how did block 6 training impact the data we track?
We track NordBord (Nordic) once a month and ForceDeck (Counter Movement Jump) once a week. The cadence allows us to continuously track and see the relative impact of the training program. As we learn more about the impact of doing higher volumes or higher intensities we can better prescribe training protocols at certain times.
We like these two metrics for three reasons:
Remove Human Error or Bias - a machine spits out a number based on how well and how much force we put out.
It is General - we want to avoid specific tests because it creates a vector that incentives doing what is best for the test and not what is best for the individual
It is quick - we always default to three, one-hour training sessions a week, we still need to track from week to week, our assessment cannot eat into that three hours, therefore it needs to be quick.
What we want to learn from this the impact of a saturated quality of either volume or intensity on general assessments such as Counter Movement Jump and Nordic. We can peek under the hood of how our body is responding to training more effectively. If we are breaking down a bunch of contractile tissue with higher volumes during Accumulation what is the effect on jumps and nordics? If we are breaking down the central nervous system with higher intensities during Intensification what is the effect on jumps or nordics?
What we learned from this last block was that we improved in Nordics (Average Force, Max Force, Impulse, and Torque) and decreased in all Counter Movement Jumps (RSI, Impulse, Impulse - 100ms). What is important with all data is not to jump aggressively to conclusions until you see bigger samples and interpret more variables.
What is interesting about Nordics improving is we had a corresponding weight loss (Average of .7kg). Nordics is all about Force which is Mass multiplied by Acceleration. If we lose weight, we lose a huge component of Force. What we can possibly extrapolate is that we increased lean muscle mass during this block, which is always correlated with increased force. This is a big reason we want to offer free body compositions to further find relationships between Force and Training.
The other side is looking at average RPE compared to our Jumps. RPE means that there is an excessive strain on all systems. We see RPEs go up, we see other metrics like Wellness go down (Sleep, Mood, Stress, Fatigue, and Sleep Quality). All of these systems will have a high correlation to the Central Nervous System which will have a huge impact on how well we jump. Average RPE went from 5.04 Week 1, to 5.67 Week 2, to 6.0 Week 3, and dropped down to 5.5 Week 4. The drop on Week 4 is mostly from a drop in members going through the last week of Team or going lighter. The sharp increase in RPE could easily be the cause of a drop in jumping performance.
Keep in mind there should be a natural dip in performance in metrics. The point of all this is to leverage stress to garner a better outcome. A natural drop in Wellness, rise in RPE, a drop in Jumps, or a drop in Nordics all means we are training hard and are getting fatigued.
The management of that fatigue once we learn is what makes the difference. Point being is we need to keep collecting and keep learning.