Good point re: sprinters, although that specific distinction was never introduced in this thread (notwithstanding we are posting on Charlie’s site). I don’t know you but the UTfootball4 user name does’nt necessarily imply your a sprint coach specifically.
Agreed if I had to choose just one movement it would definitely be the back squat vs. the split squat. In your initial post you were looking for rationale for selecting a bilateral or unilateral movement and I gave you mine (lol). Your point regarding hops and jumps, etc. is also well taken.
I’m loving the good-intentioned banter here. Btomlinson, glad to see you posting here. I enjoy your posts on coach boyle’s sight as well. Some of your disagreements with some there get a little heated, and I think sometimes people just love themselves too much. Can’t remember who said it (a 19th century Indian chief?), but: “It’s easy to pick up the gun, it is very difficult to put it down.”
Maybe you should have asked, “is there a need for single leg movements?”
Or “why would you use a single leg movement?”
The reason i don’t like going low reps or more correctly higher intensities relative to 2 legged movement is the balance factor, my fear is to cause an injury. The whole first do no harm mentality.
I find with myself they can help with flexibilty.
And like i said the single leg stuff would be used early on and dropped almost completely in most circumstances.
i think the question is ok, it answered the questions i had. i perfer low reps for single leg movements 6<, bc the higher the reps the injury rate increase. why use single leg stuff early then drop, if a lift is good to do sometime then do it all the time.
I don’t think many (any?) people are advocating single leg lifts take the place of bilateral ones, I for one use them but always as supplementry exercises.
Why not do both? You can do bilateral one session and unilateral the next. You could also do them in the same session. Joe Defranco does this with his athletes (see his Westside for Skinny Bastards program). Why choose only one when you can have the best of both worlds?
Hmmmm… How do you provide variety in training? I know, I know with load cycling, rep/set alternations etc… but really, you got a lot of single leg movements (lateral, linear, vertical…) why not rotating them for overall development (talking about team game players and non-strength athletes)? Why sticking to lunges or Bulgarians only?
My opinion that both stability and variety should be present in a program, but this depends on the athlete stage (year, career) — for example I would rather not switch exercises in IN SEASON period due posible DOMS etc
This is why I have stable exercises (core lifts) (consistently performed) and lifts (assistance) which I rotate. SL lift goes into assistance group. “Lot of ways to skin a cat” LOL!
You have my hypothetical picture of year plan in “Death to conjugate method?” thread…
It seems you are changing only double leg movements… LOL!
Even if you do this slight change in exercise, you can expect DOMS which can be detrimental in some stages…
How would you rotate this?
lol. the point is theres more then enough variety with double leg movements, so there is no need to do single leg movements for variety. all of ur terms lateral, vetical etc single movements sounds all good but there are easier ways to get variety -save them for a sport that has more time to spend in the weightroom.
I don’t understand. Are you saying you can’t maintain stability or variety with single-leg work? How come single-leg work can’t be a core lift? I’m not a fan of describing lifts as core and assistance. Too rigid. If someone needs more single-leg strength to improve, then dammit single-leg work becomes a core lift.
In order to clarify my stance, I follow a normal periodization model and during the competitive phase (which for my volleyball players represents a bi-annual plan covering a 40-week season) I rotate training sessions (at a frequency of 2 complimentary training sessions per week) as follows (to keep things short I’ll only list leg work):
A Session:
A1. Barbell Clean Pull [3-5 Sets, 2-4 Reps (Average Rep around 3); ]
B1. Bulgarian Split Squat [2-4 Sets, 6-12 Reps In-Season]
B Session:
A1. Barbell Front Squat [2-6 Sets, 3-8 Reps/Set (Average Rep around 5)]
B1. GHR [1-2 Sets, 8-15 Reps (I use a wider range of reps for less qualified athletes]
*This is just an example. I try to assign lifts based on technical intensity (the equivalent of technical failure, where I only have an athlete perform a lift if they can attain appropriate intensity and technique (I find failure is based too much on what’s wrong, I want just as much focus [or more] focused on what’s right); e.g. if an athlete leans too much on the elevated leg on a bulgarian split squat, they are lacking technical intensity because the performance is not true single-leg strength, it’s compensated/changed; I’ll remove the bench (and attack rectus femoris/hip flexor/quadricep mobility) and have them perform a standard split squat or a split squat with the forward leg elevated until normal mechanics are improved. Possibly shift back to bulgarian ss’s after things are back to normal).
I am really enjoying this thread!
I am not saying that we should do single leg movements for variety sake (variety for variety sake is just dubm), but rather for neccessity sake… You may not agree with me here, but I really respect your opinion! I find single leg movements A MUST for team athletes, due lateral movements, cutting etc… This may not be needed for sprints…
And for the time issue… we agree on this one! If there is time only for couple of exercises, double leg movements would be priority (as allways).
Agree… Anyway, the classification of core-supplementary-assistane (basically Joe Kenn’s classification) is a way for me to understand things in my head easier… It is a flexible eough if you want it to be flexible enough
If you find a SL movement a must, then consider it a core lift… Basically, with my approach (outlined in article at elitefts and in Strength traiing for begginers thread) I try to sort the things out in my head by using various philosophies (Tier, Functional Training/Boyle, CF, Poliquin, Tsatsouline, 5x5…) and adapting them to mine philosophy… Thus I try to have a core lifts which are a must and are performed all the time (with minimal variations withinh them, like Sumo DL and Snatch DL compared to ordinary DL) and assistance ones which I rotate more often…
Great ideas everybody!
here in the states many team sports strength and conditioning coaches do tons of agility work/lat hops and bounds, so I wouldn’t consider single leg work a must just bc team sports involves lateral movement etc.
