My Five Ah-Ha! Moments
by Tim Henriques

A little while ago, Alwyn Cosgrove wrote an article about Five
Ah-Ha! Moments he had when it came to training and suggested others do the same. I
thought it was a good idea, so I'm following his lead and listing
five "ah-ha!" moments myself.
These are moments of clarity when you (hopefully) have a deeper
insight into an aspect of training and the info just falls from the
lifting heavens into the right place.


1. Supersets are Always Better than Combination
Exercises
A superset is when you do one set of an exercise and then do
another set of a different exercise with no rest. They're normally
made using opposite or unrelated muscle groups. Say, biceps curls
and skull crushers, or bench press and abdominal
work.
A combination exercise is when you take two separate exercises
and try to combine them, like a lunge and a lateral raise or a
front squat and a military press (the latter is usually called a
thruster). The big problem with combination exercises is that,
invariably, the weight used on one part of the lift is too light.
For example, in the front squat combined with the military press,
you should be able to front squat a lot more than you can military
press, so by default you're undertraining the front
squat.
A more effective way is to do a set of front squats followed
immediately by a set of military presses, using the appropriate
weight for each. Sure, there's a bit more coordination required to
combine a front squat with a military press, but people forget that
there's also more coordination required to front squat an extra 50
pounds.
This is a superior way of training because not only will you
rapidly get better at the two separate exercises since you're using
the appropriate weight for each, but you'll get better at combining
the exercises if you ever choose to do that. If you can lunge and
lateral raise some nice numbers, with five minutes of practice
you'll be able to do a lunge combined with a lateral raise with a
good chunk of iron. But, the person who just practices that
combination exercise will be lacking in one of those
exercises.
Other than the clean and jerk, I can't think of two exercises
that when combined would be more effective than when supersetted.
In addition, the benefits of increased heart rate and elevated
metabolism will be even greater with the superset method than the
combination method, but the total time spent lifting should be
pretty similar.
Put it to the test in the gym and see what you think. Do you
like combining exercises or supersetting them?


So what'll it be?


2. Train Abs First
Conventional wisdom says to train abs last because they're
stabilizers and we don't want our stabilizers to be fatigued during
other exercises. Yeah, I buy that. But for me and a lot of my
clients and students, training abs first flat out works
better.
I don't really enjoy training abs, but I like to train
everything else. Once I'm finished training the good stuff and just
have abs left, I have nothing to look forward to. Plus, I'm tired
from the workout and may not have as much time left as I'd like. So
what happens? I either half-ass it through the ab workout, cut it
short, or just skip it all together.
I started training abs first while I'm fresh so I can go hard on
'em. I still have something to look forward to after, so instead of
not wanting to hit abs, I like doing them. Sort of like the kid who
holds his nose and begrudgingly eats his veggies just to get to the
ice cream. So basically, I never skip them now.

On top of that, my performance hasn't suffered at all; I can
still bench heavy with tired abs. Abs recover super fast, and the
more trained they are, the quicker they recover. Even when moving
on to legs after training abs, I spend enough time warming up for
squats that my abs are no longer fatigued. For example, I'll do
abs, bike for five minutes, then do some dynamic stretches, and by
that time my abs are fine.
If you have a super heavy leg day scheduled then don't train abs
that day. But that's probably once a week so you should still be
able to train 'em with a pretty high frequency (I like two to four
times a week). Plus, I've gotten better visible results doing it
this way, so it's a win-win situation.


3. 500 Meter Rows are an Underutilized Predictor of
Performance
In my school, we do periodic fitness tests to see where the
students are and what kind of progress they're making. Thus, we
want to know that the students are capable of administering these
tests on their clients. One of the tests we do is a 500 meter row,
performed on the Concept 2 rowing machine (sometimes called an
ergometer).

Rowers measure their pace by their 500 meter speed. While a
runner would say, "I run an eight-minute mile," a rower would say,
"I maintained a 1:40 500/m pace." Most rowing events last five
minutes or more (2,000 meters is the most common) and are pretty
aerobic. But the 500 meter row is more like a sprint. It'll take
most men less than two minutes and most women less than 2:30, but
it's long enough so that you can't just blast away full speed from
the start. It's similar to a 400 or 800 meter run.
I like the row for several reasons. First, it's easy to do.
There's about a five-minute learning curve, assuming the person is
properly instructed. You can bust your ass as soon as you feel
comfortable. It's easier to learn than the elliptical machine for
most people (which is pretty easy). The row, since it's seated,
doesn't have a bias against the heavier athletes like most cardio
tests do. In fact, heavier athletes, to a point, will have a
benefit because they can exert more power.
In real indoor rowing competitions, they have weight classes of
under 165 pounds and over 165 pounds to even the field (135 pounds
is the separation point for women). The heavyweights almost always
do better.
There's a big element of power in the row, so it isn't just pure
cardio. Traditional aerobic athletes are too weak to excel in a lot
of sporting activities. To be a solid rower you need strong aerobic
and muscular systems. On the flip, strong but out of shape athletes
will tire quickly during the row and get a poor score (puking after
a brutal 500 meter row isn't uncommon, even if you're in decent
shape). This would indicate that their VO2 max isn't high enough
and might be holding them back.
The row is a nice combination of aerobic power and strength.
I've noticed that the males who do well in the row can usually do a
double bodyweight deadlift. The proficient females are often good
at deadlifts and pull-ups and yet still have a strong aerobic
system, often being mighty fine runners. The row also doesn't put
as much stress on the joints as running does, so many people who
have injuries can still row.
If you're curious about times, on Concept 2's website they have
the world records for different age classes and bodyweights.
There's also a percentile ranking of everyone who's entered their
information so you can see how you rank.