Go Big

Unconventional Client = Unconventional Coaching

Before Kitty and I started this project I asked her a few questions.

 

1. Do you trust me 100% to leave the training to me?
2. Is it ok if most of the concepts go completely against current norms?
3. Is it ok if I base a large portion of your training on what I can see in the middle of sessions?

Every response was “yes of course”

 

So the foundation of all kitty’s programming was biasedly based on maximizing recovery and regeneration while adding muscle and gaining strength. Key component is regeneration.

 

Instead of only considering recovery of muscle I chose to focus deeply on recovery of CNS. This means far more time out of the gym then in the gym when it comes to conventional “comp prep”

 

Rough breakdown of a typical session with Kitty

Average training time 45 mins

Session per week 3 sometime 2

Cardio, none

Average exercises per session 3

Each session is always full body.

 

I know what your thinking, how can you drop fat and increase muscle and strength with only2-3 hours in the gym a week? What about the volume? Or the cardio? Or the longer rest periods for full regeneration of strength?

 

The magic is in the execution and quality of each individual rep. We literally take our sessions rep by rep and ensure they are done with technicality, speed, power and precision.

 

Lets contrast it.

 

A typical protocol of 3x12-15 reps we all know the first 10 are easy and are done with increasing effort, it’s only the last few reps that we push. Funny enough it’s these last few reps, which kicks into gear the fibres associated with strength and have the most potential for size. The next set you are fatigued and it may only take 8 reps to find the same level of intensity. There is no doubt racking up this volume has solid effects and stimulus on muscle but it also greatly increases the time needed to recover. Not only that if we take a set to complete failure it is highly taxing on the CNS, which is once again responsible for recovery.

Here is what we aimed to remove from kitty’s sessions because the following list is what makes comp prep and training life in general miserable and very easy to fall off the wagon. Don’t get me wrong I don’t shy away from a good 3 hit out at my local commercial gym but is it actually achieving the outcome or is it momentary pleasure?

 

Grinding reps

Cardio

Extremely high volume

Long session times

Long recovery times

Risk of injury

Giant list of exercises

Stagnation

Loss of muscle size and strength

Decrease in POMS (profile of mood state)

 

 

 

So how do you make session’s fun, increase strength, ensure 100% recovery, drop body fat and always look forward to training? That is the million dollar question right…

 

There exist a zone for each movement that will house the heaviest weight that can be accelerated as fast or if not faster than lighter percentages. It normally occurs between 70-85% depending on the client. This is what we are aiming to find each session. To find this zone we use triples because its been found in many professional and research circles that when moving weight as fast as possible rep 3 on average will have the highest EMG reading.

 

We start at 40% and build the weight up gradually with each set until we find a weight that looks dramatically slower. Using this method for our primary lifts achieves a few things (keep in mind our guidelines above)

 

We will average 10-14 sets of 3-4 reps = between 30 and 60 reps for primary movement each session of which we will do this 3 times a week. Therefor sometimes reaching over 150 reps of this movement per week. I think our volume is covered J

 

Each rep is lifted as fast as possible therefore stimulating our primary fibres for strength and size without the burden of performing 8-10 reps just to get there and because we are only performing 3 reps our recover is based on “feel “ whenever kitty feels as if she can give the bar the same amount of intensity of effort she will lift again. Sometimes that’s 10 seconds and other times its 2 minutes. Either way we are purely fatiguing the fibres that have the greatest response. That’s our time component coveredJ

 

Because we are largely limiting metabolic stress (the burn) we rapidly increase muscular recovery and regeneration. Maximizing recovery covered J

 

Because we are working largely with the sympathetic nervous system and never pushing grinding reps it keeps the following brain chemicals flowing. Nor epinephrine, dopamine, anandimide, serotonin and endorphins. These are all performance enhancing drugs not only physically but jack up learning, motivation and creativity. We all know Kitty loves her business and her 4 million clients so we have to keep her sharp so she can continue to deliver her passion everyday.

If at any point I feel we are pushing the limits of the nervous system through slower then usual reps, longer rest periods then usual, misfiring and lack of coordination during common lifts we will cut the session early and focus on recovery therefore reducing risk of injury.

 

There is always a downside to something that sounds so great…. Training like this will not give you a pump, you wont feel exhausted, you will hardly sweat and your social gym time will be cut in half because your training time will be 3 minutes.

 

Judge the result not the process…

 

Kitty’s results to date.

Starting weight 73.2

Current weight 72.7

 

Total mls started at 116.4

Current mls 87.2

 

Starting deadlift 160 kg (broken arm healing)

Current deadlift 185x2 (pro raw in 4 weeks)

 

Starting safety bar squat 100kg

Current safety bar squat 130kg

 

Training like was was a development of my many years in the gym, finding the patterns in people who clearly rose above current gym and training norms and who were in it for the development of people not just to check at there local gym and get an arm pump.

 

To explore this in further detail and how it can work for you please feel free to message me.

 

Or check out

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/04/spirituality-for-performacne-tactical-breathing.html

 

http://nathanielhodges.blogs.com/my-blog/2016/02/10-overlooked-components-of-powerlifitng-preparation.html

 

Nataniel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Overlooked Components Of Powerlifitng Preparation.

Powerlifting preparation. Other things to consider besides the program

 

Since powerlifting is heavily on the rise in Australia I thought id would cool to share this. Everyone who decides to compete will inevitably get bit by the iron bug and the long road ahead begins to continually post bigger numbers here a few thins to consider when you believe you have hit your strength ceiling.

 

As a natural lifer competing in a non-tested federation sometimes can be deflating but personally I only ever compete against myself and the fact of the matter is the federation I prefer is full of my mates from all over Australia. The comradely runs deep and I have developed friendships all over the country.

 

The last 2 years my total has floated from 620kg-660kg between the 82.5kg at the lower end and the 90kg class towards the upper end of my totals. I believe there is a point where your powerlifting total will equate to roughly the same but the ratios can change e.g.: you may find your squat goes up at the expense of some bench numbers or any combination of the 3. I am speaking from a drug free point of view and personal experience of my own. Throughout the years I have managed to figure out that I can train my squat with a lot of intensity, frequency and intensiveness, my bench has to either be frequent and moderate or once a week and intense. Finally my deadlift can only be trained once every 10 days moderate or high intensiveness.

 

Here are some terminologies I use with my lifters

 

Intensity: fairly wide spread among coaches that intensity is the load used during training normally identified as a percentage of 1rm. I mean lifting 50% of your 1 rep max with a force that just overcomes the load is not very intense at all.

 

Intensiveness: training methods that facilitate a lot of fatigue either in the nervous system or in the contractile tissues egg: working till failure, drop sets, low range cluster sets.

 

Intense: the feeling or mind set going into the training session.

 

I am writing this article coming of the back the best meet I have competed in. I had a goal for over 3 years of a total of 700kg at 90kg body weight. This comp I weighed 93 but the weight class was 95 and under. I achieved this total with a 285/142.5/272.5 Squat, bench and deadlift and while I was warming up my one of my heavier athletes and I pulled a personal best deadlift of 280 after the comp in the warm up room haha.

 

I try to approach competitions with a different lead each time to get a gauge of what worked and what didn’t so I can better help my lifters and athletes .So finally here are some factors to consider outside of program

 

1. Out of a 13-week preparation I did no powerlifts for the first 5 weeks, and had a general hypertrophy approach all with the goal of increasing the storage of glycogen. I also used this time to fix a strength imbalance between my back squat and front squat. I packed a crazy 40kg on my front squat from 140-180kg which I believe carry’s over greatly to a sumo deadlift
2. After the 5 week prep block I had a deload 9 days in the middle of the 13 weeks to increase my adaptive reserve for the strength cycle.
3. I swapped my chicken, rice, oats, protein powder, avocado for steak, chicken thighs, coconut milk, cheese, ice cream…. higher calorie foods with good amounts of saturated fats will work wonders in a strength cycle…did I put on fat? Yep, did I get stronger? Yep. What was the goal of the program? Get stronger and not embarrass myself against the best in Aus.
4. This should be number 1 but I ran the numbers in my head exactly what I needed to total 700 every time I trained
5. I saved the “psych up” for only big attempts in the gym out of the 13 weeks I really only completely switched on about 3 times
6. The 2 weeks leading into the meet I spent roughly 20 minutes thinking about the comp haha I had a heap of external things going on but this was a blessing. I also took an extra 4 days off on top of the normal 7 days.

 

ON THE DAY

 

7. Once again after not obsessing over the meet I was a heap more relaxed and only completely fired up for the 3^rd attempts, slaps, ammonia the lot. This left far more in the tank for bench and deads
8. I made a conscious effort to keep the food high on the day even though I never feel like eating, I had a good combination of carbs protein and fats all the way into the dead’s 7 hours after my first squat
9. This is absolute luxury but because it was a large Australian event all the lifters had access to an active release therapist in between lifts. After my back cramped on my 3^rd bench this was a huge help for my deads.
10. Finally as cliché as this sounds prioritise the fun and the environment. In all seriousness when your having fun your head is clearer, when you cheer your competition it drives you and puts in a peak state all while removing the “ pressure”

 

I think peak performance is heavily impacted by general personality but this list could help you hit an all time meet in your own books.

 

Nat