Taken from James own quotes
this seems to be the most natural limitation of constraints. in general a person would first work on muscular efficiency via iso extreme work (this also has other positive side effects) this is difficult and often takes months of work.
after the body can get into the proper position you are then safely able to absorb force. this can be scaled down so the force is minuscule and scale up till it is 20+ times ones body weight.
now that you can absorb force its time to learn how to generate it. I like the term learn because is largely neurological. this can be accomplished with maximal effort movements, EMS, rebound movements etc.
creating force rapidly is accomplished with overspeed, max velocity lifts impulse inertia work etc.
interplay between work in which one set can enhance the work of another. for example a maximal squat before a vertical jump. a certain level of conditioning and ability is necessary for this as an unqualified athletes will be fatigued to greatly by the first set of work.
What is extreme iso work? Iso work at extreme joint positions? Such as?
a lunge or a push up at the extreme joint angle. contracting the proper muscles is the difficult part and its also not truly an isometric but an eccentric an extremely extremely slow eccentric. the idea is that movements that slow recruit high threshold units because of the firing frequency.
its not the CNS that resets but inhibtion that breaks down and allows for continues output of the CNS.
the adaptation is neurological
iso extremes dont have to do with the stretch reflex
when i talked about the rebound movements it had to do with CNS “fatigue” and inhibtion of CNS output not the iso extremes not reflex inhition or motor unit recruitment.
when i talk about iso extremes im not talking about the the stretch reflex. i am talking about motor learning, rate coding ect
during a reflex process, a muscles spindels sensory receptors send implses to the dorsal root to the spinal cord, where they directly activate the motorneuron.
The returning motor impulses casue the musle to contract and inhibition of the antagonist muscles.
the reflex acts to self regulate or compensate. this allows the muscle to automatically adjust without processing the info through higher neural centres.
ahhh some sense to combat the lack
antagonist do turn on but its usually at the end of a movement and its not to stabalise the joint but to prevent it from being destroyed by the rapid force produced by the agonist
rate coding is one of the two ways the CNS controls force generation the other being motor unit recruitment.
super slow movement require high frequency/high velocity contractions to maintain movement speeds. we are talking about so slow you wouldn’t notice the movement. an hour to walk 100m slow. to move this slow your system has to turn on and off very rapidly i.e. you recruits the fast twitch muscle fibers. seems crazy that a slow movement would recruit fast fibers but that the theory and in practice I have found it to be true. you have to think of it like this say you can drag a sled with a slow fiber at the slowest possible speed of 5 m/s (an analogy of course) now say you want to go 2 m/s how do you do it. well you could produce many rapid contractions on and off to produce a slower movement than even the slow fibers. so during this exercise you are not only recruiting fast twitch muscle fibers these fibers are firing on and off very rapidly and they contract throughout the duration of the exercise. usually the hold is 3+ min usually 5 min I’ve heard as long as an hour.
the exercise can also be used as a source of learning how to efficiently recruit your muscles i.e… recruiting muscles at the right time at the right join angle at the right intensity and with the opposing muscle group to activated i.e. programming for feed forward ballistic movements.
in general the cessation of work should occur when performance drops below and unacceptable level
the tissue is contracting at this high rate throughout the duration of the exercise. so holding it for the extended period will have a greater benefit there is however a level of diminishing returns.
the weight is lowered via fatigue usually. But the same thing can be done concentrically for example raising your golf club from club face on ground to club face over head and taking 5 min to so it. let me also say that the weight is usually ones own body initially.
if your CNS says to recruit fast twitch it will recruit fast twitch. to often i think people associate fiber type with duration of work when in fact the two are seperate or atleast can be seperate.
so what we have is condtions where fast twitch fibers are recruited under a situation which results in a rapid adaptation of mitocondrial mass.
this stuff is jay schroeders and despite wha tyou may have heard he is not DB
hammer ive met jay and when u get a better understaning of what he does you realize how different the stuff really is and it really is different i mean on the opposite ends of the spectrum. but like i said i dont know everything just the stuff i shared with you.
the CNS controls movement tnesion muscle in two ways rate coding and motor unit recruitment. their is no variation in the impulse its an all or nothing type of thing. for example magnitude, a larger impulse along a motor unit does not generate a greater contraction.motor units can be acitvated and then force modulated by rate coding but not by a “more powerful impulse”.
greaster muscle contractions are due to greater amounts of Ca+ surrounding the actin myosin filaments. Ca+ concentration rapidly decreases when musle stim ceases.
exactly and the amount of Ca+ is regulated by rate coding. the higher the nerve discharge rate the greater the force produced (although some studies state that there is an optimum not maximal discharge rate).
your making the distinction that time always effect fiber recruited when this is not alway the case. if the signal sent is at a high frequency as with the iso extremes the fiber recruited will be the most powerful.
no im not advocating doing only exterem isos.
yes i think sprinting is important
no extreme isos are not isometrics.
Q. 1. What exercises do you do in a typical upperbody routine, not just weights, any exercise?
ie, bench?
push ups?
pull ups or pull downs
seated rows or barbell rows
something completely different ie.
bench followed by drops into push up position ect.
Q.2. What exercises do you do in a typical lower body routine?
Q. 3. Do you rotate exercises for eg, upper body. ie. do you bench one day, push up the next time? that style or, is it, One lot of exercises done repeatly for xx amount of time?
Q.4. What recovery do you have betweeen muscle groups, ie, 1 day, 3 days or a wk?
Q.5. what is your recovery between working sets?
Q. 6. what is your recovery between exercises, or is it pretty much the same as the sets Q above?
Q.7. What is your recovery sessions like?
a. tempo
b. swimming
c. easy cardio
d. massge and tens machine or similiar
e. acupuncture
f. baths in hydrogen peroxide
g. other, what is it…
the stressors used are varied. it all depends on the goal u wish to achieve. like I said b4 I use what’s called the theory of constraints in which the one factor that is most holding a person back from achieving their given goal is addressed. this does not mean this is all you do but simply that it is the primary focus. in most cases the limiting factor in athletics for beginners is movement efficiency. then usually the ability to absorb force. so its not so much that the stressors differ from that of Charlie system or any other system it is that they are specific to the traits desired to be trained.
there are no micro meso cycles simply because the training effect is greater the longer the desired state in maintained in the individual. instead of inducing a stressor and then immediately and fully recovering from said stressor the stressor is maintained at a stable level as to not decrease work capacity (overtraining) or increase it (supercompensation). so as Charlie would induce stress and the athlete would fully recover from said stress I would induce stress maintain stress and achieve a higher level of supercompensation dependent on the length of time the stressor is maintained. serious restoration only becomes an issue with poor program organization as we are engaging in high volume, high load, high velocity work.
to understand how u can train in this manner your going to have to somewhat change your view of the CNS and the bodies response to stress. it is my belief that the CNS inhibits itself and even activates the endocrine system in attempt to inhibit the body from further intensive work. not only does the CNS inhibit itself but the bodies feedback mechanism inhibits the CNS. if the body is sending a signal of excessive stress back to the CNS then this will contribute to inhibition. also high intensity work is beneficial to the hormonal response as it is directly tied to motor unit activity. the higher the activity the higher the response.
by maintaining stress at stable level overtraining is avoided. overtraining can occur if organization isn’t proper. we are in fact skimming the surface of overtraining. the closer we can get to this state without incurring the better the results.
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let me first say that there is no upper body routine. the body is trained as a whole everyday. no splits. the movements used to train the upper body are similar to all those you described. everything is pretty typical but the distinction must be made between movement, method and methodic. a movement can be a bench press, or squat, where as a method is a rebound movement or the use of the static dynamic method. a methodic is the coupling between movements and methods. I.e… a rebound bench press or an altitude drop into a squat. off the top of my head exercises used include but are not limited to the bench press, pull up, row, biceps curl, dip, etc. u get the idea is not the movement but how it is performed.
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see the above answer … squat, lunge, glute/ham manual and machine etc.
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again it depends. you could do the same type of methodic bench press everyday for 2 weeks or not do the same thing for a month. it all depends on the goal you are trying to achieve. variation however is useful for continued adaptation. u will almost never do the same workout. this is because of variation and training goal but also because it may best fit the desired adaptation goal. you can however achieve the same goal with different means. say if your goal was to increase your bench you can do different things to move u towards that goal, say a maximal effort or a dynamic effort.
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as I said above the entire body is trained everyday or 6 days a week possibly multiple sessions it just depends on the goal and also organization can vary depending on constraints such as time. there are no splits, u don’t spend one day on the track running without your arms. or one day on the football field not using your biceps.
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ice can facilitate recovery, to a lesser extent vibration, the ARP being the best recovery modality available but this isn’t available to most people.
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pretty much the same as above but it all depends ice is a good way to extend work capacity. if your wondering about time between sets it depends on your training goal, i.e. the energy system you wish to train.
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a,b,c … no possibly for the rest. but restoration is usually only used if the load is to great. Remember we aren’t trying to adapt immediately.
see how much you get when u ask …
how do you address the probelm of CNS? rebound movmeents that recruit reflexes. how do you extend work capacity? keep tissue elongated. how do you do this? following sets of work with sets of holds in the greatest joint angle
isos are used throughout training but they do not dominate it at all. as of now thats all you have seen but it is in no way the only thing. i will use maximal efforts, high velocity movements, overspeed, heavy eccentrics rebounds. pretty much everything under the sun it just all has it time and place.
testing is always done. hight of the rebound, speed of the movment. weight lifted ect. a tendo unit or v scope comes in handy but is not required.
reflexive movments are useful for breaking down inhibtion of the CNS
biological state can dictate inhibtion (for example i f the body sends messages of stress to the CNS the CNS will inhibit powerful contraction)
work capacity is tied to the above and biomechanical effeciency. perfect movement, eliminate cocontraction and the net force will increase and work capacity will increase as a result of diminished energy expenditure
i have a theory and this is a personal observation that in the begining novice sprinters physiology and neurology is not equipped to handle the stresses associated with sprinting. through years of training and injury the ability to effeciently absorb the forces associated with the event the individual becomes more porfecient, becomes faster. but the amazing overlaod of sprinting is far from ideal for optimal adapation in the novice athelte ie. the stimulus is maximal but not optimal. now instead of simply waiting for athletic ablity to catch up to the forces expereience we are going to simulate those forces in the gym or field or wherever. not only are we going simulate them we will far exceed them in a systematic and optimal adaptive way. so i believe this results in a more rapid development of the individual. but force absorption is just one component. and as the ability to generate force increases so does the requirment to absorb higher and higher loads.
well it all starts with the isos. and you can do those about as much as you like. work is controlled via indicators. how is the athelte responding to the work. you can test via performance, heart rate, blood pressure, body temp, ect. the traiing session i posted as i said before is prepatory work and doesnt completly follow what im speaking of here. it does but not to the fullest extent.
the problem of tissue constriction is for the most part neurological. ofcourse u can have scar tissue but the CNS always maintains a certain level of muscle tone. all things being equal you put the body in a state where the tissue is elongated and then fatigued what will happen. tissue will further elongate as it fatigues to its most elongated state or atleast near it. we are training the system to maintain elongated during fatigue or injury. as it is controlled by the CNS it can be altered to facilitate the desried stae.
How would you get an athlete to do, for istance, high volume (50+?) of depth landing?
How is the volume set?
Thanks.
first you would have to get in the right postion (be able to recruit the proper muscle groups upon contact) if you cant do this properly injury may occur and work capacity goes down. even then doing depth landings requires a progressive increase in height. they should be used just as maximal effort lifts are used. you slowly progresse upwards to higher and higher heights. for example you can do depth landings with your feet on the ground simply by droping and catching yourself in a squat postion. depending on an individuals level of strength this is where someone may start. next tissue should be able to stay elongated this is a neurological factor and should be trained as such(see abouve post). i dont like to call it flexability but if it helps you can consider this flexabiltiy endurance. in this def of flexability it does not refer simply to range of motion but also tissue extensability. also you would be suprised what a person can do if they spend time working on it (being able to do high volume of depth landings).
this is where keeping a watchful eye and being flexible but still understanding of the training goals comes in. the goal is to keep “overtraining” to a level of 3 -7%. this is accomplished by using indicators, heart rate, performance, blood pressure ect. performance is the the most obvious and acute indicator lifts can be timed, this is a good way to monitor performance as you may be able to max sqauat 500 in 2 seconds but due to fatigue it takes u 3 seconds. this is a decrease in performance.
organization is fluid but complex because you are trying to setup work which is benefited by previosu work and at the same time benefits future work. every workout is different but closely related so as to to move the individual toward a specific goal. for example in one workout u may max bench 15 times and in another you perform ocilitory isometric bench press. both move the individual towards an increased bench press but they are different.
because the longer we maintain this state the better the effect there are no micro or meso cycles to speak of but work can be planned for an upcomming event such as a big meet the big game or a combine.
its not necessarily maximal contraction but work in a fatigued state in the elongated postion. its not for inhibition primarily its to teach the CNS to keep tissue elongated. ive said this b4 many times but again, when a muscle becaomes fatigued or injured it contractsto protect itself. but contrcated/constricted muscle is less able to absorb force, and therfor less able to produce it. so by keeping tissue elongated you can keep work capacity high.
there are acute indicators and chronic indicators, an acute indicator would more oftne than not be performnace. and theis can change on a session to session bassis or it could stay relativly stable but the peak performance of the session is the standard by which you go by. there are alos the chronic indicators like resting heart rate heart rate after work, blood pressure, body temp ect. which give you a more over all picture of how your body responds to the stress of a given period of time. large fluctuations in these numbers are an indicator that stress is too much. so its a fine line and something you have to have a little experience with. its not as if you can directly meaure and state ok at this moment your at a 3% defecient. they are just indicators which you use to determine the working state of the body.
max sprints are treated just like anyother stressor. over spped is also done at 10% of maximal velocity. anything less and you wont get the desired effect anything over and you risk injury
a basic routine could also include low grade rebound movments and altitude drops, like non impact plyometrics. for example you rlease the tension from standing and catch yourself in the squat postion or lunge postion or whatever. the same effect occurs you jus tarent experiencing as large a load. maximal work with wieghts probably wouldnt be done basically because the isos facilitate the learning of the correct body postion and motor patterns.
in a large part teh iso serve to teach the individual how to get in the right postion to use their available motor pool maximally (getting th emost out of what you have). so once you have establisehd the proper motor patterns you can start using maximal weights. so in the very begining there isnt much concern with adaptation theroy and % overtraining though during this time is where you can see some of th emost rapid gains in ablity. yes all previous work serves whats to come that is what makes organization of training a bit of a headache.