Charlie or others. Could you explain some of the differences you have noticed between stimuli that are characterised by either having a high amount of height or breadth? Also, could you explain some of the hows and whys of how you use these differences when planning what to do? Thanks,
Good topic.
In fact many athletes need different stimulants based on their state so in my opinion it’s very personal to the athlete concerned and what they use best.
Also it has a big bearing IME on the previous training cycle.
A single heavy clean would have great height but very limited breadth while a 300m SE run would have moderately less height but much greater breadth. The SE run would almost certainly have a more profound demand on CNS resources overall. The single clean would provide a great CNS stimulus without depleting resources. Most examples however are not as clear cut.
am I missing something? what’s the difference between height and breadth in terms of CNS??
Yeah that was kind of what I was thinking.
Thanks Charlie. Do you change the planning of what you do in the weightroom to reflect this at all? In that during periods when using alot of SE or other work that is closer to the breadth side of the spectrum, the weights change to a higher height and less breadth?( I would assume less repetitions?) I know you have mentioned previously that you altered the intensity and volume of weights work depending on the state of the athlete following sprint work but in what ways is the weight work changed and is this at all planned in advance or closer to an autoregulatory system of doing weights(use whatever is left after track work)
Hopefully some of what I asked makes sense. Thanks in advance.
Some of what you mention is built in.
Max str weights are low rep, high stimulus and take place after each speed session in the SPP with a relatively high vol of med to high int speed work.
As well as forward planning, there is autoreg as the weight session might be modified or even dropped in response to the CNS demand of the preceeding speed session.
The greater frequency of exposure to each lift- up to 3 times per week in very low numbers, versus the same totals in fewer sessions, allows a more subtle adjustment as each individual weight session represents a smaller percentage of the total lifts.
There has been a trend towards once per week per body part, but, even with the same weekly total of lifts there would be a wider stress per body part per session and missing different sessions during the week would yield different changes in pattern, possibly leading to significant re-adaptation stress if you missed the same lift for two or more weeks in a row.
i find it much easier to do one aspect of lifts in once weight training session, so squats one session, cleans another session, and upper body another session. I find this much easier on my body as it doesnt get me in a overtrained state. I have much more give in the speed sessions because of this, where before i tried to do to much in one sesion like whole body weighttraining after speed workout.
I could do with a definition of height and breadth in relation to CNS…
Read some of the above posts. This is just my interpretation of a pheniminon so you won’t find anything in Websters! (Yet- it usually takes 20 years or so for my stuff to be accepted generally- but a lot less to get rippped off by Staley or some other guru who does his ‘best original work’ at a coffee shop late at night.)
Ok, so we need to see you rep numbers. If you’re totally warm after a sprint session, you can avoid a lot of warm-up sets, so is it not possible to do 1/3 as much of each three times as often?
Suppose you get trashed by the sprint session before squats three weeks in a row. What then? Squats are the lift that is likliest to have to be abandoned totally in a given session. You could rotate the lifting schedule forward but if it is possible to do it my way you have much more flexibility for adjustments.
OK… if I’m interperating height and breadth right then I’m under the impression that body-building type weights (i.e.3x10) would deplete CNS reserves more than strength (i.e.3x3)… but the general consensus here seems to be the opposite.
Bodybuilding type work is done at a lower % so work of that volume does not tax the CNS very much, as opposed to strength where you are moving higher %'s and thus taxing it more
I agree- to a point. You need to set a minimum rep no to be effective for a weight that falls outside the most challenging CNS range, much like the high/low concept for running.
hahaha being warm right now in vancouver is no easy task, since i run in the cold and rain.
i’m following your template exactly for the SPP1 as shown in the edmonton series. I’m almost halfway through so far. I’ve been pondering dropping squats, I’m keeping it at as low in reps as i can to get to work at a high enough weight for stimulus, here is a sample of last weeks squat session which is done on the last sprint session of the week (friday)…
squats 5x135/5x155/5x205/5x225/5x245/3x255lbs
If i feel burned out like you say on the day i do squats after doing sprinting session, i will cancel it. I always figured that if i overtrained might be from the powercleans since it is said that can affect CNS more, I do them on a wednesday when i do speed speed work.
Why so many warm-up sets of 5 after you already did sprints? Why not keep the warm-ups shorter?
feel pains in the knees and discomfort if i dont warmup properly. I will try and see if i can shorten it, i have’nt experimented much with short warmups. Any suggestions you got davan?
do a set of 5,3,1,1.
rug up right after sprints - invest in a knee wrap, they are cheap.
perhaps, you could use the Squats to re-warm up, so sets like say Tamfb says
then when into cleans, you’ll only need 3 x sets as you’ll already be warm, - 3sets of 3 perhaps
then, as you have just done some upperbody with the cleans, 3 x sets on bench should do too.
Thats 10 x sets all up - 4 x more than your squat workout alone.
boldwarrior you advocate full bodyworkout?
how much time elapses between your last sprint and the weights. the longer the delay, the longer the warm-up will have to be.