tb2010
December 28, 2010, 8:55pm
32
I don’t do much of this stuff. It gives a stimulus level that you won’t get maybe any other way, but I little bit goes a long way. I read a research paper on resisted/assisted contrast on the track (which is analogous to the Verkhoshansky “stimulus” method) last year that implies that the way it works is actually analogous to “shock training” in the Verkhoshansky terminology: The explosive part of the training causes muscle damage in the fibers causing eccentric contractions, and when the muscle fibers recover from the stimulus, both stride length and stretch-shortening velocity are enhanced. But this also means that you only get a positive training effect from the unexpected stimulus: Once your body gets used to it and it doesn’t knock down your CNS so much, it doesn’t work any more.
I’ve noticed that I only get an effect from this kind of training from doing it twice. Also, you need to follow this type of training with 1-2 weeks of recovery (don’t expect positive results on the track immediately–expect the opposite, in fact) with some weeks of regular training to accumulate the gains.
I have a week in the middle of phase 1 where I do:
2X3 squats @80-85 %
I have a week early in phase 2 where I do (on opposite weekends):
2X40m accel from 3pt @100 %, 5% uphill
That’s all I do in a whole training year, as I don’t think any more yields a positive risk/reward.
my meet schedule is pretty heavy, so if i did this type of training i would probably do it maybe once a week, a couple times in january, and maybe once in february
i just want to keep from peaking to early so i dont want to drop my workload too early in the season, meaning i needed to find a replacement high intensity workout when i cant do any full speed upright running