The workout where we grapple with what "counts" as strength training

Happy Sunday and welcome back to Workout of the Week! This is my weekly class for paid subscribers, in video or written/gif format, that you can customize to fit the amount of time and energy you have, and it’s totally OK to skip the warmup or cooldown, or only do one or two rounds of the strength circuit. It’s awesome if you can return to this workout once or twice more during the week, but if you only get to it once, that’s great too. My goal is to give you something doable but challenging to help you get a little stronger, build some movement “fluency” (aka getting more comfortable and self-directed with common exercises), and have another tool in your toolbox to help you build or rebuild a sustainable movement practice that supports you.

What I get into in this video that I would love to know your reactions to is… what “counts” as strength training? While my motto is always “don’t let what’s ‘optimal’ get in the way of what’s doable,” I also don’t want to engage in false advertising and suggest that these WOW videos are the ideal way to approach strength training, especially when it comes to the progressive overload needed to build muscle mass and bone density. So, this week you’ll hear me exploring some of those ideas and how we might be able to find the best of both worlds, where we get fun and variety and approachability and flexibility that means the workouts actually work in your real life, but also the benefits of a more targeted, longer-term, hypertrophy-focused strength training program. I really, really want to know what you think of this and what would be most useful to you, so please share your thoughts.

Anyway! Let’s get into it.

This week, you’ll want a set or two of weights (medium to heavy) or a couple of heavy books, bottles, jugs, cats, whatever works. If you prefer a no-equipment workout you’re welcome to jump back to my very first or second WOWs, here:

A 15-, 20-, or 25-minute, no-equipment, feel-great workout (with video!)

Workout of the Week: Almost-October Edition

Have a great workout.