Progressive Training vs. Aggressive Training

Lately, I have been working with a lot of clients who have special considerations ranging from diabetes to gout to osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis. Some conditions can make exercise seem like a difficult addition to a lifestyle. To all those who feel constrained, fear not! You need only understand the difference between progressive training and ‘aggressive’ training.

In fitness these days there is often an emphasis, even a premium placed on intensity. The more sweat, burn, and exhaustion to a workout the more “effective” it is deemed. Fortunately, this is not the whole truth. Exercise is really about improving the body, and nothing more. That means every improvement, no matter how modest, is a success. What’s more, the beauty of exercise is that the smallest improvements, built upon one another, can add up to huge payouts in health. This is where progressive training comes in.

Progressive training means just what it sounds like. You start at a point and you progress from there. The key is to know where to start and how to progress in a smart, controlled manner. Unlike ‘aggressive’ training in which the goal is to cause as much exhaustion as possible, progressive training focuses on identifing reasonable and achievable goals and reaching them, one step at a time.

Imagine, for example, a person who has knee trouble and is struggling with going up and down stairs. This person should probably not be jumping around, running, or doing high intensity classes or calisthenic based DVD’s. However, that person may be able to do hip bridges. After some time, and probably some improvement in knee pain, they may then be ready to graduate from hip bridges to hip-hinges. From there, they could potentially work up to kettlebell-deadlifts. After that, it could be step ups, and before you know it, stairs aren’t such a problem anymore, and their exercise can grow to encompass much more than they had imagined.

The bottom line is, none of what I just described necessarily has to feel like the hardest workout known to man, and it certainly doesn’t have to cause pain to problem areas. It need not cause excessive sweating or soreness either. It can nonetheless lead to a huge improvement in health and in quality of life. I encourage anyone for whom pain or other considerations has sidelined them from exercise to re-examine what it means to work out. Throw out ‘agressive’ training and acquaint yourself with progressive training. Start at the right spot, and then make small improvements, one at a time – they will add up! (See excellent video below for great progression example)

TIP:

A fitness professional can absolutely help (if you find the right one), as can a good physical therapist, chiropracter, or massage therapist. I encourage you to make the investment, utilize these professionals when necessary, leave the intensity driven workouts behind, embrace smart, steady progress and banish worries and whatever else might be holding you back from getting your daily exercise in!

EXTRA MATERIAL:

Great video of hip bridge progressions by Mike Reinold and Eric Cressey

PHOTO: Abi Skip, The incredible Hulk, license