One of the things that I would like to discuss in this edition of "Each Day... A Little Stronger" is the most influential principles of training the human body towards strength gains, any kind of gain. Muscle size, endurance, density, explosiveness, etc.  In order to produce gains from training there are a certain description that any training program should follow in order to really create permanent muscle gains.  This will be the first of a few following posts to reflect and analyze the principles of strength gaining.  What they mean, why they are essential, and how they need to be implemented into training regimens.

The first Principle that will be discussed is that of Recovery.  This is, in my opinion, the most important of all the principles of strength training, and also the most neglected.  Often athletes have this all or nothing approach to workouts and they will blast themselves for weeks on end and train hours and hours a day.  While using sound techniques and good bio mechanical movements, they will never get as fast or strong as they could.  Why? Because the body does not adapt or change permanently during periods of excitement.  The feeling of bulging muscles and veiny arms or legs happens only due to the increased heart rate produced from the physical activity.  Recovery is so important here because the body will only create permanent physiological changes to the muscles and/or cardiovascular system when in a state of rest and recovery.  This is a period of time where the body is not experiencing intense physical activity and the rebuilding processes of the body can perform their function of repairing and fortifying the affected areas stressed by the exercises done.  So, quite simply what should be taken out of this soapbox session is that if you want to gain strength, take a day, or two, of every training week, and REST!

Tomorrow's training session is going to be interesting, I need to work on my plyometrics, so tomorrow I am going to do a plyometric session.... a very intense one. A bit of an insight to a philosophy of mine concerning strength training... it is better to undertrain than to overtrain.  Listen to your body, once you can't do a certain exercise with proper form, stop! Forcing exercises can cause injury and what could have been just 1 set or rep of one exercise off turns into 1 or more weeks of everything off.

Tuesday May 8th 2012:
AM run: 5 Miles
stretch

Plyos:
2 sets of:
-1x25 squat jumps
-1x20 single leg rockets
-1x40 calve raises
-2x25 toe jumps
-1x 2 min jump rope