Wanted to recap my feeling after day one so that I remember how I feel right now. All of the discussion were interesting though familiar as I have followed lot's of Julien's work. Some of the new things, however, I found very interesting. A few below:
- Upper body assistance work should be guided by
- Pull > external torque > long head of biceps
- Push > internal torque > short head of biceps
- Depending on what movement you are trying to improve you need to choose assistance work that follows the same pattern
- Squatting = internal torque on the way DOWN; external toque on the way UP; this is a huge and complex topic, we barely scratched the surface but it is interesting food for though (especially when looking at chinese weightlifters)
- Training muscles in assistance/isolation....primary muscle functions:
- obliques - eccentric
- quads - concentric
- biceps - eccentric and isometric (short head), concentric (long head)
- triceps - concentric
- hamstrings - eccentric (inside head - this is WAY underdeveloped), concentric (outside head - too strong usually)
- these muscles perform the best under this type of contraction
- How does Julien choose exercises?
- max intensity, max blood flow, win factor (the athlete needs to feel that they have WON or accomplished something)
- proper torque applied
- has to balance the box
- must show the problem, fix the problem, and provide feedback to athlete about how they are performing
- *in nature, typically unilateral movements and rotation/anti rotation planes are the most common
- The KB overhead carry is inferior to yoke or DB's because it forces external torque, which we don't want overhead (stop doing these basically)
- I need to do more lat pulls because I have no lat activation. Pullups are too advanced, do lat pulls
- Keep a low WES (ex the sled)
First baby shoulder warmup to wake us up:
On a continuous running clock:
15 seconds db lateral raises+15 seconds thumb up iso hold (x4)
rest 1 minute
15 seconds bent over db flys+15 seconds palm up iso hold (x4)
rest 1 minute
30 seconds db presses+30 seconds overhead hold (x2)
Finally, here was the workout that we did this afternoon. I will write it down first and put comments after...
On a continuous running clock:
15 seconds db lateral raises+15 seconds thumb up iso hold (x4)
rest 1 minute
15 seconds bent over db flys+15 seconds palm up iso hold (x4)
rest 1 minute
30 seconds db presses+30 seconds overhead hold (x2)
- This was a nice little circuit that got the blood flowing. I have done this one in his programming but never with this little rest and this intensely. Gonna keep it up because its pretty tough.
Finally, here was the workout that we did this afternoon. I will write it down first and put comments after...
1) rope pulls - 2 sets of 2x100 ft @ +60 kg sled
3-5 minutes rest between
2) reverse sled drags - 2 sets of 200 ft @ 80 kg + person
3-5 minutes between
3) harnessed sled drags - 1 set of 400 ft (turn at 200) @ +100 kg
4) sled sprints - 1 x 200ft @ +60 kg
- It is very difficult to describe what happened today by looking at the above work. Part of it was the group setting, which pushed the intensity high, but everything done was done at absolute max red line capacity. This is the idea of strongfit. Maximal intensity with low skill, low eccentric, and low weight-bearing exercises. The reverse drags and the harnessed drags were by far the worst, but I'm still not sure why. Eventually the quads just cramp and totally shut off, and the weight/distance was just enough that the last 15 yards or so feel like being beaten with a bat. Afterwards looking around at everyone you could tell we were all in the same boat. I literally couldn't see or hear properly and was dizzy for 20 minutes on the verge of puking. It just felt like my body needed to shut off for 10 minutes and reset. I am no stranger to pushing myself physically but this definitely tapped into another level that is difficult to go by yourself. Now that I have come down from it there was definitely something magic going on in the room, and it was awesome that Julien and Richard were right there with us hurting just as much. Julien gave a great speech about pain versus intensity, and pushing the threshold of intensity to a point that we are afraid to go. Most importantly that discomfort does not mean damage. It sounds like this is exactly what he wanted. Fun day, curious to see how I feel tomorrow. And goddamn that's one way to teach the principle of intensity. Oh, and I need to do lat pulldowns more.
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