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Cardio, conditioning, energy systems training: what are these, are these the same, and why would you do them? In this episode, we come to terms with cardio. Let's first consider your training and exercise background. This often affects how you think about this. Some come from a more purse powerlifting or bodybuilding background, where the goal is building muscle or improving strength. A different background may be a cardio-centric, where you ran, did cardio classes, or CrossFit, where conditioning was a regular, dominant part of your program. Neither extreme--cardio as the be-all, end-all, upon which you attempt to lose weight and build health, nor the activity avoidance, where you eat big, train big, and rest big to maximize gains--leads to the quality of life we're seeking. So, what role should conditioning play in your training program? Let's first consider the word "cardio." It's a shortening of the word "cardiovascular," which correctly implies that this type of training helps improve the functioning of your lunges and heart. It comes with baggage, however, of being something done for weight loss (e.g. I ate these cookies so I need to "do cardio" to burn the calories I consumed). Conditioning serves 3 potential purposes: weight loss or calorie-burning, performance, health. There really is one additional bonus reason that is somewhat associated with the third. The first reason and the purpose many associate with energy systems training is actually probably the worst reason to do cardio. While "cardio" can burn calories, nutrition & building muscle is the best way to improve your bodyfat. While targeted conditioning can & should be part of your program, don't think of it as something to burn calories just as you consume cardio. A second purpose for energy systems is ability to perform for a sport, activity, or life in general. Even sports that don't require a high-level of conditioning perform some conditioning. The example is powerlifting, because elite powerlifters at some point have to perform high volume, and if you're a big powerlifter, performing 7 sets of 5 squats will get you winded and you need the ability to perform this high volume without being so winded that you cannot perform the training to get you stronger. Lastly, one may add conditioning to a program to improve health and quality of life. Cardiovascular training is associated with better health markers and better functioning of lungs, heart, and brain. A program designed to improve quality of health should include conditioning. One additional benefit, related to the above, is the ability to think, reflect, meditate, and unplug. Especially with aerobic exercise (more on that soon), the relatively light and easy, repetitive activity done outside and in nature can allow you to shut off the screen time, get some vitamin D from the sun, and think and process things (both consciously and subconsciously). Okay, now onto the underlying science. There are 3 energy systems we target with energy systems training: aerobic, glycolytic, and phosphagen. The latter two fall under the umbrella of anaerobic (without oxygen). Aerobic is low power, long duration. You're probably using it now. It is the typical energy system that provides you energy, and only gets superseded when the energy needs outstrip its ability to provide you energy. Phosphagen is the extremely short duration but high power output: think Olympic lift, heavy single, vertical jump, 10m sprint. You have the ability to go into the ready reserve of power, but it's extremely limited. The medium power, medium duration energy system is the glycolytic. This is the energy system targeted with interval training or high intensity interval training (HIIT). Training done with this should be extremely uncomfortable, plus it's long enough that it lasts awhile (compared to phosphagen training). The currency of the body when it comes to energy is adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The reaction that occurs to produce energy breaks down ATP into adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and one phosphate group. There's no on or off system, so they're all working to SOME degree all the time, but one is dominant. Just like on a lift where there are transition points where one muscle takes over as the primary moves from another, there are transition points where one begins to level off and another takes over. There's important reasons to include conditioning in your program, but it's not a panacea and the typical reason to perform it (weight loss) it probably doesn't serve all that well. That being said, including cardio makes sense.

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Fear, doubt, it's a part of life & certainly a part of self-improvement, strength training, & nutrition. Find some inspiration and practical ideas for how to overcome your fears and doubt. This isn't just for beginners. Doubt is typical as we begin anything new, as the unknown can overwhelm us. There are known unknowns but also unknown unknowns. We might be afraid of embarrassment or looking silly. We might fear getting injured or failing. Let's acknowledge that change and new things can be intimidating. There's a lot to learn, and you're trying to build confidence and knowledge and capability all at once. It's a lot to handle. Hard is scary. Discomfort can be terrifying. The avoidance of the uncomfortable is a self-defeating pursuit, as discomfort and suffering are a part of life. You have some control over what discomfort you face. We know you can train. You can get stronger. We've trained all demographics with countless challenges and obstacles. Very few people have the reality that barbell training is contraindicated. YES YOU CAN. If you're overwhelmed, shift your fear to curiosity. Enjoy the process of learning and improving. Start slow, start easy, start with something you know you can do in an environment you feel comfortable in. If you fear looking stupid, getting made fun of, getting criticized, or embarrassment, this is a real fear. Begin with controlling what you can control. You might begin to lift at home, listening to your favorite music, with exercises you know you can complete. Look to free how to videos to ensure your form is passable. Build the habit and develop the supportive environment. You can also control your reactions to others. If someone comes up and explains how you SHOULD do something, tell them you have a coach. Maybe lift with headphones. Fake the confidence. A coach or at least a lifting partner you trust who can support you makes a big difference here. More advanced lifts, or lifters who may have a history of training and are coming back to it may have other fears and concerns. If you've dealt with injury, you may have a very tangible fear of reinjury. Similar to being afraid of driving after a car crash, you fear a reoccurrence. Similar to a novice, start with something that doesn't scare you. You may adjust exercises to avoid the specific exercise. You also need to address whether you want to push that exercise again, or whether you'd rather work around it (at least for now; priorities change). Again, having a competent coach really helps here. Similarly, if you see a picture of yourself from an earlier time, how do you react? There's really two considerations here. One is, you may be confronting the reality of who you are, what your body is, and some limitations. For some, stubborn fat seems to always be there, despite intense efforts and even achieving lean bodyfat percentages. The other thing you're facing is your recent choices. You might realize that you're not happy with what you've done the past 6 months or 6 years or 6 decades. You can't change the past, but you control your decisions now. Don't let this discomfort cause a spiraling downward, but embrace the discomfort and help it motivate you to change. You can do it. Control what you can control. Begin with a support environment, with things you know you can do, but begin. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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Matt & Niki discuss goal setting: clear goals, digging deep to identify your whys, and how different personalities can effectively develop goals. If you're trying to lose weight, get stronger, change your nutrition, gain muscle you've at some point identified you'd like to make change the direction of your life. Whether you formally identified your goals or made a quick decision, somehow you identified you didn't like where you were and shifted the trajectory of your life. What can often happen, though, is that as the process of improvement continues, we can forget why we began. When things get tough, we might not be able to latch onto a clear purpose, and we will struggle to continue. Goals guide actions. Actions determine metrics. Clear goals create clear actions and metrics. When you've dug deep into why you want to do something, oftentimes the how becomes almost self-evident. Some perform this process of delving into their whys internally, by themselves and mostly with silent reflection. Others perform it alone but by writing down answers to questions. Others bounce ideas off other people, seeking some feedback and refining what is essentially their rough draft ideas. The 5 whys is a good process, and really highlights how effective goal-setting is finding your deeper purpose. Once you've hit your why, you often have a physical reaction. It's emotional. It resonates. It's not superficial or some cliché or thing you've been told you should care about. A superficial goal is often an unsustainable goal. If you've been floundering on identifying how to achieve your goals, you might not have pinned down your goals. Now, you can get after the hows. Before you start pursuing action, you might try an intermediate step and ask (and then answer as best you can): why haven't I achieved this? This can help you identify obstacles and hurdles, which you should account for in your actions. You develop your actions to achieve the goals. These should be specific and timebound. You should be able to identify with a yes or no answer if you accomplished them. Your metrics inform the actions and the goals. They give your information so you know if you're heading in the right direction. Metrics help you make decisions. So, if you're tracking something and unhappy with your progress, you should change what you're doing. If tracking a metric does not change behaviors, you shouldn't track it. You should be able to clearly express your goals to others (and yourself). To ensure you can do this, write your goals down. If you can't clearly define your goal--or if others don't understand it when you're sharing it--you need to do some more work to ensure you understand what you really want. They end by asking, is getting the goal really the goal? As with strength, the process of undergoing voluntary hardship refines us. We're glad we get stronger, but doing what it takes to get strong makes us a better person, beyond getting stronger. This leads into a cursory discussion of a future but not-too-far-off podcast: habits. Building healthy habits will lead to health. The habits are oftentimes more important than the goal. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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Matt & Niki discuss the tradeoffs of training in a home gym or commercial gym and how to build your home gym. Learn the equipment and gear to prioritize versus the nice-to-haves as well as the minimum amount of space required to have a functional home gym. Not all commercial gyms are created equal. The big box or Globo Gyms may allow you to barbell lift, but deadlifting and chalk may be prohibited. Some gyms are simply not worth your time. Long contracts or the inability to do the four main lifts--squat, press, bench press, and deadlift--make the gym not worth it unless, temporarily, it's your only option. CrossFit gyms tend to have the equipment and space you need, but some may have an issue with you not doing CrossFit. That being said, they could be a valid option for you. Powerlifting gyms or black iron gyms are the best typical option, as a good one will have everything you need and you'll find people with similar goals. The rare but optimal commercial gym solution is one like The Strength Parlor in St. Louis or Next Level Barbell in Portland, where you not only have access to the equipment you need but you get a great community of people who are excited to see you and will cheer you on. You also get access to expert coaching when you need it. If you are close to one of these gyms, you really should take advantage. Matt's quick go-to rule for evaluating a gym is if they provide chalk. If they provide chalk, it's a good gym. Niki adds an addendum, that if they provide chalk and the floors are clean, it's an excellent gym. The downsides of a commercial gym can be crowded space and waiting for equipment. You can't pick the music and there you lose time on the commute. For benefits, you can often begin training with barbells sooner, as it may take time and you may have to budget over months to have enough equipment to barbell train at home (though you can always train TODAY with WHAT YOU HAVE ON HAND). A home gym is YOUR SPACE that you can design, improve, make your own, fill with the equipment you want. You control the music, the climate (as much as possible). You don't have to wait for equipment. It also provides a space for you to mentally take a break from other aspects of your life--it's not work, it's not family, it's your space for your health and fitness. Beyond this, the biggest benefit is the time efficiency. You have no commute time, and because no one is waiting on your equipment you can set up equipment to alternate lifts, do circuits, etc. to make preparation, gym time, and recovery as quick as possible. A last huge benefit is your home gym stays open if the gyms close down again. Lots of people suffered interruptions and an inability to continue to train with barbells because of COVID. Have at least a functional home gym so you can always train. If you're looking to build a gym, you can design it and put some creativity into it. 4'x8' is Matt's minimum space required for a good gym. Prioritize the barbell and weight first, as you can begin to do certain lifts without a squat stand (though there are also ways to build your own temporary squat stands out of construction material). For the space, a power rack that can be bolted into a platform is best. If you can't do that, a squat stand with safety pins and enough weight to keep it grounded works. Also, ensure you have a place to store plates. Many power racks have this built-in, but you can also purchase things like a-frame storage. For all your gym equipment needs, there is no better place to look into options at all price ranges than Garage Gym Reviews. Here are some notes on the small things. You need chalk. You can get this anywhere. Liquid chalk can also be good if you travel frequently. Springs collars stink but are cheap. Something like Rogue Oso collars are expensive but great and should last for decades. Having a deadlift jack makes loading and unloading your deadlift more convenient and quick. Get some fractional plates. MicroGainz has well-made yet affordable fractional plates made in America. Lastly, get a flat bench. Rep Fitness has a great one. Shifting to personal gear, you need to get lifting shoes. Lifting shoes are designed for lifting. They have a flat, hard sole (no squishy). Boots or Converse all-stars are okay, but get some lifting shoes, only wear them when you lift, and they're last at least longer than a decade. Running shoes are the worst option. Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and Rogue all have good options, though ensure you don't get some hybrid cross-trainer. You'll need a belt after awhile. You want it to be leather. We recommend Dominion. You can get 3" or 4", though 3" is the safer bet unless you know you have a long torso. Lever and prong also is an option and based on personal preference. Lever requires more work to change holes but it easier and faster to take off during a workout. Prong you can change holes quickly but you lose the convenience of the quick snap to take off. Lastly, it's always important to start. That might mean walking, doing bodyweight exercises, or picking a gym as you build your home gym. Convenience matters regardless of home gym or commercial gym. A long commute or lots of work to do before a workout is a hurdle. You want to limit the mental, effort, and time commitment it requires to get started each workout. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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Why do we emphasize strength as opposed to other physical attributes, and if we value strength, how do we achieve it. Niki & Matt explore WHY you should get strong & how to get strong. Strength--and the process of getting strong--produces lasting changes in our body. Our body changes to the stress we impose on it, with denser bones and bigger, more capable muscles. This changes how we interact with the world every day. Like unlocking a new ability for a character in a videogame, strength upgrades your capability, allowing you to do things you could not do before. When we decide to get stronger, we want to get the most bang for our buck. For strength exercises, this means exercises that move the most joints and involve the most muscle mass. We'd rather do 4 exercises than 14. We're not looking to live in the gym or do as much as we can (and, if you do, that's okay, we can always add more, but remember that there comes a point in time where you HAVE to add more volume and more stress and spend more time in the gym to continue to realize strength gains, so enjoy the simplicity and relatively short workouts novices can execute). We like exercises that are incrementally loadable. Barbells--more than any other implement--allow small weight jumps and for us to train multiple joints as we overcome gravity and attempt to keep our center of mass over our center of balance. The term "functional" has been overused and has come to mean almost nothing, but if we understand that the movement we do in the gym resemble and carry over to movements we execute in our life, then we realize the functionality of free weight movements. Nothing is more natural than bending over and sitting down and then getting back up again, like the squat. The deadlift mimics picking something up off the floor. The press resembles lifting something up over our head. People who have never undergone a systematic exercise program can increase stress in a linear manner with small enough jumps. While many point to the flattened top of the curve when they reference the law of diminishing returns, as a beginner you can enjoy the steep portion, with quick gains. For those using barbells, we most often add the same amount of weight each workout in a linear fashion until this stops. If you aren't ready for barbells and are using bodyweight exercises or lightweight objects in your home, we most often add reps (though eventually the resistance must go up). The great part about this is that you'll feel better quickly--likely within 2 weeks. Furthermore, the improvements last. So, if you have to take a week off, the increased muscle mass and improved strength do not lessen as fast as conditioning changes. So, if you're unsure about strength and how you might get strong, enjoy this. If you know someone this might benefit, be sure to share this with them. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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Gillian Ward joins Matt & Niki to discuss how to get started with nutrition: identifying your goals, understanding where you are now, and implementing sustainable, realistic nutrition plans. Gillian is a great simplifier of complex information and focuses not on the science of nutrition (though she knows it) but rather behavior changes and how to best modify clients' actions to meet their goals (for the action both to occur and move them toward their goals). A client must first acknowledge a need to make a change, understand why he or she wants to change, and have an idea of what direction he or she wants to head. You don't need to have a SMART goal, but you need to understand WHY you want to make a change. Next, tell the truth with yourself (and maybe your coach), so you can understand your current behaviors. An accurate picture of your actions enable you to identify a plan that will actually work for you. Once you know where you are, think about the things you want to include in your plan. What are the things you DON'T want to give up? This might be a nightly dessert or alcohol, eating out at a restaurant with your family on Saturday evenings, or Sunday morning pancake breakfasts. It doesn't mean you won't modify this at all (if you're eating 5000 calories of pancakes, we might need to reduce that). Still, this helps you identify and maintain things that actually bring you value. Now you can triage. This is identifying the behaviors that can be addressed to yield results. You're looking for the most-bang-for-your-buck changes. So what can be changed relatively easily while enabling you to work toward your goal. For example, you may identify that eating certain foods triggers a cascade of bad behaviors for the rest of the day. You next plan & prepare, which does not necessarily mean meal preparation and weighing and measuring. It could be identifying days or meals that will be challenging. How aggressive do you want to be around these? Might you address the meals leading up to or after these meals or attempt to keep this goal fairly healthy? So, if you start implementing a plan and it's working, where do you go next? First, if something is working and you enjoy it, keep doing it. Like MED programming for training, we don't need to diet hop. Small changes to avoid boredom and continuing to triage can work and continue to further you toward your goal. A more recent idea Gillian has taken from the heavy, light, medium training idea is 1, 2, 3 dieting. These correspond to aggressiveness or difficulty level and the benefit is the quantification can help give you a quasi-objective (like RPE) data point (so if your week is a 21, you expect to see progress; if it's a 7, you don't). 1 is maintenance, in which you're not trying hard. This should be easy. You're at basecamp, walking on level ground. 2 is working toward goals but not aggressively. You're walking up the mountain, but you're picking flowers, you're chatting with others, you're enjoying the view. 3 is all out, aggressively pursuing your goals. Why not just pursue 3s every meal, every day, every week? It's not sustainable. You don't actually want to live at a 3 all the time. You also likely need a relatively near-term motivator, as (I'd just like to be thinner) probably won't sustain a month of all 3s. Gillian also addresses why New Year's Resolutions often fail, because it's a false motivator. You feel as if you should ramp up your nutrition, but you might not want to. Beach season is still too far off to motivate. Furthermore, it's a cold, dark time of year for many, and the motivation to clamp down on nutrition is realistically not there. This might be a time to go at a 2 pace and identify a goal you can put on the calendar later in the year that might motivate a 3. It is critical to understand what keeps you motivated. This isn't as easy as it sounds, because you really have to question yourself and understand your motivations deeply. Once you identify this, identify some ways to measure this as best you can (if you don't care about the scale weight, why is this your primary metric). GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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You're in a bad place--you're not happy with your health & fitness--and you want to change that. What do you do? Matt & Niki explore your first steps for strength. This time of year New Years Resolutions occur, and there's nothing wrong with them. While they may have a low success rate, it's actually a good time of year to begin working toward a goal. You just had the holiday period, with--probably--lots of food and fun. It often is a time you can reflect on what you've done the previous year and decide how to change. Also, there are probably no urgent needs to perform (no beach body vacations). This means that you have time to work toward your goals to see the improvement come warmer weather. It will be difficult, and one of the most important things to begin is to be consistent. Doing something every day is a great way to build the consistency. If you're barbell training, you can do this every day, but the days you don't you could walk or do something else active. Regardless, you need to schedule the time and protect it. This needs to become a habit--like brushing your teeth. You WILL see some benefits early, as doing difficult things makes you feel good, build confidence. It doesn't feel good in the pleasure followed by bad feelings & guild of fast food or lounging watching Netflix, but you just feel better knowing what you did. Start today, build consistency, do SOMETHING--whatever that something is--and keep going. The small wins will accumulate. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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What do we mean when we say "Experience Strength"? Experiencing strength is experiencing the benefits of improved quality of life through strength training and improved nutrition and other health and fitness habits. When you're strong, you're capable and able to say yes to things. When you're weak--whether you know it or not--you're saying no to things and taking possibilities off the table. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom and many thoughts about the difficulties and sacrifices that barbell training and improved nutrition practices require. Yes, you spend time in the gym that you cannot spend elsewhere. Yes, you eat more whole foods, more protein and fiber, and do not eat or at least limit foods that do not support your goal. These sacrifices, however, move us closer to our goals--the states we which to possess, whether they be strength, lower bodyfat, appearance, or confidence. As we move closer to our goals, we gain the ability to say yes to certain things. We can go to the beach and not feel bad about ourselves. We can play with our kids or grandkids without pain and keep up with them. Our physical interaction with the world changes. So how do we Experience Strength is we're stuck in a rut of weakness? How do we change paths and begin to experience improved quality of life, better health, and increased confidence? We have to understand our goals and where we want to go. We have to take the first steps and appreciate the small wins along the way. We have to have the discipline to build habits and understand that momentum may help but we cannot expect it nor rely on it to carry us to our goals. Part of this is differentiating short-term and long-term "feel good." There's the immediate pleasure of sugary, fatty, salty food or lying on the couch watching Netflix. This pales in comparison the the longer-term "feel good" of getting your workouts in, eating healthy, prioritizing sleep, spending quality time with your family. What does an improved quality of life look like? What does an improved quality of life feel like? It's about Experiencing Strength. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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Matt & Niki discuss when the human element inhibits an MED modification from being the right change for a lifter. This is a re-release of episode 341. Many BLOC coaches have found a pattern where advanced clients get bored with a program, and oftentimes this happens EVEN WHEN THE PROGRAM IS WORKING (i.e. producing PRs & achieving goals). You have to guard against program hopping or chasing the shiny object here, but if a client has trained a certain way for awhile (e.g. chasing numbers) then it might be time to make a bigger change. This doesn't really apply to novice or early intermediate lifters, as they need to build the base of strength and some small changes can be made if they're looking for a bit of variety (more conditioning or more hypertrophy at the end of the workouts). Most advanced clients need something to train for--something that focuses their training and provide purpose. Some people can simply bear down and keep going when the goal is as vague as "let's get stronger and healthier," but this is fairly rare. If your client doesn't have a goal on the horizon, discussing one may help. Changing the goal could mean focusing on volume & hypertrophy instead of weight on the bar, trying to lose weight, focusing on conditioning or another physical activity outside the gym, or trying something new like Olympic weightlifting. The goal may remain but the means to achieve it may change. EMOMs, AMRAPs, tonnage totals, circuits, and Westside Splits are all great ways that lifters can still train their lifts and work toward their goals but that are different enough than typical sets of 5. Exercise variation may help as well. Playing with supplemental lifts you normal don't (e.g. front squats or sumo deadlifts) can help provide needed variety. You may still have one heavy lift at the beginning of the workout, but the rest of the workout involves more accessories done in a circuit or to get a pump. When considering a huge shift, you have to consider the means to achieve the end and the tradeoffs. Matt shares that when one of his client proposes changing the goal for a bit, he often changes his mind after Matt explains what that revised process will look like. If you're getting sick of what you're doing but don't just want to program hop, consider changing your goal, the exercise selection, or training method. Ensure you weight tradeoffs and how this may affect your long-term goals. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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Matt & Niki discuss training & programming when you prioritize PRs and chasing numbers in the gym. This is a re-release of episode 347. This really applies to intermediate & advanced lifters, as PRs tend to come with novice & early intermediate training. As you advance as a lifter, life can prevent optimal training, so priorities shift. Sometimes training works primarily toward quality of life. Sometimes training even takes a backseat. Occasionally, though, we prioritize training and decide to chase numbers. Sometimes this happens at whim, as life seems to provide you the opportunity & desire to prioritize PRs. Other times, though, you might plan this out a bit more, with certain times of year (e.g. fall) where you chase pushing the weight up on the bar. This may involve a meet, but it doesn't have to. It's fun to have a PR week you can look forward to, where you don't have to beat yourself down with lots of heavy attempts on one day. If you do want to do a mock meet, then know what will motivate you--you might want an audience or fellow lifters. We're probably looking at a goal--unless you're super advanced--of peaking 6-8 weeks out, which is enough time to prioritize intensity & peak for most people but not so long that you get beat up and burnt out. Consider if you want to prioritize 1 lift, a couple, all 4 of the big lifts, or something else (maybe you're chasing a chin-up PR or some Olympic lift numbers). If you're chasing numbers, you'll back off volume and drive up intensity. Conditioning will take a back seat, as we're prioritizing training on weight on the bar. This is not the time to lose weight. You don't necessarily have to gain weight, but this can be a fun time to eat in a caloric surplus and bump up your weight (and then, especially if you plan out your training year a bit more in blocks, post PRs might be a good time to transition to weight maintenance or loss while trying to maintain strength). This might be a time to use that "fat hole" on your belt. You can't miss training sessions when you're chasing numbers, and you can't have things like holiday parties wreck a training session. Ensure you're lifting after good sleep and with good food (as much as you can control) and if you have to shift sessions around to avoid bonking during a session, that's fine. Plus, Matt shares funny stories with internet companies and kids' checklists. GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. No discount code needed and includes a 10-day, no obligation trial. https://bit.ly/2MKeOoh Special offers from BLOC and our partners: https://barbell-logic.com/offers/ Connect with the hosts

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