length-tension-motor-pool (LTMP-VOLUME) sessions.






Ok so the title sounds really advanced, but that's just because I can't really think of a cool title for this blog. As usual, going to try and keep it very short, this is more of a concept blog and one should realize I've only recently been utilizing this exact ideology of training, so it's long term effects are unknown, which in fact could predispose someone to even greater risk of injury. So keep that in mind. Though, so far so good.



I had this huge blog written but i'm going to keep this ridiculously simple.

If your goal is elite performance, you need to stimulate the highest threshold motor units of your prime movers on a daily basis, in fact possibly multiple times per day. Why do we allow our highest threshold MU's to lay dormant for days until our next max effort session? Training at a very high velocity, daily, is dangerous, so tapping into the fastest MU's using high velocity + high frequency training has far more risks than benefits, which include physiological, neural, and psychological fatigue. So what is the solution? To stimulate as much MU's as possible, every day, using submax intensity + "fatiguing work". This means, operating at 60-80% of 1RM and performing reps non stop, tempo doesn't matter, absolutely no rest in between, until failure or very close to it. This method becomes much safer than high frequency 90+% lifting, as it is far less draining neurologically, and is in fact very much restorative due to blood flow/temporary hypoxic environment. Thus, tapping into these MU's daily, or multiple times daily, using less fatiguing and in fact restorative methods, encourages growth of the entire motor pool, improves motor learning which builds connections which access these highest threshold MU's, aids in recovery, results in a significant amount of post-activation-potentiation (PAP/STIM), and should improve strength in regards to motor learning of the specific movements (such as improving strength at half squat depth).
 
So what does this mean? It means we can train at a relatively high intensity, using a submax RE method, which allows us to train more per week, month, and year than we ever thought possible. The amount of sessions we can handle per day, or week, depend on our progression & development of our work capacity. People accustomed to high frequency training can get away with multiple sessions per day. People who have no experience in high frequency training would need to stay strictly within the 1x/day limit for safety reasons. Regardless, progression of this ideology of training results in endless capability for growth. The percentages used per LTMP-VOLUME session can vary, as long as the tempo, no-rest, velocity, and "failure" guidelines are adhered to. This allows us to take advantage of what is considered the most powerful form of motor learning: randomized learning aka contextual interference (as opposed to block learning). Keep in mind these sessions are supplementary, they should not result in one "changing their program" to account for the LTMP-VOLUME sessions. The LTMP-VOLUME sessions are to be non fatiguing and in fact restorative, so they have no bearing on your actual "program".

So we covered the motor pool aspect, but what about the "length tension" relationship. This is where we kill two birds with one stone, if that even makes sense. Part of the motor learning aspect of this training, involves improving the resting length of our muscles/fascia prior to each LTMP-VOLUME session (well, the stretching part is considered the beginning of the ltmp-VOLUME session). Each LTMP-VOLUME session starts with mobility work of some sort, which can include but is not limited to: static stretching, pnf stretching, dynamic stretching/mobility/warmup, etc. Regardless of the method chosen, the idea is to "improve resting length" of key muscle groups. For lower body, this includes calfs, quads, hip flexors, hamstrings, glutes, adductors, and lats. So, prior to hitting our restorative squat, we would spend 15-30 minutes stretching to improve resting-length. Improving resting length WITHOUT improving the tension relationship is a problem, so, if we simply stretch without reinforcing the "tension relationship", we have a major problem. This is where we kill two birds with one stone. We lengthen, then utilize these muscle groups under tension in their slightly improved length. This will hopefully allow us to improve flexibility rather quickly while maintaining proper tonus in these muscle groups, for example, jello legs no longer exist from a long bout of static stretching, they in fact feel "loose" and ridiculously "springy", the active tonus is there, they are ready to fire.

So, putting it together, we lengthen, warmup using this "temporary" lengthened position, then perform a high rep submax fatiguing resistance exercise using these muscle groups, which if done using a high frequency approach, will result in very quick motor learning, recovery, stim, and thus more power.

An example LTMP-VOLUME session might look like this:


Stretching of various muscle groups: 15-30 minutes
Half squat: Warmup 30% x 10, 60-80% x F.
Done.



Something I'm thinking will work really good also will be this, have been doing it since tonight and it feels even better because of the interval sprints:


Stretching of various muscle groups: 15-30 minutes
Light interval sprints: Build up intensity over 10-20 sprints, do not exceed 70% effort
Half squat: Warmup 30% x 10, 60-80% x F.



Edited in, 03/19/2011: Another idea that might work, would be to hit a variety of exercises in the same manner, for example:


Stretching of various muscle groups: 15-30 minutes (upper AND lower)
Light interval sprints: Build up intensity over 10-20 sprints, do not exceed 70% effort
Half squat: Warmup 30% x 10, 60-80% x F.
Calf raises: Warmup 30% x 10, 60-80% x F.
Pullups: Warmup x ?, Work set x F
Pushups/dips: Warmup x ?, Work set x F



Edited in, 03/25/2011: Some other stuff:


Light completely stiff leg ankle hops: 4-5 x 25-50
RDL: Warmup 30% x 10, 60-80% x F.
Pullups: Warmup x ?, Work set x F
Calve Raises: Warmup 30% x 10, 60-80% x F


A good idea could be to alternate "knee bend exercises" (a-chain dominant: front/back/half squat/pin squat etc) with "stiff leg exercises" (p-chain dominant: 45 deg hyper, rdl, rev hyper, and let's include GHR), one could do this every other day, or rotating through the sessions throughout the day.

This method can most likely be used for more than squat, of course, but my guinea pig status stops at squat. One could do 3-4 squat sessions per day in this manner, or do a different lift per session. With all the talk of "neural charge", this is beyond a neural charge.

As far as injuries are concerned, I actually feel better following these LTMP-VOLUME sessions. My knees and all muscle groups become lighter and feel stronger/more explosive throughout the day. I've been utilizing this for nearly 2 weeks now and I don't know when I'm going to stop, because I can simply back off on the intensity per LTMP-VOLUME session to 60% and achieve failure on those, achieving basically the same effect.

So to summarize, why are we not stimulating the highest threshold MU's in the prime movers specific to our goals on a daily basis, or in fact, multiple times per day? If we can do so, job/school/life situations withstanding, then the potential for growth is endless. The potential for power, strength, hypertrophy, and PAP/STIM adaptations are enormous.

Here's my sessions over the last week or so, and my legs have never felt better. They in fact feel the best using the higher rep sessions and that is what i'm sticking with:

- 03/08/2011: 3 sessions of pin 6 squat: 225 x 5 {6pm, 7pm, 10pm}, one heavy half squat session also
- 03/09/2011: 4 sessions of pin 6 squat {3:30pm=225x5, 5:30pm=225x5, 2am=245x5, 4am=225x5}
- 03/10/2011: 2 sessions of pin 6 squat {11pm=225x10, 12:30am=225x10}, 2 heavy half squat sessions also
- 03/11/2011: 3 sessions of pin 6 squat {6pm=225x10, 9pm=225x10, 1am=225x10}
- 03/12/2011: 3 sessions of pin 6 squat {6pm=245x5, 9pm=245x5, 1:40am=245x5}
- 03/13/2011: 1 session of pin 6 squat {10am=225x5}, dunking, heavy squat session at night
- 03/14/2011: 3 sessions of pin 6 squat {7:30pm=135x10,225x5,275x5,295x1,315x1, pullups=10}, {11:30pm=135x8,225x5,275x5,295x1,315x1, pullups=8, prone-reverse-hyper=100}, {3am=prone-reverse-hyper BW@5x50, 135x8,225x5,275x5,295x1,315x1, pullups=10}
- 03/15/2011: 4 sessions of pin 6 squat {6pm=225x5, 2am=225x10, 3:30am=225x10, 5am=225x10}
- 03/16/2011: 2 sessions of pin6 squat {9pm=135x8,225x15,  12am=135x8,225x15}
- 03/17/2011: 3 sessions of pin 6 squats {9pm=135x8,245x10  2:30am=135x8,245x10  5am=135x8,245x12}
- 03/18/2011: 3 sessions of pin 6 squats {7pm=interval sprint + 265 x 10,  9pm=interval sprint + 265 x 8  3:30am=interval sprint + 265x10}

Again, keep in mind this is experimental, if you try it, start out with just 1 session per day and 60-70% of 1RM for at least a week or so, see how you feel, and make sure you get the stretching in, that is apart of this ideology. As always, listen to your body and back off when needed.

Make sure you keep your ego in check and keep it safe, this is supplementary to your normal routine which gives you all the more excuse to stay lighter and not push your limits per session. Pushing your limits comes through the frequency + STIM effect of this style of training.

peace

Sounds really interesting, I would defintley like to try this out some time but I should probaly stay with i'm doing for now.
How often do you lift heavy mutilple sets (if ever) then?

Interesting

It reminded me of this post on Barry Ross's site:

:Drew Baye, a frequent Supertraining poster provided his analysis of these points a while back:

“High levels of acceleration are not necessary to recruit the high threshold IIB fibers. Even with loads as low as 60% of 1RM all the motor units in the primary muscles in an exercise will be recruited within a few reps after which force is maintained despite fatigue by increased rate coding.

Whether you move slowly or quickly, as long as you use at least a moderately heavy weight ALL of the motor units will be recruited.

Also, the type II fibers are not responsible for explosive movements. The “fast” and “slow” in “fast twitch” and “slow twitch” refers to the time in ms it takes a fiber to reach it’s maximum tension, not the speed of movement the fiber is capable of producing. The difference in twitch speed between slow and fast twitch is less than 1/10th of a second. Slow twitch fibers can produce rapid movements and fast twitch fibers will be involved in even extremely slow or isometric movements as long as there is adequate resistance.”

Of course, such statements raise counter-arguments:

One such argument is that higher levels of acceleration with submaximal weights generates more total force, which would result in the greatest recruitment of type 2 fibers. Slower movements, even though utilizing all fiber types, would create far less total force than a faster concentric pace.

Baye notes that, “due to greater cross-bridging a muscle is capable of contracting with more force at slower velocities (force/velocity curve) during concentric contraction."

Baye offers that the best way to increase force is not to rapidly accelerate, but to simply use a heavier weight. Doing so increases the tension over the full range of the exercise and not just during the initial acceleration.

He also tries to clarify this issue of muscle “twitch.”

“The reason they’re called fast “twitch” is because the twitch speed, or time it takes the fiber to reach maximum tension is faster – not the resulting speed of movement. Fast twitch motor units within a muscle are larger and as a result capable of producing greater force thus greater acceleration, but this is because of their size not necessarily their physiology. It is not necessary to move quickly to recruit them, however, only to use an adequately heavyweight.”

Baye’s take is that, with the exception of practice for a competitive lift, there is no reason to recommend moving quickly during exercise. Fast reps are not necessary to recruit the type IIB fibers, provide no advantage over slow reps with adequate resistance, and have the disadvantage of producing an inconsistent level of tension over the range of motion, not to mention an increased risk of injury.

I would have to look more closely at Baye’s analysis of an inconsistent level of tension and an increased rate of injury during these higher speed protocols, as well as his insight on a decrease in force as a result of kinetic energy imparted to themoving bar. Both concepts have been challenged on other forums.

Baye believes the best way to increase force is not to rapidly accelerate, but to simply use a heavier weight. Doing so increases the tension over the full range of the exercise and not just during the initial acceleration.
I do like Drew’s general guidelines for strength training:

1.Maintain strict body positioning and alignment.
2.Reverse direction smoothly with no bouncing, yanking, jerking or heaving.
3.Focus on intensely contracting the target muscles over the full range of the exercise.

As you fatigue the reps will become progressively slower. At this point you should attempt to gradually increase acceleration, trying to move faster but without altering body positioning and without jerking or heaving theweight . By this point it will be impossible for you to move faster if you maintain proper form and attempting to do so in a controlled manner will increase the intensity of contraction.

I think those of you doing any protocol with percentage at 85% of 1RM or greater would agree with these points.

One of Baye's key points:

'Lifting heavy will not make you slow; the stronger your muscles the more force they can produce the faster they can accelerate your body in the performance of any movement. Properstrength training will do far more to improve your running speed and vertical jump than plyometrics and will do so with much lower risk of injury.""

So Andrew, for the work sets, do you do one work set to failure?

Meaning, a session is stretching + 1 warmup set + 1 work set then go home?

I was thinking about doing some squats before I go to work, so I could experiment on that doing it every day. Then do my usual workout on the evening.

love that, thanks for re-posting it here, applies perfectly..






i think alot of that applies to this method i am talking about, but, with max effort style lifting, i still prefer to work on speed during the transition of each lift. I think it's better to really work on reversal speed than to just smoothly control the reversal.








I definitely would find that to be more draining than slow 60-80% higher rep, i know for certain i would really burn myself out quick while working on speed 3-4x/day using those guidelines. I can "feel" the fatigue from higher speed training vs slow controlled moderate-high rep lifting, it's hard to explain but I basically feel shut down when my frequency of explosive lifts is very high, especially if all of these lifts/movements really target the quads. If my quads are at all dead, the only thing I can really do is sprint, jumping/rebounding exercises/explosive squatting are "inhibited" in my mind, again hard to explain, but last night for example, still have quad fatigue from two days prior, I couldn't even do one rebounding tuck jump.. body wouldn't let me, I could force it of course, but i listen to those feelings and back off.. Body did let me do light sprints though, because quads were fine during those movements.

so ya, high freq explosive work really drains me.. I can't jump max back2back days, perhaps it is just an individual thing.




yup, that's my mindset too, through trial and error thats what i've found to be true for myself and others.. I just can't apply it to ballistic movements, or a host of issues start manifesting themself.





excellent quotes and posts..

i completely agree with the "practice" concept and "if it is important do it every day".. What I had to figure out was, what do i do every day?? I obviously can't jump every day, it destroys me.. what I can do every day: submax lifting for moderate-high rep, bodyweight exercises (high rep), light interval sprints from 10-60m, max effort short sprints (10-20m), and that's about it. So jumping is my goal, but it's not something that is "important", the important things are teaching myself to recruit more mu's as much as possible, getting stronger, getting "stimmed", not draining myself, and getting in those light or explosive short sprints to keep that "rebounding stimulus in" without fatiguing my quads.

peace man great posts, loved it.

Seems like it's working well for you adarqui, but gotta admit i'm a bit weary of it.

I tried a squat daily program last year after reading something by Dan John advocating it...I kept the weight at about 70-80% and only did 1-2 sets...destroyed my hip.  Couldn't squat for about 6wks without pain.

to add to that, in case people have already read it.. my first HFSE (high frequency squat experiment) resulted in serious hip pain, i was going slightly below parallel, that's what caused me to eventually go half squat, which resulted in extra gains in vert and no hip pain.. so that's how i began half squatting.

so ya, if you do high frequency stuff deep, better listen to your body very well, or just suck it up folks and utilize pin/half squats, they rulz

pc

why can't you go up with it anymore?