How not to screw up your program

[Eric Schmidt]

Rip, you suggested to the CFers in Brooklyn that doing 100 air squats a day before doing a set of squats under the bar was not wise...and would screw up progress in the program.

What's the difference between 100 air squats and moving 5 yds of crushed rock with a coal shovel, or pushing a few 700# pianos up three flights of stairs during a normal workday? I do both...this week we moved 4 pianos each on M,T,W...some weeks we only move a few and some weeks we move 60...so how would you schedule strength training in this situation? Thank you.

[Mark Rippetoe]

First, the ROM of an "air squat" is much longer than that used in shoveling and moving pianos. You may have noticed that shoveling didn't make you sore -and thus inflamed -- through your legs and hips to the extent the air squats did. Second, you do manual labor every day, and are adapted to it. You don't get excruciatingly sore from work, right? High-rep air squats done once in a while cannot be adapted to, i.e. they will always make you sore. So you should just schedule your workouts and do them to the best of your ability that day, like we all do.

[Eric Schmidt]

roger that, thank you