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3 Responses to “The “secret” to strength training”

1. george says:
   January 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm

   I have a question and this is as good a topic as any to post it in.

   Back when I was serious about it I maxed out at 87 consecutive push ups. I could never really improve that personal best, and eventually I just stopped trying and dropped back to just doing sets of 50. There was this guy I knew who was an ex high school gymnast who did 120 in a row. What was I doing wrong? Is that purely genetics? Is there some rule about what to do when you hit a wall in your training?

   I guess I brought this up in relation to this thread because of the volume and intensity topics. Do you have to bounce back and forth between both to improve? How can you keep improvement in a physical conditioning program when you seemingly hit a wall?

   In Baguazhang we use change and balance and other principles as they apply to the training method to keep improving our skills and fighting abilities. I’m also wondering how close you think that might be to how we do it in Baguazhang.

2. jleeger says:
   January 10, 2008 at 2:31 pm

   Good question! This is the dilemma that everyone involved in strength training struggles with.

   The first thing to consider is the ultimate outcome you want. To get more max pushups, you have to train yourself to be able to perform more and more repetitions, versus greater max strength, for instance.

   With the pushup example, I believe that the time parameter is the most effective variable to alter. Adding more weight to your pushups will make you stronger, but not necessarily enable you to endure a longer-duration effort. Doing more pushups in the same amount of time, seems to be the best way to improve this kind of ability.

   So your training might look like this
   Monday - three max sets of pushups, with full recovery between (say, three minutes)
   Tuesday - one easy set of pushups and other work
   Wednesday - as many pushups as you can do in 10 minutes
   Thursday - two easy sets of pushups and other work
   Friday - two warmup sets, and three sets of clapping pushups

   Every week, you would want to exceed the previous week. With Saturday and Sunday off, you should have enough recovery to exceed the numbers on Mondays. Wednesday is the real test, where your psychological will to exceed the previous week will quickly become the main barrier. Friday’s sessions are aimed at developing your capacity to expand on the elastic nature of your muscles and tendons, which will ultimately help you rep out more standard pushups more quickly with less fatigue.

   With pushup competitions, the first consideration is that of fairness. First, you have to make sure everyone is adhering to the same rules as far as what counts as a pushup. My old VP used to “beat” me at pushups, but his movement was about 1″ up and down, most of it coming from his shoulder blades moving together and apart. The elbow motion was more of a short bounce for this type of “pushup.” The second thing to consider is the length of the arms. A person with longer arms has to do considerably more work to push themselves up. Over time, this amounts to a huge difference in total energy needs etc. between a person with long arms and one with short arms. Finally, you have to consider the body weight of each person. A lighter person has less weight to move, and should be able to endure more pushups in a single set than a similarly-conditioned person with more body mass.

   Gymnasts typically have smaller statures, with shorter limbs than average people. Not only that, they train exclusively with their own body weight, which means two things - they are conscious of weight and tend to keep their weight lower than other athletes, and they are accustomed to performing tons of reps and sets with their bodyweight. They also have extremely well-developed upper-body musculature, and exceptional tensegrity (tension throughout the entire body), which both lend to greater stability which equals more energy spent in the focus movement (pushups), instead of in trying to stabilize that movement.

   This post is getting so long, I’ll address the rest in a separate post. But suffice it to say, when you hit a wall in training, you have to change to continue to grow. Change can mean rest/recovery, increasing sets and reps, increasing intensity, increasing balance demands, and on and on…it all depends on the specific goal. That’s probably the most important point. Specificity

3. jleeger says:
   January 10, 2008 at 2:47 pm

   1.

   OK - Part 2
   George said:
   I guess I brought this up in relation to this thread because of the volume and intensity topics. Do you have to bounce back and forth between both to improve? How can you keep improvement in a physical conditioning program when you seemingly hit a wall?

   In Baguazhang we use change and balance and other principles as they apply to the training method to keep improving our skills and fighting abilities. I’m also wondering how close you think that might be to how we do it in Baguazhang.

   My answer
   There are many conjugate periodization models out there that propose to develop different strength qualities at the same time. Basically, you train the same movement-patterns but use different reps, sets, and loads, on different days of the week, to elicit the response you want. According to this protocol, each training focus lends to success in the other. Here’s an example:
   Monday - Max Effort Upper Body (work up to 1 max set of your main upper body exercise)
   Tuesday - Repetition Lower Body or Jump Training (sets for high reps or sets of jumping to increase explosive strength)
   Wednesday - GPP or sport-specific drills
   Thursday - Repetition Upper Body (again, high reps or explosive/plyo work with the upper body)
   Friday - Max Effort Lower Body (work up to max set of main lower body exercise).

   There are 101 ways to skin this cat. But you see what’s happening. The training stimulus changes over the course of the week. The following week, you’d want to get move higher weights for the same amount of reps on the max days, and move the same weights for more reps on the repetition days.

   Now do all of that without overtraining, or spending all of your time calculating the results from your workouts!

   Your point about Bagua is a good one. You don’t want to periodize in this method:
   2 months - General Conditioning
   2 months - Hypertrophy
   2 months - Max Strength
   2 months - Explosive Strength…etc.

   That’s a classical year-long breakdown that people tend to throw around, and it’s totally useless for anyone who wants to gain across strength qualities over the course of the year. When you focus on hypertrophy, for example, you will lose gains you made in max strength or other areas. In fact, I read recently that top-level athletes lose cardiovascular conditioning after only two days without cardio training.

   Adaptation is so specific, that it really makes it easier on us! So if you want good general conditioning, practice general conditioning!

   The method of conjugate periodization is actually mimicking Bagua training principles! Each training element adds to the overall effectiveness of the entire program, and each phase adds onto the last.

   I do want to talk with you more about Bagua training though, and how it was done in the old days…

   Let me know if this makes any sense!

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