Thread: Hardcore Training

Jamie lewis runs chaosandpain.blogspot.com and one of his fans runs chaosandpain.com

He is basically nuts.. but has quite an interesting perspective on lifting, in that the style is extremely intense, and he has done his research. What he is doing works for him and I figured I would share it with you guys. His writings range from a few topics, but I have found most to be awesome.

Mind you I agree with these statements

Jamie Lewis' statements on it are here, and in a bunch of other articles ->

Overtraining article 1

Overtraining article 2

Barbarian twins - "There is no such thing as overtraining, only undereating and undersleeping"

John Broz ( T-Nation Article )- "If you got a job as a garbage man and had to pick up heavy cans all day long, the first day would probably be very difficult, possibly almost impossible for some to complete. So what do you do, take three days off and possibly lose your job?

No, you'd take your sore, beaten self to work the next day. You'd mope around and be fatigued, much less energetic than the previous day, but you'd make yourself get through it. Then you'd get home, soak in the tub, take aspirin, etc. The next day would be even worse.

But eventually you'd be running down the street tossing cans around and joking with your coworkers. How did this happen? You forced your body to adapt to the job at hand! If you can't' squat and lift heavy every day you're not overtrained, you're undertrained! Could a random person off the street come to the gym with you and do your exact workout? Probably not, because they're undertrained. Same goes with most lifters when compared to elite athletes."

His workout is listed here -> (LINK)

I will summarize parts of it though in case some of you don't want to go to the blog.

On Chaos and Pain, you're going to train a MINIMUM of 5 days a week, if you're going balls out. I've never tried to pack the volume of work I do into less, really. I've had backoff weeks because my legs were cramping like crazy, which reduced my training load for a week, but this program is all about constantly busting your ass.

The exercises:
Squat
Front Squat
Clean and Press (and all of its variations... power cleans, push press, fat bar clean and press, log clean and press, dumbbell clean and press, reverse grip/fast curl and press)
Snatches (one and two arm)
Push Presses
Push Jerks (from the back)
Military presses (one and two arm)
Deadlifts (one arm, two arm, trap bar, etc)
Bench press (close grip, reverse grip, and regular flat bench)
Pullups (weighted and unweighted)
Dips (weighted and unweighted)
Shrugs
High Pulls
any other heavy ass exercise you want. Stones, steel suitcases, farmers walks, throwing weights for height or distance, etc. The key is that they're heavy, not conducted on a padded seat or bench (with the exception of bench press), and require you to be a fucking man while doing it.

The basics: I typically combine one push with one pull and one squat three times per week. The exercises are basically a grab bag, from which you can grab any of the above. On those three days, you will shoot for 15-30 total reps, depending on your rep scheme. Doing triples? go with 10x3. Doubles? I rarely do them, but shoot for 10-15 sets. Singles? They're my bread and butter, and I'll do anywhere from 15 to 30 of them, depending on the workout. I love them.

The key to getting ripped and strong on this program is to use AT LEAST 85% of your 1 rep max (1RM) on everything, and I like to stay in the 87.5%-100% range. That means HEAVY. Always. Well, almost always. If you're going to squat 3 times a week, make the midweek squat workout a light one. i like to load 135 or 225 on the bar and squat for time for a couple of sets. I just put a song on my ipod that's 2:30 or 3:00 for 135, or 1:30-2:00 for 225 and squat pretty much nonstop. If you start dying, just stand there under the weight.

John Broz talks about the place where normal lifters stop because of the "overtraining" he calls it "dark times". His article on it is larger than this but I will post part and a link.

Source - (LINK)
In the "dark times" it's just as I said, a lot like "withdrawal" from substance abuse. If you want the specifics, I’ll try to lay them out for you as best I can. Maybe this will clear up some of the misconceptions people have about what actually happens when you lift weights. Then again, maybe monkeys will fly out of my behind...

Most people think the only part of the body to adapt to lifting are the muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc. In fact, the brain also adapts to whatever stress you put on the body. It physically changes its structure and ability to deal with chemicals which directly relate to your physical activity. If you are a runner, you'll get better at making and using chemicals which deal with running. You'll also develop and affinity for extremely short shorts, politics, FOX news, granola, etc.

One thing that pissed me off about IA is his insistence that the CNS fatigues in some way. Bulls**t. People are still taught that the nervous system runs off of electrical impulses like a power cable. It doesn't. The nerve impulses (synapses) run off of chemicals (neurotransmitters). If these chemicals are not present, there is no signal between brain and muscle. The reason you can measure electrical impulses in the nervous system is because the electrical impulse is a BYPRODUCT of this chemical reaction. Its called an electrochemical reaction.

The idea that humans are fragile things is quite absurd when you really think about it outside of the gym. I can think of countless times helping my grandparents on the farm where I physically couldn't lift another bale after we finished that day and guess what, my ass was up in the hayloft 5am the next morning. When I moved away I got soft compared to what I looked like then, but I just adapted.. it was pain for a long while, but eventually it stopped being pain..

Both Broz and Lewis push that man has much more ability than we think. Without steroids and GH man did amazing things. If you read through Lewis' "Badest Motherfuckers Ever" series on the blog you will see how many of these guys were around prior to the isolation of testosterone. They still did crazy shit. Jack LaLanne is my favorite of the series (LINK) most impressive is this:

"1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles (2.4 km) while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary."

Originally Posted by Gazhole

Sure it can work, but if training less works just as well why waste all that extra time and effort when the net result is the same and you feel like shit?

Jamie is basically saying that training less does not work as well, and the net result is not the same. That's pretty much his whole philosophy. Just look at his training routine. High volume at high percentages. "Less is more" is probably not in his repertoire.