BEHIND THE BLOCK: HIGH VELOCITY TRAINING
BLOCK 9 – BRING THE SPEED
Get ready to explode into this block, literally.
Metal Chains. 10 sets. Maximal speed. Minimal rest.
Block 9’s dynamic method is all about improving our ability to move weights explosively and repeatedly.
How are we going to accomplish this? With a healthy dose of…..MOVING WEIGHTS AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.
Also by harnessing the power of:
Intent
Higher velocities
Accommodating resistance.
Let’s begin with the power of intent.
Intent drives outcomes
The intent we apply to something is a huge part of makes us successful. And moving with the right intent causes far better outcomes.
For example, just hopping on an elliptical for any period of time requires very little intent to execute. Whereas a set of really heavy squats or a long set of pull-ups demands that your intent is locked in or you will fail.
You may have heard us say on the floor “explode on the way up” or “down like a rock, up like a rocket” during a set. These phrases reinforce the intent during the concentric portion of the lift.
The concentric is the weakest contraction type (The others types being eccentric and isometric). So in order to be successful on heavy lifts, we will need to use strong and explosive concentric contractions to actually accomplish our lifts.
But what if we want to try a different path to improve concentric contractions? A path that opts for lighter weight?
Taking this “other” path brings us back to intent.
If the load is not great enough, we might be tempted to need to move the bar with less effort. But this won’t produce the violently fast concentric contractions we need to develop to be successful.
Going through the motions won’t cut it this block. We need violent, explosive intent.
Why does this “explosive” part matter so much? It’s all about the force-velocity curve.
The Force-Velocity Curve: Move It Heavy Or Move it Fast.
The Force-Velocity Curve is the relationship between how fast something can move relative to how heavy the load is.
We move heavy things move slower than lighter things. And lighter things faster than heavy things. This relationship can be seen in the curve below.
Usually, we train on the heavy/slow side of things.
This fits well with our goals, which are mostly centered around building muscle and burning fat. Moving heavier things slowly for a more total time under tension leads us to our desired results.
So why lift lighter? It has to do with the force-velocity curve.
Irrespective of the load on the bar, unless we move that bar as fast as humanly possible, we will not be as successful in terms of strength.
Taking this block to focus on the higher velocity aspect of lifting feeds back into our other goals of getting stronger, building muscle, and burning fat.
But load isn’t all there is to moving fast. Another key is accommodating resistance.
Accommodating Resistance: Unlocking Acceleration
All joints have a natural “strength curve” that dictates how strong we are in a certain position.
Ever wonder what causes the “sticking point” of a movement, the point of no return in a squat or bench press?
The strength curve is responsible. This strength curve has a lot to do with mechanical advantage.
The simplest illustration of this is our elbow joint. During a bicep curl: we are weakest at the bottom (extended position), strongest in the middle (elbow at 90), and weak again at the top (flexed position).
This curve is why we alter body position for leverage, try to use momentum, or shorten our range of motion.
Different movements and joints have different strength curves. But the squat or bench press are both lifts where we get stronger as we are closer to a lockout position.
The squat and bench press are examples of movements with a “descending” strength curve. Where the movement gets harder as the joint angle increases, and easier as it decreases.
We also can move faster in these stronger positions. But our need to slow down as we lockout is a big limiting factor in our velocity.
We do this in the squat and bench press to avoid impact/injury from the bar separating from us. So how can we avoid this?
This is where accommodating resistance comes in.
Accommodating resistance adds resistance to better match our strength during a movement. An example of this is the addition of chains to a squat or bench press. The chains unload weight at the bottom where we are weak, and add weight towards the top where we are strong.
The use of chains allows us to move the bar as explosively as we can without putting on the brakes. Revisiting intent, this is exactly what we want: maximal velocity without worrying about injury.
Putting It All Together: Intent, Velocity, Accommodation
What does a block 9 workout look like?
It starts with reactive plyometric movements to “turn on” our fast-twitch motor units for the dynamic mayhem to come. This will enhance our ability to move quickly.
We follow this up with 10 sets of 3 reps of compound lifts with accommodating resistance. All done with minimal rest periods. Instead of progressing the load each set, we the goal is to get faster and faster each set.
The minimal rest keeps us honest with our load, and helps develop speed endurance (the ability to maintain high velocities under fatigue)
By the end of the block we will be able to overcome any concentric limitations because we have trained to move with as much speed as possible.
This will have big pay-offs down the road when we need to access this speed to lift heavy loads, fast.