School days
When I was younger I went to a private school in Christchurch where a few of my fellow students came from farms. A lot of them had what is now called "Farmers strength"
This type of strength is achieved by performing general laborious chores on the farm, consistency and sporadicly over the space of the day. This was the type of everyday life these kids were exposed to, they were stronger than the rest of us. It could also explain the main reason why the All-Blacks have become such a reckoning force in rugby history.
Farmer's strength is not built by living a sedentary life, with the exception of going to the gym for an hour 3-4 times per week.
True strength is achieved by regular moderate efforts, with a bit of sub maximal effort thrown in now and then to test yourself. Moderate effort aiming at 50-60% of what the body can do, never performed to failure or total fatigue. Rest periods are long enough to enable the body to fully recover(this means the nervous system too) so the task can be performed again. If you are getting weaker, the rest periods are not long enough and you may be pushing yourself too hard.
Could you imagine living on a farm or being in the military where you performed a task until failure only to find you had to have the next two days off to recover. That could lead to a disaster if you had a heavy leg training day and were unable to walk the next few days.
The protocol of my pushup challenge is based on teaching you how to acquire Farmer's strength, you only do half of what you are capable of at regular intervals spaced over the day, and the secret is consistency. If you are consistent in your efforts you will become stronger than you had ever thought possible.
A story
Back when I was a personal trainer in a community gym, a woman came in and asked if I could help her husband out. He had a bad back and was a farmer, so wanted to see if there was any way to strengthen his body up, especially his back.
When he came in I suggested training for 30-45 minutes 4 times per week, but we would train smartly and with perfect technique, after all strength is a skill. After about four months he came to me one evening, telling me that someone in the gym had told him he was training wrong.
I asked who, and couldn't help but smile when I realised who he was talking about. This young gentleman trained for about two hours 6 days per week.
I told the farmer to come with me, we will go have a friendly chat. (I knew this other young man quite well too I should add).
As we approached this hard trainer, he starting saying he was only trying to help, as he thought this farmer was training wrong. I already knew my answer before I asked the question, but I asked anyway. "Shall we have a competition" to which he eagerly said yes!
I suggested he go first on a machine called leg extension, he managed to perform 23 with the full stack of 126kg. As the farmer sat down for his go and was about to start, I said "one leg", I had been training him one leg at a time on his lifts.
This time I suggested he push himself to failure, something we hadn't done before. He did 23 on his left leg and 27 on his right, both performed with the full stack too.
Its strange, it seems too easy
The reality is, it is actually relatively easy.
It works to increase your base level strength which in turn will improve your maximum strength as a side effect, but a great side effect it is.
While others in the gym are busting themselves training at maximum intensity, you will train with moderate intensity but pass them. It is tricky to get your head around as the old paradigm no pain, no gain dies hard.
I love Pavel Tsatsoulines's (who trains the elite special forces) quote "If you train to failure, you are in essence training the body to fail" You are setting up neural pathways where the body is expecting to fail.
You want to leave the gym feeling like you still have something left in the tank.
I am constantly amazed by cultures that have to rely on their own strength instead of machinery, and to what levels of strength they've attained without directly trying to.
A typical Eskimo male is able to lift 50kg in each hand and pull 100kgs in his teeth, not just that, he is able to do it for miles.
I have a picture of a swiss lady in her late 60's carrying 50kg of rye on her back, and over a mountain range, which she would do daily.
We need to start incorporating a little more exercise spread out over the day, such as taking the stairs, parking five rows away from the entrance when you go shopping. That will enable you to get some natural light, and you can carry your groceries back to the car for a little cardio and strength work.
I strongly recommend having a read of my blog, Exercise, do you have 10 seconds a week? to show you what is possible when you are consistent, even with only a few seconds a few times each week.
My name is Blair Harvey and I have had the pleasure of working at one of Australia's best Health Retreat's for the past fourteen wonderful years. Over those years I have had the delight of working with a spectacular kitchen team, we all have an immense passion for cooking good healthy food that is unique and tantalizing to your taste buds. Together we have not only developed our skills in cooking wholesome, nourishing and out right delicious foods, but we have been committed to broadening our knowledge of healing with whole foods and exploring the beauty of healthy living. Because of our enthusiasm in the benefits of foods and there healing properties I developed a blog to help us SHARE what we have learnt with the rest of the world.
You will find tasty gems of wisdom on health, food and healing, helping to expand your mind and revitalize your knowledge of healthy eating.