Grease the Groove To Get Strong

Hi, my name is Dr. Antonio with Live Loud Chiropractic and Coaching in Lafayette, Colorado.

Today, I want to share a concept called Greasing the Groove. Greasing the Groove is a concept first shared by Pavel Tsatsouline with Strong First.

Oftentimes we have patients saying they’re struggling with a movement, or that they just don’t feel strong. It’s challenging because they’re often trying to complete a lot of reps within an hour training session. People tend to fatigue really fast, especially if it’s a movement they’re not very strong in at first. They’re not able to actually get good quality reps. You will find that you are fatiguing faster than you can get stronger, and you’re not able to build and train that strength.

As the story is told, Pavel had a pull-up bar hanging from the entryway into the kitchen. And every time he went into the kitchen, he did one pull-up. So throughout the day, with the amount of times he went through the kitchen, he accumulated a lot of reps.

The idea here is to be fully rested and prepared for the next set. So if throughout the day, for example, you do one pull-up every hour, you’re going to accumulate upwards of 16 to 18 reps, with every single rep feeling easy. So let’s say for after a week, you now have X amount of repetitions. As you start to feel stronger, you can continue to build up.

For me, I’ve been wanting to get my pressing strength back up in my pull ups. In my office, I have a pull-up bar and a kettlebell. And in between patients, I’ll do easy reps—reps I know I can complete and that I will not fail. And throughout the day, I get a ton of repetitions. And as I start to feel stronger, I’m going to add repetitions. To start, if I feel like I can only do one quality rep, I’m only doing to do one rep. I’m not trying to grind out extra reps just because I feel like I need to—I’m going to stop before I fail. But that doesn’t necessarily mean using “easy weight”—they’re easy reps, but you’re challenging yourself with a high stimulus type of weight.

As I get better at pull ups, I can’t stay at five reps and assume I’m going to continue to get stronger. I might have less rest in between those breaks, which allows me to get more volume. Or if the volume (how many sets I can do throughout the day) stays the same, then I might need to add repetitions or add weight to my body. There’s a lot of different ways that you can do this, depending on the time and equipment you have.

So there you have it! Greasing the Groove. The neurological patterning around that movement is enhanced and expanded, which helps make you stronger. A lot of this is neuro-driving and neuro-grooving. The muscles get a lot of repetitions and a lot of volume, and that results in building strength and muscle.

Keep up the great work and Live LOUD!

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