I first came across this term a few weeks ago but never really took any notice.  But since getting more involved in the fitness and combat sports community its kept coming up more and more.  So I thought the only choice is to at least educate myself as to what it is.

So what the hell is it?

Well it can boost your reps of any exercise like push ups, pull ups, etc by a HUGE amount.  It works by a simple fact of nature – adaptability.  Now I’d read in a number of books that strength comes mainly form the nervous system and not the muscle.  To get an idea of this then look at Pavel Tsatsouline (in the pic) who is one hell of a strong guy but he isn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Strength gains can be most pronounced by having a well-primed and healthy nervous system.

“Greasing the Groove” is all about exploiting your nervous systems adaptability and its dead simple:

Lots of reps

Application 1: Push Ups

That’s it – pretty much.  Lets take an example though.  Maybe you want to increase your push up capacity to the big 50 or 100.  Rather than training push ups twice or thrice a week in traditional sets.  You’d do a few each day – when I say a few I mean like 20-100 across the entire day.  In a way you’re ‘greasing up’ your nervous system for that big push of 50 push ups.  Your priming your body by giving it constant stimulation.

Application 2: Pull Ups

Another example would be to try and increase your pull up capacity.  Have yourself a pull up bar at home or in an easily accessible location.  The easier the better!!  If you can mount one outside your kitchen or bedroom door that’s perfect.  The more times you pass it the better cos you’re gonna use it every time.  Even if you can only do 1 pull up.  Just keep doing that one every time you pass.  In no time at all you’ll be doing 20 pull ups non-stop.

One set of five every day is better than five sets of five every five days.

Don’t Fail!

Doing this style of training to failure is a definate no-no.  You’ll only burn out your CNS so just don’t go there.  High reps and heavy weights are what you need but don’t take the reps in any one set above 6!  Anything more than that and you’re just going to get hypertrophy more than strength or endurance.

Rest

Just because you won’t feel like you’re loading your body as hard as the traditional intense training methods.  You still need rest!  No negotiation there.  Rest is paramount and in fact your nervous system needs it more than your muscles do.  A burnt out CNS will cause more problems than burnt out muscle.

Who Invented/Discovered This?

See the guy in the pic I mentioned earlier?  Well he did – Pavel Tsatsouline.  He’s a Russian, and as we all know the Russians are strong.  You only have to look at the Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren who was used to play a Russian in Rocky 4 because all the Russian actors were crushing broken Soviet navy ships with their bare hands.

You can read his original article here.