“Go Heavy or go Home!!”

Posted on 10. May, 2009 by Keith Scott in Uncategorized

I used to laugh when I heard “muscle heads” telling people that…whether it was on their blogs, or even in person. One day, however, I caught myself telling someone that exact same thing and it dawned on me…I guess I was a muscle head too.

“Heavy” is a relative term. I train an 84-year-old women who “goes heavy” and I also train a future D-I high school football player, who also “goes heavy.” In fact, almost everyone I train (as long as they are healthy) goes heavy. I would not have it any other way.

Without getting into the finer points of program design, let it be known that going heavy is also relative to what your goals are and what stage of your training you are in. For example, my 84-year-old client is not training for any sport or competition, rather she is training to maintain her physical health so she can live out her golden years enjoying herself and being able to do whatever she wants. She pushes herself and I program “heavy” bouts of resistance all throughout her training so she will maintain and even increase her strength. (Yea I said it “increase her strength at 84 years old!”)

I believe that you must go heavy in your training to make real progress. Again, whether that is training for a sport, or just training for life…life is heavy… and if you are not equipped to handle it, you will be left behind.

I have written about this in the past, but it drives me crazy to watch the same people, day after day, week after week, month after month, do the same exercises at the same intensity without ever increasing anything. Doing this will get you nowhere fast. I point this out because although you might not be falling into this trap, many people are doing just this in one way or another. You have the “I am only trying to maintain what I have” people, or the “I don’t want to get bulky” people. These people fear doing anything heavy or out of their comfort zone for essentially “bad reasons.” They are just spinning their wheels.

My 84-year-old client demonstrates my point better than any other. She works fulltime, running her own real-estate company and still goes out into the field. I have been training her for three years now, 2-3 times a week, for an hour each session. She does squats with resistance, dips, chin-ups, rows, and push-ups. Her favorite exercise is blast strap inverted rows. We go “heavy” each session and she has tripled her strength from where she started. Is she the strongest person in the gym? No, but again, its relative. She works harder then most people that surround her however. She has never had a physical problem since we have been working together. Not bad!

If you are training or working out in any way, you need to go heavy in one way or another. If fear is getting in your way, make sure you have help. However, realize one thing…if you fail to go heavy in your training, you are essentially failing overall.

Please don’t mistake what I am saying by thinking you need to put 400 pounds on your back and squat each day. I am only stating that you need to increase your resistance to get any real results.

“Go heavy, or go home!”