PRIME TIME Beast For Ya

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i’ve read your “Continuum Training”, how to develop strength-endurance & endurance-strength?
i know you’ve post the difference between them, but how to train for them?

thanks for help

CT- Do you think it is possible for an athlete (football player) to have too much muscle if they keep their body fat in check? If a football player were to gain roughly 20-30 pounds of muscle in a relatively short period of time (12 weeks) but kept their body fat low, would that quickly added weight hurt them? Thanks a lot.

[quote]Monster Wong wrote:
i’ve read your “Continuum Training”, how to develop strength-endurance & endurance-strength?
i know you’ve post the difference between them, but how to train for them?

thanks for help[/quote]

Strength-endurance is trained with sets lasting around 70 to 120 seconds whuile endurance-strength is either trained with sets of 2-3 minutes or more (Louie Simmons himself uses it for recovery purposes) or sled-pulling/other type of weighted GPP.

My question is one involving the 1st pull in a clean. I have a problem keeping my back straight off the ground. It straightens out for the second pull just fine. When I snatch I have no problems due to the fact that the wider hand positioning allows me to spread my knees and sink my torso between them. With the clean it isn’t possible without bending my arms or going too wide to catch it with any form.

Any advice on set up or stretches to fix this would be greatly appreciated. I know without seeing it in person it’s hard to diagnose, I was hoping you had run into something similar before.

CT, in an ealier thread you mentioned by BF % as calculated by a 12 site test. Can you run down the sites?

CT since it’s summer time in the states and therefore theres alot of carnivals and fairs around. Interesting thought(yes i am considering this) if someone came to you and said " i want to be able to dominate the hammer smash( where you take one swing of a hammer and hit the target to try to mkae the ball go all the way up)"

What kind of training program would you give them? Exercises? set/reps? thoughts on swing mechanics, either overhead or a transverse twisting motion?

[quote]speed wrote:
CT- Do you think it is possible for an athlete (football player) to have too much muscle if they keep their body fat in check? If a football player were to gain roughly 20-30 pounds of muscle in a relatively short period of time (12 weeks) but kept their body fat low, would that quickly added weight hurt them? Thanks a lot. [/quote]

As an athlete your body is a car. Quickly gaining 20-30lbs is like going from driving a Civic hatchback to driving a Hummer or a big pick up. You will get the hang of the new bigger vehicle, but it will require time. Same thing goes for your body. You will eventually learn to “use it” on the field, but it will require some time as it’s essentially a new body that needs experimenting. This is especially true if you were not playing football while you gained the muscle.

Then we must question whether the added muscle is functional or not. Are you putting a bigger engine in your car, going from a 4 cylinder to a V8 or are you adding flashy and heavy bodyparts to your car?

If the added muscle is not mostly in the form of functional hypertrophy - which is caracterized by a relatively proportional gain in strength and power as to muscle mass, or is it only size for its own sake?

Functional hypertrophy is best developed with reps in the 6-8 rep range with some work in the limit strength zone of 1-5 reps and with the addition of explosive work.

Finally, it is impossible to gain 20-30lbs of MUSCLE in 12 weeks… even with the aid of steroids. You can gain that amount of weight without gaining too much fat. But that would be in the form of a mix of muscle, added glycogen, intramuscular water, etc.

Hi Christian,
Quick question that relates to the precontest advice you gave out a week or so ago: You said on Monday and Tuesday of the last week, to train the body with antagonistic supersets I believe, to deplete glycogen levels. Did you mean train the body TWICE with low volume over those two days or train the body OVER those two days?

My contest(Arkansas BB Championships) is in 5.5 weeks and I am going to use your recommendations.

Thank you!
Donnie…

[quote]Robert Monti wrote:
CT, in an ealier thread you mentioned by BF % as calculated by a 12 site test. Can you run down the sites?[/quote]

Pectoral
Triceps
Subscap
Supra-illiac
Mid-axilary
Abdomen
Calf
Quadriceps
Hamstring
Biceps
Knee
Cheek

[quote]fastken77 wrote:
My question is one involving the 1st pull in a clean. I have a problem keeping my back straight off the ground. It straightens out for the second pull just fine. When I snatch I have no problems due to the fact that the wider hand positioning allows me to spread my knees and sink my torso between them. With the clean it isn’t possible without bending my arms or going too wide to catch it with any form.

Any advice on set up or stretches to fix this would be greatly appreciated. I know without seeing it in person it’s hard to diagnose, I was hoping you had run into something similar before.[/quote]

You’re right it’s hard to diagnose… are your hips on the same level/lower than the knees? The hips need to be higher than the knees (knee angle between 90 and 110 degrees). The longer arms you have, the higher the hips will be. If you are sitting down too much you are putting yourself in a weaker position (are you stronger is a full squat or half squat?). And understandably the arms will have to bend to grab the bar.

Other than that, your psoas (hip flexors) are probably too tight.

[quote]bigpump23 wrote:
CT since it’s summer time in the states and therefore theres alot of carnivals and fairs around. Interesting thought(yes i am considering this) if someone came to you and said " i want to be able to dominate the hammer smash( where you take one swing of a hammer and hit the target to try to mkae the ball go all the way up)"

What kind of training program would you give them? Exercises? set/reps? thoughts on swing mechanics, either overhead or a transverse twisting motion?[/quote]

Serious question - are those carnival games honest or are they rigged so that even the strongest guy in the world couldn’t ring the bell? That would be my concern. Other than that, this is a somewhat interesting question. In fact, there was a whole series of articles somewhere on sledge hammer GPP.

Apparently it gives your core one heck of a workout. Cheap, too. All you need besides a sledge hammer is an old tire, and start pounding away.

Home Depot - the place for real fitness equipment.

Your best bet is training with a heavy sledgehammer, hitting a big tire.

You can use sledgehammer of several weights, working from the lighest to the heaviest. Performing sets of straight swing, and cross-swings.

[quote]PtrDR wrote:
Hi Christian,
Quick question that relates to the precontest advice you gave out a week or so ago: You said on Monday and Tuesday of the last week, to train the body with antagonistic supersets I believe, to deplete glycogen levels. Did you mean train the body TWICE with low volume over those two days or train the body OVER those two days?

My contest(Arkansas BB Championships) is in 5.5 weeks and I am going to use your recommendations.

Thank you!
Donnie…[/quote]

Train your body twice.

CT,

When I perform the power clean or snatch close to my 1RM, my feet spread/base-out during the second pull (I was taught to jump during the second pull). I believe that my feet do this because I can’t get under the bar fast enough. Is this a problem/poor technique? If so, do you have any recommendations to fix it? Thanks in advance.

[quote]PCH wrote:
CT,

When I perform the power clean or snatch close to my 1RM, my feet spread/base-out during the second pull (I was taught to jump during the second pull). I believe that my feet do this because I can’t get under the bar fast enough. Is this a problem/poor technique? If so, do you have any recommendations to fix it? Thanks in advance.[/quote]

You don’t have to actually jump. Many peoples don’t finish their second pull because they focus on the jump rather than on a full extension. Leaving the floor should be a side effect of an explosive full extension, not a goal.

I’ve seen many athletes jump by flexing at the hip (in other words jumping while they have not finished their pull): they start to jump when the bar is at mid-thight instead of at the hips/umbilical level. This will not contribute to the upward movement of the bar (when you feet leave the floor you cannot transfer any more force to the bar). With lighter weights this isn’t really a problem because the first half of the second pull yields enough acceleration to complete the lift. But when the bar gets heavy you will have some problems.

You should focus first on reaching a full triple extension (lower back/hips and calves). Look at the picture below.

Christian-

Will Theory and Application of Modern Strength ever be made into a paperback or hardcover or will it forever remain an e-book?

Thanks.

CT, you mentioned earlier in a post about using 12 sites for body fat estimation. Could you post the formula for the 12 site method or list a link where it can be found? Thanks

[quote]philco wrote:
Christian-

Will Theory and Application of Modern Strength ever be made into a paperback or hardcover or will it forever remain an e-book?

Thanks.[/quote]

It will remain an e-book. I don’t have a publisher right now and don’t have the time to distribute it myself.

[quote]laquino1 wrote:
CT, you mentioned earlier in a post about using 12 sites for body fat estimation. Could you post the formula for the 12 site method or list a link where it can be found? Thanks [/quote]

The 12 sites technique is used by Charles Poliquin for his bio signature method. We don’t calculate bodyfat, we use the comparison of the sites to establish fat distribution pattern and from that one’s hormonal profile is determined.