Breaking Down the Formula...F=MA

 This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Functional Range Seminar Internal Strength.  If you have never attended one of their seminars (functional range release, conditioning, assessment)  I would highly recommend it.  

I won't summarize the whole weekend, but I did want to hash out a talk, that really made some of my thoughts much more clear in programming.  The talk was given by therapist John Quint.  John works with some of the strongest people on the planet at Westside Barbell.  

We have all heard the formula F=MA.  F is force.  M is mass.  A is acceleration.  There are a few ways to think of training but they all fall under these methods. 

1.  ME. max effort. 90-100%

2.  DE.  dynamic effort. 50-60 percent of ME

3.  RE.  repetition effort. 40-50 percent of ME

4.  REF.  repetition effort failure (hypertrophy)

Force will be ME.  Once we get an exercise to the ME we desire, lets say 405# on trap bar deadlift, we can then address other issues.  Most athletes are not looking to get bigger.  Runners, bikers, weight class athletes actually improve if they get stronger, but remain the same size.  Hypertrophy is usually not the goal.  REF is not used then in the purpose of bigger muscles.  So M in the F=MA will stay RE for maintenance of the ME or F.  A in the F=MA will the DE.  Moving the weight fast with intent and acceleration.  

This allows you to maintain what you have built in the 405# trap bar deadlift.  Over time, this may well bring negative adaptations in hip quality though.  Continually pushing weights in the same movement pattern is not the recipe for keeping a healthy human being.  

Enter the REF for the M in the F=MA equation.  Repetition effort to failure using CARS (controlled articular rotations) as your exercise (in this example doing the hip) to help the trap bar.  CARS at intense level is designed to get you access to new tissue.  This new tissue will need to be trained to keep it.  It will also be weaker.  So using a percentage in the ME or DE allows you to integrate that new tissue into the programming of the F=MA for the trap bar (any exercise).  

Running this equation this way over and over allows the athlete to not hit a plateau.  Even though the weight (405#) stays the same.  The athlete is continuously integrating new fibers, new recruitment around the hip to keep improving and also not allowing the exercise to ever create negative adaptations.  

Practically what would it look like.  Get the athlete as strong as you think is necessary.  I'm 195 pounds and have decided I want to keep a 2x bodyweight deadlift.  I have worked to get that number.  Now I'm going to work intensely on Hip CARS as part of my workout and my pair then with a percentage of the deadlift done with speed aka DE work.  I could also pair CARS with ME work, again supersetting hip CARS with a few reps at 95 percent of my 2x bodyweight deadlift.  

Quint did a great job of explaining this and made my thinking of this concept so much more clearer for me.  I hope my quick synopsis creates more direction for your training and also more curiosity for theirs.  

Stay strong, stay healthy.  

Coming Back Around to the Warm Up

 "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."

My last year of chiropractic school presented with an opportunity to compete to make the USA National Bobsled team.  One of the biggest aspects of training was running fast.  Training to run fast was the goal for the next few months.  One problem it was winter.  I found one indoor running track that allowed me to train on it from 5-6am.  

Me and the old folks.

I had a sprinting background from years in high school and college.  So a standard warm up was between 45-60 min for about 3-8 quality reps that lasted between 3-6 seconds.  Drills, drills, drills.  

"Don't ever stop doing that stuff and you won't ever have any problems like us!"

I remember those words from the same guy that would shuffle around the track every morning while I was there.  My life at the time was train, school, rugby, study.  Day in and day out.  My reference point was training.  My only thought when hearing those words, why would I?  Why would I stop warming up?

Fast forward a decade plus and I know have my own business and a kid.  The shift wasn't training, it was working out.  There is a huge difference. No plan, just get a work out in as time permitted.  The first thing to be lost was the warm up.  I no longer had to operate in the 95-99% of maximum efficiency.  

What was lost?

Warm ups are designed to expose the body to gradual increase in temperature.  10 min has been designated a minimum.  Think of it as gradual body perfusion of increased blood flow.  Blood flow is how things heal.  Cutting out the warm up is cutting out opportunity for helping little niggles to get better.

Warm up use multiple movements in multiple planes.  This is simply doing lots of different movements then what we have done on a routine basis.  Squatting, lunging, reaching, tumbling, gradual exposure into lengthening and loading tissues that haven't been active all day.  Joints have rotational capabilities that need to be expressed daily or they begin to stiffen.  Capsules need synovial fluid to stay healthy.  Synovial reaches the capsule through movement.  If you don't expose the joint to angles it doesn't drive synovial fluid into those spaces.  Cutting out the warm up cuts out the maintenance of joint range of motion.  

Warm ups allow gradual practice of the skill of the movement.  Rep after rep.  Regardless if it's a sprint, a squat, a deadlift or a push up, sprinting and lifting have a skill component that needs to be constantly kept fresh.  Skills that are practiced generally get better.  Cutting out the warm up cuts out the opportunity to practice skills.  

Warm ups allow us to take inventory of body parts and body movements that don't quite feel right.  Maybe, we spend a few extra minutes exploring those.  If something feels off after several days, perhaps we seek help, even if it's just a YouTube search of the area from a trusted source.  If you don't know your shoulder hurts when you do a table top stretch maybe it festers into something worse months later.  Cutting the warm up cuts out that screening process.  

For the general person adding or keeping a quality warm up for 10-15 min can bring many health and performance benefits.  Even if you only had 20 minutes, a 10 min warm up still allows ten minutes for high quality one or two movements.  Allow yourself the opportunity to keep giving your body a chance to move and improve.  Don't let that body get to old to play.