What is Grease the Groove?
Grease the Groove is an exercise system that builds your neuro muscular connection through a daily exercise routine.
The more you perform a certain movement, the better you become at that movement.
Practice makes perfect!
When you want to do a pullup, your thought sends a message to the muscles involved in doing the task.
I know this is a simple explanation, but we’re not talking about being scientific, only improving our specific exercise.
Getting back to the pull up, you don’t want to go to failure on your repetitions.
In fact, you want to do half of your max reps on each set.
You can do these throughout the day, since you are never going to failure or even close to it.
Increase your reps as the sets get easier.
By the end of the month, your max reps should increase.
You are building the brain and muscle connection which makes you more efficient.
Maybe we are getting scientific here.
Practice the movement and you will get better at it.
By adding more resistance, you will get stronger, for instance a weighted pull up.
You can wear a weight vest or belt while doing pull ups to add resistance.
Some people use GtG as a supplement to their workout routine, but I am trying it as a basic workout every day.
I know that’s not what it was intended for, but I want to see what happens.
“I may be compensated through the links in the post below, but the opinions are my own.”
How I Do It
At 62 years old, I want to stay fit and be able to do daily tasks.
I know that I can help move a couch at a moment’s notice without throwing my back out of whack.
I’ve changed my workout philosophy over the years and since my body has changed, I’ve had to adapt.
When I was 20 years old, I never would have strayed from the reps and sets routine everyone else was doing at the time, especially Arnold.
Now it’s Calisthenics for me.
Who Is Pavel?
The first time I heard of Grease the Groove was in Pavel Tsatsouline’s book, “The Naked Warrior”.
Pavel is a former Soviet Union Special Forces (SPETSNAZ) fitness instructor who brought their style of training to the US.
He is credited with the term “Grease the Groove” and also with the popularization of Kettle Bells here in America.
He often refers to the Hebbian Rule which basically is where psychology meets neuroscience.
Donald Hebb states that if we do things in a certain way, these actions are reinforced every time we do them through the neural connections.
The groove gets deeper and stronger with each iteration.
GtG is how I am working out for now.
I will change it up in the future, but would like to experiment with this type of training for a period of time.
I’ve always subscribed to a quick time frame workout in 30 minutes or less, so this will be an interesting break from the norm.
I’m using what I call the Big 4 exercises, which are Push ups, Pull ups, Planks, and Squats.
I will also throw in ab wheel training along the way.
So I start off with 20 push ups, rest for a few minutes then do 5 pull ups, rest again, and then do 20 squats.
Right now, 5 circuits of that a day.
Pavel says to rest when you are feeling tired and don’t go anywhere near your max on each exercise.
Update:
I’ve already had to back off from 5 circuits after a few days.
Maybe I’ll take a rest day in there also.
Also thinking about maybe taking more time between sets, or even cutting reps in the set.
I’m going to go with Pavel on this and stay around 50% of max reps and do them when I feel rested from the last set.
I tried doing them every hour, but noticed after about 5 full circuits, it felt like I had done a workout.
And yes, I do realize that you are only supposed to do one set of an exercise and walk away.
I just wanted to see what would happen by adding the other exercises.
Since we’re all different, sometimes you have to experiment to see how your body reacts.
With Pavel’s instruction, I will rest if I need to.
He says make it fun, so that’s what I plan to do.
I could use some fun in my life right now since the Corona virus has us all social distancing.
Here’s Red Delta Project’s take on Grease the Groove.
Conclusion
The main take away from Grease the Groove is that your exercise movement is going to get more efficient with practice and you’ll get stronger.
When you train 3 sets of pull ups every day doing the GtG program, at the end of the week, you’ve done 21 sets.
If you train 3 sets of pull ups to failure for 3 days a week, you’ve done 9 sets at the end of the week.
Your body will adjust to the demand that you put on it.
The problem with reps to failure is, that injury will sometimes follow.
If you want to give pull ups a try, you’ll need a pull up bar. Click here for a choice of in home Pull Up Bars.
A variation would be to do chin ups.
Chin ups will also work your biceps more so than pull ups.
Pavel said, “One set of five reps every day, is better than five sets of five reps, every five days.”
Bruce Lee said, “ I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
GtG is about getting stronger and better at performing a certain movement, not adding muscle.
Please check with your medical professional before starting any exercise program.
Some people have noticed an increase their bench press from GtG.
To add muscle, I would suggest a 20 minute workout 3 times a week, that will tax your system.
When lifting weight in general or any kind of resistance training, you should see progress by Greasing the Groove.
If you want to try this Grease the Groove thing, I say Go For It.
We’re not getting any younger and it is a safe way to improve your strength and form.
Finally, if you’re getting in a good workout and feeling fit, that is the important thing at the end of the day.
SOURCES
https://www.100pushups.com/greasing-the-groove/
https://neuroquotient.com/en/pshychology-and-neuroscience-hebb-principle-rule/