If you haven’t read Pt – 1 to this series make sure to click here and read that first.
So where to from here you ask…
How do you make the next steps to becoming unstoppable and reaching your potential?
Read on to find out more about our system.
We aren’t about just bombing volume until your body either adapts or breaks.
We stand for purpose, intention and structure behind our programming and actions.
We don’t get caught in gimmicks or sport specific rubbish.
We do focus on proven means and methods then test them to assure we are servicing our clients to the best of our abilities.
Concurrent Training
Now one of the first things you will come across in most performance training articles or programs is the concept of focusing your efforts on a particular adaptation ie. 8 week hypertrophy phases followed by a strength phase and then into power etc. This is a great idea for most people as we only have so much training time and recovery abilities.
The problem comes from people thinking that this means that you don’t train the other physical qualities in this time at all. Think about this, you just came off your off season, your body is already a little detrained, you haven’t done any high power work since your last game and now you’re going to spend 16 weeks just developing the muscles to be bigger and stronger through high load, slow speed lifting. Now you will definitely increase power but not at the rate you could be. In this time you essentially are building your ability to recruit all muscle fibres into an effort but you always have plenty of time to recruit them.
If you want to be fast we need to train the nervous system to recruit muscle fibres quickly and the best way of doing that is training some aspect of power throughout the whole training cycle. Now this isn’t max effort sprints year round but some simple med ball throws and low impact jump variations will help complement the main focus of the training cycle and help facilitate better results when the focus shifts more towards the power later in the training cycle.
This idea is known as concurrent training where multiple physiological qualities are trained throughout the training cycle. We still train a focus quality with the most amount of volume applied to it, but we make sure to still stimulate the other systems to keep them from detraining throughout the training cycle.
What training methods do we use?
The core foundational pieces of our training for our athletes comes down to a few major influences including triphasic training popularised by Cal Dietz, principles from the High/Low method from Charlie Francis and the conjugate method from Louie Simmons.
From there our core exercise modalities include sprints, jumps and throws, strongman, powerlifting, weightlifting, gymnastics and bodybuilding. Instead of making people fit one method our focus is building the program around which of these modalities are required by the athlete most to build upon their athletic foundations to set themselves up for success once they take the park in their sport.
Triphasic Training
Triphasic training popularised by Cal Dietz is a training method that involves focusing a training cycle on a targeted contraction type. This can look like spending 2-4 weeks on eccentric focused work followed by 2-4 weeks on isometric work and then finally transitioning towards a dynamic concentric contraction.
The intention behind triphasic training in our programs is as a means of facilitating development of connective tissue to reduce risk of injuries while also working on active mobility and teaching proper mechanics by slowing down the movements.
The huge added benefit though of the triphasic training method comes in its ability to reduce neural inhibition on high output movements meaning athletes are able to express their full potential. This comes from increasing the eccentric and isometric strength which allows the body to absorb and redirect force more efficiently and allows the brain to essentially take the brakes off that it uses to protect itself from injury. By focusing on developing the eccentric strength we have seen many of our athletes improve their speed and power with minimal work spent on speed and power in that time.
High/ Low Method
When our focus is developing speed, power and strength one of the key factors required is working at intensities 90% or above of our maximum effort to stimulate the nervous system to adapt and exceed its previous potential. Most people realise that they need to work hard to get results with these qualities.
The problem comes that these efforts take 48-72 hours to recover from before those outputs can be repeated. Most people try to hit those intensities every day and never give themselves adequate recovery time meaning their outputs are always reduced and they often can’t get to the required speeds or power outputs to stimulate adaptation.
Charlie Francis track coach of Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson often came across this problem with his sprinters and came up with the solution of consolidating all high effort training on 2-3 days per week depending on where in the training cycle and in between focused on technique work, accessory lifts and also aerobic base development work.
This is something we have taken on board with our athletes as they progress through their training to allow adequate recovery in between max effort sessions and allowing the days in between to work on the other important aspects of their training.
Conjugate Method
The conjugate method involves rotating exercises through a pool of movements that work on developing the weak points of a movement pattern to avoid accommodation and keep the body growing stronger. Most of the videos you will see on the conjugate method will involve use of chains and bands on the barbell although these aren’t required to get the results of the conjugate system.
While we obviously don’t want progress to stall as a result of the body getting used to the stimulus in the training, most athletes aren’t going to be at a level where they will need to rotate the movement on a weekly basis to avoid this and through the other variations in training will mostly facilitate the requisite variation we use the concepts of the conjugate system as a means to create context through a wide variety of movements.
Our athletes don’t play sport in a static environment where everything is perfect and wrestling bodies is nothing like lifting barbells. We rotate movements through minor and major variations of the movement such as doing pullups on rings, varied hand positions on bars, on ropes, different grip thicknesses and varying the body position like hollow, arch or L-sit variations.
When creating strength through this wide variety of positions we teach the body how to recruit the right muscles when they need it in the sport. Ultimately this means they aren’t going to have the best numbers in a specific movement in the gym but will have the best ability to transition their strength onto the field.
Wrapping up
So there’s our core foundations of our programming behind our athletes. Keep an eye out for the final part of our Newstrength Athlete Series next week.
If you want to find out more about how we can help you reach your goals next season click here and fill out the form and we will be in contact with you.