A collection of thoughts: How long should you workout? Does neck training matter? Is single limb training better?
In a not so distant past all of my writing consisted of outlining 3 thoughts and ideas. Hell, I even named my podcast 'The 3 Things Podcast' for that very reason.
After (literally) years of trying to write consistently, and failing over and over again at sticking with it, I found that I work best in short format, typically 3 things, and elaborate on those points once they are outlined. In past newsletters and Purposeful Strength articles you may have noticed that pattern.
Alas, my good friend, I am going back to my roots this week and highlighting 3 things that keep reoccurring in my mind...
A quick aside here- this is a strategy I use to help get back on task with all elements in my life. When I find myself struggling to get it done, I default to trying to simplify the task. Maybe this strategy will help you?
1) Training effectiveness has nothing to do with session length, but has more to do with frequency of exposure.
I, yet again, had this conversation with a client AND with myself this week. Somewhere along the way we were told that a 60 minute workout is the best time constraint to train in. I'm not sure if it's because group exercise classes were always 60 minutes? If because FDA exercise suggestions were broken down in to 60 minute segments?
I'm here to tell you that even 15 minutes of movement goes a hell of a long way. Don't believe me? Check out this research follow up form the American Heart Association. They did a huge multi-year study that correlated an increase of steps to a decrease of mortality, regardless of how those steps came...all at once, or in short bursts.
Your training sessions can follow that same pattern. Now, if it isn't what you are used to and it feels 'weird', that's a you-thing. That doesn't mean it isn't effective. So the next time you're all up in arms because you can't carve out 60 minutes, carve out 20-30 minutes and get it in.
2) As adults, we take for granted the mobility we have in our neck.
This is my own recency bias. I have a 6 week old baby at home who is moving her head all over the place now. Lift and look right. Lift and look left. Lift and look up. It's impressive. It has me thinking about how little we move our heads as adults.
We look down at our phone.
We look over our right shoulder when we back our cars around.
And that's it?
We definitely take for granted how much mobility we need, and very rarely do our training sessions and lifestyle acknowledge this. I remember taking a workshop by the company Original Strength and going through a days of neck turns, crawling, rolling, and carrying things. Literally doing training that followed natural physical development, the stuff that we all did as a baby to get to where we are now.
Man, I was wrecked the next day. But in a fun oh-my-goodness-why-don't-I-do-this-more kind of way.
This has been one of my biggest programming changes for me and my clients over the last 8 months...more breathing and more nodding and turning at the neck. Doesn't seem like much, but when you don't have a cranky neck, life is more fun.
3) Single-leg arm/leg training is still criminally underrated.
22 year old Casey would kick 32 year old Casey square in the shin if he read this. I'm not saying single arm/leg training is great for 'old people'. Rather, I think that the emphasis on using equipment that beats up your muscles and not your bones and joints is worthwhile when you are an adult who just wants to feel good, feel strong, keep up with your kids, and not die going up the stairs when you're running to grab a seltzer during commercials.
I feel that last point...
There are also some awesome core benefits from training with a single arm or leg. A few weeks ago, Tony Bonvechio wrote a great guest post highlighting ways for those in a time-crunch to get their training in (you can read that right here) and one of those suggestions was to choose big bang for your buck exercises. Single arm/leg is just that and then some. With the added stability needed to perform the movement(s), the weight tends to be a touch lighter, and the chance of injury drops dramatically. Also, as you are performing one side, the other gets to rest. What up training economy?
And the unsung hero? An increase in metabolic demand. Since you have to train one side then the other, you essentially have to perform each exercise twice over. This increases the aerobic demand on the body (sup, lungs?) and that has some amazing effects on your body post-workout.
Should everything you do be single arm/leg? Maybe, but probably not. Is it worthwhile to include something like this 1-2 times in your training session? Yeah, I really think it is.