Hell Week
I wouldn’t say I like the name “Hell Week”, but it’s useful in a few ways. To clarify, I don’t use it in a way to glorify hard training or a way to punish and overload people. I use it to condense and give focus to a system or an idea where most people get lost in the habitual and non-progressive routines of daily exercise. It’s no wonder, most programs and advice talk about training in terms of routine. But this is antithetical to training theory which first demands progressive overload. The question is when to back off, and when to push forward. It’s a difficult question that most people answer with the futility of exercise or the abyss of unsustainable progression. Hell Week is one simple way to get a handle on where you are and what you need.
We are very hands-on here. We generally explore new ideas and new movements that require a lot of attention to detail. But we also like to break this and have people explore concepts on their own. Hell Week allows for this kind of “fitness rumspringa”. Each player puts the week together based on how they see it (we design each session and have a concept that should be just out of reach for most people). I can’t convey how important this aspect of training is for new people, especially if they have never competed in a sport or trained formally. Watching our client’s reaction from the very first Hell Week is what sold me on the idea.
This practice was born out of how we coach specific projects. We invert our progression, which means we look at the day we need to be ready, and we imagine the qualities that are required (performance metrics or aesthetics). We then build sessions that we believe could train those traits based on frequency and what we know about the player’s recoverability. Once this is done, we throw the sessions up on a board, some of them may have to be in a progressive order for sport-specific performance, but most of them just need to get done. Then we have the client move them from the starting side to the other (completion). If the client can see the workload up front, they are less likely to get burned out. Everyone is excited to train at the start, but most fade when the monotony and fatigue set in. Our method shows the player the entirety of the plan so they can visualize it upfront and also see how much they have completed along the way, which is a positive feedback loop that gets overlooked. It also allows the athlete to make adjustments if they are under-recovered or just not motivated and teaches them that training is not competing, it is preparation.
When we have our Hell Week, it’s as if a light goes off and every average person becomes a professional overnight. Clients show up multiple times a day to get the work in. They start hydrating and fueling, mobilizing, and warming up properly. Their questions get better and their focus is unlike anything that you would see at an average gym. It’s remarkable.
So yeah, I hate the name, but what we get out of it is unparalleled.
We want people around the globe that follow The Space Program to have this experience. So we have mapped out the best way to partake in this virtually, which many of you have already started and some even completed. If you are going to try Hell Week — and aim to complete it — try to look at the required work and put it together to get your best performance. This means you will have to compromise somewhere, that is the point. Make adjustments if a session puts you over. Try to complete it but don’t be afraid to throw in the towel. I’ve finished many Hell Weeks and left sessions on the table, taking a DNF because going through the motions was not worth it. As always, let us know how this goes for you and help us make it better.
-TMB
