How Often Are You Guys Training?

[Broly]

Just curious for the AWers out there what your week looks like in regards to training. I know it's always best to listen to your body but some people seem to train everyday for the sport with various exercises while others seem to train as little as twice a week.

For me if there's practice a normal week will look like this.

Mon- 2 hour practice

Tue- Rest

Wed- Chest/ shoulders/ triceps

Thu- Biceps / forearms/ wrist

Fri- Rest (or a light leg or cardio day)

Sat- Cable work on a table / forearms

I work with my powerball about 3 times for about 10 minutes to get the blood flowing and do grip work almost everyday (RRBT).

[Florian Kellersmann]

I have tried a lot of different things. Currently I'm training about 5 times a week for armwrestling and making good gains.

[Broly]

I have tried a lot of different things. Currently I'm training about 5 times a week for armwrestling and making good gains.

See that's what I'm talking about, it seems the more experienced guys like yourself are training that much harder and that's how I want to train as well and not worry about over training. If you don't mind me asking, what does a typical week look for you and how do you break up the 5 days in the week while giving time to heal?

[fightertrainer]

I train around 3-4 times a week. At least 1 hr for AW. But I like to induce high heart rate by some means then do an AW exercise while it's high. I would do burpees then AW, repeat as many times as I can. Sometime I do a sprint or knee high run for 50 yards then AW set. . Heck I like to be fit because I am 55 years old already. This seems to help a lot. My avatar shows me doing 1 arm dragon flag. At my best Ican do 20 reps 1 armed. Lately I train real fast in AW and recovery is also faster.

[Florian Kellersmann]

I have tried a lot of different things. Currently I'm training about 5 times a week for armwrestling and making good gains.

See that's what I'm talking about, it seems the more experienced guys like yourself are training that much harder and that's how I want to train as well and not worry about over training. If you don't mind me asking, what does a typical week look for you and how do you break up the 5 days in the week while giving time to heal?

Training harder isn't exactly what I'm doing. The key in more frequent training of the same muscles and movements is that I don't kill myself in training. I stop training although I still feel good for some more sets.

[Broly]

I have tried a lot of different things. Currently I'm training about 5 times a week for armwrestling and making good gains.

See that's what I'm talking about, it seems the more experienced guys like yourself are training that much harder and that's how I want to train as well and not worry about over training. If you don't mind me asking, what does a typical week look for you and how do you break up the 5 days in the week while giving time to heal?

Training harder isn't exactly what I'm doing. The key in more frequent training of the same muscles and movements is that I don't kill myself in training. I stop training although I still feel good for some more sets.

OK I think I get the concept now of how some of the guys say they train 5 or 6 days a week. Thanks for the input, it definitley is starting to make sense to me now. If I'm going to go all out for each training session to the point of failure then I wouldn't be able to train consecutive days, I'd need 1 or 2 rest days because that particular muscle is shot and needs to heal but if I train it medium to medium/hard for less time then all I'll need is a good nights sleep to recover and will be able to do the same thing the next day.

This makes sense when people say they do pullups or pushups everyday. They're not pushing those muscles to the brink of complete destruction in their workout but are training high frequency. I'm sure it takes alot of discipline to know when to stop so your able to have a good workout the next day also. It's always a learning process. I'll just have to keep experimenting.

[Florian Kellersmann]

I have tried a lot of different things. Currently I'm training about 5 times a week for armwrestling and making good gains.

See that's what I'm talking about, it seems the more experienced guys like yourself are training that much harder and that's how I want to train as well and not worry about over training. If you don't mind me asking, what does a typical week look for you and how do you break up the 5 days in the week while giving time to heal?

Training harder isn't exactly what I'm doing. The key in more frequent training of the same muscles and movements is that I don't kill myself in training. I stop training although I still feel good for some more sets.

OK I think I get the concept now of how some of the guys say they train 5 or 6 days a week. Thanks for the input, it definitley is starting to make sense to me now. If I'm going to go all out for each training session to the point of failure then I wouldn't be able to train consecutive days, I'd need 1 or 2 rest days because that particular muscle is shot and needs to heal but if I train it medium to medium/hard for less time then all I'll need is a good nights sleep to recover and will be able to do the same thing the next day.

This makes sense when people say they do pullups or pushups everyday. They're not pushing those muscles to the brink of complete destruction in their workout but are training high frequency. I'm sure it takes alot of discipline to know when to stop so your able to have a good workout the next day also. It's always a learning process. I'll just have to keep experimenting.

Exactly. Find the balance between:

1. train as hard/intense as possible

2. train as often as possible and

3. stay as fresh as possible

[Broly]

I did some research and found a few articles that talk about that exact training method. It's called High Frequency High Intensity training. What I take from it, you go hard each training session but make the workout short so you're still training at a high intensity but your not going to failure so if I do something like wrist curls, normally I would do about 5 sets of a heavy weight I can for 4-5 reps because i want to burn it out as much as I can but with High Frequency High Intensity I would use a heavy weight but not go to failure and instead of 5 sets I'd do only about 2 or 3 so I'm still hitting it hard but not so hard that I'll need more than a good night sleep to heal, allowing me to hit it again the next day and getting my body use to daily abuse, keeping me fresh daily and pushing myself daily. But this is a very advanced form of training it seems and something I am going to have to practice to get it right to keep from over training.

[Florian Kellersmann]

This form of training is indeed not easy and somethimes you come to the point where you do to much. Go with lighter workouts a few times then, or take two days off or very easy. "Listen to your body" which you read often is very important with this kind of training.

[jad]

I used to train with couple of guys that were right at my level or little higher and we'd just have wars for hours and then we'd be lucky to have a practice every two weeks because everybody was so beat up. Well, life got in the way and now I train with some guys that are much lighter than me and nowhere near my level. We do a lot of handicapping with bands and generally only pull an hour or so. We're now able to pull every week and still do grip and gym training vs. before was 2 weeks of total rest. The lightbulb moment for me was when I saw a video of John Brzenk and he said something about practice and referenced it only being an hour (it might have been in Pulling John). I was completely shocked and just assumed assumed Brzenk trained for at least 3-4 hours if we were pulling 2-3. Anyway, when we switched to the shorter but more frequent practices, everybody has gotten much stronger or at least better. We're all still learning/perfecting a lot of the mechanics and techniques so more reps/practices works better for us.

[mightyjoe]

I used to train with couple of guys that were right at my level or little higher and we'd just have wars for hours and then we'd be lucky to have a practice every two weeks because everybody was so beat up. Well, life got in the way and now I train with some guys that are much lighter than me and nowhere near my level. We do a lot of handicapping with bands and generally only pull an hour or so. We're now able to pull every week and still do grip and gym training vs. before was 2 weeks of total rest. The lightbulb moment for me was when I saw a video of John Brzenk and he said something about practice and referenced it only being an hour (it might have been in Pulling John). I was completely shocked and just assumed assumed Brzenk trained for at least 3-4 hours if we were pulling 2-3. Anyway, when we switched to the shorter but more frequent practices, everybody has gotten much stronger or at least better. We're all still learning/perfecting a lot of the mechanics and techniques so more reps/practices works better for us.

Good advice Josh!

Just be sure and get some practice in with others stronger and better than yourself

or you'll never get better or at least not where you want to be. You'll maintain but not progress

much. I realize you use bands against your weaker opponents but I'm telling you a stronger

opponent is different. It seems nothing escapes the effects of the SAID principle, not even arm

wrestling.

Not in anyway telling you what to do here. Just suggestions that's all. Even though I no longer compete

I have tons of experience with AW'ing training and I certainly don't mind helping out a guy like yourself.

Take care buddy!!!

Edited December 22, 2011 by Mighty Joe

[jad]

I used to train with couple of guys that were right at my level or little higher and we'd just have wars for hours and then we'd be lucky to have a practice every two weeks because everybody was so beat up. Well, life got in the way and now I train with some guys that are much lighter than me and nowhere near my level. We do a lot of handicapping with bands and generally only pull an hour or so. We're now able to pull every week and still do grip and gym training vs. before was 2 weeks of total rest. The lightbulb moment for me was when I saw a video of John Brzenk and he said something about practice and referenced it only being an hour (it might have been in Pulling John). I was completely shocked and just assumed assumed Brzenk trained for at least 3-4 hours if we were pulling 2-3. Anyway, when we switched to the shorter but more frequent practices, everybody has gotten much stronger or at least better. We're all still learning/perfecting a lot of the mechanics and techniques so more reps/practices works better for us.

Good advice Josh!

Just be sure and get some practice in with others stronger and better than yourself

or you'll never get better or at least not where you want to be. You'll maintain but not progress

much. I realize you use bands against your weaker opponents but I'm telling you a stronger

opponent is different. It seems nothing escapes the effects of the SAID principle, not even arm

wrestling.

Not in anyway telling you what to do here. Just suggestions that's all. Even though I no longer compete

I have tons of experience with AW'ing training and I certainly don't mind helping out a guy like yourself.

Take care buddy!!!

Oh believe me Joe, I'd love to train with people much stronger than me but getting people's schedules together can be tough (newborns, major surgeries, job lay-offs). The lighter guys are available to train every week so I figure it's better than nothing but anytime we can get the stronger guys there it's just icing on the cake.