I used a different position for EMS hamstrings. I’ve always lied down pronated, but yesterday I lied down supinated with a pillow underneath my knees (Cedric Unholz recommendation) and felt a much better/even contraction between my left and right hamstrings. I also hate laying down pronated and still only do this when I’m stimming the glutes.
A1). Single Arm Braced DB OHP 40X0 - 5x7, 30, 40, 45, 55, 45
A2). Prone Pullups 40X0- 5x7, BW
B1). Incline DB Press 3020 - 3x10, 45’s
B2). Lean Away Lateral Raise 2020 - 3x10, 15lb DB
C1). Prone Incline Hammer Curl 1010 - 3 x 15, 25’s
C2). DB JM Press 4020 - 3x10, 25’s
D1). Shoulder Ext Rotation 5020 - 3x10, 5lbs
D2). Prone Wrist Curl 1010 - 3x10, 30lbs
I woke up a bit earlier than usual today and wound up having an extremely high HRV/RHR this morning. It was so much higher than normal that I even redid the test and wound up being a 110 HRV. I remember the last time something similar to this happened, I was sick two days later.
The extremely high HRV reading yesterday was probably not correct since the batteries were close to dying at that time. EMS session went well and will try to get 3 sessions in this week. I’m also 21 days away from getting surgery.
Thursday, 6.20.13
Still no HRV reading, bought a new battery today…
A1). Single Arm Braced DB OHP 40X0 - 5x6. 30, 40, 50, 60 (fail, only got 3), 45
A2). Prone Fat Grip Pullup 40X0 - 5x6, BW
B1). Incline DB Press 4020 - 3x10, 40’s
B2). Lean Away Lateral Raise 2120 - 3x10, 15lb DB
C1). Prone Incline Hammer Curl 1011 - 3x10, 25’s
C2). DB JM Press 4010 - 3x10, 25’s
D1). DB Shoulder Ext rotation 5020 - 3x10
D2). DB Wrist Ext 1010 - 3x10
EMS Active Recovery: 25min all muscle groups
I’m far from the “poliquin” standard on the single arm DB OHP but have come a long way. His book says I needed to rep out 8 reps with an 80lb DB to meet the requirements in relation to my bench press. I’ve still made a lot of progress. The first week I tried these, I could barely rep out 40lbs for 3 on my left arm and now I’m doing 60’s for 3 equally on both sides. My right side has always been stronger and for once my strength is equal.
Great week of training this week! I still dream of lifting on the platform every damn day, but this single leg work and max strength EMS is doing a good job of keeping me sane. The structural balance work is also paying off, my strength between left and right sides is a lot more equal than its ever been. Not that this has ever been a huge goal, but something to work on during an injury period like this.
Interesting… I’ve always had awful aerobic fitness. Growing up, I always came in last in every aerobic fitness test they every put us through. Even fat offensive lineman could beat me in a mile run in high school. It could be the training that I’m doing now, which is more bodybuilding/high rep stuff.
Glad to hear you’ve finally got your HRV set-up working, it took a while. Let me know what you think of the book when you finish it.
I’m fat/weak/slow right now - I was planning on doing 2-3 days of tempo and easy 10’s this week would this be a problem or would you recommend total rest? I am a little stressed from work and outside factors etc.
Had to shift my training week back a day since I had to do some grueling workout outside yesterday. I’m going to do 7 EMS sessions before my surgery starting back with lv1 and progress to lv4. My pain tolerance has also gone up considerably lately.
I forgot to mention this, but remember that Kyle takes the reading seated, which should result in a lower heart rate and therefore a presumably a higher HRV score (lower heart rate generally means more recovered, higher HRV score means more recovered).
Once you stand up your heart rate generally increases by 10 to 15 beats per minute, thus Kyle’s score may seem impressively high. I don’t think this matters much, as it is how your score fluctuates over time that really seems to help.
What you say about speed power athletes scoring poorly is interesting, as my most talented guy, who is a total speed creature, tends to score very poorly.
I’m interested in who Joel Jamieson credits in his book, as he is certainly not one of the leading lights in the HRV movement himself. He may have a decent working knowledge, but I presume he borrows heavily from others.
Even though RB34 and I are using different brands of HRV, I believe we still have quite similar protocols. From what I understand, here are the differences between the two units:
For the first 4-5 months of HRV, I took every single one of the measurements from a standing measurement and most of the time they were in the 67-78 range. I switched to the lying because I found it to be more consistent. My RHR isn’t that low, and I felt like I noticed too much variance with the standing measurments because it took longer to get a signal.
Regarding what RB34 stated from Joel’s book about HRV scores and athlete type, I bet Tyrone could give us a good sample of HRV data from the sprinters he works with. I do know that he has a 10.85 sprinter who scores in the 80’s range from a standing position, and would probably jump up to the mid 90’s from a lying position. This example wouldn’t correlate to what Joel says in his book, but its important to realize that there are many other variables that affect running speed.
14 days, Thursday, 6.27.13
HRV - 88.1, RHR - 63.7
Bulgarian SS 30X0 - 4x6, 75’s
Prone SL Leg Curl 3020 - 3x6, 45
Hi Box Stepup 2011 - 4x10, 40’s
Hey RB, that sounds totally reasonable. I think if the exercise is low CNS stress you should be fine. It would only be an issue if you were doing some heavy duty speed and were moving pretty fast I think.
10 days until surgery, Monday, 7.1.13
HRV - 93.1, RHR - 60.9
DB Rev. Lunge from deficity - 3x10, 40-60’s
SL Leg Press - 3x6, 150lbs
Prone SL Leg Curl 3010 - 3x6, 65lbs
SL Leg Extension 2020 - 4x10
EMS Max Strength: 4min of 3sec ON/17sec OFF and 4min of 5sec ON/25sec OFF
Quads - 65/55
Hamstrings - 45/35
Glutes - 58/44
9 Days, Tuesday, 7.2.13
HRV - 93.1, RHR - 60.9
A1). Military Press - 5x125, 3x130, 2x140, 5x125, 3x135, 2x145
A2). NG Chins 4012 - 6x5, 10lbs
B1). Semi-supinated Decline DB Press 4010 - 3x10
B2). DB SS 2020 - 3x10
C1). Scott Machine Curl 1010 - 3x12
C2). JM Machine Press 1010 - 3x12
D1). DB Shoulder ext - 2x10
D2). Wrist ext - 2x10
EMS active recovery - 20min all muscle groups
I had a conversation between Giovanni Ciriani, Derek Hansen, and Jimson Lee this week about a problem that I’ve been having with the 8sec contractions in the speedcoach program. During the 8sec maximal contraction w/ EMS, after 5 seconds into the contraction my muscles start to relax and the contraction gets weaker. I do not have this problem when doing the 3sec and 5sec contractions as I feel a very hard contraction throughout the entire duration. I typically have to raise the intensity up, but sometimes even this doesn’t change much. After speaking with these coaches, their explanation was that the muscle is probably getting fatigued too much. Their recommendations were to do more work in the 3-5 second range with EMS. This is what I will indeed start doing and it certainly won’t hurt me because it’s a lot more specific to my sport.