The 6-12 Method is a special training method. It builds strength and hypertrophy. It is cardio and strength. It's hard but manageable. There is one caveat, the 6s are not recovery. That is an important thing to mention because if I do not mention that, you will more than likely not get as much as you should.
Read MoreThe year was 2011. I just turned 30. I was Associate Strength Coach at USC. I had a group of interns under my tutelage who were seeking the answers to questions they did not fully understand how to ask. Much like yourself. That group of interns was a surly group, with a ton of grit. They were all Division 3 football players looking to forge a career in S&C. As their mentor, I took great pride in challenging them more than they were accustomed to. Which is saying a lot about D3 football players. Division 3 football players are a perfect blend of hard work and discipline but at the same overwhelming average in just about everything. Which is perfect for S&C.
Read MoreThe idea is to create tension in a muscle group or a movement pattern before going into a set. This recruits more muscle fibers and fatigues them more so during the actual work set.
Read More“Husker Power started using Metabolic Circuit training as an advanced lifting program. This program was originally called the Survivor Circuit but created too much lactic acid. After some tweaking by Dr. Bill Kraemer, the leading NSCA researcher, the program was re-introduced to Nebraska athletes with great success.”
Read MoreWhy? We are pushing the boundaries with volume, intensity, and exercise selection. This marks the culmination of running the Strength program for 6 years, which began in 2018 in response to members needing an evolved program from our Team program. The key difference was incorporating exercises with an elevated governor for loading, but the core principles remained: three-day total body workouts, antagonist pairings of pushing and pulling exercises, four-week training blocks, an undulating focus on Accumulation and Intensification in each block, and training as hard as possible with great execution every rep and set.
Read MoreThe Legacy of Coach Bill Starr - Insights from an interview with Augie Maurelli & Nick Frasca | Year 8 Block 9
We’re doing Starr’s 5x5 this block. And in celebration of this seminal training program, we interviewed two of Starr’s athletes to get stories and context Coach Bill Starr: a strength & conditioning pioneer, coach, author, and businessman.
Allegiate cofounder Tim interviewed Augie Maurelli, one of Starr’s athletes in the 90’s at Johns Hopkins. And Allegiate cofounder Cody interviews Nick Frasca, Cody’s first strength & conditioning coach, and one of Starr’s athletes and friends in the 80’s at the University of Hawaii.
Read MoreWe are coming up on another Intensification block with 6x3: reps go down, weight goes up. However, this is going to have an isometric phase within each rep. What are isometrics and how do they work?
Read MoreThis is merely coincidental but in our eighth year and our eighth block, we are doing 8x8. What are the odds? Was this a mere coincidence? Or is there a deeper and much more complex story behind doing 8x8 on the 8th block of our 8th year?
Read MoreWe celebrated our 3 year anniversary party at the Brig in venice and it was one hell of a night!
Read MoreIf you do not know who these titans of strength were, you are about to. Doug was a clubfooted Canadian, Paul was a farmer kid from Georgia. These two battled it out on the North American and Olympic sides for the strongest man in the world.
Read MoreThe way this protocol will work is we are going to maintain the same load on the bar, but change a component such as compensatory acceleration or range of motion. Compensatory acceleration is a method that we use to accommodate resistance such as chains to increase load through concentric contraction. The increase in concentric load leads to increased intent to accelerate through the strength curve. We have a natural tendency to want to decelerate the bar during the concentric phase to control momentum. Compensatory acceleration overrides that and forces us to push a sticking point.
Read MoreUgh, straight sets. Same weight for multiple sets in a row, so boring! Oh wait, maybe it’s not boring, we got a wrinkle that will make you think whoa this is not boring! It's called Post Fatigue, and just when you thought you knew what feeling uncomfortable felt like - you are going to realize that you are going to feel a whole new way around being uncomfortable!
Read MoreFrom a high level Back Off Sets are a way of saying ‘not so fast’. You are cruising through this workout, feeling good the first 4 sets with a lowered rep scheme. You are thinking you got it all figured out. But then, BAM, fuck, the reps double and that feeling you once had is gone. You instantly feel absolute misery.
Read MoreWhat is a descending pyramid and why are we going to use this protocol with Strength? Before we go into that, let’s recap some principles of training.
Read MoreWell, here we go again. You did not ask for this, but you are still going to get it!
This is the ultimate protocol for complete muscle fiber destruction. This brings on an important question, why would we want to destroy muscles?
Because we can. Since we can destroy muscles, we therefore have to destroy muscles. The meaning behind training, and probably life, is that when we have the opportunity to do something like this, it means we have to do it. This is the burden of ambition. We are aware of what we could be when we understand what we have to do. We may have a goal of looking better or feeling better, but that's not the meaning of training. We train because we seek shared experiences and that is forged in the eternal flames of complete muscle destruction.
Read MoreRemember this block because this will be our first foray into a set and rep protocol that is not based on 5s or 10s with our Strength program.
First, I want to break down why we focus on the exercise selection over the set and reps for our Strength Class. There is a reason behind someone being in Strength. That reason is because of some biomechanical issues such as pain, asymmetry, or limited experience with resistance training. Since the premise of why someone is in Strength is biomechanic in nature, we focus on the biomechanical input which is exercise selection.
Read MoreWe got a classic set and rep scheme this month, the Pyramid protocol. Based on the concept that reps and intensity are inversely proportional, we will ramp up in weight and ramp down the weight for that exercise. So as the reps go down, the weight increases. As the reps increase, the weight decreases.
Read MoreThe Chinese Calendar Says that 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. We have been waiting for this for a long time.
2024’s Strength Periodization (the annual plan) can be best characterized as “aggressive”.
We got in the lab and we cooked up something that will destroy every muscle in your body every four weeks for the next fifty-two weeks. A big question is why? Let's talk about it.
We have some really strong Strength members, that is a paradox of training. There is an adage in S&C “it is not easier, you are just stronger”.
Read MoreNew year, same ol brutally hard work and dedication. 2024 is not special, it will still come down working your ass off as violently towards a goal. Ok Let's talk about Block 1.
If I were to characterize this month as something, it would be setting a baseline.
What is our level of strength, body composition, and overall fitness? We have so many things we want to dive into: current body composition (fat mass, lean muscle mass), relative strength (KPI neutral grip pullup, KPI bench), overall strength (3RM front squat, 3RM neutral grip pullup, and 3RM trap bar deadlift), and as always our jump, eccentric hamstring strength, and grip strength.
Read MoreInstead of talking about sets & reps, I want to talk about exercise selection for this last block of 2023.
The big focal point of Strength is can incredible results come from exercises with a larger governor?
What produces an outcome? Load is not the primary driver. Work, tension, training density, and training frequency are more responsible than load for adding muscle and burning fat.
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