The “GHoGH” Myth And How Brooke Did 60 Reps w/ His Old 4RM Clean + Press

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRPFdcF0-BI (Opens in a new window)

I think “Strong!” works great for busy guys and dads especially. The workouts clock in between 20 to 30 minutes 3x a week.

And they really make you feel like you’ve “done something.”

If you fall into that category, you might want to give “Strong!” a shot.

👉 https://cart.chasingstrength.com/strong3 (Opens in a new window)

“Go Heavy/Hard or Go Home.”

That was the mantra many of us grew up with in the gym.

In fact, if we didn’t, and weren’t sore the next day, we considered the workout “worthless.”

I remember a time my sophomore year of college, I woke up after “chest day” and I wasn't sore, so I went back to the gym and did the workout over!

And I used to get really irritated when my weightlifting coach wrote light workouts for, even though he told me about Prof. Vorobyev’s experiments with sharp contrasting loads.

I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

Not until the day after I took my USA Weightlifting Club Coach course in January 1998 at Yale University, when I heard Dr. Georg Marom, a Romanian Professor Emeritus of sports science speak.

He presented on a myriad of things, but one of them was programming and recovery.

He wrote something like the following on the chalkboard:

H-L-H-L-H-L-H-L-H-L…

This style of loading, of program planning, yielded far superior results - around 50% greater if I recall, than the traditional “go heavy/hard all the time” approach.

And you’ll see that pattern, or similar ones, routinely in my programs.

But many people will dismiss it because of the “Go Hard or Go Home” brainwashing.

As a result, they’ll struggle to make progress.

And also, possibly as a result, many will find themselves distracted by “S.O.S.” - “Shiny Object Syndrome.”

Case in point - an email I got from Brooke, which I’ll put up on the screen:

As you can see, like my “younger self,” Brooke was dismissive towards light days and following a proven process/plan.

The results?

Eventually he dialed it in and turned his old 4RM double Clean + Press into 10 sets of 6 - a 60 rep workout.

How could your body not change if you 15X’d your volume?

Like Brooke, I’m guessing you too would likely conclude that you -

“... really like the C+P and what it’s done for my health, appearance, and work capacity levels.”

The biggest difference between ‘THE GIANT’ and the “Strong!” program Brooke used?

The planning.

‘THE GIANT’ uses autoregulation.

“Strong!” does not.

The sets, reps, and rests are prescribed, which some / many people - really enjoy and find they need - especially if they’ve struggled with autoregulation before.

Plus, “Strong!” uses the L-H-L-H… loading style to speed up your strength results.

If you want to see results similar to Brooke’s - a 15X in volume over about 6 months, you might find “Strong!” just the ticket for you.