Training log
Method notes from the people who grade the gear. No transformation stories, no before shots.
Four notes, in the order they come up. The first is how we measure the thing our apparel is sold on, and the rest are the training questions the support inbox gets most.
How we grade compression, and what the three steps mean
Ask five brands what high compression means and you get five answers, none of them measured. The word does work in marketing that the fabric never does on a squat rack. So we built a scale with three steps, published the method, and printed the grade on the card instead of in a footnote.
The rig is simple. A fabric sample is clamped and stretched to a fixed extension, we record the force needed to hold it there, and then the force it still returns after two hundred cycles. The second number matters more. Plenty of fabric feels firm on day one and gives up by the tenth wash.
- Light: holds its shape, does not hold you. Rest days, warm ups, tees.
- Medium: stays put through hinge and squat patterns without restricting depth. This is where most training apparel should sit.
- Firm: noticeable support, and noticeable effort to put on. Useful for some people, uncomfortable for others, and we will say so.
Compression is not opacity, and it is not sizing. A Light fabric can be perfectly opaque and a Firm one can go sheer at full stretch, which is why we shoot the squat separately and print an opacity line of its own. Sizing down to get more compression gives you a worse garment and a worse session.
Three steps rather than five, on purpose. A five-step scale sounds more precise and is harder to feel the difference in. If you have never thought about it, start at Medium.
Ab rollout progressions that do not wreck your lower back
The rollout is one of the few trunk exercises that keeps getting harder without more equipment, which is why it is worth learning properly. It is also the one people skip a step on and then blame the wheel for.
- Kneeling, short range. Roll only as far as you can go without the lower back arching, then come back. That distance is the exercise, not a warm up for it.
- Kneeling, full range. Move on only when the short range is easy for a full set and your ribs stay down throughout.
- Standing, short range, against a wall. The wall is the stop, and it is what makes this safe to attempt at all.
- Standing, full range. Most people never need this, and there is no prize for arriving early.
The cue that tells you to move on is boredom, not soreness. If your back arches at the bottom, the range is too long, whatever step you are on. Most people skip the second position and pay for it.
A rest day that is actually a training input
A rest day is not an absence of training, and treating it as one is why the following session is worse. What it is for is circulation, range of motion and enough movement that you turn up loose rather than stiff.
- Cupping: ten minutes on quads or lats. It gives you something to do to a sore muscle, which is most of the value.
- The lumbar board: extension for a back that has spent the week flexed at a desk and under a bar.
- Ten minutes of walking, which is the least impressive and most reliable item on this list.
What none of them fix: an injury. Pain that is new, sharp, or does not settle over a few days is a question for a physiotherapist, and no amount of recovery equipment answers it.
Load ratings, and why we print the number nobody asks for
A bench rated to 265 lb is not the same as a bench that survives 265 lb of hinge work. The first number is a static figure; the second is what happens after a few hundred reps of load arriving and leaving. We test the second one, and where a supplier will not give us a tested figure we leave the field empty.
An empty field looks like an oversight and is the opposite of one. It tells you exactly how much anybody knows about that product, which is more useful than a confident number nobody stands behind.
Quick answers
Is your compression grade an industry standard?
No. It is our scale, measured on our own stretch rig and applied consistently across everything we sell, so it is useful for comparing our pieces to each other. Comparing it to another brand's wording is the guesswork the scale exists to remove.
Which grade should I start with?
Medium, unless you already know you like something else. It stays put through hinge and squat patterns without restricting depth, which is where most training apparel should sit. Filter on the grade you like and ignore the rest of the catalogue.
How much equipment do I actually need to start?
Less than the internet suggests. A band set covers pressing, pulling and lower-body work on its own, and most people add a bell or an adjustable pair when the heaviest band stops being hard. Buy in the order you will use them.
Should I train through soreness?
Ordinary soreness a day or two after a session, usually yes, and moving tends to help it. Pain that is new, sharp, or does not settle is different, and that is a physiotherapist rather than a rest day. We are not going to guess about it from here.