There are 3 variables for training I also like to think of a fourth: recovery. If that’s on point, you can push the other 3 higher.
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Pretty much spot on.
It seems like the easiest one to keep high is volume, the trickiest intensity. That’s just because you won’t use particularly heavy weights with higher volume, but you will with intensity. Heavier weights carry higher risks, in the sense of extra loading on your neural system, potentially higher risk of injury, and extra loading psychologically as well - but just like you said if you keep everything in check relative to everything else it’s absolutely possible to focus on whatever you want to and get good results.
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That’s a whole other aspect, and I think that’s where things can get a little more complicated.
If you push one of the three higher, you automatically impact recovery. The main reason to keep a balance between the three is to allow for recovery. If recovery wasn’t a factor, you could push all three at the same time as much as you liked.
If your recovery is as good as you can get it, it will be that way because, among other things, you have managed to balance volume, frequency and intensity.
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Todays training
Made up hours at work today that I missed yesterday so I was pretty tired by the time training came around
T-spine roll
30 seconds each of
Pec minor stretch
Long head bicep stretch
4x12 lat pulldowns
Thread the needle because I forgot it earlier
2x15xbar bench supersetted with 20 each of band pull aparts and facepulls
Bench press
Worked up to 5x4x181 lbs
Bench to a two-board
2x7x170 lbs
DB tricep extensions
3x10x27 lbs
DB row
5x10x100 lbs
Band facepulls
2x25
Front plate raise
3x18x22 lbs
An hour and 10 minutes
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Woke at 267.4 lbs, looking a little less bloated.
Dumbbell rows yesterday gave me a pretty wicked lower right lat cramp. Caused much hilarity at work when I kept making weird faces and swearing.
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Extra workout
Two rounds of 35 each of
Pull aparts
Hammer curls
Good morning
Lying leg raises
Not saying this is how I train, but this video gives a really interesting perspective. Chad’s a smart guy so I’m sure he isn’t way off the mark.
What @chris_ottawa was saying is pretty close to what I’ve been reading. What’s confusing is that Type IIB/X fibres are only recruited at high force outputs and not necessarily high fatigue, which seems to be a contradiction of the size principle (largest motor units fatigue last)
Lots of bodybuilders (high volume, high fatigue) show IIA dominance which is the sort of “middle ground” fibre type between high force and high endurance. However, given a 2-12 week deload, there’s evidence to show that IIB/X (the highest force fibres) supercompensate and overtake IIA.
Ipso facto, high volume and high intensity both seem to work on a physiological level, provided that the peak is handled properly
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There is no contradiction there, too much fatigue impairs the ability to activate fast twitch fibres. Also, the largest motor units are recruited last but fatigue fast, it’s the small slow twitch ones that fatigue last.
To activate the largest, fastest twitch fibres you either have to lift heavy (80%+ for most people), push close to failure, or move a moderate load (how heavy can vary between people) with maximum force. If you are too fatigued then you won’t be able to voluntarily move fast enough with a lighter weight to activate the fast twitch fibres and you could potentially fail a rep before you actually activate them. If you are fatigued enough that 80% feels like 95% then there is a good chance that many of the largest motor units aren’t able to fire, plus you will be causing so much fatigue that training more will likely be counterproductive.
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You just hit the nail square on the head
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Woke at 266.3, looking similar to yesterday. No idea why the drop, usual culprit is dehydration but I thought I drank plenty. Except I had a beer in the evening, so that could account for that.
But what you just wrote out did have a contradiction. I’m not saying I don’t agree with you, I’m just pointing this out because I think it’s whacky part of human physiology.
Contradicted by
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Cool info.
Fred Hatfield had a system for bodybuilding where you did 3 different types of workouts. One was bodybuilder style, to “proliferate” IIA fibers. A high high rep day for slow fibers. Like the minimal workout not to go backwards to give the IIAs a chance to switch to IIB. Then a high force/CAT day to damage the IIBs. It seemed cool but I didn’t get it when I first looked at it.
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I’d be willing to bet Greg knew about this and thought, hey, that’ll be useful. I’m guessing that’s partly where a lot of the waved loading in powerlifting programs comes from. The added benefit is that you’re not just ensuring all the fibres get worked, the fact that you’re varying your loading helps manage fatigue.
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Also, piggybacking on that close to failure point with Greg’s system mostly when we get close to failure it’s on the short rest, light weight days. That’s when we’re actually straining.
I remember reading a Dave Tate article where he talked about lesser known max effort methods, and one thing he said they used to do at Westside from time to time was use super short rests to make you need to strain without having to use heavy loads. At a guess that’s something Greg saw or did and realised could be applied to his team.
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In your opinion, how much of the benefit of “straining” just comes from the psychology and discipline of being able to grind out a rep with perfect form?
It’s interesting how the methods that work seem simple, but can be explained with deeper and deeper layers of complexity.
Nothing to add to that, just find it’s an interesting property of just about everything
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The importance of straining in powerlifting training is that at some point in a meet, you’re going to have to do it or miss a lift.
So you need to know how to do it, for one, which I guess is partly psychological. Mostly it’s about not panicking and staying in position.
You also need to know how to think while doing it, because if you don’t you might not do it properly. When I missed my third deadlift in my last meet it wasn’t for lack of commitment to the strain, it was because I didn’t think about where the bar was (too far out) when I stalled, so I didn’t do what I needed to (pull the bar back into me).
So what you don’t ever want to see is straining where technique goes out the window. What happens then is you learn to lift badly when straining.
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Yeah, I like that too. Smart guys come up with great simple ways to include complex stuff. And the good stuff keeps popping up over and over in different ways. At first it seems all confusing and unconnected, then after awhile you can see how everything is related.
It’s also fun when you Buy In to a system or method, then later learn some new info and realize it’s already incorporated in your program.
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So, in a way, straining is technique work
This reminds me of a rehab/movement approach taken by a Physical Therapist named Bill Hartman. He’s never done an outright explanation of his system online, but you can piece together about 80% of it from his YouTube channel and Pat Davidson’s Power Hour. I think you might find it useful/interesting.
He uses a tensegrity model to relate expansion and compression of the ribs and pelvis to all other human movement and posture.
When I type it out it does sound convuluted, but once the pieces fall in place it makes everything really simple
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You fail to differentiate between fatigue and too much fatigue. It all depends on how fatigued you are.
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