Friday afternoon.
Great Bottom ST session.
I usually start with deadlifts and then do squats, but since I'd already done deadlifts earlier in the week, while giving my squats short shrift, I decided to start with squats this time. Wow, I'll have to do that more often. I was able to push it more, and my form felt decent. Then I followed it up with trap bar deadlifts. I had been neglecting my trap bar for a while, but like Abide says, trap bar deadlifts are probably better for runners than barbell deadlifts--they use the legs more and the back less. The next day I really felt sore in my quads, hammies, and glutes.
Saturday afternoon.
Spent the day carving pumpkins and winterizing the house and yard. Then lite bench press and bicep curls. I didn't want to push it, just wanted to get some blood flow to my gimpy shoulder, which feels pretty good now, but it was on the bench presses that I tweaked it, so I thought it best to keep the weight low and the reps high.
So, almost a whole week without running--just 9.7 miles on the week. Sheesh. But six ST sessions. Will try to get in a run down by the river later this morning. I still have a bit of a cough, but the cooties seem like they're on their way out.
I just registered for a MovNat session next week, the concept attracted me after reading a blog about fascia (
http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/the-top-5-ways-fascia-matters-to-athletes.). I will try to give you my impressions on it !
Look forward to hearing about it.
When I say silliness, I mean the way MovNat and other functional fitness folks slam more traditional strength training and present their methods as vastly superior. This is simply not true.
First of all, the most important thing is to find an aerobic and an anaerobic activity you enjoy, so that you keep doing it. If MovNat turns out to be your anaerobic bliss, that's great. If other people prefer weights, why would anyone try to persuade them to do something else?
Second, weights are often mischaracterized as being about muscles, not movements, and they always bring up biceps curls as the paradigmatic 'isolation' exercise. Well, it's true, a lot of machines do try to isolate muscles, and force you into unnatural movements that require little coordination or balance. But most free weights exercises are compound movements through natural planes and ranges of motion, and require a fair amount of balance and coordination. Even biceps curls, if done standing up with dumbbells, alternating arms, will bring almost all your upper body muscles into play.
Third, the whole idea of free weights is to break things down into component parts so that you can strengthen them. Sure, you can pick up a log and lift it over your head. But if you break the movement down, and do deadlifts and shoulder presses, for example, with strict form and a stable platform, you'll be able to do more weight at each corresponding phase of the log-lifting movement, and thus become stronger overall.
Likewise, a functional fitness type might suggest doing standing biceps curls one-legged, in order to train your balance at the same time. But what will happen is that you'll end up doing the curl with less weight, and thus get less benefit, while whatever you gain in developing your balance will certainly be less than performing a separate exercise that specifically targets balance or agility.
In short, breaking down technique or training into component parts or fundamentals is a tried-and-true method in sports, arts, music, etc.
Fourth, it's a false dichotomy, like Lucy asking Charlie Brown whether he loves his mom or dad best. You can do free weights
and MovNat or sports or dance or martial arts or whathaveyou. Strength training with free weights is complementary/supplementary, not antagonistic, to these other activities. You don't have to chose one or the other. I've been thinking about installing a climbing rope in my yard, for example.
Finally, free weights are said to be for bodybuilders, but hypertrophy only happens with certain kinds of training protocols, a lot of hours in the gym, and more often than not, juicing.
I like free weights because of the convenience and efficiency. In 40-60 minutes I can get in a good workout in my garage. And a MovNat yard gym just wouldn't be practical in a Minnesota winter.