If you train everyday and even though you are sore. Will your body get stronger by adapting to the pain? My grandpa used to do Martial Arts/exercise when he was little and he said he trained everyday non-stop. I believe him because to this day, even though he's 70 years old he is still strong, he can still chop/cut wood and tree with ease. So when I was talking to him about how your body need rest after a hard workout, he laughed and say that today training process had fallen. I asked him did you alternate the exercises that you were doing each day? He reply no. Everyday it was run 2-5 miles, push ups, sit ups (hanging on a tree branch), pull ups, etc. No weight everything was body weight. He told me the only thing that increased was the sets & reps, otherwise it was the same thing until he was drafted into the war to help the American fight against the North Vietnamese. After that he just stretch/breathing exercises in the morning, mid day and night. So am I wrong? Or can some people fit in with the old saying, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."
There is something to be said for the a daily routine, but you will never maximise your potential without kicking it up a gear from time to time. Whats more his routine was not at a level that would tax the body excessively and I doubt he was as fit as most who work out with high intensity today. If you work out hard you need to rest - even high end athletes do this and your Grandfather certainly does not fit into that category. Compared to a "hobbyist" he is probably fitter - but that does not look like the comparison you are trying to make.
keeping active would have helped improve his circulation, which would have helped with recovery. he likely had a very different diet from yours, and msot of his exercises were, from what you say, simple bodyweight exercises, with increases in sets and reps only increasing endurance, not maximal strength. if you were to do the EXACT same things he did, you'd likely see some gains, but not get nearly as strong as you could with a properly designed workout scheme utilizing modern methods, more difficult exercises using a smart progression, a specifically-planned diet and plenty of rest. trying to do a hard workout every day will only injure the hell out of you, as you risk serious muscle tears, lack of strength gains, overtraining, and depending on what you do both during your workouts and in your everyday life even spinal injuries. besides, do you have any info on how many DID get injured doing that in your grandpa's time? him saying that today's training process has fallen has both a slight degree of truth and a very high degree of misunderstanding, though. high-level athletes (gymnasts, competitive weightlifters and strongmen, elite-level sportsmen, etc) would likely wipe the floor with him at his prime nowadays, whereas the average scmuck who does a few pushups and stretches (if any) would probably not have been able to stand up to the wimpiest geek in your grandfather's time, assuming that the average man kept himself similarly fit (which he might not have).
It's interesting to look at what is working today for athletes but you have to wonder whether there was something in what some of the old guys did... Louis Cyr was the worlds strongest man and I don't think he followed the modern day sort of workouts. http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Cyr/cyr-biog.htm Kimura supposedly did 1000 press-ups a day, even into his 70's. So although the testing today shows which of the modern methods work well you can't be sure that these are the absolute best methods. Research does not tell you what is correct, only what is likely within the parameters that are being studied. You can't prove a negative, only state a probability. Makes it hard to ever say what's truly the best. But to answer your question directly, for the exceptional man your saying might be true, but those of us that are mere mortals probably best to follow what todays professionals use. FWIW LFD
i think its more about belief in what you are doing and your body being able to handle that amount of work I train powerlifting with a lifter who trains all three major lifts three times a week and almost always goes to his limit on each lift every night, who doesnt perodize his workouts and does no suplimentry work other than half squats and some OL work when he feels like it, by all modern accounts he should not be lifting anything special, yet today he half squated up to 280kg, benched 167kg and deadlifted 270kg oh and hes 60 and holds more world and european titles than i can count how can he does this, well he has elief in this system, has developed the work capacity to do that work, and is mentally strong As LFD said the old guys do know something
Doing what your grandfather did gets WAY more results than normal stuff. I do something similar, and trust me, it's a way of life for me now. Once I told someone what I did, and they were baffled... but once you get used to something, you get used to it - simple as. I condition my body to become stronger, and I condition it to pain too. There's no way that's not making a difference - I can feel it. I'm not saying normal stuff is rubbish; it still helps, but it doesn't give you the same physical kick, psycholigical kick and conditioning that you could be getting.
Training everyday makes you good at training everyday. The human body is incredibly adaptive, and will adapt to training everyday, however with no form of deload or peaking system your gains will halt very quickly. In the case of ice's mate I think something like that will likely work, he is only training 3 days a week.
What ice said is a normal thing, its recommended for mosts n00bs to lifting. I used to do it. But everyone has training methods that work well for them. You said your grandfather had been doing that work out since he was a kid. He adapted to the stress as a kid and his increasing bodyweight helped increase the stress. Despite a lot of sport science, certain things work with certain people genetics e.g. Herschel Walker, NFL Player, only ever has done bodyweight exercises and now fights MMA at heavy weight. He's huge and ripped. e.g. The Gracie's have great genetics and the gracie diet have been custom fit for them and their genetics. It's why they can be so muscular yet eat so oddly. Personally i've made the best gains i've ever made in my life by lifting weights twice a week. It's what works for me. Sport science is finding what fits for an athlete/person and their particular genetics and maximising on that.
I think so, the body needs to adapt for survival in the first place. I know when I had to change pace and slow down training my body was restless, as if looking for the same extensive training I had before. It only means my body has adapted to a high intensity of training through the years and is functioning at that level when I had to change pace.
