Alex Hutchinson wrote an incredible article about the 3/7 workout. In short, it is a five-set program with escalating repetitions, but only 15 seconds of rest between sets. You can learn all about the details by reading it here.
There are two key messages. One, to gain strength effectively, muscles must reach a point of failure. The 3/7 method accomplishes that as long as you are using 70% of your maximum weight for a given exercise. Not particularly surprising, but many people who resistance train don’t reach failure. Why? It hard. And painful. These are two things that most people shy away from.
The second key message is efficiency. In my opinion, this is the most important factor in staying in a routine. If it’s too long and we get bored, or we find ourselves in a hurry, the likelihood of us continuing over the long term decreases. But if we can get in and out in a short amount of time, AND create progress, well that’s very motivating.
My conclusion about the 3/7 workout is that it is exceptional for efficiency and effectiveness. It creates gains in a short period of time, even in high-level sports. That’s great for motivation as well as allowing us to manage our busy lives AND take care of our physical selves. I acknowledge the hard work and pain part can decrease motivation, but the beauty of the 3/7 is that it is a very short duration with not a lot of time to think about it. Contrast that with six sets of six reps of heavy squats with two and a half minutes of rest in between. That’s close to 15 minutes. That is a lot of time, period. It’s also a lot of time to think about how hard and painful it will be. That works against our nature of wanting to avoid pain and suffering.
Give it a try if you are just getting back into workouts, or if you just want to mix things up. Your body will thank you either way.
A couple of years ago I watched a Ted Talk given by Dr. Stephen Seiler, a professor in Sport Science at the University of Agder in Norway. He described a surprisingly contradicting phenomenon he noticed in top-performing endurance athletes that went against the frequently quoted and deeply embedded “No pain, no gain” mentality so prolific in our society.
So many of us grow up learning that to improve, we have to push ourselves through pain and sacrifice. Cue all the brutal montages in the movies of super-intense training with scrunched-up faces gasping for air and bodies dripping with sweat, and the illusion they are training this way every single day.
What piqued Dr. Seiler’s interest was when he was out for a run one day and saw one of the top athletes he had previously studied in his lab, approach a hill while on her run. He knew she was capable of high levels of performance, so was taken aback when she stopped running and began walking up the hill. To him, if there was a hill, he’d push himself to run up there as fast as he could, so why was this talented athlete not running when she could clearly do so?
What he discovered was that most of the elite athletes stay in their green zone most of the time.
The green zone is defined as the level of activity where you can hold an easy conversation and feel only a mild level of exertion.
Yellow zones are when you can respond in a few word phrases and feel a moderate level of exertion.
Red zones are where you are gasping for air and feel extremely pushed to your exertional limits (what we see in the movies).
An example was taken from the all-time winter olympian Marit Bjørgen who let researchers gather data from all her training years. During her peak years of training, Marit’s year would be in the green zone for about 800 hours and less than 100 hours in her yellow and red zones.
Spending most of their practice in the green zones allows the most successful athletes to build a strong foundation for those moments of yellow and red zone intensities. It’s a place where they can practice comfortably, enjoy it, and recover, day in and day out. And that’s where the success comes from.
Practice needs to be sustainable, that’s where our bodies and minds rewire and create new adaptations and improve our performance.
Daily moderately high intensity can lead to burnout and stagnation, and unfortunately, this is what happens to a lot of people when they get excited about hitting a new workout regime hard. They believe they will see more benefits if they go all out every day and get frustrated when they can’t sustain this. It’s because it’s not sustainable, and this idea of No pain, no gain is not realistic.
Now, let’s apply this theme to other skills as well.
Nutrition
Green zone examples:
Replacing one processed snack with berries / your favourite fruits and nuts instead.
Having a hearty, colourful salad for lunch 1 day per week
Incorporating one new fruit, vegetable, bean, or any plant food per month
Yellow zone examples:
Having a cup of berries on alternating days for your snacks
Having a colourful salad on alternate days for lunches
Avoiding eating after dinner on weekdays
Red zone examples:
Avoiding added sugars and processed foods
Having colourful meals that contain all 7 colours daily
Enjoying at least 40 different foods a week
Sleep
Green zone examples:
Putting blue-light-blocking glasses on as dusk approaches to protect your melatonin
Turn on a salt lamp or light candles in the evenings
Silencing device notifications 2 hours before bedtime
Yellow zone examples:
Take your phone/ any device out of the bedroom when you sleep
Avoid sitting on the couch watching tv at night, and discovering alternate activities to do instead.
Red zone examples:
In bed at a time where you achieve 8 hours of sleep
There are no devices or screen use at least 2 hours before bed
As you can see, we can apply this green zone style of training to the lifestyle habits that we want to practice supporting sustainable health. Your green zone practices should be relaxing, and most importantly enjoyable. Configure a green zone practice that feels best for you, something you look forward to and will be able to sustain and build up your strength and success in!
