Thanks man. Yeah, the way the arms of the machine swing back basically forces you to do a perfect row. Nice. Let me know if you have questions about any of the videos. Tough question. The creativity and intensity of the training has helped my progress quite a bit. That said, I was at a point in my training where the change was needed to keep seeing consistent progress. If someone can make solid progress with a more basic approach, than that's probably what they should do. Like with dieting, you ideally want to get the most out of the least. This is why Meadows won't take on training clients without enough experience. It's important for someone to build a strong foundation and master basic movements before adding a bunch of variations and making things more complicated. Bands are a great tool, but not something you want to overdo, as they could end up doing more harm than good. He works in bands and other intensity techniques strategically, so you don't end up beating yourself into the ground. For example, I had a stretch of banded leg press work where the resistance increased (# of bands/weight) for a few weeks, but it's been 3 weeks since I've used them (for leg press). Meadows' thoughts on nutrition have been valuable as well. I had already followed a very similar diet, but he helped reinforce how much of an impact it can have on results. I believe in eating for health as opposed to just hitting my macros (my food still tastes delicious too
). Someone with optimal health will most likely have greater performance in the gym and be better suited to build muscle and burn fat efficiently. I don't see anything wrong with enjoying some less than ideal foods at times either; cheat and "live your life" meals are fine if under control. His ideas on peri-workout nutrition are obviously something I find very helpful as well. Hockey made my legs grow more than weight training has ever done. Having a pissed off coach make you sprint the ice for an hour long practice is a lot more brutal than any leg session (today's was close though lol). I think that all the years of hockey have actually made it tougher to get my legs to respond to weight training, which is another reason Mtn. Dog has been so valuable at this point. I actually heard Dusty Hanshaw talking about this recently and agree. Besides that, I'd have to say a lot of squats. They were the base of my leg training for many years and produced solid results. Today's leg session was extremely tough. One of the highlights was working up to a heavy 10 on leg press and adding 20 walking lunges per leg at the end of the final set. I crumbled and got back up a few times, but made it through. A trainer thought I was injured until he realized I was trying to lunge my way back to the leg press lol. Working up with sets of 8 on deep squats came later in the session, which was torture after everything else.
