Building a Foundation

Building the foundation for subsequent training means can not be neglected. Being so far away from the next season, it is no better time than now to begin expanding the potential for the work to come. This involves extensive conditioning, tempo work, and assessing postural imbalances very intensively.

The aim of the tempo work is to increase the aerobic capacity for Type II fibers as well as hypertrophy of type I. Here is an example of an upper body tempo exercise protocol we use.

D-Lineman: 6'2" 240 lb
Tempo: 2/0/2
Duration:2-3 series of 3 x 40 sec or 8-10 reps
Rest: 60 sec between sets, 5-8 min active recovery between series

This is his last set. It is very hard for them to control the concentric portion when fatigued so constant supervision and cueing is important to maintain protocol. Always have a stop watch in hand. You can do this after high intensity strength work or in series for a workout on its own.

It is important to remember that this is also the best time to reinforce proper mechanics especially scapular. Important cue to really condition the lower fibers is to make sure athletes are relaxing the upper trapezius. It is key to be hands on so you can feel what they feel. Here is a defensive lineman utilizing these scapular cues during a pull down, ensuring proper activation of the lower fibers.

Optimal Hypertrophy

Size equals strength right? If we get bigger then we are gaining cross sectional area, which is a foundation for strength development aren’t we? Yes and no.

It is very true that increasing the amount of contractile tissue, you will have a greater potential for strength development. But when you gain mass, muscle tissue isn’t the only substance that has ability to grow.

Two types of Hypertrophy

Sarcoplasmic: the volume of sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cell increases.

Myofibril: The increase contractile proteins, increase of sarcomeres in series etc…

Any type of hypertrophy is individualized but should never come at the expense of performance. If added mass is essential for an individual, then a balance between both types is optimal. If athlete is already at desired weight or size then any hypertrophy that would be developed should be that of contractile proteins. Lets take a look at the variables that come into play when looking to develop these qualities.

STRESS

Mechanical: Any method that challenges High force or High Acceleration. Goal is to utilize high threshold recruitment (size principle).

Methods: Powerlifting and weightlifting (Olympic)

→Preference for increased size of type II fibers. Heavy eccentrics allow for most muscular damage and highest mechanical stress so don’t limit yourself concentrically.
→Max effort methods offer percentages that yield increase size of high threshold motor units.
→Dynamic lifts will allow you to activate very high threshold MU’s which can be utilized in subsequent strength training.

Metabolic: Methods that induce a local fatigue that will stress aerobic enzymes and substrate causing a reduction as an acute adaptation. During recovery a surplus will be produced as a long term adaptation causing increased size of sarcoplasmic material.

Methods: Bodybuilding, HIT

→Inducing as much fatigue to the muscle is a must. As Zatsiorski would say, if it is not fatigued it was not trained (will not grow).
→Repetition method as seen in Westside Barbell.
→ Timed sets or high intensity training will induce as much metabolic stress with short rest periods. This leads to a beneficial increase in muscle building hormones

As you can see, there are benefits to a variety of methods. It all comes down to what the individual needs. Some athletes fiber composition my lead them to develop hypertrophy better with some methods rather than others. A great way to tell whether or not the size you are adding is beneficial is relative strength.

Random Resources

INTERNETThere is a site that I was told about a while back that basically has me listening, watching, and reading everything it has to offer. The Canadian Athletics Coaching Centre. This has some great articles from many of the greatest minds in the industry like Verkhoshansky, Viru, Zatsiorsky, and Pfaff just to name a few. Much of it is free articles and podcast as well as some amazing videos well worth the money. I urge anyone to check it out for some serious research and programming from every realm of performance enhancement!!

LITERATUREA book that has been around for a bit that I continuously find myself looking back at is Running by Frans Bosch. Bosch has great insight on many aspects in developing, cueing, and training anyone who runs. He is of course a track coach but much of what he has to say can easily be related to any athlete who makes a living on their feet. Especially his work with plyometrics and observation are priceless.

NUTRITIONThe latest from Michael Pollan, Food Rules, is a great gift idea for the health conscious or someone you know that is trying to eat more clean. It is split up into simple sections and does great job at taking simple concepts that often are confused into complexity by the media. Even for those of you who consider themselves having a strong grasp on their stomach my find some of his outlooks as a reminder of some obvious things you are neglecting.

Educational Road Trip

Today I had the pleasure of dropping in at the Sanford Running Injury & Performance lab and The National Institute for Athletic Health & Performance in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Each of these places offer unique equipment and are heading some great research involving individual assessment through gait analysis and fatigue related stability issues.

At the running lab they had a force plate treadmill with Zebris software. What this allowed them to do was match slow motion video analysis with an individuals foot strike. Along with this they would hook up EMG to get a look at specific firing patterns up the chain. Take away message:

* The individual may display similar areas of stiffness and/or firing patterns but treatment is different based on the way in which this stiffness occurs. This is based off roll off patterns in the foot, heel motion, and foot structure.
* Single leg stance is still one of the greatest assessments for stability. But with this tool you can measure the parameter in which your center of gravity is displaced. This with EMG can show the degree in which you compensate and with which specific muscles your relying on.
* Many people strike hard on the outside of the heel and almost immediate go to big toe after a hard pronation.

Overall like you would assume, many of these people were stiff anteriorly and externally rotated.
These guys had a fellowship with Gary Gray and use some very integrated corrective strategies as you would guess with Gray.

At the NIAHP, they have easily the best environmental chamber in the US. Here they have done wonders with hydration study and stability.

* Almost everyone losses sweat at different rates. With that, what is lost (different electrolytes) varies quiet a bit person to person. People perform at a substantially higher rate when they replace what is really needed and not as much of what is not.
* After fatigued, athletes showed highest differences in stability in the frontal plane when landing, and in step-downs.
* 50 % of athletes are in a dehydrated state throughout the day. (DRINK SOME WATER!)

A great experience overall. Once again these are just tools. You can come to the same conclusions with different means. These tools however provide a great deal of information allowing you to obtain results with the ability to compare with computed numbers. I see these sort of tools as a use em' if you have access sort of thing.

Defending the Trap Bar

The topic that probably found itself ranking at the forefront of discussion in the industry over the last year was the debate over lower body bilateral movements. This includes primarily variations of the squat and deadlift. Its my feeling that if you want to take something away it should be for a couple reasons. One, there are other tools that could be better benefiting you in progress to your goals. Two, it is causing harm to your athletes in the form of injury due to poor pattern or poor risk reward. When I look at the trap bar deadlift I can not find a way to justify these questions. Let look at just a few reasons why it can be such a useful tool...

Using the trap bar to teach movement:
It is all too common to find people who are unstable on the deep squat. Stabilization is timing. A key component in the TBDL is the isometric loading you obtain in the start position. This allows the athlete to consciously gauge the feeling of firing the stabilizers first before going into the squat pattern from the bottom up. Also when put into proper position, the only way to overcome the isometric load is them to activate the global muscles through hip extension. This action of isometric loading to active hip extension will allow you to gain the stability so many athletes lack in the deep squatting pattern.

It is easy to modify:
Not every athlete has the warranted hip mobility that will allow them to pick a heavy load from the ground and maybe they are just to tall to safely pick up the standard sized bar. The best part about bar is that the weight is close to the base of support (your feet) and can be safely elevated. This can allow you to make sure that no matter the athlete, proper spine alignment can be achieved in most cases.
Without a lift many athletes with poor mobility/stability lock the back into extension and also will extend the neck as they attempt to bring shoulder back.









With a couple plates or aerobic boxes, you can easily find a range in which the athlete will not have to compromise mobility to achieve the pattern.








Also a great way to reinforce this movement pattern is to do a toe touch progression within a super-set to compliment this lift.






Scapular Stability:
Lets not forget that this wonderful exercise requires strength, stability, and mobility from all areas. A key area of this stability is one that is often missing in many programs. The scap/thoracic region can be stabilized in two ways. One of them, compression, is commonly seen with things like planks and push ups. The second, distraction, is greatly developed in the TBDL. This is when the scapula has to resist a load from protraction. One can identify this when an athlete lifts too heavy of a load and the shoulder drift anterior.

Max Strength and Aerobic Capacity

Over the last several months and through talking with many colleuges in the field, I found that one of the most misunderstood concepts with development of athletes in many field sports (football, soccer) aerobic energy system development and its key to strength development is often overlooked. Lets look at some of the several adaptations one can benefit from having a optimal aerobic capacity.
At the heart: Increased Left ventricle hypertrophy (eccentric) leading to higher strove volume, increased vagal tone, higher end diastolic volume all creating a larger cardiac output= Increased oxygen supply. Basically, these adaptaions will improve your bodies ability to move more oxygenated blood to the working muscles with less effort. This allows you to accomplish power aerobically before having to rely heavily on the lactic system which fatigues quickly.

At the muscle: Type I fiber hypertrophy, oxidative ability of type II fibers, Increased localized capillarization, Increased mitochondria. These adaptations will increase your muscles abilities to draw oxygen from blood, increased mitochondria will help your muscle regenerate ATP aerobically. Mitochindrial density has also been linked to improvement of muscle contraction/relaxation speed!

Simply, when lifting for maximal strength your body is utilizing the alactic/ATP-PC enrgy system at its highest capacity by quickly breaking down ATP to supply the amount of power needed to execute a maximal lift. The typical rest is 3-5 minutes between sets. What happens during this rest is where the aerobic system is the star. This relaxation is when ATP resythesis occurs in the ATP-PC system. After an intense bout, ATP is reduced to 70% of pre exercising levels and PCr to 20 % PEL. 70% of this is re-sythesized in about 30 seconds and fully in around 5 minutes. The full recovery can be delayed when muscles are occluded from blood flow. Without getting exteremly technical, this fact shows that the adaptations discussed earlier will greatly increase you bodies ability to resythesize the much needed ATP as quickly as possible within the resting parameters.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't saying that you need to be able to run marathons to be able to do maximal strength work. There is however a great benefit of having "optimal" capacity of the aerobic system to set yourself up for success down the road in maximal strength work. Some of hese methods have been discussed previously in my blog (see alactic capacity, Tempo method/oxidative squats). This doesn't stop at max strength but the benefits carry into repeated sprint ability, sustaing power over time, and the ability to produce ATP rapidly aerobically.

Update!!

Hey everyone!! It has been a LONG time since I have posted. Let me fill you in on what I have been up too and what you can expect for future post.

Summer was extremely busy with lots of hours spent at AP learning from some amazing coaches. College Football season at my school has concluded with a finish of 8-2. There were zero non-contact injuries this year which is what I really am aiming for when developing programs followed by increased performance. The volleyball team is poised to take nationals and also without injuries effecting anything. These were two teams that were plagued with ACL tears and Hamstring strains, both were non existent. One of the high school football teams I was in charge of won the district and made a great run at the state playoffs. Looking back I am extremely proud of these teams and the people in other individual sports that are looking for some great progress in the future. I can't wait to get started in the off season which start today!!

With that being said, I have some great things that I will be implementing with the teams this winter that I am excited to share with everyone. I am also going to be taking a handful of more advance guys and putting them on some different program with more advanced preparations methods more familiar to those who have read up on block periodization. I plan on following these results here showing you everything I am doing with these athletes.

You can also read up on an interview I did early in the Summer HERE!

Hope everyone is doing well and good luck to all those in and out of season.