El Diablo! 6 sets, 6 reps, 6-second eccentric Behind The Block
Accumulation Block: EL DIABLO
The structure of this block is 6 sets of 6 with a 6-sec Eccentric, hence the name. This is a High-Density, Functional Hypertrophy protocol.
Importantly, there’s also a Spotify playlist that all our members will listen to for every single team session. The playlist opens with Shout at the Devil, flows into other high-octane songs that reference the Devil, and concludes with Hurt by Johnny Cash.
With a full-frontal assault on everyone’s senses, this block is sure to be a fan favorite. Okay, back to talking about the science and programming behind this month’s accumulation block.
Let’s start with High Density. High density is the training time being filled with either work or rest. Work being the time performing an exercise and rest the time in between. A gold standard for a total number of sets in a 60-minute session is roughly 20. Now, this does not take into account Total Time Under Tension (TUT) or the intensity of the given exercise, but we can use 20 total sets as a baseline to determine higher or lower densities.
With El Diablo, Higher Density comes in the form of 18 total sets with 36 seconds per set. Breaking down this a little further, 36 seconds multiplied by 18sets (A1-A2 6x6, B1-B2 3x6) leads to 11 minutes under tension during the workout. This does not take into account the Movement Preparation, Warm-Up Sets, or Post Work - only work sets in the weight room. 11 minutes of the 30 minutes we are in the weight room may not seem like a lot but it is. Compared to the previous block Clusters we are under tension for 4 minutes - you are looking at an almost 300% increase in the time we are under tension.
What this means is a massive spike in energy consumption, rapid change in local muscular pH, and a lot of muscle tissue breakdown. Just the jump in total time under tension in a workout will lead to Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness - that feeling of discomfort following hard workouts.
The other focus is Functional Hypertrophy. This is a direct correlation to the muscle fibers we use combined with the intensities we can work at.
As we discussed in previous BTB, the Size Principle is one that recruits more motor units and higher threshold muscle fibers based on need or increased intensity. Typically as volume goes up, the intensity goes down. So as we make an individual set longer we have to subsequently use lighter weights which lowers the requirement to utilize faster twitch muscle fibers. There is a sweet spot - it is in the 20-40second TUT range. Where we can hit higher volumes, but can still recruit faster twitch muscle fibers. This leads to increases in the cross-sectional muscle area of the entire muscle that leads to a more functional outcome of increased force production.
This block we’re using new technology platforms called Bridge and Gym Aware. Specifically, to this block, we need a couple of key metrics:
Wellness
RPE (Workload),
Mean Concentric Velocity
When doing a program like this, people often ask, “how much weight should I use?” It is a fair question but hard to answer. The reality is there is no way to accurately predict how that weight will go unless we have analytics to support it.
What we’re looking for to answer that question is a week-to-week progression. The smaller the better. We want smaller because that means we are closer to our max levels earlier. This leads to better training adaptations. Analytics (speed of the bar) give us a clearer answer without having to guess.
Living on the razor’s edge has the consequence of injury, burnout, or overtraining. The answer to how much should you lift will be met with a more conservative recommendation. But unless we have analytics in place we can’t accurately predict what to use. So that’s why we have analytics.
Here’s what we’re using to track our members over their training:
Wellness - Gives us a week to week response to training
Before your workout on the Bridge App, it will ask for your Sleep Quantity and Wellness (1-5 Scale of 5 questions)
This is an aggregate of how training and all other lifestyle factors play into our potential for that given day
If we report a low number of hours of sleep or low wellness score, we may need to be conservative with our weights
Force Deck - Gives us a week to week response to training
We can see the relative impact of training and life on the Nervous System
We are building out more normative data where we can see the impact of Accumulation or Intensification blocks on their Aggregate Score called Reactive Strength Index (RSI)
Depending on the block we can see how much of an impact had on strength levels - this gives us a range to work within
NordBord - Gives us a month to month change in Relative Strength
What NordBord gives us a quantitative value for how strong you are relative to your body weight
It gives us an indicator of how structurally balanced you are which can prevent injuries
More macro analytics of Relative Strength should reflect in a net increase in Newtons of Force during the assessment - if not we have to go back to Sleep, Wellness, and training numbers to indicate progress
Gym Aware - Velocity Based Training
Gym Aware is a stopwatch and a tape measure - it measures how much we move and how fast we are going
This is a Quality Control meter during training - we can assign ranges to give feedback on training loads
We find Sleep, Wellness, ForceDeck says one thing - Gym Aware supersedes that
Performance during the individual set gives the best chance to make progress week to week
We have assigned zones of Velocity that we are going to stay within to ensure safety and training what we intend to train
Rate of Perceived Exertion - Training Intensity
At the completion of the workout, there will be a Post Workout Form where you will fill out on a 1-10 scale how hard the workout was
This gives an indicator of Heart Rate during exercise - higher RPE means higher average HR.
Higher Density Workouts - Higher HR through increased mechanical work done
Lower Density Workouts - Higher HR through increased intensities
This rolls into a Workload (RPE x Minutes of Activity) which gives us an ability to create an Acute to Chronic Ratio of training that can predict the potential for injury, training progress
Accumulation blocks are important because we see higher RPEs and lower Wellness scores.
This has always materialized into less attended Team classes week four of a training block. What we want from analytics is the ability to determine if that is a good strategy or not. We can leverage Force Deck, NordBord, and Gym Aware to definitively say if something was a good strategy or not. We can take the information and give a better answer to what you should lift on that given day.