I just want to put this here for myself in the future.
GOLGI TENDON DESENSITIZATION
When you submit your body to very heavy weights, over time your body’s protective mechanisms become less and less conservative, allowing you to use a greater proportion of your potential. The great Dan John once said that “your body already has the capacity to lift the heaviest weight you’ll ever lift, you only need to convince it”. This is basically what we are doing when we are desensitizing the Golgi Tendon Organs.
While all types of heavy lifting will lead to a gradual desensitization of the GTOs, and that even hypertrophy work has a positive impact (by thickening the tendons), the method that has the greatest and most rapid impact is moving or holding supramaximal loads (weight that are heavier than your max on a lift).
The best way to do this is to use overloads on partial range of motion lifts. You can either do a regular lift but only lowering the weight 1/4 or 1/2 of the way down prior to lifting it or you can start the bar from pins (e.g. pin pulls from just below the knees). High box squats and board press also fit in that category.
Basically, by shortening the range of motion you will be able to use more weight than you normally use in a certain movement pattern. While this will lead to strength gains mostly in the range of motion being trained it also (over time) has the effect of desensitizing the GTOs which after a while will lead to strength gains over the full range of motion.
Supramaximal overloads are very demanding on the nervous system, so the volume cannot be high. I normally recommend 1 or 2 sets after the full range heavy work.
I use three main approaches:
Partial range for reps: Here use 100-105% of your max on the full range lift but only use around 1/2 of the range of motion. Do as many reps as possible for 1 or 2 sets.
Partial range for weight: in this second approach, stick to low reps, 1-3 but use the heaviest weight possible in the shortened range of motion. Only one maximal set is done but you might need to use up to 3-4 gradually heavier sets to reach that max.
Supramaximal holds: I first read about this method in Fred Hatfield’s program 80 days powerlifting cycle. After your heavy sets on your main exercise you would use 105-110% of your max (squat and bench), unrack the bar, slightly unlock the knees or elbows depending on the lift and hold for 6 seconds then you would rerack the weight. 2-3 sets of 6 seconds are used.
Another method that I really like (but requires a power rack with pins settings every 1-2″) is a standalone one (you don’t do it after the main lift, it is the main lift): Neurological Carryover Training method by Paul Anderson. In this method, you start the lift from pins doing around a 1/4 range of motion. You load up the barbell with 105-110% of your max and perform as many reps as you can from the pin setting of the week. Doing 2-3 sets.
Every 1 or 2 weeks (1 week if your pins are every inch, 2 weeks if the pins are at every 2″) you lower the starting position. You use the same weight every week and still try to get in 2-3 sets of as many reps as possible. If you ever reach a point where you can’t get at least 1 rep from the new setting, got back up one step for 1-2 weeks, but it shouldn’t happen.
This approach works very well on the bench, deadlift and squat. BUT for it to work you MUST maintain the exact same technique as you would in the full range of motion exercise. This also means that you need to lower the eccentric under control. A mistake that many people make when lifting from pins (a mistake I made myself in the past) is to not pay attention to the eccentric. Control the weight all the way down to the pins using the same bar path as you would on the full lift.
This method will get the body comfortable at using a certain weight, one that exceeds your current max. Your body will adapt to that load gradually and after 6-8 weeks you will be able to do it over a full range of motion.
