As a very general idea and question: when training and devising cycling/ periodization, do many strength coaches/ athletic coaches take into consideration the recovery/ regeneration of the joints and connective tissue?
In recent times there seems to be a huge emphasis on training the CNS and muscular system but little thought is given to other parts of the body. To illustrate my point, it supposedly takes connective tissue damage 10 times longer than muscular damage to heal because it has a tenth of the metabolic rate. For example a muscular pull may take 5 days to heal, a connective tissue 50 days (back to optimal level).
Surely when in a locked out position with heavy weights, the connective tissue and joints under-go extreme stress and also need to heal. I may be flawed in my thinking so please forgive me.
Just as an example, Charles Poliquin often recommends changing reps approximately every 6 workouts of the same kind because the nervous system has adapted by this time and the body adapts to the number of reps the fastest out of all the loading paramters. So with this…is it only really concerned with the adapting of the nervous system mainly and also muscular system? Is it actually leaving out vital components?
As a side note: has anyone used a similar model to Poliquins accumulation/ intensification?
I’m not a sprinter, but since your question seems geared more toward the weightlifting aspect of things, I’ll throw in my 2 cents.
First of all, the connective tissue is typical much stronger (~3x) than the muscle tissue that the average person can consciously tap into. Obviously with years of training you can get 2-3x stronger, but the connective tissue is also getting stonger along the way. It will be at a much slower rate for the reasons you stated.
Locking out joints to support weight it not a bad thing. Snapping the joints out at lockout can be a problem, but supporting weight isn’t.
From what I understand, doing high rep, full ROM exercises will increase blood flow to ligaments and tendons. So doing curls for 30-50 reps with a moderate tempo would help with strengthening the bicep tendons.
Finally, I have done similar accumulation/ intensification to Poliquin (as a weightlifter) with very good results. I am starting to follow the “Poliquin Principles” more directly for a little bit, and I’m optimistic about that.
I would agree. That’s why I tend to limit the number of lifts- both to preserve the CNS from too much adaptive stress AND to stay within the adaptation parameters related to support structures already developed over time, as you suggest.
the variability you need to keep progressing at a rate absorbable into the sport the weights are there to support can be achieved within the rep schemes.
One of the methodological advantages of Block Training, which by the way far pre-dates any work of Poliquin’s, is such that morphological integrity is accounted for and attended to throughout the sequential loading.
Regardless of the model that is followed, in reference to the founding/pioneering authors, the commonality between the various block models is that each block serves as a prepatory mechanism for its successor.
That being said, in my view, any physical preparation coach worth their salt better damn well account for the stress yielded to, and the adaptation rates of, the musculo-tendonous-skeletal apparatus in the planning of the training.
Unfortunately, my view is an ideological one as I speak from experience, as a coach in the field, when I state that far too many coaches are, in fact, not worth their salt.
I have done similar accumulation/ intensification to Poliquin (as a weightlifter) with very good results. I am starting to follow the “Poliquin Principles” more directly for a little bit, and I’m optimistic about that.