Glastonbury weekend weather report: GALE-FORCE winds expected

New York City personal trainer Vanessa Gale will be competing at Red Barn gyms IKFF's kettlebell competition this weekend. You may have seen this young lady displaying her kettlebell long cycle skills at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio, and in our own backyard when Reebok Gyms hosted AKC's Long Cycle Championship.

This New Orleans transplant is not just a southern kettlebelle. She recently competed in AAPF's New York State Powerlifting championship, winning the womans best overall lifter as well as coefficient titles.

Vanessa also plans to compete again July 31st in USAPL's New Jersey State Powerlifting Championship in Princeton New Jersey. For now, her eyes are on the prize, flight 9 will be blown away by Gale-Force! Hope the spectators enjoy themselves because the weather outside is weather :)

how i've been programming for myself part 1

I'll start by saying im new to all this. I could say i've been lifting for close to 15 years, but in reality only in the past 3 (tops) have I started to understand what im doing a litttle better.



the Prilepin post was a little quote heavy I was told, so this one i'll shoot from the hip, heart and head (3 H's, hip, heart and head. write that down).



I read an elitefts.com article on Dave Tate's 5/3/1 protocol and fell in love. the honesty of starting off at 90% as a max because most guys fluff the hell out of their pr's is humbling yet genius. so I gave it a shot, this was my interpretation of the article so it might not be as spot as the Ebook says.

my version looked like this.

wave 1- 5x5 @ 65% of our new 1rm


wave 2- 5x3 @ 75%


wave 3- 1x5 @ 65%/ 1x3 @ 75%/ 1x1 @ 85%


wave 4- 5x3 @ 65% (deload)


wave 5- 5x5 @ 70%


wave 6- 5x3 @ 80%


wave 7- 1x5 @70%/ 1x3 @ 80%/ 1x1 @90%


wave 8- 5x3 @ 65% (deload)





hope you guys can see a pattern emerging here. This went on for 5-6 months with me setting personal records in my 3 main lifts, squat, bench, dead.





from this program I learned to appreciate a few things


1. quality over quantity. sure i could've repped the hell out of the first wave, but i stuck to the rep goal, focused on quality reps. This in turn allowed me to better understand my own movement and tune into my own groove and improve my form.





2. The value of the deload week. Exercise is nothing more than a stress to the body, our bodies hate stress and will what it has to so the next time we are stressed in that manner it will not be as stressful. In order for that to happen our bodies need to rest. A good nights rest will suffice for the daily workout stress, but for the accumalated effect of a program a deload. A down week is needed, unless of course you enjoy getting injured a few times a year and losing all the gains you made.





3. Consistency!!!! before this i suffered from flavor of the month syndrome. switching from program to program every month and not letting the effects take place. A good program will have the first few weeks be a prep phase and build up slowly to a peak, go back down start over again but at a higher beginning and ending again with a higher peak. Jumping from program to program will leave you in a constant state prep phase.





4. let go of the ego. I followed the advice and reasoning of someone better. followed the program and ideas posted on the article and learned a ton.

maximal, submaximal, repetition, and dynamic effort methods

There are different ways to classify how to strength train. Some like to seperate them into phases such as light/medium/ heavy or "tone"/ hypertrophy/ strength power, or isometric/ isotonic/isokinetic, pretty much whatever categories you can think of. Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky categorizes by the taxonomy of strength, these categories are the maximal effort method, repetition effort method, dynamic effort method, and repetition effort method.



In the maximal effort method you are lifting a maximum load. Zatsiorky says that the maximal effort method is superior for improving inter and intramuscular coordination and the muscles and central nervous system. Training the central nervous system teaches the body to recruit the greatest number of motor units. The more motor units are recruited the more muscle is fired allowing you to lift heavier and more explosively. It is like having a 10 ounce cup that can only be filled with 3 ounces, a more responsive central nervous system will allow you to fill that same 10 ounce cup with 6 ounces of water, making you double the strength.



In the Submaximal Effort Method you lift a non maximal load similarly to the repetition effort method. Difference between the two being in the number of reps per set. The submaximal effort method will do an intermediate or not to failure set. While in the repetiton effort method the sets are done to failure. Due to similar mechanical volume muscle hypertrophy is similar in both methods. But if the goal is to improve on muscular coordination (inter and intra) repetition effort method has submax method beat. Zatsiorsky states "1. Recruitment order of the MU's is determined by the size principle. 2. only recruited mu's are trained. 3.the recruited MU's should experience fatigue (or at least they should be highly activated meaning the discharge frequency of their motoneurons should be sufficiently large)." so, Motor Units are recruited from small and weak to bigger and more explosive in order, if the weight isnt sufficient enough higher end MU's wont be recruited, if the repetions are not done to failure and not fatiguing then the MU is not trained.

In the dynamic effort method a person lifts or thorws a nonmaximal load with the highest attainable speed. It is used to increase force output not by training to increase the maximal strength but to to increase the rate of force development.



All this sounds great but theres always some negatives. With the Maximal Effort Method, it is irresponsible to use with a beginner. Another negative effect of Maximal Effort Method is it allows for only a low volume workload. Having a such low volume of mechanical work limits the degradation of contractile proteins which doesnt allow for much hypertrophy to set in. Lastly, its easier to burn out at such high intensities. Repetion Effort could lead to injuries in most trainee's while submaximal effort may not fatigue motor units as efficiently

prilepin's table

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MAN

Alexender Prilepin was the soviet olympic lifting coach in the U.S.S.R. from 1975-1985. Prior to that, he studied the practices of Olympic lifters in attempt to figure out how many repetitions per set, and what should the total training value should be for optimal power development. The chart to my left is what he came up with.

EXPLANATION OF CHART

First thing is how to read this chart. The columns from left to right are percentage/reps per set/the optimal amount of total reps/ and the range of total reps.

So if you are lifting at 55%-65% of your 1 rep max, you should do 3 to 6 reps per set for a total of 18 to 30 reps, with the best results coming at 24 total reps.

Reading the chart across, you can gather that 70%-80% of 1rm is done for 3 to 6 reps per set. The total range being12-24 reps, with an optimal total rep goal of 18.

80%-90% of 1rm, 2-4 reps per set for a total range of 10-20 reps with an optimal total of 15.

90+% of 1rm, 1-2 reps per set for a total range of no more than 10 with an optimal total of 4.

An example of how to use this chart could be at 85% of your 1rm you attempt 5 sets of 3 reps. falls in perfectly with the ideal total reps. The possibilities are pretty varied, giving you many different approaches, even within the same percentages, to avoid plateauing, if programmed properly.

WHY?

Well, I always thought your 75% of 1rm was approximately your 10rm? not necessarily a true statement, 75% of your squat will give you different rep maxes than 75% of your bench, different body parts have different make-up of different muscle types. Charles Poliquin said in his article "manipulating reps for gains in size and strength" for the may 02, 2005 edition of tmuscle.com (look it up lots of gems in that one) "if an athlete performs his 12rm (the amount of weight he can lift 12 times) in the bench press, he may only be working at 70% of maximum, but at 12rm in the leg curl he may only be working at 57% of maximum.

The extreme is even more remarkable when you consider certain lower body movements that imply a high stretch-shortening cycle component, such as leg presses. Many athletes can do 65 reps on the leg press while using a weight that is 70% of their maximum!"

So why do so few reps if you can do so much more? Coach Matthew Gary of Supreme Sports Performance and Training in Rockville Maryland said on youtube (look up prilepin's table) "if training from 80-90 if you're use anything less than 2 its not enough of stress on the body and central nervous system and get a response and when you go past 4 and get into 5, 6 and so on, its too much of a stress on the nervous system, thats when fatigue sets in and in all likelyhood your form is starting to break and when your form breaks you just need to shut it down. thats when you start reinforcing a negative motor pattern and thats not good. you're really opening yourself up to injury and the risk of injury increases exponentially. thats not to say you're incapable of performing more repetitions". Matthew Gary coaches multiple world and national champion powerlifters, so he knows a thing or two.

"Training to failure slows your results, say Spanish researchers. They found that lifters who performed each set of a workout until they couldnt complete a repetition had smaller gains in strength than those who left a bit in reserve."-actually found this in Men's Health with a Mike Robertson quote (if you dont know who he is google him, buy his dvd's. whatever, learn from what he says, very smart guy.)

So, now you know just because you CAN push your 80% for more than reps than what your online certification suggests, it does not mean you should. Especially if strength is the goal The Spanish, Soviets, and Americans agree leave a little in the tank for next time. i personally use prilepins table with my program design, and 60% of the time it works everytime.

starting out

In my career as a trainer I have learned there are many ways to get to the top of that mountain. Different trainers have different philosophies and approaches. I approach this blog with that mindframe. My goal is to share views and ideas from trainers ive met, worked with, been mentored by, managed by, and most of all respect. second i plan on sharing my own training towards my own goals, as well as that of my teamates at Team VJ with kettlebell sport and the 63rd street powerlifting crew.

I'm sure the upcoming content will be interesting to say the least, and hopefully very informative.



You stay classy and thanks for stopping by