Easy Strength
“Never have I known fear when you were there,” Gautier de l’Hum says to the hero of The Song of Roland. His line captures the aim of chivalry: to produce good and just men whose muscular presence inspires such confidence. It’s not the breezy cliches like “right makes might” that actually turn back violent men threatening to do their worst. It’s the strength of guardians. The chivalric virtue of prowess is what makes a man so invaluable to those who depend on him for protection, so the chivalrous man will need to take prowess-maxxing seriously.
But how?
There are a lot of ways of going about it—physical conditioning, martial arts, and weaponry. A man should be cultivating all of these skills and abilities. As for the development of raw strength, Dan John’s Easy Strength is my favorite training program, and it’s not close.
The Program
Easy Strength is very straightforward: after a short warmup, you basically just do 10 reps of a press, squat, and hinge, followed by a loaded carry. You do this 5x/week.
The logic behind John’s program will seem strange to lifters who have been taught the conventional wisdom of working a muscle group hard and then letting it rest for 48-72 hours. He approaches the big lifts as something like skills which need to be practiced more frequently, and pushed to the max less frequently. (More on this below.)
So you pick a variation of a press (bench, incline, decline, overhead, etc), squat (back, front, overhead, zercher, safety bar, etc) and hinge (deadlift, trap bar, rdl, etc), and stick with those lifts for two weeks, doing the following set & rep schemes:
Week 1—
Day 1: 2×5, Day 2: 2×5, Day 3: 532, Day 4: rest/active recovery, Day 5: 2×5, Day 6: 2×5, Day 7: rest/active recovery.
Week 2—
Day 8: 2×5, Day 9: 6×1, Day 10: 1×10 (light), Day 11: rest/active recovery, Day 12: 2×5 Day 13: 532, Day 14: rest (active recovery).
At the end of two weeks, you pick a different variation and do the same set & rep scheme. Repeat for eight weeks total (or continue longer if you like).
John leaves simple instructions: “Never miss. If it feels light, go heavier. Let yourself naturally find the right load for you.”
A Few Details
- Warm-ups: John suggests something like 10–25 goblet squats, 75 swings (sets of 10–25), 1–5 get-ups.
- According to John, 2×5 means “easy […] like your second or third warm up lift in a typical workout. The idea, the secret, is to get THIS workout to feel easier and easier!”
- 532 means “five reps with your 2×5 weight, add weight for three, then a solid double. Make the double!!!”
- 6×1 means starting with your 2×5 weight and adding weight for each rep. “It can be five pounds or fifty depending on how each single feels. It is NOT a max effort on the last set; it is the sixth single. If the loads feel heavy, just add five pounds. If the bar is flying, add more.”
- 1×10 means a very light load following the 6×1 day. This is almost like active recovery.
- Day thirteen, the second 532, is the time to test yourself a little, if you feel inclined. But don’t miss the double!
- Loaded carry: Instructions are not specific. John suggests varying “the distance EVERY time, and probably the load…if you can.” He is especially high on asymmetric carries, like suitcase carries.
- There’s room for adaptations in this intuitive program. My training partners and I add a few sets of pull-ups and dips for a good pump on the days before a rest (so days three, six, ten, thirteen).
Why It Works
I think it comes down to practice, prudence, energy.
John’s approach to training-as-practice helped me to make major breakthroughs on the squat in particular. Prior to doing this program last year, I was frequently tweaking little injuries and derailing my chances to make gains—largely because I didn’t really know how to squat. I thought I did, but the squat is a more complex and involved motion than I realized, and putting heavy loads on the bar when you don’t know how to squat has the makings of a disaster.
What we need is practice. In my experience, skills need to be drilled almost every day in order to develop muscle memory, and Easy Strength comes a lot closer to achieving this than almost all programs: ten reps, five times a week, usually under lighter loads in order to master the movement. (And even under lighter loads, one can still make gains by focusing on technique and explosiveness.) You’ve only got a few light reps to perform each day, so you can really give yourself to performing them with maximal intent and power.
Prudence is another reason why it works. Rather than treating the lifter as a strict rule-follower jammed into a program, Easy Strength encourages us to judge the circumstances every day, listen to our bodies, and proceed accordingly. I’ve written elsewhere about the importance of the first cardinal virtue in every other area of life, so it figures that training should be no exception. John explains the prudential approach:
The load on the bar depends on how you feel. If the efforts feel easy and light, “nudge” the load up. Here is the secret (again): the goal of this program is gently raise your efforts (load) on the easy days so that the bar feels light. If you start out lifting […] 205 at one effort level and in a few weeks you are lifting 245 at the same perceived effort and speed, you ARE stronger.
Finally, there’s the benefit of energy. This workout generates good vibes, especially if you are doing it with friends. As a beginner, it’s very good to learn how to muster the will needed to grind out arduous workouts—and even learn to enjoy them—but as one advances it’s also good to not invest more than is needed to make strides. With Easy Strength you can be in and out of the gym relatively quickly. You feel great, you’re making gains, you’re not spending unnecessary hours at the gym.
Again, Easy Strength also leaves a lot of room for adaptations. With the workouts being relatively short, you can add other activities to your training—and you should. Lifting should be supplemented by athletic activity and conditioning; in my case that means kickboxing at least three times a week. A 25-minute lift followed by a half-hour of kickboxing hits the spot perfectly for me. Add sprints, jumps, medicine ball throws and slams to stay athletic as you’re gaining strength.
There’s much more to say about Easy Strength, but hopefully this overview has made the case for the program. My aim is to do this program at least once a year for the rest of my life. See John’s Youtube page for wisdom on how to max your gains.