Hey friends - hope you’re having a great weekend.
Apologies for shipping this out on Saturday last week (Saturday coffee?) - I wrote the article on Friday and got my dates a little mixed up. Back to the regularly scheduled programming this week though.
I’ve been recovering well from the achilles tear, but I’m still just 4 months and 1 week out from surgery so can’t run, jump or do anything explosive yet.
As someone who lives to move around, this injury has been teaching me a TON about patience, but it’s helping me learn to slow down and appreciate the little things too.
ROTW: Chicken Shwarma Bowls
Ingredients:
For the Chicken Marinade:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
For the Bowls:
2 cups cooked Orzo
1 cup roma tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, diced (optional)
1 cup shredded lettuce
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup hummus
1/4 cup tzatziki sauce (optional)
Instructions:
Marinate the Chicken:
In a large bowl, mix olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, coriander, salt, and pepper.
Add chicken thighs and coat them well with the marinade.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Cook the Chicken:
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the marinated chicken on a baking sheet.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and slightly charred around the edges.
Let the chicken rest for a few minutes before slicing it into strips.
While chicken is baking, cook your orzo.
Assemble the Bowls:
Add everything together into a bowl and enjoy!
MOTW: Box Squats
Squats are one of the most important full body movements of any training program. Box Squats are an amazing variation of this movement that has been used by powerlifters everywhere for YEARS.
If you’re not familiar with the Powerlifting community, Westside Barbell is one of if not the most prominent powerlifting gyms in the world. They’ve had tons of athletes come through and crush 1000 lb squats and deadlifts, setting all sorts of records.
When it comes to adding power to your squat, they live and die by box squats. I’ve linked a full article by them as to the reasons why, but here’s the TLDR (please note these are direct quotes pulled right from the article, I did not write these):
You do not get as sore from a box squat workout, and you can recover much faster
Box squats help ensure all reps are performed below parallel
Box squats can increase flexibility
If one suffers a knee injury, box squatting can be done while rehabing the injury
A box squat combines two very important methods. One is the static-dynamic method. It combines two muscle activities. Static work occurs while on the box, although the lifter is constantly moving backward or forward. Then by flexing off the box, the dynamic sequence occurs. The second method that is used when box squatting is the relaxed- overcome-by-dynamic work. This occurs by sitting on the box with the hips rolling in a relaxed fashion, then switching to an explosive, or dynamic, concentric phase. Both of the above-mentioned methods build explosive strength as well as absolute strength.
This video crushes the how to of box squats - so check it out if you want to learn! I absolutely love working these into plans for clients and highly recommend them, regardless of your goals.
TOTW: Why you should add a Deload Week to your training
Sometimes less is more.
Deloading is like taking a break from your regularly scheduled training program to dial it back and let your body rest + recover.
If you’ve been training hard for several weeks straight (usually somewhere in the 4-6 week range), your body might start to take a toll. The intensity of your workouts overtime can lead to increased inflammation, fatigue, and even overtraining that can lead to poor performance or worse, injury.
This is why it’s important to consider adding a deload week in every 4-6 weeks.
In one study, participants who took planned breaks from high-intensity resistance training every six weeks gained as much muscle and strength as their counterparts who didn’t deload. And they achieved the same results with 25% fewer training sessions.
When you take a deload week, you don’t stop training all together - you just dial back the intensity and length of your workouts. For example…
If you’ve been working out for 60 minutes, maybe your workouts become 40 minutes
If you’ve been lifting heavy, or running a lot of sprints, maybe you lift light weight and run nice and slow
Emphasizing slow and controlled movements, with a lot of stretching and rolling out to help your body recover
Unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of research on deloading, but the first principles behind it make a ton of sense. Top coaches across the world all incorporate deload phases into their clients plans to help them stay healthy and sharp.
TLDR: every 4-6 weeks, take it easy on your training and focus on rest + recovery. This will help prime your body for more intense and successful training moving forward.
