I used to run 8-10 miles every day on top of lifting daily. Running was how I kept my sanity after my father and sister passed back to back from cancer. If i sat still to long my thoughts got the best of me. I ended up doing that for 5 or so years out of habit. Still run and lift every day but only a couple of miles now. Your body gets used to the stress you put it under.
@@jameshemmings1542 Eat in a calorie surplus. Get plenty of electrolytes especially before jiu-jitsu. I drink coconut water and have a light salty snack before/after rolling. Try splitting up your lifting sessions volume-wise. Listen to what Firas Zahabi says about training schedules (He trains with GSP and Danaher).
@@jameshemmings1542 watch the end of the video. whenever i've done manual labor and sports or sports plus exercise and did them at separate times in the same day, my body was always ready for anything. it's like being superhuman. everyone would gas out before i broke a sweat sparring.
Dude slays. Props for his modesty..the head to toe clothes, the back to the camera...he deserves all success/accolades he receives. Insane training. Excellent video, man. Truly grateful for your posting.
This is exactly what I've believed all along, it's great to hear this thought out as well as you made it. And it's been years since I watched yt fitness and Alan is looking pretty damn shredded, good job brother.
I work as a window cleaner, it's a very busy and active job. Time is money. Always carrying double extension ladders, climbing them, going up and down stairs and doing 100s of squats and stuff just bending down etc. I used to always think my job was a curse because if all the advice I would hear about needing to recover. I let it get into my head and always though it wasn't possible for me to workout to my full capacity because my job was too physical. But in recent years I realised things weren't ever going to change and just started pushing through. I then started to realise that am actually in a really good position because my work helps me recover from training and I have noticed the difference vs friends who sit down all day. They'd be smoked after a big session but am right back at it the next day because every day is effort. Glad to hear this being spoken about on here. As I get older am really starting to just listen to my intuition with exercise and training and ignore the dogmatic mentality.
i was the same man, working construction by day and doing martials arts till the middle of the night. modern people are stuck in a desk all day. However when we used to live in caves and have to fight animals all day to survive we had to push through!!
exactly same i realized it couple years ago im doing gutters instalation so whole day im on the ladder or roof with more than 100 degrees so basically im doing hours of aerobic work im a track cycling sprinter and thanks to this i dont need to do much of a base/endurance work in my training becouse im doing it every single day and real sprint sessions or powerlifting sessions are easier to recover than my teammates
His movements and range of motion is so clean and fluid I almost thought he was fake weighting. But this guy is a real monster and has definitely perfected his trade.
You know what, I really enjoyed this and it’s been very true for me since I became a Cintas route driver. I have to unload clean product and uniforms, load the dirties, like 20-30 stops four days a week. And it’s helped me like crazy. I just do strength training 3x5 for a few main compound lifts TWICE a week, to compliment it and at almost 32 (in a couple weeks) I front squatted 300 for the first time in my life last week.. I’ve been doing the route work and lifting twice (occasionally only once) and I’ve become so much stronger than I ever was when a collegiate 400m - 800m runner… it was 10 years ago where suffered 4 different hamstring strains across 3 seasons, 3 of them to my right inner and a grade 2 in the middle of my left.. it’s crazy how much more well put together I am, now that I’m not always sitting at a desk with some standing… Like the video said too, this was hard in the beginning and I did get tired but I did make sure to eat big ass meals of chicken, brown rice, and veggies.. yogurts in the morning for gut and more protein, with some eggs, rice, trimmed bacon, fruit / veggies. Keep drinking your water, eat enough food, and put in some work CONSISTENTLY ❤
Anyone who was in the military can agree with this. Bootcamp is an easy example to use. You’re moving fast and intensely the entire day all while mixing in regular physical training sessions, hikes, etc. You would think that it would be impossible to recover from all the physical work but within a very short time period you adjust and your capacity for work shoots up like crazy.
One of my best friends was in the Army, and he thought they were putting steroids in the eggs, he recovered and gained so well. And he was a walk on at Texas Tech football, so it wasn't like he was a bum.
When i was at basic most people, including myself would lose weight and muscle, plenty of people leaving with less muscle mass and slower 2 mile times. Basic is ok if your overweight or in ok shape but if you are an athlete or in good/great shape muscular and cardio gains will be lost.
I agree, I was 28 when I went through basic training and didn't have the same problems as the younger recruits did with shin splints, ect. Maybe it was because I worked a physical job vs they probably never had a job before, maybe our bodies get stronger throughout our 20s, hard to say for sure.
Tom is a fucking stud. He’s Australian and often trains in a field with animals around. Josh Bryant (his coach) has done wonders with him. He’s definitely a freak and it’s awesome
Great content. Something I needed to hear. My recovery is very stationary most of the times, and I feel I started running into recovery issues. And after doing some swimming on My recovery days, I feel more recovered. Active recovery is the key.
If his recovery is greatly altered by steroids then it makes no sense to take his advice if you are not taking them. I understand you are speaking from your experience and it makes sense to you but I would need more than your word to take it seriously.
I’m the guy in the comments who will say the advice is solid but remember he is likely in copious amounts of gear essentially rendering and recovery null and void because it’s simply not needed hence he can train this way, this takes nothing away from it but it is much easier this way compared to the el natural route
I think it’s relative though. Is someone using steroids going to be able to lift more weight? Probably. But it doesn’t make it impossible for a natural who lifts half the amount of weight to have similar work capacity.
Ya he’s not exactly the pinnacle of health and fitness but this is good advice for naturals too. I just wish people didn’t need to hear it from some juice monkey for them to even give it a try.
As a cyclist I was always taught about the importance of a recovery ride. Even on days off during extremely difficult races such as the Tour de France the riders will go for an easy ride for a couple of hours.
Same. Im into track cycling so ill lift maybe 2-3 times per week and recovery is pretty much my daily bike ride to work and back so total around 15 miles at a easy steady pace. Just today i had a regular monday but then took my youngest out for a 45 minute walk right away when i got home. I feel great
Was just about to write something similar. It's unreal how helpful low intensity chill rides have been for both my weightlifting and "serious" cycling. I literally do them on my heavy lifting days to relax.
Thank you for posting this. Over the last year, I discovered that I loved ballroom dancing but I always found myself struggling to fit weight training, dancing classes and socializing in my schedule because I'm always thinking I need a full day of not doing anything between every weigth training session. Since highschool, I always trained that way and it became a routine. It prevented me from enjoying this new passion and also it made me cut back on weight training "to gain time". I realize now it was foolish of me to think this way; my work capacity is not some innate characteristic that I can't change. It will slowly increase if I just keep doing more stuff. Thank you, I will now register for a second dancing class this semester *and* add back a gym session. This was really inspirational.
I love this so much. My rest days consist of cycling to the gym, light weights/bodyweight exercises, stretching and cycling home. I do feel like it helps with recovery and also keeps you young. My joints and back feels better than 5 years ago
This is sound advice - Tom knows his stuff. Adam Sinicki (the Bioneer) talks about this same concept as it relates to feeling lethargic. Moving your body more throughout the day is not a detriment - it will actually make you feel more consistently alert and energetic. It will make you feel better in the gym and in your day to day life.
Thank you the explains my consistent growth before my injury my belief is "We workout to get more efficient at the daily physical routine we are forced to do in life". My rest periods were always on work days and the Intensity levels determined on work hours. My past has show this is true and once my injury is healed I'll keep on developing,good luck to everyone watching this.🤞
As a trim carpenter, I’ve noticed the difference in recovery compared to my gym buddies who are tech guys. I’m on my feet at least 8 hours a day hustling back and forth to a saw. They also seem to collect more acute musculoskeletal injuries over the years. There’s so many variables but I agree moving at a low moderate pace for recovery does seem to help big time
I can attest to that. I was a laborer for 15 years and now have a more sedentary position running the business (2 years now). My capacity to recover went down after transitioning to my new position. As a general metric of activity, I used to get 20k - 30k steps per day and now I'm lucky to get 10k steps.
Tight hips from sitting all day affects the knees, lower back, core etc. all things that are used while training regardless of the body part being trained. Plus you are more likely to have a far better mind body connection happening, so it’s easier for you to really be able to focus and concentrate on a movement and incorporate the body parts that are meant to be used. A lot of guys will incorporate far too much supporting body parts/muscles in movements, bring far too much ego into play and wind up very injured. And yes I am a desk jockey and am guilty of tight hips, knees, psoas, lower back issues, and struggle with a good mind body connection
I think doing other physical activity next to lifting weights to recover is really underrated. I especially noticed this when i had a week off work. I work in construction as a carpenter, so I’m always walking, carrying, lifting things and climbing all day. That does a lot for my recovery. And in the time off work, I really noticed I didn’t recover as easily from my workouts. Because of that i had to scale down on my workouts a bit because everything felt heavier than it normally does after i’m done working for the day.
Yep! I've worked in construction and auto repair for years and train MMA on the side. The daily work definitely helps other areas of the body stay vibrant and useful.
Same I'm a painter, and I feel like going to work and twisting and turning, bending, lifting five gallon buckets, moving ladders, and of course painting all day is really healing. I injured my back last year and my back feels the best after a day of work. Whereas on the flip side if I take a few days off and just lay around all day I start getting pain again.
@@griffin7274 obese people put fat on just fine even from doing nothing. Blood flow to those fat cells are no problem even without significant activity. Blood flow isn't a major factor. Now, blood flow to a specific muscle group soon after a workout, like leg extensions the day after squats would help. Light, TUT, and low workload would be good.
👏👏👏👏 Absolutely!!! I learnt this over 20yrs. Getting older forces you smarten up with training & recovery as your body is much less forgiving if you overtrain or otherwise get injured.
I have been lifting in various degrees of intensity and training for over 15 years now. During that time I have been watching and taking advice from youtube trainers such as yourself, Omar Isuf, Starting Strength ( gee I wonder who's opinion you were emulating at 05:00 hehe), Greysteel and even old Scooby amongst many. After all this time I am happy that I have emerged relatively uninjured and most importantly I have settled on a routine that has enabled me to be strong, healthy and which greatly helps me in my day to day work. When I race up sets of stairs in the processing plant like they were nothing, enjoying the feeling of power with every step, no knee pain no tweaks and just whoosh!!! Better, quicker and easier than at any time in my life and I am over 50 now, it is just awesome. I can also roughouse and piggy back and carry my nieces for hours and be just fine afterwards. That is why I train, and I wish everyone else the best in their journey.
Was there a specific tuber that helped with knee elasticity/recovery? I'm only 29 but I'm starting to feel it and that's without utilizing a hard workout regimen
@@mrmisanthropic2803 Knee pain definitely isn't fun. Not trying to speak for Hossak, but "The kneesovertoesguy" is someone that really focuses on "bulletproofing" your knees. Might be worth checking out, good luck finding a solution that works for you.
@@mrmisanthropic2803 It took me probably 10 years (yep, I am bloody stubborn) until I figured out how to squat correctly for me. It is really hard to describe but for me squats is all about engaging what I call "the back door" of my knees. Anytime that I experienced knee pain, I knew that I was predominantly using my quads instead of the hamstring / back of the knee in squats or day to day walking/working. That would be fixed in a couple of sessions to get my squat form back on track. Take your hands and feel your knee cap, that is how your quads help you walk, a giant tendon that goes through the knee and connects to your tibia. If you use that predominantly, it pushes against your kneecap and torsions your leg and you get pain and if it is really bad, it feels like a hot wire going down the front of your knee. Now feel the back of the knee and notice those two giant tendons/muscles that run on either side on the back of the knee. When you squat, you need to use those and that is really difficult to figure out but once you do, everything kicks into gear. Starting strength probably offers the best advice on the path to getting that right, however. Please don't fall into the trap of trying to set bloody world records or competing in a powerlifting meet or whatever - yesh. By all means get stronger but get your form perfect and get that activation on track. Don't think that if you can squat 200 kgs, everything will kick in - weight is no substitute for form. A few weeks ago, I hit 200 kgs and I was feeling great....until I went to a gym (I was working out in the front yard) and realised that I was squatting waaaaayyyy high :( So going to correct depth - ummmm yeah back down to 170 kgs :( - so easy to fool yourself. The weights I have quoted don't mean sh*t, just illustrating that even after all these years, form can still slip away. So, get your squat form right, get that activation going and find a challenging weight that enables you to figure out your activation and things will kick in. Also keep watching youtube videos and go to the gym and watch yourself and figure it out over and over again. You will get there, hopefully it wont be bloody 10 years :(
Regarding the youtube guys that helped me, that is actually quite difficult. The most important thing is to engage your mind fully as you are doing the squat. Please don't mechanically go through some 5 x 5, or 3 x 5 progression whatever. Even after all this time, I continue to learn after every set and make adjustments. Don't be surprised that it is really difficult to get right but you will get there. Again, I would say that Starting Strength is probably the best as I do their low bar squat setup but that said, please please please don't then go 100% and start training for a power lift meet. The other point I have not mentioned that is incredibly important is the bracing - you know take a big breath and hold and keep your core tight. Out of all the things I have learnt that prevents back pain and helps day to day - bracing is probably the number 1. Also when you brace, that is not just when you are squatting. When you go to pick up the weight plates - BRACE, then you take them off BRACE, when you are putting the bar in place - BRACE. If you are picking up something from the living room floor - BRACE and so on. Bracing is not just for the gym, it is for everything in life.
This also applies to recovering from injury. The old model was RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) where you would lie on the couch with an ice pack until you felt better. But we now know that this is actually hampering your recovery. Recovery requires (easy) movement to keep the blood flowing, joints limber, etc.
Makes sense, because in nature, animals pretty much have to keep up with the herd even if sick or injured. If you see them laying down, not keeping up, it's got to be really bad.
RICE isn't used for recovery. It's a temporary pain management technique and to combat inflammation. Sometimes the human body can overreact with inflammation and the cold helps constrict blood vessels to slow inflammation. You're completely right in saying that hampers your ability to recover, but you're only supposed to apply cold for about 10 to 15 minutes. It's a great alternative to NSAIDs or Narcotics for pain. RICE is also very important initially for surgeries on joints and other structures as it gives time for everything to set and heal enough to where you can get up and move to help promote blood flow and to heal the affected structure. But even in this scenario, RICE isn't meant to aid in recovery, it's a pain management tool to allow you to be comfortable while you heal.
@@claudiamarianidamato9499 Lol, gonna need you to tell that to folks with chronic inflammatory diseases like Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Lupus, hepatitis and other autoimmune diseases.
Tom Haviland is a ridiculously nice guy for someone so scary. Always friendly and encouraging to people litteraly less than half his size. I've found daily hiking carrying a todler to be very effective with recovery which I think is relatively proportionate when you take into account bw. Every single old time strongman I've ever read encouraged walking without exception. They all believed someone who worked an active job would recover better than someone sedentary.
The last couple months I’ve been experimenting with 7 day a week training on a PPL and my strength has continued to go up, have set new PR’s, all while working as a tree climber. I remember back when I used to go on bodybuilding forums people posting worried that they were overtraining because they worked out for an hour instead of just 40 min, or they did a few extra sets and are worried they are gonna lose all their gains. Generalizing recommendations is counterproductive because everyone’s body responds differently to training, nutrition, and recovers and makes progress differently. I feel like a lot of people are more focused on trying to set LIMITS on what they think they can do / achieve versus actually pushing themselves to see how far they can go.
My 14 year old brother was having knee pain to the point he couldn't do cross country anymore. I told him to just outright stop squating. He's back in cross country
I just said this but I can't believe I quit watching him cuz more than 1 person was talking about him on the web about him using fake weights...... after i was bragging about him , haha goes to show all the jealousy online I guess?
Tom is one of the most amazing strength athletes in the world. The dude literally embodies what it means to be a beast and he inspires people to train outside their comfort zone.
Fantastic highlight of this man. So much could be said. Insane range of motion, imperfect equipment, variety. People want a 1-2-3 A-B-C plan to get strong and it doesn’t really exist. Desire, intellectual curiosity and consistency are more more important than any single program, perfect coach, or plan. Figure it out people!!!!
What a great overall message. We are one of the most adaptable creatures on this planet. A lot of the time too, you’ll notice that even if you’re a little under recovered- you’ll have a great mind muscle connection during your sets. Eventually will have a one or two day break where your body recovers exponentially. Much faster and stronger. A process much like sipping tea in comparison to chugging an energy drink. Takes a little time but eventually your overall work capacity will be so much higher and your body will adapt to the recovery needed to maintain or improve upon it.
Thank you for the upload Alan, I’ve been bored with just walking lately and wanting to add some running in but tapping into the recovery for the weight training was on my mind. Starting small and building up from there is sound advice, thank you man 🤘🏼
As a Light Infantry Combat Veteran, I can say that this is our mind set. We would always Ruck with weight, and usually turn daily training into 2nd and 3rd sets of PT throughout the day. Went to a Mechanized Division for my 2nd station. I was one of the few PT Studs, let alone 1 of 3 NCOs to max the PT Test in my entire Battalion... Was the ONLY one in my Company to max the PT Test other than a ButterBar.
Active recovery has been the exact thing I have been "preaching" to people who complain of being sore after a workout. Nothing has made me more sore than when I was starting my first desk job and driving almost 3 hours a day for my commute. All that inactivity really killed my recovery.
I totally get what Tom is saying. I have maximum capacity when I watch a 20 minute CZcams video Then in my recovery time, I watch hundreds of YT Shorts. It truly makes me conditioned to watch YT forever. My eyes are so jacked.
Great Vid. I was helping my brother move into his new place on a Sunday (ReSt DaY). It took us about 8 hours because we had to set everything up in his new place. The next day I CRUSHED my bench PR and I was confused as to why I felt so strong even though I was hauling boxes the day before. This video explains it perfectly. Hauling boxes is much lower intensity than bench pressing and the lower intensity activity allowed me to recover from last weeks training much more optimally than sitting around and doing nothing. 100% going to incorporate more lower intensity activities into my daily routine. (walking, biking, hiking, tree chopping, etc.)
This guy trains reminiscent of the great Paul Andersen, who trained in rural Georgia with farm and homage equipment and whatever was on hand - railroad wheels, bank safes, trailer yokes, etc. Magnificent.
I instinctively suspected this decades ago,as after I'd simply lifted heavy enough to improve from last time I felt it wasn't enough work in other areas,like fitness or sports specific skills that can actually regress with too much weight training specialisation and age. It takes a freak like Tom to get the western world to notice it I suppose,the Eastern Europeans knew this in the 1960's.
@@OldeVikingOriginalIn 1960's & 70's, the most successful weightlifting club in history, Russian Dynamo Club, experimented by rotating 25-45 special exercises, to avoid accommodation,they also found the need to have their athletes remain very active during rest periods as they concluded it helps with the circulation of blood and the regenerative nutrients contained therein to recuperate more efficiently, Alexeyev the Olympic champion would walk a thousand steps in a lake at waist height, whilst others would jog or play less less intense sports like table tennis etc...This is where westsides conjugate method came from. Hope this helps.
@@ThePitPony it has merit, but that sounds like complete overkill. A good walk would be plenty of recuperative exercise. As a natural, you NEED to chill out and recover from the workout, especially if you have a job that is active.
I fully agree I’ve been experiencing this lately I full body workout every 4 th day and on the other days I’ve been doing agility training and shaved a1 day off of total recovery days I used to train every 5 th day . I believe the blood flow is what fuels the recovery.
This is some amazing content. After not boxing for 2 years I realized my physical appearance and strength negatively change. However over the past month I’ve been training for boxing daily like 30mins nothing big. Already my shoulders are looking better core, arms you make it and I have so much more energy and pride. My take away strength gainz are 1 part of the battle. Learning how to use your body to do new things is just the missing piece.
Good video. I like the way you can think outside of the usual dogma. This reminds me of the people who are "farmer strong" or people that have tough physical jobs. Many of them still find the time and energy to work out after their workday. The work they do all day does not stop them from recovering , it enhances their overall fitness. I think also as we age and lose the ability to do the things we used to do as well or often we blame it simply on aging. When were kids we were sprinting and jumping and climbing things every day. Now we expect to sit on the couch 3 days in a row and wonder why we strain a hammy when we try to sprint.
This is so true! When I worked as a mover my conditioning went thru the roof despite the fact that I thought I would be too tired .to do my regular weight workouts. Instead of being too tired pick up pieces of furniture and boxes all day gave me more energy in the gym. Lower intensity Carries on your off days is an amazing place to start and better than sitting on your ass and being lazy all day.
I've started riding my bike to work, and it's been remarkable how much it's improved my capacity for work. It's pretty low intensity, but my DOMS have been extremely reduced by cycling more frequently. And biking to the gym, I feel much more warmed up and ready to perform than if I were to just drive and start squatting cold.
I've been saying this for years and I still get flamed for it (at least on the internet). It also has been and will be a marathon; small incremental progress is hands down the most sustainable approach to high level fitness/strength/whatever. Just like the guy said: movement is medicine.
@@chuandamartialarts2875 I care. Hes not picking and choosing. The dude is running massive amounts of gear for years. If he didnt you woulddnt know of him at all and his advice would be irrelevant. Yeah dude, sleep , nutrition, progressive overload. We get it. its not some secret for recovery passed down through the ages that no ne knows about, lol.. This dude is on crazy gear tho.. You have no clue.
Feels similar to what Mythical Strength (on Reddit / his blog) says and does where he does lots of conditioning and just movement in addition to the regular weight training. Great resource
lots of youtube fitness guys advocate a mix of cardio and lifting. Greg D, will tennyson for instance. One does cycling, the other walks 10k steps a day. Both are primarily body builders.
Tom's tactical hypertrophy training is not for everyone but perhaps it should be. People bang on about functional training there would be a handful of people in the world at best that could keep up with him. Tom is a monster and Josh Bryant deserves a lot of credit for his programming.
A few years ago, I was trying many different workouts. One that I tried was 90-second super slow sets. I would do about 3 reps in 90 seconds with constant stress - 3 up, 3 down, no lockout at the top, no setting down at the bottom. It was hardcore and exhausted me. It was so exhausting that I started off this workout only twice a week. I was doing about 5 exercises. I had in my head at the same time, “what does it feel like to be overtrained?” So, I added exercises, kept increasing the weights, and added more sessions per week. After a couple of months, I was doing 11 exercises 5 days a week. I was increasing the weight on about half of the exercises every single day. It was exhausting and felt quite hardcore but my body just kept handling it. I did this for a few weeks. I never got the “overtrained” feeling I was curious about. I just moved on to other workouts.
Glad to see your improvement. But don’t go too hard on ur self, cause “overtraining” is not just like you train to much, take a break, and become better. Its an extreme that will ruin your health totally. I read “Cant Hurt Me” from David Goggins, and the author got overtrained that his body is totally f*cked up and he has to do rehab for 2-3 years (im not precisely remember it). But the point is don’t abuse the body, it can improve, but only to an extent.
I fully agree here! The more I move, the better I feel. I may have a max deadlift in the morning, a mountain hike in the afternoon and a dance performance at a wedding in the evening. I won't perform "optimally" on this one day, but in the long run I am able to improve simultaneously in all of these things as well as the recovery aspect! And as you correctly mentioned, the sleep after such a day is a pure bliss! :)
The best advice I ever got regarding training/recovery/martial disciplines. "Dont try to be the best. Try to raise your baseline worst. Make your worst better"
Case in point: I work in a warehouse and I am active lifting and moving various sizes and weights( of boxes) all day. It has no negative effect on my recovery what so ever and in fact when I have a week or so off work(which I promptly just lay around) around, I've actually experienced diminishes in my performance when I go to work out after that. It's weird too because when I lay around and do nothing for extended periods of time, I do actually FEEL fresher but it just doesn't translate into superior gains.
I freed myself from the shackles of the program spread sheet a year ago, and just work what I feel will be fun, engaging, and challenging. Lifting, running, swimming, wrestling, biking. At 44 in my best shape and condition, not burned out. Recovery is not a concern. Legs sored from a long run? Let's swim or bench, etc. Go with the flow
Thanks for the video, I'm 65yrs old strength train about 4x's/wk hiit cardio afterwards in pretty decent shape this guy just challenged me even more because when I'm done, I sit down and watch TV the rest of the day gonna start hitting the pull up bar on the way to the bathroom from now on and just stay more active throughout the day, thanks again!
Only accurate if you are on roids though. I know that people assume everybody is at least taking TRT today, but there are thousands of lifters who will never take ANYTHING, and these people need way longer to recover
yeah when he said "well he is on steroids, but I don't think-...", like dude..then a lot of this does not apply to people not taking steroids lol. Steroids literally make you recover faster, that is pretty much what they are for.
Totally agree with everything in this video. I've noticed that times when I push myself outside of lifting is when I get the best results within the weight room. I have respectable powerlifting numbers and people always seemed amazed to hear how much I run in a week, but honestly I think that's one of the key reasons I've done so well with powerlifting.
I've had periods/mesocycles where I lifted 6x/wk and got 20-30K steps per day (including some endurance running, e.g. easy 6-15mi long recovery runs once per week, and I even did a 26.2mi run one weekend) and felt like I had better work capacity during that phase
Interesting, this might explain what happened to me today. Yesterday I was doing chest dips (and I'm fairly new to them) and as I went down, I felt this horrible pain as I could feel my left rhomboid tearing its way down my back. All day I was terrible pain, then for the first half of the next day. Then I was researching decline pushups as a less intense alternative to dips and couldn't resist trying them, despite my horribly painful rhomboid. Right after I did them, my muscles were properly workout-sore all over, but the rhomboid pain was totally gone. And it was so bad, I thought wouldn't be able to work out all week.
What’s a best video man thanks for the advice cause I was planning to incorporate bike ride and start running at the morning and hitting the gym at night or afternoon
REALLY agree with this, blood pumpin and moving can be recovery I even think of the cool down on treadmills. Even after a good few miles it’ll slow you down and just walk slower and you can feel how much you just worked your muscles but it still feels good at a slower pace to still move those same muscles. Even the tired but awesome feeling after working out I always feel like I want to do more but less like a walk or just basic chores or something to keep the awake and “up” energy going. I’m new to going to the gym and was kind of worried about recovery and just going home to be a pancake on the couch but gpa to learn there’s a better way :)
Great advice. My recovery has never been worse than it was when I finished Starting Strength way back, doing low volume and resting 10 minutes between my squat sets.
absolute garbage way to train. have no idea how young men think this is good. they spend 10 minutes sitting around on the bench scowling and shuffling through songs just to fail on 3 reps lol
I do the NLP and my recovery and conditioning is quite good. You still need to move and do cardio work, like good walking and/or some chores/cleaning etc. It sounds like you did not finish Starting Strength, you stopped doing it. It's not fair to drive off a bridge and say cars are dangerous. Nothing personal, it's just tiring of the bashing on ideas that have been proven to work for strength training and building.
You know what works even better? Pinning 500mg of test ethanate, 5000 iu of GH , and 40mgs of var EOD. You thought low volume training was good? Just wait!
I used to train 4, 5 and even 6 days a week religiously. I, then, switched to 2 days heavy work a week. I basically almost max out on Monday, and Friday (emphasis on almost, I always leave a little bit in the tank). I focus on 2 major compound movements during the training session and do about 3 maybe 4 sets. I focus on Slow controlled movements, really focusing on tempo and technique. I then rest in the days between. I’m very active every other day, I move around a lot and have a very active job that requires heavy lifting. I focus on rest and nutrition, and I have noticed insane amounts of growth. More so than when I would train more throughout the week. Daily natural full body movement (or as “natural” as lifting awkward heavy things can get) really does do the body good. I will say though, that it takes time. I saw results faster training more, but I also felt more fatigued and inflamed. The switch to 2 days a week heavy training and my new active lifestyle didn’t fully show its fruits until after months of sticking to it. Patience is the name of the game.
Yeah , since the pandemic i switched from 4/5 trains a week to 3 or 2 , guess what? I didnt lost too much mass, and still look sharply good. There is no use on obsession, is great to be able to train 2 times a week enjoying in it and not being in a mental race against the other stuff that you have to do .
I now remembered that back in the day when I went cycling I went all in. The next day I could barely get up from bed, but after school we used to play football which I loved so much! So I just ignored the pain and went to play anyway. We played like 2-3 hours and wierdly enough, my legs didnt hurt at all, all the muscle soreness was gone. Even the next day it was much better.
I don't know if this also contributes to his overall recovery after such strenuous training routine everyday but for him to train surrounded by trees or nature in general could somehow add to what you've discussed here, Alan.
I remember when I first started training in earnest, I felt the difference between skipping a day "to recover" vs how it felt moving around. I was always told it flushes out your muscles. Get new blood in there. It was also college and while yeah I was younger, I was walking who knows how much every day constantly moving walking across campus, up stairs, grass, concrete, the little trails around town. The muscle soreness suck but just getting up and moving did wonders.
Good advice. I used to be so sore in my low back and legs after a tough deadlift or squat day, and the thing that helped me best was to move through the soreness and pain via basketball and I always wound up feeling much more mobile, less sore, etc.
Most probably not, but at least in m y case, as a natural, I noticed his ideas have merit. I always felt like I recovered faster when moving in the off-days even though at the time I thought it would negatively impact my recovery.
Exactly. Not everyones exactly the same, not everyone has the same schedule or lives, not everyone has the same injuries. I completely agree that movement = good, most of the time. Even for injuries, you wanna get the blood flowing and keep your mobility. But a lot of these comments seems to be written from people who don't move much, have sedentary jobs or perhaps no job at all. If you're running around working 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week on top of your training, sometimes you just don't recover, and you definitely wont recover by doing more more more. Sometimes you truly do need rest. If you're training and then fucking around /lounging the rest of your day then yeah, getting up and doing something is all around good advice.
If the injury is nerve related than doing some movements can make it worse. It's all complicated with different categories that can be broken up into seperate classifications with a gradient of severity.
I went on a 12 mile hike that ended up being 18 miles in one day. My legs felt like they were going to fall off. the next day I went body surfing and on a three mile hike. My friend/ roommate said that I was crazy and needed to ( recover ) but by the end of the second day I felt fine and he could barely move. On the third day we both went on a hike and did our normal day things as if we weren’t trying to recover only then after he got out and moved did he feel better. My other friend calls it sweat lubricant once you start to sweat it gets easier to move.
@@user-rp4pw9ze6y disagree, anything full exertion power lifting style, you eff your CNE. So light working out sure, but I tried 6 to 7 days a week powerlifting style and it definitely made me feel less than a mere mortal.
@@anon8633 I agree with that, I think you shouldn't do powerlifting back to back, but there are other things you can do on your "rest" days other than powerlifting
As someone who works in construction(70-90 hour work weeks of lifting, dragging, hammering, climbing) and I trained on top of it. I can in fact say that this is all bullshit. Sure I felt active and healthy. But could I push myself in the gym? No. My energy was completely sapped from work and I couldn’t push intensity or volume. Sleep was good. Food was good. Could only workout 2-3 times a week pushing very small gains on the barbell. My work capacity was incredible. Unfortunately that doesn’t translate to a good physique or my weightlifting specific strength. As someone who also worked in a gym. I don’t understand why steroids are ruled out of the conversation. EVERYONE is on steroids at the gym. Finding some 100% true natties was uncommon. Why…why are we removing steroids from the conversation when discussing training nutrition? It makes an insane difference. I’ve seen so many people on steroids with shit diets who workout once every week with better lifts and physiques in their first 2 year than a 5+ year natural who’s doing everything right. Stop being silly
I think you're making a very important point here: there WILL absolutely be an upper limit that normal people can reach as far as how much physical work they can output per week, at least without the aid of anabolic drugs or 0.0001% genetics or a life that is completely optimized around physical performance. I would say that you, as a person working ridiculous hours of physically demanding labor and doing resistance training on top of that, have reached that point for your body at this point in time. And you should be proud of that. You are at a point where in order to reap specialized strength or physique gains, you would absolutely need to dial back your other shit so that your body has more recovery capacity. But I also think that it's important to realize that you are the exception that proves the rule. The vast majority of recreational lifters would benefit from additional "low intensity" work. Maybe, say, the equivalent of ONE of your work days per week. The fact is that you as an individual are at a point that almost no-one in the developed world is at: the practical limit of human recovery. So for the overwhelming bulk of Alan's audience, I don't think the advice in this video is bullshit at all. Steroids or not, most of us would be stronger and healthier if we moved more throughout the day. Of course there's a ceiling, but unlike you most of us are nowhere near that.
Totally agree. There was a recent study showing martial arts training that uses shadow boxing was able to decrease doms by up to a massive 50% on trained athletes
You know someone’s strong when they have graduated from traditional weights and adapter to railroad equipment. What a force. Many blessings.
like what the hell did I just watch. this man is crazy strong.
Mr. Incredible
This guys like a living dinosaur. Or a lone Bison endangered species. Not too many around anymore.
But maybe once upon a time, there were droves
Mr incredible
Rail road equipment 😂😂😂😂😂😂
I used to run 8-10 miles every day on top of lifting daily. Running was how I kept my sanity after my father and sister passed back to back from cancer. If i sat still to long my thoughts got the best of me. I ended up doing that for 5 or so years out of habit. Still run and lift every day but only a couple of miles now. Your body gets used to the stress you put it under.
You're telling me you lifted weights 7 days a week, and also ran 8-10 miles every day too? Did you have a job? Did you have time to eat and sleep? Smh
how did you recover??? I struggle to recover doing jiu jitsu 5 days a week and lifting 3 times a week
@@jameshemmings1542 Eat in a calorie surplus. Get plenty of electrolytes especially before jiu-jitsu. I drink coconut water and have a light salty snack before/after rolling. Try splitting up your lifting sessions volume-wise. Listen to what Firas Zahabi says about training schedules (He trains with GSP and Danaher).
@@jameshemmings1542 watch the end of the video. whenever i've done manual labor and sports or sports plus exercise and did them at separate times in the same day, my body was always ready for anything. it's like being superhuman. everyone would gas out before i broke a sweat sparring.
@@jameshemmings1542 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight....for me that is 325g per day....1g is NOT enough if you're training hard brother...
Dude slays. Props for his modesty..the head to toe clothes, the back to the camera...he deserves all success/accolades he receives. Insane training. Excellent video, man. Truly grateful for your posting.
Lmao i didnt even guys got slut shamed abd had props for midesty
Also isbt he shirtless in the thumbnail
This is exactly what I've believed all along, it's great to hear this thought out as well as you made it. And it's been years since I watched yt fitness and Alan is looking pretty damn shredded, good job brother.
They need to hire this guy as the next Jason Voorhees or Micheal Myers.
Or The Predator
Yes, on both of these. 👆🏼
MAAAAAN!!
Isn't Michael on the skinnier side? A buff Jason surely would fit.
Wtf I was literally just thinking this, too! He could play Jason easy.
I work as a window cleaner, it's a very busy and active job. Time is money.
Always carrying double extension ladders, climbing them, going up and down stairs and doing 100s of squats and stuff just bending down etc.
I used to always think my job was a curse because if all the advice I would hear about needing to recover. I let it get into my head and always though it wasn't possible for me to workout to my full capacity because my job was too physical.
But in recent years I realised things weren't ever going to change and just started pushing through.
I then started to realise that am actually in a really good position because my work helps me recover from training and I have noticed the difference vs friends who sit down all day.
They'd be smoked after a big session but am right back at it the next day because every day is effort.
Glad to hear this being spoken about on here. As I get older am really starting to just listen to my intuition with exercise and training and ignore the dogmatic mentality.
Thank you for sharing. That is super cool
i was the same man, working construction by day and doing martials arts till the middle of the night. modern people are stuck in a desk all day. However when we used to live in caves and have to fight animals all day to survive we had to push through!!
My purpose for work outs are to make my job easier and armwrestling lol
exactly same i realized it couple years ago im doing gutters instalation so whole day im on the ladder or roof with more than 100 degrees so basically im doing hours of aerobic work im a track cycling sprinter and thanks to this i dont need to do much of a base/endurance work in my training becouse im doing it every single day and real sprint sessions or powerlifting sessions are easier to recover than my teammates
@@jhno68 Come on, no fucking way you were doing martial arts to the middle of the night then going early to construction work. Sleep is number 1.
His movements and range of motion is so clean and fluid I almost thought he was fake weighting. But this guy is a real monster and has definitely perfected his trade.
how u wanna know that these weights arent fake ? xD
Mobility and stability are the foundation of my exercise/activity plan. Great video and I love this guy !
I bet this guy can carry all the groceries in one run. We finally found HIM!
I can do that too I just don’t buy that many 😂
😂😂 I thought it was a myth.
He brings the car inside and shakes it empty of groceries.
I always do that!
He just carries the whole grocery store.
Was hoping for Eric Bugenhagen, but still not disappointed
He’s definitely the resident freak, especially recovering from that knee injury
Came here to say the same thing.
who's that?
@@Aedonius probably the only man to squat while shredding some Iron Maiden
@@Aedonius A madman
You know what, I really enjoyed this and it’s been very true for me since I became a Cintas route driver. I have to unload clean product and uniforms, load the dirties, like 20-30 stops four days a week. And it’s helped me like crazy.
I just do strength training 3x5 for a few main compound lifts TWICE a week, to compliment it and at almost 32 (in a couple weeks) I front squatted 300 for the first time in my life last week.. I’ve been doing the route work and lifting twice (occasionally only once) and I’ve become so much stronger than I ever was when a collegiate 400m - 800m runner… it was 10 years ago where suffered 4 different hamstring strains across 3 seasons, 3 of them to my right inner and a grade 2 in the middle of my left.. it’s crazy how much more well put together I am, now that I’m not always sitting at a desk with some standing…
Like the video said too, this was hard in the beginning and I did get tired but I did make sure to eat big ass meals of chicken, brown rice, and veggies.. yogurts in the morning for gut and more protein, with some eggs, rice, trimmed bacon, fruit / veggies.
Keep drinking your water, eat enough food, and put in some work CONSISTENTLY ❤
This changed my whole outlook thank you!!
Anyone who was in the military can agree with this. Bootcamp is an easy example to use. You’re moving fast and intensely the entire day all while mixing in regular physical training sessions, hikes, etc. You would think that it would be impossible to recover from all the physical work but within a very short time period you adjust and your capacity for work shoots up like crazy.
Doesn't hurt that you're 18 yo then. :)
Of course many people get stress fractures from that
One of my best friends was in the Army, and he thought they were putting steroids in the eggs, he recovered and gained so well. And he was a walk on at Texas Tech football, so it wasn't like he was a bum.
When i was at basic most people, including myself would lose weight and muscle, plenty of people leaving with less muscle mass and slower 2 mile times. Basic is ok if your overweight or in ok shape but if you are an athlete or in good/great shape muscular and cardio gains will be lost.
I agree, I was 28 when I went through basic training and didn't have the same problems as the younger recruits did with shin splints, ect. Maybe it was because I worked a physical job vs they probably never had a job before, maybe our bodies get stronger throughout our 20s, hard to say for sure.
Tom is a fucking stud. He’s Australian and often trains in a field with animals around. Josh Bryant (his coach) has done wonders with him. He’s definitely a freak and it’s awesome
those damn aussies, dude kinda ressembles mitch hooper
Mrna
no need to curse
Why doesn't he compete?
@@sterling441 why are you asking me? How am I supposed to know? Why aren’t you asking him? Why don’t you compete?
Great content. Something I needed to hear. My recovery is very stationary most of the times, and I feel I started running into recovery issues. And after doing some swimming on My recovery days, I feel more recovered. Active recovery is the key.
If his recovery is greatly altered by steroids then it makes no sense to take his advice if you are not taking them. I understand you are speaking from your experience and it makes sense to you but I would need more than your word to take it seriously.
I’m the guy in the comments who will say the advice is solid but remember he is likely in copious amounts of gear essentially rendering and recovery null and void because it’s simply not needed hence he can train this way, this takes nothing away from it but it is much easier this way compared to the el natural route
I think it’s relative though. Is someone using steroids going to be able to lift more weight? Probably. But it doesn’t make it impossible for a natural who lifts half the amount of weight to have similar work capacity.
Ya he’s not exactly the pinnacle of health and fitness but this is good advice for naturals too. I just wish people didn’t need to hear it from some juice monkey for them to even give it a try.
Yeah but that’s no fun though is it 😂
Quite impossible for a roider to have the same level of cardio the guy does. But I'll take your word.
Ppl need to stop using roided up "freaks" as examples of fitness advice.
As a cyclist I was always taught about the importance of a recovery ride. Even on days off during extremely difficult races such as the Tour de France the riders will go for an easy ride for a couple of hours.
they might to 20+ miles on the stationary bike as a very low intensity, to clear their legs
Same. Im into track cycling so ill lift maybe 2-3 times per week and recovery is pretty much my daily bike ride to work and back so total around 15 miles at a easy steady pace. Just today i had a regular monday but then took my youngest out for a 45 minute walk right away when i got home. I feel great
We used to do this after track meets. Just easy miles to work out the lactic acid!
Was just about to write something similar. It's unreal how helpful low intensity chill rides have been for both my weightlifting and "serious" cycling. I literally do them on my heavy lifting days to relax.
@@domepiece11 The easy recovery training is great, but the idea you're removing lactic acid with it is a myth.
Thank you for posting this.
Over the last year, I discovered that I loved ballroom dancing but I always found myself struggling to fit weight training, dancing classes and socializing in my schedule because I'm always thinking I need a full day of not doing anything between every weigth training session. Since highschool, I always trained that way and it became a routine. It prevented me from enjoying this new passion and also it made me cut back on weight training "to gain time".
I realize now it was foolish of me to think this way; my work capacity is not some innate characteristic that I can't change. It will slowly increase if I just keep doing more stuff.
Thank you, I will now register for a second dancing class this semester *and* add back a gym session. This was really inspirational.
Yo. Your about to be a freaking panther, you should think of adding in some fighting classes.
I love this so much. My rest days consist of cycling to the gym, light weights/bodyweight exercises, stretching and cycling home. I do feel like it helps with recovery and also keeps you young. My joints and back feels better than 5 years ago
This is sound advice - Tom knows his stuff. Adam Sinicki (the Bioneer) talks about this same concept as it relates to feeling lethargic. Moving your body more throughout the day is not a detriment - it will actually make you feel more consistently alert and energetic. It will make you feel better in the gym and in your day to day life.
Glad that you mentioned the bioneer, extremely underrated channel
Very true, more people need to realize this!
Except for the bioneer isn’t on PED’s
I’m glad someone finally said who gives a shit if it messes with your recovery there’s more to life bravo Alan
Thank you the explains my consistent growth before my injury my belief is "We workout to get more efficient at the daily physical routine we are forced to do in life". My rest periods were always on work days and the Intensity levels determined on work hours. My past has show this is true and once my injury is healed I'll keep on developing,good luck to everyone watching this.🤞
This is my favorite video of yours. I come back from time to time to rewatch it.
As a trim carpenter, I’ve noticed the difference in recovery compared to my gym buddies who are tech guys. I’m on my feet at least 8 hours a day hustling back and forth to a saw. They also seem to collect more acute musculoskeletal injuries over the years. There’s so many variables but I agree moving at a low moderate pace for recovery does seem to help big time
I can attest to that. I was a laborer for 15 years and now have a more sedentary position running the business (2 years now). My capacity to recover went down after transitioning to my new position. As a general metric of activity, I used to get 20k - 30k steps per day and now I'm lucky to get 10k steps.
But what if you were a not-so-trim carpenter? (Sorry, I couldn't resist. 😜)
@@brianchambers6853 lol I can be a rough carpenter too….extra rough
Tight hips from sitting all day affects the knees, lower back, core etc.
all things that are used while training regardless of the body part being trained. Plus you are more likely to have a far better mind body connection happening, so it’s easier for you to really be able to focus and concentrate on a movement and incorporate the body parts that are meant to be used. A lot of guys will incorporate far too much supporting body parts/muscles in movements, bring far too much ego into play and wind up very injured.
And yes I am a desk jockey and am guilty of tight hips, knees, psoas, lower back issues, and struggle with a good mind body connection
I used to train with a carpenter and one day it dawned on me - how the hell are you training after a full day of work 😅
I think doing other physical activity next to lifting weights to recover is really underrated. I especially noticed this when i had a week off work. I work in construction as a carpenter, so I’m always walking, carrying, lifting things and climbing all day. That does a lot for my recovery. And in the time off work, I really noticed I didn’t recover as easily from my workouts. Because of that i had to scale down on my workouts a bit because everything felt heavier than it normally does after i’m done working for the day.
That’s interesting….thanks. 🤘🏼
Yep! I've worked in construction and auto repair for years and train MMA on the side. The daily work definitely helps other areas of the body stay vibrant and useful.
Same I'm a painter, and I feel like going to work and twisting and turning, bending, lifting five gallon buckets, moving ladders, and of course painting all day is really healing. I injured my back last year and my back feels the best after a day of work. Whereas on the flip side if I take a few days off and just lay around all day I start getting pain again.
@@jasonfleenor moderation still works.
@@griffin7274 obese people put fat on just fine even from doing nothing. Blood flow to those fat cells are no problem even without significant activity. Blood flow isn't a major factor. Now, blood flow to a specific muscle group soon after a workout, like leg extensions the day after squats would help. Light, TUT, and low workload would be good.
Been following him for years !! Glad to see he's getting the recognition he deserves :)
👏👏👏👏 Absolutely!!! I learnt this over 20yrs. Getting older forces you smarten up with training & recovery as your body is much less forgiving if you overtrain or otherwise get injured.
I have been lifting in various degrees of intensity and training for over 15 years now. During that time I have been watching and taking advice from youtube trainers such as yourself, Omar Isuf, Starting Strength ( gee I wonder who's opinion you were emulating at 05:00 hehe), Greysteel and even old Scooby amongst many. After all this time I am happy that I have emerged relatively uninjured and most importantly I have settled on a routine that has enabled me to be strong, healthy and which greatly helps me in my day to day work. When I race up sets of stairs in the processing plant like they were nothing, enjoying the feeling of power with every step, no knee pain no tweaks and just whoosh!!! Better, quicker and easier than at any time in my life and I am over 50 now, it is just awesome. I can also roughouse and piggy back and carry my nieces for hours and be just fine afterwards. That is why I train, and I wish everyone else the best in their journey.
Was there a specific tuber that helped with knee elasticity/recovery? I'm only 29 but I'm starting to feel it and that's without utilizing a hard workout regimen
@@mrmisanthropic2803 Knee pain definitely isn't fun. Not trying to speak for Hossak, but "The kneesovertoesguy" is someone that really focuses on "bulletproofing" your knees. Might be worth checking out, good luck finding a solution that works for you.
@@mrmisanthropic2803 It took me probably 10 years (yep, I am bloody stubborn) until I figured out how to squat correctly for me. It is really hard to describe but for me squats is all about engaging what I call "the back door" of my knees. Anytime that I experienced knee pain, I knew that I was predominantly using my quads instead of the hamstring / back of the knee in squats or day to day walking/working. That would be fixed in a couple of sessions to get my squat form back on track. Take your hands and feel your knee cap, that is how your quads help you walk, a giant tendon that goes through the knee and connects to your tibia. If you use that predominantly, it pushes against your kneecap and torsions your leg and you get pain and if it is really bad, it feels like a hot wire going down the front of your knee. Now feel the back of the knee and notice those two giant tendons/muscles that run on either side on the back of the knee. When you squat, you need to use those and that is really difficult to figure out but once you do, everything kicks into gear. Starting strength probably offers the best advice on the path to getting that right, however. Please don't fall into the trap of trying to set bloody world records or competing in a powerlifting meet or whatever - yesh. By all means get stronger but get your form perfect and get that activation on track. Don't think that if you can squat 200 kgs, everything will kick in - weight is no substitute for form. A few weeks ago, I hit 200 kgs and I was feeling great....until I went to a gym (I was working out in the front yard) and realised that I was squatting waaaaayyyy high :( So going to correct depth - ummmm yeah back down to 170 kgs :( - so easy to fool yourself. The weights I have quoted don't mean sh*t, just illustrating that even after all these years, form can still slip away. So, get your squat form right, get that activation going and find a challenging weight that enables you to figure out your activation and things will kick in. Also keep watching youtube videos and go to the gym and watch yourself and figure it out over and over again. You will get there, hopefully it wont be bloody 10 years :(
Regarding the youtube guys that helped me, that is actually quite difficult. The most important thing is to engage your mind fully as you are doing the squat. Please don't mechanically go through some 5 x 5, or 3 x 5 progression whatever. Even after all this time, I continue to learn after every set and make adjustments. Don't be surprised that it is really difficult to get right but you will get there. Again, I would say that Starting Strength is probably the best as I do their low bar squat setup but that said, please please please don't then go 100% and start training for a power lift meet. The other point I have not mentioned that is incredibly important is the bracing - you know take a big breath and hold and keep your core tight. Out of all the things I have learnt that prevents back pain and helps day to day - bracing is probably the number 1. Also when you brace, that is not just when you are squatting. When you go to pick up the weight plates - BRACE, then you take them off BRACE, when you are putting the bar in place - BRACE. If you are picking up something from the living room floor - BRACE and so on. Bracing is not just for the gym, it is for everything in life.
@@mrmisanthropic2803 knees over Toes guy....Ben Patrick...ATG program
This also applies to recovering from injury. The old model was RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) where you would lie on the couch with an ice pack until you felt better. But we now know that this is actually hampering your recovery. Recovery requires (easy) movement to keep the blood flowing, joints limber, etc.
Makes sense, because in nature, animals pretty much have to keep up with the herd even if sick or injured. If you see them laying down, not keeping up, it's got to be really bad.
I think RICE can apply for acute injuries initially, but only temporarily. Afterwards it's better to get moving
The dude that developed rice went back on it a few years later and talks about how wrong he was
RICE isn't used for recovery. It's a temporary pain management technique and to combat inflammation. Sometimes the human body can overreact with inflammation and the cold helps constrict blood vessels to slow inflammation. You're completely right in saying that hampers your ability to recover, but you're only supposed to apply cold for about 10 to 15 minutes. It's a great alternative to NSAIDs or Narcotics for pain. RICE is also very important initially for surgeries on joints and other structures as it gives time for everything to set and heal enough to where you can get up and move to help promote blood flow and to heal the affected structure. But even in this scenario, RICE isn't meant to aid in recovery, it's a pain management tool to allow you to be comfortable while you heal.
@@claudiamarianidamato9499 Lol, gonna need you to tell that to folks with chronic inflammatory diseases like Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Lupus, hepatitis and other autoimmune diseases.
I love this video, Alan! Super informative and comforting as I love to lift and play volleyball.
Tom is amazing. When you put all of his lifts and highlights together like this it is even more impressive
Honestly the new look looks amazing. It's just going to take me a minute to get over it. Feel like I'm watching a whole other CZcamsr
he's a good-looking fellow. As a straight man, I like him more when he's chunkier though. That t-shirt is not filed enough.
@@hanscastorp1945 that doesn't sound very straight my guy
@@SmaSherConCarL well, what can I say?
Wow someone actually didn't type a whole "nother". 😆 props
@@hanscastorp1945 tbh you never said no homo so it's all good
Tom Haviland is a ridiculously nice guy for someone so scary. Always friendly and encouraging to people litteraly less than half his size. I've found daily hiking carrying a todler to be very effective with recovery which I think is relatively proportionate when you take into account bw. Every single old time strongman I've ever read encouraged walking without exception. They all believed someone who worked an active job would recover better than someone sedentary.
Milo of Croton springs to mind. If you`re still doing this I bet you`re seeing some impressive gains
The last couple months I’ve been experimenting with 7 day a week training on a PPL and my strength has continued to go up, have set new PR’s, all while working as a tree climber. I remember back when I used to go on bodybuilding forums people posting worried that they were overtraining because they worked out for an hour instead of just 40 min, or they did a few extra sets and are worried they are gonna lose all their gains. Generalizing recommendations is counterproductive because everyone’s body responds differently to training, nutrition, and recovers and makes progress differently. I feel like a lot of people are more focused on trying to set LIMITS on what they think they can do / achieve versus actually pushing themselves to see how far they can go.
My 14 year old brother was having knee pain to the point he couldn't do cross country anymore. I told him to just outright stop squating. He's back in cross country
The sunburn analogy was excellent, so thanks!
Awesome to see this certified giant covered here. I've been catching up on his videos. Wild strength and work capacity. Inspiring.
I just said this but I can't believe I quit watching him cuz more than 1 person was talking about him on the web about him using fake weights...... after i was bragging about him , haha goes to show all the jealousy online I guess?
Tom is one of the most amazing strength athletes in the world. The dude literally embodies what it means to be a beast and he inspires people to train outside their comfort zone.
Fantastic highlight of this man. So much could be said. Insane range of motion, imperfect equipment, variety. People want a 1-2-3 A-B-C plan to get strong and it doesn’t really exist. Desire, intellectual curiosity and consistency are more more important than any single program, perfect coach, or plan. Figure it out people!!!!
What a great overall message. We are one of the most adaptable creatures on this planet. A lot of the time too, you’ll notice that even if you’re a little under recovered- you’ll have a great mind muscle connection during your sets. Eventually will have a one or two day break where your body recovers exponentially. Much faster and stronger. A process much like sipping tea in comparison to chugging an energy drink. Takes a little time but eventually your overall work capacity will be so much higher and your body will adapt to the recovery needed to maintain or improve upon it.
Guy is a monster. The way he ripped that 200kg into position for the Zercher squats was incredible!
Thank you for the upload Alan, I’ve been bored with just walking lately and wanting to add some running in but tapping into the recovery for the weight training was on my mind. Starting small and building up from there is sound advice, thank you man 🤘🏼
As a Light Infantry Combat Veteran, I can say that this is our mind set. We would always Ruck with weight, and usually turn daily training into 2nd and 3rd sets of PT throughout the day.
Went to a Mechanized Division for my 2nd station. I was one of the few PT Studs, let alone 1 of 3 NCOs to max the PT Test in my entire Battalion... Was the ONLY one in my Company to max the PT Test other than a ButterBar.
Active recovery has been the exact thing I have been "preaching" to people who complain of being sore after a workout. Nothing has made me more sore than when I was starting my first desk job and driving almost 3 hours a day for my commute. All that inactivity really killed my recovery.
That dude is a beast, and I agree with your take on recovery...MOVE MOVE MOVE, and keep MOVING!
Great advice and video! I'd love to see another one with some example daily movement, low-intensity exercises for powerlifters on non-lift days.
I totally get what Tom is saying.
I have maximum capacity when I watch a 20 minute CZcams video
Then in my recovery time, I watch hundreds of YT Shorts.
It truly makes me conditioned to watch YT forever.
My eyes are so jacked.
Great Vid. I was helping my brother move into his new place on a Sunday (ReSt DaY).
It took us about 8 hours because we had to set everything up in his new place.
The next day I CRUSHED my bench PR and I was confused as to why I felt so strong even though I was hauling boxes the day before.
This video explains it perfectly. Hauling boxes is much lower intensity than bench pressing and the lower intensity activity allowed me to recover from last weeks training much more optimally than sitting around and doing nothing.
100% going to incorporate more lower intensity activities into my daily routine. (walking, biking, hiking, tree chopping, etc.)
This guy trains reminiscent of the great Paul Andersen, who trained in rural Georgia with farm and homage equipment and whatever was on hand - railroad wheels, bank safes, trailer yokes, etc. Magnificent.
I instinctively suspected this decades ago,as after I'd simply lifted heavy enough to improve from last time I felt it wasn't enough work in other areas,like fitness or sports specific skills that can actually regress with too much weight training specialisation and age.
It takes a freak like Tom to get the western world to notice it I suppose,the Eastern Europeans knew this in the 1960's.
Can you please be more specific about what the Eastern Europeans in the 1960s knew? Sounds like something I would love to read more into.
@@OldeVikingOriginalIn 1960's & 70's, the most successful weightlifting club in history, Russian Dynamo Club, experimented by rotating 25-45 special exercises, to avoid accommodation,they also found the need to have their athletes remain very active during rest periods as they concluded it helps with the circulation of blood and the regenerative nutrients contained therein to recuperate more efficiently, Alexeyev the Olympic champion would walk a thousand steps in a lake at waist height, whilst others would jog or play less less intense sports like table tennis etc...This is where westsides conjugate method came from.
Hope this helps.
@@ThePitPony Thank you very much.
@@ThePitPony it has merit, but that sounds like complete overkill. A good walk would be plenty of recuperative exercise. As a natural, you NEED to chill out and recover from the workout, especially if you have a job that is active.
it sounds like this video disproved what you said
You my man are an incredible extrapolater. I truly hope more people will think the way you do. 👍🏼
I fully agree I’ve been experiencing this lately I full body workout every 4 th day and on the other days I’ve been doing agility training and shaved a1 day off of total recovery days I used to train every 5 th day . I believe the blood flow is what fuels the recovery.
This is some amazing content. After not boxing for 2 years I realized my physical appearance and strength negatively change. However over the past month I’ve been training for boxing daily like 30mins nothing big. Already my shoulders are looking better core, arms you make it and I have so much more energy and pride. My take away strength gainz are 1 part of the battle. Learning how to use your body to do new things is just the missing piece.
Good video. I like the way you can think outside of the usual dogma. This reminds me of the people who are "farmer strong" or people that have tough physical jobs. Many of them still find the time and energy to work out after their workday. The work they do all day does not stop them from recovering , it enhances their overall fitness. I think also as we age and lose the ability to do the things we used to do as well or often we blame it simply on aging. When were kids we were sprinting and jumping and climbing things every day. Now we expect to sit on the couch 3 days in a row and wonder why we strain a hammy when we try to sprint.
I am completely in awe of his strength. He is an absolute BEAST of a man!
This is so true! When I worked as a mover my conditioning went thru the roof despite the fact that I thought I would be too tired .to do my regular weight workouts. Instead of being too tired pick up pieces of furniture and boxes all day gave me more energy in the gym. Lower intensity Carries on your off days is an amazing place to start and better than sitting on your ass and being lazy all day.
I've started riding my bike to work, and it's been remarkable how much it's improved my capacity for work. It's pretty low intensity, but my DOMS have been extremely reduced by cycling more frequently. And biking to the gym, I feel much more warmed up and ready to perform than if I were to just drive and start squatting cold.
5:30 is he pulling the sled with his neck? What a legend!
I am literally in Brisbane right now in Queensland, I am from Canada. I would love to see Tom.
His power is phenomenal
That’s why he hides his face
its hard to always find that perfect analogy, but i dig it. And it all makes sense to me. 🙌🙌
I've been saying this for years and I still get flamed for it (at least on the internet). It also has been and will be a marathon; small incremental progress is hands down the most sustainable approach to high level fitness/strength/whatever. Just like the guy said: movement is medicine.
Speaking of medicine, I wonder what is in his medicine cabinet. Nutrition, hydration and sleep did not get him to this level of performance.
@@lwskiner meh. Who cares? Sounds like you're picking and choosing what to hear and missing the overall message of the video.
@@chuandamartialarts2875 I care. Hes not picking and choosing. The dude is running massive amounts of gear for years. If he didnt you woulddnt know of him at all and his advice would be irrelevant. Yeah dude, sleep , nutrition, progressive overload. We get it. its not some secret for recovery passed down through the ages that no ne knows about, lol.. This dude is on crazy gear tho.. You have no clue.
Feels similar to what Mythical Strength (on Reddit / his blog) says and does where he does lots of conditioning and just movement in addition to the regular weight training. Great resource
lots of youtube fitness guys advocate a mix of cardio and lifting. Greg D, will tennyson for instance. One does cycling, the other walks 10k steps a day. Both are primarily body builders.
Mythical is a beast and a great guy too.
Tom's tactical hypertrophy training is not for everyone but perhaps it should be. People bang on about functional training there would be a handful of people in the world at best that could keep up with him. Tom is a monster and Josh Bryant deserves a lot of credit for his programming.
Bro, just needs the hockey mask now
A few years ago, I was trying many different workouts. One that I tried was 90-second super slow sets. I would do about 3 reps in 90 seconds with constant stress - 3 up, 3 down, no lockout at the top, no setting down at the bottom. It was hardcore and exhausted me. It was so exhausting that I started off this workout only twice a week. I was doing about 5 exercises. I had in my head at the same time, “what does it feel like to be overtrained?” So, I added exercises, kept increasing the weights, and added more sessions per week. After a couple of months, I was doing 11 exercises 5 days a week. I was increasing the weight on about half of the exercises every single day. It was exhausting and felt quite hardcore but my body just kept handling it. I did this for a few weeks. I never got the “overtrained” feeling I was curious about. I just moved on to other workouts.
then you weren´t overtrained buddy
@@Jaschka15 If you have experience being overtrained, please share, buddy.
@@JesseHelton pee turns brown. Feels real bad. All over. Constantly. Going poop hard
Glad to see your improvement. But don’t go too hard on ur self, cause “overtraining” is not just like you train to much, take a break, and become better. Its an extreme that will ruin your health totally. I read “Cant Hurt Me” from David Goggins, and the author got overtrained that his body is totally f*cked up and he has to do rehab for 2-3 years (im not precisely remember it). But the point is don’t abuse the body, it can improve, but only to an extent.
I fully agree here! The more I move, the better I feel. I may have a max deadlift in the morning, a mountain hike in the afternoon and a dance performance at a wedding in the evening. I won't perform "optimally" on this one day, but in the long run I am able to improve simultaneously in all of these things as well as the recovery aspect! And as you correctly mentioned, the sleep after such a day is a pure bliss! :)
The best advice I ever got regarding training/recovery/martial disciplines. "Dont try to be the best. Try to raise your baseline worst. Make your worst better"
that quote on recovery is incredibly insightful
Case in point: I work in a warehouse and I am active lifting and moving various sizes and weights( of boxes) all day. It has no negative effect on my recovery what so ever and in fact when I have a week or so off work(which I promptly just lay around) around, I've actually experienced diminishes in my performance when I go to work out after that. It's weird too because when I lay around and do nothing for extended periods of time, I do actually FEEL fresher but it just doesn't translate into superior gains.
I freed myself from the shackles of the program spread sheet a year ago, and just work what I feel will be fun, engaging, and challenging. Lifting, running, swimming, wrestling, biking.
At 44 in my best shape and condition, not burned out. Recovery is not a concern. Legs sored from a long run? Let's swim or bench, etc. Go with the flow
Great advice right there. Great for the tendons too.
Thanks for the video, I'm 65yrs old strength train about 4x's/wk hiit cardio afterwards in pretty decent shape this guy just challenged me even more because when I'm done, I sit down and watch TV the rest of the day gonna start hitting the pull up bar on the way to the bathroom from now on and just stay more active throughout the day, thanks again!
Only accurate if you are on roids though. I know that people assume everybody is at least taking TRT today, but there are thousands of lifters who will never take ANYTHING, and these people need way longer to recover
yeah when he said "well he is on steroids, but I don't think-...", like dude..then a lot of this does not apply to people not taking steroids lol. Steroids literally make you recover faster, that is pretty much what they are for.
Man ever since someone commented "train on time" I cant unhear it. Still works. Jack'd marine dude demands gym punctuality.
So he's not saying train on time?
I always thought that's what he says.
Bro really said it's irrelevant if he on roids.
I bet his heart says differently.
Totally agree with everything in this video. I've noticed that times when I push myself outside of lifting is when I get the best results within the weight room. I have respectable powerlifting numbers and people always seemed amazed to hear how much I run in a week, but honestly I think that's one of the key reasons I've done so well with powerlifting.
I've had periods/mesocycles where I lifted 6x/wk and got 20-30K steps per day (including some endurance running, e.g. easy 6-15mi long recovery runs once per week, and I even did a 26.2mi run one weekend) and felt like I had better work capacity during that phase
Interesting, this might explain what happened to me today. Yesterday I was doing chest dips (and I'm fairly new to them) and as I went down, I felt this horrible pain as I could feel my left rhomboid tearing its way down my back. All day I was terrible pain, then for the first half of the next day. Then I was researching decline pushups as a less intense alternative to dips and couldn't resist trying them, despite my horribly painful rhomboid.
Right after I did them, my muscles were properly workout-sore all over, but the rhomboid pain was totally gone. And it was so bad, I thought wouldn't be able to work out all week.
What’s a best video man thanks for the advice cause I was planning to incorporate bike ride and start running at the morning and hitting the gym at night or afternoon
REALLY agree with this, blood pumpin and moving can be recovery I even think of the cool down on treadmills. Even after a good few miles it’ll slow you down and just walk slower and you can feel how much you just worked your muscles but it still feels good at a slower pace to still move those same muscles. Even the tired but awesome feeling after working out I always feel like I want to do more but less like a walk or just basic chores or something to keep the awake and “up” energy going. I’m new to going to the gym and was kind of worried about recovery and just going home to be a pancake on the couch but gpa to learn there’s a better way :)
Oh my God Alan got lean. I completely forgot about this channel and just saw this. Feels like seeing an old friend after he's lost a ton of weight
Yes, first video I have seen ages and I was soooo shocked, felt like he had gone through a serious illness!
This man works in some kind of hi intensity trade. You can tell by the way he thinks about load lifts and multi-tasking.
He is ex-military and is able to lead the lifestyle he does because of military pension. I believe Tom has mentioned this.
pretty sure he's retired
Thanks, as a 5x5 guy, I needed to hear that
What an absolute unit, holy shit. Very impressive!
Great advice. My recovery has never been worse than it was when I finished Starting Strength way back, doing low volume and resting 10 minutes between my squat sets.
absolute garbage way to train. have no idea how young men think this is good. they spend 10 minutes sitting around on the bench scowling and shuffling through songs just to fail on 3 reps lol
I do the NLP and my recovery and conditioning is quite good. You still need to move and do cardio work, like good walking and/or some chores/cleaning etc. It sounds like you did not finish Starting Strength, you stopped doing it. It's not fair to drive off a bridge and say cars are dangerous. Nothing personal, it's just tiring of the bashing on ideas that have been proven to work for strength training and building.
"That's not real Starting Strength!" anytime anyone has even the lightest of criticisms.
You know what works even better? Pinning 500mg of test ethanate, 5000 iu of GH , and 40mgs of var EOD. You thought low volume training was good? Just wait!
I used to train 4, 5 and even 6 days a week religiously. I, then, switched to 2 days heavy work a week. I basically almost max out on Monday, and Friday (emphasis on almost, I always leave a little bit in the tank). I focus on 2 major compound movements during the training session and do about 3 maybe 4 sets. I focus on Slow controlled movements, really focusing on tempo and technique. I then rest in the days between. I’m very active every other day, I move around a lot and have a very active job that requires heavy lifting. I focus on rest and nutrition, and I have noticed insane amounts of growth. More so than when I would train more throughout the week. Daily natural full body movement (or as “natural” as lifting awkward heavy things can get) really does do the body good.
I will say though, that it takes time. I saw results faster training more, but I also felt more fatigued and inflamed. The switch to 2 days a week heavy training and my new active lifestyle didn’t fully show its fruits until after months of sticking to it. Patience is the name of the game.
Yeah , since the pandemic i switched from 4/5 trains a week to 3 or 2 , guess what? I didnt lost too much mass, and still look sharply good. There is no use on obsession, is great to be able to train 2 times a week enjoying in it and not being in a mental race against the other stuff that you have to do .
I now remembered that back in the day when I went cycling I went all in. The next day I could barely get up from bed, but after school we used to play football which I loved so much!
So I just ignored the pain and went to play anyway. We played like 2-3 hours and wierdly enough, my legs didnt hurt at all, all the muscle soreness was gone. Even the next day it was much better.
Hey Alan, looking clean and fresh with the haircut and trim!
I don't know if this also contributes to his overall recovery after such strenuous training routine everyday but for him to train surrounded by trees or nature in general could somehow add to what you've discussed here, Alan.
Yeah I think you're right there. Surely it helps.
It definitely has an effect on his cortisol levels
I remember when I first started training in earnest, I felt the difference between skipping a day "to recover" vs how it felt moving around. I was always told it flushes out your muscles. Get new blood in there. It was also college and while yeah I was younger, I was walking who knows how much every day constantly moving walking across campus, up stairs, grass, concrete, the little trails around town. The muscle soreness suck but just getting up and moving did wonders.
Good advice. I used to be so sore in my low back and legs after a tough deadlift or squat day, and the thing that helped me best was to move through the soreness and pain via basketball and I always wound up feeling much more mobile, less sore, etc.
Bro I love this, I feel like my body and mind already knew this just was waiting to hear it lmao
I think that ultimately, recovery needs an individualized approach, and requires you to do a lot of internal processing and monitoring.
Most probably not, but at least in m y case, as a natural, I noticed his ideas have merit.
I always felt like I recovered faster when moving in the off-days even though at the time I thought it would negatively impact my recovery.
Exactly. Not everyones exactly the same, not everyone has the same schedule or lives, not everyone has the same injuries. I completely agree that movement = good, most of the time. Even for injuries, you wanna get the blood flowing and keep your mobility. But a lot of these comments seems to be written from people who don't move much, have sedentary jobs or perhaps no job at all. If you're running around working 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week on top of your training, sometimes you just don't recover, and you definitely wont recover by doing more more more. Sometimes you truly do need rest. If you're training and then fucking around /lounging the rest of your day then yeah, getting up and doing something is all around good advice.
If the injury is nerve related than doing some movements can make it worse. It's all complicated with different categories that can be broken up into seperate classifications with a gradient of severity.
@5:11 Mark Rippetoe impression 🤣🤣
Thanks for teaching me not to stress out about recovery.
This is phenomenal advice. 👍
I went on a 12 mile hike that ended up being 18 miles in one day. My legs felt like they were going to fall off. the next day I went body surfing and on a three mile hike. My friend/ roommate said that I was crazy and needed to ( recover ) but by the end of the second day I felt fine and he could barely move. On the third day we both went on a hike and did our normal day things as if we weren’t trying to recover only then after he got out and moved did he feel better. My other friend calls it sweat lubricant once you start to sweat it gets easier to move.
Don't worry you'll feel it in a couple of years. And you'll be wishing you had recovered.
@@JesusChrist2000BC as long as you're getting good sleep, you don't need to take days to recover from working out
@@user-rp4pw9ze6y disagree, anything full exertion power lifting style, you eff your CNE. So light working out sure, but I tried 6 to 7 days a week powerlifting style and it definitely made me feel less than a mere mortal.
@@anon8633 I agree with that, I think you shouldn't do powerlifting back to back, but there are other things you can do on your "rest" days other than powerlifting
Motion is lotion
As someone who works in construction(70-90 hour work weeks of lifting, dragging, hammering, climbing) and I trained on top of it. I can in fact say that this is all bullshit. Sure I felt active and healthy. But could I push myself in the gym? No. My energy was completely sapped from work and I couldn’t push intensity or volume. Sleep was good. Food was good. Could only workout 2-3 times a week pushing very small gains on the barbell. My work capacity was incredible. Unfortunately that doesn’t translate to a good physique or my weightlifting specific strength.
As someone who also worked in a gym. I don’t understand why steroids are ruled out of the conversation. EVERYONE is on steroids at the gym. Finding some 100% true natties was uncommon.
Why…why are we removing steroids from the conversation when discussing training nutrition? It makes an insane difference.
I’ve seen so many people on steroids with shit diets who workout once every week with better lifts and physiques in their first 2 year than a 5+ year natural who’s doing everything right.
Stop being silly
I think you're making a very important point here: there WILL absolutely be an upper limit that normal people can reach as far as how much physical work they can output per week, at least without the aid of anabolic drugs or 0.0001% genetics or a life that is completely optimized around physical performance.
I would say that you, as a person working ridiculous hours of physically demanding labor and doing resistance training on top of that, have reached that point for your body at this point in time. And you should be proud of that. You are at a point where in order to reap specialized strength or physique gains, you would absolutely need to dial back your other shit so that your body has more recovery capacity.
But I also think that it's important to realize that you are the exception that proves the rule. The vast majority of recreational lifters would benefit from additional "low intensity" work. Maybe, say, the equivalent of ONE of your work days per week. The fact is that you as an individual are at a point that almost no-one in the developed world is at: the practical limit of human recovery. So for the overwhelming bulk of Alan's audience, I don't think the advice in this video is bullshit at all. Steroids or not, most of us would be stronger and healthier if we moved more throughout the day. Of course there's a ceiling, but unlike you most of us are nowhere near that.
Agree with you otherwise all construction workers will be looking like Arnold.
That's true. When i see PED's users train at the gym, i know it's a whole different world.
I’ve noticed an increase in deaths that appear to be steroid related 🤷♂️
I don’t need to be that ripped
Totally agree. There was a recent study showing martial arts training that uses shadow boxing was able to decrease doms by up to a massive 50% on trained athletes
Love this. Great work