I’m a tennis player and now looking to add some more athletic strength and my small frame could use a bit more mass.
Because of the use of the shoulders especially on the throwing action of the serve, generally I have been told not to do overhead press work or limit it to light weights and instead do Incline Bench Presses, Front/Lateral/Rear Lateral Raises or combo versions for the shoulders, rotator cuff exercises, and clean and snatch pulls from the hang or a box. Lately, I’ve seen more programs/players recommend using DB Shoulder Presses and all the Olympic Lifts as well.
Is the overhead work like this advisable? And would you recommend that I use a program like your HP Mass or something different?
[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
CT - A few question if you have time.
#1. During the push press, obviously the arms should straighten all of the way at the top of the lift. Do you recommend locking the elbows and holding it above the head for a pause before lowing the bar down again or is it enough to simply reach straightening of the arms?
#2. I’ve been dealing with tendonitis recently, primarily where pec minor inserts under my shoulder which has been limiting the quality of my sessions. What do you find works best at reducing inflammation? All I typically use is fish oil and ibuprofen when it becomes really bad.
(Biggest Concern)#3. Lately I feel like I’ve been autoregulating “too much”. I’m on week 12 of your HPM program and am not sure if I over reached or just had a really good day when last retesting my MTW’s, but I find that I’ll get to flat bench or squats on high performance day and feel like I should stop. At that point, I’ll often times have lost focus, drive and coordination. Do you have any suggestion of what I should do? As I mentioned, I’ve been dealing with some tendonitis and my wrists and joints have been aching lately…
Thanks as always for your responses and time Coach![/quote]
Hey CT,
I just got done doing a hypertrophy program and wanted to bring my strength up in the squat, deadlift, bench press, and push press as they are seriously lacking. what kind of program would you suggest?
thanks
[quote]dsfaleiro wrote:
Hey CT,
I just got done doing a hypertrophy program and wanted to bring my strength up in the squat, deadlift, bench press, and push press as they are seriously lacking. what kind of program would you suggest?
thanks[/quote]
When doing the HP Mass program how critical is the wave loading aspect in the MTZ? What I’m basically asking is can you autoregulate and just work up to 3 rep explosive max and still make it work or did I miss the whole point of the program such as accumulating more volume over time?
Also how low in carbs can someone go who is roughly 200 lbs fairly lean and still make gains in the program? I know there’s alot of variables involved and a reduced calorie diet wouldn’t work well but was wondering what a ball park figure would be for minimum amount of carbs in your opinion. Thanks.
I have a health related question. I know you usualy don’t answer those, but the question is oriented toward prevention and not treatment/rehab. I work as a therapist and I’ve been reading on atraumatic osteolysis of the distal clavicle lately, a condition you might be familiar with. It’s associated mostly with overhead pressing and olympic weigthlifting.
Are you aware or do you use any prevention strategies to prevent developing this conditionin your athletes? Or just drop overhead pressing in the genetically-susceptible individuals?
I stopped bench pressing and began to focus on overhead pressing and what I am finding is that behind the neck press feels more natural and I feel better the next day as opposed to push pressing from the front. Do you have any idea why ?
Hey coach,
I was wondering how an approach to neural charge exercises would work if from time to time, instead of accelerating as fast as possible we could use an immovable object and press against it as hard as possible for max.~1sec. Theoretically it should work imo since the nervous system is firing the currently recruited fibers at max speed just like regular nc, just the time of this effort is shorter allowing for less fatigue.
I tried this today actually and it worked really well as far as activation is concerned, though maybe it’s just me but it seemed to leave me pretty drained later on…
Am I wrong somewhere with this, or does the weight simply always have to move concentrically in order to prevent fatigue for some reason?
I’m really interested in this aspect of training and would love to hear your opinion regarding that. Thanks a lot.
[quote]So What wrote:
Hey coach,
I was wondering how an approach to neural charge exercises would work if from time to time, instead of accelerating as fast as possible we could use an immovable object and press against it as hard as possible for max.~1sec. Theoretically it should work imo since the nervous system is firing the currently recruited fibers at max speed just like regular nc, just the time of this effort is shorter allowing for less fatigue.
I tried this today actually and it worked really well as far as activation is concerned, though maybe it’s just me but it seemed to leave me pretty drained later on…
Am I wrong somewhere with this, or does the weight simply always have to move concentrically in order to prevent fatigue for some reason?
I’m really interested in this aspect of training and would love to hear your opinion regarding that. Thanks a lot.
-M[/quote]
For some reason, isometrics really do seem to take a lot out of the CNS, which is why I only use them infrequently and never for neural charge workouts.
Coach,
Just a couple of quick questions about bands and doing more work
I had a look at the Power Pressing For Maximum Growth And Performance livespill and it seems that you were using 41 inch (long) super mini bands. Am I correct?
If I am significantly weaker than Kevin, Alex and Daryl should I go with mini bands or is the tension low enough for it to not matter much?
When doing extra work throughout the day (like the triceps extensions you mentioned in the “Do More Work” livespill) using bands and bodyweight exercises is it best to stick to a single exercise for a while, or can 2-3 exercises be used, either targeting the same muscles or movement patterns (push-ups and band presses) or different ones (band curls and band extensions)
Are bodyweight+band squats a good choice for such extra work when the goal is to increase squat performance and/or leg growth?
When performing complexes for strength, what load do you start with and add with each subsequent complex? And how do you personally decide how many complexes to perform?
For some reason, isometrics really do seem to take a lot out of the CNS[/quote]
after reading this, it’s starting to make A LOT of sense… i’ve been doing 1-2 second holds on all my pulling movements ( hitting back 2x a week) and noticed more “lesser-quality” sessions
For some reason, isometrics really do seem to take a lot out of the CNS[/quote]
after reading this, it’s starting to make A LOT of sense… i’ve been doing 1-2 second holds on all my pulling movements ( hitting back 2x a week) and noticed more “lesser-quality” sessions
[/quote]
Holds arent really comparable to true isometrics in my experience
For some reason, isometrics really do seem to take a lot out of the CNS[/quote]
after reading this, it’s starting to make A LOT of sense… i’ve been doing 1-2 second holds on all my pulling movements ( hitting back 2x a week) and noticed more “lesser-quality” sessions
[/quote]
Holds arent really comparable to true isometrics in my experience [/quote]
Exactly, and you SHOULD hold the contracted position when working the back for better recruitment.
Hi CT,
does that strategy, you presented in the training lab for the arms, also for the legs? If i would do five days eccentricless sledtraining, a few times a day for the legs, and the 6.day squats and deadlifts? what do you think?
thank you for response
[quote]kpax wrote:
Hi CT,
does that strategy, you presented in the training lab for the arms, also for the legs? If i would do five days eccentricless sledtraining, a few times a day for the legs, and the 6.day squats and deadlifts? what do you think?
thank you for response[/quote]
From the livespill:
coolusername: @Thibs: can this specialization outline be applied to other muscle groups?
@ coolusername… the same principles can probably be applied, but because bogger muscle groups are more stressful to train, if focusing on other muscle groups than the arms I’d only do one muscle (with arms you can do both biceps and triceps).
CT, after completing week 6 of HPMass, i feel i have a pretty good handle on the fact that even if i do a retest my MTW for most of my lifts arent/shouldn’t be higher than they are currently. So, is it detrimental to just start another cycle with the current weights? I feel like i need another go around to ensure being really explosive with what weights i’m at now.
I believe you had mentioned after the 6 week period that there would be another level to step up to and continue with the principles but i’m positive you have a pretty full plate at the moment for that.
After reading the livespill on reverse band pressing, I want to start incorporating reverse band settings for upper body pressing, squats, and deadlifts. I did not know if the medium bands CT referred to in the spill refer to the “average” bands on EliteFTS. So my question is which bands on elitefts’s sites would be best for the reverse setting? My three rep maxes for the front squat, deadlift, and incline press are 260, 415, and 205, in pounds. Thanks guys.
For some reason, isometrics really do seem to take a lot out of the CNS[/quote]
after reading this, it’s starting to make A LOT of sense… i’ve been doing 1-2 second holds on all my pulling movements ( hitting back 2x a week) and noticed more “lesser-quality” sessions
[/quote]
Holds arent really comparable to true isometrics in my experience [/quote]
Exactly, and you SHOULD hold the contracted position when working the back for better recruitment.
[/quote]