If you had the ability to grab the largest pair of binoculars in the world and try to see the scope of all the different implementations in the field of strength and conditioning, you would only see a fraction of what really goes on day to day in a field made up of a wide range of people from geniuses to hacks. One of the most amazing things about this field is that if you give a good strength coach who knows how to construct a progressive, well-rounded workout, he can guarantee results. Take that example into any other endeavor and you would be hard pressed to find any other venue that can guarantee results. Can you go to a stock broker, give him a wad of cash, and say here—invest this and guarantee me substantial gains? Can a sport coach take a group of kids and without a doubt guarantee ten wins in a season? The answer is no.
To guarantee these results, the only thing an athlete has to buy into is the ability to work and work hard. I think every person in this field would agree that in order to guarantee results there has to be overload upon a muscle or muscle group as well as an overload upon various energy systems in order for your plan of attack to work. As a professional, you have received an individual (or group of athletes) who has to a certain degree put his body and athletic prowess into your hands. With that being said, understand that you, as the professional, take the athlete’s hand and take on the responsibility of developing him to his genetic potential. The athlete doesn’t do any guesswork. He commits to you and receives these results. To set yourself apart as a professional, you must put a quality product out there and have the athlete perform well. Then you can say, “I had a part in his success.” I’m not saying that we as strength and conditioning professionals can put an athlete in the right place at the right time on the field of play, but unfortunately, the success of a sport or event determines our salaries and how we are judged in most cases. You can have the best gains in the world in the weight room, but it all comes down to the number in the ‘W’ column.
Now let’s discuss a few ways I believe you can go about strength training that will allow you to guarantee these results. These methods will allow you to maximally stimulate growth, power, and adaptation.
Max effort method (load dependent)
I’m talking about moving as much weight as humanly possible. The max effort method tries to evoke the most absolute strength possible. Load and intensity trump every other aspect of the exercise. Using the all or nothing principle, all my available motor units are firing and the maximal number of muscle fibers are being recruited in order for me to move this massive weight. We know that as time goes on and an individual becomes more highly trained, he becomes more efficient in recruitment. With this method, the volume stays low, the relative intensity is jacked up, and I allow for recovery (two to three minutes between sets). This is only one piece of the pie in athletics, as we’re trying to use strength as only one attribute that makes a better athlete.
If I’m trying to promote absolute strength in exercises like my bench or squat, I want my work sets in the one to five repetition range to be as heavy as possible. I believe this method to be the best for promoting absolute strength. Anywhere from three to eight sets is an acceptable range and this is also dependent on what else you have on tap for your athletes in a single training session. The only drawback to this method is that it will take time. If I’m giving two to three minutes for recovery and doing roughly five sets, this will take a while. Training density (amount of exercises/volume) is without a doubt a concern and an aspect we have to keep in mind.
Rate of force development method (ROFD)/power training
In this method, we tend to think of Olympic lifts, dynamic effort exercises, plyometrics, and short burst intervals. This method is probably the most misinterpreted method in the athletic world. I believe this method to be more of an energy system training event rather than an absolute muscular event like the max effort method.
In this method, I’m trying to overcome the load of an object and move it as quickly and forcefully as possible, which in turn makes this a max effort as well. The anti-force is gravity in most cases. If force is equal to mass times acceleration, there has to be an optimal range in which coupling mass and acceleration together creates the most force. This external object could be my body, a bar, a keg, a medicine ball, or whatever you want. The underlying tenant when using this type of training is there has to be speed involved.
Unlike the above method, there is a speed component. No one who has tried to bench 400 plus pounds raw ever thought, “I need to move this slowly.” Now if there is a such thing as ROFD, I think we can train it. The energy system that helps us derive the will to move something forcefully and explosively is the phosphocreatine (Pcr) energy system. Physiology tells us that this system is cashed after six to ten seconds and it takes roughly 12 times the rest for the work we just completed. But here is the kicker—I don’t think we can be maximally forceful by only doing this method. The most surefire way to impact force is to make the muscles involved in the exercise stronger. With that being said, the bottom line is, do not put all your eggs in this basket. Use this in addition to the other max effort methods.
In retrospect, I don’t believe we can make an athlete maximally forceful by only using the max effort method either. Both of these methods are great, but when standing alone, they aren’t as efficient as they are when combined. So we, as the professionals, need to make sure that if we’re going to take the time to train this aspect of strength and conditioning, we need to make sure the load doesn’t impede upon the speed of the movement, make sure form is perfect, allow for recovery, and train your ass off.
Max effort method (repetition)
I love this method not only for the overload it places upon the muscles involved but also for the pure mental toughness aspect it places upon the athlete. I prefer this method particularly for the legs. In this method, we go above and beyond the normal repetition scheme and hit up twelve to twenty reps. In this method, use strict form and a smooth controlled negative and don’t bounce or snap the joints in between the change from eccentric to concentric. I believe this method is superior for creating total momentary muscle failure, being that it completely taxes everything the athlete has. This method’s greatest ally is time under tension (four seconds -, two seconds +, or >). Time under tension couples with the high repetition set to create a mass pool of blood and lactate into the muscle all the while putting your ass in a stranglehold if done correctly.
Using the repetition method is great for machines. Why? With standard barbell exercises, form undoubtedly breaks down when trying to complete a high repetition set. Machines allow for a fixed path of movement and place emphasis exactly where you want it—directly on whatever muscle/group is assigned. While using machines, this method also allows for using forced reps. While doing forced reps aren’t only for machines and can be used in other applications, machines make it much safer to grind out a couple of forced reps. Personally, I don’t ever want to do forced reps with a set of fifteen to twenty on the barbell squat or while using substantial weight on any pressing movements. Tagging on forced reps with machines lets you see how far your athletes will actually go. Some of the weaker minded athletes won’t have the testicular fortitude or will to grind out fifteen reps and then add two additional forced reps. These athletes will quit or pull the racking levers (leg press) much more quickly than your more driven athletes.
Nevertheless, this method shortens the workout in most cases because, after doing a true max effort, high rep set using large muscle groups, the athletes won’t have much left in the tank. I also believe this method is the most universal. No matter the exercise, there is always a day when we need to dial down the weight slightly, do some damn reps, and get out.
I’m not saying that these methods are the only ways to train, but rather these are three methods we can use in conjunction with each other to give results, results that have the ability to be tracked and progressed and in the end give us a body of work we can be proud of. I believe if you plug these methods into microcycles that make up your larger macrocycle, you will be rewarded with results and some pretty damn tough athletes. Strength and conditioning is a very large piece of athletics. These methods (all three) are simply how I like to train my athletes. To what scope I will use each of these methods is due largely in part to the athletic population I’m training and what sport they’re competing in. If you were to look at a standard week schedule, you would see all of these methods used.
These three methods are considered separate entities. Many people will associate the first method with powerlifting and the second method with Olympic weightlifting. For the third method, many people will think of H.I.T training. In the end, just be multifaceted and be willing to not just be an Olympic guy, a powerlifting guy, or a H.I.T guy. Be a good coach and use every resource possible.