What Makes A Great Workout

What Makes a workout a great workout? This seems to be one of the questions that continues to come up. It's funny that most people associate being fatigued, sore, or feeling absolutely beat up as being the signs that they've had a great workout. But, I'd beg to differ. Afterall, you simply need to hop into your car and go for an 11 hour drive and I can bet that you'll be pretty darn tired and pretty darn stiff and sore. But, have you really accomplished anything during that drive? Did you burn off any fat, build any muscle, help your hormones, or improve your perfromance or appearance?

Of course not! Yet, most people judge their workout by how sore and tired they feel. I remember hearing someone complain about one of Kettlebell Coach Mike Mahler's programs for speed and explosiveness. This person finished the workout and since they weren't dead on the ground they thought that it sucked. Sorry fella, if you're training properly for speed and explosiveness you probably shouldn't be completely dead at the end of the workout. When you think about it, how explosive and how fast can you be if you're tired and sore?

I also remeber UFC lightweight stand out, Jim Miller talking about how he was disappointed when he first started working with Strengh and Conditioning Coach Martin Rooney because he wasn't being put through the proverbial ringer. Since then Jim has changed his tune as he's gone on to add 10 quality pounds of muscle to his frame, continued to improve his strength, endurance, speed, etc, and he's notched up a 9-1 record in the UFC against the cream of the crop. All without getting injured between fights.

So then, what is it that makes for a great workout, a great workout program, or a great session? I'd put it in very simple terms: RESULTS!!

I don't care how tired or sore you are after a training session, if it's not delivering any results it's not a good program!

This doesn't mean that you won't feel some fatique or some soreness while your training correctly. You will. But a program should be judged much more by how extraordinary the results are than by any other means.

After all, isn't that what your training for in the first place.

Talk with you all later.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan