My Hero! And the 1st Principle of Strength Training

My hero:

• Has saved a life
• Led fellow citizens to military triumph
• Was a six time Olympic Victor
• Carried his own bronze statue to its place
• Had a daily diet that consisted of 20 lb of meat, 20 lb of bread, and 18 pints of wine
• Carried a 4-year old bull on his shoulders before slaughtering, roasting, and devouring it in one day.
• Died while attempting to rend a tree asunder when his hands became trapped in the cleft of its trunk, and a pack of wolves surprised and devoured him...

I know what your thinking. Charlie Sheen obviously...  Although Charlie has several "winning" accomplishments himself, I am actually thinking of someone else.  Who could it be? Read on!


His name is Milo of Croton, and he certainly has quite a legendary tale from Greek Mythology.

I hope you agree with me that Milo is a well-suited hero/idol, but you are probably wondering what or how this has anything to do with fitness...

The legend of Milo of Croton in Greek mythology actually does an amazing job illustrating how to apply the first principle of strength training, which is, the "progressive increase of load" in training.

To become the world's strongest man, Milo started to lift and carry a calf every day beginning in his teenage years.  As the calf grew heavier, Milo grew stronger and by the time the calf was a full-grown bull, Milo was the world's strongest man and was still able to carry the bull.  (I'm guessing he must have also been progressively overloading his diet, considering he was able to eat the whole damn thing in one day...)

What should you take from this?
I am not recommending you go buy a calf and attempt to carry it around, unless you are Eric Lipinski.  What I am trying to tell you is that you need to continually increase the "loads" in your workouts if you wish to make further strength or cardiovascular gains.

What is "Load"

Resistance Training Load = how much weight

Aerobic Training Load = % of max HR 

One way to increase loads properly: The "Step-Type" Approach
With this approach, you will change the load once a week in a "3-steps forward; 1 step back" fashion.  Each individual week will be called a microcycle, and, therefore, all 4-weeks together are called a macrocycle.

For the first 3 microcycles (weeks) you will increase the load very gradually (no more than ~2%).  Then, for the fourth microcycle you will reduce the load to match what you did in the second microcycle.  The "Step-Type" approach allows for gradual improvement to avoid or break training plateaus, while also working to prevent overtraining.

Illustration of a macrocycle.  Each vertical line represents an increase in load,
whereas the horizontal line represents the adaptation phase required by the new demand.

Please note that there ARE SEVERAL other approaches to increasing loads.  Specifically, literature on the Autoregulation Approach (aka "Biofeedback Approach") has shown some promising results and I plan to look further into its proper prescription.


I hope: you try the step-type approach to make efficient improvements in whatever your fitness focus is!
I recommend: you keep a training log and share your ideas on how to best keep track of your workouts.