Loaded carries are the thing that’s often missing from my two-exercise
templates. Sprinkle the following into any of your two-lift programs:
Suitcase carries (honestly, maybe the “best”)
Farmer walks (a close second)
Sled drags
Prowlers
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 70
Bear-hug carries
There! Now you have a perfect program!
My work on the planet Earth is finished. I shall return to Krypton.
Some would see our Mass Made EVEN Simpler program and want to do
something like this:
Dip
Chin
High-rep back squat
Again, that’s a pretty good combination and I can’t find fault in a sixweek ascent into swoleness using this program. Remember to eat and
sleep.
Stephan Korte, a German powerlifter and coach, provided a powerlifting
program that exploded on the internet when I first logged on in 1998.
The sport of powerlifting is three lifts:
Squat
Bench press
Deadlift
Stephan’s program, which still brings tears to my “simplify” eyes, was
made up of these lifts:
Squat
Bench press
Deadlift
Of course, it worked well. Much like Marty Gallagher’s training
templates, DOING the actual lifts can help a lot of people. Let’s just
look at the introductory phase one program. It was four weeks long and
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 71
one trained three days a week with all three exercises. Korte had his
lifters do five to eight sets of five of the deadlift and squat, and six sets
of six on the bench.
Like Easy Strength, the loads began light. He had his people do 58% of
the max lift on week one and went up two percent per week.
That’s the ONE change: Add two percent per week. After the first four
weeks, the load continues to inch up, but the sets and reps drop. What
doesn’t change is the exercise selection.
At the time, the most common way to explain Korte’s method was 3 x 3
x 3, as most of the lifters I talked with used three sets of three in phase
two for simplification. One could also call it 3 x 3 x 3 x 3.
Three days a week
Three lifts a day
Three sets
Three reps
The simplicity of this program continues to amaze me. As I’ve stated in
workshops, if I could go back in time with Easy Strength, I’d tell
everyone to JUST do three sets of three. If I could remain back in time,
I’d stress that THREE of the Easy Strength lifts are the core and, if we
choose Pavel’s advice about FIVE exercises, the other two supplement
the key lifts.
I can’t go back in time, so I just keep trying to explain the details.
Using Mike Rosenberg’s advice, to repeat:
Put weights over your head.
Pick weights off the ground.
Carry weights for time or distance.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 72
We can use the movement matrix and come up with some ideas. Try this
for the three lifts:
Overhead press and variations
Deadlift and variations
Farmer bars
I’m not sure I can do better.
I did enjoy a recent experiment with these based on these insights on
training for my Olympic lifting:
Squat snatch
Front squat
Suitcase carries
Those snatch, squat, and suitcase carry workouts are well worth your
time to think about and explore.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 73
Five Lifts a Day
Most of the templates I recommend are five exercises. Literally, “that’s
what Pavel said to do.” I often refer to the movement matrix and the list
of movements on the far-left column:
Push
Pull
Hinge
Squat
Loaded carry
I think it could be just that simple…pick one choice!
I feel like I’m at one of those fast-food restaurants with the online menu
that has multiple “Choose One” options. True, the pushes and pulls
probably have dozens of options and the squat might only have a
handful, so use some sense in choosing appropriate lifts. In other words,
if you choose overhead squats, snatch-grip deadlifts, and bear-hug
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 74
carries, scale down the push and pull to something reasonable like onearm presses and one-arm rows. These options are usually a little lighter
and little less stressful.
If you try this, and I have, you’ll note that doing the hinge, squat, and
loaded carries will be very taxing. Some small tweaks can help.
Probably my best success doing this idea came with equipment changes.
Incline bench press
Pullup
Thick-bar deadlift
Front squats with chains
Sled drags
The thick bar, the chains, and the sled seem to me—and I’m fully
willing to be wrong—a simple way to reduce overall load, challenge
some other abilities, and lowering some of the intensity. With these
choices, I can keep at the five-workouts-a-week pace for a while.
Generally, with the five-exercise option, it’s wise to add the ab wheel
rollout or hanging bent-knee raise for either a set of 10 or two sets of
five. Universally, I recommend a vertical press, a vertical pull, and a
deadlift for the key three movements. The fifth can be something like
swings to warm up or raise the heart rate for walking or a loaded carry
after training.
Military press
Pullup
Deadlift variation
Ab wheel rollout
Swings…followed by a walk, ruck, or Heavyhands
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 75
One thing: If you find yourself stumbling on exercise selection (the lift
is KILLING you), swap it out sooner rather than later. You’ll thank me.
In my first experiments, I tried far too many heavy or complex
movements and had to learn to scale things back. In an email I wrote to
Pavel when I first started this program, I noted this:
First, I snatched 242 (a little too easy, but I’m really not training
for the O lifts this year) and clean and jerked 321 at a meet a few
weeks ago. I also think I’ve learned a few nice tricks for my mind
this track season. My goal right now is to break the world record in
the weight pentathlon in August and toss over 180/55 meters in the
discus (I throw the 2k). At my age, that’s pretty good.
I already nailed some of my training goals (315 for two on the
incline) and a clean-grip Romanian deadlift of 400 for three, so I
changed that goal to a snatch-grip RDL for three. That could be
done any day I feel like it, but I thought I’d build up anyway.
Basically, I’m doing the ab wheel, kettlebell swings, chin ups,
snatch-grip RDLs, and incline bench press daily with no real set or
rep scheme. Just "whatever." I also work on the discus and various
throws when I can. Weather has been an issue this year. I threw a
lot in December and early January, but it has been tough to do
much lately. Snow and mud are not good for throwing. You lose
too much equipment and slip waaaaay too much.
I’ll continue to clean up my diet and will let you know how things
are going.
So, I was doing very well in Olympic lifting; I’d throw 180/55 meters in
the discus and would miss the world record in the weight pentathlon but
get the American record. I look back on this and still wonder how it
worked so well, so simply. My “whatever” on reps and sets was just
observing the rule of 10—no more than 10 reps in any lift (save
kettlebell swings).
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 76
Incline bench press
Chin ups
Snatch-grip Romanian deadlifts
Ab wheel rollouts
Kettlebell swings (and then throw)
With minor changes, this remains an excellent basic template decades
later.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 77
How Many Sets Per Lift? How Many Reps Per
Lift?
I discovered, as do many lifters, that when I reviewed enough training
journals, I discovered I have about 10 “big” repetitions in an exercise per
session. For clarity: I can do something like three sets of three heavy, but
I can’t add a bunch of junk reps to it. If I’m just doing singles, that
number slides down to about six lifts.
This led me to a concept I call the “Rule of 10.” Like all rules, it can be
broken, but when doing Easy Strength, it’s a good idea to follow it as
often as you can. I’m not going to talk about every possible combination
of sets and reps—I’d prefer to just explain those I use and those that
most people thrive on.
In the section called Even Easier Strength (EES), I note this about the
most popular options:
Two sets of five: It should be easy and be like your second or third
warmup lift in a typical workout. The idea, the “secret,” is to get THIS
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 78
workout to feel easier and easier!
Five–three–two: Five reps with your 2 x 5 weight; add weight for three,
then do a solid double. Make the double!
Six singles: I don’t care how you do this, but add weight each set. No
misses!
One set of 10: The day after six singles, do a light load for 10 easy tonic
reps.
Oddly, I didn’t include three sets of three in the EES program. Again, if
I could go back in time, I’d offer you NO options and just tell you to do
three sets of three and add load when it feels light. Trust me, three sets
of three receives my highest accolade: pretty good.
As I look at these options for sets and reps, my head swims through a
century of books and magazines that fill my shelves. Two sets of five
was the standard for books when I first started training (we find it in the
Ted Williams Sears barbell course, my first lifting booklet). Later, I was
sitting under a coliseum when one of the world’s best athletes told me
about 5–3–2 and “make the double” as the key to throwing
improvement. My notes from discussions with great Olympic lifters and
coaches are peppered with singles scaling upward in load.
Finally, that single set of 10 reflects so much of the wisdom of our
pioneers who trained with nonadjustable equipment and how they
strived to work around these issues with repetitions.
The great Olympic lifter and Chicago Bears lifting coach, Clyde Emrich,
taught us decades ago:
“As a general rule of thumb, I use 1 to 5 repetitions on barbell
exercises, 5 to 10 reps on dumbbell exercises, and 10 to 20 on
machines.”
As I stand back and look over my time in the weight room, all I can add
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 79
to Emrich’s insight is:
Yes…that’s it exactly.
These are the best options.
Now, get to work.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 80
Reasonable, Doable, Repeatable: The Secrets of
Success
For the record: I’m not a nice person. I have a weakness. I believe the
Germans call this “schadenfreude.” There are some people who give me
joy from their misfortunes.
There’s a kind of celebrity thing I enjoy way too much. It involves the
wrong kind of “before and after” pictures. Every fitness trainer loves
showing the horrible precondition of a client BEFORE the
transformational powers of the trainer. Next to the before picture, always
to the right, we have the well-coiffed, tanned, focused “AFTER” picture
of said client. If done correctly, one can have amazing before and after
pictures made in just a few minutes with some belly sucking, fake tan
spray, and a good costume change.
It's the OTHER kind of transformation that gives me joy from other’s
misfortunes.
I’ll be standing in line at a supermarket and see a horrid photo of some
male celebrity. It will be a gross, saggy body pic taken from a distance. I
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 81
then remember that it wasn’t that long ago this same celebrity was
giving us all fitness advice. Sometimes, we can line up a series of years
with our celebrity and see:
Fat–Fit–Fat–Fit–Fat…
From what I’ve been told, this kind of yo-yo work is hell on your body.
Sadly, people fall in love with the training styles these celebrities use to
get ready for blockbuster movies.
Before the superhero movie, our fabulous actor was giving us advice
about chicken and broccoli. Moreover, our star was drinking a LOT of
water. This is a religious tradition for Hollywood transformations: One
Shalt Mention Excessive Intake of Water. And for workouts? Ah, yes,
lots of fill-in-the-blank. Heroic amounts. So much fill-in-the-blank that
all of us who ever fill-in-the -blanked are envious about the level of fillin-the-blank.
A year after the movie, we see what my mother used to call a “tub of
lard.” With her accent, it was one word, “tubalard,” but you get the
point.
Obviously, there was no mention of the extra supplements our star
ingested. I’m not talking about vitamins.
Years ago, one of my good friends told me about a famous strength
coach and his famous strength program (it gets mentioned a lot on lifting
forums). One small thing my friend noted, additionally, is important:
“Oh, yeah, he told me something crucial: (the coach) advised me to
take amphetamines before training, smoke dope before every meal
so I was hungry enough to eat a lot, and, of course, take anabolic
steroids.”
Those were the givens: uppers, dope, and anabolic steroids. The program
is still popular today. Of course, when people don’t make progress, the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 82
forum members scold them with:
“Follow the program!”
“But I did follow the program.”
“Follow the program!”
This conversation continues with “But I did…” and “Follow the
program” for endless loops.
It’s always the same issue: Can I sustain it? It’s something I have been
thinking about and something that might be worth your thoughts.
Outside of a few nutritional boosts, like fasting, and some physical
challenges (always within reason), I decided something important a few
years ago:
I’ll never begin anything I can’t see myself doing for the rest of my
life.
So, when I see someone recommend:
50 bananas a day as the only daily food intake: Nope.
Jumping off tall buildings to help my vertical jump: Nope.
Training twice a day on zero carbs or less than 1,200 calories a
day: Nope.
If it isn’t sustainable, repeatable, and doable, I don’t do it.
But…I get it. I understand the issue. I do.
I hear the following ALL the time.
“But Danny, you don’t understand, I can do this! I am the
embodiment of self-discipline, free will, and iron commitment!”
Maybe it’s not exactly that, but honestly…close enough.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 83
I get a lot of comments on social media that I don’t understand the
amount of mental determination and sheer force of will the anonymous
poster has in reserve. Online, these people can do any diet and any
program by simply willing themselves to success.
Back in the real world, most of know this is a load of bull crap. I often
note that the most disciplined people I know are those who are going to
begin a diet this coming Monday. In just a few days, they tell me, they’ll
be doing some life-altering behaviors.
Of course, the days extend to months and years and decades, but, and I
need to trust and believe them, that THIS Monday, everything is going
to change.
It’s not exactly foolish to think you can do strict dieting and hard
training for a while. If you join most military groups, you’ll have periods
of restricted eating, restricted sleeping, restricted lounging, and restricted
play time. It’s called “boot camp.” There might even be a friendly drill
sergeant to insure you get your naps and still catch your favorite
television shows.
Of course, without a DS, few people survive the first winds of serious
dieting and exercise.
Easy Strength, in all its forms, is reasonable, doable, and repeatable. No,
it is not like preparing yourself for a movie superhero role. But it
answers what I consider the most important key to success in health,
fitness, longevity, and body composition:
It’s possible to train ES week in and week out until the day comes
when you don’t have any more days to come.
It easier NOT to quit if we have something reasonable, doable, and
repeatable. Easy Strength can be done, in all its minor variations, for a
long, long time.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 84
Just a Quick Insight
I like a phrase we hear at every workshop. I want to say I first heard it
from Tim Anderson, but it could have been anyone. Basically, people
want to:
Look good
Feel good
Move good
In the most general sense, we have plenty of equipment and natural
options to attain any and all of these goals. You don’t have to go to
extremes like Tom Hank’s character in Castaway but spending a lot of
time on a beach trying to survive is probably going to do you some good
for these goals.
Clyde Emrich’s point of “As a general rule of thumb, I use one to five
repetitions on barbell exercises, five to 10 reps on dumbbell exercises,
and 10 to 20 on machines” gives us a general idea of how to achieve
these three goals.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 85
I don’t have an issue with machine training to look good. Singlemovement machines can provide the blitz and burn by getting those high
reps that seem to help with hypertrophy. For cardiovascular work, and I
nod here to both Clarence Bass and Rusty Moore for their templates
about cardiovascular work on machines, one can mix and match
intensities with a push of a button.
The COVID lockdown was a wakeup call for a lot of my online friends.
Without a commercial gym, their options for training vanished
overnight. So, yes, to “look good,” I’d have you simply follow the last
half-century of training—basically the Arnold and Jane Fonda era—and
have you train for the pump and burn.
To feel good, I suggest getting yourself fully vaccinated in your youth,
floss twice a day and visit the dentist three times a year starting at age
five or so, don’t get into auto (or other) accidents, and walk and bike
(safely) as your basic transportation throughout your life. If you also
practically eliminate sugar, eat fiber and fermented foods and veggies,
and drink copious amounts of water…well, you’re probably don’t need
to read much else about “looking good.”
The road to feeling good, with the beginning point being NOT feeling
good, mobility work and walking will have to be your starting point.
With proper training, we could walk you from the machines to the
dumbbell and kettlebell world to the barbell. You could also just do
reasonable barbell work from the start too.
That word “reasonable,” I use it a lot.
To move well, we need to rediscover our inner animal, our inner child,
and the great outdoors. I spend a lot of time on the floor with my
grandchildren because I want to be able to get up and down off the floor
for a long, long time. I play with my family in a variety of games and
sports; I ride my bike, I swim, I lift, and I throw.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 86
To move well, one MUST move!
Easy Strength mixed with Tim Anderson’s Original Strength, followed
by a walk is something I do usually three to six times a week. The “off”
days, I play, walk, and bike.
If you want to “look good, feel good, and move good,” it’s a daily
commitment to simply living life in all its glory. It’s simple, but it must
be done daily.
Most people, however, just want one thing:
"It is better to look good than to feel good."
~ Billy Crystal’s character “Fernando” from Saturday Night Live
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 87
Rolling Averages
One of the most difficult things to deal with as a coach is this nearly
universal perception of linear progression. Today, I do one, tomorrow
two, and by the end of the year, I do 365. In 10 years, well, I do a lot.
It’s progress like a stairway to heaven (that could be a song). Every day,
in every way, we take one more glorious step up. If you bench 100
pounds today and merely add 10 pounds a week, in a year I’ll be
spotting your 465-pound effort.
It’s the Loch Ness Monster of training. Nessie, that flirt, has lots of
sightings but not a lot of proof. Part of the reason I struggle with this as a
coach is that I’m NOT immune to this disease.
In the middle of my Easy Strength for Fat Loss experiment, I weighed
just under 230 pounds. I had broken another barrier, another wall. I was
looking down the road about six weeks to being ripped, shredded, and
wasp-waisted. Then I went to a wedding. I flew out, stayed in hotels,
went to the rehearsal party, celebrated, ate everything, and came home in
first class.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 88
On my daily weigh-in, the sky fell upon me. Devastated, I noted that the
scale had gone in the wrong direction.
Gosh, I wonder what happened?
Now logically, we all know that weddings, hotels, and travel magically
add weight on the scale. It couldn’t be the extra calories, lousy nights of
sleep, nor all the salt in most travel foods. No, sorry, magic.
There’s a wonderful end to this story. In just a few days, I was not just
under 230 pounds, but well under it.
Most strength programs tend to ignore this truth: Life is rarely linear.
True, there are places on the planet where the climate never changes and
good luck buying a place there on the cheap. San Diego and the North
Pole are both oddly expensive places to buy a home.
Fitness forums were abuzz a few years ago with the Engineer’s Diet.
Simply, an engineer (what a clever title for a diet), made a spreadsheet
and decided to build a linear weight loss. The genius behind this
particular linear approach is that the author decided that if he lost weight
too quickly, like a massive drop on the scale in a week, he’d ease up on
the diet and exercise and get back to the line on the chart.
The missing secret here is that the engineer allowed himself a lot of time
to bring that weight down. If you choose—wisely I would argue—to
lose a pound a month for four years, those daily weigh-ins will be
uninformative. Still, a 48-pound drop in body weight is not only
impressive, but it will probably stay with you.
My fat-loss mentor, Clarence Bass, argues the same idea: Lose weight
slowly and KEEP it off. I enjoy his insights on body composition. He
once dialed himself into contest condition by eliminating ONE piece of
bread each day and adding just a few minutes to his daily walk.
What’s my point?
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 89
It’s simply this: Linear periodization has the same issues in strength
improvement as with fat loss. Things happen. Not every training day
will inspire poets to describe our training. Life kicks me in the pants
sometimes and the last thing I want to do is whip a personal record over
my head.
I know this. Of course, I don’t accept it. On my bad days in the gym, I
tell my community that “Obviously, I don’t know who I am.” You see, I,
the great ME, should never retreat.
My throwers have the same issue. I coached one young lady to improve
up to conference champion in about a year. She added 50 percent to her
throw in a year (we’re talking about an amazing improvement here) and
the entire coaching staff and university applauded her efforts.
The following week, in a training session with slick conditions after a
rainstorm, she was struggling. She complained about how she was just
not getting better.
A 50-percent improvement in one year…and “I’m just not getting
better.”
Seriously, I need to convince YOU that we all have this issue.
Time is an odd thing. There’s a cliché that goes something like this: We
exaggerate what we can do in one day and underestimate what we can
do in a year. I always tell people there’s no one more vigilant and
dedicated than a dieter on the first day of the diet.
Day two is the last day for most people.
Strength improvement, like a bodyweight or bodyfat decrease, tends to
wave in odd little patterns. There’s a wonderful scene in The Jerk that
explains time better than my ramblings.
I know we've only known each other four weeks and three days,
but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 90
seemed like a week and the second day seemed like five days. And
the third day seemed like a week again and the fourth day seemed
like eight days. And the fifth day you went to see your mother and
that seemed just like a day, and then you came back and later on
the sixth day, in the evening, when we saw each other, that started
seeming like two days, so in the evening it seemed like two days
spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four
days, so at the end of the sixth day on into the seventh day, it
seemed like a total of five days. And the sixth day seemed like a
week and a half. I have it written down, but I can show it to you
tomorrow if you want to see it.
Steve Martin’s character, Navin R. Johnson, is telling this to his sleeping
girlfriend. I discovered later that the actor, Bernadette Peters, didn’t
know Martin was going off on this riff and had to pretend to be asleep.
How she didn’t laugh is truly fine acting.
Certainly, I might have included Navin’s soliloquy because I just enjoy
it. In training, there’s another truth here:
Sometimes, 100 feels like 110 (kilograms or pounds—it doesn’t matter).
Other times, it feels like 90…or 80…or whatever. In 1976, Dick
Notmeyer, my lifting coach, went to the Montreal Olympics, so I
couldn’t train at his gym. My dad took me to the Sports Palace in San
Francisco on Saturday to get my workout so I could stay on track.
My personal record in the clean and jerk when I arrived was 270. Since
the bars at the Sports Palace were in kilograms, I started lifting with
weights that looked “normal.” Dad said I looked good and easily cleaned
271 for a new PR. Dad said, “Go up.” I took 282. I nailed it. I took 292.
Boom. Dan Curiel walked over and looked at the bar and asked if I was
deadlifting.
No. Clean and jerks!
I cleaned 303, stood up, and made the jerk. I improved 33 pounds—15
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 91
kilos—in one day, one workout.
Guess what I thought?
Absolutely. You know what I thought. You know.
I was convinced I’d jerk over 400 in just a few more workouts. I was
wrong. True, I’d “accidentally” broken through the physical and mental
barriers one needs to overcome at 18 years of age, and this set me on the
path to becoming a Division One thrower. If the lifting standards for
throwers are true, I was strong enough for international marks.
Years later, as a coach, I charted my Olympic lifts and discus throw
using my journals. If you stand way back, using a year-to-year approach,
it IS linear. I got better in the discus and put more plates on the bar.
But if you slide closer to the month to month or the infuriatingly slow
progress of week to week, I can show you the ups and downs of the
realities of improvement.
I keep joking that weight loss is easy—I’ll just cut off your leg. I can
improve your bench max instantly by deadlifting the weight off your
chest as you flail. Others have taken all varieties of pills and potions for
temporary improvements, but long-term, many of these options stall and
fail. We have two points; one is a solution and the other offers some
insights.
Let’s talk about the solution first. There’s a concept called “rolling
averages,” often referred to as “moving averages,” that allows us to see
fluctuations and variations. The easiest way, of course, is to step back
and look at the changes over more time. You might see no improvement
in a day, for example, but massive improvements over a decade.
Think about what you read at age five versus 15. I enjoy rereading books
for the sheer pleasure of seeing the fluctuations in my life and learning
impacting my appreciation of the book. The book didn’t change, I did.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 92
My most common reaction is “how did I miss that?” David Denby’s
wonderful book, Great Books, discusses how different a college frosh
reads a text vis-à-vis the older self. Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac is
radically different after one has a child.
Here’s the solution: Step back and look at your progress from a wider
perspective, a higher altitude. I’ve learned to embrace the bad training
days and awful morning weigh-ins as an indicator that I’m still on the
right track. Certainly, cut back on the cardboard carbs for a day and
maybe add an additional walk, but don’t lose your mind.
With Easy Strength, I want you to trend upward. But please be careful.
Let’s look at the second point. There’s an additional issue. The issue
comes back to the great question we always pose in economics class:
“There’s a sale going on for 10 pounds for a dollar. How much
should I buy?”
Some will answer, “Wow! As much as you can!” I wouldn’t take
financial advice from this person. The correct response is:
“What is it they’re selling?” What’s the ‘what?’”
When I first work with some clients, they lose up 10 pounds literally
within the first few days. It’s truly inspiring.
You need more information. These are the clients who weigh more than
300 pounds. Increasing water intake, going for a daily walk, and seeing a
doctor, a dentist, and an eye doctor create an immediate impact.
I don’t walk up to a contest-ready physique athlete and say the secret for
going from five percent body fat to four percent is having a glass of
water, walking, and flossing.
Hey! You KNOW that! That’s not how things work. We all know that.
We all do.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 93
This is the reason I ignore most studies on lifting. Honestly, if you take
untrained people and have them lift weights, they improve. If this same
protocol adds kilos or pounds to an elite lifter—someone clean and
jerking 550 and this idea gets them to 600 in six weeks—I’m going to
pay attention.
I tell my athletes at the university that when they do well, I get a raise.
They double my pay. When they realize I’m a volunteer (in case you
miss the point: I coach for free), they laugh.
If your business doubles, good for you. If your lemonade stand made
one dollar last year and two dollars this year, that’s great. I won’t buy
your business book or subscribe to your weekly business insights
newsletter, but that’s great.
If your multi-billion-dollar business doubles because of whatever, I’m
going to be the King of Whatever!!!
So: Good for you with doubling your lifts. When you go online or look
for books on training, remember this simple truth about “what” they’re
selling.
The best and the brightest take years—decades—to become the best and
the brightest.
Follow that truth.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 94
Let’s Start with the Simplest Plan
Most people understand the basics of lifting weights well:
This is a weight.
Lift it.
Did I go on too long?
Application seems to be an issue.
Let’s look at another issue, exercise selection, and then I’ll give you
some simple templates to attempt this method.
Basically, for Easy Strength these four lifts work “perfectly:”
Overhead (vertical) press
Vertical pull
Deadlift
Ab wheel
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 95
Note that these four movements have a bit of bodybuilding supersetting
to them: push/pull and posterior/anterior chain. Maybe that’s why these
four movements work best for Easy Strength.
Horizontal pressing (bench press) seems to be an issue due to spotting
and doing horizontal pulls (barbell rows) always seem to lead to a lower
back issue…mild or wild. Squats, and I will discuss this later, are
difficult for some people, including me, to make work in Easy Strength
programs. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).
The “best” fifth exercise seems to be one of two things: swings or loaded
carries. With swings, I (we) used to think one could manage 250 a day
on ES. That was wrong. The number dropped to 125 and THAT was still
too high. Finally, we settled on 75 reps of REAL swings. The swings
can be done as a warmup in the beginning of the program or just before
the ab wheel:
Swing
Press
Pull up
Deadlift
Ab wheel
or
Press
Pull up
Deadlift
Swings
Ab wheel
There seems (and I know the fact that I don’t use stronger “do this!”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 96
language might be frustrating, but there are a lot of variables in body
type and experience) to be two good ways to do swings with ES:
5 sets of 15 reps
or
Up to 75 reps
This second variation is simple: Do some swings aggressively with a
strong plank. When the technique gets ugly or the grip goes, set the bell
down. Keep a running tally of reps and just keep doing them until you
get to rep 75 and then stop. Occasionally, you may find 25 good reps in
a set and sometimes maybe four or five; it doesn’t matter. Focus on a
quality round of 75 appropriate reps.
Any way you get there is fine!
Feel free to play with load (up and down or no change) in the 40 days of
75 swings. I improved my swing by using the 48-kilo bell for 75 reps in
one short training experiment. Basically, I could do 10 reps…but the
improvement in technique was stunning.
Loaded carries are the other excellent option. This is difficult to explain,
but this point is true of all loaded carries training:
Strive to NEVER repeat a session.
Change load. Change distance. Add a sled. Add a backpack. Do suitcase
carries one workout, rack carries the next, farmer walks the next day,
and waiter walks to round out a nice four-day cycle. On day five, do all
four!
You want variety in loaded carries because they’re meant to be
something different, something unique. You want the finish of a carries
challenge to be eye-opening. If you repeat a loaded carry workout over
and over, you lose the insights of “wow, that was tougher than it looked
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 97
on paper!”
Let me make it as simple as possible for an Easy Strength workout with
swings rather than carries:
Swings, 5 sets of 15
Military press, 2 sets of 5
Pull up, 2 sets of 5
Deadlift, 2 sets of 5
Ab wheel, 2 sets of 5
…for the next 40 workouts
Add load when the movement feels easy; go lighter if you feel like it
too. Don’t miss. Make every lift. The volume creeps up on you—you do
375 swings a week and 10 sets of each of the big lifts.
If a weight feels too light, go reasonably heavier next time. If you simply
feel like taking a lighter load, do it. When the weights feel way too light,
finish that first set of five and jump up to a set of three with a heavier
load. If that feels easy, jump up and do a heavier double.
That simple test allowed me to destroy my personal records on an array
of lifts over and over when doing ES. True, there’s no rhyme or reason,
but it seems to be the way of nature.
Part of the issue with most people when they study strength training is a
notion that things “have always been done this way.” What “way?” How
did people train before…
Hold on. What’s the Great Tradition in strength training?
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 98
Training the Old School Way
I read a lot of older strength books. I have been cobbling together my
collection since 1967 and I occasionally find I get lost in some of the
concepts. Sometimes when I read other people’s work, this happens:
I don’t always understand what people mean by what they say in
the articles and books.
Or forum posts. Or questions. Or when people drive by me with their
middle finger raised.
When I see something as simple as “reps and sets,” it might not mean
what I think it means. It’s like an Olympic lifter talking to a kettlebeller:
Words like snatch, clean, jerk, and squat don’t mean what I think they
mean. To fix this, I’ve learned what I call “the art of the follow-up
question:”
What do YOU mean by that?
When it comes to older strength books, for example, there were no
counted reps and sets as I know them in this millennium. One can argue
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 99
that Thomas DeLorme invented the modern idea of reps and sets in his
book Progressive Resistance Exercise. A set is a group of reps, right?
Well, yes.
The answer is also “no.”
In older books—and this took some time to figure out—progressions
were based on equipment that didn’t always PROGRESS as those we
have in today’s gyms. A barbell could be just a hunk of two pieces of
iron with a rod connecting them…with no options to add or remove
weight.
Think kettlebells. Then shove a stick between the two to connect the
bells together.
“Progression” meant adding reps until the barbell needed to be swapped
out with someone else’s heavier equipment.
When we read older training books, we must be sure to hear the author
in the author’s time…and using the author’s available equipment. I’ve
always launched my history courses with this quote:
“Nothing is more unfair than to judge men of the past by the ideas
of the present.”
~ Denys Winstanley
For the record, I stopped using that quote. A student once asked why
Denys didn’t use a gender-neutral term and I decided to retire from
teaching.
One of the most common early ways to train was to begin with six reps
and progress to 12 or 15. Over the days, weeks, or months, one would
lift the weight six or more times, put the load on the ground and move to
the next exercise.
The exercise selection was universally basic in these training programs.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 100
As I mentioned, Harry Paschall, the writer and cartoonist famous for his
lifter “Bosco,” died the week after I was born. Because of the quality of
his writing, his work still lives on. His programs were simple and to the
point and are still better than most of the nonsense we see today. His
Program Two was:
1. High pull and press (also known as the “continuous clean and
press”), a warmup movement
2. Curl
3. Rowing
4. Bench press
5. Squat
6. Deadlift (in some editions, “chest lift,” a “chest expander,” as the
term was used)
By the way, in the first Strength and Health Magazine I was given (not
bought by me at the corner pharmacy where I usually picked these up), I
found this quote: “As the late Harry Paschall put it, ‘The strength of the
lower back and hips determines one’s ability to run, twist, jump, throw,
or lift, whichever the particular sport requires.’”
I spent my career agreeing with Paschall and ignoring those who felt we
need to build power by doing stuff other than the basics of Olympic and
power lifting.
Even though others moved into different systems, especially
bodybuilders, this idea of building up athletes through the single-set
method held on for a while. The National Varsity Club (basically a tool
for encouraging people to join the US Army) came out with a series of
pamphlets called “Conditioning for a Purpose.” In 1972, they gave us
Sam Adams’ program for weightlifting…with SENSIBLE guidelines
(I’m simply quoting what Sam said).
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 101
“Nonsensible” would not work.
The NVC Basic Weight Training Program
1. Arm curl, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-third of body weight
2. Military press, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-half of body weight
3. Stiff-leg deadlift, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-third of body weight
4. Pull-over and bench press, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-third of
body weight
5. Side-to-side bend, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-quarter of body
weight
6. Jump squat, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-quarter of body weight
7. Bench press, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-third of body weight
8. Clean, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-third of body weight
9. Toe raise, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-third of body weight
10. Bent-over row, 1 set of –12 reps with one-third of body weight
11. Bent-leg deadlift, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-half of body weight
12. Squat, 1 set of 6–12 reps with one-half of body weight
It included a conditioning program mixing running in place with various
drills from the era, like propellors and sidewinders. Of course, naming
things with military applications was part of the mission of the NVC.
The emphasis on doing a lot of various movements intrigues me.
Just as a note: I still think these are good workout ideas. I trained much
like this throughout my secondary school years and didn’t train much
differently until I started Olympic lifting with Dick Notmeyer.
My first “real” training book, Body Building and Self-Defense written by
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 102
Myles Callum in 1962, included nearly every exercise we see in Adams’
work. I followed Callum’s Basic Six:
Bench press
Military press
Squats
Rowing motion
Curls
Deadlifts
I’m pretty sure this is what I did when I first got serious with a barbell in
1971. I used a piece of wood and five bricks to make a bench and I
“cleaned” the weights up to my chest, laid on my back, and bench
pressed away. Just between us: This was probably better than most of
my years in the weight room.
Oddly, I KNEW this. In my book 40 Years with a Whistle and the
workshops I gave related to it, I discuss opening the Ted Williams’
Quality Barbell Set with the 110-pound barbell inside. The box also
included a marvelous little guide to training.
Let me sum:
Put weights overhead
Pick them up off the floor
Do two sets of five
If you blink your eyes, you’ll see the template for Easy Strength. In
1965, I was given the program that would change my life. It just took me
until the early 2000s to “get it.”
In 1965, my aunt died and left us (the six kids of Al and Aileen John)
$500. My brothers got in the car and bought the barbell set. I instantly
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 103
fell in love with this miraculous device that would get me progressively
stronger by simply returning to it three times a week.
A miracle!
Ted Williams, a Hall of Fame baseball player, AND a fighter pilot in
two wars, told us on the cover:
“Keep fit…exercise! A strong, healthy body is man’s most
valuable asset.”
The program was simple in terms of reps and sets (mostly two sets of
five), but used a broad number of lifts:
Clean and press, 2 sets of 5
Curls, 2 sets of 5
Clean and jerk, 5 reps, then add weight and do 5 more
Shrugs, 2 sets of 5
Forward raise, 2 sets of 5
Situp, 2 sets of 10
Leg raise, 2 sets of 10
Two-hand snatch, 2 sets of 5
Pullovers, 2 sets of 5
Behind-the-neck press, 2 sets of 5
Bench press, 2 sets of 5
Bend-over rowing, 2 sets of 5
Sit-down press on bench, 2 sets of 5
Deadlift, 2 sets of 5
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 104
There were a few dumbbell exercises like squats, swings, and curls.
If one were using a home exercise bar, this program wouldn’t take a
long time. Of course, if you’re an elite Olympic lifter or powerlifter,
your mileage may vary.
My point is simple: The FIRST exercise book I ever saw had basically
all the material I’d use for the rest of my lifting career. There are some
points that must be made:
1. Olympic bars weren’t always found in gyms, spas, and training
facilities. Most of us had cement-filled plates, cheap iron bars, or
“fancy” stainless steel bars that sat in racks.
2. There wasn’t a lot of load. Literally, most people had to train with
weights that probably didn’t exceed 110 pounds/50 kilograms.
3. Machines were already taking over. With Universal Gyms,
Nautilus, and their clones, many facilities were basically factories
with single-use machines.
4. The medical field argued that lifting caused heart issues. Deadlifts
were bad, squats were bad, overhead pressing was bad…all of it
was bad.
5. Let’s not forget the bizarre warnings all of us received when we
first started lifting: We were told, seriously, that we’d become
musclebound and homosexual. True. That’s what I was told…
literally!
But you can see by the mid-1960s, sets and reps systems were emerging.
Much of this work was based on the pioneering efforts of those
responsible for both polio and WWII rehab.
If you use the word “sets,” “reps,” or even practice “progressive
resistance,” you need to thank a brave WWII doctor named Thomas
DeLorme. In 1979, I was told that no one had ever proved a better
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 105
training protocol than DeLorme’s famous three sets of 10 (or eight).
Terry and Jan Todd, along with Jason Shurley, have written extensively
on DeLormes’s influence. They summed his work as:
“In the latter years of the Second World War, the number of
American servicemen who had sustained orthopedic injuries was
overwhelming the nation's military hospitals. The backlog of
patients was partly because of the sheer number of soldiers
involved in the war effort, but it was exacerbated by rehabilitation
protocols that required lengthy recovery times. In 1945, an army
physician, Dr. Thomas L. DeLorme, experimented with a new
rehabilitation technique. DeLorme had used strength training to
recover from a childhood illness and reasoned that such heavy
training would prove beneficial for the injured servicemen.
DeLorme's new protocol consisted of multiple sets of resistance
exercises in which patients lifted their 10-repetition maximum.
DeLorme refined the system by 1948 to include three progressively
heavier sets of 10 repetitions, and he referred to the program as
"Progressive Resistance Exercise." The high-intensity program
was markedly more successful than older protocols and was
quickly adopted as the standard in both military and civilian
physical therapy programs. In 1951, DeLorme published the text
Progressive Resistance Exercise: Technic and Medical
Application, which was widely read by other physicians and
medical professionals. The book, and DeLorme's academic
publications on progressive resistance exercise, helped legitimize
strength training and played a key role in laying the foundation for
the science of resistance exercise.”
I was hooked on the barbell. I began reading articles in magazines that
often referenced John Jesse. His book Wrestling Physical Conditioning
Encyclopedia (1974), which I read at a local library (yes, things have
changed…today, few libraries would have fitness books without famous
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 106
celebrities), told me to do the following:
1. Three sessions of strength development and injury prevention, with
near maximum loads
2. Three sessions of flexibility exercises
3. Three sessions of endurance training
4. The strength development, injury prevention work, and flexibility
exercises should be done one day and the endurance training on
another.
5. The strength development, injury prevention work, and flexibility
exercises will slowly increase to an hour-and-a-half a day, and the
endurance work to one hour. This will total seven-and-a-half hours
training time each week.
That’s great advice. It’s all great advice. The secret, as always, is in the
doing.
“Do. Or don’t do. There is no try.”
And thank you. Coach Yoda nailed the secret right here: It’s in the
doing. There are no perfect programs. I settle for pretty good most of the
time.
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done
again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
~ Ecclesiastes 1:9
There is nothing new under the sun. Everything old is new again. Easy
Strength protocols reflect the insights of all those brave men and women
who picked up a load, put it overhead, and carried it for distance.
There is nothing new under the sun. The difference between how I train
now and how I trained as a neophyte is simply the toolkit. I have a LOT
more tools. Moreover, I have a lot more people around me lifting and
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 107
talking about lifting.
The old-school methods worked and worked well. Part of my job is
selling the fundamentals, the basics. It’s not sexy. It works. But it’s not
sexy.
But it works.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 108
A Timely Email from Bill Hinbern
Bill runs the site, https://superstrengthtraining.com, which specializes in
reprinting and reviving the great texts of strength, health, and
conditioning. I send people to this site daily. He also sends fun
newsletters that often get me jumping back to my library and rereading
the lifting classics. He shared the following while I was writing this
material.
Nearly everyone who has ever trained with barbells finds the set/
rep scheme of, “1 set of 8 reps,” all too familiar.
Why?
Well, it’s popularity stems from many of the “beginner” training
systems which flourished during the last one hundred years.
Usually, this training “routine” was prescribed for exercises for the
upper body, while, “1 set of 15 reps,” was prescribed for the lower
body.
The trainee was usually given “how-to” text accompanied by
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 109
images demonstrating around 9 basic, compound, exercises in a
training manual or on a wall chart type poster.
He was instructed to train every other day, usually, Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday.
Each training day, he was to add one repetition more than the
previous training session.
After he reached 12 repetitions for the upper body, and 20
repetitions for the lower body, the next training session, he was
instructed to drop back to 8 reps for the upper body, and 15 reps
for the lower body, and ADD weight.
Further instructions included training after the evening meal, tips
on eating properly, and getting around 8 to 10 hours sleep each
night.
But a more important question is…
“WHY were these numbers in the set/rep schedule suggested?”
For starters, the “1 set system” is the most elementary of all
progressive resistance systems.
Secondly, “8 repetitions” is about average in number for all
repetition schemes.
So, you can see where I’m going with this.
It is kind of like the “one-size-fits-all” fundamental training
approach to attempt to get the best results for the highest
percentage of those that, hopefully, continue to train.
Third, throughout history, most of the marketing campaigns for
adjustable plate loading barbells and dumbbells, have been focused
primarily toward teenage boys.
In addition, the common 110 lb. adjustable, plate loading, set of
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 110
exercise “weights” was packaged, in such a way, to expose the
user to a wide variety of, not only, barbell, but dumbbell exercises,
as well, to maintain their interest.
Furthermore, keep in mind, nearly ANY teenage boy would not
only respond favorably to nearly ANY exercise, but, is
NATURALLY growing in size and strength during these years!
So, consequently, coupled with “progressive resistance exercise,”
his chances of increasing in size and strength would be highest.
Most new barbell trainees that continue with their training, will be
excited about their new found strength and size, especially, after
they notice some of their clothes “getting a bit snug” as well as
their family and friends taking notice.
However, after several months, the trainee’s results will eventually
begin to plateau as his body naturally adapts to this type of
stimulus.
This is when his barbell instructions will suggest a different
training routine to change things up, a bit, and shock his body into
continued improvement.
There are a wide variety of different training “routines” to select
from, but the one that is most often suggested is that of simply
DOUBLING the number of sets to “two.”
The, so called, “multi-set system,” was not developed, or
“invented,” until the 1930s, and did not become popular until the
early 1950s.
Changing your training routine in this manner is a good idea, IF
the present routine you are using begins to fail to provide increased
strength.
Absolutely brilliant, Bill.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 111
How Do We Know Easy Strength Works?
I’ve spent a lot of time on college campuses as a student, lecturer, and
wanderer. True, all who wander are not lost and most of the time I end
up wandering into the weight room, the track, or the library with books
on weightlifting and track. As a strength coach, I’ve sat in the chairs
listening to the lectures about strength, stood at the podium and lectured
to groups, trained, and taught in the weight room, and spent far too many
hours reading strength books and journals in the library.
I see a hand go up.
Yes?
How do we know Easy Strength works?
We just slid into something important. It’s epistemology. It’s “how do
we know what we know?”
In my old ethics class, I spent the first week going over every option of
this simple question. Much of it was comedy gold to teach, as almost all
of us have experience in epistemology like this:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 112
“Hey, do we have milk?”
In the fridge.
“Is it still good?”
Dunno.
Loud sniffing sounds.
“Oh, dear God! This is horrid! Come here…smell this!”
For whatever reason, most of the people I’ve ever lived with seem to
have the need to make sure I smelled the spoiled milk. Maybe they
didn’t trust their nose or…
Or maybe we humans enjoy inflicting a hint of misery upon those we
love. One of the authors I studied called this kind of knowledge,
smelling something, “sense experience.” A Las Vegas magician, by the
way, can quickly teach you that you can’t always trust your senses.
Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know. In the fields
I’ve studied, basically history and religious studies, we tend to trust the
eyewitnesses to events and the written words about these events that can
be checked, debated, and verified.
There’s an issue with literally every piece of evidence. Compare these
two eyewitnesses:
One: “The first weeks of the Blitz, we were still relatively
unprepared. As the Nazis continued to attack almost every night,
we packed and planned better. It was never comfortable, but we
worked around some difficult circumstances.”
Two: “Me and Jerry were having a few beers and we smelled this
horrid, foul smell. I looked over his shoulder and it was standing
straight up…big as day. Big Foot!”
These are both eyewitness reports. I tend to give more credence to the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 113
first example than perhaps the second, but in both cases, additional
evidence might be helpful.
If I ever have a chance to shake my hand with the REAL Big Foot, I’ll
have a few questions to ask.
We have two general questions with Easy Strength. The first is usually:
Does Easy Strength work?
Even the harshest critics of the work agree that the system works.
Seriously, it’s not a big leap from simply agreeing to this: “If you want
to get stronger, lift weights.” That’s basically an eight-word summary of
my career:
“If you want to get stronger, lift weights.”
The second question, and I don’t really care about the answer, is:
How does Easy Strength work?
If you do something long enough, you learn a great lesson. MOST of the
time, it doesn’t really matter “how” things work if they work.
Chip Conrad uses the famous 30th episode of South Park to explain
what happens. When the underpants gnomes are asked to explain their
business plan, they pull out a chart that has this:
1. Collect underpants
2. ???
3. Make profit
It’s amazing to see this episode. In the late 1970s, my econ professor
explained the “invisible hand” of capitalism essentially by shaking his
hands (like the underpants gnomes!) and not actually using words for
step two. My business model is loosely based on the gnome’s business
plan.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 114
How does “this” work? If “this” is strength training, all we know is:
To get stronger, lift weights.
Any and all clarity beyond this is suspect. This “???”—my lack of
understanding of how any of this works—is the fundamental principle of
my coaching career.
Let us return to our basic point about my overarching principle: It’s fine
that we don’t know how it works…if it works. Remember, we must
follow the evidence, no matter where it leads.
“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the
truth?”
~ Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four
For Easy Strength, I focus on three sources for my understanding of
Easy Strength:
Authority
The AHA experience
Phenomenology
Each is important. Ideally, all of these will soon help you understand the
basics of ES.
I’ve been lucky in my career. My coaches were not internet gurus; these
were real people with real knowledge.
Ray Dejong played American football in two Rose Bowls and
coached SSFHS for generations, sending many of our group to the
NFL.
Jim Schmitz was the head US Olympic lifting coach numerous
times.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 115
Dick Notmeyer changed my life and the lives of many by his
insistence on the fundamentals, the basics.
Ralph Maughan not only was injured in the Battle of the Bulge, he
was an Olympian, a national champion in two different sports, and
played in the NFL.
These were my coaches. When Coach Maughan talked about being
taken down in the snow by a Nazi machine gun, well, somehow doing
some hill sprints didn’t seem so bad.
There is no hyperbole here. You don’t see “Trainer to 400 Olympians”
or other labels on my list of coaches. There are no fake “grin and grip”
pictures of my coaches with famous athletes. There are LOTS of
pictures of them backstage, on the sidelines, and on the field coaching
famous athletes.
So, when Pavel told me this “40-day Experiment” had merit, Tom Fahey
told me this is EXACTLY what his European throwing friends were
doing, and the old strength books told me to do the same thing, well…
That’s authority.
Someone who has been there and done that tells you to do something.
When people who know their stuff tell you to do something, you should
listen.
Years ago, when I was doing a Perform Better lecture in Long Beach,
Alwyn Cosgrove said to me, “Now that you’ve done the Velocity Diet, I
want to hear your insights on it.” There’s a lot in that sentence:
First, I’d include Cosgrove on the list of authorities in the fitness
business.
Second, I’d done something and finished it.
Third, after finishing something, Cosgrove wanted my insights
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 116
about the thing I finished.
Do you know why I push Easy Strength so much? I tried it. It works. In
fact, when I did it, I discovered some things that made some of the uses
of ES “better.”
AHA! I think I get it.
That’s the AHA, with apologies to the ’80s band. So much of learning is
in the doing. So much of learning is in the finishing.
I suffered through enough graduation talks to know that
“commencement” means “the beginning.” For me, finishing a program
often begins the conversation, the understanding of what happened.
Finishing leads to understanding.
My first Easy Strength experience led me to achieve some lifetime bests
and rediscover the sports I love. I felt good; I had more time and more
energy and realized that my balance of work–rest–play–pray was
appropriate again. I was stronger doing these abbreviated workouts and
had more time to do all the other important things of life.
What did I do next? I instantly began discussing this on early internet
forums, columns, and articles. I shared my thoughts with my friends
who were willing to try the idea. We shared our insights.
This is the crucial “next step” in learning: phenomenology.
Susan Northway, an old friend and brilliant musician, explained it to me
like this:
“We all go into a village. We are thirsty, so we ask for a drink. A
man said there is a well ‘over there.’ We walk over and look down.
I see water at the bottom and say: ‘I see water.’ Edna says: ‘Yes,
but can you see the rocks?’ Susan says: ‘Yes, and that little green
frog on that rock.’”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 117
So, which of us is “right?” The man? Me? Edna? Susan? You see, each
of our shared experiences deepened our understanding of the well. We
were all right, but we also became, ummmm, “more right” by sharing
our experiences.
With my understanding of Easy Strength, one must follow the simple
template, finish it and then, I think, share the experiences. To repeat:
Authority
The AHA experience
Phenomenology
I certainly have a fair amount of Easy Strength experience. I’ve tried it
for all kinds of sports and life goals. Yet I continue to learn more as I
stop and discuss the little tweaks and additions others adapted and
adopted.
•
Does ES work for fat loss? Well, Rusty Moore and others added
walking to Easy Strength and it worked great.
•
Does ES work for runners? Well, the feedback from one client, an
elite runner, tells me it might be “the answer.”
•
Does ES work for…? Well, let’s try it and find out.
That’s my best insight about almost all things lifting: Well, let’s try it
and find out.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 118
Another important interlude from Tim Anderson
“It feels good to feel good.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 119
The History of Easy Strength
“Easy strength” is a term first used, I believe, by Steve Baccari. I
wouldn’t be surprised if I heard it from Marty Gallagher too, as great
minds think alike.
It’s odd to explain this to people who just read fitness magazines and
online insanity, but strength is an easy quality to improve.
Lift weights.
Like flexibility, strength is “learned” by the body. That’s why so many
things work. When I was stuck as an Olympic lifter recovering from
heavy cleans, Dave Turner had me do a few weeks of isometrics at the
exact spot where I struggled in the front squat.
“Instantly,” over about six weeks, I never had an issue again. My
nervous system learned what to do.
The problem with going to failure or training with insanity—I can’t
make this idiocy up—is that the body gets tired, but it seems not to learn
how to get stronger.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 120
First the nervous system figures this out, then the load begins to climb. It
seems the body discusses all this additional load and the hormones kick
in with, to use Robb Wolf’s lovely term, “the hormonal cascade.” The
body grows and adapts in interesting ways.
Easy Strength is a simple system of repeating the lifts we want to
improve using lighter but progressive loads. The idea is to make the
heavier loads feel easy.
I learned this same concept from John Powell . One day, he told me a
secret that changed my career. John’s insight was simple:
Once you throw 200 feet after training for years and doing all the
right things, how do you get to 201?
More?
More what?
Instead, John argued that rather than try to force that 100% effort higher,
focus on 80%.
How easy can you throw 160? Well, it’s ridiculously easy to throw
160…so easy, you throw 180. No, he said…160. Suddenly, as
everything eases off and maybe you focus on throwing into a bucket or
trash can set at 160, it becomes even easier.
Soon, your 80% is maybe 165 or 170. Maybe—John argued—your
100% isn’t 200 anymore…it’s farther. Losing your mind trying to
MAKE yourself improve is far less efficient than simply prodding up
your easy efforts.
That is Easy Strength in a nutshell. Never miss a lift. If you miss, it was
too heavy. Never strain. Never snort, nor scream. Take it easy. When the
load feels too light, go heavier.
Years ago, when I first met Pavel, he challenged me to do a “40-day
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 121
workout.” I followed his simple instructions:
“For the next 40 workouts, pick five lifts. Do them every workout.
Never miss a rep, in fact, never even get close to struggling. Go as
light as you need to go, and don’t go over 10 reps for any of the
movements in a workout. It’s going to seem easy. When the
weights feel light, simply add more weight.”
I did exactly as he said.
Note: That’s an exaggeration. Like everyone else, I tried to make it
better!
On the 22nd workout, alone in my garage gym, I broke my lifetime best
incline bench press record, which at the time was 300 for a single.
Without a spotter, in a frozen garage, I benched 315 for a double. All the
other lifts went through the roof, and I’m as amazed now as I was then.
It’s too easy. In fact, it’s so easy, I’ve had to break it down into literally
dozens of pages of articles to make it as simple as possible! And the
more I try to simplify it, honestly, the more lost some people become
thinking about the program.
I’m not entirely convinced I’m a genius, but somebody must prove to me
why I followed those simple instructions so easily and vast hordes of
trainers can’t seem to follow the concept without the obvious answer
that I have an unrivaled intelligence.
Or, perhaps, I just can follow basic rules.
And…that seems to be unusual. But here’s one other thing: There’s
absolutely NOTHING new about Easy Strength. This is exactly how
most people trained before bodybuilding dominated traditional
weightlifting.
There’s NOTHING wrong with bodybuilding! Unless you want to
increase your strength, power, mobility, and athletic success. Sure, some
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 122
of the bodybuilding tools help, but overall, doing isolation work, “going
for the burn,” and all the rest are only good for hypertrophy.
You might look good, but you don’t play good (with apologies to every
English teacher I ever had).
There’s nothing new here!
George Hackenschmidt who died in 1968 and is considered a pioneer of
modern training, told us:
“Do not perform any exercise to excess, so as to tire yourself out.
If you feel tired and exhausted, give yourself the necessary rest,
and, as in everything else, use moderation and common sense.”
He continued with a truth about all training:
“It is only by exercising with heavy weights that any man can hope
to develop really great strength.”
Hackenschmidt influenced the great Australian coach Percy Cerutty to
explore lifting for track and field…especially distances. Cerutty’s
runners included the following:
Deadlift
Bench press
Cheat curls
Pull ups
Situps
In addition, he emphasized a kind of swing and lots of lots of hill sprints.
In 1993, in a university library, I pulled down a book about Cerutty and
marveled at his insights. He talked clearly about extensive training, the
high-volume bodybuilding work that’s so popular, and intensive
training, the kind of strength work athletes need to do.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 123
To simplify: Call intensive training “Easy Strength” so we can all move
on.
It makes sense that track and field coaches understand and embrace Easy
Strength. There’s a quote from a great coach Henk Kraaijenhof from
The Netherlands that bounced around in fitness for a while:
“Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.”
Memorize that. Make it a meme. Put it on a poster along with an eagle or
a kitten.
Strength, like learning to type or play a musical instrument, is a skill.
Treat it like a skill.
Build work capacity with loaded carries, circuit training, or whatever
you need to build work capacity for what you need to do. Lean out by
shopping wisely, chopping veggies, and eating like a ------ adult. If you
want to look good on the beach, or “nekkid” as one client told me, lift
weights, go for a walk, and eat like an adult.
Easy Strength goes back to Milo of Croton. It’s nothing new; it’s not a
gimmick and it isn’t sexy. Pick up the calf every day and carry it. When
it’s a bull, you’ll be strong.
It works, but it’s tough to sell in a world that loves flash and sizzle. And
that, my friend, is why it’s still the secret weapon of so many of the best
of the best.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 124
The Droot of Easy Strength
I think I told this story to every academic class I ever led, lectured, or
taught as a guest. I spent many hours teaching economics, history,
religious studies, theology, and pedagogy (basically the “how” of
teaching), and I always found a fun way to insert this story into the
learning adventure.
My senior year at Utah State University was easily one of the best years
of my life. As an athlete, this season culminated in what Coach
Maughan called the “greatest year in the history of the Aggies.” That’s
high praise no matter where you compete, but as a Utah State discus
thrower, that made a lot of people take notice.
Now, he might have said this many times to other athletes, but I’m
taking this compliment and holding it near and dear to my heart.
I also had the opportunity to expand my academic width in those last
months of my bachelor’s degree. I took a lot of philosophy courses, as
well as fascinating history courses. Dr. Kulkarni taught me the
philosophy of the Far East in my mornings, and I went to Dr. Sperry’s
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 125
house one night a week to take yet another but different philosophy of
the Far East course. I also took Dr. Brewer’s poetry classes, and I loved
every minute of Utah’s Poet Laureate’s instruction.
Dr. Kulkarni was from India. As a youth, he competed in track and field
and loved to share his insights about throwing with me before class. We
became close when I first sat in his classroom. He noticed something
about me during the first week.
“Mister John,” (he always called me that), “I have noticed that you bleed
in my class.”
Well, you see, Dr. Kulkarni (and you, my gentle reader), for safety
purposes, we threw the Olympic hammer in the mornings. I know you
can NOT imagine how cold it is in Logan, Utah, on a typical winter
morning. Imagine how cold you think might be—now realize it was
colder.
The friction of the hammer handle ripping off my ice-cold gloved hands
would take my skin with it. An hour or so later, I’d still be bleeding into
a paper towel and taking lecture notes. When I explained this to Dr.
Kulkarni, he shared his youthful stories of the hammer and discus.
I loved the class. Kulkarni would spend the entire period telling us,
without looking at notes, these immense stories from the various texts,
scriptures, and traditions of the area. He’d always come back to an
essential point about why we needed to learn and study this material.
And what was that point?
Good question.
A group of us formed a study group for the final. The number of stories
and associated materials filled our notebooks, and my brain was stacked
and packed. Our team worked well together, and we all felt prepared.
As we gathered our backpacks to leave, one student, a man, looked up
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 126
and said something interesting:
“I just love this discussion about the ‘droot.’”
Sorry?
“Yeah. Every day, Dr. Kulkarni tells us about the droot. How we are all
working in our own ways to find the droot.”
The rest of us were puzzled.
The droot.
The droot?
What do you mean “the droot”?
“You know, he talks about it all the time, the search for the droot.”
Oh.
Oh. With Dr. Kulkarni’s accent, my classmate thought he was saying
“droot,” but actually it was “truth.”
He was teaching us the search for the truth.
In hindsight, I shouldn’t have said anything. I corrected my classmate.
His face went numb. He paused. Then, he started to speak extremely
rapidly and told us he knew the truth and his church’s prophet had
settled this forever, once and for all, finished and done.
In an instant, his engagement as a scholar basically ended.
Sometimes when I explain Easy Strength to people, I think these same
fine people are searching for the droot. In truth, Easy Strength is a
marvelous way to get strong. With the extra time and energy you’re not
wasting chasing the burn and the blitz, you’re freed up to pursue your
actual goals. If you’re in a sport, practice your sport, watch film, and
perfect your techniques.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 127
If your goal is fat loss, use this extra energy in getting your walk
finished, chopping veggies, and enjoying your sleep.
Easy Strength works. It’s not as sexy or inspiring as most of the fitness
nonsense we see on social and professional media, but it works.
It works.
Stu Mittleman, the man who broke the world 1,000-mile race time (yes,
you read that right: one-thousand-mile race), called his training
“excessive moderation.” For more on this, read Phil Maffetone or Stu’s
books.
Sleep is the best recovery tool. Water is best for hydration. Veggies are
keys to health. Easy Strength is the way to get strong.
It works.
And that’s the truth.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 128
Another Important Interlude from Yogi Berra on
Training Theory
“In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In
practice, there is.”
Note: It’s almost certain that Yogi did NOT say this. The site
snopes.com tells us:
The “practice and theory” quote sounds a bit too eloquent for Yogi,
and as far as we can tell first appeared in print in the 1986 book
Pascal: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Programming by
Walter J. Savitch. Savitch did not attribute the quote to a specific
speaker but wrote that the remark was “overheard at a computer
science conference.” A similar origin for the phrase was relayed in
the book Philosophical Perspectives on Bioethics, in which the
utterer was simply identified as an “unknown wit.”
No matter who first said this, I still prefer my practices over the
theoretical discussion of my practices. Easy Strength is the clearest path
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I know to getting stronger. It works.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 130
The Basics of Easy Strength: A “Conclusion”
Let’s just make a simple conclusion:
“Try it, then make it better.”
Whenever I lecture on Easy Strength, the hands in the audience go up.
The questions are always about the first or second day’s training loads or
rep schemes. I always explain that everything will be completely
obvious on Day 36.
I learned to drive, with a stick shift, in San Francisco. It’s easy to stall a
car at the top of a hill in San Francisco as you’re learning to use a clutch,
an accelerator, and, of course, the fact that The City decided to have stop
signs at the top of every steep hill. At the same time, I was also dealing
with crowded streets, aggressive drivers, and some pedestrians who
seemed to be literally on another planet.
It was terrible. It was scary. It got better.
Few people master driving in a few minutes. Simple things like merging
and changing lanes can end lives.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 131
We all know this.
With Easy Strength, like driving the hills of San Francisco, some of it
will have to be experienced. Often, I get glowing reports on the success
of Easy Strength after the second time around. So, yes, like most things
in life: Try it, then make it better.
For some, Easy Strength is confusing at first. Although it’s how
Arnold’s heroes trained, it’s not how Arnold trained. Many people want
to LOOK like elite athletes, but this is how elite athletes train. Frankly,
Easy Strength doesn’t sell well because…
It doesn’t look very exciting on social media. No one throws up. Often,
we don’t sweat much at all. There are no great lifting stories that sound
like this:
“So, bro, I went to the gym and did two reasonable sets of five,
then moved to another exercise and…”
I got bored writing that!
But Easy Strength works. Easy Strength gets people strong. Easy
Strength workouts finish quickly and leave a lot of time for more
technical work…or recovery or food prep. People’s results are amazing,
yet there always seems to be a caveat:
Yeah, I got strong but…
I didn’t feel like I was training.
I missed getting hot and sweaty and tired.
I missed my lack of progress.
That last one might be an exaggeration but not by much!
You now have the tools and understand the basics of Easy Strength.
We’ve covered a lot of ground in this section, and you should be able to
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 132
move ahead and train yourself or others with this method.
Enjoy. Your results may surprise you…as they did me.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 133
The Quadrants
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The IMPACT of the Strength Coach
Years ago, Pavel asked me a simple question, “What is the role of the
strength coach?”
That’s easy: to coach strength. People arrive, we train, they get stronger,
and…we’re all happy.
“Yes, but,” he went on, “what’s the impact of the strength coach?”
Now that’s a completely different question. I understood the answer on
many levels. Sometimes, the more experience one has, the harder it is to
sum all the conflicting and contradictory thoughts.
Years ago, I read that a young girl raised her hand and asked an expert in
nuclear warfare, “Wouldn’t it be simpler if we just destroyed all the
weapons?”
The expert covered his head with his hands and said, “If only it was that
simple.”
My task was simple: to discern the impact of the strength coach so we
could instantly answer someone about the relative importance of
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 135
strength coaching on the journey toward specific goals.
Every so often I rediscover the yellow legal pad where I laid out my
doodles, pictures, graphs, and geometric shapes attempting to explain
the impact of the strength coach. I went through a lot of ideas, but the
thing that kept me sane was a simple insight.
Here it is: Only certain people need chase the biggest numbers in the
weight room. They have the genetics, the geography, and the goal of
snatching or deadlifting or squatting more weight than anyone on this
planet has ever done. They have a singular vision…a single goal.
The rest of us need to become relatively stronger for a goal, but not as
strong (or as fast…or as fill in the blank) as these people in that narrow
band of chasing a single quality.
Some people need a LOT of qualities at a relatively high level. Others
just need a little exposure to things, and another group needs to get fairly
strong and still chase a high level of performance in another field
(literally in a field in many cases).
I shaped my idea into four quadrants with the X axis rising up to the
limits of human abilities and the Y axis the number of qualities people
chasing a goal would need. Here’s a section many readers will have seen
before, but others might need a refresher.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 136
Quadrant One represents lots of qualities, all at a low level. This would
be physical education in youth.
Quadrant Two needs lots of qualities at a relatively high level. These are
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 137
collision sports and occupations.
Quadrant Three is a few (two or three) qualities at comparatively low
level. This is most of us; yet, it’s also the bulk of the Olympic sports.
Quadrant Four is one (or perhaps two) qualities at the highest levels of
human performance. Think about the 100-meter sprint, the Olympic
lifts, and single-lift powerlifters.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 138
Quadrant One
There’s something magical about youth. Maybe we can say there WAS
something magical about youth. As a child, the best parts of Christmas
were the huge tubes of cardboard Mom gave me after she used the last
bits of wrapping paper.
Those tubes would become cannons to shoot at the enemy warships, rifle
barrels to fight for freedom, and swords to keep the Three Musketeer’s
enemies at bay. We climbed trees to snipe our foes, climbed under
porches, and generally made nuisances of ourselves. These tools, in my
family, became part of survival fighting in America’s various wars.
Today, we see playgrounds being denuded of monkey bars, swings,
teeter totters, and all variety and kind of playground mischief. But
there’s a cost to all that “safety”—the cost in learning the basics of
human experience.
George Hebert warned us about this a century ago. He argued that there
are 10 tools for survival that can literally save us as we move through
life.
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Pursuit: walk, run, crawl
Escape: climb, balance, jump, swim
Attack: throw, lift, fight
I learned them all as a child and, if I may, I’d like to include two more:
tumbling (or simply break-falling) and riding a bicycle.
There’s an old story about a young man who goes off to study theology
(and yes, I know you already know this one). On the way home after
years of study, he needs to get across a river, so he hires a boatman.
Halfway across the river, the boatman asks, “What did you learn in
school?”
“Important things about the universe, life, and everything.”
“Ah. Did you learn to swim?”
“No, only important things.”
“Ah. Too bad. The boat is sinking.”
It's never too early to learn to swim…or ride a bike.
Quadrant One is the crucial period of life when we learn integrity with
the environment. We learn the vertical environment by climbing and
crawling over things. We learn the horizontal environment by crawling
under things, skipping over stuff, and generally running amok. These are
life lessons.
If you didn’t learn Hebert’s skills as a child, when will you?
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 140
Training in Quadrant One
One of the things that turns me off is going into a hotel (usually
exhausted) and seeing a bunch of kids dressed in $1,000 uniforms and
gear (“kit” for my European friends) sticking their fingers in the free
breakfast buffet.
These kids belong to “elite” teams—and they’ll be the first to tell you
that.
Mom and Dad write checks so Junior or Sissy can play. In my world,
people pay my people to play…not the other way around. Mom and Dad
are always convinced this elite team is their child’s ticket to education.
The ticket to free education is education. It’s doing well in classes, being
involved, and pursuing the noble ideals of a liberal education: the
education of a free person (not a mule). It’s writing and reading and
creating.
If the parents simply took the money spent on these sports and buried it
in a coffee can in the backyard, the child’s education fund would be
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 141
much further ahead.
David Epstein’s book Range does a masterful job deciphering this for
us. The 10,000-hour rule works ONLY in areas of instant feedback and
the ability to clump (or cluster) patterns. This would be mastering
classical instruments, chess, and golf. It doesn’t work in many other
areas…if any.
Early specialization doesn’t consider the two real keys to sports success:
genetics and geography—my summary of Epstein’s first book, The
Sports Gene.
I was blessed as an athlete because my folks didn’t allow me to do
organized sports outside of church ball. But I played sports probably six
or seven hours a day. We didn’t hydrate; we drank out of a garden hose.
We didn’t warm up because we were too busy playing. We cooled down
when Mom yelled it was time for dinner or it got too dark.
Yes, I miss it.
What should our little ones be doing? First, let’s take a clue from George
Herbert:
Pursuit: walk, run, crawl
Escape: climb, balance, jump, swim
Attack: throw, lift, fight
Tim Anderson’s Original Strength is based, in part, on retraining this
gap in most people’s lives. Playgrounds and swimming pools are the
habitat of our future greats. Now, the “attack” options should probably
have some training, but all we used in the early days was Ted William’s
training manual and then just figured out the lifting for ourselves.
This “look at the picture method” is literally what everyone my age did
for lifting education. My mom and dad both taught me to box, so maybe
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 142
I had advantages others didn’t have.
Mom showed me how to punch; Dad showed me how to block punches.
I miss my parents and the way kids used to be raised.
As I told you, I added two things to Herbert’s list, tumbling (breakfalling) and riding a bicycle. I tell people this often: The most dangerous
thing in the home for me is the floor or stairs. At my age, the floor is a
killer. The lessons I learned in judo still protect me anytime I slip or
snag something.
Bike riding? When I was at that Emergency Prep Conference and the
speaker noted that you always need to be able to go 90 miles from your
home no matter what the issue might be…from nuclear to biological to
earthquake, she drilled in this idea that universally, 90 miles keeps you
safe.
I always have basic bikes (no gears, coaster brakes) that can get me and
my family 90 miles. We haven’t trained this challenge, but we can do it.
We can carry them over fallen overpasses or whisk around rubble. With
the 72-hour emergency backpack I keep next to my desk, we can, at
least, get away. What happens next…well, I don’t want to think about
that.
These are life lessons. Herbert’s list is difficult to learn later in life. But
it’s all life-saving stuff.
And…a lot of fun.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 143
Quadrant Two
Sadly, everyone loves to read and perhaps try to follow the training
programs of fighters, NFL football players, Navy SEALs, and Special
Operations teams. And…they can’t.
Quadrant Two is the realm of collision sports and collision occupations.
There may be 100 qualities needed to play in the NFL, from size and
speed to the moment-to-moment tactical changes in technique within the
rules. It can take a decade to develop the toolkit.
I once explained the basic commando as being a person with a B+ grade
in 100 classes. Commandos aren’t the best at everything, but are
amazingly good at a lot of things. If you’re 22 and NOT in the Navy or
in an elite Division One football program, your chances of being a
SEAL or NFL player are practically, without divine intervention, nil.
The impact of the strength coach on collision sports and occupations is
“it depends.” Sometimes, the best answer in the world is “it depends.”
Clearly, increasing strength tends to make most people a bit more
resilient and more useful. I think many people WANT to be called at
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 144
night when there’s a flat tire, a broken water main, or someone with
uncontrollable vomiting.
These people are strong and resilient. The weight room can make them
stronger.
In truth, we could have the best facilities, the best coaches, and the
hardest working cadre of people in the world and still lose. Sometimes,
talent just outshines training. And in total candor, in warfare, the enemy
has a vote.
Bad things happen.
Yes, the strength coach can impact the Quadrant Two person. The
strength coach can improve some qualities.
But it doesn’t guarantee success.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 145
Training in Quadrant Two
One of the hardest lessons I learned in life is that the barbell (and the
whole family of progressive resistance exercises) can do amazing things
for us. That little barbell set you bought in 1965 can make you stronger,
bigger, leaner, and faster.
It’s simple stuff. Like Dick Notmeyer told me nearly every day, “He
who lifts the heaviest weights gets the strongest.” But—and there’s
always a but—Dick was talking about getting stronger. “Pound for
pound” is basically a lost phrase, but it was a cornerstone of thinking
when I was young.
In the mid-1970s, when Jane Fonda and her “go for the burn” videos
appeared and Arnold’s double-biceps pose became the focus of training,
the world embraced lean flanks and big guns as the epitome of strength
training. People began to tell us they wanted to look like athletes.
The phrase “Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane” emerged during this
period. Absolutely, this is sexist, but we all know what it means: The
decision to “train like a SEAL” or “look like an athlete” is as cosmetic
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 146
as liposuction or breast augmentation.
I have NOTHING against this. I don’t care what your fitness goals are,
nor do I really care about how you get there. If you just want to look
good…well, bless you. I know this: You’ll probably still call me when
you need a couch moved up a few flights of stairs.
The issue—the problem—with Quadrant Two is that the normal person
often wants to “look like” QII people. It’s alluring. It’s sexy to want to
look like an NFL defensive back or an elite team special operator.
Of course, they don’t look like the TV and movie star image you
probably pictured. Generally, they look like your neighbor…save for the
multiple deployments to the Middle East. And they also can break into
your house, car, boat, or airplane, sit quietly for 72 hours staring at one
spot, and leave literally everything better after they’ve used it.
QII is rare air. It’s dozens of qualities at a high level. You might not be
as fast or as strong as an Olympian, but you’re faster and stronger in a
dozen areas than even well-trained people. A high-level rugby player is
bigger, faster, stronger, leaner, and better at nearly everything you’ll
ever attempt.
Training for QII isn’t looking like someone who wants to be in QII. You
need to be freakishly strong, not LOOK like someone who’s freakishly
strong. For endurance, you must endure…not take 40 pictures of
yourself making you look like someone who endures.
To get strong, you need to lift heavy and lift hard.
To endure, you must slap on a backpack and go for hours or days at a
time. It’s not a movie shoot. When you get a mission, you must rise up
and do the job. It’s not Hollywood crap. It’s life or death.
I can help you in QII if you want to do collision sports and collision
occupations. I can’t help you look like you do collision sports and
collision occupations. For QII people, I’m going to get you stronger…
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 147
that’s my job.
No one cares what you look like in QII. It’s all about getting the job
done.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 148
Quadrant Three
I’ve lived my life in QIII. Ever since Otis Chandler defied his coach at
Stanford, snuck out to lift weights, and broke the longest standing record
in track and field for the shot put, every thrower knows that lifting is a
must. Soon, jumpers and sprinters discovered the weight room and the
quick improvements measured with tapes and times.
Percy Cerutty later showed us that marathoners needed to pull a doublebodyweight deadlift and own a bodyweight press.
In track and field, you practice your event, and you lift weights.
There, that’s it. That’s Quadrant Three. You do your singular event and
nudge your strength levels up, and, over time and with proper tension
and arousal, things go faster, higher, and farther.
No, you won’t lift at the levels of an elite powerlifter or Olympic lifter,
but you’ll be oddly stronger than most people you’ll ever encounter. Of
course, the O lifter and powerlifter don’t get measured by tapes and
timers, just by load.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 149
Most people, even though I don’t include “everybody else” in the
quadrants—basically, it was designed for the role of strength coaches
with athletes—should think “QIII” when it comes to goals and goal
setting.
For fat loss: Lift weights, then go for a walk, cook appropriate meals…
and eat them!
For health and longevity: Have a vigorous social life surrounding quality
food and go for a walk.
Generally, QIII is two things. Sure, you need to sleep well and do
mobility work and read good books, but discus throwers need to throw
the discus and get stronger.
The biggest job of the strength coach is to keep the path that simple: Do
this and do that.
“What about that thing I saw on that show…?”
Alas. It never ends.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 150
Training in Quadrant Three
There’s a great word in falconry: yarak. Yarak is that intense vision a
raptor has when it’s hungry and hunting. It’s the pure focus on one
thing…food!
Most of us are in Quadrant Three: We need reasonable amounts of
strength, flexibility, mobility, and every other “ity” you can think of
here. And, really, most of us must worry about only one or two things
when discussing health, fitness, longevity, and performance in a sport or
art. “Don’t smoke” and “Wear your seatbelt” are statistically the keys to
keeping us around for a while. For fat loss, prepare nutritious meals that
are filling and lower in calories and get some form of daily movement.
Certainly, other things work, but these are the keys.
In track and field, you can achieve world class status following Coach
Maughan’s advice: Do your event four days a week and lift three days a
week.
Then he added, “for eight years.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 151
Most people miss that last part!
If you embarked on an eight-year journey to fat loss and accumulated
some caloric deficit 365 days a year plus two extra days on the leap
years, “magic” would happen.
This is the key to QIII: The magic is the focus on one or two things done
daily over a long period of time. It’s yarak: the intense vision of the
raptor.
As we often joke, the problem with QIII is that the moment you begin
this journey, your attention will be immediately taken by something new
and shiny.
I know this from experience and as we often joke:
Squirrel!
What was I talking about?
Success in QIII is oddly simple: Find the one or two keys to your goal
(at most three), and just keep coming back, day in and day out, doing the
basics, the fundamentals, the foundations.
It’s that simple: Keep coming back to the basics. Ignore the squirrels!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 152
Quadrant Four
Years ago, an administrator asked me about improving speed for our
sports teams. I shared some information written by Barry Ross, a
brilliant sprint coach, that seems to go against the norms of training. His
sprinters deadlift, then rest for five minutes. They only sprint with speed
traps, and when the quality drops, they stop. His sprinters do no slow
work at all. They get “in shape” by doing a 15-minute walk three times a
week for a month with only one rule: Always go a bit farther on each
new attempt.
It works.
I wasn’t ready for the administrator’s reaction:
“This is it. We need to do this.”
He was extremely excited. He wanted us to drop all our other strength
and conditioning and just follow Ross’s program.
I didn’t know how to break it to him, so I told him softly:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 153
“That’s the stupidest thing we could do.”
Sprinting, especially the 100 meters, is all about one thing, one quality:
How fast can you go?
Sure, you must react to the starter’s pistol, but there’s no need for
agility, nor do you worry about collisions.
As much as I love the various programs of Olympic lifters, powerlifters,
and sprinters, these athletes usually only worry about one quality. Yes,
certainly there’s a need for flexibility in the O lifts, but in today’s rare
air of elite lifting, genetics takes care of most of the other qualities.
You must be born to lift and born in a place that supports lifting:
genetics and geography.
If the national sport is sprinting, we’ll find a lot of sprinters. If O lifting
dominates your sports coverage, you live among a lot of O lifters.
Moreover, if you clean and jerk 600 pounds with poor flexibility and bad
technique, you still get to be the first person ever to do it.
Recently, after the Olympics, an online expert noted that the techniques
of the world’s best lifter weren’t up to this expert’s standards. I simply
can’t invent this kind of stupid.
QIV training is exciting to read about and amazing to watch.
Few people coach these sports well. Without question, some of the
lessons we learn from QIV are worth learning. But they don’t apply
across the board to sports that demand dozens of qualities. There’s more
to basketball than blazing speed. There’s more to soccer than snatches.
QIV is a one-quality world at the highest level humans can achieve. It’s
not for everyone.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 154
Training in Quadrant Four
Bill March was one of my heroes. Just before we went to print, he
passed away. He wasn’t only a world-class bodybuilder, but also was
one of the strongest men to ever walk this planet. Late in his lifting
career, he cleaned and pressed 390 pounds so strictly that people still
talk about it 50 years later.
Yes, people have done more, but with help from the legs and a massive
lean-back. Bill did 390 with no backbend and with locked-out legs.
Bill trained differently. He was a pioneer of isometric contraction. He
drove 115 miles several times a week to work out in a home gym. The
workouts lasted 36 seconds.
That’s right, 36 seconds.
Three tugs of 12 seconds each—one day in a low position for the push,
pull, and squat, another day in a medium position, and a third in a high
position. When he recently explained this program, he made an
important point:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 155
He didn’t think it was right.
But it was.
That’s QIV thinking. To achieve the highest levels the human body has
ever achieved, you might not be able to follow the well-worn path. You
may have to blaze a new trail.
Barry Ross doesn’t allow his sprinters to do anything but go fast—no
jogging or slow running.
His conditioning workouts are oddly just a series of 12 walks over four
weeks (three walks a week) where the athlete tries to go just a bit farther
each time. Don’t be stupid and go hard on day one!
When I first heard this, I thought it was crazy. There’s no way it could
work.
But it did.
The most elite lifters in the world, in all disciplines, continually explore
and experiment with ideas and tools no one has ever tried. That’s QIV
training.
It’s a tough lesson. If it works, no matter how crazy it is, it works.
And if it works, it’s right.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 156
Coaching from the Easy Strength Vision
Although I spent a lot of my career in individual sports like track and
field, I also enjoyed the complexities of teaching team sports. As an
American football coach, the staff at a game might each have a series of
checklists, play sheets, timetables, and scouting reports on multiple
clipboards.
The timetables will include, of course, mundane issues like when the bus
leaves and various times to be here and there. But they also include
formulas like what to do when behind with more than two minutes on
the clock with three timeouts versus what to do when we only have two
timeouts. I used to spend a dizzying amount of time cutting and pasting
and coloring notes to myself on my clipboard so they would be “right
here.”
Team sports are complex. The details and situations are uncountable.
The job of the strength and conditioning coach is, well…no surprise
here…strength and conditioning. But in my playing career, I sensed that
all we did was conditioning and more conditioning.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 157
Easy Strength has given me a fresh, new vision of how to coach both in
the weight room and on the field of play. I’ve worked hard in my life
but, sadly, just working hard doesn’t always really help.
We had a game scrimmage against Balboa High School my senior year
in high school. After three-plus hours of playing and wrangling with the
opponents, our coach lined us up on the goal line and we ran 10 40-yard
sprints and two 100-yard “sprints.” Remember, too, that we weren’t
allowed to drink water during this era, so, well…I’m not sure this was
conducive to elite performance.
I do know this: Later, one of my college teammates was from Balboa HS
and told me his team was flat-out amazed. “Freaked out” is the actual
quote.
There was an adjective before “freaked out,” by the way.
This is how things used to be in sports. Run everybody until you start
running people off the program. Whoever stays, well, they’ll be
champions. That was the rumor anyway.
Things have changed. We now use GPS tracking devices on athletes and
realize that much of many sports is simply a few sprints and some basic
jogging. In ball sports, most athletes touch the actual ball (or puck or
whatever) for, at most, seconds every game.
My mom used to count the number of times I touched the ball in
American football. She noted when I picked up the ball after a play and
handed it to an official. I was a defensive player, so my interceptions and
fumble recoveries (and quarterback sacks) were game-changers. If I
touched the ball a few times in a game during actual plays, we probably
blew the other team off the field.
As a strength and conditioning coach, I learned, probably too late, that
enough is enough. I remember discussing this at practices: My
teammates and I talked about how we were in great shape to play the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 158
game but needed to be in better shape for the conditioning.
Think about that: We weren’t worried about the games. We were
worried about conditioning for the games!
Whatever cliché you want to use will work. When it comes to most
strength and conditioning:
We’re letting the tail wag the dog.
We’re letting the monkeys rule the zoo.
Strength and conditioning work should support the goals of winning. It’s
not, by itself, a contest.
I discovered years ago that having minimum standards for strength in the
weight room was far better than training athletes to vomit during a
session. I discovered a lesson that continues to shape my discoveries.
There are TWO speeds:
Game or competition speed
Learning, teaching, or coaching speed
In team sports, you need both. With a sport like American football that
allows unlimited substitutions and lots of game pauses, the old style of
conditioning makes no sense. If athletes are tired, they can simply leave
the game and rest. Trust me, somebody else wants to play!
I can sum learning, teaching, or coaching speed with one of my favorite
idioms from American football:
Chalk it
Talk it
Walk it
In American football, the goal is to teach 11 people and their appropriate
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 159
substitutes what we want to do in the game.
Every sport has multiple special situations that need review. Moreover,
the athletes need to understand the whole picture of these special
situations. It’s too late, on national television, to explain the whys and
wherefores of a special situation in real time.
So, we use the board to show the situation. We draw out the Xs and Os
and point out what we want done. We discuss and look for clarity about
the situation. Then we walk through exactly what we want to see and do
at game time.
Most of the time, we can do this in a suit and tie. Or in ball gowns. Or in
kilts. It doesn’t matter; this is “thinking” work. Few people truly think
very much, so this might scare some people.
It’s true—and I’ve spent my career asking great coaches about this—that
most sports come down to about three keys. Those keys, like “free
throws when tired” for basketball, make or break a game or a season.
Yes, we need to also do a lot of things at full speed.
In American football, John Heisman taught us in 1931 that the game
comes down to block, tackle, and protect the ball. It's never changed. It’s
still true. We certainly need to practice a lot of things at full speed in a
game.
Just don’t play a game every practice!
Years ago, I heard a good story about a high school football team. Deep
into practice, one of the coaches walked over to the head coach.
“Are we having a game on Friday night still?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Well, we’ve run 85 full padded plays and we average 65 plays a
game. It looks to me like we’re playing a full game here in
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 160
practice. Just like yesterday.”
Rather than losing his mind, the head coach realized he’d been winning
the practices. After this conversation, the team practiced full speed far
less than before and began the greatest winning streak in the school’s
history.
The strength and conditioning coach must know the total number of reps
the players run during practice and, at the advanced level, the number of
plays in a game. In the 1950s, it was common to have “Ironmen,” (an
“Ironman” plays both offense and defense in American football) and this
athlete got all the conditioning needed playing the game. The
benchwarmers might need a workout. But not everyone on the whole
team!
Most good programs now individualize conditioning for athletes in team
sports.
The same issue happens in the weight room. In a team sport, I focus on
an interesting number. In American football, for example, basically 35
players handle the bulk of the playing time. In fact, one successful coach
ONLY suits 35 players for games. His point is to make players 36–90
(or whatever number makes up the full team) fight and struggle each
week just for the right to stand on the sidelines. I love the idea; parents,
by the way, hate it.
I’m not a fan of participation awards. Don’t worry, dinosaurs like me
aren’t long for this planet.
Using this “35” number, I assess a team’s overall strength by the
strength level of the 35th athlete. In sports with smaller numbers, watch
a few games and figure out who plays nearly every game. The player
who plays in every game but with limited time might be a good one to
study.
Once the numbers are on the table, slap that table and yell, “Here!” The
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 161
lifts of Athlete 35 (or whatever) show the basic standard strength level
of the team. For American high school athletes (teenagers), my
standards for varsity interscholastic play were:
Big Blue Club for Boys
Power clean
Deadlift
Back squat
Front squat
Standing press
One-arm bench
Power clean and jerk
205
315
255
205
115
32kg 5 Right/5 left
165
Big Silver Club for girls
Power clean
Deadlift
Back squat
Front squat
Standing press
One-arm bench
Power clean and jerk
95
205
135
95
70
12kg 10 Right/10 left
75
None of these numbers will make you gasp. One small thing: The athlete
had to make all the lifts in a single session. One year, I sent the varsity
football coach 62 boys who met this standard.
That team had a very, very good season.
It comes down…again…to the following:
Enough is enough.
You might feel the need as a head coach to want to punish players with
more conditioning for mistakes, but you aren’t addressing the mistakes.
Some coaches add more conditioning and sweating and barfing for
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 162
whatever transgressions or sins being committed by the team, but clarity
and repetition will probably do better in the win-loss column than more
aimless conditioning.
Just after high school, I was sitting in a van on the way to a track meet in
Southern California. My teammates were from a variety of local schools,
and we cobbled together to make Skyline College a national junior
college powerhouse.
Eventually, we got to the subject of high school football. One of my
teammates, Calvin from Oceana, told me his coach convinced his team
that the Oceana Sharks would easily defeat us because “these guys (my
team) are not in very good shape.” The game plan was to beat up on our
exhausted bodies in the second half.
My high school led at halftime by four or five touchdowns and the game
was over. In the second half, our team was all back-up players looking
for as much playing time as possible.
You see, conditioning only counts when conditioning counts. You can
sweat all you want in training and never deadlift triple bodyweight. You
can puke a lot at practice, but if you close your eyes just before contact
with the ball, you are NOT going to be very good.
Right.
That’s obvious.
Many strength and conditioning coaches are still trying to win in the
gym. But it’s the scoreboard, the standings, and the championships that
are key. Of course, the lessons learned in sports far exceed the blah blah
blah yadda yadda yadda. And the accolades about the virtues of sport are
all true. Absolutely. There’s just one issue:
Trust me, as a coach, if you don’t win in the competitive arena, you
won’t be coaching very long.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 163
So far, here are my points:
The athletes need to know what to do in practically every situation.
They must be taught, “carefully taught” as we learned from the
song in South Pacific, and then use their brains to do what has been
taught when the situation calls for it.
When it comes to conditioning, not only is “enough is enough”
true, but it’s also the key.
Being in pretty good shape but mastering situational plays and
fundamentals is far better than being the best conditioned team on the
field but clueless about game situations.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 164
Does Easy Strength Work for Every Sport?
This is the conversation I’ve had many, many times:
Does Easy Strength work? Yes.
So, why don’t we have “X” athletes do it?
We do; they improve quickly, and everyone is happy!
How about “Y” athletes?
Hmmm, well, you know…Let’s find out!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 165
Using Easy Strength with Sports
I had this idea to write dozens of books. Every book would be dedicated
to a specific sport. The kicker would be this: I’d sell the secrets of Easy
Strength with that sport! Call my accountants! I’d sell, obviously,
millions of these and just live on my yacht…as most strength coaches
do.
There was a small problem.
I noticed that three lines kept showing up for most sports:
1. Play the sport to get into condition.
2. Use Easy Strength in the weight room.
3. Utilize a “magic drill” to emphasize the foundation of success in
this sport.
Okay…the magic drill. I use them in everything I coach, and I must have
a few dozen so far. For the hinge, I put the person’s toes on a board, loop
a glute loop around the knees (“push out”), and assign the Bulgarian
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 166
goat bag swing. It seems to fix everything, like, um…
Magic
For the hip thrust, I use a glute loop, stretchy bands to engage the ab
wall, and a series of descending bands to get the glutes exhausted. It’s
simpler to do than explain. For team sports, I find those key situations in
every game and we “walk it, talk it, and chalk it” until performed
automatically. For long jumping, we have a drill to emphasize height
and for high jumping we use a drill to emphasize length. We have the
throwers use the range throwing, or target practice, drill to teach rhythm,
tempo, accuracy, and fun.
I often ask head coaches this question: What are the three “secrets” to
success in your sport?
To repeat: There are no surprises.
I noted elsewhere that basketball players need to make free throws when
tired, American football players need to block, tackle, and keep the ball,
and track and field athletes need to either go faster or farther.
It still comes down to appropriate strength and near-perfect techniques.
The magic drill supports the key to victory.
Sadly, I abandoned my multi-million-dollar idea. Play the sport. Get
strong (enough). Emphasize the keys to victory.
It’s honestly not much of a secret.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 167
Easy Strength and the Experienced Athlete
I break people into two categories in my book Can You Go?
Active athletes
Everybody else
Originally, though, I used the word “aging” instead of “active.” That
bothered people.
Here’s the deal: If you’re over 22 and NOT a professional or at the
highest level of your sport, you might never get there. This is tough to
admit, but there’s some truth there so I continue to repeat it.
The late Juri Sedych, still the world record holder in the hammer throw,
once told me over lunch that an elite athlete continues to improve every
year.
I looked at my efforts and quietly sobbed to myself.
John Powell, the discus thrower, broke my heart even more. He noted
that if you weren’t world class within three years of focusing on your
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 168
sport, you probably would never get there.
That’s the best argument I’ve ever seen against early specialization!
Here’s the thing: Yes.
Yes, Easy Strength works for athletes. Really well. It works well for
athletes if (we might as well toss in the best of the “if” clichés: if and
only if) building up the basic levels of strength will aid the athlete. From
there, technique and tactics play a far greater role than most of the
nonsense we do in strength and conditioning (usually just strength and
more and more and more conditioning).
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 169
Cooks and Chefs
Years ago, Tim Carr, one of my Mentors (a proper name, it should be
capitalized!), told me about the difference between cooks and chefs. A
cook can take a recipe, pull the ingredients off the shelf, and whip up
something amazing. A chef walks into the pantry, checks out the fridge,
and whips up something amazing. There isn’t a recipe…just whatever is
available is blended into something amazing.
It’s a great way to explain the various gifts of teachers and coaches.
We love to take this great analogy and use it in education. Here’s the
rub: A faculty can’t just have chefs. You need a good percentage of the
faculty dedicated to cooking. The math teacher can’t just sit with crossed
legs and chant the daily mantra from the meditation app. Many of our
courses need people who follow the textbook, follow the curriculum,
and follow the guidelines. It’s a disservice to the students to simply let
them go with the flow, dance the dance, and, well, whatever passes for
education in some places.
Sometimes, teachers and educators need to be the chef. Things happen—
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 170
like fires, suicides, diseases, weather, and fill in the blank—and we
discover that today’s perfect lesson plan isn’t going to work. I’ve taught
after active shooter incidents (as a history teacher, I never thought I’d
have to ready myself to take on an armed intruder), suicides among my
students, and all kinds of unforeseen conflicts with my plan.
In the area of health, fitness, longevity, and performance, I often
encourage people to follow the recipe.
No one listens. Seriously.
I have a program for two kettlebells called “the Armor Building
Complex.” First question: Can I do it with one?
I have an Olympic lifting program called “the Big 21.” First question:
Can I do it with (fill in ANYTHING save an Olympic bar)?
I have a program called “One Lift a Day.” First question: Can I do two
lifts?
You know what’s really sad? This is all true. All of it. Every time!
When I did Chris Shugart’s Velocity Diet, I did it EXACTLY as written.
Atkin’s Two-Week Induction? Exactly as written. The X, the Y, and the
Z: I follow the recipe.
I’m not good enough to make recipes better until…
Until…
Until…
I do it. I finish it. I reflect on it. Then, I improve it, if I can, with the
tools I have available. Often, I can’t improve it.
The secret, if there is one, to my success as a coach is that I’m a cook.
Absolutely, sometimes I’m a chef. If all you have is one kettlebell, we
adapt the program to your needs. Sure. Obvious. If you’re missing a
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 171
limb or have another issue, we adapt the program to your needs. Sure.
Obvious.
Follow the program as designed. Finish it. Then make it better.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 172
Addressing the Issues
of Easy Strength
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 173
Understanding Heavy
The essence of understanding Easy Strength comes down to a simple
concept: understanding heavy. After 50-plus years of lifting, I
understand the concept well. Others need more clarity.
People have told me to call this concept the “rate of perceived effort” or,
worse yet, “percentages.” The rapid progress of the beginner, often
doubling load in some exercises in a few weeks, makes these concepts
practically useless.
This “problem” with Easy Strength is the most frustrating for me to
explain in writing. Yet it’s extremely clear in practice.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 174
Sorta Max, Max, and Max Max
I’ve gone through this before in many of my workshops and writings. I
have this idea of sorta max, max, and max max. If you lift once a month
or so, you might have a sorta max number for a few lifts. Usually in the
barbell lifts, it’s a round number like 100 or 200 or a natural plate
number like 135 or 225.
It’s often a lie, by the way, as people (men) tend to inflate numbers. I
always told my daughters if a boy bragged about a 200-pound bench,
they should lean in softly and whisper, “Dear God, I’m so sorry.”
A max would be what you might achieve after some serious effort.
Perhaps you focus and train for several years and jump up to a lot more
big plates and some big numbers. You discovered the fallacies of linear
periodization and the need for variation. You probably had to use
recovery tools to keep coming back to the lifts.
You know where this is heading: A max max is going to be a lifetime
achievement where something is on the line. You have a story about
your max max attempts and, no, you might never see those lifts again.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 175
Usually, my max max stories begin with, “To win, I needed to take…”
My problem with percentages, of course, is that if you bench 200, doing
90% for a double is pretty believable and 180 is certainly doable for two.
Once you get to 300 or 400 pounds, that 270 for two or 360 for two will
take some training to achieve. If you get to a 600-pound bench to win a
big meet, someone mentioning that you should be able to casually do a
double with 540 might deserve a face slap. Heavy is relative…and you
know that.
I remember my first serious training days as a chase, at first, for triple
figures. I look back in my journals and see myself struggling with 85
pounds in the bench, front squat, and clean. The next year, I struggled
time and time again to bench 200. By the time I got to 300, I wondered
what the big deal was with 100 two years earlier.
Yet, benching 100 for the first time was a big deal. It was HEAVY. I
probably needed more mental focus on making that lift than I did for
lifts far heavier in later years.
To be successful with Easy Strength, you need to understand two things:
What is heavy?
What is reasonable?
Most of the people who email me about Easy Strength want percentages
for their lifts. I email them back and tell them to find weights that are
reasonable—heavy enough.
Yep, that’s vague.
Rachael posted this insightful idea on the danjohnuniversity.com forum:
"For me, in an Easy Strength context:
Heavy = I can’t quite do top speed, but the lift is smooth and
controlled; I don’t want to do more than prescribed
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 176
Medium = the bar (or dumbbell or kettlebell or whatever) moves
fast but feels satisfying; could do more, don’t need to
Light = I do the reps and feel a bit antsy to do more
By contrast, for a sorta-max, I can’t move as fast and if I consider
doing more than four, it wasn’t a sorta max. Note that women seem
to have a different way of lifting at our heaviest so that we can
usually do multiple reps at one weight and adding even a little
means no reps. I’m not sure I’d recommend four reps as the line
for a guy and it’s arbitrary anyway. That’s just what works for me.
If I have the increments, I’d start at lightish and end at heavy to
sorta-max. If I don’t, I might do something like mechanical
disadvantage or something, like go from push press to standing
strict to half-kneeling with the same weight.
If you’ve deadlifted 700 pounds, two sets of five with 350 pounds is
light, but still heavy—350 for five will get the systems firing. If it feels
too light, add weight next time. If that’s still too light, add more the next
workout. Find a load that’s reasonable, repeatable, and doable.
Each time I’ve done the full 40 days, I’ve had the odd courage to start
lighter than my ego allowed. Quickly, I add load. Remember, there’s
only one BIG rule in the 40-day approach:
Don’t miss.
Ever
If you miss a lift, you missed the whole idea of the program. Lifting five
days a week and doing the same basic moves builds up an amazing
amount of volume through the weeks. You’re gently nudging your
systems to strength.
Yes, it sounds easy.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 177
It’s called Easy Strength
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 178
Variation in Easy Strength
I’ve never been sure why I was able to handle the original 40-day
workout without any confusion. It was clear enough:
“For the next 40 workouts, pick five lifts. Do them every workout.
Never miss a rep, in fact, never even get close to struggling. Go as
light as you need to go, and don’t go over 10 reps for any of the
movements in a workout. It’s going to seem easy. When the
weights feel light, simply add more weight.”
Since beginning this over two decades ago, I’m always stunned how
people can screw it up. Sure, there were some lessons to be learned. But
still: it’s not rocket surgery.
First, I had serious maximum lifts. Doing a light workout, about 50% of
maximum, still involved loads from 165 pounds in the incline bench to
over 300 in the deadlift. My body—and this will be true for anybody—
was getting stimulus from these “light” loads.
I’m not sure if 50 pounds or 100 pounds would really gear up the body
for accommodation for some of the Big Engines who read and follow
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 179
my work. And, oddly, I’m also not sure these loads wouldn’t make that
same person adapt.
Honestly, people made amazing progress with a Sears 110-pound
barbell. So much of success is in the intent.
Next, I always choose lifts that aren’t my best movements.
I could bench, that first time, 405 pounds in a polo shirt and khaki pants
after work. My incline bench was 300 when I started my first attempt at
Easy Strength. I’d never really done thick-bar deadlifts, but had pulled
628 at 3:00 in the morning at a powerlifting meet. Doing a 265-pound
deadlift, even with a thick bar, wasn’t exactly crushing me.
By choosing lifts I knew but hadn’t mastered or maxed, I got a nice
learning curve. Strength, like flexibility, is neurological. Easy Strength is
based on learning.
As I often explain, it’s like learning to type. You can’t force people to
type faster until they know where the keys are and then lay down some
synapses to enable more speed and accuracy.
But don’t think it ends there. When the load begins to climb, the body
realizes something’s going on and we get that marvelous and magical
hormonal cascade that increases muscle mass in all its mysterious ways.
If anyone tells you they know exactly how this process works, you may
have someone practicing the gym rat’s version of the Dunning-Kruger
effect.
“Coined in 1999 by then-Cornell psychologists David Dunning
and Justin Kruger, the eponymous Dunning-Kruger Effect is a
cognitive bias whereby people who are incompetent at something
are unable to recognize their own incompetence. And not only do
they fail to recognize their incompetence, they’re also likely to feel
confident that they actually are competent.”
https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/news-events/all-news/faculty-news/
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 180
the-dunning-kruger-effect-shows-why-some-people-think-they-regr.html
Finally, I may simply be a genius—I like this answer best (my own
Dunning-Kruger effect). Or, on a different level of full of myself,
perhaps I can simply follow a program.
As every trainer and coach knows, that’s rare.
With the benefit of all these years of experience, there are certain
movements I know work well:
Swings (as a warmup)
Vertical press
Vertical pull
Deadlift
Ab wheel rollout
We’ve had many forum discussions about making squats work with
Easy Strength, but they just don’t work well. Toss in goblet squats in the
warmup to maintain the position for the 40 days of training. Horizontal
presses, like benches, are fine, but the need for spotters has taught me
that for most of the people doing this—overwhelmingly home trainees—
it isn’t a good option. Horizontal pulls, basically rowing, seem to just
beat up the back…my experience tells us: “Nope.”
About load, the advice is simple: When the weights feel light, simply
add more weight.
This has caused me more headaches than anything.
“What do you mean by light?”
You know, not heavy!
With my years in the weight room, I’ve developed another sense when it
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 181
comes to perceived exertion. My internal monitoring system seems to
have a quick skill of saying:
This is a stupid idea!
For me, when 165 felt light, I went to 185. Oddly, that felt light sooner
than 165. Progress is nearly impossible to explain.
Adding load brings us to fractals and the work of Benoit B. Mandelbrot.
When it comes to adding load, I follow Mandelbrot’s three-part insight
on variation:
Mild
Wild
No
Mild sounds like “mild.” If you want variation in the press, simply go
from bench to incline to decline. That’s mild. When it comes to load,
you can perhaps decide to add 10 pounds for upper body work and 20
for lower body work—the vanilla approach to training.
This has the same issue as linear periodization. If you bench 100 pounds
and add 10 pounds a week, next year at this time you’ll be benching in
the low 600s.
And…good luck with that.
Mild has value. It’s excellent for exercise selection changes and gives a
bit of a path. There’s a real chance the improvement curve will flatten
fast.
Wild changes in exercise can be fun. Tommy Kono, the outstanding
Olympic lifter and Mr. Universe, used to focus on an Olympic lifting
meet for eight weeks. After the meet, on the following Monday, he’d
bodybuild with all its pumping and isolation. When an O lifting meet
was within eight weeks, he flipped back to the press, snatch, and clean
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 182
and jerk.
It worked.
Improving high school athletes is often a matter of having them go from
wrestling to hurdles to football. By the way, that’s brilliant advice.
Playing one sport year-round doesn’t teach the lessons of sport very
well. See Epstein’s Range for details.
In terms of load on the Easy Strength program, I like wild. At Utah
State, when I was first a strength coach, we only had 45s and 25s. Here
were the loads:
45
95
135
145 (25s only)
185
225
275
Certainly, you could play with the multiple 25s, but it was ugly. When
working with a freshman lifter, we could easily do certain lifts…up to a
point. Then, a decision had to be made. Jumping up in the snatch from
135 to 185 is a big leap. Yet, we thrived. Literally, it was wild!
This big-leap idea works well with a full set of plates too. Why take a
395-pound attempt for a new personal record in a lift…toss on the
additional load and get 400!
I like light reasonable lifts on Easy Strength, and then the crazy jumps
up in load.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 183
It’s wild!
The final option on variation is:
No.
That’s right. If you ask if we should change exercises during the 40
days, the answer is:
No.
Oddly, not changing load is another option.
True!
The late John McKean was one of the least known, but most informative
strength writers of all time. He reintroduced Heavyhands to strength
people (with his own amazing additions) and was the first person I know
to recommend training with bands. This classic bit of an article sums his
great insight on “constant weight lifting:”
“These days I train almost entirely with fixed poundages, and
relatively light ones at that, utilizing Dick Hartzell's Flex Bands
along with the barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell to increase
resistance near completion of a lift and to train acceleration. Even
though it does not seem possible at this stage of life, my
competitive all-round lifts are increasing steadily and faster than
any time previously! And a note to some of you that may feel there
are no ‘new oceans to explore’ simply because you can flip around
the heaviest solid kettlebell, stay with your favorite piece of
equipment and you'll always find new strength; if it worked for old
Herman Goernor, it'll be good to you too!”
Is it possible to improve just doing two sets of five with five basic lifts
with the same load for 40 days? Yes, I think so. I haven’t tried it yet, but
my experiences have taught me we should never ignore the simple but
elegant.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 184
There’s a truth in Easy Strength: For 40 days, you’re choosing to “Do
this!”
In a world where opinion and fashion change faster than a chameleon,
this approach is like fine wine or great music. It seems to get better over
time.
I’ll discuss another idea of constant weight lifting when I address level
changes.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 185
Warnings about Variation and the American
Show, The Office
I hated The Office during its initial popular run as a weekly series. The
show was fine; it might have been one of the last great watercooler
shows. The “watercooler” image is something with deep roots in the
United States: Basically, it means that thing everyone will be talking
about during breaks, I guess around a watercooler, the next day at work.
Game of Thrones would be the last non-sports or non-news, usually the
horrible variety of news; I remember people asking: “Did you see Game
of Thrones/The Office/Cheers/Laugh-In/I Love Lucy last night?”
Oh, sorry. Why did I hate it?
I was coaching high school athletes. If there was any, and I mean
literally ANY, opportunity for my male athletes to turn a conversation,
term, word, or drill into something sexual, one of them would mutter:
“That’s what she said.”
Every day. Same thing. Over and over.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 186
If you look at the terms and movements we use in the weight room, you
can imagine how often this was said. Did you imagine it? Now…triple
that number. This was Michael Scott’s catchphrase. Trust me, it was
funny the first few times (and the last time) he said it.
It’s not funny every few minutes, every day, for a scholastic year.
After the series ended, I discovered the first few seasons on one of the
streaming services. I liked it a lot. Pam and Jim made an excellent
storyline. Creed always made me laugh; Dwight and Kevin were, I
think, developed from friends of mine.
The show was great…then it was not great. Toward the end, I’d say
“bad.” I decided to find out what happened. I read an excellent insight in
a review:
There is always a danger when a new idea becomes central, not
supplemental.
I read that line. I stopped googling reviews of The Office. I got up from
my chair, grabbed my Heavyhands, and went out the door for a walk. I’d
discovered, in one sentence, the “answer” to most people’s problems
with fitness, health, longevity, performance, and body composition:
There is always a danger when a new idea becomes central, not
supplemental.
That’s it, isn’t it? That sums most of my issues when I try to help people
turn the corner and jump on the journey.
“Okay, nutrition, here you go: more fiber, more veggies, more
protein, more water…”
What about this supplement my cousin’s friend’s aunt takes?
“Fat loss? Well, sure, here you go: walk after lifting, fast or restrict
calories somehow…”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 187
What about ankle mobility, stretching the hamstrings, or whatever?
“What about me leaving?”
All too often, the supplemental—the little things—tend to dominate our
discussions. I want people to sleep more and floss twice a day and yet
the bulk of people (especially bulky people) want to argue the nuances
of nitpicking.
Easy Strength is, and will remain, “central.” One does the big
movements for some appropriate reps and sets with some appropriate
loads and returns again and again (and again!) to practice the
movements, nudge the loads up, and allow the body to respond with
neurological and hormonal adaptations.
The point here is important: VARIATION has its place in an Easy
Strength journey.
If you’re taking care of the basics of health and longevity, Easy Strength
can be part of your journey through a fit life. If you keep your fat levels
reasonable, it will support your body composition goals well. Finally, if
you wish to compete—to perform—Easy Strength will take care of the
strength needs of most sports.
Variation, like moving from a rack deadlift to a deadlift from the floor,
is not only fine, but I encourage it…with some planning and foresight.
Variation is appropriate for most people doing Easy Strength. It’s not
essential, but most of us enjoy a break from doing the same thing over
and over.
All the other stuff outside of the fundamentals must be considered
AFTER the central issues are addressed.
I gave intermittent fasting with black coffee a two-year run before I
investigated adding magic powders to my drink. The supplements
magically gave me diarrhea. The central idea of intermittent fasting
while consuming copious amount of coffee worked well for me. The
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magic supplements made me late for appointments.
What killed The Office, this reviewer explained, was that new ideas
became the show. What hurts progress in Easy Strength is letting “this
and this and this and this” muddy the waters in the weight room.
Focus on what’s central:
“Pick five lifts. Do them…”
Certainly, entertain some variations in lifts, rep schemes, and load. Just
stick with the basic ideas here…for the next 40 days.
Or 80 days.
Or for as long as you want.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 189
An Important Interlude: Jordan Derksen on Easy
Strength
Jordan posted this on the forum at danjohnuniversity.com:
To summarize, I was unsuccessful when Easy Strength was no longer
easy.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 190
Training the Heart and Lungs…and Arteries and
Veins and…
There are so many loaded terms in fitness. Ken Cooper famously
invented the word “aerobics” to mean…ummm…exercising to get the
heart beating. Track coach Bill Bowerman, who made his mark with a
certain brand of running shoes, gave us the term “jogging,” or, as we all
discovered from Anchorman, it’s correctly pronounced “yogging.”
When I say “cardiovascular,” most people spring forth the image of
sweating and breathing hard.
I’ve lived through the tennis boom, the jogging boom, the racquetball
craze, the aerobic dance phase, and enough fitness fads to know better,
but I still feel like I need to explain appropriate heart and lung training.
Basically, here: If you’re reading this and sitting or standing, your
cardiovascular system is working. If it isn’t, well, you will not be
reading much longer.
When I say “weightlifting,” most people imagine a bodybuilder’s
double-biceps pose. When I talk about training the cardiovascular
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system, most people imagine a sweaty mess, abdominal cramps, and
excessive labored breathing.
For most people, walking is the BEST cardiovascular work. I can’t sing
the praises enough for walking. Not long ago, I read that a celebrity
fitness trainer makes a living by getting people to walk 12,000 steps a
day (six miles/10 kilometers) and restrict the food to 1,600 calories a day
for men. After a few weeks, people lose body mass and body weight.
Well.
Yeah.
At 1,600 calories a day, most of us will lose weight (whatever “weight”
means). Combine this with a few hours of daily walking and the clothes
will fit different too. Of course, any time you go into caloric deficit,
body weight tends to drop.
Oddly, as Geoff Hemingway told me, moving to Manhattan also seems
to instantly cause a 10-pound loss as, perhaps for the first time in your
life, you begin to walk everywhere. I understand, obviously, that caloric
restriction is important, but maybe just walking is key too.
Walking doesn’t have that visceral image of the marathoner glazing over
and stumbling toward the finish line. A nice stroll in the park with a
loved one isn’t nearly as photo worthy as the final climb up a mountain
in some endurance test. Sauntering around my neighborhood with my
grandchild in a stroller and my dog on a leash isn’t as thrilling as puking
in a bucket at the fitness site that shall not be named (copyright…patent
pending).
But…walking is amazing. Walking AFTER a weight workout has done
more for my body composition than any of the insane diets I’ve
attempted. Trust me, living on just six protein shakes a day for a month
is really, really hard. Walking after a few lifts is…
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 192
Really easy, honestly
If I ever did one of those reality television shows on weight loss, like the
one with the most offensive title in history, I’d simply find a place that
allowed—well, insisted—upon walking. A nice stroll to breakfast, a
walk back for conversation, a reasonable weight workout, followed by a
power walk, and repeat through the day would be my formula.
I know the 10,000-step rule is a nice number and not science. I know
there’s nothing magical about adding more walking to the day.
Except, of course, that it’s magical.
Forget the sweat. Stroll. Walk more. Grab a loved one and walk out the
door and explore.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 193
Cardiovascular Work and Easy Strength
Easy Strength is about getting strong.
Easy, right?
Yeah, no.
No matter how simple I make it, people still miss the point. Remember
the boy falling when my late, great dear friend, John Powell, was
teaching him the discus?
“You said it was easy!”
“No,” John replied, “I said it was simple, not easy.”
I wrote a program called “Simple Strength” just to make things even
simpler. It’s just basically doing five big lifts (press variation, row, rack
deadlift, front squat and farmer walk) for three sets of three (just DO the
farmer walks at the end).
People got confused. So, I came up with Even Easier Strength. I’ll also
include EES shortly.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 194
I’m sure I’ll write Simply Easier Strength sooner or later.
So, yes, I said it was simple, not easy.
The upside of Easy Strength is that it saves hours of work in the weight
room because the workouts finish quickly. True, you may go into the
weight room more often, but you leave quickly…and fresh.
With all that extra time and freshness, what do you do?
For our fat loss clients, we go for a walk (or run or bike or ruck or
Heavyhands or…). After we lift, we attempt to burn off those free fatty
acids released in the lifting session.
For our athletes, we tell them to go to practice, go watch film, or go
home.
“Absolute strength is the glass” is one of the great clichés in the strength
game. All the other qualities are the liquid it can hold. I’ve partied with
women who can do 10 pull ups and pull a double-bodyweight deadlift.
They are full pitchers of strength…kegs.
When they go out, they don’t count calories. They have a big glass—a
few calories over the top occasionally seems to have no impact on their
body composition.
I also know other people who walk around with a shot glass of strength.
They must watch every calorie.
Getting REALLY strong gives us a lot more room for a lot of qualities.
If you’re up to standard for your sport or goal, you can get your Easy
Strength workout finished quickly and spend your time focusing on
what’s important.
Maybe it’s more technical work. Maybe it’s more film study. Maybe it’s
a nap.
Percy Cerutty taught us all those runners who can bench body weight
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 195
and deadlift double-body weight can endure more distance and speed
work. His programs in the weight room ARE Easy Strength. It worked
back before we had humans in outer space, and it works now.
The BEST thing about ES is that it gets you strong quickly and it frees
up lots of time.
Use the extra time to work on your goal. For my body transformation, I
walked more. For my discus throwing, I threw more.
Spend most of your time focused on the goal. I’m not sure that’s a
secret.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 196
Even Easier Strength
This is a “Do This!” template, so do this as written. Please. Generally, I
use this with advanced athletes, usually towards the end of a long career.
It’s also fine for anyone who wants things spelled out clearly.
There are a few rules before we begin:
1. Never miss a rep!
2. Follow the “Rule of 10” for the appropriate lifts for an advanced
lifter. Keep the total number of the reps at 10 or fewer.
EES Warmups
10–15 goblet squats (as many or as few sets as you want or need)
75 swings or hinge variations (sets of 10–25. Really grease that
hinge movement.)
Mobility as needed
Lifts
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Press movement: You might decide to change the lifts every two weeks
—same, but different. Flat bench press, incline bench press, and military
press can be exchanged for each other after every two-week block. Or
just stick with one, like I did the first time.
Pull movement: Pull ups or chin ups (or, yes, neutral-grip pull ups) seem
to work better than anything else people have tried. I’ve often just done
six singles the first few days to practice a movement.
Hinge movement: There are two options here, depending on need. Either
pick a deadlift variation and rotate it every two weeks (for example,
thick-bar deadlifts, snatch-grip deadlifts, clean-grip deadlifts, orthodox
deadlifts, Jefferson lifts, or hack squats) or do kettlebell swings in the
75–100 range. But you must be good at swings.
Many people have found that doing BOTH a deadlift and a swing works
wonders. After trying this myself, I think it works the best. At least, until
I try something else.
Loaded carry: Vary the distance EVERY time, and probably the load if
you can.
You might notice I haven’t listed the squat. I’ve been doing this
programming for nearly two decades and just can’t get the squat to
work. Squatting is great, but maybe not here.
Here’s What Works with Easy Strength…and Even Easier
Strength:
Vertical press
Vertical pull (pullups and variations)
Deadlift variations
Swings or loaded carries (the swing in the warmup is plenty for most
people)
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 198
Ab wheel
The swings and ab wheel are the salt and pepper; the other three are the
main course. If you need to know the squat movements, here you go
(and I would love you to succeed doing these!).
Squat movement: Front squats, back squats, overhead squats, Zercher
squats, or safety squats are all fine.
The Even Easier Strength Workouts
Week One
Monday (1) 2 x5
Tuesday (2) 2 x 5
Wednesday (3) 5-3-2
Thursday off
Friday (4) 2 x 5
Saturday (5) 2 x 5
Sunday off
Week Two
Monday (6) 2 x 5
Tuesday (7) 6 singles
Wednesday (8) 1 x 10
Thursday off
Friday (9) 2 x 5
Saturday (10) 5-3-2
Sunday off
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 199
Two sets of five: It should be easy and be like your second or third
warmup lift in a typical workout. The idea, the “secret,” is to get THIS
workout to feel easier and easier!
Five–three–two: Five reps with your 2 x 5 weight; add weight for three,
then do a solid double. Make the double!!!
Six singles: I don’t care how you do this, but add weight each set. No
misses!
One set of 10: The day after six singles, do a very light load for 10 easy
“tonic” reps.
Examples for an Experienced Lifter
Day One
Incline bench press, 165 for 5 reps, 165 for 5 reps (300 max single)
Thick-bar deadlifts, 185 for 5reps, 185 for 5reps (265 max single)
Pullup, 2 sets of 5
Farmer walks, 105 with each hand, 100 meters out and back (3
stops)
Ab wheel, 5 reps
Day two can be heavier or lighter depending on mood and feel. The
important thing is to show up and get in the movements. If one day is
too hard and compromises the next day, that’s fine as long as you lighten
the load and continue getting the reps without compromising speed.
Day three should begin with the five-rep number from the usual 2 x 5
workout, then add weight for three, and finally, add weight for two. Be
sure to get the double.
Most people on the Easy Strength program find this workout is the test
for how things are progressing. The weights begin to fly up on the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 200
double—and that’s good, but stop there. Remember, this is a long-term
approach to getting strong. Don’t keep testing yourself. Save the big
effort for, well, never.
Days four and five are the most confusing days. Again, the load on the
bar depends on how you feel. If the efforts feel easy and light, nudge the
load up. Here’s the secret (again): The goal of this program is gently
raise your efforts (load) on the easy days so the bar feels light. If you
start lifting a weight, say 205 at one effort level, and in a few weeks
you’re lifting 245 at the same perceived effort and speed, you’re
stronger.
After a day of rest, day six will feel easy, and it should be. Get the reps
in.
Day seven has a simple rule: You’ll do six singles, adding weight EACH
rep. It can be five pounds or 50, depending on how each single feels. It’s
NOT a max effort on the last set—it’s the sixth single. If the loads feel
heavy, just add five pounds. If the bar is flying, add more.
For people who come from the tradition of “smashing the face on the
wall,” day seven is confusing. Your goal is to determine the load by how
the weight feels. If it pops up and feels light, toss on the plates. If it
doesn’t, respect today, and realize you’re going to have plenty of
opportunities to get stronger in the future.
Day eight is a “tonic” day—the way we used to use the term. Go really
light and just enjoy 10 repetitions. It can be as light as 40% of max (or
lighter if you feel like it), and just use the movement to unwind after the
previous day’s heavy attempts.
Day nine is often the day when people see the reasoning behind the
program. This is the day when the weights seem to be far too easy.
That’s the sign of progress in this program. I remember actually thinking
I misloaded the bar, and I had to double-check my math because the bar
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 201
seemed to be far too light to be right.
Day ten is often the day when people test themselves a little. This can be
fine as long as you feel like going after it. Again, don’t miss.
Week Three: Time for a Change?
Depending on the person, some will need variation. Some won’t. I offer
three ideas for week three.
Week Three, Option One
The original program Pavel designed demanded that I repeat weeks one
and two for three additional times. It worked well. By week five, I was a
machine on the lifts and broke lifetime personal records, smashing my
incline bench press record by 15 pounds (doing it for two reps, not just a
single) and crushing my old thick-bar deadlift record (going from 265 to
315). This is a staggering improvement in such a short time. Option one
is to simply keep on keeping on.
Week Three, Option Two
I like this more for most athletes. You make small changes to the
movements, from bench press to incline bench press, thick-bar deadlift
to snatch-grip deadlift, and pullup to chinup. This is Pavel’s “same, but
different” approach. The small changes keep enthusiasm high for the
entire eight weeks.
Week Three, Option Three
I have a few athletes doing this now, and I believe (maybe “hope” is a
better word) this is a better option for speed and power athletes. It’s both
a deload week, and a week filled with more metabolic challenges. Have
a look:
Day One
Push press or push jerk, five sets of two (the rule of 10), adding
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 202
weight each set, is a great workout.
“Lift–n-offs” (formerly called “Livtinovs”): After doing a hinge or
a squat movement, either sprint, sled, or prowler immediately after
finishing the first movement. In a gym setting, this can be difficult,
but I’ve done this outside with great success with just a kettlebell
and a hill.
In a gym setting, squats followed quickly by prowlers can be
amazing. Just don’t pause between the movements.
Day Two
Left hand only!
Waiter walk
Suitcase walk
Single-arm front squat (kettlebells are best)
Suitcase deadlift
One-arm row on the TRX (or suitable device)
One-arm bench press
Reps, sets, load, time, and every other factor “depend.” The idea is to
push the stability and symmetry muscles and movements. There’s an
odd metabolic hit to these moves as you’ll sweat a lot more than
expected with these.
For example, this can be done with a single kettlebell in a park (which is
wonderful, by the way), and you can challenge various aspects of
training. You’ll get a good workout while also practicing mastery of
body position and dynamics. Doing just one side also frees up the mind
a little. It’s pretty obvious what you’ll be doing in a few days, so you can
experiment a bit and play the edges of tension and relaxation as you
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 203
train.
Day Three
Repeat day one.
Day Four
Right arm only!
Waiter walk
Suitcase walk
Single-arm front squat (kettlebells are best)
Suitcase deadlift
One-arm row on the TRX (or suitable device)
One-arm bench press.
At the beginning of week four, mix up the variations in the basic
movements (push, pull, hinge, squat, loaded carry), and progress using
the same rep-and-set template as in weeks one and two. After finishing
the program (weeks one and two repeated four times total—option three
would be a 12-week program), fully assess mobility, basic strength
levels, and the program vis-à-vis your goals.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 204
Power Laws, Life, and Living
Power laws are a wonderful way of explaining the world. In Hollywood,
Avatar and Titanic earned more money than probably most movies
combined will ever see. In the world of publishing, a few houses publish
the bulk of the books you’ll read. The bestseller lists seem to circle,
decade by decade, around a few authors.
It’s Pareto’s Law, the famous 80/20 rule, in action. Most of the dietary
advice you’ll ever need follows the same pattern:
Eat protein and veggies.
Drink water.
Those are your big fish, your whales, your big rocks, or whatever cliché
we’re using this week. Certainly, this vitamin or that macronutrient is
important, but the bulk of what you need is “right there.” I live by
focusing on the 80% I get from 20% of my time, treasure, or talent. In
the weight room, I look for the big fish; on the field of play, I focus on
the big rocks.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 205
When it comes to most people’s training, I know, with all my heart and
soul and lymphatic system, that the whales are key:
Push
Pull
Hinge
Squat
Loaded carry
Take those movements seriously a few days a week with appropriate
reps and sets and load and you’ll take care of the bulk of your training
needs.
But, yes, there is more. We need to do some work on those other areas
of human activity, especially walking. My best progress happened when
I gave my ego a nice hug and shut it into a closet and began following
my Olympic lifts (snatch and clean and jerk) with a nice long walk.
Wait. I can hear my ego…and my younger selves…screaming from the
closet, “Don’t you know who we are?!”
I do. Yes. Walking AFTER lifting quickly dropped 10 percent off my
body mass (scale weight, but my belts are all too big too). I was visibly
leaning and visibly “more athletic.”
That’s the beauty of the power law. You need to understand that yes,
some things are your 20-percenters. It doesn’t mean that everything else
is useless.
Many people argue that we can add some of the 20 percent into our
walking. It’s a good idea. I love the idea of the occasional sprint—many
people forget how to sprint after a certain age. I do love charging up hills
and stairs. I’ve never had anyone get hurt going UP.
I do have an athlete who got hurt going down the stairs. The athlete was
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 206
NOT paying attention and rolled down several stairs. That athlete was an
idiot.
The athlete was me.
A generous mix of occasional hard charges up hills mixed with a walk is
a brilliant way to both achieve lean body mass and stroke the furnace of
fat loss. One friend noted that we should also plug this into what this
person called “sexaerobics,” but maybe that’s a conversation for another
time.
The idea is valid. I do know this: As a child, we NEVER had organized
sports, but we were all in amazing condition. Our training was simple;
our training followed power laws. Our training was…
Play
Tag and hide and go seek probably predate the use of language. These
games are important for hunting prey and to avoid becoming prey. I still
think these two games deserve another look from sports science. We’d
see intermittent sprints, easy moving, and quick thinking.
Win. Win. Win.
So.
Plug in some hard training minutes every week, maybe as much as an
hour or so total. Walk after working out, walk after and before meals…
walk. Explore play again. Have some fun.
Play your way to cardiovascular fitness.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 207
Gather Benefits
When we began discussing cardiovascular health, it might seem we
strayed from the basics of Easy Strength. We honestly did not. It’s my
experience that most people want to lump all fitness and exercise into a
convenient little bucket where everything fits inside.
As I explain Easy Strength, a hand will often go up over here or there
and ask about warmups, cardio, or something else. I feel I need to
address these issues before we continue to move into the more advanced
concepts.
There’s one truth when we begin to look at body composition, general
health, and general fitness:
You ARE the sum of your habits.
I love(d) Coach Ralph Maughan. The stadium at Utah State is named
after him and he has been referred to as “the Greatest Aggie.”
Each year, he’d gather the team in our team room and give us a talk.
Now, calling this a team room in this day and age is a reach. When the
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door opened, we’d all freeze; the lockers didn’t always work, and I
learned NOT to ask about the black stuff growing in the corners.
His answer to both academics and athletics (we used to be called
“student athletes” and nobody giggled) was simple:
“Make yourself a slave to good habits.”
And that, my dear friend, is about the best advice I can give you for just
about anything and everything. You may not like the following:
You are the sum of your habits.
When I mention to people that I eat veggies at breakfast, I often—far too
often—get a bemused scowl in reply.
You what?
Honestly, I think people put salad for breakfast into the same mental bin
as punching puppies. There obviously must be something wrong with
me!
Salad for breakfast??? Veggies before dinner???
You cad!
For the record, I think the word “cad” should be revived. Originally, it
meant an unskilled laborer who hung around waiting to work. Some
went to golf courses and helped golfers (now known as “caddies”);
others helped on buses. It seems some of them were unscrupulous.
I digress. Not uncommon for a cad.
Most people I know brush their teeth every morning. Now, they should
also floss twice a day, scrape their tongues, rinse well with mouthwash,
and avoid sticky sugar-laden foods.
Oddly, I do all of this. Why? Habits. If you can’t imagine leaving the
house without brushing your teeth, you have instilled this habit. The
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chair you always sit in after work, the beverage you drink when you first
get home, and the constant sound of the television in your home are all
habits, habits, habits.
You ARE a slave to your habits.
I honestly can’t imagine a day without some form of exercise. Like my
dog, I crave my daily walk. It’s what I do. It’s who I am.
I don’t have magic DNA (I do have a lot of Neanderthal according to my
DNA test in case you’re wondering). I have habits.
If you find yourself needing to turn a corner in life, the easiest approach
is to check into some kind of prison that restricts your free will, food
choices, snacking, and bingeing. Perhaps we could also get you to do
some forced labor.
I’m not a fan. Yet the idea is warming up in my heart.
I used to give my clients on day one massive lists of food choices,
“good” and “bad” foods to enjoy or avoid, laundry lists of things to do,
and massive training protocols.
I used to do this.
Now, my favorite go-to is simply to ask them, for an entire month, to
drink TWO glasses of water every day. We agree on a time for me to
call them and…here we go.
I joke, a lot, that the phone always rings, rings, rings, and rings because
the client is quickly chugging down that second glass of water. Most
argue with me, early and often, that “this time” they’ll be fully engaged
in the process. Often, after the excitement wears off in the second week,
they begin to understand something.
It’s simply this: Drinking TWO glasses of water every single day is a
habit that takes a bit to adopt. I used to believe people when they said
they’d do anything and everything to begin the change. Now I
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understand that turning the Titanic takes longer than expected. There’s a
movie that explores this issue with the Titanic.
Spoiler alert: The ship sinks.
The next month involves finding a parking place far away from their
place of work and checking in with fellow workers that the person is
following this simple trick. Usually by this time, the client is beginning
to understand things. Body composition issues and solutions are best
served by gathering benefits from improved habits.
The road toward any training goal, any goal at all, is often gathering the
benefits, like the good hunter-gatherers we are.
You ARE the sum of your habits. That beltline was developed over
years of tiny choices. That extra chin didn’t come from supersizing
something just once. Or even twice.
It’s time to gather new habits. In training, it’s time to learn new
movements, experiment with new ideas, and train appropriately for your
goals.
One of my friends told me about the “joy” of choosing at least one
different movement (push, pull, hinge squat, and loaded carry) every
workout to just have some fun and experience something new.
Mastering a whole host of new exercises might take some time.
Start slow. Gather a few new food choices (there are 200,000 different
edible plants on this planet…try a new one every day!), try some new
exercises, explore a new sport or game, or simply try a new walking
route in your local park.
Gather new habits. Then…
Become a slave to them!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 211
Warmups and Easy Strength
Here in Utah, we all still enjoy the humor of legendary Utah Jazz coach,
Frank Layden. Frank was SO good, he was named NBA Coach of the
Year. To get recognition in Utah and our surrounding intermountain
states in a popularity contest means he was SO much better than
everyone else that the press finally acknowledged it.
On the contrary, if you played a season for a team like the Yankees, you
probably become a first-ballot Hall of Fame player.
Just saying.
Back to Frank: He has a quote that has been stolen or adapted by every
coach ever:
“So, I asked him” (a player), Frank said, “Are you stupid or
apathetic?”
“He answered me, ‘Coach, I don’t know, and I don’t care.’”
Not long ago, I listened to someone talking about Easy Strength.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 212
“The thing is, Dan NEVER goes over how to warm up in the Easy
Strength system.”
Are you stupid or apathetic?
You see, I’m fine with both. I always loved J. K. Doherty’s story about
two rival coaches. The coach from one school wrote some stupid things
about how training can hurt an athlete’s heart.
The other coach said, “Listen, it’s fine for YOUR athletes that you write
this nonsense…but my athletes can READ!”
Back to the point: I talk about warmups with ES a lot. Just because some
people can’t READ doesn’t make me wrong.
Are you stupid or apathetic?
Here’s the warmup I gave you in Even Easier Strength:
1. 10–15 goblet squats (as many or few sets as you want or need)
2. 75 swings or hinge variations (sets of 10–25—really grease that
hinge movement)
3. Mobility as needed (we do Tim Anderson’s Original Strength: sixpoint rocks, nods and “find your shoes,” prone nods and “find your
shoes,” and egg rolls)
I also tell people, over and over, that those swings in the warmup might
be enough to count as one of the five movements. So, after doing that
warmup, here’s your workout:
Vertical press
Vertical pull
Ab wheel
Loaded carry
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 213
…and enjoy a leisurely walk afterward. That’s not just a good idea;
that’s a pretty good idea.
If you know my work, “pretty good” is the highest honor I give a
training program. This wins the award for best program in the category
of reasonable workouts:
“I didn’t prepare a speech, so let me pull this speech out of my
pocket. I would like to thank the academy and all the little people I
stepped over on my way to the top. I would like to acknowledge my
fellow nominees and bathe in their collective failure right now.
Thank you.”
For the individual lifts, you can do anything YOU think YOU need.
Honestly, for two sets of five in the incline bench press with 165 pounds,
I didn’t need to warm up. The load was light, and the warmup was the
first set. The other day, I did my snatch complex as part of my Easy
Strength for Fat Loss with Olympic Lifting (will someone, please…
please…come up with a better name?) and walked over and did two sets
of five with 60 kilos/135 pounds in the snatch as I was…
Warmed up from the warmup.
Sure, I could have taken a few snatches with the barbell, some lighter
loads, and some more of this and that, but the following warmup done
daily is more than enough:
Daily Warmup
Hang, 30 seconds
Bottom-position sit in a goblet squat, 30 seconds
Suitcase carry, waiter walk, or any loaded carry variation (down
and back)
Ab wheel, 1 set as appropriate
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 214
Snatch Complex for Three Rounds
Snatch-grip Romanian deadlift x 5, then…
Hang snatch x 5, then…
Overhead squat x 5, then…
Back squat x 5 (Done! Rest!)
Use a stick or PVC at first. Decide as you wish about adding load as you
go along.
Again, the above looks, at least to me, like an, ummmmmm, warmup.
I don’t talk about warmups?
Are you stupid or apathetic?
I suggest that each day you come up with (or steal) some simple series
of movements to get warmed up for any ES program. Ideally, the
warmup will have the missing movements from the program, usually
squats or groundwork, but honestly:
1. A 10-minute walk might be just about perfect for most people.
2. Tim Anderson’s Original Strength mixed with a little walking,
skipping, or whatever, is excellent.
3. Some of the old-timers who taught me did one set, easy, of every
lift they planned before they began the heavy stuff. The way it was
done looks exactly like complexes. Complexes were invented, of
course, long after people were doing complexes for generations. I
invented them after I saw someone doing them.
4. Dan Martin told me that the BEST warmup in a public gym is to
just clean up the plates, dumbbells, and exercise equipment that
has NOT been put away by the other members. I’ve seen some
gyms where this would be all the exercise one would ever need.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 215
5. Doing anything, really.
I rarely did or do any warmups on the single set of 10s day as the load
basically is a warmup.
I think I’ve talked about warmups!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 216
Easy Strength across a Lifetime
Longevity, I always remind people, is an issue of quantity and quality.
Let’s talk quantity first as, well, you can’t do much about it.
Years ago, Dick Notmeyer asked me the secret to a long life. If you
knew Dick, you’d also know this wasn’t a question; this was the start of
a lecture.
“You see, Danny Boy, it comes down to this: It’s going to be 50%
genetics, 40% lifestyle and 10% luck.”
Luck. Well, some people do stupid things—“Hold my beer and watch
this”—and live long lives. Some get drafted and end up dying in a
lonesome jungle fighting for God and country. Others wait an additional
minute getting their coat as they leave the house and see a semi tumbling
across a freeway in front of them rather than on them.
Luck, well, I can’t do much for luck.
Genetics? I strongly suggest you pick parents from families who live a
long, long time.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 217
Remember, Norman LaLanne? No? He was the brother of the fitness
pioneer Jack LaLanne. Jack trained vigorously for years, ate “right,” and
did some amazing feats of strength and athletic skills. Norman,
famously, did not.
Norman lived to 97 years of age; Jack lived to be 96.
I’m not sure if I should weep or cry. Genetics are amazing. Ask any real
tall person how they got so tall.
Right.
Lifestyle is an important 40%. My doctor, Ross Brunetti, told me the
secret of survival years ago:
Don’t smoke
Wear a seatbelt
If you add “Learn to take a fall or break-falling,” you might have the
basic formula to survive into your mid-50s. He added, of course, that if
you weigh over 300 pounds, the rules change…and not in your favor.
There you go: Find parents with excellent longevity genes, don’t smoke,
wear a seatbelt, and be lucky. Take this formula into a casino and put it
all on number seven and spin the wheel!
The quality of life is, on the other hand, a much better discussion.
Certainly, we walk through life going through changes in lifestyle,
physique, finances, and friendships. Some of this is in our control. Much
of it is not.
I think it’s worth the fight to fill our lives with quality. Easy Strength
programs, as well as any sustainable system, can help you live well until
you die. “Live long, die fast” is a phrase I heard from Robb Wolf a while
ago and I agree with it entirely. As the old Irish song, Moonshiner,
teaches us:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 218
I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home and if you
don't like me then leave me alone. I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll
drink when I'm dry and if moonshine don't kill me, I'll live till I
die!
“I’ll live till I die.”
It’s fun to sing this song. Ideally, the idea behind truly living through all
of life’s ups and downs, until the final down, encourages me.
Most people have an age they fear. Often, you hear some people claim to
be 39 for decades, as if somehow that next year, 40, makes everything
go south. Fifty sits there with its own Roman numeral, “L,” and also has
the phrase “half-century” tossed in with it.
I’ve always found solace in the phrase “It’s not the years; it’s the miles.”
Research from Germany in the 1950s taught us that strength, if trained,
remains long into the 50s. But, after that, things happen. Joseph
Campbell described aging like the pieces of an old car suddenly falling
off: first, the side mirror; now, the bumper.
Aging is inevitable. Every calendar year, your age will increase by a
factor of one. You can look that up if you don’t believe me. But aging
doesn’t have to be given the victory. With a little thinking and some
reasonable training, you can keep the side mirror and bumper on for a
long time.
John Powell once gave me some advice for older athletes. He noted
older athletes need to rediscover two things: muscle and passion. He
envisioned that we should train in two phases.
Phase One: Hypertrophy and rediscovering the joy of movement
Phase Two: Reigniting passion
In a quick look at phase two, “passion” comes from the root “to suffer.”
Whenever we speak about passion, we tend to jump right into the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 219
bedroom, but we also must learn to suffer for what we love. It could be
as simple as sore body parts after training or cutting checks for trips to
championships.
Now, in phase one, there are movements that are the fountain of youth. I
break lifting into six global categories, the fundamental human
movements:
Push
Pull
Hinge
Squat
Loaded carries
The sixth movement, which is basically everything else
Hypertrophy is easy. Just focus on the push, pull, and squat. These are
the best movements for piling on muscle.
Push
The press family: bench, incline, overhead, decline, pushups, and
tons more
Pull
The pull and row family. Any time you seem to be embracing
something, that’s a pull
Squat
Maximum knee bend with maximum hip bend—front, back,
Zercher, goblet, and overhead squats
One caveat: I insist that your total reps in these three moves be all the
same. Hinges and loaded carries are different. If your workout has 50
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 220
pushes, you had better have 50 squats and at least 50 pulls. It’s okay for
most American men to pull more. Our throwing sports tend to lead to
some issues that pulling seems to help.
If the over-50 person can only do one thing, I recommend three days a
week of push, pull, and squat. You’ll look good, which tends to lead to
feeling good, which seems to help you keep moving good (well).
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 221
Beyond the Basics and Successful Aging
I always use Nick Rians’ breakdown of age groups. He runs FitRanX
and I’m big fan of his idea of testing and challenges. Nick breaks “us”
down into three age groups:
Ages 16–35
Ages 36–55
Ages 55+
From there, Nick breaks this down again into male and female standards
and gives us eight levels of challenges for each of the groups.
Yes, that’s a lot of challenges to keep track of, 40, but he makes it
simple.
Let me say this…again:
You’ll wish you started earlier than later when it comes to
practically everything in life. In the area of physical fitness, you’ll
be rewarded later for your efforts earlier.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 222
It’s like saving money. It hurts in the beginning yet is wonderful at the
end.
I see a hand go up. Yes?
Ah, what about kids before age 15? Well, that’s quadrant one training.
True—and this will always be true—there’s an advantage in some things
to get little Billy or Susie a head start. As Epstein explained in Range,
anything that has instant and immediate feedback has an advantage to
starting younger. Here’s the list:
Classical musical instruments
Chess
Golf…and that’s it
I’ve watched so many parents brag about third-grade championships and
regional under-13 medals. These mean, in the big picture of
performance, NOTHING.
Be sure Billy and Susie know how to ride a bike, swim, run, and all the
rest of Herbert’s insights from over a century ago (see the discussion on
Quadrant One above).
16–35 and Easy Strength
From 16 until 21, many athletes participate in organized team sports.
That’s neither good nor bad. There are some who will have permanent
injuries and issues from sports and one can only hope the benefits
outweigh the impairments.
Many will “retire” young and turn their backs on fitness and health. This
is a mistake that will continue to get worse, like that image of a snowball
going down a hill.
The best advice I can give during this period is to learn the push. Push
the table away. Push the extra beer and pizza away. Do what needs to be
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 223
done to NOT get fat. It literally won’t come off later. Technically,
adipose tissue does shrink, but it doesn’t disappear no matter what the
ads on television tell us.
Yes. You can have it carved out by a plastic surgeon. Yes. I’m not going
to argue any more (or less) about this kind of surgery. Surely, there’s a
better way. To quote Art De Vany: “Don’t get fat in the first place.”
The stronger you get, the longer this strength will last. The research on
this isn’t fresh; it’s older than me! You want to get as strong as you can
during this early period. If you’re time-strained due to education, kids,
or whatever, Easy Strength is your answer.
If you aren’t being paid for your athletics and you’re over 22, I have
some bad news. You are NOT a professional athlete and, outside of Feel
Good Cinema, you’re NOT going to be one.
Hence, don’t train like one. Certainly, yes, of course, find games and
sports and enjoy competition if this is something you enjoy. I’ve
competed in some kind of event or contest every year since 1965 and I
don’t see the end in sight. I like doing it.
I don’t make a living at it!
Generally, from 16 to 35 will be the time in one’s life to take care of
higher education, establishing roots, and building the future. I
recommend investing in the basics of a home gym at this time and
learning the fundamental foundation lifts.
When in doubt, Easy Strength and walking for the win.
36–55 and Easy Strength
John Colosimo and I were planning a pick-up basketball game on a ninefoot hoop. It’s fun to play on these shorter hoops as we can dunk and
goaltend like we’re a full foot taller. As we finished, John said
something interesting.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 224
“You know, it’s weird, but I feel like I’ve ‘lost a step,’ you know?”
We both nodded. We were in our late 20s at the time and had a first
glimpse of the impact of the calendar flipping over every year.
By 36, most of us have realized we can’t come home from work,
swallow down a snack, and play with our friends until Mom calls us in
for dinner, shovel some food down, and then sprint out the door and play
again until nightfall. If some of you did something like that, you might
not be able to get up the next morning!
The benefits of staying with it really pay off as we slide into mid-life
(Staying with It is also the title of John Jerome’s masterful work on
becoming a swimmer in his middle years). If you bought the equipment,
learned the movements, and own the habit of training and conscious
caloric consumption (eat like an adult!), you’re probably doing fine.
In this time of “middle age,” the stresses and pulls of life and living
begin to become more obvious. There’s some tightening; there’s some
weakening.
I’ve made a living on this statement:
Stretch what’s stiff; Strengthen what’s weak.
As a fan of the work of Vlad Janda, I’ve always targeted the middle-age
training to stretch and strengthen certain muscle groups:
Stretch
Hip flexors
Hamstrings
Pectorals
Biceps
Strengthen
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 225
Glutes
Ab wall
Deltoids
Triceps
The fundamental human movements do this work almost automatically,
but I also add basic mobility (the free movement around a joint) to every
program as a rest period. I’m not a huge believer in rest periods.
Obviously, they’re important, but sometimes life doesn’t respect the
stopwatch, so I like to use rest periods to do mobilization and relaxation
work.
When I list the basic movements of
Push
Pull
Hinge
Squat
Loaded carries
… I see the last three as glutes, glutes, and glutes.
A flabby butt is a sign of aging. This is the time to take butt training very
seriously. Moreover, appropriate squat and hinge work are probably
better for mobility and flexibility than the bulk of the nonsense I see in a
typical workout.
I can easily put together a training program that combines basic lifts that
help with mobility:
Half-kneeling press
Hangs from a pullup bar
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 226
Goblet squats
Kettlebell swings
Suitcase carries
Turkish getups
Oddly, it’s the same template I use for multi-millionaire baseball
players. This workout could be done with a single kettlebell or whatever
load you have around the house. Sure, mastery in the TGU might take
practice and the swing needs to be done with excellent hinge technique,
but these lifts will take care of practically all your needs.
I’m not sure why I said “practically.”
Five minutes of weightless Turkish getups and a few goblet squats
should be enough warmup for most of us. Two sets of five in the press,
two sets of hangs, maybe 75 swings and a down-and-back suitcase carry
is…a perfect workout.
It’s also the basic Easy Strength template. Finish the carries and go walk
for half an hour and you have a reasonable, sustainable workout you can
do for a long, long time.
Eight to 10 months of the year, follow a simple, repeatable template
addressing the fundamentals of movement, mobility, and some level of
cardiovascular work. Once or twice a year, find a challenge, a program,
or a goal that excites you into training harder and locking down the food
intake.
During these times, go for it.
For the rest of the year, get it done…and do it again.
And again.
56+ and Easy Strength
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 227
I hope you saved for retirement, remained debt-free, took care of your
dental hygiene, and, basically, took care of business. When you pass 55,
getting the degree, the license, or the certificate is going to be much
harder. It’s really hard to fix teeth if you don’t have many of them left in
your gums. Deciding to save for retirement at 19 makes for a bigger nest
egg than waiting until 60.
When it comes to the body, now is the time to pay the piper. If you kept
your joints moving, body fat percentage low, and generally stayed in
shape (whatever that means to you), you’re going to be very happy.
And from what I have seen, unique. Decades of television and drivethrough dining tends to leave a person in subpar physical health.
Can you catch up? Yes.
But, like saving for retirement, it’s easier to start early.
After 56, hypertrophy and mobility (and a good dose of cardiovascular
work as appropriate) become the key. Lean body mass is difficult to
keep, at best, but I have good news: Finally, you can train like a
bodybuilder! Get those reps a bit higher, move from machine to machine
(if you choose), and put that peak on your biceps.
Most of us have this flipped. Many younger people train to LOOK like
athletes in their youth rather than training like athletes (hinges and
loaded carries for the win). By the way, training like an athlete seems to
make us look better anyway.
There’s something magical about sprinting 400 meters and what that
does for a set of six-pack abs. I used to tell my 400-meter sprinters,
“Don’t worry about what you eat…we’ll all know sooner or later.”
If you don’t get the point: Training the long sprints often leads to
involuntary vomiting. Maybe you didn’t need to know that.
The over-56 crowd really can use the benefits of bodybuilding,
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 228
especially in the aspect of safety. For the record, YES, I got hurt using a
machine in high school when I slipped doing a lift and the handle hit my
head.
This was when I found that head wounds bleed a lot. A lot!
Generally, machines are safer and the lifter can push into the burn a bit
more. If you fail, the machine parts slide back into the starting position
and no one is worse for the wear.
Can the Easy Strength principles support this age group?
Yes.
True, the rule of 10 doesn’t apply perfectly to hypertrophy work.
DeLorme taught us just after World War II that the hypertrophy and
power numbers are basically 15–25 or 15–30 total reps. I found this to
be difficult to wrap my head around with my experience, by the way,
until I reread (re-re-reread) this:
“By advocating three sets of exercise of 10 repetitions per set, the
likelihood that other combinations might be just as effective is not
overlooked…Incredible as it may seem, many athletes have
developed great power and yet have never employed more than
five repetitions in a single exercise.”
Progressive Resistance Exercise, DeLorme and Watkins, 1951
During my time with Dick Notmeyer in my teens, I put on 40 pounds in
four months and perhaps a total of 60 pounds (drug-free) in two years.
My highest rep count was three. Three. Triples were high reps. One,
two, three. The number that is one less than four.
And I swole up. I got massive. I freaked out friends and family with my
newfound traps and thighs.
But…I was 19 or so.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 229
So, YES, you can get massive on low reps. The only issue is that little
thing about being a teenager.
Oh, and I would tell little Danny to save more and keep on his path of
getting university degrees as soon as possible.
The much older post-60 Danny doesn’t, like money, grow on threes.
We need more reps. And, honestly, high reps are a lot more fun than
grinding out max singles.
Get in the workouts. Mobilize and release the tension between sets.
Keep the reps high. Do the fundamental movements. Show up.
And: Keep going!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 230
Okay, Which Easy Strength Approach is Best?
There are many questions about Easy Strength that are almost always
answered by, “Just start doing the workouts.” Almost universally, people
who strive to DO the workouts figure out the nuances of Easy Strength
without having to resort to the keyboard and the internet and emailing
me questions.
There are a lot of variations and options to get aboard the ES system. I
push five workouts a week; others have done well on three days a week.
I began to realize that certain kinds of people do better on one method or
the other. Only after a long conversation with Brian Gwaltney did I get
some clarity.
Brian is long and lean. He was a vegetarian for a while and loves
intricate work like stone balancing, chess, and doing Rubik’s Cubes
blindfolded (no, you don’t need to read that again; he solves the cube
blindfolded). When we talk about lifting, he told me he can’t handle the
kind of volume I think is a normal day.
The “gap” appeared in my head. There are seven billion of us on this
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 231
planet. Honestly, few of us would care about the following discussion…
and we have a LOT of variation in the ability to train in the weight
room.
Here are just some of the factors:
Volume
Intensity
Frequency
Duration
Ballistics, grinds
Let’s first just look at these two, volume and intensity. Of course, I’ll
use a quadrant.
High Intensity
Low Intensity
Low Volume
Power Lifters
Crazy Jerry
High Volume
Big Engines
Cardio Warriors
Let’s not define “intensity” and “volume.” Basically, let’s pretend we all
agree that intensity is work closing in on high levels of maximum effort
and volume is the amount of work.
I can see the hands going up. “Do you mean puking or passing out?” No,
let’s pretend no hands went up.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 232
Low Intensity, Low Volume
My college friend, Crazy Jerry, once asked me to help him “get in
shape.” He’d been smoking for a decade at this point (don’t get me
started) and had never done anything athletic. I tried just about
everything we could imagine during the Carter administration:
Arnold’s programs
Nautilus training
Heavy hands
Jazzercise
Walking
Jerry struggled with strength training and cardiovascular work. It was a
difficult situation for me. Later, when I expanded my coaching to the
“normal” population, I discovered many were like Jerry: ANY training
of ANY kind was an ordeal for Sisyphus…and the rock rolled back
down the hill no matter what we planned. Volume work, in the weight
room or on the road, was difficult, and intensity was dancing on a razor
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 233
blade.
Would ES work for Jerry? I didn’t have the tool at the time, but I think
three days per week of five or so lifts of “Do this!” repetitions and sets
might have helped. He needed a year, maybe two, of three days a week
of strength training and walking.
Quitting cigarettes, in my opinion, should be a given.
Jerry gives us the template for many clients who might use the ES path.
Until the person learns the fundamentals of training, adapts to the rigors
of intensity and volume, and masters the principles of regular training
(show up), a gentle prod in the direction of weight training will be fine.
Don’t overthink it.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 234
High Intensity, High Volume
Contrast Jerry with the Big Engine. I’m a little tight today so I can’t pat
my own back, but nearly six decades in the weight room had an impact
on me. I’ve trained up to 10 (and more) lifting sessions a week and
compounded lifting with long hours in the field throwing, carrying, and
pulling stuff back and forth. I averaged six hours a day going hard and
heavy in training for at least a decade.
Hi. I’m Dan and I’m a Big Engine.
Easy Strength was a vacation. Fifteen-minute workouts? Five days
(only!) a week? Well, of course, I thrived. It was a tenth of the volume
I’d used at times and the intensity was scientifically figured out as
“whatever I felt like.”
If you have a Big Engine, ES seems like not working out. The five-daysa-week format fits in with most long-term trainee’s vision of workout
sessions and the exercises are generally mastered long before the athlete
begins ES. I moved from bench press and deadlifts to inclines and thickbar deadlifts to have some fun and enjoy simple variations in my initial
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 235
testing.
I know I sell ES. I’m its biggest fan. I’m sure it works like magic. I also
must admit that it might work well for the Big Engine because, for once,
we aren’t beating the body to death.
Overtraining for decades can lead to serious issues. Tossing in two
months of ES might just be the tonic a body is looking for to relax,
realign, and refit.
If that’s “all” it is, I’ll still stand by Easy Strength. Of course, I think
there’s more to it. I didn’t just match my old personal records; I crushed
them and lifted well beyond my old numbers. There’s something
magical about ES for the Big Engine people who can handle lots of
volume and lots of intensity.
The five-day approach works well here. The easy tonic days, those days
of one light set of 10, seem to be a movement massage. The 40 days—
the magic duration Pavel told me to do— sits well with someone who
has a year-round approach and has the early pre-season mentality of
“address your weaknesses.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 236
High Intensity, Low Volume
There are some who thrive on high intensity and relatively low volume.
Marty Gallagher’s book, Purposeful Primitive, is the sacred scripture of
high intensity and low volume. In the world of powerlifting, Olympic
lifting, and bodybuilding, there are many who can do the superhuman
efforts in the gym for a triple, double, or single and walk out the door.
Bob Bednarski (“The Eighth Wonder of the World”), Mark Chaillet
(“Powerlifting’s Ultra Minimalist”), and Dorian Yates (multiple Mr.
Olympia winner) all trained in such abbreviated programs that their
combined training session time would be less than many lifters I know.
Sadly, I know people who train hours every day. They spend a lot of
time and effort and, sadly, it’s difficult to see the benefits of their time
and effort.
Let that sink in a bit.
Easy Strength programs look up to Gallagher’s pantheon with
admiration, respect, and reverence. Upon bended knee, we look at these
pioneers and shudder at the simplest of the programs.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 237
Then, being mere mortals, we go out of our way to mess everything up.
Generally, we define “mess everything up” as this:
I think this program is perfect. I think this other program is perfect. I
will do both and be twice as perfect.
Easy Strength’s roots are the same as Marty’s insight of primitive on
purpose: Do what you need to do to force an adaption…and go home.
Two days, three days, or five days a week of training, focusing on the
needs of your sport, done well, is enough to get your name on the list of
immortals.
One thing: The sessions must be intense. Not long. Intense.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 238
Low Intensity, High Volume
Before we get too far, these four options are also a great template for
training. There are times for lots of easy volume; there are times for
intensity and volume, and sometimes we just need intensity. If you look
over your training journals (and if you don’t have one…please start
today), you’ll find you may have naturally rowed down the stream
merrily, merrily following this kind of thing.
Our friends in the endurance world understand volume. I have a few
friends who do marathons and triathlons—I’m judgment-free…save for
squat depth—and their ability to just hang on and keep on going is
laudable. I don’t think this formula works for everything; obviously it is
NOT a good way to go about getting stronger but is a must in the world
of long-distance work.
Easy Strength is a marvelous companion for our distance community.
Percy Cerutty gave me the template for Easy Strength workouts. His
concept of intensive work (the opposite of what he called “extensive” or
high-volume strength work) remains the right thing to do for distance
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 239
runners.
A big press, a big deadlift, some pull ups, cheat curls, and a few situps
worked wonders back in his day of the 1950s and ’60s, and I don’t see
why we need to change anything. Don’t spend a lot of time doing the
lifts; think two to five sets of two to five reps maybe three days a week.
The strength will do wonders for your times in endurance races.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 240
Frequency
Frequency is the number of times per week you toss your gym bag in the
corner and start to lift weights. For people and athletes who need power
and strength, visit more often. Honestly, Olympic lifters could train the
Easy Strength protocol daily, perhaps twice a day, and still make
progress…if you live by the credo of “Don’t miss!”
If other qualities are arguably more important (it hurts my heart not to
have strength as the key quality), you can try fewer visits to the weight
room. The line in the sand between three whole body training sessions
and Easy Strength for some people becomes difficult to find.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 241
Duration
Duration is how long we keep on the plan. I have workouts that are
extremely difficult, like the O lift-based Big 21. It’s ONLY nine
workouts over three weeks. It does have the one issue of having 63 lifts
a day (spread over the clean and press, snatch, and clean and jerk) and
the load slides up each rep, each day. Mass Made Simple is ONLY 14
workouts over six weeks. I do expect you to squat bodyweight for 50
reps on the last day.
Easy Strength at 40 workouts was perfect for me. I trained five days a
week, never missed, and did this for two months…actually, eight weeks.
This pushed me into a whole new phase of the training year for discus
throwing and Highland Games competition. The first time I did it I was
smart and simply changed lifts and did it again. It was the best year of
my career.
Sixteen weeks might be an eternity to a new lifter. To the advanced
trainee, it’s how you lay down the foundation. I’ve been lifting since
1965; that’s a lot of 16-week blocks. The more invested one becomes in
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 242
training, training 16 weeks on one quality seems less imposing.
It’s like what a bodybuilding coach told me about understanding
peaking: It takes over a dozen shows to dial it in for each individual
competitor.
Most of us couldn’t do the requirements for a single show. I can’t
imagine the dietary restraints, the vigor of training and cardio, the
presentation skills, and the minute details it takes to perform well under
the lights. I struggle to think of doing that again and again and again.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 243
Ballistics, Grinds
Short note: Ballistic exercises have an explosive pop and the weight is
driven into the next position. With kettlebells, that’s swings, cleans, and
snatches. The barbell Olympic lifts can be ballistic too, obviously, but
they’re far more complex. Grinds are the exercises where you can dig in
and literally grind through to the finish. Think powerlifts…squat, bench
press, and deadlift.
Explosive movements can be trained more often than the grinding
movements of performance sports. Throwers and Olympic lifters can
train at a high level of performance nearly every day…within reason.
It’s far more difficult to come back the next day after a teeth-grinding,
vein-busting max deadlift.
As I continue to leap into the 10,000-kettlebell swing challenge every so
often, I notice it’s far easier to swing day after day after day than, for
example, squat 500 times a day for 20 days.
And there you go, you hard-chargers: 10,000 goblet squats in 20 days.
Be sure to enrich your diet with fiber and enjoy going up and down
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 244
flights of stairs. Let me know how it goes…for the historical record.
I chose grinds during my first attempts at ES. I recovered quickly from
the relatively low volume. Of all the variables in looking at what model
of ES to follow, the ballistics or grind option might need to the most
honest evaluation.
Maybe I could grind it out because my numbers in the incline bench
press (315 for a double) and the thick-bar deadlift (three-inch grip…315
max) were relatively light.
Generally, most people can do more back-to-back days with ballistics.
The float of the kettlebell in the swing and snatch and the full-body
explosion of the O lifts may lend themselves to more frequency.
Of course, for the bulk of people I’ve consulted with about ES protocols,
few have chosen the ballistics path. Since I developed ES for O lifting,
many have come around to this template and I’ll continue to discuss how
to achieve success with this approach.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 245
Men and Women
I’ve been overwhelmed with the positive feedback from women doing
Easy Strength. It’s hard to convince the planet, but I know this: Strength
training for women is FAR better for body composition (both increasing
lean body mass and fat loss) than any other modality.
That being said, we still continue to fight against the idiotic beliefs
surrounding women. Doing Easy Strength will NOT make a woman
suddenly become a thickly veined, densely striated physique contestant.
That might take weeks.
Of course, I joke. I’ve had many conversations with worried parents
after they discover that…GASP…their daughter is lifting weights in a
weightlifting class. I understand they’re teaching French in the French
classes too!
Easy Strength works. Easy Strength works for everyBODY. Women
seem to be able to handle more volume than men, but struggle with
intensity. For most women, I tend to recommend the five-day-a-week
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 246
protocol.
Deciding the frequency and duration of Easy Strength is crucial. The
answer is, yes, it depends, but these concepts of discussing intensity,
volume, frequency, duration, and gender should give you the appropriate
dose for your training prescription.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 247
Is This Enough?
There’s a problem when you ask me a question. I’m a strength coach.
Not long ago, I had an issue with the parking strip on my front lawn.
The concrete guy told me to just dig it out and lay concrete.
The lawn guy told me to add more water, fertilize, and mow taller.
The rock guy noted that red rocks look great in Utah.
When I ask my hairstylist if I need a cut, she always says, “Yes.” We all
seem to offer advice that helps us pay our own bills.
When I look at people’s issues of health, fitness, longevity, or
performance, I’m a strength coach.
Lift more. That’s my advice, right?
Well, I can say…now…I think… I add more to this formula than “lift
more.” I hate that thin-lined continuum some people use with strength
on one end and endurance on the other. Somehow, magically, one finds
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 248
the sweet spot for every activity and then trains for that exact spot.
Listen, sometimes you need to be Hercules or Samson. I get asked the
following a lot, actually:
“Dan! I have this couch and it needs to go…”
Friends with normal homes and normal hallways never seem to need my
help. It seems only people who live in labyrinths ask for my help when
moving a couch that weighs a ton and every corner involves calculus to
manipulate this beast around the nooks.
Life demands strength at times. When you deal with a newborn, you
don’t need strength; you need endurance. It is, yes, a different kind of
endurance than when you have two middle-school daughters.
In my home, two middle-school girls taught me a lesson: Everything is a
dramatic tragedy.
In life, you need strength and endurance. You need to laugh and
sometimes you need to cry. Better authors have said the same thing…
better.
Specificity is fine for elite performance. If you are fighting
professionally, I’ll train you differently than if your biggest wrestling
match is with those fitted bed sheets that are impossible to fold and love
to spring back when you stumble to the other side of the bed.
Not many of us are going to get the call to be the first to run a sub-twohour marathon on live television. Not many of us will be the first to
clean and jerk 600 pounds.
The rest of us need to train, exercise, and work out to simply feel good,
look good, and move good (and take English grammar classes).
We all need “enough.”
Enough strength
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 249
Enough endurance
Enough balance
Enough protein, veggies, and water
Enough sleep
And…that’s enough.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 250
The Basics of Easy Strength: Another
Conclusion
Do you remember the first conclusion about the Basics of Easy
Strength?
“Try it, then make it better.”
I’m not sure if I can come up with better life advice than those six
words. So much of living a good life is in the doing, not the talking
about the doing. I’m going to be doing until I’m done.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 251
Advanced Easy
Strength Techniques
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 252
Easy Strength: The Game-changer
Sometimes it’s hard to see the lessons of experience. That’s why I think
the great tradition of teaching someone else is so valuable in learning a
skill at a deeper level. I often asked upperclassman to teach the younger
athletes one of the drills we were doing. I’m certainly not lazy; I can do
this myself.
What often happens is that not only does the teacher—the senior or
junior in this example—learn the fundamentals at a whole new level, we
often find that something pops up that enriches the rest of us.
The longer I teach Easy Strength and get feedback about the protocol,
the more things pop up. Working with a UFC fighter, we simply had him
change his load on pullups from a weighted vest to dangling kettlebells
from his feet.
Game-changer.
“I can feel the tension in my abs…my thighs…my ankles!”
This is one of the two great long-term insights from Easy Strength: the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 253
role of tension. Now, listen, TENSION is the basic tool of strength
training. Tension is the master quality for safe and effective strength
training.
My dentist told me I should have been wearing a mouthpiece throughout
my lifting life. His point was simple: The tension I held in my mouth
yanking heavy loads off the floor was damaging my teeth. The front of
my neck always hurts after Olympic lifting meets, as the max platform
efforts make me sore in places I never realized could be sore.
One of the reasons I push neophyte Easy Strengthers into thick-bar work
is that a thick bar demands more tension to simply clear the bar from the
floor. You can’t yank a thick-bar deadlift off the ground; you must
squeeze it up. It’s hard to have poor technique with thick bars and thick
handles because the thicker grip makes you maintain total tension AND
a proper tempo.
Here’s the secret: High-level Easy Strength work is all about tension and
tempo.
I relearn this every time I start on a new Easy Strength program. We just
don’t walk in, chew our gum, talk to our friends while lifting, and watch
television while we do Easy Strength. Every rep should be an exercise in
full-body tension.
No, that’s not the way most people do the workouts. If they are doing
Easy Strength, they’re doing Easy Strength wrong.
There are basically three tools I use to ensure some level of tension in
the Easy Strength training programs. First, and you may have missed
this (even though we’ve discussed it several times), there are no actual
warmups in many Easy Strength programs.
When I walk over to the incline, that first set is the FIRST set. I don’t
like people to warm up at all in some of the methods we use. If you slide
under a big load without a standard warmup, there’s some “bar fear” in
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 254
the brain.
I think that’s a good thing.
This uncertainly will cause you to lock down the positions, fully engage
in the grip and body, and instantly find the groove. If you don’t…well,
that’s the opposite of good.
This isn’t moral theology, but not having good positions, grip, and
groove is “bad.”
Trust me.
Lack of those usual endless sets of warmups makes one fire up the
physical and mental (emotional) tension.
I’m a big fan of thick bars and thick grips when beginning an Easy
Strength program. The Zercher squat, with its painful elbow hold,
demands tension like few other movements. It’s tough to do heavy
overhead work with anything but a locked and loaded body.
Choose exercises that make you tense. The overhead squat demands fullbody tension. Not many have used it in Easy Strength programs, but by
itself, it might be the best teacher I know for tension control.
By the way, it brought joy to my heart when Phil Maffetone
recommended doing overhead squats in short bouts throughout the day
in his recent book on whole body strength for athletes and everybody
else. Somehow, a set of eight overhead squats every hour on the hour
(EHOH for those who demand acronyms) throughout the day answers a
lot of questions about tension, mobility, flexibility, strength, and mental
focus.
Finally, and this is an odd one, the lack of high reps—a total of no more
than 10 reps a day—makes many of my clients extremely
uncomfortable. They’re used to the blitz and burn of bodybuilding
protocols.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 255
“I must be stronger…I sweated” is something no one truly strong has
ever said.
The feeling that “I just am not doing very much” is something many
people cannot deal with in this style of training. It’s difficult for many to
handle the lack of puking and perspiration.
I look for that feeling. This feeling unsettles people and gets them
thinking differently. As I mentioned, I think thinking is important.
From what I see at 24/7 gyms, few people do it!
There’s another insight from the long-term feedback from our Easy
Strength family: tempo training for the ballistic movements. As we
began to entertain the Easy Strength concepts for the Olympic lifts, we
quickly discovered an issue:
The weights were too light.
I know, I know, we all know my usual joke: If the weights are too light,
add more weight.
With the Olympic lifts, people were whipping the weights up with this
extremely fast deadlift that flicked into the finished snatch or clean. And,
yes, we can all brutally destroy light loads.
Winning the war with light loads might impress some people who post
their workouts on social media but for the rest of us, we want to lift
heavy weights. This is where tempo comes in.
In the Olympic lifts, the barbell should go slow, maybe even slower,
from the floor to just above the knees. Then…BOOM!!!
Tempo
Start slow, finish fast.
This was the advice given to me by every throwing coach I ever had the
pleasure to learn from on the field. Coach Maughan added, “Well, you
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 256
can start fast, but then you have to finish even faster!”
Doing anything ballistic using the Easy Strength protocols, like the
Olympic snatch and clean, DEMANDS a rediscovery of tempo. As the
load increases, the tempo will naturally settle down.
For the basic lifts of Easy Strength, the variations of the powerlifts, and
traditional barbell work, focus on tension and find ways to increase it
through simple tweaks like thick handles, loads on the feet, or small
changes like snatch-grip and duck-stance deadlifts. For the ballistics, if
you choose to venture down that road, focus on tempo from the first day.
Once again, we find ourselves circling around the “secret.”
The secret: High-level Easy Strength work is all about tension and
tempo.
Peaking or performing when someone calls your name and you step up,
on, or in the contest area is about mastering tension and tempo.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 257
Tension and Tempo across the Movement
Matrix
If I sent you into a weight room from the 1960s, you may have been lost.
That’s fine, as everybody is lost on day one in any new environment. In
the 1960s, we had an advantage you don’t have now:
It was a weight room. There were weights to lift. People who were in the
weightroom were, dare I say, lifting weights.
There might be a radio tuned to a local station. There was no television,
no video machines of any kind, nor soft mats, foam rollers, hydrations
stations (water came from a faucet, if needed), and certainly nothing
elastic save your underwear band.
You would get a lot of unsolicited advice. You would be told about the
basic lifts. No one tells it better than Dave Draper:
I asked Zabo, “What’s the best exercise for biceps?”
We were buds for a long time, and went on various adventures
near and far. The man was known for his simple wisdom, keen wit,
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 258
and adversity toward the ruins of ambition. He answered my
provocative query in detail, “Curls.”
I was not surprised.
I continued, “What’s the best exercise for triceps…shoulders…
chest…back…thighs…calves?”
He answered each question generously, patiently, and in order:
dips…front presses…incline presses…deadlifts…squats…
donkeys.
“Anything to add?”
I was riveted.
“Yeah, train hard, don’t miss, keep it basic, and eat lots of chicken,
fish, red meat, and salads. Red wine won’t hurt ya.”
My soul wept in joy the first time I read this wonderful story. This is
how I learned. Later, Dick Notmeyer took me under his wing and taught
me the Olympic lifts. To learn the Olympic lifts, we did…
The Olympic lifts
There were no theories, no special drills, no videos, no whiteboard
discussions. What we did was lift. Other lifters would assist me by
explaining flexing the lats, squeezing off the floor, and the tempo of the
lift. Then, I mastered it by doing rep after rep after rep.
When I O lifted two to three hours a day, five days a week, I got better.
The research geeks reading that last line probably fell out of their chairs,
gasping at the lack of research. I know, I know: Lifting weights seems to
make us stronger.
Or, as Dick joked literally daily, “One who lifts the heaviest weights
gets the strongest.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 259
What we learned, “back in the day,” was the dynamic interplay of
tension and tempo. I suffered missed lifts, sore skin, or sore joints when
I ignored the relationship of tension and tempo. The bars crashed on the
floor and the bars crashed on me.
No matter why the bar crashed; Dick wasn’t amused. The plywood
platform had been around for decades, and he wasn’t ready to splurge on
another one because of my foolishness. I tightened up, worked on
acceleration, and made the damn lifts.
I think he cared a bit about me getting the weights crashed upon me, but
I’m sure, in hindsight, that keeping the platform whole was problem
number one.
Today, it’s a rare place on the planet that a weight room looks like a
weight room. Treadmills, bikes, machines, juice bars, yoga class, ball
games, pools, spas, saunas, and supplement stores have left little room
for actual training with weights.
Yes, I am a grumpy old man and, yes, I yell at clouds.
Gone are the basics. Good luck finding a discussion of tension…save for
releasing it with hot yoga. And tempo? Yes, Mr. John, right over there in
the dance class.
It’s time to bring it back, “it” being the cornerstones of appropriate
lifting: tension and tempo.
Now, we have to teach and coach it.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 260
Cueing and Coaching: Appropriate Information
at the Appropriate Time
Watching a young coach or trainer struggle teaching something basic is
often illuminating for me. I have total empathy; I’ve been there. My
enthusiastic efforts at teaching the Olympic lifts for the first time in
1979 were filled with information, ideas, and insight.
I probably told my poor first athletes the entire history of the sport, the
importance of each and every stop along the path of the bar, and deep
discussions about the various schools of approaching high-level success.
I used to teach like a fire hose: plenty of pressure and information at a
rate that no one could even take a sip.
I got better.
To help young coaches, I use two simple terms: cueing and coaching.
Cueing is the quick code word or reminder; it’s the big-picture stuff.
Coaching, as I always remind my audiences, is named after a vehicle
that takes one from here to there. Coaching can be everything from a
story, to an example, to an inspiring talk. Both cueing and coaching are
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 261
important.
With my movement matrix, I break down all the movements I teach:
Push
Pull
Hinge
Squat
Loaded carry
Then, I fill in the chart across:
Isometrics (planks), then strength and hypertrophy moves, then antirotation moves and, at last, ballistics.
Here’s my example:
On the far right, I have the squat snatch and squat clean and jerk. It took
me a while to figure out that not everyone can Olympic lift on day one
as they attempt to lift weights.
With the movement matrix, I have basically 37 exercises that teach.
Obviously, this doesn’t include every correction, regression, and
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 262
progression, but it’s close. Once I built this chart, I spent the next few
years coming up with cues. It took a while.
Cues are short points that coaches yell to emphasize the most coachable
points during an exercise. It’s often not much. Most of the time, I only
allow, “Go-go-go!” Now, if you have time, like in a plank or an
isometric, I think you can say more:
PUPP (Pushup-position Plank)
Hands: “Grip and rip”
Armpits: “Crush the grapes and make wine”
Knees: “Squeeze the knees”
Bat Wings
“Thumbs in the pits”
“Elbows together”
“Hold…squeeze!”
Glute Bridge
“Butt and belly”
“Knees” (use the glute loop)
“Pull down” (ab hold…pull the band to the zipper)
Goblet Squat
“Push the knees out with the elbows”
“Slide between the legs”
“Stay tall”
Farmer Walks
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“Stay tall”
“Walk the line” (sing it like Johnny Cash)
With the family of planks, two things emerge. First, if you have time
(like up to two minutes), you can engage the person’s human brain
more. In the O lifts, I suggest stapling your lips closed during the
movement. When I throw the discus, when my right foot comes off the
ground, I deliver the discus in about one second. There’s no time to use
the brain to do anything but foul things up.
In other words, shut up during ballistic movements.
Second, note that two of the cues are present throughout all training
programs.
“Squeeze”
“Stand tall”
These represent two of the three great lessons of loaded carry work,
especially the bear-hug family. “Squeeze” builds that anaconda strength,
the inner tube. I read an article years ago from an Olympic hammer
champion explaining that true athletic strength is building up internal
pressure. He described it like a bicycle inner tube you need to learn to
pump up for performance.
Next, “stand tall” reminds us of the arrow strength we strive to build. In
many sports, there comes an instant when the athlete blocks the
movement to transfer all the speed into the implement or ball. This is
that ability to turn the body into a brick wall…or arrow…that makes for
superior performance.
Anaconda and arrow strength come from my understanding of Stu
McGill’s important work in explaining the hammer and stone. Hammer
is the power generated by slamming the feet into the ground, for
example, and being propelled upward. Stone is the body staying rigid so
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 264
all the energy goes up, not lost in the various soggy tremors of the body
and belly.
As a strength coach, I can keep you “stoned” using the loaded carry
family, planks, and deadlifts.
When it comes to the rest of the movements, I believe you need to have
cue words to get people to focus on the big keys:
Anaconda Work (bear hugs)
Squeeze!
Swing
Hinge-Plank
Litvi-Family (after the “drop”)
Go-Go-Go
Snatch and Clean from the Hang
“Slide”
“Up”
“Jump”
Overhead Ballistics
Push Press: Dip–Snap
Push Jerk: Dip–Slap
Jerk: Dip–Stomp
Cues need to be simple. Cues need to be used by every coach in the
same way. Cues should be narrow and repeatable.
After the movement is finished and the weight (or implement) has been
returned safe and sound, allow the athlete a moment to regain clarity and
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 265
THEN coach. Explain the bow and arrow, the ground force thing, the
angles, grooves, and trajectories.
Coaching, for me, is often simply applying the best regression,
correction, or progression for an athlete. Although we stay with the basic
movements, we’re constantly searching for the appropriate next
challenge. We want beautiful movement—we want mastery.
For mastery: Cue constantly and coach appropriately.
Easy Strength tends to work best with the next group of exercises:
strength and hypertrophy moves and the anti-rotation family.
Strength Training /
Hypertrophy
(Bench) Press, Pushup
Anti-Rotation Work
1-Arm Bench Press, 1-Arm Overhead
Press
1-Arm TRX Row
Hill Sprints, Stadium Steps, Skipping,
Bounding, etc.
Pullup, Row
Hip Thrust, Rack Deadlifts,
Goat Bag Swing
Double-Kettlebell Front Squat,
Bear Hug Carries, Bear Crawls
Squats
Prowler, Car Push
1-Arm Carries
My athletes would probably look at this list and see that the bulk of the
time is spent doing the first column and we wave in variations with the
second column. Often, I cherry-pick moves from the anti-rotation list
and sprinkle them in during training sessions on the field of play.
I’m a big fan of doing a hill sprints, stadium steps, bounds, crawls, or
bear-hug carries in the middle of a throwing session. With American
football, I recommend using these movements as part of a circuit with
drills such as tackling, blocking, or other skills mixed in.
These movements DEMAND tension. The one-arm press, bench press,
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 266
and row family can shock people with the amount of force needed to
simply not slide or buckle over. Falling off the bench during a one-arm
bench press is really a bad idea. The exercise DEMANDS tension
through the entire body. It weird to feel how stressed the “opposite” leg
is while one-arm benching pressing. One can truly feel the X across the
body; this is, of course, ideal for striking, hitting, punching, throwing,
and kicking.
I’ve begun to believe that the one-arm bench press might be better than
99% of the crap I see for rotation training. I haven’t found that other one
percent yet, by the way.
But I’ll keep looking.
If a person can’t learn tension from a normal barbell, the thick-bar
family seems to force the body to figure this out quickly. Thick-bar
deadlifts are a doctoral dissertation in full-body tension. Try to explode
with 300 pounds off the floor with a three-inch handle.
Try.
Thick-bar deadlifts teach the start of the Olympic lifts better than
actually coaching the O lifts. One simply must be locked down with
tension and the tempo must be dialed in. It’s a master class in correct
lifting.
As we shift over to ballistic movements, I often find myself regressing
back to the basics again and again. Very often, it’s this tension and
tempo that shows up when the speed increases.
I often use a “joke” to explain this issue. For the record, this never
happened:
We were all sitting in a bar and my buddy says to me, “Is it true,
Dan, that you can drink a bottle of Jack Daniels straight down
anytime and anywhere?”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 267
So, I grab a full bottle and glug glug glug it down like John
Belushi in Animal House.
Then, I realize that I’m 20 miles from home, so I jump into my
Lamborghini, one of several I own, and drive home as fast as I can
to ensure I will be safe on the road.
Now…does that sound like a good idea?
The correct answer is…
No.
I feel the same way about adding speed (ballistics) to crappy technique.
Therefore, I insist on hip thrusts and Bulgarian goat-bag swings and
drills to teach the appropriate hinge for the swing LONG before we toss
everybody a bell and say, “Race you to 10,000 reps.”
Musicians can probably explain this better, but tempo is an overlooked
key to ballistic training. The percussion section of any band or
symphony can flip Debussy into discotheque. The beat, the rhythm, the
tempo…these are the underpinnings of elite performance.
Obviously, I like tempo, as it alliterates with tension. That’s the issue of
studying and reading poetry for a lifetime; it tends to make us fall into
certain rhythms, certain beats.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 268
Tempo and the Ballistic Family
The overhead ballistic family, the push presses and push jerks, need to
be taught on a foundation of an appropriate dip followed by the finishing
lockout, including some foot work in the jerk family. Rush the dip too
quickly and you end up with the barbell smashing your chin. I know this
from experience at a meet in Minnesota and yes, it hurts a lot. Tempo
should always be stated as the “correct tempo.” Anything else can knock
out your teeth.
The rhythm of the swing, done correctly (and, YES, “correctly” is going
to be used a lot), facilitates proper breathing and protects all the slings,
wires, connective tissues, and muscles as you snap the bell at the top and
explode out of the hinge. Done correctly, the tempo will help lock down
the technique and lead us to the insight that the swing is truly a fatburning athlete-builder.
The lift-n-sprint family, either hinges or squats followed instantly by a
sprint (or hill sprint or sled pull), teach the transitions that reflect true
athletic performance. In collision sports, we’re called on to wrestle,
sprint, tackle, push, pull, grab, and sprint again on nearly every play. I
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call these “gear changes.” Learning these in practice carries over on the
field of play.
The Olympic lifts demand tempo. Certainly, and we see this with the
flailing efforts of high school football players trying to master the
movements in a few minutes instead of a few years, one can do a fast
deadlift and upright row and crush the joints on the finish. The RIGHT
way to do it involves driving the heels into the ground, squeezing the bar
off the floor with great tension, then accelerating the bar when passing
into the jump or second pull phase.
With light weights, I slow the tempo down to a snail’s pace from the
floor to the jump. Destroying light weights doesn’t lend itself to lifting
big weights.
Tempo is your friend. I’ve been exploring tempo in a recent program,
“Easy Strength for Fat Loss with Olympic Lifting.” Screaming the title
of the program by itself, shouted out loud several times, is probably a
good workout too.
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The Hangover Rule
In the last chapter, we discussed tempo as the key to sports and lifting.
Sometimes, we get in our own way. I’m not recommending the
following, but there is a way to get out of one’s own way!
I learned a great lesson at dining tables and bars: Some of the most
amazing feats in track and field history have come from less-than-stellar
stories. This rule, the hangover rule, doesn’t happen in the vertical jumps
—high jump and pole vault—because the athletes know what they’re
about to do.
But, very often…more than you think…an amazing performance comes
on the day after an evening of too much fun. The athlete slumps onto the
field and tries to find a place to nap. This athlete expects nothing, save to
show up and keep the promise of competing.
An odd thing happens: The warmups don’t feel great, but something
“good” is going on. Maybe the first efforts are a bit sluggish, but the
distances or speed are very good.
Not long after, the mark is yelled out to the crowd, and the crowd goes
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crazy.
It’s a new world record! When I first heard about this, the storyteller
added the lovely image of puking into some rose bushes as he walked up
to the facility.
Why does this happen? Why does someone do so well when hung over
or (fill in the blank)?
Because that’s the way it works.
I’ve been with people who have elaborate plans about meeting the “love
of my life,” yet the story never unfolds like the plan.
Memorize that.
I think Easy Strength works for this same reason: You don’t expect
much, so you just put in the work.
And then, like meeting the love of your life at a cafe where she’s being
set up with someone else, the magic happens.
I wished peaking worked more often. But it usually doesn’t.
If it did, everyone would do well at the Nationals…at least seasonal
bests…but that rarely happens.
This is one of my notes from a workshop with some elite military forces
on a base in Germany. This group sat intently all day long on the first
day of my workshop. When I arrived the next day, they were all gone.
Deployed. No one was allowed to tell me anything. I didn’t ask.
Point 3: Compete…the Hangover Rule
How does it work?
I don’t care.
As I reflect on over half a century in sports and training, I don’t care has
become the answer to so many questions about “why does this work so
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well.” If it works…I don’t care .
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Stretch Reflex
There’s an odd feeling during superlative performance. Time slows.
Colors leap. The efforts of the past decade(s) suddenly feel effortless.
Yuri Vlasov, the great Soviet Olympic lifter, called these “The White
Moments of Victory.”
We dance on the razor’s edge in high-level performance. Too much
work or too little crushes the moment. Tension, arousal, heart rate, and
our most dangerous tool—thinking—all must be at the right levels. Too
much, too little…
Just right.
Coach Goldilocks taught this principle well.
Easy Strength allows us to figure out this principle of “just right.”
I use an odd example when I explain most people’s attempts at
delivering an optimal performance at the right time (“peaking” for
short). We’re like archers: We pull back the bow string. Then we pull
some more. And then, just to be safe, we pull back more.
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And, instead of just letting go and letting the arrow fly, we grab the
arrow and try to throw it.
This is the hardest lesson I ever learned as a coach and athlete:
Superlative performance comes when you let the arrow fly.
And, yes, throwing the arrow works. It just doesn’t work very well.
Snapacity
I coined the term “snapacity” to explain how I train elite performers. The
snap, exactly like snapping your fingers, is that explosive movement that
separates the great from the average. Work capacity is this idea of being
able to do something over and over, in this case, snapping.
Shove “snap” and “work capacity” together and you get snapacity.
Only a few times in my career did I get this right. Considering that my
athletic career started in 1967, this isn’t high praise for me. Once, in San
Jose, I threw the discus and almost fouled the throw on purpose as it felt
completely effortless. Only the yells from the stands kept me from
taking a foul throw (stepping on the elevated ring around the circle).
I had added 10 feet to my lifetime best.
Effortlessly.
Preparing to peak is preparing to snap. Preparing to peak is to prepare to
move effortlessly…with intelligent effort.
Like the arrow, you must let it go.
The mistake many coaches make, and I’m marching in that throng with
all of them, is that to prepare to “let it go” means you must prepare the
athlete (or yourself) to trust that the arrow will fly a lot farther if you let
it go rather than throw it.
It’s a multi-faceted approach. Let’s talk.
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We’ll begin with the obvious one: the physical preparation.
Basically, we want to plan a season or career by dealing with two things:
Appropriate techniques
A broad foundation of qualities—later, we’ll focus on and isolate a few
of these qualities
The key to nearly every sport is to turn the human body into a rubber
band. The term is “stretch-reflex,” but my junior college throws coach,
Wolfgang Linkman, had a far better way of saying…in his extremely
limited English:
“Ssssssh-Ku!”
“Sssssh” is the stretching of not only an individual muscle, but of the
whole chain of muscles involved in the movement.
“Ku” is “letting go.”
Like a rubber band, we pull the band back from one of our fingers,
release it, and it hits Rita Harrington in the back of the head while she
sits across the schoolroom. She complains to our teacher, an Irish nun,
and, once again, I stay after school. Later, I figure out that talking to her
was a far better way to get her attention.
Yes, muscles contract like my grandson’s biceps when he explains what
lifting weights does. And, yes, muscle tension can keep you hanging
from a rope dangling over a river full of crocodiles. A good training
program will explore building tension in the muscular systems through
both isometric and more dynamic movements.
Utilizing the stretch reflex is the apex of muscular performance. Before
you jump, you quickly pre-stretch in a movement that’s so natural you
may have never noticed. When you throw or kick, you “wind up” before
you “sling” it. If done right, there’s a noticeable whip.
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Wind up
Sling
Whip
The job of a good coach is to build this into the techniques of an athlete.
It’s the snap of snapacity.
I was taught the bow-and-arrow concept the first time I was coached on
the discus. I put a hand on a post that supported the pull up bar and
turned my body away from that hand.
My right arm held firm and the coach noted that this was “the arrow.”
That feeling from the elbow to the chest to the hips and down to the
knees was “the bow.”
“Feel that?”
I did. And then I searched for that feeling in the full discus throw for
another seven years.
Utilize the stretch reflex at every opportunity in training. Search for
places in your techniques to amplify the stretch reflex.
It can also be trained. Let’s talk about building that broad foundation.
Tension is the great gift strength coaches can teach the world. Strength
coaches can take a wet spaghetti noodle and turn it into an iron rod.
Tension makes the weight room safer, the lifter stronger, and sends
performance soaring.
There’s something else that sounds like tension that’s also crucial to elite
levels and should be part of the foundational training of every athlete
(and every body).
It’s called “tensile strength.” It’s the key to the stretch reflex, the bow
and arrow, and the ssssssh-ku.
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I’ll explain it the old-school way: Ut tensio, sic vis.
Since Latin isn’t spoken in most discussions today, let me translate:
As the extension, so the force
This is the work of Britain’s Robert Hooke. In the late 1600s, he
explained how springs work—like those of your car and mattress. This
insight also explains why relatively slighter people can often perform
incredible feats of strength. It’s not the size of the muscle; it’s the
extension PRIOR to the movement.
Hooke’s Law explains Bruce Lee’s “one-inch punch.” This law explains
why some people jump higher, throw faster, and kick farther. It’s
nothing new for those of us in the world of performance sports. Percy
Cerutty taught us—long before anyone accepted his “mad” methods of
lifting weights, running hills, and proper diet—that tensile strength is the
key to training.
“The development of tensile strength that is necessary in order to
reach one’s potential can be acquired in three ways during the
conditioning period: 1. intensive weight lifting; 2. gymnastics; 3.
running on the spot regularly at the end of a workout to speed up
the thrower’s reflexes.”
~ Larry Myers, Training with Cerutty
When Cerutty was coaching, few coaches had fully embraced any of
these concepts. Yet, lifting weights, fundamental gymnastics, and simple
plyometrics are now considered the cornerstones of off-season training.
I think it helps to think of tensile strength rather than off-season
conditioning (conditioning, conditioning, and more conditioning). Tying
the concept of discovering the technical areas where pre-stretch is
appropriate while consciously striving to develop more abilities to
support this technical model seems to be so logical, I shouldn’t have to
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say it.
Except I have to say it: Strive to teach the bow-and-arrow effect while
also building a bigger bow, a stronger bow string, and tougher arrows.
Yes, this is an analogy, but isn’t that a nice way to explain the goals of
the off-season and pre-season training?
We aren’t out to just get tired; we’re here to build snapacity.
The lifting, gymnastics, and simple plyometrics don’t have to be sportspecific or extremely complex. Paul Flick argued for a basic template of
strength training in the power and Olympic lifts in 1964, as I noted
earlier.
“As the late Harry Paschall put it, ‘The strength of the lower back and
hips determines one’s ability to run, twist, jump, throw, or lift,
whichever the particular sport requires.’”
Flick’s programming, much like Cerutty’s programming, was the basic
basics. Both men were track coaches and they both had amazing success.
I beat this point to death, but it’s important: Track and field, like
swimming, is one of the few sports where you can clearly see whether or
not something worked.
If you go faster, farther, or higher…whatever you did was RIGHT.
It’s not a debate class. Even though his coaches tried to dissuade him,
Dick Fosbury flopped over the high jump bar. It’s the way everyone
does it now. If a technique raises the bar (literally here), one has a choice
to stick to the old techniques and start losing.
Or adapt.
Getting strong is the first step toward tensile strength. Using gymnastics
and proper plyometrics knits an athlete together.
Just don’t get too cute: Stick to the basics. Teach the stretch-reflex and
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build tensile strength.
It’s that easy.
It’s a snap.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 280
My Second Game-Changer: Loaded Carries
These next three sections concern loaded carries. I usually sum this all as
“do them.” Some people, and you know who you are, want more details.
It would be hard for me to put in order the greatest tools that impacted
my athletic and coaching career. For a podcast, I was once asked to list
my three game-changers.
Well, let’s see:
Olympic lifting
Loaded carries
Easy strength
And, as a historical footnote, this is the exact order I learned these
modalities. Dick Notmeyer coached me from a good high school athlete
to a Division One MVP using the snatch and the clean and jerk.
And for decades, I was convinced the O lifts were the only tool needed
in my coaching toolbox.
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Over-fat? O lifts.
Team sports? O lifts.
Ballroom dancing? O lifts.
Oddly, it was the O lifts that lead me to the next two game-changers,
loaded carries and Easy Strength.
To get through to my thick head, I had to be told I’d never lift again.
The week after I won the Master’s Olympic Lifting Nationals in Baton
Rouge, it would have been wise to take a few weeks off and just show
everyone my medal. That would have been wise.
But the next weekend, I was trying to break the state record in the snatch
at the Utah State Championships. I missed the lift…a really close miss.
The motto “Never Let Go” is inspiring for me but bad advice with a
barbell. I crashed to the ground and the bar slammed into my wrist as my
elbow hit the ground. The video will make you sick.
My left wrist started the day with two bones. I went into surgery with
eight.
My doctor was clear: I would never lift again.
In my painful ooze, Mike Rosenberg sent me some equipment. He
convinced me to just start doing what I could do. Pick ’em up and carry
them.
On the cover of my first book, the bestseller Never Let Go, you can see
me carrying a heavy bag, “Judy,” and dragging a sled.
Most people don’t realize that my left hand was in a cast.
Not long after I started doing daily carries, my doctor told me an
interesting thing, “I’ve never seen someone recover so quickly.”
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I told him it was his surgery skills and abilities.
And carrying things back and forth in my backyard.
The next Highland Games and discus throwing season (it took me ages
to O lift again), my friends kept asking two things:
What are you doing?
What are you “on”?
The second question was not PEDs or syringes. It was veggies, protein,
and water. Then, I’d explain, in great detail:
“I pick stuff up. I carry it until I get tired. I put it down. Then I pick it up
and walk back.”
Those performances in my late 40s were the best of my career. Soon, I
started sharing this new idea with friends and athletes. Most people
noticed a strange boost in their performance. I’m going to try to explain
this magic. Harry Potter and Merlyn can put their wands away.
Not long ago, a physical therapist asked me to lunch and I had to sing
for my supper. The question was simple: How helpful were PTs in that
rehabilitation? I thought for a second and used the basic traffic light
image.
I think PTs are excellent at the red light. Awaking from surgery, I’ve had
PTs help me up, teach me how to get up and down stairs, and how to use
a cane. PTs are also excellent at telling me I’m “good to go,” the green
light.
It’s that “middle part” we needed to flesh out. I came up with an
analogy:
You come home from shopping for Thanksgiving. You have 18 bags of
groceries. To get to your kitchen, there are 10 stair steps. How do you
get the bags in the kitchen?
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For me, you slide the handles on all 18 bags over your wrists, power step
up those 10 stairs and, BOOM, done.
Others are reading this and thinking: “Hmmm. Maybe 18 trips and 180
stairs.”
Here’s the key. Between one trip and 18, there are a LOT of variations.
For me, this matrix of bag load and stair numbers is literally the
definition of work capacity. Loaded carries build work capacity for the
real world. Much of the work we do in life is figuring out this matrix of
work capacity. Tommy Kono told us the “American System” is to find
the fastest way to success.
Loaded carries are the fastest way to real-life and performance work
capacity.
The loaded carry does more to expand athletic qualities than any other
thing I've attempted in my career as a coach and athlete. And I do not
say that lightly.
A few years ago, I worked with an athlete named Ted. Now, Ted's issue
was interesting: He was a solid powerlifter and very good at the two
Olympic lifts. In other words, he wasn't a wannabe, a beginner, a
neophyte, or an internet warrior. Ted was the real deal.
When he came to visit for a week, there wasn't a ton of stuff I could help
him with in the weight room. A pointer here and there and I was
finished. So, being finished, we went outside for a "finisher."
"Would you rather do carries, walks, or sleds?" I asked.
"I've never done any of those things," Ted said.
Good, I thought. I can help him.
Within seconds of his first attempt with the farmer bars weighing 105
pounds apiece, he was like a stumbling drunk. He could pull hundreds of
pounds off the floor, but didn't have the stability—the cross strength—to
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handle more than a few feet with the bars.
Next, I tried to get him to walk holding a 150-pound bag to his chest. He
gasped for breath and nearly choked to death. Literally, his human
"inner tube" had almost no range past five seconds.
I'd found Ted's missing movement. Ted just needed to carry heavy stuff.
A few weeks later, I get the call: "Dan, you're a genius! My deadlift has
gone up (low 500s to high 500s) and I'm just thicker all over!"
Humbled coach blushes, but nods knowingly.
I'm not surprised. Again, in my coaching toolbox, nothing has been a
game-changer like loaded carries. Are you ready to learn how to do a
few variations? Good. Let's do it.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 285
Loaded Carry Variations
I break loaded carries we used in Easy Strength into three main
categories:
Weights in the hand
Bags, packs, and vests
Sleds
And a bonus: Combining these takes the work to another level!
Weights in the hand are the simplest and most recognized: Grab a
dumbbell or kettlebell and walk away.
The Specifics of Loaded Carries
Waiter's Walk
The weight is held with a straight arm overhead, like a European waiter
in a café. This is usually the lightest of the carries and does wonders for
shoulders.
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Suitcase Walk
Grab the weight in one hand as you would a suitcase…and walk. The
obliques on the other side of the weight will want to have a discussion
with you the next day.
Rack Walk
Usually done with kettlebells, hold the bell in the racked position, which
is the weight on the chest, as in a clean. This is a fairly remedial move,
but can teach an athlete how the abs work.
Probably the most interesting thing I discovered in my time teaching
rack carries is that women tend to do this practically without effort.
Men, however, hate it. I didn’t fully understand this until I went to an
amusement park and watched women carrying two toddlers around the
park, often with one using Mom as a jungle gym. Women might be built
for this movement.
It’s also the reason I often have men focus on it.
Two-Handed Carries
The Press Walk
This is simply a double waiter's walk, but the weights come alive as you
move. Warning: Do not do this to failure. It looks dangerous because,
well, it is dangerous.
For most trainees, I do NOT recommend this as the cost-to-benefit (the
cost being a broken skull) just doesn’t work.
Farmer’s Walk
This is the King of Carries. Go as heavy as you can with bells in both
hands, just like in a Strongman competition. This can be done really
heavy for short distances or lighter for greater distances. My favorite
variation is really heavy for great distances.
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Double Rack Walk
This is the same as the rack walk, but with two kettlebells. Again, it’s a
learning move, but is a great way to teach an athlete to breathe under
stress.
Cross Walk
The cross walk is a waiter's walk in one hand while doing a farmer’s
walk with the other. It's an interesting way to teach an athlete to lock
down the midsection during movement.
Bags, Packs, and Vests
This group includes backpacks, sandbags, and weighted vests.
Personally, I still prefer an old duffle bag or field pack.
Get some sand at any home improvement store. I spend a little extra for
the playground sand so I can use it around the yard when the bag breaks
(and they always break).
The basic bag carries are simple and come down to either "backpacking"
the load, holding the weight over the shoulders like a squat bar, or bearhugging it. The backpack or vest setup is ideal as it leaves your hands
free.
Bear-hugging is a great training tool because the weight is like Zercher
squats. The internal pressure is building, the breath is choked off by the
weight on the chest, and squeezing it hard in order to control it adds to
all the problems.
I read an article years ago from an Olympic hammer champion who tried
to explain that true athletic strength is in building up internal pressure.
He described it like a bicycle inner tube you need to learn to pump up
for performance. The term I use for this is “Anaconda Strength.”
Sleds
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Here we include sleds, pushing cars, going up hills (forward and
backward), and all the various new pushing devices available in good
gyms these days.
It's simple: Hook up a sled either with a harness or weight belt and tow
away!
Each of these moves works well alone. But here's the secret to taking
loaded carries over the top: Combine them.
Hook yourself up to a dragging sled. Then don a 150-pound backpack.
Now pick up farmer’s walk implements weighing 150 each. That's one
of the most difficult things I've done in my life. You try it.
Obviously, some combinations don't work as well as others. Cross walks
and overhead walks of any kind are usually epic failures when combined
with something else.
I enjoy experiments where we strive to discover what works and what
doesn’t. Oddly, something that fails with me and my group might be the
perfect thing for you.
I have high school sophomores use 85 pounds per hand in the farmer
bars and have more advanced athletes work up to 155 pounds per hand.
I've done more in competition and wouldn't suggest you do that—yet.
Whatever you have at hand will be a good start.
A bag of sand weighing 50 pounds is an amazing eye-opener. I also
recommend going to a home supply warehouse and getting a
wheelbarrow shell (just the green part that holds stuff), string a rope
through it, and connect it to your weight belt. For weights, I started with
just discarded cement chunks and a bunch of rocks.
With two dumbbells or kettlebells, a wheelbarrow shell, a weight belt, a
backpack, some sand, and some rocks, you can train at the top end of the
food chain.
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How far? How many? How long?
Well, it depends. I usually tell people to first try every movement from
waiter's walks to cross walks. Hug a bag to your chest and walk around.
Don't go far and don't do much. Simply get a sense of things. Rarely do
we do more than "down and back" with each move as we strive to keep
adding elements each set. So:
Suitcase walk
Farmer walk
Suitcase walk with a backpack
Farmer walk with a backpack
Sled pull
Sled pull with a bear-hugged bag
Sled pull with a backpack
Sled pull with a backpack and farmer bars
That's eight movements down and back with minimal equipment and a
lot of work. The "how far" question is usually answered with "not very."
You'll find out why.
Do loaded carries three times a week, but only one of the days should be
"everything." You want to be aggressive and intense when you attack
these movements.
Farmer’s walks and bear-hug carries are my personal favorite moves and
tend to be some of the best bang-for-the-buck choices.
Get back to me after doing these for three weeks. Obviously, your grip
will be better. Your legs will be stronger. Ideally, you’ll understand why
I think loaded carries are the best thing you can do for work capacity
that carries over into the field of play and life.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 290
Just be prepared to be asked to move a lot of couches.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 291
Loads for Loaded Carries
When assessing a strength program, there are generally two gaps in the
training. Almost universally, trainees fail to do appropriate depth in
squatting. Simply adding goblet squats can do wonders and miracles for
every trainee from an elite performer to a home gym enthusiast to a bigbox gym rat.
The other gap, and you’ll have guessed this by now, is loaded carries.
Pushing prowlers, pulling sleds, and farmer walks can be the answer to
issues from getting leaner to adding work capacity. They’re gamechangers for most athletes. By themselves, farmer walks can train the
grip, core, and gait as well as anything else you can do.
But there’s an issue: load.
Load has been the topic of a lot of serious discussions in our gym.
Sophomore girls in high school can use 85 pounds per hand, yet this is
well over bodyweight total. Some have argued for bodyweight in each
hand; others half of bodyweight per hand. That’s a big difference. Going
too heavy makes the exercise a stumble and fumble. But going too light
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isn't the answer either. Like Goldilocks, we want “just right.”
The downside of going too light on loaded carries is that people can go a
long way…a loooong way. Most people using this test have discovered
that erring on weights being too heavy seems to work better.
Mike Warren Brown pointed out that so many people have issues trying
to get a handle on loads in the farmer walk. We came up with a
reasonable answer: Use the standards from the squat numbers in my
book Mass Made Simple. In addition, we’ve begun using the trap bar for
the beginner or for large groups for ease of changing plates, weights, and
keeping brain cells.
Trap bar farmer walk (Mass Made Simple squat standards)
Bodyweight on the left, load on the right
Under 135 pounds: 135 pounds
136–185 pounds: 185 pounds
186–205 pounds: 205 pounds
Over 206 pounds: 225 pounds
We experimented with half of bodyweight per hand using actual farmer
bars and it worked well, but it’s not universally repeatable since many
people don’t have the specialty bars. Moreover, microloading is harder
than you think. Someone who weighs 199 needs two bars weighing 99.5
pounds. Good luck loading that evenly on two farmer bars!
Kettlebells work well too, and more and more people and gyms have
them now. Strive for bodyweight (half in each hand), but be aware that
many places don’t have enough bells at that weight.
Kettlebells (one in each hand)
Bodyweight on the left, load on the right
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Under 135 pounds: Double 24s
136–185 pounds: Double 32s
186–216 pounds: Double 40s
Over 216 pounds: Double 48s
Load up and walk away. And, yes, it is that simple.
I’m not a huge fan of backpack or ruck packs loaded over 35 pounds. In
addition, I don’t like people over-loading prowlers and sleds. When I see
people with their toes pointing to the side, knees rubbing the ground, and
the prowler barely moving, I want to tell them, “No one cares.” I like to
see some speed in the loaded carries.
For bear-hug carries—perhaps my favorite training tool for throwers,
fighters, and American football—I use sand from the local home
improvement store. I used to use water softener salt, but when it spills, it
kills. The playground sandbags come in 50-pound units. Two will teach
you a lot; three will teach you a life lesson. For “fun,” add a mini-band
around the socks and monster walk while you bear-hug carry.
That’s my experience, obviously. Nearly every reasonable coach will
play around with massive loads and soon realize they’re losing some of
the benefits of loaded carries by turning these from a training tool into
drudgery. Training to plod, slog, hobble, and lumber is fine if your sport
involves trudging, plodding, hobbling, and lumbering.
Again, this is Goldilocks work: too heavy, too light, just right. I didn’t
get the loads right for a while as I first started doing loaded carries. I
tried. I took notes. I tried again. Unlike Goldilocks, I didn’t stop for a
nap.
Finally:
Constantly vary the loaded carry variations.
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Constantly vary the distance, time, and load.
Take notes.
Have some fun.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 295
Easy Strength Doesn’t Always Fit
Since I first started answering questions online in 1998, there’s always
been an issue. Basically, this:
It don’t fit.
I had a dad email me far too many times trying to make my Olympic
lifting program, The Big 21, work for his middle-school daughter. He
kept pointing out that the barbell was too heavy for his little girl on day
one, so how could she possibly do day nine?
She couldn’t.
I’ve had people with disabling elbow pain ask me about doing some of
my pull up programs.
Don’t do it.
I’ve had questions about Mass Made Simple that some people thought I
recommended 20 sets of 20 reps with a bodyweight load on the barbell
in the squat.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 296
Sadly, I recommended that, “Yes, YOU should do that.”
I skipped that day of empathy class. Well, I skipped the whole class.
I love all my programs. But there’s often an issue with these programs
for other people. I’ve discovered:
People can’t do kettlebell programs without kettlebells.
People can’t do Olympic lifting programs without barbells…and the
knowledge of the lifts.
Trying to teach people online how to ride a bicycle or learn to swim
seems difficult to me too.
So, let me say this:
Beginners don’t seem to do well on Easy Strength. The reason is simple:
Beginners make progress on foundational, basic training—although one
could argue Easy Strength fits this. There’s no need for anything for the
beginner save the courage to keep showing up.
I have my journals from 1971 and I can walk you through how just
training three days a week with full-body workouts made the load on the
barbell go up each and every workout. It was a dizzying time for me. I
wish I still made this kind of progress! I’ve been stalled in a few of my
lifts since 1991!!
Could you do Easy Strength as a beginner? Sure. The rep scheme of two
sets of five was my template from my first weightlifting book, Ted
Williams’ Barbell and Dumbbell Course. Three sets of three will always
be a rep-and-set system that can be used successfully for decades.
Easy Strength is all about getting stronger. Beginners seem to want
more. Often, they mention fat loss, muscle gain, Herculean efforts,
movie deals, eight-figure salaries, and photo shoots for the covers of
major magazines. But Easy Strength is all about getting stronger.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 297
I often get questions about using bodyweight exercises or (fill in the
blank) for ES training. There are some that seem to work, like pull ups
and chin ups. Pushups don’t seem to have enough load and all the other
things people send me don’t seem to work either.
I’m not being difficult; it’s just, from my experience and the experience
of many others, it’s best to stick to the barbell, the dumbbell, and the
kettlebell. And, honestly, the dumbbell and kettlebell ALONE don’t
always work as well. The barbell has this wonderful ability to add small
loads all the way to really weirdly heavy loads. A single kettlebell is
hard to make heavier or lighter.
Beginners make wonderful progress with bodyweight exercises. The
physiques of the male gymnasts at the Olympics show us that, if taken
seriously, bodyweight work alone might be the ticket to amazing body
composition. If you have the four to eight hours a day to train at that
level, don’t let me get in your way.
Progressive resistance exercise, the wonderful term coined by Thomas
Delorme, continues to be the “secret” to strength, hypertrophy, and
power for most of us. And the easiest way to be “progressive” is to add
load to the lift—as well as complexity, sets, reps, and appropriate rest
periods.
In high school, we did circuit training with 20 different exercises and
made excellent progress. Then, we ran out on the field of play and
played. A few months later, we did another sport. Circuit training was a
great base to “get in shape.”
As beginners, my athletes got stronger and looked and felt better. That’s
“pretty good,” my highest standard of judging a program.
Remember: These were beginners.
I’ve had a rule for decades:
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 298
Everything works.
I eventually updated this idea:
Everything works…for about six weeks.
Let beginners enjoy those first weeks of amazing progress. Strive to
teach beginners appropriate hinge, appropriate squat, and appropriate
tension. Show them the path.
And, later, further down the path, teach them Easy Strength.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 299
Easy Strength and Squatting
Note: I’ve struggled with making squats work with Easy Strength. In the
next few chapters, I try to explain this, fix this, give up on this, and try,
once again, to come up with ways to make squats work with Easy
Strength. I feel I’ll continue to struggle making squats work with Easy
Strength.
When I go to the Red Cross, I introduce myself like this:
“Hi. I’m Dan and I’m O-.”
Back in the day, it was:
“Hi. I’m Dan and I’m a Virgo.”
In a recent series of discussions, I realized something that, like many
things in life, I “could” be wrong. I stagger admitting that to myself.
Even when I’m wrong, I’m generally right.
The discussions started with a simple point, but the impact on how I
perceive Easy Strength changed. Mike Warren Brown said something
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 300
interesting I’ll summarize like this:
“Hi. I’m Dan and I have a huge tolerance for pushes and hinges.”
Yeah…so???
Most of the first people I put on Easy Strength—and the whole family of
protocols—were like me. I “used to could” (with a nod to Jeff
Foxworthy) bench press five days a week and do inclines in my porch
gym at night. When I was O lifting, I could strap up and do pulls (an
explosive hinge) without any issues. I could power clean usually as
much as I could squat clean. Remember, I cleaned 402 and missed the
jerk. I’m not sure I could have ever power cleaned 402, but I did power
clean 365.
So, kids, thrower types tend to be really good at the quarter-squat.
Throwers tend to have big upper-body engines. Throwers are made by
DNA and program design to be good at pushes and hinges.
I could never make squats work in my Easy Strength training or the Easy
Strength training of my people. I could never get squats to work…except
when I worked with body composition women. My star pupil is a
mid-50-year-old woman who turns heads when she wears a bikini—for
the record, I turn heads when I wear one too. When she keeps her pull
ups (true pull ups…no kipping or other nonsense) around two sets of
five, she looks great. When she gets her reps up to the eight to ten range,
she looks even greater.
She complements her pull ups with squats. That’s her combo for her
ultimate physique. She Easy Strengths her training with the addition of
the ab wheel and kettlebell clean and press.
I’m push and hinge. My client is pull and squat.
I was so amazed when I came to understand this that I revisited a lot of
the feedback I’ve received on the Easy Strength or 40-Day programs.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 301
Maybe I couldn’t make squats work on Easy Strength because my
engine is a hinge. Mike Brown then added another insight. The insight
insulted me. (That’s not unusual.)
Mike said, “If you have big numbers in a lift, your ego will force you to
keep those numbers up.”
Benchers bench. Squatters squat. Hingers hinge!
I’ve always thought Easy Strength works best with people with some
time under the bar. For me, when I first did Easy Strength in 2004, I had
about four decades in the weight room. I knew how to do everything…
except intelligent programming.
Nearly every experienced trainee knows the lifts they like. I like incline
bench press and deadlift variations, so those became the original
template. Squatting has always been hard for me, even though some of
my lifts are impressive (605 for three, raw and deep). Maybe I couldn’t
make it work because…
I don’t like to squat. Give me my 10,000 swings and I’m happy. The
Six-Week Soviet Squat program made me sad. Insert frowny face.
Now, is it my ego or my DNA? Occasionally, we meet people born to
squat (not me), not unlike people who are born to play professional
basketball. Professional basketball players tend to be tall and long
(seriously, look it up). It’s no mystery; in the field of success, one of the
great truths is to find those paths or careers that are relatively easy for
you. If you’re born to do something, it’s often easier to do that task.
Nothing earth-shattering in that sentence!
As our conversation deepened, we came up with one other insight:
Maybe there’s a recovery component to this discussion. For me, I can
press daily, up to 100 reps, and come back the next day and press again.
If I did that with pullups, I’d just check myself into the surgery ward and
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 302
ask for Today’s Special.
At my peak in my youth, I could handle squats twice a week…with
either high reps or high load. Any more than that and my body rebelled.
Yes, Easy Strength calls for the rule of 10 for the rep counts. Ten reps
isn’t a lot…unless you can’t recover from it.
If you’re choosing the five-day-a-week variation of Easy Strength,
you’re doing the movements five days a week (duh!). If your body can’t
handle the frequency, it’s tough to make it adapt when piling load and
reps on it.
Not everyone agrees with this notion of recovery. Years ago, at lunch,
the founder of The Workout That Shall Not Be Named, told me he
thought recovery and recovery tools were nonsense.
“If you do something like a Tabata, that’s only four minutes. You should
be able to recover in the next 23 hours and 56 minutes.”
As always, when someone says something that goes against my
experience, I had to think about this. It honestly took me more time than
I expected.
It took me the flight home to figure it out. Then it hit me, this person
was talking about just pursuing fitness benchmarks in the gym. My
people use the gym as a supplement to their specific tasks (sports or
collision occupations). This quote best sums the point:
“I play real sports, not trying to be the best at exercising.”
~ Kenny Powers, Eastbound and Down
True, my Easy Strength workouts are sometimes less than 10 minutes,
and rarely do they last more than 15 (I keep the weights loaded, the boon
of a home gym). THEN, I go out and throw for hours and often finish
with loaded carries.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 303
Recovery is easy if all you do is Easy Strength. If you do more, you’ll
need to think about recovery tools. My favorite is sleep. I practice
sleeping every night for eight or nine hours.
To knit this point back together: I can easily recover from daily hinges
and pushes. I can’t from pulls and squats.
It’s part of the discussion as you move deeper into the Easy Strength
world. Keep these in mind as you work on beginning the Easy Strength
journey:
Personal preference
Genetics—anatomical structure
Ego
Specific recovery
Memorize this about Easy Strength:
The idea is to get strong(er).
That’s it. If you miss that point, you miss the whole idea of Easy
Strength.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 304
Push/Hinge or Pull/Squat or…?
I’m a pretty good student and scholar. I can easily address logic issues
and I avoid clichés like the plague. (Take a pause, gentle reader, and
note that attempt at humor.) One thing that has always helped me is that
I come from the Great Books tradition. The easy black-and-white, either/
or answer was always challenged in our reading groups.
Like an improv class, one quickly needed to learn in our Great Books
courses that “and” was the key to moving a discussion into greater
depth. “Both/and” can often work well in trying to discern whether an
idea or concept is sound.
In the weight room, we have this issue of trying to get over seven billion
people to fit into, first, the equipment and, next, my brilliant training
concepts. I’ve observed the issues with trying to make all these square
pegs fit into round holes long enough to appreciate that height, width,
gender, specific limb lengths, muscle fiber issues, and a host of life’s
issues make this even harder than I first thought when I hung out my
shingle as “Strength Coach to the Stars.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 305
I just made that up…I don’t use a shingle; I just use word of mouth from
one celebrity to another.
Trust me, a really tall person who was in a major traffic accident needs a
different approach than a young person who was put on this earth to
squat. I know that. I think you know that too.
The road through the various twists and turns of my understanding of
Easy Strength forced me to stop and understand this: We’re all just
different enough. Every so often I make a joke that as a mesomorphic
ESTJ, Utah State University discus thrower, I simply can’t understand
you and your (fill in the blank).
I was going to mention my astrological sign, but I don’t believe in them.
(I’m a Virgo and we tend to be skeptical.)
One thing that leaped out to me not long ago that reshaped my
understanding of elite training came from a series of discussions and a
deep dive into lifting history. Let me simplify things: For whatever
reason, some people tend to do one of the upper-body movements better
than the other. In addition, most of us seem to do better with either
squats or hinges.
The moment I told the first person:
“Weirdly, for my whole life, pushes and hinges were so natural
and easy for me to load and handle volume and…”
Not once have I finished the sentence!
Nearly universally, I get an excited response:
“Yeah…weird! For me, I can do pull ups forever and they don’t
bug my elbows and I don’t lose any reps when I don’t do them and
I can’t figure out…”
And…off we go.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 306
I think the reason I became a good squat coach (remember I invented the
goblet squat and my insights on squatting have helped thousands of
coaches—feel free to applaud wildly) is simple:
I sucked at squatting…from day one!!! Day two I sucked and, trust me, I
sucked for a long time. Deadlift? I broke the gym record the first time I
ever tried the lift and did the heaviest deadlift at the only powerlifting
meet I ever competed in. Small note: I never, not once, trained the
deadlift.
Folks, I am a push and hinge person. I made a simple quadrant for this
(because I ALWAYS make quadrants).
I could bench press more than probably anyone you’ll ever meet while I
was in high school. Honestly, you wouldn’t believe my bench as a senior
weighing 162 pounds. Coach Dejong’s son once asked me to bench 350
“just to show him” and I popped the lift up so fast he jumped out of his
chair.
Hi, I’m Dan and I’m push and hinge. For the record, that does NOT
mean I don’t have to pull and squat. In fact, the pull and squat are my
secret to healthy joints, hypertrophy (burly muscles), and long-term
success.
But…as a push and hinge person, the push and hinge work are the lifts
that send me up the ladder of success in sports. The O lifts, kettlebell
swings, deadlifts, and the family of presses will make me great in my
choice of sports. The pull and squat will keep everything hanging
together.
Pavel, by the way, is a pull and hinge person. The Tactical Strength
Challenge—a pull up, deadlift, and kettlebell snatch contest—is a
natural for him. Pull and hingers are probably going to be choices for
hurlers of all kinds, including the javelin throw. The emphasis of prelifting training (basically pre-1960) often included lots and lots of pull
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 307
ups. The javelin is a pull…not a push.
But again: The push and squat will keep these athletes healthy.
Every four years, many wake up to the images of the Olympic lifters.
Before 1973, these athletes competed in the press, snatch, and clean and
jerk. Now we just have the latter two. DNA favors the push and
squatters in this sport. Trust me, it’s easier to stand up with a heavy load
rather than trying to pull it higher and higher. There are natural squatters
—and I relearn this every time I go to a non-Western continent.
For the push and squat person—I envy them when I squat and Olympic
lift—one may have to adopt the Chinese Olympic lifting coaches’
example of adding rowing and pulling exercises to complement the
upper-body training. I also note that the great Japanese lifters of the
1960s found that doing deadlift variations stimulated their lifts, so
obviously even with great DNA for squatting, the hinge is still crucial.
I struggled describing pull and squat people until someone pointed out
the obvious (not unusual) with this: rock climbers.
Hinge
Squat
Push
Me! (Most Throwers)
Olympic Lifters
Pull
Pavel and the TSC
Rock Climbers
Now, whether you become elite from nurture or nature in a sport is a
grand discussion, but from my seat, it appears that being a natural puller
and squatter will help with all kinds of climbing situations. As I began to
watch people doing “Stupid Human Tricks,” I noted time and again that
we see a lot of climbing and landing in a squat in many of the videos.
I liked the FAIL videos even more, but that’s a discussion for my
spiritual advisor more than the weight room.
To quickly sum: Many of us read the above and nodded along thinking,
“Yep, that’s me…and, nope, not me.” Many experienced lifters told me
that this push/pull/hinge/squat quadrant didn’t “solve” training issues,
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 308
but illuminated the issues with certain movements.
Others, of course, might not get this point at all. Keep this in your
pocket, as a lot of us find pushes easier than pulls and hinges easier than
squats. The other options are true too; I’m trying to make a point.
It might be fun for a few months to focus on using this insight to push
your intensity along in either your naturally strong movements or your
movements that have issues. During that time, focus on volume (basic
bodybuilding) on the other part of the quadrant. Then switch them
around. You might feel and look better doing one or the other.
Performance improvements might happen with either option.
And…that’s fun. It’s challenging. It will keep you in the game for a
long, long time.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 309
What’s with Squats and Easy Strength?
Squats are golden for a warmup, great for mobility and mass building,
and the heart and soul of powerlifting and Olympic lifting. But they
don’t work for Easy Strength. And, yes, I apologize.
Let’s look at this issue in more detail.
I simplify lifting exercises into just five movements:
Push
Pull
Hinge
Squat
Loaded carry
As Steve Ledbetter noted, the “sixth movement” is everything else. That
can be groundwork, brachiating, and whatever else doesn’t fit into my
old-school mindset of training.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 310
Of course, hands go up. “What about horizontal and vertical pushes and
pulls?” Yeah, that’s what most male North American trainers need…
more upper body work.
“What about the one-legged Assyrian lunges and one-armed Pekinese
arm bars?” Please put your hand down.
As you know, over time, the five basic human movements expanded into
the movement matrix. I try to keep the number of exercises low for the
matrix. Certainly, we can rabbit-hole into nearly infinite variations of
regressions, progressions, and corrections.
My idea is to keep the total number of movements, including relatively
simple things like planks and goblet squats, to less than 40. Some take a
moment to teach; others take a lot longer. Most of the movements
progress the trainee toward more ballistic and complex movements.
Some of the movements are more important long-term for sports
performance success.
For success in my world, the advice I received in 1974 remains true:
“Brian Oldfield, Al Feuerbach, Bruce Wilhelm, and Sam Walker
favored the quick lifts, while George Woods and Randy Matson
leaned toward the strength lifts…If there was any real consensus
among the champion shotputters, it was that a mixture of quick and
strength lifts is effective.”
~ Dave Davis, Track Technique, March and June 1974
When I originally began experimenting with Easy Strength, I thought I
could use Davis’s insight and mimic his ideas:
Push: Bench or military press
Pull: Hmmm, that’s not as clear as we review Davis’s list
Hinge: Snatch, clean, or deadlift
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 311
Squat: Front or back squat
Loaded carries: Farmer walks (I know, I know—Davis doesn’t list
them, but they’re marvelous.)
It’s taken a while to realize a few things. Before I get to the hard-earned
lessons, let’s look at my most recent template:
Push: Vertical push
Pull: Vertical pull (pull ups or chin ups)
Hinge: Deadlift variation
Squat: As a warmup
Loaded carry: Any variation of farmer walk, prowler, or sled pull
As I look over my early attempts with the pull movement, I see my gap
in coaching and training. Like many people who spent too much time
under the bar, I pushed my way to success.
And…I ignored pulls!!!
Certainly, a big deadlift, a kettlebell snatch, or the O lifts work the pull,
right?
Well, no. Or, maybe yes. For most of the people I train, the pull is the
Grand Canyon of gaps.
For the record, horizontal pulls like rows have never worked with Easy
Strength…from my experience. Some people have success with machine
rows, but rowing requires a disciplined hinge, a pause at the top, and no
herky-jerky movements. That level of discipline of training five days a
week while repeating the same movement certainly CAN be done.
I’ve just never seen it. The Loch Ness monster keeps a close watch on
Big Foot while they do the Easy Strength horizontal row protocols.
Here’s the issue: For a collision sport athlete, a collision occupation
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 312
person, or a ballistic sport (like throwing), the horizontal rows put that
lower back on notice. It’s not IF the lower back is getting set to pop and
cause misery for weeks, it’s WHEN.
Yet…we need pulls.
If you want to embarrass the average O lifter or powerlifter, walk them
over to the pullup bar. You may first have to explain what it is. Yet the
benefits of doing vertical pulls, especially for the health of the shoulder,
is without peer.
Dr. John Kirsch published a book called Shoulder Pain? The Solution &
Prevention, subtitled The Kauai Study as he did the work on that island.
Simply hanging daily from a bar seems to remarkably improve shoulder
health. I tried it and it undid damage from an old Olympic lifting injury.
Hanging is the staple of many of my warrior training programs.
Sure, horizontal pulling is good. Vertical is better.
Back to our template:
Push: Vertical push
Pull: Vertical pull (pull ups or chin ups)
Hinge: Deadlift variation
Squat: As a warmup
Loaded carry: Any variation of farmer walk, prowler, or sled pull
Again, why don’t squats work?
It could simply be that many people still don’t know how to squat. Yes,
the goblet squat—and I humbly admit it might be the most important
insight in the history of strength and conditioning—has done miracles in
teaching that we don’t squat ON our legs; we squat BETWEEN them.
During one of our discussions, it was noted that maybe the squat relies
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 313
on too many joints. The whole body must be orchestrated to get in and
out of the hole.
Too many joints?
That got me thinking (generally, a good thing). Compared to other
movements, the squat does seem to demand a hinge, a knee bend
(ideally both), shoulders, elbows, arms (more or less depending on the
squat variation), and some ankle bend.
When I deadlift, I think “crane,” like the big rigs my dad used to wield at
E. H. Bean Trucking and Rigging. A max deadlift might look for several
seconds like the bar is glued to the floor before that magic instant when
it breaks off the platform. Squatting is more complex. Maybe it is the
joints.
Never discount the squat. And this leads us to the next insight about the
real value of squatting. The deadlift, an amazing display of raw strength,
doesn’t do much for mass building…generally.
I don’t have any books or articles that ask for 50-rep deadlifts and a
gallon of milk a day (GOMAD). But I have squat books that teach this
workout. Our old friend John McCallum, who wrote the Genesis of
lifting, The Keys to Progress, comes back to the high-rep squat in many
of his bulk and power workouts.
I have a simple idea here: Homunculus Man.
He’s no fashion model. He reflects the neurological map of how the
brain is wired to the body. Yes, the lips and eyes are huge.
But LOOK at the hands! The hands are amazingly complex. They are
heavily wired.
What’s that got to do with squatting? With squatting, you don’t really
grip. Whole-body stiffness is a key to squat performance, but you don’t
really use the grip in squatting as you do in the O lifts and deadlifts.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 314
Remember, cells that fire together, wire together (with apologies to
Donald Hebbes).
Squatting might be easier on the nervous system than deadlifting.
Strength is neurological. Easy Strength focuses on training the nervous
system. Yes, no question, someone squatting 1,000 pounds is strong.
One could easily argue that deadlifting 1,000 is stronger.
One other quick story connected the dots for me. I had a discussion with
a young man who began doing handstand pushups and quickly noted an
increase in upper-body muscularity. It set off an alarm bell in my head.
Dips. In my youth, dips were the “go to” exercise for guys wanting to
look good. I believe this is still a popular goal. Dips and handstand
presses are easy on the grip and maybe this is why hypertrophy
improves with their inclusion.
I’m not sure there’s an exercise worth doing that’s totally hands-free.
Deep high-rep squats and dips were part of McCallum’s bulk and power
routines. The dip motion was the model for the Nautilus chest machine.
Many of us used that machine (not the Nautilus training principles) with
great success.
It cost the same as a nice automobile, so not many home gyms had one.
One small caveat about dips: Some adolescents find the dip to be
excruciating on the middle of the sternum. I don’t test dips because of
this issue—the smart coach will ask for feedback. Once growth has
finished, this issue seems to clear up.
Strength is a learned skill and Easy Strength focuses on the goal of
getting weirdly strong.
A final point: Mass building is great for American football, rugby, and
basic bodybuilding. In most sports, gaining mass can often hinder
performance. The high jump is an obvious example. In pursuit of elite
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 315
goals, enough is enough when it comes to mass building.
Maybe it’s as simple as this: Save squats for hypertrophy.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 316
An Important Interlude: The Great Percy
Cerutty on Squats
I’ve been a fan of Cerutty since I first read about him in JKD’s original
Track and Field Omnibook. While “deep diving” at the library at Saint
Mary’s University in Twickenham, London, I found this book and this
selection. I’m so happy I took copious notes because the librarian
discarded it the following year. I offer this quote NOT to convince you
or anyone else, but to provide an alternative vision of training.
“For the legs I much prefer using the body as resistance, hard and
repetitive efforts up steep sand-hills, any hills, many flights of
stairs, etc. It is not so important that the legs be made unusually or
abnormally strong as is required by the stunt strong man, but that
all the organism be made strong, including the heart. Hard
resistance running will do this, better and simply.”
~ Percy Wells Cerutty, Athletics: How to Become a Champion
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 317
Training without Racks: Using the Clean
Sometimes I feel like the cartoon with the old guy yelling at clouds,
“Back in my day, (fill in the blank.)”
In my defense, though, back in the day, we did a lot of smart things.
When the bench press became popular, we (“we” as defined as the
motley group of young teen males striving for physical perfection on a
diet of cereal, white bread, and American cheese) found a large board,
raised it up using some concrete bricks, laid down, and someone picked
the bar up and we bench pressed merrily, merrily down the stream.
There was one thing I never appreciated until I was working with a
military group and noticed an issue. I probably missed it earlier because
it was how I trained for most of my career: The group had no racks.
And, that’s how I trained most of my youth.
If you wanted to squat, you cleaned the weight from the floor, got into
position, and squatted. Military press? Clean the weight from the floor
and press away.
As I look back, I see the brilliance of doing all these cleans from the
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 318
floor. It was an Easy Strength approach to training. Basically, we just
getting the job done.
This was something new and different for the young sailors I was
teaching one morning. Most of this group believed they could only squat
if a large steel cage called a “squat rack” was available.
In a typical workout of my youth, we cleaned nearly every single
exercise to get the barbell in place. Yes, our squat loads were lighter, so
we probably did more reps. (“You kids and your heavy low-rep
squats!”) In my first organized training system, the Southwood Junior
High Program, we cleaned a lot.
Power clean, 8–6–4
Military press, 8–6–4
Front squat, 8–6–4
Bench press, 8–6–4
To get the military and squat into position, we cleaned the weights up to
the chest. The bench press, by the way, was done on a flat bench. A
cohort picked the weight up and spotted the whole set. For the record, I
cleaned 24 times per workout in this wonderful training system.
When I got to high school, there was this marvelous multi-unit machine
with selectorized plates and all kinds of isolation movements. I trained
on the school’s equipment probably every single day.
I got very strong training on machines. It wasn’t until a few years later,
when I met Dick Notmeyer, that I returned to my roots. In hindsight, we
shouldn’t be surprised that I put on 40 pounds of bodyweight in the first
four months I trained with Dick.
We did the O lifts. I spent up to three hours a day snatching and
cleaning. I thrived.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 319
Cleans, in all varietals, have been a staple of my coaching since I first
attained the new first name “Coach.” I like them all; I like all the
variations from muscle and power cleans to the Olympic squat clean.
My first coaching point is “Embrace the obvious.” Sprinters sprint,
throwers throw, jumpers jump, and swimmers swim.
Lifters clean.
An Easy Strength approach to improving the power clean, for example,
can be deceptively simple. Let’s look at two options.
Option One
Get rid of the racks. Do workouts with the barbell on the ground and
clean the weight for everything.
In 1991, I went to the gym one day and it was closed. Permanently. I
cobbled together a bar and a few plates, literally. I had four plates: two
25s and two 35s. I’ve discussed this many times before, but one of the
great lessons of the next few seasons was this: Cleaning the weight
before each and every set changes everything (or snatching in the case of
overhead squats).
I had to pause to think if “everything” was hyperbole. It is not. If you
ever want a hard workout, clean 140 kilos (308 pounds) and do a set of
eight front squats. Do that for a total of three sets. Rest a minute between
sets.
Ping me an email when you want something harder.
There’s a certain kind of athleticism that comes from doing a whole
workout with the barbell starting on the ground. It forces attention. It
demands exacting movements. It’s a self-correcting method of training.
Basically, if you can’t clean it, you’re probably going too heavy. Insert
“Duh!”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 320
Option Two
Try an Easy Strength approach to cleans: Every workout, clean. Use the
rule of 10…wisely. NEVER miss.
I’ve noticed—and this is nothing new, as most high school strength
coaches tell me the same thing—that many people don’t clean a weight
until it gets over 200 pounds/90 kilos.
Sadly, many young lifters get to the rack position by doing a fast
straight-leg deadlift followed by a reverse curl. As Brett Jones often
says, “uglystyle.” And this works…until there’s enough load on the bar.
It frightens me to look at how some young lifters get one wrist under the
bar, heave a bit, and get the other wrist under the bar. That’s not a clean;
that’s a traffic accident.
For EITHER Easy Strength or Even Easy Strength programs with power
cleans, I can only recommend three variations. These three are so good,
however, you can simply link them one after another for as long as you
decide to run the program.
Workouts with Option Two
Five Sets of Two
Pick a weight and do doubles with the emphasis on a slow pull from the
floor to just above the knee and JUMP! Keep the weight the same and
strive to clean up the clean every single set.
Three Sets of Three
Pick a weight and do triples, keeping each and every rep lovely and
snappy. Focus on making a beautiful clean on all nine reps.
Five–Three–Two
Pick a load that allows you five nice reps. Go heavier and get three. Go
heavier again and get BOTH reps. Over time, this double is the focus for
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 321
gauging your improvement. I didn’t say “a single followed by a miss.”
One. Two. Buckle my shoe.
Both. Not one. Two.
If you are doing five days a week, it will look like this:
Week One
Day One: 5 x 2
Day Two: 3 x 3
Day Three: 5–3–2
Day Four: 5 x 2
Day Five: 3 x 3
Week Two
Day One: 5–3–2
Day Two: 5 x 2
Day Three: 3 x 3
Day Four: 5–3–2
Day Five: 5 x 2
Week Three
Day One: 3 x 3
Day Two: 5–3–2
Day Three: 5 x 2
Day Four: 3 x 3
Day Five: 5–3–2
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 322
Begin again.
Reminder: Never miss.
Don’t worry about percentages; strive for beautiful technique. Oddly,
some readers will see this and scream, “Too much!” and the person
sitting next to them will say, “Too little.”
This is a repeatable, doable approach to improving the power clean
without a lot of issues. Try it.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 323
Can I Use Kettlebells with Easy Strength?
The German language has a term that helps me understand questions
about Easy Strength: ameisentätowierer or “ant tattooist." It’s that
narrow vision of the world (stodgy! pedantic!) where everything must be
written out and carved in stone.
Easy Strength is not for ant tattooists. Now, I’m sure those of you tattoo
ants are kind, loving, hard-working members of society. I wrote Even
Easier Strength for you, and I’ve been informed, time and again, that
there still is a lack of clarity.
When we get into Easy Strength WITH kettlebells, I nicely must ask the
ant tattoo society to stop reading and find square pegs to smash into
round holes. Honestly, answering specific questions on ES4KBs will
cause me to smash my round head into the square wall.
Kettlebells are great. I was first in line when Pavel and John Ducane
reintroduced them to all of us and I continue to believe that if I was
forced to train for the rest of my life with a single kettlebell (some weird
alien invasion dictatorship decision), I could make progress in every
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 324
quality of human performance.
Swing, snatch, press, squat, get up, and clean. It’s a simple list and the
options of positions, reps, and intensity could, and will, do marvels for
you.
ES4KBs popped up during the Covid quarantines. As is always the case,
the first question seems obvious:
How many kettlebells do you have?
If it’s one, I can probably come up with some ideas about changing
positions for each of the basic moves to find harder and easier variations.
Let’s just use the press, from harder to easier.
We’ll assume pressing with the left hand…it will make sense in a
moment.
•
Bottom-up press standing on the left foot
•
Bottom-up press standing on the right foot
•
Waiter’s press standing on the left foot
•
Waiter’s press standing on the right foot
•
Press standing on the left foot
•
Press standing on the right foot
For simplicity, just assume this order: bottom-up, waiter’s press, press.
•
Press standing on both feet
•
Half-kneeling press (left knee down)
•
Half-kneeling press (right knee down)
•
Floor press (watch your teeth with bottom-up and waiter’s
variations)
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 325
On easy days, the floor press with that one bell should be easy. On the
hardest of hard days, a few reps balancing on one foot with the bell
bottom-up is going to be, hmmmmm, hard.
If you have the traditional three bells—that is, a 16, 24, and 32—you
have a lot of options if you mix and match movements with the options
and make hard HARD and easy, well, easy.
Find an ant. Tattoo “the devil is in the details” on its butt…or whatever
you call an ant’s rear end.
The kettlebell deadlift is probably not going to be “hard” for most
people after a few weeks. The single-leg deadlift will be hard for me
with the lightest of loads (I get a bit exposed physically when on one
leg). So, as you see kettlebells deadlift in the program, you need to think
of hinge variations. Putting my toes on a board and doing kettlebells
deadlifts more like a Romanian deadlift is easy for me…until tomorrow
morning when my hamstrings are screaming.
In the following program, we use chin ups as our pull. Certainly, some
readers can do 50 chin ups while eating a sandwich. Other can’t do a
single. We found that for many people, hanging is just as good as failing
at poor chin ups.
The squat is a wonderful movement, but many will find a single bell too
light. I often use a three-minute drill as a variation. At the top and
bottom of every minute (the 12 o’clock and the 6 o’clock on my Little
Mermaid wall clock), simply do a goblet squat. Squat back down and
“rest” for the next 30 seconds.
If that’s too easy, do the actual test for six minutes. If that’s too easy,
good for you!
Anne Reuss uses jumping goblet squats for her single-bell squatting.
Certainly, the fact that she competed on American Ninja might be a
factor in why she does this variation, but if you can do a six-minute drill
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 326
and still get air with jumping goblets, maybe you’re doing just fine.
So, can you use kettlebells for Easy Strength? Sure. Like all tools, we
must adapt in some situations, but the feedback I receive about
kettlebells and Easy Strength is universally good . Adaption, of course,
is the key to improving human performance.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 327
How Does One Fit Easy Strength into a Real
Life?
If you’ve read my work, you know the concept of “bus bench and park
bench,” but let’s review.
The idea came from the late Archbishop George Niederauer. He
described this with prayers, but it works great with weightlifting too. He
said, “There are certain kinds of prayers where you want a result.” Those
are bus bench prayers. When you sit on a bus bench, you wait for and
"expect" the bus to arrive.
Archbishop Niederauer also had what he called “the park bench
concept.” When you sit on a park bench, you have almost no
expectations except to enjoy the sun for a few minutes and watch a
squirrel or two.
It’s the same bench. Different expectations.
In weightlifting, fitness, and most sports, we have programs based on
both concepts. Park bench workouts are “punch the clock” workouts.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 328
There’s no peak. Do some work without expectation.
Bus bench programs are peaking programs. They’re the “do this” kind of
programs. There's a result you're aiming for; it’s all sketched out and
you follow the plan.
Both types have their purpose. It can be nice to cycle both styles
throughout a year. Selecting a bus bench program two to four times per
year and filling the gaps with park bench workouts is not a bad
approach.
Some programs, like the Easy Strength protocols, can be both. You
expect to get stronger, yes. But it just “arrives.”
In college, I wrote a paper partially entitled “Expectations and Reality.”
Professor O’Connor circled that and left a little note: “Everything in
life!” I didn’t realize this insight would fuel the bulk of my coaching
career. Every program, bus bench or park bench or picnic bench (I just
invented that one), seems to begin with WILD expectations.
Reality bites. (With a grateful nod to the 1994 movie)
One thing that helps me with most of the people I work with is a Year in
Review Calendar. On one large sheet of paper, we have before us the
entire year. The best thing I know to do for long-term training is to take
three highlighter pens—I recommend pink, yellow, and green—and X
out days or weeks or months that will have issues.
The pink pen represents life’s reds…the stop sign. For many, it could be
holidays or the start or finish of school, depending on the age of your
children or career. X out those times. If it’s an entire month or two,
that’s fine!
My CPA is busy all of April. Every day, all day. This would NOT be the
month for him to do an extreme diet or training program.
I see nothing wrong with true rest (no training at all), active rest (games,
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 329
sports, play, walking, or whatever), or a few days a week of combining
bodybuilding with mobility and walking for these periods. If you can’t
train, you can’t train. That’s fine. If you can sneak an hour or so into a
day or two or three a week, that’s still red-X training.
Doing nothing is fine. A little is okay. A lot is not something I
recommend.
The yellow highlighter comes next. These are the cautionary times. This
is NOT the final week before the bar exam nor the few weeks leading up
to any of life or sport’s key moments. It’s a time for caution.
Every coach has the story of the idiot athlete who threw away a
championship with a game of pick-up basketball. These cautionary
weeks or months can be any time you’re juggling more than usual, as
well as times you’re clearly focusing on an upcoming event.
Then, grab the green pen. Find those weeks or months when you can, to
get me back to the 1980s, “Go for it.” This is the time…finally…for
those bus bench programs. These are the times to get ripped, sliced,
diced, bikini ready, or whatever.
In total honesty, I prefer for you to train three to five days a week every
week, walk daily, sleep soundly, eat veggies and protein and drink water
day in and day out. But…I get it. There are times to lock it down.
The issue, of course, is trying to undo the damage of decades of
doughnuts with a two-week bikini prep.
It takes ME at least three weeks to be thong ready!
Depending on life, some years have a lot of yellow and other years will
be a lot of green.
As an example, when I was teaching:
•
January (Green): 10,000 Swing Challenge!
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 330
•
February and March (Yellow): Easy Strength and whatever else I
could fit in
•
April and the first two weeks of May (Green): Olympic lifting and
throwing
•
The last two weeks of May and the first two weeks of June (Red…
end of the school year): Easy bodybuilding three days a week and
daily mobility
•
June, July, and the first two weeks of August (Green): Olympic
lifting and throwing
•
Last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September
(Red…start of the school year): Easy bodybuilding three days a
week and daily mobility
•
Last two weeks of September, October, and the first two weeks of
November (Yellow…football season for me and volleyball season
for my girls): Easy Strength and whatever else I could fit in
•
Thanksgiving to New Year’s (Red): Watch the excess calories, easy
bodybuilding and mobility as appropriate
It wasn’t unusual for me to get my Easy Strength workout and some
serious loaded carry variations finished after I did the dinner prep and
was waiting for dinner to heat up.
Oddly, these were the best years of my career!
I’ve had feedback from some of my readers that two months of ES
followed by two to six weeks of something “hard” works…and it works
for years.
Yes, it can be that simple.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 331
Back to the Bus Bench
If you’re like me (and hopefully if you are, you’re better looking), as
much as we love park bench workouts, every so often there’s a voice in
the night.
“Dan…Dan! This is the Ghost of the Bus Bench Challenge!”
Ebenezer Scrooge was lucky: He only had to deal with his ghosts for one
night.
I like challenges. I like getting the letter, email, or phone call inviting me
to a meet, a championship, or a challenge. I like it. A lot.
My BEST progress on the Easy Strength for Fat Loss was when I simply
slept, fasted, trained, walked, and ate appropriately. The pounds fell off
me. The waistline snapped in. I felt great.
But I could hear the voice of the challenge. Like Twitch from the book
and movie Holes, every so often, I get twitchy. I need a challenge.
I need it.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 332
What do I do? Often, I simply take on a short fast like the Fast
Mimicking Diet. Other times, I put on my kilt, singlet, or throwing shoes
and march out on the field of play. Every decade or so, I lock into a
TOUGH diet and TOUGH peaking program to both cut body weight for
a lower weight class and then compete at my best.
When Chris Shugart first explained the Velocity Diet to me—at the time
JUST six protein shakes a day and literally nothing else—he told me that
doing something this strict changes the brain. When I finished the 28
days (and, once again, I apologize to my friends and family), I then
enjoyed the best three years of my athletic career. You can sing Eye of
the Tiger all day long, but when you looked into my eyes, it was a good
idea to back away…slowly.
So, yes, for MOST of the time, reasonable nutrition/way of eating/diet is
the way to go. Eat protein, veggies, and drink water. Yes, for MOST of
the time, do Easy Strength.
Sometimes, however, light it up. Go for it. Try that crazy diet or
program. Just keep reminding yourself that this is “TEMPORARY” and
yell it like Vincent Gardenia in the movie Moonstruck.
Sometimes, however, I put my good common sense, logic, and
moderation on a shelf and put on the armor.
Sometimes.
Let’s talk about how I see “all of this” in the big picture in the next
chapter.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 333
My Two-phrase Summary of Goal Achievement
Recently, I began to summarize goal achievement in two phrases.
“You become what you think about.”
“I’m not going to start something I won’t do the rest of my life.”
Let’s look at these statements.
Earl Nightingale digested the vast amount of success information he
accrued over this brilliant lifetime into this one phrase:
“You become what you think about.”
There. That’s it. Earl explains that the alcoholic thinks about booze, the
great musician thinks about music, and the person who does X well
thinks about X. It’s obvious when you think about it.
I teach lots of classes. I write a lot about a lot of things. I work hard
around the house and community. When I relax, I read fitness and
strength material. When I doodle, I draw workout programs…seriously.
I’m on a constant hunt for more information in health, fitness, longevity,
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 334
performance, and body composition.
When I started adapting Easy Strength into a fat-loss protocol, the time
spend thinking about it helped me lose a lot of body fat. When I adapted
some of my classic O lifting programs to the realities of being older than
60, my lifting improved.
You become what you think about. I link this concept to something
many people hate: You ARE the sum of your habits. Humans are not
dull-witted domesticated mammals. We, at least most of us, have a brain
that can think, adapt habits, and control our actions.
True. Some argue that if I only understood their life story, I’d
understand why they don’t do X, Y, or Z. Yet the evidence is there: You
become what you think about. You are the sum of your habits.
Goal achievement, to sum, is all about thinking about what you want.
A lot.
As you’re thinking about this goal, I also advise you to begin acting like
the person who has achieved this goal. If you want to be ripped, cut to
the bone, or shredded like Clarence Bass in a contest, it might be a good
idea to act like Bass. Do your cardiovascular work, train progressively,
and endlessly repeat the same appropriate meals.
Goal achievement is, perhaps first and foremost, a study in doing. You
must do. In a marriage ceremony, we hear “I do” a lot. When I work
with people who’ve achieved goals, I frequently hear the phrase “I did
THIS.” Universally, the “THIS” is a simple formula. It’s the doing that
makes it happen.
Like Coach Yoda taught us: “Do or don’t do. There is no try.”
Next, let’s look at this little lesson comes to us as more of a warning:
“I’m not going to start something I won’t do the rest of my life.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 335
I’ve done a lot of interesting tests and experiments with my body,
training, diet, finances, and life. Certainly, surviving for a month on
nothing but zero-carb protein shakes was “interesting.” Training twice a
day while working two fulltime jobs was “interesting.”
Let me share something with you: None of the crazy stuff I ever did
works as well as the slow, steady path (we’re back to the tortoise and
hare again) where I do the sound and sensible.
When I sleep well, eat protein and veggies at every meal, drink water,
walk, and lift intelligently, I quickly make the best progress in decades.
When I try to cram decades of training into a week, I break apart at the
seams. The surgeon and those who care for me point out that I shouldn’t
be an idiot…again.
I don’t invest in get-rich-quick schemes, and I don’t do programs named
“insanity” or anything that has the word “quick” in them. The word
“quick” seems to be a polite way to quickly empty your wallet and your
vim and vigor. I quickly avoid them now.
From now on, until I slip back into my usual stupidity and ignore this
sound advice, I pledge to ONLY do things I KNOW I’ll do for the rest
of my time on this blue-green jewel.
It’s also the soundest, safest way to achieve one’s goals. It’s the Easy
Strength method of success.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 336
Peaking Programs and/or Goal Achievement
I don’t believe many athletes can peak, nor do I think most people can
achieve goals. It’s not that either is impossible or even improbable; it’s
simply that most people, including athletes, start off well, then shuffle
off in a million directions.
True. True, I have a goal-setting course. In fact, there’s a large goal
achievement section in this book. True. Much of these materials are
dedicated to ensuring that the goals you wish to achieve line up with
your typical day, week, month, or decade. And, just as important, you
continue to pursue this goal for an additional day, week, month, or
decade.
Most of us can stick to a diet until the next meal or snack. Most of us
can stick to a goal until the next…wait, what are we talking about?
Success and achieving a goal aren’t always the same thing. Therefore,
goal setting is important for the athlete (and general client). One needs to
stay on the path for a while to achieve a goal. Some people have a vague
vision of something they may or may not do or not do sometime soon.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 337
Or not.
Athletes want me to write a recipe that will give them the smallest of
details three years, eleven months, three days, and two hours from now.
Easy Strength can support the most focused of us and the person who
sorta or kinda wants to get in better shape. (And everyone in between)
It’s not unusual that someone will abandon a training program after
walking into the gym, seeing a friend with another training program, and
start doing the friend’s program. It’s like me with ketogenic dieting: I
am absolutely keto until I eat a meal. Then, I’m an omnivore. Or
bagelvore. Or doughnutivore.
Human behavior is hard to predict…at best. Part of the reason I don’t
believe in peaking is that we often surprise ourselves when we least
expect it.
Often, the records fall while an athlete is hung over or something else
has gone wrong. My best throw during my sophomore year in college
was when I arrived late, had to change clothes behind some friendly
fans, and competed right after I slipped on my jersey.
My second throw was the best of my life. No warmups. No plan.
Personal record.
When I work with athletes, it’s my job as a strength coach to get them as
strong as appropriate. Strength magically tends to make people better at
things. As I often say, I’m in my 60s, but I’m still the go-to friend
people call when they need a sofa moved.
Training the sport, mastering the tactics and strategies, and getting
stronger are probably the best way to peak. Absolutely, sleep, digestion
—elimination is important on game day—and nutrition play important
roles…obviously.
But NOT screwing up is far more important.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 338
Peaking, then, is often simply staying on the path. The path has been
walked so many times it might seem boring and obvious. Stay on it
anyway!
Let me share my secrets of both peaking and achieving goals.
1. First, realize you’re powerless NOT to do something stupid.
Accept that. Embrace it. Now, promise yourself the following: The
goal is to keep the goal the goal. Anything you add to your plan
that’s not part of the goal will be a problem. Don’t do it.
2. Pieces of paper are cheaper than surgeries. Write your goals, a
specific date to achieve them, and a general plan from what’s
worked in the past and what’s worked for others. This is 99% of
success in planning.
3. Grab a calendar and make a few big red-letter Xs on dates when
you know things are coming up. Now you won’t be surprised when
things come up. Next, take a yellow highlighter and highlight the
days with issues. These could be something as simple as school
finals or appointments for the dog.
4. Steal other people’s paths. There’s a ton of information available
for anything you’re attempting. Success leaves tracks. Follow
them.
5. Assemble the tools, supplies, and information needed for
correctives. If you’re going to use a foam roller in your program,
get a foam roller. Allow about 10% of your training time for
restorative work, correctives, mobility, flexibility, or any kind of
stuff you think helps.
6. If you’re involved in a sport, 80% of your training time should be
doing that activity. For most, 20% of your time should be spent on
developing strength, but the bulk of the practice period should be
on the specific activity.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 339
7. In most situations, the day before competition should be an 80%
day (hard to define, although most people have a feel for it), but
two days before should be 60%—perhaps even just a warmup. The
“two-day lag rule” has survived the test of time. If the event is
important, completely rest three days before and perhaps four days
before if possible. Please don’t try to build weeks, months, or years
of hard work and training into the last week.
8. The airline industry was made safer because of checklists. Use this
simple formula for success: Make checklists and follow them. If
you need them for your warmup or mobility work, or whatever,
make them. I’m reminded of the football team that showed up to a
game without footballs (I remember this because I was the head
coach). Use your lists to free up space in your brain to focus on the
work at hand.
9. Evaluate the program or system every two weeks. Make small
course corrections when you’re still basically on target.
10. Be sure (!!!) to plan something for the successful completion of the
program, season, or system. Look after the finish line, so to speak.
Answer “Now what?” long before you come to that point.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 340
Is Easy Strength “Minimalist?”
Sometimes on my websites, I answer a question so deeply that I wonder
what to do with it. I post it on my blog (or whatever we call them this
week), but more often than you might think, I wish it would live forever
on the printed page. Here you go.
Easy Strength looks like a minimalist training program. It is. People
often ask me to comment about other minimalistic programs, and I often
simply don’t want to, for good reasons. I was asked to comment about a
book/program/article that uses just two movements, the swing and the
pushup. I’m never a fan of commenting on programs I haven’t used, but
then the question came up again.
And again.
And again.
If you have read my work, especially the free PDF The Coyote Point
Kettlebell Club, you know we’ve been playing around with the swing
and pushup combination for well over a decade. Now, if you dig deeper,
you’ll find this wonderful combination is a part of the whole approach I
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 341
have toward training, especially those metabolic workouts that have
been the rage of this millennium.
I could just say, “Yep, this book is a great program.” Or, “It sucks.”
Neither passes the test of a good response.
I was taught the following when studying theology:
Never deny
Rarely affirm
Always distinguish
That’s good life advice and I do it until my family descends into
frustration and madness. There are some things that need
“distinguishing” here.
First, there’s always an issue with minimalism and minimal training
programs. Yes, absolutely they work. It’s when you peel back the results
that you see the first two issues:
•
Minimum-effective dose protocols bring minimal results…and
that’s fine.
•
When doing few things, the body adapts quickly and progress
stalls.
Let’s discuss this.
Point one: Minimum-effective dose protocols bring minimal results…and
that’s fine.
You can tweak or hack yourself to doing the kettlebell cert test of 100
reps with a 24-kilo kettlebell snatch. I’m pretty sure I could have passed
this the first time I ever touched a kettlebell. I’m not being a jerk; I have
a big engine and have lifted since 1965. I can do some big lifts.
The key to understand is this: The 100 reps with the 24k in five minutes
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 342
was NOT the original test. The original test, and this is the men’s
standard, is different: 200 reps with the 24k in under 10 minutes.
I would love to see this come back.
It’s hard to do this one without some thought and practice. True, people
have flown through the certs (especially re-certs, like how Tim
Anderson passed his RKC recertification) without ever having touched a
bell in the preparation process (or “lack” of preparation).
I don’t think the 10-minute test could be done with hacks.
You certainly will progress well on a minimalist program, especially if
you’ve been training hard for a while. When Goran Swenson shared his
two-day-a-week lifting program for throwers, I tried it and felt better and
looked better. And…the discus went farther!
It could have been those nearly 30 years of training long and hard that
helped too. When I released the load and volume, my body expanded.
I don’t want to hear how you brought your 17-second 100-meter time
down to 16.5 by doing some magic voodoo thing. I want to hear how
you dropped from 9.9 to 9.8. Hacking has its place, but I want to see the
magic of improving high performance.
I have a book—make that, I had a book—where a famous hacker went
to a specialist and took his performance from horrid to just pathetic. I
understand the human need to hack things. Just don’t think you’re elite if
you improve a marginal performance marginally.
Point two: When doing few things, the body adapts quickly and progress
stalls.
I read an article by Dave Davis in 1974 that changed my life. He noted
that all shot putters did a combination of the Olympic lifts and the power
lifts:
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Clean and press (the O lift competitions dropped these in 1972)
Snatch
Clean and jerk
Squat
Bench press
Deadlift
If you adopted doing all of these, like I did in 1974 (later just the O lifts,
then back again to all six), you could continue to adapt, grow, and
increase load and volume for decades. The body has a lot to adapt and
accommodate to with this combination.
Toss in some bodyweight movements and perhaps some machines,
kettlebells, and suspension trainer work and you’re going to challenge
your body for a long time.
When doing programs like Easy Strength, many quickly find new
personal records. A mild change in exercise selection, like from bench
press to incline bench press, often gives us new PRs in the other
movements. One of the “secrets” of training advanced athletes is to
bring back old movements or simply change some minor part of a lift.
Power cleans to power curls
Snatches from the floor to snatches from the hang
Push jerks to behind-the-neck push jerks
Back squats to front squats
Deadlifts to deficit deadlifts
There are a few days of good old-fashioned adaptation—first the shock
to the system, then to sustain the adaptation in a progressive manner. If
lifting is used as support for a sport or occupation, we usually see
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performance improves. Well…ideally. Life has a way on stomping on
the best of plans.
Although I absolutely agree with what Pat Flynn says about the aging
person, “The plateau is the new personal record,” we need to have a
toolkit of movements to reinstitute as progress stalls. It can be a simple
variation, a cut in reps or sets, or something “wild,” like a vacation or
the practice of another sport for a limited time.
We used to have something called an “off-season” that allowed the
athletes to regroup, relax, and reform. We now have 14-year-old kids in
the USA who compete in their sports year-round. The problem with this
early specialization is that the child never learns the broad skills from
other sports, games, and life lessons. Like doing JUST two exercises,
those who specialize early miss the ability to learn and adapt to anything
and everything competitive sports can teach us.
Let me add some simple ways to further ongoing progress and
adaptations. The first is a concept I first learned about in J. K. Doherty’s
Track and Field Omnibook. It came from a German coach, Peter
Tschiene…and later others “invented” it. It’s called “mixed training.”
On back-to-back pages in my little red book—my notebook with quotes
I’ve handwritten since 1975—I have this from the Russian throws coach
Anatoly Bondurchuk:
“Load leaping”
Week one: 100%
Week two: 80%
Week three: 15% (volleyball, easy runs, fun play)
Mixed Training
Monday
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High pulls 7 x 30 75 pounds
Heavy hammer (10 throws 28 pounds)
Power cleans 7 x 20
Deadlifts 6 x 16
Throw weight (10 throws 44 pounds)
Squats 4 x 16 (active recovery)
Tuesday
Weight throws (15 with 44 pounds)
Lateral raises 4 x 10
Curls 3 x 20
Heavy hammer (15 throws)
Dumbbell flys 5 x 15
Bench press 6 x 30
I have no actual details on this program, but I instantly adopted the
concepts. Don’t ask me to explain the rep and set schemes…please!
Basically, it’s “mixing” strength training with athletic performance.
Many of my athletes remember my white pickup truck loaded with my
barbells and weights waiting for them at the field when they arrived. We
might do something as simple as this:
A lifting complex to warm up
Standing throws
3 sets of clean and press (1 clean and 8 presses)
Step and turn discus drills
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2 sets of 8 front squats
South African drills (both kinds)
3 sets of 5 of a snatch variation
Full throws
Front squats immediately followed by sprints (or, better, hills)
There you go: your one-stop shop for all things lifting and throwing. It
was actually fun, and the training sessions seem to whizz by us. Later, I
adopted circuit training and we added more drills and farmer walks.
It worked. It works.
We certainly don’t have to go too far on this idea. I’m sure general
bodyweight training mixed with training would work well. I know that
combining power snatches and high jump training works miracles.
While at the Olympic Training Center, they showed us a wonderful film
(a film…an actual movie) with a Soviet jumper just training with the full
high jump and snatches. That was it.
I began lugging a single kettlebell out to the field. Using that worked
wonders. I prepped for my national record by training “jazz” style with
the various throws and lifts. In full disclosure, I was also doing some
seriously hard loaded carries and some Highland Games training to
support my discus, shot put, hammer, javelin, and weight throw
performances.
What I am stressing here is simple. The athlete is just doing what most
athletes do: strength and technical work. But by mixing them, we don’t
have a period of THIS and a period of THAT. This becomes the
seamless training I always strive for when building an athlete.
You can’t see where the lifting and technical work begins and ends.
Everything is everything.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 347
Don’t miss this: You have a LOT of chances each workout to have a
win.
Maybe a lousy throwing session is countered with some snappy lifting.
Or, as happened most of the time, poor early throwing in the session was
buoyed by some great tosses after squats or snatches. Mixed training
allows for more adaptations….more chances to win.
Later, we added range throwing, which we also called “the Soviet drill.”
Simply, we either use the athlete’s personal record or have the athlete
take several hard throws to get a sense of the distance.
Then we put something—a large plastic garbage bin is by far the best—
maybe five meters shy of this best mark (15–20 feet, but it really doesn’t
have to be perfect—55-meter thrower…garbage bin at 50 meters) and
we throw. The goal is to first hit the bin, and the winner, of course, is the
one who drops it in the bin. Accuracy improves, timing gets better, and,
oddly, this “easy” throw gets really easy.
This is the Easy Strength approach to throwing.
It can look “minimalist!”
This could easily be adapted into any sport. My copy of Circuit
Training, a German textbook from the 1960s, is filled with examples on
combining skills practice with strength and conditioning movements.
I think that’s a lost gem in our training.
So, yes: Easy Strength can be minimalist training but it can also be the
foundation for sports performance.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 348
Three Words to Explain Training
For a few decades, I’ve used three words to explain training. When I
discovered Easy Strength, I realized that these simple words were
foundational concepts in the ES world. I adopted these terms after
reading insightful materials from the old East German coaches. Now
obviously, these coaches had no fear about using ANY means for
victory; their athletes were using shockingly high amounts of drugs to
compete. Yes, I said that.
I still think the materials produced from this era deserve some study. The
three words are:
Accumulation
Intensification
Transformation
Accumulation
Accumulation is what I grew up on. We played every sport. We played
every game. I learned every competitive lift and every exercise. My
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coaches had us explore all kinds of movements and systems. I
“gathered” physical knowledge by doing things. I played water polo in
P.E. class, wrestled that afternoon, then played pick-up basketball. Were
we great at anything? No. But I gained a massive toolkit to draw upon
for the rest of my career.
I still think every athlete needs some time each year to get back to
having fun and exploring other things. East German discus throwers
used to take an extended downhill skiing vacation as part of their
“training.” The Soviet throwers and lifters used to compete so seriously
at volleyball that many of them earned sports awards for their play…in
their second sport!
The more one accumulates, the broader the base.
Intensification
Of course, intensification means to raise the intensity, raise the
standards. When I finally settled on “just” discus throwing, I began to
lift some seriously loads in the Olympic lifts. My throws improved
literally by leaps and bounds. I couldn’t play water polo, then snatch
close to 300 pounds (138 kilograms) a few hours later. The intensity
demanded lots of sleep and lots of calories.
Intensity demands specificity. Tommy Kono was world class a couple of
years after first touching a barbell. John Powell believed that one should
be world class within three years of focusing on one thing…otherwise
you’re just not good enough.
Let that sit, parents of kids you’re pushing to specialize, he said THREE
years. Little Billy, the one you push to year-round sports, needs to be a
household name three years after he specializes in baseball.
And…good luck with that.
Transformation
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Transformation is the most overlooked. Somehow, we all understand
building the base (accumulation) and then focusing on intensity. It’s the
last part most people miss.
I always joke that basic coaching is simple (yes, I know you know this
one):
Throwers throw
Jumpers jump
Lifters lift
Swimmers swim
Hurdlers hurdle
This is what transformation is all about. Richard Marks, the great San
Jose strength coach, used to argue that one’s lifting performance needs
to DROP as the season progresses so the athlete can expand in the
performance of the sport. Athletes HATE that. But, well, throwers need
to throw!
This is the toughest lesson of all. We must ignore all the other things in
our training and become the goal. Oddly, this is where most of us leave
our elite performances: We leave them on the practice field, showing off
in the weight room, or in some bout of idiocy (like playing in a church
league basketball game and twisting an ankle the week of Nationals).
Transformation is all about focusing on the mission…the goal.
Few of us have the courage to do this. Something shiny always appears
just as we approach that most important event of our career. Or as I
usually joke:
Squirrel!!!
When heading into competition, I just have my athletes do simple
movements for three sets of eight with a minute rest. We only do two
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lifts a day and we do variations of the major lifts. All I want is a little
hint of training in the weight room, a touch of mobility and flexibility,
and a bit of body composition, power, and strength maintenance. Trust
me, it’s there—none of your abilities went anywhere.
It’s hard to convince athletes of this. The idea of winning the workout is
crippling some people’s performances.
I like people to win the championships.
Finally, there’s one area of performance that takes a coach a few years to
figure out: the athlete. Some athletes, especially those who are quick
learners or blessed (short term) with early puberty, will gather a lot of
awards and trophies and the world will expect greatness.
Usually, these athletes are fairly washed up by around age 15. Some
athletes need pep talks and grooming; others need to be left alone. Some
athletes rise to competition; in others, as Coach Maughan used to say,
“The adrenaline caused the iron in their blood to turn to lead.”
My whole book Now What? deals with the issues of arousal, tension,
and heart rate during competition. I don’t believe in peaking because it
rarely seems to happen. Appropriate practice—practices that tweak
arousal, tension, and heart rate toward the competitive state—are far
more important than some fancy spreadsheet laid out in the beige of the
offseason.
Checklists ensure everything is accounted for at the competition. I once
had a teammate who forgot to wear his shorts and discovered that, as did
the crowd, when he pulled off his warmup pants for the 200-meter dash.
That should be on the checklist. Checklists take your mind off the tiny
details.
Drinking sugar-free Metamucil for a few days before competition does
more to ensure high-level performance than most of the crap (Ha!) I see
done by coaches and athletes. Five sets of three versus five sets of two in
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the last week of prep won’t matter if the athlete has competitive
constipation. Laugh all you want, but it makes a big difference in
victory.
My job as a coach is to teach an athlete to give the competition the best
performance. I focus on the process, not the results. I can’t guarantee
victory, but we strive for our “best.”
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 353
Level Changes
I’m not sure I have a humble opinion about anything, but I humbly think
the biggest gaps in training are instantly apparent in real-world
application. There’s something lacking in so many programs, but once
you see it, like those illusions that pop out at you when you finally see
the trophy or dog or whatever, it becomes hard to not see it.
Generally, the two biggest gaps in training are authentic squatting (not
accordion squatting as I call it) and any and all loaded carries.
In real life, a good example is during an extended hiking trip—both of
these gaps will become obvious at the first potty break. And, if you
haven’t been doing loaded carries, you’ll pay a high price ascending the
Himalayas…or helping your friends move.
Adding goblet squats and farmer walks have been game-changing
additions for many of the people I work with professionally.
Do them!
Yet, people often miss another more subtle issue: the lack of levels. I’m
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not calling out Curves or Nautilus, but an entire workout sitting down
(and seat-belted in) doesn’t reflect the demands of most of life. Sitting
down is one level.
“Level” is the word I use to describe the ground, half-kneeling, fullkneeling, lunge position, fully erect, and moving away in various
directions. Think of the levels in the earth’s crust (as a geography minor
in college, I occasionally like to flex my knowledge of the planet).
Some movements, like the Turkish getup, involve almost all the levels
up and down. Combining a waiter’s walk at the top position moves us in
virtually all our levels. And, as good as TGUs are, these are not dynamic
enough for every purpose.
That’s why I like combining movements in a training session. We’ve
been using lift-n-sprints for decades and the results on the field of play
have been amazing. Basically, pick a hinge or squat variation, do about
10, drop the load, and INSTANTLY sprint away. Vary the load and
distance every time, but not the intensity. There’s only one coaching
cue:
Go, go, go!!!
Hooking a sled up also works (lift-n-sleds) if you’re smart enough to not
put the load in the path of the sled. It’s funny to watch when people
don’t listen to the warning of keeping the load from the sled’s path.
As great as these are, many of us train in smaller spaces that don’t work
for “lift-n-X.” This combination works wonders for the body (a special
thank you to Mitchell Cook for dreaming this up):
Eight goblet squats
Prowler push (as appropriate, but 20–40 meters is great)
Eight pushups
You’ll feel the hit from getting up and down off the ground and the
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changes in levels. Up to five rounds of this workout is appropriate, but
strive for less at first. My best is 20 loops: 160 goblet squats, 160
pushups, and 400 meters with the prowler. I was tired.
If you don’t have the space to prowl, sled, or sprint, the swing, goblet
squat, and pushup combination works well here. Just refer to my
workout, the Humane Burpee (thank you, Dan Martin, for the name).
Mixing barbell deadlifts with bear crawls is a wonderful preseason prep
workout for American football.
Once you begin to embrace training the levels, you’ll find your eyes will
quickly pick up the total lack of this kind of training for most people. It
raises the heart rate, adds work capacity, and reflects the real world of
sport and life.
Get leveled.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 356
MY Greatest Secret!
First, it’s not one of these:
Buy low, sell high!
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Time heals all wounds.
We're not laughing at you…we're laughing with you.
That’s a good list of secrets. Actually, they are a good list of cliches. In
the fitness world, we love our cliches…love them!
Here are some of my favorites:
This (and often “that”) burns fat.
Crunches for six-pack abs.
Fat makes you fat (carbs make you fat…sitting makes you fat…X
makes you fat).
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Squats hurt your X, deadlifts hurt your Y.
Go for the burn!!!
There are going to be issues when most people decide to go to the gym,
out the door or venture off to the park to exercise. The biggest issue? I
once heard a great story that I retell in my workshops:
In an imaginary village, many of the members of the group have a
superior position over the rest of the villagers. Why? These elites
know the village secret. When it is time to initiate someone new
into this superior position, the person is beaten soundly, deprived
of sleep and food and water for a long time and, hopefully, finally
told the secret.
The secret?
Yeah, the new initiate is told the secret.
And that is?
There is no secret!
The biggest issue MOST of the population has when getting ready to
exercise, train or work out is we (most of us anyway) have been told
there is a secret.
The secret?
There is no secret!
All the nonsense that is fed to us from the Fitness Industry is only
rivaled by the nutrition advice you see popping up online, on television
and from your neighbor selling multi-level marketing. The supplement
companies are more than happy to sell you a few cents worth of product
for twenty dollars and tout the fat burning benefits of cinnamon spice in
a pill. Sprinkle cinnamon on some oatmeal for practically nothing and
not only will save money but you will enjoy the taste for breakfast!
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So, my greatest secret has an issue. And the issue is very simple:
You are either sitting, standing, laying, or moving over it in some
contraption.
It’s the floor.
The floor is free. It has 24/7 access, and you don’t need to tip the
bouncer or be a social media superstar. It’s literally at your feet.
In my assessment, one of the physical tests is to get down and up off the
floor. I’ve had people look down to the floor and point and ask: “All the
way down there?”
When I work with the great bulk of humanity (and I didn’t mean to
make the joke about “the great bulk of humanity” in a fitness
discussion), I run into the same problem over and over again:
Since the Age of Machines, most of us see fitness as soul-killing
drudgery akin to working in an industrial complex. Twist the knob, push
the button, wait for the whirr of electricity, and get in step.
Treadmills rather than walking.
Exercycles rather than bicycles.
Leg machines rather than stairs, hills, and games.
When the machines took over, with apologies to the heroic efforts of
John Connor (see The Terminator for reference), we were convinced to
sit down, strap on and hang on while we moved a mere fraction of the
body’s muscle mass for an exact range of repetitions…usually just one
set as, GOD FORBID!!!, we ever had to tax ourselves TWICE in the
real world.
Starting with Universal and Nautilus machines, the machines took over.
Please, whatever you do, never approach the floor.
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It’s dangerous.
Folks, life is dangerous. Maybe as you read this, you have a probability
of safety, but poopie happens.
The most dangerous thing in my home at my age is…
The floor!
Learning to use the floor in training is the “secret” of the Workout
Generator. We mix in Original Strength moves liberally to get you on
and off the floor. Becoming friends again with the ground gives you an
edge if you stumble, slip, or tumble down to the floor. Getting back up,
well, Chumbawamba may have said it best:
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You are never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You are never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You are never gonna keep me down
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You are never gonna keep me down
In the fighting arts, you constantly hear: “Knocked down six times, get
up seven.” Life knocks you down. Get back up (again).
As a side benefit, you also get a wonderful little cardiovascular hit
getting up and down off the ground. We use heart rate monitors and find
this delicious little heart rate spike up when the client/athlete gets up off
the floor.
So, the answer to training the vast mass of the human population’s
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biggest issue is this:
Get down and up off the floor.
How?
Build it into the program seamlessly. Mix mobility, flexibility, and
Original Strength movements into the basics of hypertrophy and strength
training. “Rest periods” are general mobilizing movements on the floor.
Then, we get back up again.
I’m never going to keep you down.
So: there’s the Greatest Secret! Build into every program every
opportunity to get down and up off the floor.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 361
Incorporating Level Changes and Groundwork
I’ve been striving to share the idea of level changes in the weight room
for a while. I have no issues with gyms that have their clients seated and
training throughout a workout. For all kinds of issues, most of which I’m
not qualified to address, this is the appropriate approach.
Training an elderly person recovering from a total joint replacement is
different than prepping a college athlete for a season. I understand that.
For the people I train, more is needed. One simple idea is to take the
basic movements and begin listing the various levels we use in a typical
setting.
I subcategorize the movements into three terms I learned from a student
of Martha Graham, arguably one of the inventors of modern dance, who
taught dance in the summer sessions while I was at Utah State. Yes, I
took dance classes in the summer.
She mentioned three concepts to explore in every position…every
movement:
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Earth
Human
Sky
I heard this concept and instantly went to training:
Earth: Look! There’s the ground and these dance courses
demanded a LOT of time there.
Human: When I heard this, I thought of jumping up and climbing
trees.
Sky: I was already summing all of sports and lifting as “stay tall.”
It’s our human nature to get up, stand up, look around, and wander.
In workshops, I teach the three groups with these positions:
Earth
On your back
Prone (face down)
Six point (hands, knees, and feet on the ground)
Bear (hands and feet on the ground)
Half-kneeling (one knee down kneeling)
Human
Air (jumping, leaping, bounding)
Hang
Brachiate (think monkey bars or rope climbing)
Sky
Squat
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Hinge
Gait (walking, running, sprinting)
Carry
I don’t want to completely exhaust all the options, but here are some
examples of level changes and the fundamental human movements.
Push…with Level Changes
Earth
On your back
Floor press
Turkish get-down press
Prone
Pushups and variations
Six Point
Arm bends (remedial)
Bear
Bear crawls, pushups
Half-kneeling
Presses (maybe my favorite)
Sky (Stay tall)
Squat
Thrusters (done well)
Hinge
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Clean and press
Gait
Walking see-saw press
Carry
Strongman press walk
Pull…with Level Changes
Earth
On your back
Horizontal rows
Half-kneeling
Chops, paddles, rows
Human
Hang
Simply hanging is…money!
Pull ups et al
Brachiate
Monkey bars
Sky (Stay tall)
Squat
John McKean’s squat/pulls (put a pull up bar at sternum
height and combine squats with pull ups or chin ups)
Hinge
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Rows (done correctly)
Hinge…with Level Changes
Earth
On your back
Glute bridge, hip thrust
Prone
The “Pump” (cobra and downward dog yoga moves)
Half-kneeling
Oddly, as a complement
Human
Air
Appropriate jumping
Appropriate bounding or skipping
Sky (Stay tall)
Squat
O lifts…full versions
Hinge
Kettlebell swings and snatches
Deadlifts
Gait
Hill sprints
Stadium steps
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Carry
Forward sled drags with the rope between the legs
Squat…with Level Changes
Earth
On your back
Brazilian get-back-up test
Prone
Lower body rolls
Six Point
Rocks
Bear
Crawls
Human
Air
Squat jumps (goblet squat)
Sky (Stay tall)
Squat
Six-point rocks
Assisted squats
Goblet squats
Overhead squats
Front or back squats
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Carries
Bear-hug carries
Loaded Carries…with Level Changes
Earth
Bear crawls with sleds
Half-kneeling (some loaded lunges)
Partner pull ups (Prone or on the back. Grab a partner’s ankles and
slide or pull into the “up” of the pull up position. The partner walks
ahead until the arms are straight, then repeat. Slick floors are best.)
Human
Brachiate (Monkey bars)
Sky (Stay tall)
Push
Combining prowlers with presses
Squat
Bear-hug carry with squats
Lift-n-sprints (squats)
Hinge
Lift-n-sprints (deadlifts, Olympic lifts)
Gait
Heavy Hands, rucking
Carry
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The whole carry family
As I review the list, I see the same complaint I voice when I see most
programs: There are lots of push options, but less of the other
movements. I did my best.
During the early days of the pandemic, I was asked for a one-kettlebell
workout. Without thinking about level changes, I sent this idea:
Half-kneeling press
Hangs from a pull up bar
Jumping goblet squats
Kettlebell swings
Suitcase carries
Turkish getups
The recipient knew the kettlebell world well enough to make it work. As
I look at this now, I’m a little surprised to not only see the whole family
of fundamental human movements, but it’s an excellent example of level
changes. In case you need a “do this” workout, well:
Do this.
This workout program reflects years of insight, hard work, and excellent
feedback. I noted this a few years ago while I was still formulating this
concept. From my notes:
Training a “normal” person will be much easier. The “thinking”
must be discussed first.
The word “fractals” comes to mind: A fractal is a never-ending
pattern. Fractal patterns are already familiar, since nature is full of
fractals: trees, rivers, coastlines, mountains, clouds, seashells, and
hurricanes. A leaf looks like a tree, a small stone looks like a
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mountain. If done correctly, a training day can look like a career.
Jurassic Park discusses this same insight from another perspective:
“And that’s how things are. A day is like a whole life. You start
out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run
an errand, but never get there. . . . And at the end of your life, your
whole existence has the same haphazard quality, too. Your whole
life has the same shape as a single day.”
~ Michael Crichton
I have a simple model for training most people:
It’s life.
This is a training program based on our movement history:
We start off rolling around and crawling.
Then, we get up on one knee.
Then, back to the ground.
We finally rise up and go after it for a while.
We stumble and get back up.
We stumble again and lie back down.
And stay there!
This is also a great template for training.
Naked Turkish getups (no weight) and ground-based mobility
work
Half-kneeling presses (alternate the knees down)—a few reps with
both hands
Bird dogs
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Humane burpee or variation
Mobility movements from six-point position and half-kneeling
Naked Turkish getups
Easy foam rolling or correctives
The goal of this session is to “get sweaty” and build some strength, but
most importantly, leave the gym feeling better than when you got there.
This training session can be expanded or contracted as appropriate.
None of this is new. Some of the basics level changes will be obvious to
anyone who follows Tim Anderson’s work:
On your back to prone: “Rolling”
Half-kneeling to on your back: “Shoulder roll”
Bear crawl: “Bear gait”
I’m only tasting the depths of Tim’s work here, but his Original Strength
is based on how babies move from rolling to sprinting. You’ll see this
tying into his insights.
The humane burpee is a study of level changes. Remember, if you want
to make it harder, just slide the goblet squats and pushups to 10. 10–9–
8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1 gives you 55 total reps of the squat and pushup—and
that’s plenty of work for a single day, and in many cases, too much. If
you’re doing10 swings, that’s 100 and if you choose 15 per round,
it’s150.
That’s “enough.”
Other fun combinations are the bear/bear, where we combine bear
crawls with bear-hug carries. Working with a partner is illuminating as
you’ll quickly discover that both exercises are cardiovascular challenges.
One of our javelin throwers invented a very interesting training
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combination. The sector had been moved a little, so the run-up was next
to a set of monkey bars. He came up with this combination:
Goblet squat for eight reps
Monkey bars
Bear crawl for about 20 meters
It combined mobility, flexibility, hard breathing, and most of the training
needed for this level of athlete. Moreover, it was “fun.”
For a large University American football team, I designed a little test
for their indoor preseason training (and measurements):
Five deadlift reps
Bear crawl 10 yards
Sprint 20 yards
Finally, of course, the whole family of lift-n-sprints completely changed
my career. Remember: Strive to almost have no time gap between the
two movements. Go, go, go!
The basic:
Eight goblet squats followed immediately by a hard sprint (40–100
meters)
My favorite:
Eight overhead squats followed by a hard sprint
Go heavy on this one:
Kettlebell or barbell front squats followed by a hard sprint
Certainly, add hills or sleds as appropriate and let your imagination run.
One small thing—and this is something we learned from hard
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experience: Just do three total lift-n-sprints. If you feel like you should
or could have done more, increase the load or intensity next time.
This workout focuses on quality, NOT quantity.
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The “SHOCKING” Cardiovascular Aerobic
Miracle of Level Changes!
If you wear a heart rate monitor, you’ll discover an interesting thing:
Level changes make your heart really start pumping. You might even
have to be careful with even the simplest movements, as your heart rate
might exceed some basic safety standards.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 374
Conditioning for Sport
Getting strong, especially with something simple like Easy Strength,
works wonders in the gym but we need to translate that strength to the
field of play.
We are at an interesting time in individual sport training. Many elite
programs are focusing on training ONLY at race or game pace. Nils van
der Poel, Swedish double Olympic gold medal winner in speedskating,
shared this insight with us in his online PDF entitled How to Skate 10K.
But as soon as the Specific season started, I changed focus to doing
laps at competition speed on the ice. I now completely subsided
from the threshold training in order to free up energy to spend on
skating laps on the ice. I never skated slower than competition
speed due to two reasons. Firstly (1) I consider technique to be
altered to a specific speed. So as I was skating at a slower speed I
contaminated my competition speed technique. Secondly (2) I
didn’t want to wear out, or tire, my legs by skating slowly as the
number of competition speed-laps.
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He feared “contaminating” his competitive technique with slow work on
the ice. Moreover, he didn’t want to exhaust himself with what some
runners call “garbage miles.”
Since Barry Ross challenged the sprint world with his absolute focus on
JUST sprinting fast, many coaches have leaned into this idea of “flying
30s” and all the rest. Ross’s sprint program has three parts:
1. A 12-workout buildup of just three bouts a week of ever-increasing
speed walking. No jogging allowed!
2. A strength program built on just deadlifts and presses with long
five-minute rests between sets (usually two to five sets of two to
five reps).
3. Sprint work is always timed by a speed trap. When the athletes
slow down, practice is over!
Obviously, I summed a ton of knowledge into a few lines, but strength
coaches like Mike Boyle have adopted this for training speed for
hockey, lacrosse, and other sports. If you want your athletes to be fast,
they must run fast. And…if you run them fast, you must time every
attempt.
Mike told me he was shocked to see athletes striving to figure out how
to take a 10th of a second or less off a 20-meter sprint. They
experimented. They dialogued. They discussed. They ran faster!
It wasn’t a mindless warmup drill or an expensive piece of equipment
that doesn’t survive a few weeks. The secret to running fast is running
fast with feedback.
In the weight room, we call this “load.” I can tell if you’re getting
stronger by looking at the plates on the bar. On the track, I can tell if
you’re getting faster by looking at the timer.
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It’s not magic.
Before we transition to teaching full speed in team sports, memorize
this:
For strength, use load as the measurement.
For speed, use time as the measurement.
I don’t want athletes who look strong or fast. I want strong and fast
athletes.
I’m convinced the BEST way to condition athletes at full speed is to let
them play. I have nothing against tag and hide and go seek, but I’m
thinking about something a little more specific here.
Mike Warren Brown and I have talked extensively on this subject. There
are two things we want to do with full speed conditioning:
Mimic the actual conditioning needs of the game
Provide every player with more opportunities to expand their skill
sets…even something like touching the ball or puck more often
Mike often tells me glowing stories of the skills of Canadian lacrosse
players. Because of weather, they tend to play a lot of box lacrosse—
indoor lacrosse. The balls don’t sail out of bounds; they bounce and
come back into play. There’s less room, so athletes face a mugging
whenever they have the ball.
The same idea can support soccer football players. The Brazilians play
“futsal,” a version of indoor soccer, and the Costa Ricans amaze me with
their game of volleyball…played with only the feet!
Years ago, wallyball, an indoor volleyball game, was extremely popular
here in the western United States and I still argue it teaches aspects of
the game of volleyball better than a boring practice. And it’s fun.
Kurt Warner, an American football Hall of Fame player, learned the
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skills of throwing into “tight windows” by playing the indoor version
called arena football. With far less room on the field, the action is faster,
and decisions need to be made much quicker. Later, he ran “The
Greatest Show on Turf.”
Now, if I’d have looked at these examples years ago, I would have
scoffed. Scoffed, I say! Then, I began adding odd little games into our
training. I added Swiss ball soccer to our Friday early season training.
The game is simple—basically, it’s soccer football played with that
damn bouncing ball I hate.
I might hate the ball, but my athletes loved the game. The same kid who
wouldn’t run or sprint as a thrower or offensive lineman would be doing
wind sprints up and down the field with the best of them. We brought
out four-pound Dynamax medicine balls and played the game of
“ultimate” with these balls rather than flying discs. It turned out to be
not only fun, but perfect conditioning for the athletes.
Nobody counts sprints, reps, touches, and, well, fouls. It was a boon to
practice, and the numbers swelled up on the team because kids
instinctively want to have fun. We had fun. We also got in appropriate
condition without me ever having to scream, shout, yell, or curse.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 378
Conditioning that Supports Performance
Let’s put conditioning to the side for a moment. Almost universally, elite
performance comes down to:
Bio-mechanically ideal technique
Appropriate strength levels for the endeavor (and use Easy
Strength to get there!)
Both technique and strength improve in the same way.
First, both technique and strength often improve by NOT doing the
event or lifting. Many retired athletes come out of retirement when they
walked away from a sport and then, “on a lark,” returned to a practice
session and noted they were at least as good, if not better(!), after
walking away.
“On a lark,” by the way, might owe its roots to the Old English meaning
of “leap” or “play.” I can’t think of a better way to describe that feeling
of NOT training and still improving.
This concept, improving by getting away from the sport by retirement,
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injury, seasonal changes, or forced exile, is sometimes called “the
reminiscence effect.” Every coach has a story of what we call “the senior
summer.” Little Junior, who has been part of a program for three years,
will be walking down the hall. Suddenly, in a strange instant, everything
he’s been taught will make sense. Junior might run to you and tell you,
in excruciating detail, all the connections he now clearly understands.
Oddly, the same thing happens with artists, especially writers, and the
insights gained while simply walking around.
If possible, spacing technical training to two (or more) sessions a day
seems to bring about this same effect. Good cross-country programs
have a morning run that doesn’t hurt or hinder conditioning. Yet,
athletes seem to improve. Shooting free throws or playing H-O-R-S-E in
full school uniform before school will do as much, probably more, for
the skill set of basketball players as extending practice another hour at
night.
I experimented with “Oreo” practices by having a short technical
warmup (drills), then having the throwers do something like an Easy
Strength training session. After “all of this” that might take half an hour
to 45 minutes, we went out and threw. It worked within the confines of
the time we had, but a morning session spaced well before the afternoon
session probably would have been better.
To sum David Hebbs’s wonderful insight on the human body, “Muscles
that wire together, fire together.” Getting younger athletes to master
tension using planks, isometrics, and grinding lifts mixed with relaxation
exercises will teach them how to use their whole systems. I go the next
step and use isometric positions, followed by a thorough shake down
(blowing tension off the body) to teach key moments in every sport I
coach. If I can spend 10 to 15 seconds with an athlete squeezing for dear
life in a key position in the discus, the body “remembers” it at the
competitive speed.
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To master technique, there’s a need for appropriate variations. For
throwers, I have them toss lighter or heavier implements, play with
Highland Games equipment, toss tires and cones, and add extra spins or
turns to make things more complex. Then we simplify and go back to
the basic competition standards and, hopefully, the variation worked.
Throwers throw. If they’re out having fun throwing stuff, it’s going to
pay off down the line. Throwers throw, sprinters sprint, swimmers
swim…I could go all day with this idea. For conditioning, toss in a little
fun. Never get too far from the journey toward perfect technique and
appropriate strength but have some damn fun.
Walk away from conditioning and more conditioning.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 381
What’s the Next Step?
My students have often mentioned I get flustered answering Easy
Strength questions. I do apologize. If I do something a lot of times, it
becomes so simple in my head, I forget the struggles when I first tried to
do it.
As a discus coach, we adopted the phrase: “I said it was simple, not
easy.” That phrase was not just for the beginner. It was to remind me
that I made a long walk learning how to do this “simple” move.
Easy Strength is simple. Easy Strength is, as advertised, “easy.” It
doesn’t make for good videos to load online. It’s not sexy doing a set of
reps for five, putting the load down, doing another five, and moving
along. No one gets slapped in the face or explodes blood vessels in the
nose. It lacks screaming.
It simply works.
Every topic in this book comes from long conversations both in person
and online discussing the various issues with appropriately doing Easy
Strength. Lots of hardworking people spent far too much time trying to
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make ES work in all kinds of situations. We’ve seen a lot of success. We
have also had a lot of laughs usually when we forget “simple.”
Sometimes, the choice to be simple can be more complex than first
glance. My memory isn’t as good with failures. I need to be candid
about what works and what does not.
As my journey into Easy Strength continues, I keep finding new and
wonderful ways of using these ideas. At first, I wanted to throw the
discus far on an extremely tight schedule. Later, I used Easy Strength to
do well in Highland Games, Olympic lifting, weight pentathlon, and, as
always, the discus.
Recently, I ventured into the realm of body composition using the same
set of tools.
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Easy Strength for Fat Loss
Once I started the voyage of ES4FL, I made it public almost instantly. I
wanted to share this new experience as I spent my life trying to get
bigger and faster and stronger and bigger.
Not getting bigger was hard for me. Emotionally. I have “bigorexia.” I
wanted to be big as a kid. Tom Hanks could have done a movie about
me…albeit “Bigger.”
I received a lot of email and podcast questions about using the Easy
Strength model for fat loss. I’m happy to report that people ask about fat
loss now and stopped using “weight” loss.
Listen, it’s going to take some effort to lose body fat. I think gaining
lean body mass is the most difficult thing to do, followed closely by
losing body fat.
I started wondering about something Rusty Moore talks about a lot. His
ideal muscle-building workout for fat loss is, basically, Easy Strength.
He feels that the ES style of training leads to a kind of muscle tone that
looks good with lower body fat numbers. He takes the concepts of Easy
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Strength and applies them to “looking good.”
By using the concept of “irradiation,” loosely based on Sir Charles Scott
Sherrington’s Laws, the idea is simply that one can add more load to the
bar and stimulate more muscle fibers by consciously willing the rest of
the body to kick in and help.
Moore summed the basics brilliantly with his post on one-arm presses:
The second workout I did with one arm military presses, I was
struggling a bit to get 60 pounds moving.
Then I decided to use irradiation in my favor.
I first make a fist with the arm I wasn’t using, let that tension
increase across my body and when it hit the side I was lifting with
I tightened my grip on the dumbbell and easily lifted it overhead.
Now I simultaneously do this while also tightening my abs. I
haven’t tried flexing the legs yet, but I am guessing that will help
me reach the next level.
This is where I am heading now.
Moore developed this into a program called “Visual Impact Frequency
Training.”
Yes, Easy Strength builds strength. But many people noticed that after a
few workouts, they felt and looked better. Robb Wolf has a wonderful
phrase, “hormonal cascade,” to explain the magic that happens when
you train appropriately and good things happen to your body.
I think a program that stresses strength will also encourage your body to
turn around in the body composition game.
How does it work? Well, I’m working on this. There are studies
confirming this approach, but for right now, I like the fact that it works.
When I read Rusty Moore’s idea that when you lift— do intense work—
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you free up fatty acids and the walk after the lifting deals with the free
fatty acids, I think he’s on to something. Moore sums it as:
Intense exercise releases free fatty acid; strategic cardio burns free
fatty acids.
That might be worth memorizing.
Coffee frees up the fatty acids too. It seems like every day someone is
discovering a new benefit for this delightful beverage. Coffee makes
fasting easier (maybe it’s as simple as freeing up the free fatty acids),
gives us a bit of a push when we train, and helps many have the urge to
eliminate the bowels.
Win. Win. Win.
Recently Rusty summed a fat loss day like this:
Coffee and water until about noon
Work out, 12:00–1:00pm
Lunch, 1:30
Dinner, 6:30 or 7:00
Sugar-free Jello pudding snack every other night
I’m not sure I can make things simpler. If for you, like me, coffee holds
back hunger (which is an URGE and as Genesis 4 reminds us, “You can
be its master”), this is a pretty simple field guide.
Someone asked me once how fasting helps with fat loss. My answer was
brilliant: You don’t eat calories if you aren’t eating.
How did I not get the Nobel Prize?
So…fasting, coffee, and the intense work all work together to get the
free fatty acids up and at ’em, then the walking burns ’em off.
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It seems like stealing in the fat loss game.
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Easy Strength for Fat Loss (ES4FL)
Five days a week, I recommend this:
Get a good night’s sleep. Wake up and drink coffee or tea. Keep fasting
until you train. Training:
Warmup with a gentle walk, some goblet squats, and Original Strength
1. Ab Wheel: 1 x 10
2. Vertical Press: 3 x 3
3. Vertical Pull: 3 x 3 or Six singles (adding load or staying the same)
4. Deadlift Variation: 3 x 3
5. KB Swings: Up to 75…push the Heart Rate up.
6. On the last rep, walk out the door and go for about 45 minutes
without getting the heart rate over 180 minus your age. (The goal
is for one-hour workouts…maybe five days a week)
Or:
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Warmup with a gentle walk, some goblet squats, and Original Strength
1. KB Swings: up to 75 (5 sets of 15 or “Up to,” which is just doing
reps until fatigue or technical issues show up. Rest and pick right
up on the last number)
2. Vertical Press: 3 x 3
3. Vertical Pull: 3 x 3 or Six singles (adding load or staying the same)
4. Deadlift Variation: 3 x 3
5. Ab Wheel: 1 x 10
6. On the last rep, walk out the door and go for about 45 minutes
without getting the heart rate over 180 minus your age. (The goal
is for one-hour workouts…maybe five days a week)
Veggies and Proteins at meals; Drink Water all day as appropriate
Two “Gut Biome Breaks:” Fermented foot (I like kimchi or sauerkraut)
and a piece of fruit (I like apples, my daughter can’t eat them, so choose
wisely). I like to do it between my two daily meals.
On the other two days, do some additional Original Strength work and
go for a stroll, but keep doing everything else.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 389
A Final Point on Easy Strength for Fat Loss
There’s a good reason that you weigh what you weigh. There’s a good
reason for the level of body fat you’re carrying around today. The reason
is this: That’s what your brain and body agreed to do.
It’s beyond just being lazy and gluttonous. There are other factors. A
century or two from now, we’ll look at the obesity epidemic, like we did
with the Black Death, and have a simple, canned, and obvious answer.
For the Black Death, my professor told us to bathe and eat more protein.
Others argued that the Norwegian brown rat displaced “rattus rattus,” the
black rat. Keeping lice, fleas, and vermin away by the essentials of
cleaning and bathing seems the easiest route.
So, centuries from now, teenagers will roll their eyes about our obesity
idiocy. “Didn’t they know that X caused it? Stop doing X!”
Easy Strength for Fat Loss is an attempt to take the best knowledge we
have and apply it simply and regularly. I can see other ideas that might
quickly join our tool kit. These could be as simple as saunas or hot
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beverages. It could be a vitamin or vegetable we overlooked.
I know this: The answer will be simple. The answer will be repeatable.
Until we have this conclusive answer, let’s sleep, drink coffee, fast,
exercise, and walk.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 391
Concluding Thoughts
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A Perfect Day of Easy Strength
Before I go through my “Perfect Day” example, remember we’re
striving to achieve, brick upon brick, our goal in a sensible, reasonable
fashion. A good day is built upon the foundation of a good evening—we
certainly can “chicken or the egg” this as far back as you’d like, but let’s
just focus on a single day. Sometimes the smallest detail can make goal
achievement far more accessible.
Easy Strength has allowed me to stack up a lot of perfect days.
For me, the smallest detail means setting the coffee pot timer to wake
me in the morning. It can be the key that unlocks the door to the perfect
day for me. I hear those weird coffeemaker sounds, smell the brew, and
reach over and grab my fancy meditation headphones. Those few
minutes the night before when I prep the coffeemaker sets me on the
path to a good night’s sleep, my meditation practice, and my coffee-only
fast.
Recently, I began setting up the next day’s coffee pot after I finish my
morning coffee. It’s even more logical: As I clean up from the morning,
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I set up for the next day. There’s an idea built into this simple insight
that I might have to unpack in other areas of my life.
After I get up and get going in the morning, I answer messages, write,
work, podcast, and do my accounting while I’m mentally refreshed. My
creativity sparks from the sleep and meditation and I find that my brain
was working hard solving problems as I was sleeping. It’s not unusual
for me to write pages and pages in the morning inspired by a horribly
scribbled note to myself 12 hours earlier. My morning writing often
makes me laugh as everything flows so well after a great night’s sleep.
For me, it’s not just the hours in bed that lead to great sleep. Writing out
my to-do list gets my brain unwired and relaxed because I don’t have to
remember anything for the next day. Oddly, my to-do list shrinks as I
discover that a perfect day tends to declutter things for the next perfect
day.
The email has already been answered.
The form has been filled and sent.
The paperwork has been signed, sealed, and delivered.
The birthday card and present were sent weeks ago.
The bride and groom know I’m going to be there and the present
has already been sent.
The telephone call was delightful…and done.
I strive to touch things only once. I open my mail; I answer my mail. I
open my email; I answer my email. This little life lesson I learned from a
one-day stress management course might have been the best investment
I ever learned in my life in terms of real money. It was $29 for eight
hours. That was a GREAT investment in time and treasure. “Open it,
answer it.” Poof. Gone.
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The decluttered brain is open to opportunities, creativity, and inspiration.
Recently, I learned a new trick. With our modern phones, we can set
alarms before every event for the next day. Part of my sleep ritual is
setting a reminder alarm for all the next day’s events. Usually, I set two
—one to remind me about an hour before the event (in case I’m driving
around and either need to be somewhere or get online) and another about
15 minutes before the event just to get my nose out of whatever I’m into.
Oddly, I don’t set an alarm to wake up. The smell of coffee does the
trick. Also, if you go to bed early and sleep well, the need for a wakeup
call is diminished.
And, as we often say online, your mileage may vary.
The lifting, the walking, and the appropriate eating following this daily
window of refreshment and work invariably goes well. I look forward to
my friends coming over to train. I embrace the wild swings of weather in
Utah (colder than you think in winter, hotter than you think in summer)
and get in my Easy Strength work, followed by my walk. No matter
what, I follow this with a meal focused on veggies and protein.
After I finish that first meal when I break my fast (we should come up
with a name for that), I often look at the rest of my day, knowing I can
read books, watch movies, hang out, or do whatever I want or need to
do. In the afternoon, I take classes on food prep, history, and personal
development. I do a lot of podcasts. Sometimes, I just end up playing
games with the grandkids.
My perfect day is practically every day. I’m certainly focused on
achieving goals, but the few minutes of daily prep and ritual frees me up
to enjoy the best of life. I travel well; I vacation well. I enjoy my
grandchildren, children, friends, family, and community.
When I connect day after day after day of successful days, “magically”
my goals are achieved.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 395
Training with the Easy Strength method, I’m reminded of one of the
basic commandments of professional sports (especially with the long,
looooooooong modern seasons):
“Don’t let your lows get too low or your highs too high.”
My job is to keep showing up, day after day, and making those
reasonable, believable, doable improvements.
Strangely, it’s easy.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 396
Conclusion
So.
I took a few sentences and wrote two books on it. Pavel said:
“For the next forty workouts, pick five lifts. Do them every
workout. Never miss a rep, in fact, never even get close to
struggling. Go as light as you need to go and don’t go over ten reps
for any of the movements. It is going to seem easy. When the
weights feel light, simply add more weight.”
I applied this insight the following Monday, misunderstood a few basics,
and reviewed the sentences again. Then I doubled down on the simple
roadmap and enjoyed the best years of my career. When I tried to share
the concept with others, I told them what Pavel told me.
I learned quickly that just because Easy Strength has “easy” in the title,
for many, “easy” became a barrier for understanding.
This Omnibook is my attempt to answer the questions, deal with the
objections, and illuminate the path. Many people have walked this road
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before you and, hopefully, many will be following you too.
Easy Strength is based on life’s truths. Floss and brush your teeth, every
day. Eat veggies and protein at every meal. Drink water. Sleep soundly
every night. Be kind. Pick five exercises and, well, do them. Repeat.
It’s easy.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 398
Appendices
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Taylor Lewis and Easy Strength
Taylor Lewis and I met at an early Mike Boyle seminar. We’ve worked
together constantly since then and I’m proud to call him my friend.
Taylor wrote this next chapter.
The Easy Strength program has been a foundational system for which I
train both my clients with cystic fibrosis and my major league baseball
players. I work in two different realms of life, but that doesn’t mean
there aren’t commonalities that exist between both populations.
I was introduced to Easy Strength in 2012 at a San Diego RKC. Dan was
my master RKC instructor at the time, and throughout the weekend, he
spoke about finding the sweet spot of training. He spoke about the
importance of getting “enough” training in so we didn’t tax the body to
the level at which our recovery took more days than we had available. A
year later, I started to work with two of the most specialized populations
in the world, major league baseball players and patients battling a rare
genetic disease that to this day doesn’t have a cure.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare multisystem genetic disease that results in
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sticky thick mucus buildup, resulting in obstruction, infections, and
damage to affected organs (Gibson, Burns, and Ramsey, 2003). Based
on the severity of CF, this can cause barriers in training approaches.
The magic behind Easy Strength is the concept of keeping the sets and
reps low and finishing before you get fatigued. It’s common to see
people with CF having lung complications. The buildup of mucus
induces inflammatory responses that eventually lead to scaring of the
lungs and ultimately results in a decline in lung function. Full body
exercises, such as squats and deadlifts, when programmed at higher reps
(>8) per set can tax the cardiorespiratory system to the point that doesn’t
allow muscle fatigue drive failure. Through anecdotal evidence, I’ve
observed a client’s failure occur due to the demands needed from the
cardiorespiratory system, not due to muscular strength, in order for the
individual to complete the full set.
This is where the Easy Strength program has allowed, my clients to not
only improve their overall strength, but to actually increase their sixminute walk test distance (6MWT), a submaximal cardiopulmonary
exercise test. This is a test used to test aerobic exercise capacity as well
as a predictor of mortality in pulmonary diseases.
This was even more evident when I took this one step further and
performed a case study for my master’s thesis using Easy Strength. We
looked to see how three months of the Easy Strength protocol would
have on the 6MWT distance. The participants partook in three days of
Easy Strength and limited their cardiovascular training to walking. After
completing the training, the participant improved distance in the 6MWT,
and also had improved lung function > 3%, an area shows a consistent
decline in CF.
The name of the program says “strength,” but it does more than that. It
helps build exercise capacity using lower thresholds, allowing people to
keep building without having to take a step back.
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Easy strength is not just a training program. It’s a system with
underlying components that parallel the mechanism within the human
biological systems that increase strength and endurance, while also
supporting recovery and repeatability.
It helped add years to a major league baseball career that helped end the
Chicago Cubs World Series drought in 2016 and has given people
battling a rare genetic disease an opportunity to build strength, improve
exercise capacity, and increase lung function.
References
American Thoracic Society. (2002). ATS statement guidelines for the six
minute walk test. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine, 166, 111-117.
Gibson, R. L., Burns, J. L., & Ramsey, B. W. (2003). Pathophysiology
and management of pulmonary infections in cystic fibrosis. American
Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 168, 918-951.
Quinton, P. M. (1983). Chloride impermeability in cystic fibrosis.
Nature, 301, 421- 422.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 402
Easy Strength for Fat Loss THROUGH O
Lifting!
Daily Warmup
Hang, 30 seconds
Bottom-position sit in goblet squat, 30 seconds
Suitcase carry, waiter walk or any loaded carry variation (down
and back)
Ab wheel, 1 set as appropriate
Snatch Complex for Three Rounds
Snatch-grip Romanian deadlift x 5, then…Hang snatch x 5, then…
Overhead squat x 5, then…
Back squat x 5
Done! Rest!
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Use a stick or PVC at first. Choose as you wish about adding load
as you go along.
Weekly Overview
Day One (training five days a week)
Snatch, 3 sets of 3 with a single weight
Clean and jerk, 5 sets of singles with a single weight
Then, either walk, ruck, or whatever for half an hour or more
Day Two
Snatch, 5 sets of 2 with a heavier load than day one (the increase
can be one kilo)
Clean and jerk, 3 singles with a heavier load than day one
Then, either walk, ruck, or whatever for half an hour or more
Day Three
Snatch, 2 sets of 5 with a lighter load
Clean and jerk, 5 singles with a lighter load
Then, either walk, ruck, or whatever for half an hour or more
Day Four
Snatch, 5 sets of 2 with a single weight
Clean and jerk, 3 singles with a single weight
The “secret” to the program: Go a little heavier than day two, but
try to see if it “feels” the same.
Then, either walk, ruck, or whatever for half an hour or more
Day Five
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Snatch, 1 set of 5, add weight, then do a set of 3, add weight for a
double
Clean and jerk, 3 singles, adding weight each time
Then, either walk, ruck, or whatever for half an hour or more
Measure progress by the loads of day one and day four. These should
nudge upward monthly. On week three, day five, strive for heavier and
heavier attempts each month.
Some “Rules”
1. Like all Easy Strength programs, never miss…never get close to
missing.
2. Work “tempo” on the O lifts; start with a powerful grind off the
floor and explode into the second pull. It might be better to start
“crazy” slow off the floor in the first weeks.
3. Only max out when you have three officials on a wooden platform
where your membership card was required. Or, if you must, invent
some kind of contest, but don’t push the maxes often.
4. The loaded carries supplement the O lifts. Use them to build work
capacity.
5. The post-lift ruck, walk, or whatever is not only a nice way to burn
free fatty acids, but it is probably the best tonic for your spine…
and everything else that supports the spine.
When I am only training three days a week, I use the following:
3 x 3 x 3 Template
Sleep well. Fast until finished training. Fuel with fiber and fermented
foods. Find a way to alliterate more.
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Daily Mobility
Hang for 30 seconds
Sit in the bottom of the goblet squat for 30 seconds
Warmup
Three rounds of the snatch complex Snatch Complex
Romanian deadlift x 5
Hang snatch x 5
Overhead squat x 5
Back squat x 5
Workout
Three rounds of snatch and front squat
Snatch (squat snatch from the floor) x 3
Front squat with chains x 3
Switch from lifting boots to walking shoes
Three rounds of clean and press x 3
Walk!
On this program, albeit adding veggies to every meal (every single
meal!) and cutting back booze to practically nil, I quickly shed 30
pounds of whatever the opposite of lean body mass is in physiology. I
focused on weights as low as 50% of what I expected to take in a lifting
meet and rarely ventured above 70%.
I felt and continue to feel good…great. Monday is always “easy,” but
the same could be said about every single day. I joke with my walking
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and rucking partners that I can see the fat streaming out of my breath on
these cold Utah mornings.
Tension. Tempo.
These are the master keys to elite performance.
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Tension, Arousal, and Heart Rate…the Master
Skills
Excerpted from the book, Now What?I referenced these concepts a few
times and I hope I save you some time by including it here. For more…
buy the book, Now What?
Physical tension can improve performance. Physical tension can also
destroy performance. Tension is a dosage issue: Like Goldilocks, we
must search for “just right.”
In Dr. Bob Ward’s Building the Perfect Star: Changing the Trajectory of
Sports and the People in Them (a book about Dallas Cowboys football),
he gives a great insight: What’s the quickest way to get an athlete to run
at 85%?
“Get ’em to think!”
When it comes to tension, we can use the brain to think its way to more
or less tension when appropriate.
But tension offers more: It’s one of the ultimate teaching tools for
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technique.
Let’s start with the extremes. There are times when maximal tension can
improve performance. This would be most obvious in the three
powerlifts—the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. Tension literally
holds the body together under maximal loads. Injuries—terrible injuries
—can occur in powerlifting in an instant of tension loss.
The plank family teaches tension. In the 1–2–3–4 assessment from Can
You Go?, we test strength with the two-minute plank test. Yes, we get
some clues into overall core strength and the ability to pack the
shoulders, but we’re actually testing the ability to hold tension over time.
Teaching tension to a young lifter is part of the foundation of building
strength. To press heavy loads overhead, the lifter must grab the ground
with the feet, squeeze every muscle in the lower body, maintain a boa
constriction on the thoracic area, and drive the bar overhead.
Planks teach tension. For the push family, and as an introduction to the
basic concept, use planks, pushup position planks (PUPPs), handstand
variations, and cartwheels. Cartwheels are moving planks…an
oxymoron, but true.
For pulls, squeezing the contracted position in rows or pullups where the
bar is at your neck practices tension. In addition, hanging from bars and
rings seems to help teach methods of tension.
Isometric hinges are marvelous. The king of this goes by many names:
hip thrust, pelvic tilt, and supine bridges. These are also marvelous for
teaching the hinge, that fundamental movement of kettlebells and the
Olympic lifts.
The goblet squat, I argue, is another moving plank. With the weight held
in front of the body without support, the person needs to constantly
counter—plank—the load through the positions.
The loaded carries teach integrity under load. These exercises teach the
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body to remain as one piece as we move forward. The suitcase carry—
walks with the load in only in one hand—are especially excellent for
teaching this principle of tension during movement.
The powerlifts reward high tension. They also clue us in to the
emotional impact of training. The best example I can give is of my
daughter Kelly. She’s blonde, blue-eyed, and barely over five feet. But
it’s five feet of attitude.
I have learned that 275 pounds is the line in the sand for female high
school athletes. When they deadlift 275, no matter their weight, height,
or build, good things happen on the field of play.
The first time Kelly pulled the weight, it popped off the floor and she
locked it out. She released the bar and began sobbing.
There’s no crying in the weightroom.
I ran over thinking I had an injured athlete.
“What’s wrong? Hurt? Where?”
“I’m fine. I’m just crying.”
It took me years to figure this out.
Most of us walk through life at a tension level of about five. I have this
dial in my head when it comes to this kind of thing: One is the lowest
and 10 is when you stick your finger in the outlet and your hair fries. A
few boozy drinks at night might take some of the edge off after work,
but a peek at work email might lead to a lousy night’s sleep. Single
moms probably live at six or seven.
A max deadlift rails you up to a 10. BANG! Release the bar and…and…
I’m fine, I’m just crying. Unloading all that tension leads to an
emotional upheaval.
Sobbing is rare, but many of us know how lifting and dropping weights
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can bring clarity to a crappy day.
Tension not only teaches the body to build the structure to support heavy
lifts; tension can also teach technique.
Done correctly, tension teaches technique.
Isometrics, also known as functional isometric contraction, hit a wave of
popularity in the early 1960s. Studies on frogs showed that strength
could be improved in squeezing out short bursts of absolute contraction
in a muscle—generally the number was about 10 seconds. The poor
frogs were held down and prodded with electrodes.
Science!
Soon, the Olympic lifting world discovered isometrics (along with the
first steroids) and everybody was pushing and pulling and squatting door
jams, chairs, and brick walls. The fad quickly tired after people came up
short without the magic of the pink pills.
Years later, I interviewed Dick Smith, who was in a front-row seat for
the whole isometrics show. Money ruined everything, he told me. Bob
Hoffman, the owner of York Barbell, wanted to sell isometric racks.
Dick told me that few even tried to understand the technique. Isometrics
are exhausting, but don’t seem to be because, to quote, “You don’t
move.” It’s hard to argue with that. Moreover, Dick noted that the
greatness of the idea was in working the weak points, but first you had to
find them.
For years, I struggled to rise out of my competition clean and jerks.
Dave Turner, my lifting coach, eyed the exact mark where I struggled,
and we measured the position. It was 34 inches off the ground. For six
weeks, I set the rack at 34 inches, squeezed under a loaded bar, and tried
to stand up.
Week one, I was struggling with 135. At the end of week six, I stood up
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with 365 pounds from my weak spot and never missed standing up from
another clean the rest of my career.
Isometrics teach tension. Isometrics work on weak spots. And isometrics
can teach technique.
As the electrified frogs taught us, isometrics build strength. But, also in
those six weeks, I learned the position. My body “found” the leverages. I
learned how to be not only comfortable there, but to explode from that
position.
Tension can be used to teach technique!
There’s a position in all throwing sports where the implement is opposite
the throwing target, called the sector. Often, mastering the patience to
find that position and applying the bow-and-arrow forces separate the
good from the bad efforts.
I have my athletes get into that position and squeeze and tighten every
muscle of their bodies. It helps to hold onto something that won’t
move…like a building. Squeeze everything and hold it. I then ask them
to dial down the tension by shaking it out, and then we complete a full
throw.
More often than not, the eyes of the athletes light up.
“That’s it…there!”
If you can’t find a position fast, you must slow down. Nothing is slower
than not moving.
My approach to coaching changed when I read a post by Jason F. Keen
highlighting a $51 workshop he attended in Minnesota. I printed it out
on May 2, 2000, because back then I figured nothing would stick around
on the internet.
Now, I know better: Good information vanishes overnight on the ’net,
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but that one drunken butt-cheek photo has a life of its own.
Jason gave an overview of one of Pavel’s talks. At the time, Pavel was
making a name for himself in Minnesota and soon, with John Du Cane,
would change the lifting world with the reintroduction of kettlebells.
“The basic premise Pavel holds dear is strength equals tension.
We need to learn to not contract as fast as possible, but to learn to
contract as hard as possible.”
Jason went on to describe the methods of hyper-irridation, this practice
of consciously squeezing every muscle from the toes, through the legs,
the core, and to the opposite arm to press or curl a weight.
Strength equals tension.
The best way to teach tension is with isometrics and planks. These are
the roots of any good training system.
Tension also addresses issues. When doing kettlebell swings, one of the
most dynamic moves a human can do (when done correctly!), errors are
difficult to fix. It’s like trying to fix a side mirror by hand while flying
down the freeway at 85 miles an hour. Every time you reach out the
window, juggle the side mirror, and then sit back to see if it’s right, you
risk barreling into the neighboring lane.
It’s best to pull over and stop.
With poor swing technique, it’s also best to pull over and stop.
Two glaring errors show up in most people’s kettlebell swing: At the top
—the position with the body straight, the ’bell horizontal to the floor,
and the body fighting (planking) to hold that position—people tend to
make two errors:
•
Soften the belly
•
Raise the shoulders
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Both can be cured by a simple drill that has become part of our basic
tools that simplifies the teaching process.
Hop to the floor in the hip-thrust position. Squeeze your butt cheeks and
drive your hips to the sky. Hold. Feel the level of tension in the glutes.
Relax and repeat. This time, add crossing your hands and pointing to
vertical. Have a partner apply pressure…a lot…to your palms, and then
try to pull your hands to your knees.
As you do, the abs will contract like crazy. When this happens, the
glutes will clench more too. You’ll also notice the shoulders slide into
the packed position, the safe place for shoulders to be for shoulder
happiness.
Next, let’s pop up and fire off a few kettlebell swings. Strive for the
same level of tension as was felt in the isometric drill. Usually, this is
the cure.
Tension is the master teacher. Tension teaches strength. Tension teaches
technique.
The concepts of tension and relaxation, like so many things, go together
like yin and yang. I might overuse that symbol concept at times, but it
works well in coaching. I think I’ll keep using it.
Tension needs to be taught—relaxation needs to be taught.
The work of Bud Winters changed my life. Bud was the track coach at
San Jose State and also worked with fighter pilots during WWII. It was
during his time coaching fighter pilots that he came up with an insight
about much of life: Relax and win.
Teaching fighter pilots to relax allowed them to improve on every test
and every skill, including recognizing friend from foe. He took these
insights into athletics and the world has never seen a better track team
than his. His athletes once held every world record up to 800 meters (in
every conceivable variation); his pole vaulter was the first over 18 feet,
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and he had champions in the throws, including John Powell who threw
the world record in the discus.
The system, called “Relax and Win,” worked. It was based on some very
simple concepts:
1. You can learn to relax.
2. Teach yourself to get to sleep quickly and easily (the master
recovery tool).
3. There is a value in hypnosis.
4. Understand the importance of mental set, what would later become
affirmations.
5. Use physical warmups to provide relaxation.
6. Humor, vigorous shaking and swinging of the limbs induce
relaxation.
The book Relax and Win is again in publication. For the modern athlete
and coach, nothing in the book is groundbreaking, as you may have
heard it all.
And that makes sense because Bud Winters is the guy who broke the
ground!
I recommend athletes have a sleep ritual, including blue-light–blocking
glasses, dark and cool bedrooms, and a soak in a hot tub or a shower
before bed. Mastery of sleeping seems to be a first step in building a
better performance. General warming up—not actual competitive
practice—seems to loosen up not only the athlete, but also the athlete’s
mind.
Controlling the tension dial is a key to all sports. There are some sports,
like powerlifting, that you need the dial at nine out of 10. The more
tension you have, the better your performance.
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Discus throwing needs a four. Smile as you throw. Shot putting needs
more…you can snarl if you wish.
That’s why I think discus throwers get so much from the Olympic
snatch: It’s more like a four on the tension dial. The clean and jerk
demands more physical tension and that helps the shot putter.
During practice, consciously raise and lower physical tension. Wear
extra clothes, warm up longer, laugh a lot, and get as loose as you can.
Assess. Did that help performance?
If the answer is “yes,” excellent. You may have discovered the right
physical tension level for your event. If the answer is “no,” add tension.
Try planking or deadlifting or squeezing into isometrics.
Again, assess. Keep moving the dial up and down until you find the
appropriate physical tension level. Under the pressures of performance,
an athlete needs a toolkit to raise physical tension (sometimes) or lower
it (more often).
Here’s a quick checklist for lowering tension. Laminate this and put it in
your gym bag:
1. Fast and loose drills from Bud Winters
1. Shake it out
2. Wiggle the jaw
3. Smile
2. Breath control—counting is the simplest
3. Heat
If you need to raise tension (this is a bit more unusual for most people):
1. Planks
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2. Isometrics
3. Cold
Psyching up seems to be something you don’t see much, but powerlifters
and shot putters might need it. This is rare, but possible.
In practice, try these methods, then debrief the mission. This is a skill
that needs to be practiced.
Appropriately!
Bud Winters proved that physical relaxation helped fighter pilots and
track and field athletes. But we can take this further.
Physical relaxation leads to mental relaxation.
Arousal is something that needs to be considered and trained long before
an event.
Usually when I teach this to young athletes, I hear a snicker at “arousal.”
I’m fine with that. Yes, the word is also used in sexual interactions.
Let me say this as appropriately as I can: Appropriate arousal makes
sexual relationships work, if you understand the point—for both
genders. If you don’t understand this, it might be a worthy conversation
topic with that other person.
Arousal in athletics is a master skill.
Al Oerter, the four-time Olympic discus champion, told someone, “Long
warmups are poison!” I’ve heard this story from two different people
who claim to be the someone.
Warmups can have a great value in establishing the right tension,
arousal, and heart-rate levels. They are also free of much of the stress. In
throwing, having a great warmup throw raises the expectations of the
day. It raises the arousal.
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When the reality of the meet sets in and one’s name is called, too much
excitement, enthusiasm, and arousal destroys the timing of a proper
throw.
The right amount of arousal is the key.
We can train the physical-tension knob with appropriate practice and
choice of lifts. With arousal, we need to take this a step further. We need
to actively have more arousal in training than we do in competition.
Let me share three ideas:
1. One-throw competitions
2. Trading conditioning drills for successful completion of a task
3. Practicing switching it on and off
I have discussed the idea of one-throw competitions many times. At a
track meet, we get up to six throws. At a practice session, I might circle
a day and tell everybody, “One-throw comp next Friday at 4:00.”
The athletes get one throw. They can warm up, practice, drink their
magic sauce, and sprinkle lucky charms all over the ring. Everyone then
gets one throw; we measure and—this is really important—then post the
results. My best-ever thrower hated this so much, he ripped the results
off the wall and left the staples.
This teaches arousal. It doesn’t sound like much, but cutting the number
of allowed throws makes an athlete have to perform now. Rarely in life
or sport do we get second chances—this teaches an athlete to quickly get
into the zone and find the edge or groove.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that throwers win a lot of meets on the last
throw, the first throw, or in “do or die” situations. We’ve trained that
into them.
As an athlete matures, we should add more stress. I’ll have an athlete
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stand up and then immediately sit back down. I yell about stupid stuff
(my athletes tell me I’m not good at trying to rattle them) and even stop
them mid-performance. It might take 45 minutes of useless badgering
and cajoling before I allow them to throw.
The athletes might be sitting, but the arousal work is still going on.
Arousal levels in sport
Trading conditioning is a fun thing to do. There’s a drill called “The
Miami Drill” that I think I got from Jimmy Johnson, the former coach of
the Miami Hurricanes. It’s 10 100-yard sprints with 30 seconds rest
between each run.
It probably has little actual value, in all honesty. After number three, I
might stop the drill and yell, “Field goal team! Get on the 35-yard line.
If you make it, we don’t do any more sprints!”
Now, you can do this with any team sport, but note: We’re teaching
something important here—football games come down to successful
field goals at the end of the game. The arousal level of the field goal unit
is high, knowing the entire program’s heart and lungs are hoping you
make the kick.
Trust me, the snapper, holder, and kicker will take practice much more
seriously after this opportunity.
As in a game, this unit can be the heroes or the goats. This is the best
way I know to get the feel of a game without filling the stands with
people.
“Practicing switching it on and off” is a master technique.
A few years ago, we had a wedding with a Highland Games as part of
the reception. This, by the way, is an awesome idea! Friends marveled at
the ability of the athletes to switch the focus and arousal from holding
champagne to picking up a caber. I think the strength sports teach this
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well: There’s a real chance you can get badly injured in training doing
the Olympic lifts or the powerlifts. You need to be in the right range of
focus and arousal for each and every lift.
But you can’t stay like that for hours. You must switch it on and off.
In collision sports and occupations, you need both wide and narrow
focus as things develop. When the other team breaks the huddle, you
need wide focus and low arousal. As the running back comes at you, the
focus should narrow and the arousal should rise.
Turning arousal up and down is a skill that allows us to sleep before
competition, to digest well, eliminate at the appropriate time, and
perform when it’s time to perform.
Apply arousal practice.
Then, take the advice of General Neubauer and:
•
Brief the objectives
•
Mission
•
Debrief the objectives
I run these drills almost entirely through the principle that dictates our
performance goal. Did the athlete throw far? The debriefing is simple:
yes or no. If the answer is “no,” this athlete might need more work on
fine-tuning arousal levels. Simply lifting more or training harder won’t
overcome an issue with arousal levels.
I still believe Bud Winter’s Relax and Win methods are the best way to
get the arousal levels under control. As most adults in the real world will
tell you, too much or constant tension leads to issues. This chart is what
I use to explain the two most common ways of discussing stress,
sympathetic and parasympathetic:
Sympathetic-system dominant
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Fight or flight
We need to relax
Reduce intensity
Hot tub, lighter diet
Do some mobility and flexibility
Parasympathetic-system dominant
Rest and digest
We to need to stimulate the system
We can ramp things up
Ice showers, more protein
Let’s wake up the system
Arousal control and dialing up and down physical tension teach athletes
a toolkit to help swim through these two systems. There isn’t a good or
bad here—this isn’t moral theology—and both are important for success.
Physical tension and relaxation drills and arousal-control drills can do a
lot to improve performance.
The third master skill is appropriate heart rate.
This becomes easier if you have tension and arousal already dialed in. At
a track meet, you might find elite athletes with a huge range of
appropriate heart-rate numbers. What defines appropriate heart rate
might be the ultimate “it depends” answer. A javelin thrower might be
grooving technique with a pulse well under 100 beats per minute. A
male 400-meter runner just finishing a race might be pounding a hole in
his chest.
It depends!
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Let’s make this simple.
The easy part:
If it’s too low, jump around, whip your arms, move. I think you know
what to do!
The hard one:
Too high! Breathing drills, calming drills, catching your breath, resting
—all easy to write in this nice warm room where I’m typing.
Learning to slow your heart rate during performance takes practice. It’s
hard to tell your heart to slow down under high tension, high arousal,
126,000 fans cheering, and the team on attack. Getting the heart rate
down under pressure is a master technique. Getting the heart rate to slow
down under pressure is well worth the time spent training it.
Be sure to test various heart rates in training, and then debrief the
experience.
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The Original Transformation Program
I thought it would be valuable to share a few of my programs that are
not technically ES, but carry the basic concepts. Honestly, the materials
that follow deserve their own books, but I can only do so much.
If you’ve read my work, you know I’ve been trying for a few decades to
keep up my training with narrow time constrictions. When my daughters
were young, I often trained while the water was boiling for pasta or the
meat was grilling for dinner.
Strangely, or perhaps not strange at all, those years of short workouts led
to my best years as an athlete. I “peaked” at 47 as a thrower and I still
look back in amazement how I continued to compete well in the discus
and Highland Games as a 50-year-old competing literally against
teenagers and 20-somethings.
I HAD to adapt. Frankly, I didn’t want to.
Some of the programs took a while to become enshrined. I’m only
partially joking here, but when I read people’s reactions to some of my
training and lifting ideas, I often worry that people think there’s a moral
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component to these workouts.
“Dear Dan,
Please forgive me. I accidently did TWO lifts on the One Lift a
Day Program.
Foreverinshame1997”
You are forgiven.
The original template for the Transformation Program is hard for me to
find in my notes. I was doing One Lift a Day for a while and hated only
doing some of the movements one day a week. I came up with a
solution, doing everything one day a week. Yes, everything. But, and
this is the key, I keep the loads extremely light on this day and practice
moving.
The Four-Day-a-Week Variation: The First Attempts at the
Transformation Program
It’s hard for me to only lift hard three days a week (or two days). It is, of
course, the best way for me to train. But I love to train. Therein, gentle
reader, lies the issue: the needs of my body conflicting with the wants of
my ego.
Here’s the first template of the Transformation Program. I found this
scribbled in the back pages of a book first published in 1988, so I know
it’s not before 1988 but is earlier than 1993:
Monday
Snatch
Clean and jerk
Tuesday
Overhead squat
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Front squat
Wednesday
Overhead press
Thursday
Rest
Friday
Rest
Saturday
Lighter loads
Press
Snatch
Overhead squat
Clean and jerk
Front squat
This idea meshed well for my first attempts to explain a weekly
approach to combining these ideas about lifting with sports training.
Later, by just adding the word “walk,” I think I found a good system for
those interested in losing some fat (with appropriate medical and dietary
intervention).
Day One
Morning: Walk or sport work
Evening: Hard lower body training
Day Two
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Morning: Walk or sport work
Evening: Walk or sport work
Day Three
Morning: Walk or sport work
Evening: Hard upper body training
Day Four
Morning: Walk or sport work
Evening: Walk or sport work
Day Five
Morning: Walk or sport work
Evening: Moderate whole-body training
Day Six
Morning: Walk or sport work
Evening: Walk or sport work
Day Seven
Long walk
Within a few years, I shared the following concept on something new
called the “internet.”
The Transformation Program
The following was written on my first website. I shared this with Tamir
Katz on his website and I used HTML code. Back then, we had to know
all the coding for everything on a website. It’s easier now!
This is my basic training plan. It’s nice in-season or when time is an
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issue. It’s a workout that has worked very well for a number of discus
throwers, hammer throwers, and shot putters I trained. Its simplicity can
really overwhelm athletes. However, after a few weeks, they always find
themselves harder, more explosive, and ready to compete. We call it the
“Transformation Program” because we use it right after either football
season or a long period of basic training.
Day One (perhaps Monday)
Power clean and press: One power clean and eight presses, 3 sets with a
one-minute rest between sets.
If there’s a single key to the program, it’s the one-minute rest period. By
strictly monitoring the rest period and, obviously, keeping track of the
weight, one can track progress.
Power curls: 3 sets of 8 with a one-minute rest between sets. Using a
curl grip, slide the weight to just above the knees and curl-clean the bar.
Let it come down under control. Again, get all eight reps, don’t change
the weights, and monitor the rest period.
Do some kind of ab work. We used side bends, but any kind of crunch is
fine too. These days, I might recommend one-arm lifts.
Day Two (a day or two later, perhaps Wednesday)
Power clean and front squats: One power clean and eight front squats.
Once again, 3 sets of 8 with a one-minute rest. Stay tall in the front
squats and keep your elbows high. We usually use this as more of a
warmup for the next exercise.
Overhead squats: 3 sets of 8 with a one-minute rest. Using the wide
snatch grip, lock the elbows with the weight overhead, and squat down.
Athletes who do this exercise well not only develop flexibility, balance,
and leg strength, but also an incredibly strong lower back. This exercise
builds what we used to call “Dad strength.” Growing up, a lot of us used
to lift weights all the time, but still couldn’t torque a wrench or open a
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jar like Dad, who never did any lifting. Overhead squats will make you
very strong.
Again, finish with some kind of ab work.
Day Three (perhaps Friday or Saturday)
Whip snatches: 3 sets of 8 with a one-minute rest. With a wide snatch
grip, stand up, and hold the bar at crotch level. Dip and snatch the bar
overhead. Continue for eight reps. You’ll be surprised how quickly this
exercise can get into your blood. If you want big traps and explosion,
this is the king.
Clean grip snatches: 3 sets of 8 with a one-minute rest. With a clean
grip, stand up, and dip the bar to your knees. Then, explode up, driving
the bar overhead in one basic movement. It’s like a clean and press…
well, without the clean.
Do ab work if you wish.
Another day or two a week, we use uphill sprints to train the legs and
body. This program is a great transition program. You only do each
exercise once a week. You work your whole body each workout, but
focus on upper body day one, lower body day two, and explosive pulling
on day three. Moreover, the workouts are finished quickly, but still tax
the system.
Try to add weight when you can, but use the third set not the first as
your basis for adding weight. You’ll discover the culmination of sets one
and two really affect the third set.
I hope you consider this program.
Be careful of getting too crazy in the weight room. If all you did was
clean and press, like the lifters in the 1960s, you could get awesome.
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The One Lift a Day Program
This is the original article I wrote for T-nation two decades ago. Oddly,
after this article went online, several well known fitness trainers
“invented” it. My sources came from Dave Turner who encouraged me
to train this way. He noted that Bob Bednarski had done this, and it
might be the answer to me training at a high level at the same times as
parenting/professoring/teaching/cooking/housecleaning.
When I was a teenager, I turned from comic books to "men's”
magazines. These weren’t just the notable one with Hugh Hefner at the
helm either; I also began to thumb through fitness magazines. At the
time, there was Strength and Health, the old (and always bizarre)
Ironman, and an assortment of pure bodybuilding rags.
In the last decade or so, a new fitness genre appeared, as well as men's
magazines with "attitude," which usually means one paragraph of
writing for every three near-nude women holding a chainsaw. Call them
"strength lite," if you will.
I admit these magazines are the best airline flight reading I've found.
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Turn one page and you have 30 bulleted items detailing everything from
quick fixes for spills to how to care for a pet. But what recently caught
my eye was an interesting article about casual wear for men—written by
a woman. It wasn't the suggestions that stopped me; it was something
else:
Shirt: $245
Pants: "Flat front and sexy," $210
Belt: $105
Socks: $29
Shoes: $285
This is casual wear? I buy my socks in bags of six pair, my suits cost as
much as this guy's shirt, and I'm not sure I've ever bought a belt. Don't
they come with pants?
After flipping a few more pages, I found the "Training Program of the
Month." Forget squats, rows, and presses. This article was all about
reverse-grip rubber ball axe twists combined with Hungarian cross leaps.
I have no idea what these exercises are in the real world, but the guy
modeling them seemed to be getting a workout.
I don't think I'll ever make a living selling exercise programs. Why?
Because the single finest training system I've ever used continues to be
the only training program I like to recommend. The problem? Well, the
problem with this training program is: It's really hard. No, really.
It's really hard, but really simple. Still, a fitness magazine would never
run it because the average reader would never try it. Will you? We're
about to find out.
One Workout, One Lift
I call it the "One Lift a Day" program. Its roots are in the dim past of
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Olympic lifting, but it cuts past all the BS of modern training. It's so
simple that it can easily be overlooked. It cuts gym time, but increases
recovery time. It also may cause you to miss work.
First, let's discuss why anyone who tries this is going to hate it. I'd bring
this up later, but there are some subtle and not-so-subtle issues regarding
the One Lift a Day program. The biggest issue for most people trying
this for the first time is hard to fathom: You don't get to spend a lot of
time in the gym—because you can't spend a lot of time in the gym.
The other issue is closely related: Since you're only doing one exercise,
you can't slip away from squats to the leg extension machine to convince
yourself you're working your legs. If you're only doing squats, you do
squats. If you're only doing chins, you're going to chin for 45 minutes!
Doing "just chin ups" might have sounded like a grand idea in the car on
the way to the gym, but I guarantee after about five sets, you'll be
looking around for the relief that changing exercises brings to the mind
and body. On the One Lift a Day program, you aren't going to get that
relief.
The biggest problem is that there are no excuses. If you choose to do
squats, it's a squat day. There's no place to hide in this program. You
can't convince yourself you had a good day because you did 41 different
lifts or a lot of volume or you did a lot of abs after blowing off the stuff
you hate.
It's as simple as this: You pick one lift each day and do it for the entire
workout. The first advantage, obviously, is the simplicity—you don't
have to bring in a computerized printout of all the exercises, seat
positions, alignments, tempos, and order of lifts. You do one lift for an
entire workout. It sounds easy, doesn't it? Yeah, it can be deceptive that
way.
Reps and Sets
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Before considering exercise choices, let's look at approaches to reps and
sets. One thing that may help when attempting the One Lift a Day
program is to look at the training week a little more globally than most
trainers view a typical month or week. One idea is to cut volume by half
each successive week simply by changing reps and sets.
Week One: 7 sets of 5
This is a tough workout for any lift, but when doing big lifts like squats,
benches, deadlifts, presses, snatches, or cleans, it can become
exhausting. Through a little trial and error, I discovered that a simple
wave with the weight selection made for a better result:
Set 1: 225 for five
Set 2: 245 for five
Set 3: 265 for five
Set 4: 275 for five (getting tired, tough lift, might not be able to get
another set)
Set 5: 235 for five (nice refreshing drop in intensity)
Set 6: 255 for five (nice, challenging set—but not hellish)
Set 7: Either 275 or 285 (depending on spotters and energy)
Another idea that works well for bench presses (if you have great
spotters) and squats (even better spotters) is to use max weights. Lower
the bar on your own, but have your spotters help you through the lift to
insure a smooth rep. After finishing the five reps, rack the bar, and
perform eight to ten quick jumps for height (if squatting) or eight to ten
explosive pushups (if benching).
This is the workout that's caused more days lost from work or school
than any workout I've ever recommended. Seven sets of five max squats
followed by jumps seems to burn every fiber of the legs. My athletes, in
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some cases, literally can't get out of bed the next day.
I know of only two athletes who've ever done the seven sets of five with
jumps and made it to work or school the next day. But, as I tell them,
"One day you'll thank me. Today is not that day."
Week Two: 6 sets of 3
At 18 reps, this week is basically 50% of the volume of week one (35
reps versus 18). Repeat the same weekly format of week one, but try to
go a little heavier. After the volume of week one, week two seems rather
easy—on paper.
Week Three: 5–3–2
This may be my favorite sets and reps selection. Basically, we're
considering the double as a max. Coaches know all athletes lie about
max singles, but seldom do we find fuzzy logic with doubles. One thing
you can generally count on is that whatever someone can do for a
double, they can usually do for a single.
Trust me, athletes and coaches lie all the time about maxes. Go to any
college football locker room in America and ask for numbers. Recently a
college football player claimed a 540 clean as a max. The American
record in the clean and jerk is 517. So.
Week Four: Off!
On paper, the first three weeks look easy. When they look at week four,
many people scoff at the idea. "A week off! I scoff at thee!"
Try the One Lift a Day idea, then get back to me. If the week off still
sounds wrong, I'm willing to bet you didn't push the big exercises.
Exercise Selection
Exercise selection should match your goals. It should also match your
life. If you like to hit the bars or go dancing on the weekends, slide those
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squats away from Thursday or Friday. You literally won't be able to
move from one leg to the other. Come to think of it, that's how I dance
anyway.
For a powerlifter or someone who uses a "power bodybuilding"
approach, this One Lift a Day program would be perfect. Consider a
weekly approach like this:
Monday: Bench or incline bench press
Tuesday: Row or row variation
Wednesday: Squat
Thursday: Off
Friday: Military press
Saturday: Curl, deadlift, whatever
I can hear some of you already: "What about abs? What about serratus?"
Trust me, a 45-minute workout of military presses will work the
abdominal muscles as well as any ab machine advertised on late night
television.
A Few Things to Think About
The One Lift a Day Program is really hard. Certainly, it's the most
productive program most people have ever tried, but it's simply too hard.
It isn't fun, except for your buddies who laugh at you as you try to walk
after the squats. You probably won't even complete the whole month. (Is
that a double-dog dare? Yeah, I think it is.)
Interested in trying it? Think about a few things:
•
Big weights, short workouts. It's hard to go heavy for a long
workout. If you don't believe me, enter a strongman contest or a
Highland games.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 434
•
If the whole idea sounds crazy, just try an occasional "One Lift
Only" day. It certainly breaks the mold of what most trainers do
and is actually fun.
•
One Lift a Day might open up a new training paradigm for many
lifters: Core exercises are core and assistance exercise assist! In the
past decade, many trainers have forgotten this basic truth.
The worst thing that can happen from squatting once a week is that your
thighs might outgrow that $210 pair of pants that are "flat front and
sexy."
You've been warned.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 435
The Hypertrophy and Recovery Program
This program was originally called “The Post-Deployment Program.” I
wrote this for my special military friends that have had multiple
deployments and needed some guidelines that also helped with mobility,
work capacity, strength, flexibility, and power. This is/was my best
answer.
I work with a lot of people who get deployed into combat and come
back tired, and sometimes a bit broken. When they log onto the internet,
they’re bombarded with ads for working harder and longer. But what
they need is some “mild.” They need some mobility; they need some
body composition work; they need time to put themselves back together.
With great volunteers—I have to thank George and Andrew for all the
feedback and insights—I came up with a fairly simple program. It’s the
basics you know: push, pull, hinge, squat and loaded carries.
It’s also a mix of Tim Anderson’s Original Strength. And it’s evolved
into something that surprises literally everyone who tries it. It’s easy, but
it’s hard. It’s simple, but it works. Let’s look at it.
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At the end of three months, we can hope for modest goals. Here you go:
Goals for the Program in Month Three
Squat bodyweight for 25 reps
Do four “hang for 30 seconds, then pull up”
Rack deadlift double bodyweight
Press more in the half-kneeling one-arm press
I chose these specifically for a good and manageable set of goals—not
the best possible improvement in the history of training. If you can squat
bodyweight for 25, I’m guessing you have some strength and mobility
and some muscle mass.
Hanging for 30 seconds is great for the grip, miraculously improves
shoulders and gives us that nice pop we call “the poor man’s
chiropractor” in my gym. Doing a pullup after the hang is tough. Doing
that combo four times without letting go of the bar takes some training.
About three months of training.
The rack deadlift goal is a safe way to test overall body strength, as well
as a great test for the grip. Moreover, even tender backs seem to like the
nearly pure hinge of the movement.
The half-kneeling press demands that the hip flexors are stretched, the
pelvis and the rib box are in line and the shoulders are powerful. This is
my answer to that dumb question, “If you could only do one lift, what
would it be?”
Each movement is done in three consecutive parts. There’s an Original
Strength movement, an easy variation of loaded carries and then the lift.
Many consider the OS a rest, but on weeks three and four, you might
need to rest after every set—or “round,” as we call these groups.
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Push
Prone neck nod
Kettlebell waiter walk
Lift (half-kneeling press)
Pull
Prone “find your shoes”
Kettlebell single side rack walk, down and back
Lift (hanging pullup)
Hinge
Six-point nods
Kettlebell suitcase carry, down and back
Lift (rack deadlift: bar set at one inch above the knee the first time
you go through the three-month program. The next time, try one
inch below the knee.)
Squat
Six-point rock
Hip-flexor stretch
Lift (squat options follow)
Squat Options
Back squat first three months no matter what
Front squat
Overhead squat
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Depth (go deeper)
Pause (each rep!)
Remedial: goblet squat
Loaded Carry
Bear crawl
Cross crawl
The carry—whichever you’re doing that day: farmer walks, bear
hugs, juggernauts
For example, if doing three sets of eight:
Prone neck nod
Waiter walk
Press 20 kilos x 8
Prone neck nod
Waiter walk
Press 20 kilos x 8
Prone neck nod
Waiter walk
Press 20 kilos x 8
The waiter walk is 20 kilos or so… maybe 20 meters each arm. It’s just
to make sure everything is tying up.
Rest Periods
Save for loaded carries, the Original Strength movements (nods, find
your shoes and rocks) are the “rest periods.” Allow them to calm you
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down. I’ve discovered that 30 seconds of OS is a shockingly long time
to do these movements. We experimented up to two minutes for these…
as we feel good.
If you can get two people to do this with you, the loaded carries triad
should be done basically without stopping. The bear crawls are horrific,
by the way. Just keeping going as best you can: one person cross crawls,
another carries and the third does bear crawls.
Overall, rest as you need.
What’s nice is you’ll find you ease into conditioning with only one
round on week one, two on two and so forth. Week one workouts tend to
go very fast in months two and three… even with the tough squat sets.
Tim Anderson Original Strength Material
Thank you, Tim. Your contributions[ to the world of fitness are vastly
under-appreciated. You make a difference in this world.
Prone Neck Nods
Lie on your belly
Prop up on your elbows
Leading with your eyes, look up and nod your head up
Look down and nod your head down
Find Your Shoes
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Lie on your belly
Prop up on your elbows
Leading with your eyes, look left and rotate your head to the left
Look right and rotate your head to the right
Try to find your shoes
Six-Point Nods
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Get on your hands and knees
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Keep a tall sternum (flat gorilla back)
Leading with your eyes, look up and nod your head up
Look down and nod your head down
Six-Point Rocking
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Get on your hands and knees
Keep a tall sternum (flat gorilla back)
Keep your head UP on the horizon
Rock back and forth as far as you can without losing your tall
sternum and without dropping your head
Grizzly Bear Crawl
Crawl on your hands and feet
Keep your head up on the horizon
Keep a tall sternum (flat gorilla back)
Keep your butt down below your head—back level with the
ground
Move opposite limbs together
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Cross-Crawl
Stand tall
Touch your opposite elbow to your opposite knee
Alternate back and forth between sides
If you cannot touch elbow to knee without bending over, touch the
opposite hand to thigh
The following information, on sets and reps, will give you an idea on
how the program ramps up monthly. Week one is always fairly short,
but the reps in one set are very high. As we go through the month, the
sets increase and reps decrease. You will be doing the moves and
specific carries in each and every set. Week four will be a lot of Original
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Strength and carries.
Then, we back off to one set again.
I thank Josh Hillis for this great insight for simple programming: One set
in week one, two in two, three in three and four in four. So simple, but
so effective.
Sets and Reps
Week One
1 x 25
Week Two
2 x 15
Week Three
3x8
Week Four
4x5
Three-Day-a-Week Loads:
Real light, a bit more, and a challenge
Load Recommendations
Press
With the press, the devil is in the details. I want you to do half-kneeling
presses with:
Left knee down, left hand press
Right knee down, right hand press
This will also give the hip flexors a nice stretch and teach the pelvis to
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stay under the rib cage. Remember, week one is 25 reps, so you need to
start light. The example here is for a man who wanted to press the 28kilo kettlebell.
Note: Typically, Wednesday’s load becomes next Monday’s load and
Friday’s load becomes Wednesday’s. Also, notice that the jumps in load
are very small, like two kilos… five pounds.
Pull
From some wonderful research from Hawaii and the experiences of
improving some people’s pull ups by simply hanging, I’m
recommending something very simple.
Month One: All straight-arm hangs for time
Month Two: All flexed-arm hangs for time
Month Three: Hang (straight arm) followed by single
pullups...until test day
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On week one, day one, establish a repeatable base of one single hang for
time. Don’t overdo it. Try to extend it on days two and three.
Week two, day one, try to match last day three’s time in the two sets
(easy day). Strive to increase this the two next days… beat that total on
Monday in three sets and continue on. Ideally, on week four, day three,
you’ll comfortably beat your base time on week one on all four sets.
Next month, repeat with flexed-arm hang. This will be much more
difficult.
Month three: Practice the test, 30-second hang, then one pullup. Try to
build up to two reps that are easy.
Squat
If you weigh 135 or under, use the 135 goal; 136–165, use the 165 goal.
If you’re 166–185, use the 185 goal. From 186–205, use either 185 or
225. Everyone heavier just use 225.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 448
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 449
Rack Deadlift
Place the bar either in a rack or on boxes so the bar is one inch above
knee height.
Stretch the hammies and hinge each and every lift. Finish in a vertical
plank. I suggest going crazy light on the rack deadlifts each week with
the single set of 25, sneaking up to bodyweight on the two sets of 15.
You can certainly choose to go heavier, but I don’t suggest pushing this
exercise for these three months.
Yes, that’s vague.
Oddly, these high-rep hinges can cause a lot of soreness and maybe even
twinge the back if you have some poor technical reps. So… don’t go
there.
Remember to match the day two and day three loads on next week’s
days one and two. In month one, don’t ever really push this lift.
That was excellent advice when I first put this program out. A couple of
people misunderstood this and simply used the squat program numbers
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 450
for the rack deadlift. In month three, in every case, they felt good one
day and maxed out. Every experimenter easily pulled the doublebodyweight lift.
What do I know?
It works, it’s simple and it’s logical. If you don’t like thinking about load
and just want to train, just use the squat numbers on the deadlifts.
Loaded Carries
Make up something new and different every workout and just enjoy
pushing, dragging and carrying. That’s all!
One additional thing I mention during my presentations to the military—
and this is important. I’m no expert, but this is the very good advice I’ve
stolen from other presenters:
Repair your Hormonal Cascade
Get up at dawn and walk.
Go to bed no more than two hours after it’s dark.
Sleep in the darkest room you can manage.
You have to have hormones to sleep and love.
You need people in your life!!!
Sleep with human contact… or your dog.
Sample Workout for Month Two, Week Two, Day Three
This is a 180-pound male using the kettlebell numbers from the chart for
one-armed presses, rack deadlift and squat from the squat chart for 185
pounders.
Push
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First Set
Prone neck nod
Kettlebell waiter walk (down and back with a 20k bell)
Lift (half-kneeling press)
15 reps left hand (left knee down) with a 20k bell
15 reps right hand (right knee down) with a 20k bell
Second Set
Prone neck nod
Kettlebell waiter walk, down and back with a 20k bell
Lift (half-kneeling press)
15 reps left hand (left knee down) with a 20k bell
15 reps right hand (right knee down) with a 20k bell
Pull
First Set
Prone “find your shoes”
Kettlebell single-side rack walk, down and back (20k bell)
Lift (hanging pullup)
Today, go for a limit flexed-arm hang—be sure to note the time.
Second Set
Prone “find your shoes”
Kettlebell single-side rack walk, down and back (20k bell)
If you wish, do another round of flexed-arm hang and ease off far
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before failure.
Hinge
First Set
Six-point nods
Kettlebell suitcase carry, down and back (20k bell)
Rack deadlift, 185 x 15 reps
Second Set
Six-point nods
Kettlebell suitcase carry, down and back (20k bell)
Rack deadlift, 185 x 15 reps
Squat
First Set
Six-point rock
Hip flexor stretch
Back squat, 185 x 15 reps
Second Set
Six-point rock
Hip flexor stretch
Back squat, 185 x 15 reps
Loaded Carry
First set, all for 30 meters
Bear crawl
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Cross crawls
Farmer walks with 20k bells in both hands
Second set, all for 30 meters
Bear crawl
Cross crawls
Farmer walks with 20k bells in both hands
This looks like a lot on paper, but once you get the hang of combining
Original Strength with all the additional carries—there’s a LOT of
carrying in the program—you’ll see your work capacity swell.
And that’s, well, swell.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 454
10 of the Many Lessons I learned from Coach
Maughan
I include this list because I think Coach Maughan would have loved the
basics of Easy Strength and the concepts behind it. In addition, I fear
we’re losing the lessons and legacies of this amazing generation of
athletes, coaches, and people.
Coach Ralph Maughan epitomized everything we believe as coaches,
teachers, and mentors. His experiences, both bad (horrific, in the case of
his experience in WWII) and good, always kept him grounded and
insightful when it came to advice and illumination. He was funny, but in
the dry WWII wit that often rubbed some athletes wrong.
When he coached, you had to prepare yourself for a vision that basically
was “this way.” Perhaps “HIS way” would be more appropriate. With
his successes, his years of experience, and his amazing intelligence, “this
way” was always the right way. I offer you Coach Maughan’s Top 10
Life Lessons that will help you perform better, but also find a route to
your goals and dreams.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 455
One: Coach had a plaque on his desk that stated, “Be Reasonable:
Do it My Way”
He loved to tell people at clinics and workshops about this plaque.
Coach wasn’t arrogant, but it was hard to argue with his amazing
success as a coach and person. When something new and slick and
pretty and shiny showed up in track and field (and in the 1960s and
1970s, this was practically a daily occurrence), he was always quick to
remind us of the path we’d been on, and we should consider sticking to
it.
It was a reasonable request.
I’ve always thought this definition of the reasonable person by Percy
Henry Winfield to be, well, reasonable:
He has not the courage of Achilles, the wisdom of Ulysses or the
strength of Hercules, nor has he the prophetic vision of a
clairvoyant. He will not anticipate folly in all its forms but he
never puts out of consideration the teachings of experience shows
such negligence and so will guard against negligence of others
when experience shows such negligence to be common. He is a
reasonable man but not a perfect citizen, nor a "paragon of
circumspection.”
This sounds like a lot of people I know.
Reasonableness is not only a pillar of the study of law, but it used to be
considered one of the rocks of a person of integrity. Integrity, according
to my mom, was being one person all the time no matter the
circumstances. I’ve been with cardinals of the Catholic Church at dinner,
stars from Broadway, professional athletes, Olympians, and fitness
models, yet I strive to follow this simple advice from my mother.
Ideally, at my funeral, you’ll all be talking about the same guy in my urn
or casket.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 456
Integrity comes from the same root as “integer.” Basically, like a whole
number, integrity asks you to be a whole person. I’ve found, and this is
nothing unusual as billions have done it before me, that being reasonable
in our thoughts, actions, beliefs, and approach to life allows us to handle
the contradictions, disparities, and unpleasantness of living in
community.
Two: Make yourself a slave to good habits
Each year at our fall team meeting, Coach would remind all of us,
coaches and athletes, that the path to success in university life is fairly
simple. Others have noted the same things: “Show up,” “Don’t quit,”
and “Ask questions” has been with me for decades.
Coach always added the real key here: “Make yourself a SLAVE to
good habits.”
It took me a few times to hear it, but there’s a success industry built
surrounding this simple point. It’s a rare day when I “discover” a new
secret to success involving things like making my bed first thing in the
morning or writing a to-do list before I go to sleep.
The Aggie track team never really needed to buy books or programs on
success: If we mastered good habits, like “go to class” and “go to
practice,” amazing things happened as a student athlete. This has been
true my whole life: The “secret” to success, to paraphrase Woody Allen,
is simply showing up.
It’s a good habit.
As you know, “shark habits” is one of my favorite habits. For many of
life’s decisions, I make a “shark” decision: one bite and its gone! If I
open an email, I answer it. If I open a letter, I respond or send a check or
tell the bride I’ll be there. I don’t make a lot of decisions after I decide.
Of course, “decide” comes from the root “to cut or to kill.” I’m very
comfortable cutting off other options in life. If I order a cheese
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sandwich, I have no regrets that I could have ordered something else. In
the buffet line of life, I picked what I wanted and stuck to my choices.
Happiness, I think, is understanding that so much of life is what you
choose.
As the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade warned us,
“Choose wisely.”
Three: Little and Often over the Long Haul
Coach Maughan and I talked in his office for about an hour in the fall of
1977. I’d just arrived on campus and was eager to start training. I’d
broken all my personal records in an Olympic lifting meet and was
itching to get going with my training.
I could tell he liked my enthusiasm, but he was also trying to caution me
to ease up a bit. At the time, I couldn’t hear him. I regret this.
He told me that the key to throwing far was “little and often over the
long haul.” Basically, as a thrower, he wanted me to lift three days a
week, throw four days a week…for the next EIGHT years.
The USU system was simple. Coach wrote this for the USTCA Quarterly
Review, October 1967, (“Discus Throwing Technique”):
“During the months of July, August and September, our throwers
work entirely on their own. From October until January we have a
program of lifting weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We
work on the discus form on Tuesday and Thursday. During the
winter months from January to April we are able to work indoors
in our fieldhouse. We then lift on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,
and throw on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. During the
competitive season from April to July, we lift on Monday and
Wednesday and throw Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
On the days we throw, we like to complete our practice sessions by
doing sprint work consisting of 30, 40 or 50 yard sprints.”
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There’s nothing fancy here. Some of us, like me, wanted more time in
the weightroom, but the great throwers just followed the basic outline.
Coach was clear to me, over and over, that I should be a thrower who
lifts, not a lifter who throws.
I didn’t listen. That’s on me, as we say today.
Like so many of us, I wanted to crush those eight years into two. The
same person who goes to bars or drives too young with fake IDs is often
the person who lies about age years later (albeit in reverse). Some can’t
wait for adulthood, then act like teens when they’re parents and
grandparents.
If you want riches, save 10 percent starting today. Get yourself debt free.
Don’t waste money on investments that eat or float (boats!). Don’t burn
through money with fancy cars. Yes, you might know that…but do you
do that?
As the great discus thrower John Powell taught us the secret to track and
field success, “Yard by yard, it’s hard, but inch by inch, it’s a cinch.” It’s
a truth in every area of life.
Four: The Two-Day Lag Rule
Coach was intuitive when it came to the human body. Yes, he knew the
basics of anatomy and biology, but he was also a keen observer. As his
career developed, he came up with a simple concept: The Two-Day Lag
Rule.
Basically, it’s this: You can train hard the day before an event. It
probably wouldn’t have a big impact on you Saturday when you lined up
to compete. But, TWO days before a competition, all we did at USU was
an easy warmup. Coach believed—correctly, as I came to know in my
experience—that competitions were ultimate in training. You can’t get
more specific as a 400-meter runner than having an official shoot a gun
and a bunch of people madly sprint to chase as much lactic acid as
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possible into their legs.
Competing is the ultimate training. Phil Maffetone made this much
clearer to me in his life-changing book Everyone is an Athlete.
Maffetone’s advanced programs look exactly like what Coach Maughan
developed through his years as head coach. Yes, you must train hard.
Maffetone teaches us:
1. Typically, there should be two, at most three, anaerobic workouts a
week (like sprints and lifting)
2. They should never be on consecutive days.
3. They should be preceded by a day off or an easy day.
4. They should be followed by an easy day.
5. A warmup and cool down should be part of the training.
6. Any competition, like Coach Maughan advocated, should be
considered a hard day.
7. These programs should last at least four to six weeks.
8. They should not continue past approximately 12 weeks.
Yes, you must train hard.
But.
Two days before an event, you must take it easy.
Five: Continuous Acceleration
Everybody seems to know the rhythms of elite sport. As I was once told,
there are two ways to do most sports:
Start slow and go fast.
Start fast and go faster.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 460
Coach Maughan emphasized “continuous acceleration.” We were
always taught to finish fast. In the throws, the implement comes around
“last and fast.” “Finish fast” in the sprints and hurdles. In our family, we
have a motto: It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. This ties
into Coach’s insight.
I remember Coach telling Frank White, “It would help if you slowed
down to 90 miles an hour at the start.” I got a kick out of that and later
realized that actually trying to start as slow as possible, especially in the
early season, helped me find the SNAP at the end of the throw.
It’s more than start slow and go fast, but when done correctly, the action
feels so effortless that you’ll want to mess it up with “start fast and fall
apart.”
There’s a popular way of looking at ventures and adventures now: “Fail
fast!” If you open a business that strangles you in a dozen ways…GET
OUT! If you meet the love of your life who also is an axe murderer…
well, again, GET OUT!
In sports, if you don’t have the gifts or adequate interest, figure this out
sooner than later. But if you do decide to keep going, strive for
continuous acceleration.
I’m sure there’s a life lesson there.
Six: If your brains were in your feet, you would throw farther
My grades were excellent, and Coach Maughan enjoyed teasing me with
this particular line. Years later, I’d try to teach young American football
defensive backs that the best way to get “from here to there” was not to
reach with an arm, but to move their feet.
Sometimes we think so hard, we turn into statues. J. K. Doherty used
this anonymous poem to explain so much of track and field:
A centipede was happy quite,
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Until a frog in fun
Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?"
This raised her mind to such a pitch,
She lay distracted in the ditch
Considering how to run.
At the National Championships in 1962, Utah State legend Glenn Passey
got so nervous, he literally forgot how to throw the discus. Coach took
him into a corner of the stadium and walked him through the sport. His
feet knew what to do; he won the championship.
Coach once summed his whole process of recruiting athletes. He told
me, “Only recruit speed and smarts. You can’t change either.” Sadly,
sometimes the smart kids overthink things. Some, like me, overthink
everything!
We can all suffer at the feet of this problem of thinking with our monkey
minds.
Seven: Attack with the knee!
Track and field events demand countless repetitions toward mastery.
These are sports where the thinking takes place months or years before
competition. They’re also sports that demand the human body perform
as it was designed to perform: leaping, sprinting, jumping, bounding,
throwing, or running.
Knowing this brings us to a problem: How do we coach those things that
are literally born into our bodies? Coach Maughan loved simple phrases
that conveyed a lot of information. My favorite was, “Attack with the
knee.”
Whether hurdling, pole vaulting, jumping (in all its forms), or throwing
(most of the time), “attack with the knee” will get the athlete to fully
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utilize and extend the opposite limbs! What’s nice about this cue is it’s
an active word, but also gets the brain to help the body get things in the
right alignment.
If there’s a foundational movement in track and field, it’s to attack with
the knee.
In working with people, I find a few cues that I repeat during a
movement. I don’t use a lot of them, just a few repeatable ones. During
any kind of plank, I’ll say:
“Squeeze your heels together.”
“Squeeze the sweat out of your arm pits.”
Oddly, for dynamic, ballistic movements, I might only say, “Go!!!”
Cues are best kept simple. Cues are best repeated over and over. Good
cues carry a ton of information.
Find good cues.
Eight: For some athletes, competition turns the iron in their blood to
lead
One of the things the modern generation of coaches doesn’t do as well as
Coach Maughan’s era, and YES I include myself in this group, is the
vision of performance. Performers perform, no matter what the situation.
Bud Winters, the head coach at San Jose State and a good friend of
Coach Maughan’s, became famous for the phrase we discussed earlier,
“Relax and win.” One could also go to Oregon and talk to Bill
Bowerman about his “Hard/Easy” philosophy.
And that would just be the start.
Coach Maughan’s generation focused on what athletes did at a meet or
game.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 463
One of the great methods of coaching and teaching is the “Whole–Part–
Whole–Part–Whole” system where we break the full movement into
parts, then keep coming back to the whole thing. In that generation, a
drill was simply a drill. It wasn’t judged by any standard and only
mattered if it helped with the full movement.
Many athletes crumble under the pressure of elite competition. A
teammate once said to me, “I heard X was All-State.” I told him, kindly,
that we were ALL “All this and All that” and he would probably be
lining up against Olympians at most of our meets. He literally gasped.
The focus of training must be on the competition. One of the great ways
to deal with the stress is to put people in situations that challenge them
to grow. I certainly learned a lot of hard lessons my first year as an
Aggie taking fifth and sixth place in meets after winning so often in
California. My competition? Some of the best in the world came to Utah
to train and compete and I was facing Olympians from all over.
I learned quickly that I needed iron in my blood to succeed.
Nine: If it works, it works
Coach was constantly trying to think of new ways to improve us. I’ve
often said about the late Brian Oldfield, world record holder in the shot
put, that you could take him to a hardware store, and he’d invent a new
drill just by playing with the stuff he found there.
Coach Maughan had us throw a fixed 110-pound barbell to teach
“keeping the chest up.” He showed up one day with heavy doughnuts he
had a friend weld for him to allow us to do overweight throwing. Later, I
learned the East German throwers did something similar.
When L. Jay Silvester went home to practice the discus and figured out
that a wide leg at the back made his discus go farther, Coach Maughan
was all ears. He not only encouraged Silvester, but he became the voice
of a new technique that’s now the standard.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 464
Other coaches, as you can see in the book The Wizard of Foz, actually
try to hold back innovation. Coach supported my attempts (I should say,
“dangerous attempts”) at adding multiple turns in the discus. It never
worked well, but we sure enjoyed doing it.
He was one of the first coaches to embrace weightlifting. He designed
starting blocks and had ideas about better hurdles. He was always
searching for “better.”
Ten: Marry well
When I taught economics, I went to a course on financial planning.
There was an interesting segue about the importance of marrying well
and investing in one’s spouse.
Coach was miles ahead. He, of course, married Mrs. Maughan (I’ll never
be able to call her Byrnece). She was basically a full-time coach who
probably did more counseling and good will than any administrator in
USU’s history. She talked me down off the ceiling after bad
performances and in later years, happily, only remembered my good
moments.
There’s a video online about some of the athletes complaining that this
person or that person “had to do the laundry” for the program. For
MOST of Coach Maughan’s career, Mrs. Maughan did the laundry, the
darning, the fixing, the adjusting, and the ironing of the entire team’s
practice and competition uniforms and warmup clothes.
I can only imagine the smell. One other thing: She never complained
about it. There was a greater purpose to everything this couple did for
us. It still shows today as I write this.
There’s nothing fancy or original on this list, but it’s all true and battleproven. I miss Coach Maughan and his wife every single day.
But…I always share the lessons.
John / EASY STRENGTH OMNIBOOK / 465
Who is Dan John?
Dan has been lifting weights since 1965 when his brothers brought home
a Sears Barbell. He fell in love with the concept of progressive
resistance exercise immediately. He played both American and soccer
football, wrestled, and hurdled throughout his scholastic years. He began
throwing the discus in his freshman year in high school and competed at
the national level for 41 years. He has won numerous state and national
championships as a discus thrower, Olympic lifter, Highland Gamer, and
Weight Pentathlete. He has attained All-American status multiple times
as a thrower and lifter.
Moreover, he has advanced degrees in history and religious education
and traveled the Middle East as a Fulbright scholar. He has written
extensively on weight training but also medieval texts and religious
studies. He retired from teaching religious studies at Columbia College
of Missouri recently after decades of service but continues as a Senior
Lecturer at St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, London.
He continues to compete as an Olympic lifter striving to keep breaking
masters records. His greatest joy are his daughters, Kelly and Lindsay,
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and his three grandchildren, Danny, Josephine, and Leo.
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