I hate the term “working out.”

There’s a big difference between training and working out.

“Training” means that we purposefully, scientifically and intentionally build muscle, lose fat, gain endurance and become more resistant to joint pain.

“Working out” is just doing a bunch of random stuff that makes you tired.

Through the training, education and experience that my team and I have accumulated over the years, we know the safest and most effective way for you to achieve the most important foundation of fitness: Optimal Relative Strength.

Meaning, how strong you are relative to your body size.

Obviously, someone who weighs 200 pounds is going to be stronger than someone who weighs 130 pounds.

But relatively speaking, they should be following the same principles. Here are a few of them:

Varying Rep Ranges: We follow very detailed protocols for utilizing a variety of rep ranges -- sets of 3-6 when we’re focused on building strength, and sets of 8-12 when we’re focused more on muscular endurance. 

Controlling Effort: Sure, we’re looking to lift a weight that’s challenging within the rep range we’ve chosen, but we also need to make sure we “leave something in the tank.” Staying in the 7-8 range on a scale of 1-10 for perceived exertion will help you continue to build strength, add muscle, and burn fat … and do it safely, without pain or injury.

Utilizing Tempo: When trying to get stronger and more resilient, we can’t just keep adding more and more weight to the bar. There’s a point of diminishing returns. So in addition to manipulating sets, reps and effort, we can use tempo work to create more time under tension and get comfortable with expanding our range of motion.

Checking Your Ego: “Do I really need to lift heavy things to achieve all of these goals?” Yes … yes, you do. But remember, the weight needs to be heavy relative to you … not your workout buddy who outweighs you by 50 pounds and has been lifting for five more years. Don’t compare yourself to others … and understand that progress can’t be linear forever. Based on other factors like stress, sleep, diet, and recovery, you’re going to have good days and bad days. Stay in that 7-8 range and don’t let your ego push to a 10, and you’ll continue making progress.

Hopefully that explains why “training” and “working out” are two entirely different things.