This book is currently available for free but will probably be on sale soon. Read it for free while you can by clicking on the book cover for free instant access to a pdf.

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Click on the strength training book you want for a free download!

The free strength training books are downloadable digital ebooks. Just click on the book you would like and it will take you to a ebook store where you can downloaded the book. The books are free for a limited time, so take the opportunity to download them while they are still for free.

Free Strength Training Books

Three of the books including Overcoming Strength Training Plateaus, Strength Training Thresholds, and Strength Training Capacity, focus on how your body works and how to train in agreement with what your body is trying to accomplish when it gains strength. While the books are not based on specific training routines, the principles that are presented can be applied to a variety of different routines.

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I (Mark Sherwood) started out training with weights thirty six years ago and don’t plan on quitting anytime soon. Throughout my years of training, I have been experimenting, researching, pondering, praying, and learning everything that I can about strength training based on a simple desire to get as much out of my own workouts as I can. I can claim nothing of prolific significance in regard to strength training honors. In all honesty, I have never trained a champion lifter, or a world class athlete, and am far from being a champion lifter myself. I simply enjoy learning, lifting, and comparing the results that different training methods have produced. All of this has prompted the formation of my own thoughts and beliefs in regard to effective strength training methods. I will share these thoughts and experiences with anyone who cares to deepen their perspectives on strength training by sharing a little bit of my story here and by offering the other information I provide on this website.

I started training with weights at the age of 16 in 1979 to build my strength up because I thought it would help me improve at pole vaulting which I did in high school. I also thought it would help me with basketball which I still enjoy playing. During my first year of weight training, I barely gained anything because I had no idea how to train. After buying some weight training literature, I changed my training and both my bench press and squat quickly increased by 60 pounds in three months. My deadlift also shot up almost 100 pounds during this same time period. Over the next year in a half, I slowly gained another thirty pounds of strength in my lifts, but the gains eventually came to a stop.

Even with a bachelor’s degree as an exercise specialist from the University of Wisconsin, and even though I read volumes of information on weight training over a few decades, I could never reignite any steady progress beyond those first couple of years of weight training. I tried gobs of training methods and occasionally managed to boost my strength for a few weeks. This would serve to get my hopes up, only to see my strength regress back to its previous level. The lack of progress never stopped me from training because I enjoyed it, and I felt better physically when I exercised as compared to when I didn’t. Not only that, I preferred to maintain the strength I had gained as opposed to quitting and losing it.

It took decades, but I can remember being in a locker room at the gym where I worked out and having a thought that was based on simple math. At the age of 46, it dawned on me that if I had found a method for working out that brought about even a slight amount of strength gains each year, then at my age I would be very strong. Even if I started out with baby weights in the squat, deadlift, and bench press, but I succeeded in figuring out a way to gain a pound of strength per month, or just ten pounds of strength per year, then I would be three hundred pounds stronger at this point in my life (which was 30 years after I had started training with weights). My thoughts about this continued over the next several years.

There had to be a way to gradually add weight little by little to my lifts. I had already tried starting out with a moderate weight and adding on weight week by week, and I had even tried methods where weight is added every workout for six weeks at a time. Nothing worked until I put enough of the right ideas and details together. I finally found that using the right amount of training stress and combining it with high frequency workouts were two huge keys that actually led to the ability to gain strength little by little in a fairly predictable manner. The overall idea behind the training is simple, but the details of finding the right training zone to make it work are important; very important. I’m always trying to refine these details for the best effect because finding the right training zone does not leave much room for error. Precision is a big key for making it work.

I know that the form of training that I advocate on this website is not for everyone, but I offer it as an option to anyone who is methodical and disciplined enough to try it. You can do simple workouts that are not highly taxing, and you can add weight to your basic lifts in a predictable manner if you are realistic about how much, and how often you add weight. If you would like more extensive details on the many aspects of weight training, please feel free to visit my primary website at www.precisionpointtraining.com. Best of training to you.

Mark Sherwood

Books by Mark. Click on the images for more information.

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Examining the Question, What is Moderate Stress Training?

I believe in the effectiveness of high frequency training, especially if it is combined with moderate stress training (MST). What is moderate stress training? To start with, it is a method of training that is specifically designed to be used in conjunction with high frequency training that is done at least three times per week, but more commonly four or more times per week for each muscle group. There may be other high frequency training strategies that produce results, but I have found moderate stress training to be an excellent strategy if it is used often over a long period of time. However, the term moderate stress training must be clearly explained and defined in order to avoid a misunderstanding of what it truly is.

Moderate Stress does not Mean Moderate Effort

First of all, using a moderate training stress does not mean moderate effort. The effort should be high in terms of how forcefully a lifter pushes into a rep. This is true of each and every rep that is done for an exercise. Forceful repetitions demand maximum nervous system firing in order to achieve maximum muscle fiber recruitment for maximum rep speed and rep force. This is what produces high intensity muscle contractions and it puts a high amount of stress on the creatine phosphate energy system which is the system you want to stress for gaining stress.

Even though a forceful repetition takes a brief but explosive effort, it is not necessarily highly stressful to the body as a whole. An explosive high intensity muscle contraction can still remain a moderate training stress, as long as excessive fatigue does not enter into the training equation. The reason for this is that excessive fatigue is the chief culprit for producing a high amount of training stress by over involving the lactate energy system and draining the nervous system. This type of stressful fatigue comes from two major sources in weight training.

Avoiding Two Major Sources of High Stress Training

The first major source of stressful fatigue is pushing past the point where rep speed and rep tempo start to slow down during a set. At the start of a set, you can normally maintain a steady even rep rhythm. When this starts to slow down, fatigue is sharply on the rise and the training stress is escalating in a more pronounced manner with each successive rep. If you push a set until you can’t do any more reps, you are training to failure. Training to failure and beyond (with forced reps) creates a high amount of fatigue and therefore causes a high level of training stress on the lactate system and the nervous system. By contrast, moderate stress training is based on pushing forcefully into each rep, but stopping a set before excessive fatigue creates a high amount of training stress to the lactate system and the nervous system.

The second major source of fatigue that leads to a high amount of training stress comes from doing too many sets for a given muscle group. This starts to show up when you repeat sets for a muscle group to the point where that muscle group begins to lose its strength, even with sufficient rest time between sets. If you continue repeating sets for a muscle group past this point, fatigue escalates and the lifting stress that your body is encountering escalates as well. High volume training while in a weakened state of fatigue can easily create a high amount of training stress.

High Intensity Training is High Fatigue and High Stress

At this point, I need to address high intensity training. The term high intensity sounds like it should really work. It give the impression that it’s only for the truly serious lifters who really mean business and are willing to do what it takes to get real results from their training. However, in my opinion, high intensity training is only high intensity in terms of producing a high amount of training stress that is derived from putting forth a high amount of effort while in the presence of a high amount of fatigue. The problem with all of this is that it negates the ability to produce strong muscle contractions that can only occur in the absence of fatigue.

After having said this about high intensity training, I will also say that I have nothing against it for anyone who is currently experiencing progress from it. If this is the case, I have no problem advising them to keep doing it, but if not, I’m offering an alternative with the reasoning behind it. Also, keep in mind that we’re talking about how to use high frequency training in a productive manner, and any type of training that leads to excessive stress will make recovery very difficult in the context of high frequency training.

Excessively Heavy Weight can Create Excessive Training Stress

Are there any other training factors besides pushing too far into a set and doing too many sets that can cause workouts to escalate up to a high stress level? Yes, excessively heavy weight can cause an excessive training stress. Heavy weight can still be used for moderate stress training, but what I’m warning against is excessively heavy weight.

How to Lift Heavy while Avoiding Excessive Training Stress

Excessively heavy weight refers to the kind of weight that causes a lifter to do grinder reps. Grinder reps occur when the lifting motion slows down or starts to stall in the middle of a lift when doing a single rep max. This can wear your nervous system down in a hurry. A good guideline is to stay within the boundaries of lifting weights that will allow a smooth nonstop lifting motion while using perfect form. This will give you room to lift heavy on a frequent basis while avoiding high stress lifting that comes from grinding with excessively heavy weights.

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Program Your Body for Strength Gains with M.S.T.

One of the big advantages of using a moderate training stress is that it can be used to program your body for strength gains. This can be done with simple workouts that are repeated over and over again. I know that this goes completely against the common thinking that constant change and complex training cycles are needed for effective training. These concepts may be necessary when using a low training frequency and high stress workouts. However, when training at a moderate stress level on a high frequency basis, sameness and consistency from one workout to the next can be used to your advantage. I will now go on to explain why you don’t need all the complexity and change when using moderate stress training on a high frequency basis.

High Frequency is Necessary for Powerful Programming

If you start at the right level of training stress, which is a moderate training stress that I have discussed in the previous section, you can program your body to grow accustomed to a precise level of training stress if you do it on a high frequency basis. If you do not do it on a high frequency basis, the degree to which your body grows accustomed to a precise training stress will start to decrease, and the programming effect will be weakened. High frequency training is needed to establish a powerful programming effect.

Precise Programming at a Moderate Level of Training Stress

Precise programming requires a precise training stress that is repeated over and over and over again. This requires repeating the same workout where the same amount of weight, and the same amount of sets and reps are repeated from one workout to the next. I don’t recommend constant variation from one workout to the next, but you can vary the amount of weight and reps within a single workout. In fact, I recommend using a substantial range of weights so that you include the use of explosive lifting with lighter weights, as well as a combination of moderately heavy and heavy weights in your workout. Once you have established a workout, keep it the same and stick with it.

If you find the right training zone by using the correct amount of training stress, the workouts that you are repeating will get easier. After six to twelve weeks of this (less time is needed for beginner and intermediate lifters) your body will be programmed to manage a precise level of training stress. At the end of the six to twelve week period of frequently repeating the same workouts, you simply add five to ten pounds to your basic lifts. The added weight will increase the training stress. However, your body will be programmed to prefer the previous level of training stress because it was easier, so it will adapt by gaining a little strength so that your workouts feel as easy as they were before you added weight.

Little by Little, You Add Weight While Remaining at a Moderate Training Stress

When you use this method of training, the workout stress temporarily escalates a little when weight is added, but your body will keep reducing the escalated stress back to the level of stress that it was accustomed to before the weight was added. Your body accomplishes this by gaining strength because the stronger you are, the less stressful it is to lift a given weights. Little by little you can add weight, and little by little your body will gain strength to stabilize the training stress and keep it from escalating into a high level of training stress, in preference of remaining at moderate level of training stress.

The workouts that you do should be hard enough, but not too hard. Even when weight is slowly added, the workouts should still remain hard enough but not too hard. At the end of a year, your workouts should feel no harder than they felt at the start of the year when you were using twenty to forty pounds less on all your lifts, and at the end of five years, your workouts should feel no harder than they felt when you were using one hundred or more pounds less for your lifts. You start out with a moderate training stress and continue with a moderate training stress as weight as added.

Be Reasonable and Think Long Term

Some of you may think that adding weight every six to twelve weeks is a sign of an ineffective training strategy because it’s not often enough. However, if you do the math, you’ll find that gaining five pounds of strength every six weeks will give you forty pounds (or a little more) of strength in a year. If you successfully accomplish that for five years or more, you start to get ridiculously strong. Even if you gain at a slower rate, your gains will start to add up over time.

If you want a quick method for gaining strength in the next week or two, don’t use the methods I have been explaining. Instead, find a good shock method to quickly boost your strength, but don’t expect rapid gains forever, there is no such thing. You must be reasonable and I haven’t given you a method based on hyped up promises that deliver short lived results followed by a dead-end training rut.

There are tons of ways to train and I’ve tried a lot of them, but what I’ve just outlined for you has worked better than anything else I’ve tried in terms of long term training results. It’s not an instant gratification strategy, but it’s a practical solution to help you keep gaining strength over time, and it’s based on realistic expectations. My hope is that if you decide to try this type of training that you have the patience, determination, and persistence to see it payoff.

For more extensive training information, you can refer to my primary website by clicking on the following link that will take you to Precision Point Training.com

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