Subject: Do less and achieve more in your training—the programming secret…

StrongFirst Director of Education, Brett Jones, was asked on a podcast about his favorite recovery strategy, and his answer may surprise you.


Proper programming was the answer.


Not saunas, cold plunges, or the magic food/supplement of the moment, but programming.


If your programming is appropriate, then you should recover from it. Sleep, hydration, nutrition, and stress play a role and must be factored into the equation. And the answer to how to adjust programming for recovery and better results is…less.

Doing less is the answer (at least initially).


One of our StrongFirst forum members, mrwhy, had a recent post on the journey to doing less, focusing, and getting better results:

I’m almost fifty years old. And I hope I finally learn this before I turn 75. But.... I CANNOT DO EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE. You might be able to (probably not), but I can’t.


I cannot do Iron Cardio, Dan John’s ABC, KB Sport, Marathon Training, BW Circuits, IRON WOLF Burpees, Rucking, Heavy Hands, Yoga, and Simple and Sinister all in one session. I can't even get them all in a week.


At the end of this year, after a long several years of just...crap.....I was burned out. I took a look and decided to focus on getting strong in my double KB clean and press. And I started. And I also decided that on my off days, I could do some pushups, squats, and pullups. It worked great for a few days.


I pared down the BW work. And I decided to do yoga on my off days. And might as well do some after my clean and press sessions, too. It worked...for a few days.


Well, I kept making the same mistake and kept paring down. And every time I pared down to...Double KB Clean and Press, some goblet squats, and a few sets of curls...Well, I felt good, got stronger, and looked good. And then I’d mess up.


As the year has progressed, I’ve been able to complete longer blocks of double KB clean and press, goblet squats, and curls. I’m almost 50 years old. I’m at my lightest weight in a long time. I feel good. I’m moving well. I look pretty good. (I think so.)


My point here isn’t that YOU SHOULD do the double clean and press, goblet squat, curl thing. My point is that I think we achieve better results when we focus, and then round it out with something that doesn’t mess it all up. I know that if I were doing Simple and Sinister and focusing, I'd get good results. Or ETK, or whatever. But right now, I’ve got my double KB clean and press, goblet squat, some curls - done 2 to 3 times a week, rotated with some rowing 2 to 3 times a week. I might add planks.


We don’t have to do everything, everywhere, all at once. Just focus on something for a bit. Feel good. Get good.

Doing less doesn’t mean doing less forever. It means doing less until you find the amount of training you can recover from. Then you can begin to add more, but slowly and progressively, so you don’t lose the recovery and benefit.


Do not fall for the comforting lie of magical recovery solutions, but instead confront the harsher reality of meeting yourself where you are and adjust the program to fit that.

To learn the programming secrets, attend the Programming Demystified seminar with Pavel and Fabio Zonin 
in person or online, June 28-29, 2025.

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