4 Key Things to Do AFTER You Lift Weights

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

What should you be doing after you lift weights so that you get the most out of your strength training? Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers covers 4 actions to take when you finish lifting.

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How Long Should I REST? | Starting Strength Linear Progression

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

How long should I rest when working through the Starting Strength Linear Progression? How long should I rest between warm-up sets? Between work sets? Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains.

(A Blast from the Past video originally published on 08/22/22)

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The Mistake That is RUINING Your Lifts! | Never Do This Again

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Stop making this mistake when you're lifting. New lifters commit this error regularly, and to be fair, even experienced lifters make this mistake once in a while.

The Problem
What mistake are we talking about? The error of misloading the barbell. Let’s quickly address two things - first, how to notice the problem when it happens (and the sooner the better), and second, how to ideally prevent it from happening in the first place.

How to Notice a Misload: Version #1
Suppose you’re preparing for your squat work sets - they’re going to be challenging, and you really don’t want to end up squatting the wrong weight. If you’re training with a buddy, an ideal approach is to ask him to do a “bar math” check. Don’t tell your pal what the weight is supposed to be - simply ask him to do the math and tell you the answer. By not telling him what the weight is supposed to be, you haven’t biased his calculations, and if you both arrive at the same number, you’ve probably got the bar loaded correctly.

If, on the other hand, you arrive at different numbers, then you know you’ve got some double-checking to do before you start to squat.

How to Notice a Misload: Version #2
It’s ideal to catch the misload before it happens, but more commonly, you’ll notice a misload after you’ve already lifted it.

For example, you plan on squatting 155 lb, and you’ve already got 135 lb loaded up (i.e., the 45 lb bar and one 45 lb plate on each side). You think to yourself, “I need 20 lb more to get to 155, so I need two 10 lb plates,” and then you proceed to absentmindedly add two 10 lb plates to each side of the bar, resulting in a total weight of 175 lb instead of the desired 155 lb.

You might survive the set or you might fail, but the end result is that the set is much tougher than you had anticipated. On the flip side, you might unknowingly underload the bar, in which case you notice that the set was easier than expected.

Either way, it’s these thoughts - the realization that “Hmm, that was way tougher than it should have been” or “Man, that was a piece of cake!” - that should alert you to double check the weight on the bar.

Sometimes, of course, you’re just having a rough day, in which case suck it up Buttercup - that’s the weight on the bar, and you’re going to keep squatting it. On the other hand, you might be having a great day, in which case go ahead and celebrate the fact that things are moving so well.

However, quite often, these realizations occur because you’ve misloaded the bar, so always double check in these situations.

How to Prevent a Misload: What NOT To Do
Preventing a misload has everything to do with how you go about doing your bar math, i.e., how you mentally add the plates onto the bar.

Do NOT do the math “one-plate-at-a-time.” For example, you’ve got 135 lb loaded, and you’re adding a 25 lb plate to each side. Don’t mentally add 25 lb to 135 lb to get 160 lb as you load one side of the bar and then add another 25 lb to 160 lb to get 185 lb as you load the other side. You might get it right, but you very well might get it wrong as this method is quite likely to cause errors (for reasons the math teacher in me would love to dive into . . . but won’t for now).

How to Prevent a Misload: Smash-and-Add
Instead, perform the math as “smash-and-add.” That is, mentally combine the two 25 lb plates together first (mentally “smashing” them together) to get 50 lb - a very nice number which kindly ends in a zero. Then, simply add that 50 lb to your 135 lb to get 185 lb.

Likewise, if you’ve got 95 lb on the bar and you’re adding a 10 lb plate on each side, don’t add one 10 lb plate to get 105 lb and then add the other 10 lb plate to get 115 lb. Instead, it’s easier to mentally add the 10 lb plates together first to get 20 lb, and then add that 20 lb to your 95 lb to get 115 lb.

We’ve seen both of these methods in action thousands of times over years of coaching, and the smash-and-add method creates far fewer errors than the one-plate-at-a-time method.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

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Should I Train When I'm Sick?

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

We get the following question every now and then at the gym or online: “Should I train when I’m sick?” Let’s break it down and keep it as simple as possible.

If you’ve got a cold, you train. If you’ve got the flu, you don’t.

For a short video covering this topic - including a short personal anecdote - check out the included video.

Yes, there may be more subtleties to your situation, but this is a good starting point. If you’re congested, you’ve got a runny nose, you’ve got a cough, go train. In fact, if you played sports in grade school, high school, or college, you already know this. You know that - in this type of situation - you’ll feel better when training than you do the rest of the day.

That hour to hour-and-a-half of training might be the only time that day that you actually feel pretty normal. Your nose stops running or doesn’t run as much, your cough improves, you can breathe better, etc. In this type of situation, you won’t feel worse during the training session, and you might actually feel better afterward as well.

“I’m coming down with a head cold” is not a valid reason not to train - it’s just a lousy excuse to avoid doing something challenging.

However, if you’re running a fever, you’ve got chills and body aches, and your insides want to be on your outsides - whether out your mouth or the other end of the plumbing - then don’t train. Things will not go well - it won’t be a productive training session, and you’re going to make things worse for the subsequent days.

It’s worth noting that the barbell never lies - it will tell you if you’re making the right decision. If you start warming up, and whatever initial discomfort you have either remains the same or improves as the weight on the bar goes up, then train on. However, if you start to feel worse as the load increases, call it a day.

This is a simple approach and a very useful one, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

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"What I find horrifying, even more than death..."

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Don't want to be weak, frail, and dependent on others for basic needs when you get older? Sally nails it in this video, and Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains further.

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What is the BEST Time of Day to Train? (it's not what you think)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

A question we get on occasion is “What time of day is the best for training?” This is worth discussing, and we’re going to keep it simple and to the point.

Training in the afternoon or the evening is a wonderful thing. You’re more awake, your work is probably done for the day, and you might even perform slightly better (emphasis on slightly). If you can train in the PM hours, go for it.

With that said, the bottom line is that the best time of day to train is the time of day that you can train most consistently, and for a lot of people, that means training needs to take place in the morning.

After all, consistency is the most important factor in your training - you can have the greatest technique and programming in the world, but if you’re missing workouts, your technique and programming don’t do you any good. If you need to train in the morning to make it happen, then the AM hours are officially your best time to train.

Some people object with, “I don’t want to train in the morning - I’m not a morning person.” Knock that off. Nobody who trains in the morning is a morning person. Nobody walks in our doors at 5:15 a.m. bounding with joy, sunshine, and bubbles.

Lifters who train early in the morning aren’t morning people any more than you are; instead, they are simply people who know they might not be able to train later in the day, and they are committed to not missing their training sessions.

Not surprisingly, waking up early to train can be rough at first - any new routine often is - but after you’re done it for a few weeks, you’ll have established the habit, and it’ll be far easier. On top of that, you’ll appreciate having consistently hit your training sessions, which means you’re keeping one of the most important kinds of promises - the kind you make to yourself.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

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At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?