So, are you only doing 2 sets - one at 5% and 10%. I know Gayle Hatch lifters would up to 3 and 5rm then the second day they will do a percent off the previous session. With this system do you need to test for rep maxes OR using 85-86% of the 1rm for a 5rm etc?
I asked about the pulls because I wasn’t sure if the athlete wasn’t able to do cleans/snatches or you had a reason for only doing pulls only.
I’m curious why he did deadlifts in block 1 - maybe because it’s easier on the legs when squatting for 10’s etc?
Thanks, I’ve been working with him for 2 years now and the gains have finally came around.
The drop sets are only done for 3 sets. First being 5RM, second being 95% of 5RM, then third being 90% of 5RM. You would need to test for a specific 5RM but since I’ve been working with the athlete for quite a while, I already had a good idea on what his 5RM and 3RM should be. His 5RM was only 285lbs when we started btw. Now he’s doing 325 ATG.
With the clean pulls, we only did them because he sucked so badly with the catch at the time. My original plans were to have him do a 3RM on cleans first on Wednesdays, but there were days where he’d get 225lbs for a 3RM and days where he’d literally fail with 185lbs. So I just decided to focus on clean pulls so I could still keep a strength-speed component for him. I usually used 1.1 to 1.2x his max clean for clean pulls.
I also don’t really have a clue why he did DLs in the 10s block. I could ask him, but he’s so busy that I doubt he respond to me.
And no recent tempo or LI work. We have done plenty of tempo/GS work in the past but have hardly ever seen any benefits from it. I wanted to keep some in to help control body comp, but his times got much slower when we added it with his bodycomp staying the same. In the first year that I trained him, he was doing at least 1600m-2000m of tempo with GS circuits 2x per week.
Sorry - I’m still confused. The 5 and 10% are additional sets after the main work sets - how many sets are you doing before the 2 drop sets? When I have done RM type of workouts I have always used 85% for 5rm and 92.5 for 3rm - probably not perfect but close enough.
I wouldn’t be surprise if it wasn’t the reason I listed above - your legs can take a beaten fast in a strength endurance block esp with the running etc.
I’m surprise about the tempo - I guess tempo is for old folks. As I get older I’m starting to value tempo much more - I try not to look at the performance view but overall health benefits. I probably wouldn’t have done that much - 1800-2000m per week is enough to get the job done.
No problem, I’ll explain it better. There are three sets total, one set at 5RM, one set at 95% of 5RM, then one set at 90% of 5RM. Before the 5RM set, you do as many warm-up sets as needed. Any clearer? I suppose 85% and 92.5% would be safe enough numbers to use. It would probably be best start maybe even more submax in week 1 and then be really pushing it maximally by week 3. I myself have had good success in getting my numbers stronger in every lift with this scheme.
As far as training in the 10’s block goes. I think you’re right on point, let me give you an example of my own experience regarding my back squat… After my second meet, I did a 10’s block and worked up to doing 362lbs x 10 in week 4. I then unloaded and went into the 5’s block and put 377lbs and failed to get 4 reps. Later that block I was able to get 377lbs x 5, but then didn’t get any stronger after that. I then unloaded and went into the 3’s block and couldn’t even do 387lbs x 3. It was a total disaster that I really think was caused by going so hard in the 10’s block lol. Keep in mind that I did have added stress that came into my life after the 10’s block (school, work etc), not sure how big of a role it played. So far I’m doing everything I can for this not to happen with the athlete. This is how I’ve organized things with this setup so far.
I really don’t think that the athlete has ever suffered from CNS fatigue, and he never gets stiff or sore from any of the work that we do. When we did Hi/Low days we were barely able to add any strength from what I remember. This played the biggest role in the deciscions that I made in modifying his training program. I’d also be curious to see how a track guy or higher level athlete would respond to this program. Back when I was still sprinting, speed work was so hard on my body and I always had issues with my mobility, etc. I’m not sure if I could’ve help up with this program if I did it back then lol.
1: Makes sense - total of 3 work sets. Is this what Dr. Stone does with his athletes? I would be curious how this setup would work for a speed/power athlete who has to run-throw-jump several times a week. It’s a lot easier to get stronger when your primary stressor is weights only - do you think you would have had similar strength results if you were sprinting-jumping-throwing several days a week?
2: Are you planning on rotating any power blocks into the mix?
3:I think you have a point - when I have done tempo before upper weights I notice a “SLIGHT” drop in strength vs when I do weights before tempo. If I wanted to focus on lower body strength while sprinting I’ll probably lean towards Mon: speed and ub wts, Tue: Lb weights, Wed: Tempo 1000m. I’m not surprise that this athlete had issues with the strength/tempo combo esp considering his background and overall numbers - maybe at some you can put tempo back in starting at 600yds and slowing increasing. You can get away with low tempo volume and still increase general fitness with longer warmups etc. Most people have issues with tempo because they are doing too much volume, running tempo too fast, shitty running surfaces, or maybe it’s the speed/power component.
I really don’t know is Doc Stone uses this setup or not. I do know that the LSUS lifters train like this, and that their overall program is heavily influenced by Stone. Also, they unload by training at 75% of XRM ever fourth week of the block btw. This setup is somewhat comparable to APRE actually. It’s hard for me to say if I would have had similar strength results. I think I could have similar results as long as I placed weights as a top priority like I’m doing with the athlete that I’m training. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that I could.
I kind of already use the 3’s block as a “power block”. But no I haven’t considered doing a true power block like you used to have me do. It probably will be something that I will start doing soon.
I’ll definitely consider doing tempo again for the athlete someday. The setup you mentioned looks pretty decent, I may switch to it when I decide to start to do tempo again.
I’ve done zero in the past year almost. It would be great to know if I’ve improved but also kind of dangerous if I blew a hammy doing a 30m sprint. I’ll see if I can do something though. Like at least get a 10m sprint with the Freelap and a vertical jump test on the vertec.
So I haven’t given up incorporating EMS in my training yet. After speaking with Derek Hansen and Cedric Unholz about how they were able to incorporate EMS max strength on a tight schedule, it convinced me to give it a go still. My plan is to use the EMS 15-20min after my main lifts and recruit any unfired fibers from the training sessions. I know Charlie always said to wait 2hrs minimum after the training session to do EMS max strength and preferrably before bed, but I’m going to give the more convenient approach a try this time.
My training has been poor ever since I competed at the Univesity National meet. I either have nagging hip joint tightness, lack of training facilities, too much school/work stress, or just a sucky training program (trying to be too sport specific). Over the next 4 weeks I’m going to do some base/hypertrophy training (currently on week 1), then I will apply the EMS treatments during the MaxS cycles over the following 8 weeks. As of now, I’m nowhere near as strong as I was this past spring, but I’ll be back soon.
I did purchase a better unit, the Globus Speedcoach Fitness for $560 so I won’t be wasting my time anymore with those cheap units. I plan on using the speedcoach programs 3 days per week, but am not sure if I’ll bother with the active recovery protocols. I’ve already started using the massage and warm-up programs and I’m quite impressed with these modes.
I’m very confident that EMS will complement my training this time around now that I have my life in order. I won’t post my workouts until I get around to the MaxS phase which will be in 3 weeks. When that time comes, I’m going to log in as much info as possible.
Don’t ignore this would be my advice!
How much stretching do you do? what type of stretching do you do? when do you do it?
Do you put as much effort and time into your recovery as you do your workouts?
What do you do to manage your tissue tension/muscle tone?
How does the “massage” setting differ from active recovery? On my compex, I use it prior to any massage work. I find it helps with the massage. I started this after seeing Waldemar do it. There are a few different pad placements I use depending (site specific vs global) for active recovery.
Hey Rob, thanks for the questions. I’ve been battling this hip joint stiffness for years now. It’s only my left acetabular area and have had x-rays and CT scans that showed no signs of a torn labrum or any major injuries. It may very well be a structural issue as one Ortho said that my femoral neck on my left side is slightly longer than the right. It only hurts when I do an ATG squat with my feet turned out (which I’ve been doing for years). As of yesterday I started squatting pain free by using slightly higher heel height with my OL shoes (1.25") and with my feet pointing straight forwards. With this being said, I believe it is a structural issue for the most part since my right side has never had any issues for my entire life. There isn’t a single stretch that will give it relief. I even took 2 weeks off a month ago doing just stretching/rolling the area and I still couldn’t squat pain free.
As far as stretching goes I always do a 30min dynamic+static warm-up before my training sessions. Then throughout the day I lightly stretch my quads, tfl, psoas, hamstrings, glute medius, maximus, etc while I have spare time at work. I stopped doing foam rolling for a while, but am back on that as of last week. Also I’ve been using EMS massage mode on my Globus and that gives me some relief.
Overall I can’t say that I’ve neglected recovery but I also can’t say that I’ve spent as much time and effort as I have with my training.
With the Globus the massage mode is just continuous light pulsing, I’m guessing it’s somewhere between 10-15hz. The active recovery mode is 7 seconds of lower frequency (10hz) then over 7 seconds will speed up to higher frequency (20-30hz) then 7 seconds back down to the lower frequency of 10hz. So in summary it’s slow to fast to slow to fast, etc over an extended period of time. Is this anywhat similar to the compex?
I remember Tyrone telling me that Waldemar likes using EMS before massage. How many pads do you usually use when you do massage/active recovery work? Right now all I do is just using 2 bigger pads(50mmx90mm) over the entire muscle group.
How long do you hold a stretch for? Are you relaxed? If one side is tighter do you prioritise it? How progressive are you to reach your end of range?
Because personally I will hold an individual stretch for 10+ minutes sometimes…taking a long time to read my end of range and the outcome is very different to the typical textbook recommendation of 10-30 seconds.
The compex active recovery is a light and frequent pulsing for a few minutes, then it switches to deeper, less frequent as the program goes on. I don’t know the specifics of the pulses and frequencies. I think its about 6-7 minutes per cycle.
Waldemar’s unit has 12 leads. Mine has 8 (4+, 4-). When T Slow mentioned the first time about Waldemar’s use, I started doing each body part for a few minutes. So I would first connect the calves and let is go through for a few cycles, then discconent, and hook up the hamstrings while I then massaged the calves. I used this but it was quite a pain.
When I saw Waldemar, he used pads on the motor points on our backsides. One on the gastroc, one on the hamstrings (or more depending on what he felt was tight), one (or more) on gluteals, and several on the erectors. For areas he felt were really tight, he used Electro-acupunture, otherwise it was EMS pads.
Interestingly, (and I never asked why) he used an alternate + - connection. So the + would be on the gastroc and hamstrings, and negatives on glutes and back, as a basic example.