Grease the Groove
That’s a lot of repetitions…
At various points in our lives we develop an interest in learning skills. Maybe it was learning an instrument or picking up a second language. Perhaps it was running or something as simple as making the perfect hard-boiled egg. Most of the time, unfortunately, we fall short of accomplishing our goal of acquiring the new skill; and, if we acquire the skill, we almost never reach the point of mastery.
Sometimes this is attributed to “losing interest” or not having enough time. More often than not, however, it’s a matter of not approaching skill acquisition in the right way. We don’t set ourselves up for success. We set up grueling routines that are often too hard to keep up. Think of your typical New Year’s resolution: “I am going to go to the gym five times a week by getting up at 5am and going before work.” A recipe for success? Not likely. Not only is it A LOT, it is not breaking down the complex goal (i.e. getting fit) into smaller, achievable chunks.
This is where “grease the groove” comes in.
The term “Grease the Groove” is coined by coach and former Soviet Spetsnaz (Special Forces) instructor Pavel Tsatsouline. He developed techniques for training Russian special forces to not only be stronger, but able to exert that strength for longer. His techniques have been used extensively for strength and conditioning, but the neurological principles are applicable to any skill.
The five principles are as follows:
It’s specific to a single movement. For example, you can set up a grease-the-groove program for a movement such as push-ups or pull-ups.
The load should be “light.” You shouldn’t be grueling through the repetitions, but scaling to the point where you could do 10 repetitions without too much trouble. So, for example, if you were training push-ups can only do 5 traditional pushups, you could do them from a coffee-table to make them easier.
The total training volume is very high. The more sets the better, minimally 5 sets and up to 20 or more. This is not like your traditional gym sessions where you might do 3 sets of 10 during your 1 hour workout (see the next point).
The sets are spread out across your day. You will do one set and then rest a minimum 15-30 minutes between sets (i.e. you don’t do several in quick succession like you would in a traditional workout).
Sets stop well short of fatigue. You should aim to do about ~25-50% of what you could do. So, for example, if you could do 20x push-ups from a coffee table, you would only do 5-10 reps.
“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”
If we are able to follow-through with the above plan, it leads to some incredible results in a surprisingly short amount of time.
Mark, as an example, was able to progress from barely being able to do 1 pull-up to his current personal record of 11.
Give it a shot and if you have any questions or need a little guidance on how to set up a Grease the Groove plan, let us know below!
Thanks for reading and kudos to you for bettering yourself.
-Tyler