If you had a car with six gears, but only two of them functioned properly, your driving performance and economy would surely be affected. First, you’d only use the two functional gears, because you wouldn’t really have a choice, even if the road demanded something different. Second, these improper gear choices would have some negative consequences. You shouldn’t be maintaining highway speeds for long durations in second gear, or trying to start and stop in fourth gear.

Many athletes have this problem of missing and untrained gears in their fitness practice. Athletes with only one or two functional gears will apply the same strategy to two workouts that actually demand entirely different efforts. The most common is the athlete who is trained and comfortable working at a moderate intensity for 10-20 minutes; ask them to apply maximal intensity to short, 30-90s intervals, and their functional gears will be inadequate. They will attempt to go at maximal intensity and will quickly implode, or may just miss the mark entirely. On the flip side, ask the athlete who is trained and comfortable only in short, fast, intense efforts to sustain anything for 15+ minutes, and they will fall apart.

Variation is a centerpiece of our programs at No Boundaries for this very reason. No one in their right mind would buy a new car with only two functional gears, and no one in their right mind would consider someone generally fit if they can only perform within a small range of intensities and types of effort. Your motor’s not worth much if you don’t train the full range of your gears.

- PS

10/15/18

• Parallel box squat - 2,2,2,2

Then...

• 3 rds for reps:

• 40s max DBL KB front rack 10m carry (106/70)

• 80s rest

• 40s max stone to shoulder (145/95)

• 80s rest