About all right. Do you want to
Quickly, repeat your question. I want to
lead with I'd love to kind of repeat this question.
So if you guys don't mind we'll get started here again, and you
know, I'd say like as kind of a general observation
that I've had in terms
of like, you know in the United States like who are our
great athletes and who are the more most impressive physical
specimens. I feel like I've been saying a long time
like you almost don't have any chance of being a great athlete if you're
kind of like a typical white kid from the suburbs, like I
think like our great athletes usually come from the hood or from
the country. Okay, and it's like to me there's a
certain like wildness that like allows
the expression of certain things to kind
of take place. Like If You're Gonna Play tight end in the NFL you got
to be a bit of a psychopath, you know what I mean? Like to willingly do
the things required of that position to
take the hits that you have to do same thing with like middle
linebacker or any of those things and also like
oftentimes when I think about like the most jacked people
I've ever seen, you know, they're they're oftentimes. They're
not like the smartest guy.
Are not like the most scientifically rigorous or
knowledgeable about like exactly the right way to lift weights.
But they're just like straight up animals. And
so like what's kind
of like what's up with that in some ways like there's a
lot to unpack with these things, but you know,
I don't know. I think that that when I think about people that
like
and also like for me like going on
a journey and I'm gonna try to compete in
bodybuilding and see what can happen.
And so I since making that
decision like I'll watch YouTube videos and go
on channels of guys that are top competitors and
pop coaches, you know, the the guys that are
like the the bodybuilding Guru people and oftentimes
you see things and hear things and you're like, oh my
God like this is what the top people are talking about like this.
crazy and kind of like just dumb and like but
like it's it guess it's working, you
know, so in some ways
I think about like
I also like I like the sport of golf
and it's really interesting hearing like different
swing coaches argue with each other because that's a
nasty little world to get into is like different golf
coaches and like their views on swing paths
and you know shaft angles talking about
golf still get mind out of I see
all these but you know like but
with golf like there's probably more of
a common denominator of what the experts
end at in terms
of strategies because the margin for error with golf is
like razor razor thin like you
have to do it exactly this way the swing
has to look exactly this way the measurements they're looking
for very much agreed upon because if you're off
by a tiny amount like it's in the woods. It's in the
water, you know it ran off the back of the green
versus to me with something
like I purchase.
The margin of error is just gigantic.
It's about as big as anything could
possibly be for different approaches
somehow seeming to
work It's tricky because there's drugs and there's a lot of factors that
go into hypertrophy and in some ways. I look at it as like
an ecosystem, you know food.
if you're gonna talk about drugs training the
training stimulus, it's all got to kind
of come together in some way shape or form
that that makes sense the mentality all
of those pieces, but you know,
when at this big topic that I'm
talking about of like
You can be pretty dumb but it can
still work. Like what is that conjure in your
mind as the the thoughts that you have?
Well for one, I think when we look at
Sports
at the most extreme of speed
genetics are a big component and then
the opposite direction at the most of extremes of approach fee.
I also think genetic Spirit like a huge component as
you get into Middle Ground of I don't have to be too fast or
too big like I think strength is probably the least genetic
right like everybody can get
Stronger right decently strong,
but not everybody can get an Olympic
physique and not everybody's going to be fast. That's kind
of how I look at that and
In addition to the genetic approach I put
up.
like part of the the principles of thresholds thing
that I cover in our in our bomb mechanics practical
essentially with that's looking at is that
You know when it comes to her purchase fee, we need we need
certain things in place, but we
don't have to necessarily maximize one
specific one of those variables meaning it.
It's an it's it's an accumulation of all of
those variables. And so which one of those we try and
maximize or get the most out of in very
so when I look at this I look at that. It's just like, okay we could
basically focus on you know, trying to go from the
most, you know, basic stuff to like
the top of the pyramid in any of these things
right? Whether that be you know, really maximizing our exercise selection
dialing our technique focusing on
like just absolute effort or
focusing on volume. And then I look at recovery. I
put it up here, but I also look at it as like it's one of the ones where
if you don't have that like
Like in order to take the volume one to the peak recovery is
gonna have to be at a certain thing. Right but you
don't necessarily like have to
it's like how much you sleep doesn't affect which
split squat variation you can do as directly as it
does how many sets a week? You can handle it and stuff
like that. So there's there's a bit of crossover. But for the most part I look
at these as an individual things and I'm looking at basically this
is this is the minimum
Right, so it's like okay if you do this, right and
I'm gonna warn you this is some high intense Graphics
coming up. Okay, you get
Gains, right. So this is this is I mean
this math is it's tough. Yeah, right, but if
you hit the minimum threshold on all of
these
You'll make some progress. Right? And this
is where the genetic component is. Like. Well, okay. What's what's a
low rate of progress for you versus what's a high
rate of progress Etc? Right, but I'm looking at it's like, okay. This is
the bare minimum of what you need to establish meaning that.
Okay. What's the bare minimum for exercise selection? Well, if
you're gonna go quads, it's not bicep curls. Oh, right like
so where that threshold is is gonna
be someone, you know dependent on
the individual but not just from the stimulus perspective,
but also that
Looking for this way if the dose that you need.
To make progress is significantly higher.
That means every negative consequence that comes
with that exercise whether it be from an orthopedic perspective
or a fatigue perspective also gets
Amplified versus if you're one of those freaks where
it's like you don't have to do that many sets. You
don't have to work as hard and you still make that progress. That
means you might be able to get through a huge chunk of
your career with no negative consequences from
we'll say not the best technique or not the
best exercise selection, but you take that same person that's got
to work at higher degrees of effort and volume,
right?
All of a sudden now their foot placements little off.
Their knees start to hurt, you know, right or they start
to you know, all these things start to break down. Right and there's
a lot of interaction because he's right like especially
because I mean basically all stimulus become
the same with enough volumes, right which is
f***** right? Like that's that's the sets you what it is, right? Like, you know,
you talk about oh, you know mechanical tension and
inflammation versus, you know, metabolic stress
like well,
Enough sets yes could be inflammatory doesn't matter if
it's shorter length of exercises enough volume. You're gonna get
some mechanical tension in there enough volume, you're gonna get you know, like so
it's like the the lines the more volume that you do
the more like everything just becomes the same. Right? And
so I look at it's like
man the amount of stimulus that it takes for you
to grow affects how important some of these like optimizing
some of these things are going to be right that
just for me how much results but also just
like whether or not this actually even becomes an option for
you to pursue right and I think that weeds
its way out too, right like if you go to the gym and you
don't get a lot of results, what are
the odds that you are then the person that continues on
that? Yeah, very low right. So I think like what we
see is kind of a natural selection in this
process right is like okay. Yeah. I mean how
many people do we see on the like? Oh look at all these guys and
what they're doing and they're on the bodybuilding stage and whatever like you're not
seeing all of the people that did the same s*** that they did and then
you know after six weeks. They're like f*** this right, you
know, like none of those people are represented in
the in that data set, right? And that's to be honest. Actually probably
98% of those people right? I
mean, what do we what do we see on the bodybuilding stage? Right like
point zero zero zero zero one percent of the of the fitness
population, right? You know what percentage of the population trains
At all, right and only a very small amount
of them get like significant results, right?
I mean you have a gym how many
how many how many how many physiques in
any particular Jimmy walk in and it's not like you
walk in the gym and 80% of the people in there are like f***,
you know, just walking around with 20 inch arms. It's like no 80% of
the people in there.
You could probably see it Target. Yeah, no, right
and then maybe 20% you're like, oh, yeah. These are the guys that work
out and then maybe like, you know less than 5% or
like wow, check out that dude, right, you know
and that's still deceiving because that while you can
check out that dude is the dude that spends the most time at the gym and comes the
most days, right and the people that you know aren't impressive. We're probably
the people that are in there the least frequently what now, so I think we have
a skewed perspective.
right, but getting back to the principled stuff is
This is what when you're like well, what's the
minimum and how do we how do I account for that?
Is this like? Well you could then from this if this
is the base.
You could push any one of these buttons up right meaning,
you know, you could count Secret Sauce as pushing the
recovery thing up.
Right, or you could do more volume or you
could do more sets or you could focus on technique
or you could you know design all your
own equipment, right? So you don't have to think about anything ever again. You just
sit down and work whatever right like all of these are
options, right? But the once you
meet at minimum threshold,
Then you can kind of pick and choose now what I
do think and I kind of just walk through this a little
bit if you think this is valuable, right? So there's the see my animation of
the games that you take away recovery gains go away, right? Oh
really see that. I
mean, this is our meat head. So I got to put it in the like the language
that they understand right? So what I
look at is this like it's this pyramid effect. Meaning that
when you go from like the minimum threshold,
To a higher degree of competence, right? You're gonna
get a certain amount of benefit from there
a certain Roi. Okay. So just mathematically
I'm like, okay if we take two of
those categories bring that up, maybe because it's 14% increase in our
rated progress, right? Okay, if I bring everything up
I'm like, okay, cool. Maybe maybe by you
know going from bare minimum to
Competent maybe I can get one and a half times as
much progress now. We'll talk about her perch fee. That's still not like
that's still not super fast because her persevere is
just slow but I think that's like if if I if I
think you know using all of my own anecdotes and everything
that I can see in the research, I think that's reasonable.
for that individual person
That that's probably something especially in the we'll say
first half of their career. Okay, obviously in
the later stages like man measuring those percentage changes
becomes really really hard because they're making such slow progress
in general but
The other part of this principle is as you work up. You
do not get the same Roi going from competent to
great and then you do
not get the same rate of improvement going from great to we'll say
best optimal perfect, whatever we're
like, so it's like, you know going from doing f***
all to just have any of whatever a
good enough squat pattern to lower your lower your
lower body. Good all the sudden now
we throw in like hey now we're actually able to shift this into a
quad bias variation. That's probably gonna be a significant
Improvement like, okay, we're using a heelvation maybe a
you know, safety super squat, but whatever like it's like, okay, but
it's still an exercise that requires a lot of coordination, right? So we're
still going to be limited and depending on how long you're levers are,
you know, it's gonna be quad biased but it may not be as biasis
you could get if we could move into a hack squad
or a pendulum, but that but that shift of
going from like, you know, just some you know random squats
dance with the techn.
Right going from that to like a dialed in squat set
up for the muscle. That's probably gonna be a big change right going
from that to a specialized equipment that's gonna
be a decent Improvement, especially as you get more advanced and
you need like that laser specific
benefit, but going from awesome amazingly
designed hack squat to a pendulum
squat. That's just a little bit more quad biased right?
Okay. I mean, yeah, you know, it's you're getting you're
getting marginal there right or it's like okay you could
look at is this like going from a really good design hack squat to then,
you know reverse Manning that profile a little bit better or whatever
it is like
The deeper you get into the nuances.
The less Roi you're going to get on your progress.
But on some of these categories like exercise selection technique.
Those nuances may have a bigger magnitude on Orthopedic
issues. Yep, and things like that so might be
like look.
Making like adjusting your foot position here changing this
load profile here and getting you know this put plate
or whatever here might not.
Had the same magnitude in terms of how much hypertrophy if we
basically forced you to complete that but the cost of
doing business might be a little bit. Yes, which actually might then
be the thing that infects it because it might extends, you know, yeah my
reduce your injuries might like it extend your
career or might just literally like, you know, because if you
have to if you have to take more delos, right or you
have to like, oh like I got to avoid anything that I go into
full knee flexion. Wow, or whatever right? It's like, okay. Well if
we only looked at the window when you were training and be like
it made no difference, but then if we account for all those other things, I think
it likely in real life does make a
difference on gain still some of the some of
these some of these let me ask you specific question. Do you
think Ronnie Coleman's training was
smart?
Do I think it was smart?
I think yeah, I think I think he could have taken an approach to
training.
That would have made his quality of life right now significantly better.
Right, like I don't think he has I don't think
he had to suffer the consequences from his training
that he did to get his results. It would
be.
Hubris for me to say that I think that
with Ronnie's genetic potential.
that
anything would had have had
a like there's no you couldn't argue that
you could double Ronnie's games, right? But I
think that's what happens when you're on the the freakiest like the genetic component
can become such a strong component
than all these other things are super marginal
in terms of the absolute. Just how much mass you
put on. Yeah, right like you see like have
you ever seen a picture of an 18 year old Jay Cutler?
Have not right? Well, I'm just you know, I'm gonna wish you the best in
your body building career. But 18 year old Jay Cutler probably beats you
I don't die and it's it's sucks. Like
that's not fair. Right like, you know, like 20
22 year old Lee Priest one of the
best physiques I've ever seen and like yeah, that's f*** like the
as kids. These guys had better physiques than
most people will have with the whole career
body building and drugs. Yeah, right. And so I think in those instances
where the genetic factors like it's so drastic, you
know, you're lying if you're like, well, you know,
if you would have to short and long head biceps bias exercises,
his arms would have been so much bigger and like the resolution is
just not there because for him the threshold
of what it takes like the threshold of
what he needs from the stimulus perspective is already so skewed in
terms of what he needs to get that adaptation that like, that's a
needle you really can't move much. Is there an example
of someone
Embody building that you can think of where you think
that their approach?
That a high level competitor who's the most dialed in
smartest approach that
you're familiar with?
um
I mean, I don't think anybody does it exactly like
we do but I think like high green is
example of a very thoughtful bodybuilder with
the things that he's doing and the what, you
know, like every motion that he does.
Is very intentional right? It's probably a little
too much internal like intent on his part where he's like
focusing a little bit too much on my muscle connection for what
I think but I think you know
some of those guys that are more in tune
with their body. They find a lot of the same
solutions that we'll find scientifically on their
own right I mean for
A short a short short bicep short
short head bicep curl is a concentration curl.
Right that that's important positions short position short
head bicep curl, right? So do you think it's a coincidence that
somebody's like, you know, what when I do this, I feel the feel that
whatever right and it's like well, okay. Yeah, that's exactly how that
that's exactly what the mechanics say. That's exactly what we would
read on the EMG and the Moxie and like so it's so a
lot of times it's like look, you know, there is some correlation
between sensation and
these guys putting it and stuff into practice and then seeing the actual
result from that that we that we have in
there, right, you know, but you just see it in
like glimmers here and there because everybody's doing so
much stuff like they're you know, nobody's like hey, I'm just
gonna take you know these 12 weeks and do this one bicep exercise
right now. Nobody Builders willing to right sacrifice that 12
weeks. They're gonna be like no I'm gonna do all the things that I can and
so that data is very dirty, right?
Yes, you know, but yeah off
the top of my head that's that's who I would
say, but to be fair,
I don't like I have not followed.
professional bodybuilding enough to know
for probably
five years or what like
Because it because of my past or whatever. I just kind of
like.
I lost the love and
interest for like just paying attention
to the pageant and who's in it and what they're doing what's going on
and like I love the training and the principles of what's
going on, but it's like, you know.
I don't care so much about the sport. Right
like I care about people that I know that are
participating in the sport, but I
couldn't I couldn't tell you who won the Arnold.
Do you think that if I took all of
the top bodybuilders out there and I
somehow had the power to make them all train with
N1.
Methods of training that you would
see a significant Improvement in
the bodies that got on stage.
I think what you would be able to see is.
A lot of them would be able to balance their
physiques.
In the way, they want like you would see
people that have been struggling with XYZ body part
be able to find that because what I
think in those individuals is the body parts that are
lagging are ones that they're not hitting these thresholds for
right now. Do I
think that in the like say they're strong body parts that training
like this would significantly improve that
that's where it's like if you're taking the top guys, they're probably at
that genetic limit plus, you know, I mean Super genetically
let's let's also be honest, look I can give
you a better exercise.
It's not Trend it's not
so as much as much as much as
much as I wish that I could Empower you with knowledge.
Yeah, that would be stronger than that.
I can't right. So that's honestly
like the kind of the question that I'm I'm going
towards is we see
certain animals as well like a
Belgian Blue bull for instance where the animal
has a mile Statin deficiency and the
animal has a global level of hypertrophy.
That's maybe incomparable to any
other animal on the planet. Will you see this in like like Flex
wheel is a great example somebody that has a mutation that
Gene.
They have they grow muscles that they don't train. Right? Right,
like they have thumb muscles and things like that that are
like like what actually have you ever intentionally done
an exercise for that ever in your
life? No, and it's it'll be the biggest one on stage. Yeah, right.
That's the genetic. So that's kind of
like one of my questions is like, you know,
when when I think about this, I'm always trying to
like rationalize some of
these Corner cases and instances like this
like, you know, the Belgian Blue Bowl has
the best upper traps.
Going, you know what I mean, and I don't want to
get into a shrug conversation on this, but I
don't think it's doing right now targeted.
The less, you know, the better your upper traps are
you know, because you're just always like I don't know so,
you know, but I don't think
like the point is is that you you pick a
muscle and it's got the best muscle that you could ever see
on the planet basically.
And it's never done a targeted exercise for
that muscle.
You know and and so that's kind of my question
is like in the ecosphere of
hypertrophy. Like if
I was to talk about the environment, you know,
I could talk about a million different things in the environment that
impact how good of a day it is.
You know, it's raining. It's windy. It's fill
in the blank.
humid dry but by Far and
Away the critical
most important ingredient to how good
of a day it is is the sun the solar load
that's coming in in play.
So
You know when I when I'm trying to rationalize the
environmental factors that
all feed into a hypertrophic.
package
What's the Sun?
Yeah, I mean the sun is probably it's probably
genetics in this instance. Right? I mean
if you look at the sun is being
like it governs everything else below right?
That's I mean, probably right. I
mean, I don't think any I don't think any of the variables that
we talk about in training. Will that be you know,
You know, how much protein do you eat? You know, what exercises do
you do? How many sets do you do? What rpe range do
you work in like any of those things? I
I think they're all probably a lot.
They're a lot closer to importance.
then
our tribalist Cults on
social media would like to admit everybody wants to
think that the thing that they care about is that's that every everybody
thinks that thing that they focus on is the son right
and that's why this is one of the most important lectures of
our group. Yeah of our class and in some
ways that's what the question I had about this diagram because
I'm looking at this and these are all equal sized
pyramids and
I'm kind of curious because to me it's
like I don't is genetics up here. I don't
I don't believe so. It's not in there. Yeah, so because it
would just be it would just be a magnifier of everything. Yeah. Yeah, but
it's kind of like well, maybe if I'm talking about this
analogy of the environment like this might be precipitation wind.
These are
all the Earthly qualities that yeah exactly. So
if if you were to think about
the
hierarchy or the magnitude of these
different things.
in your mind
Do you picture these different pyramids?
As having different magnitudes of important or
like a hierarchical.
I don't I think.
This I think the threshold for certain individuals will
be different a little bit, but I don't think so. I
think like
you know because I think they multiply each
other right so like
if you're doing a s***** exercise.
And you're using more volume.
You magnify the negatives of that exercise, right? So
but if you're doing a great exercise.
And you're doing less volume. Well that volume is a little
bit better quality than so because the because
these things interplay with each other so much. I don't
think it's even worth trying to sit here and scale it
important value. I think what's important and this
is what I teach is that when you look at this you look
at where is your easiest opportunity for
improvement? Like what can you do and so we'll go
through like hey if you're training somebody online
Techniques gonna be a challenge for you to
coach.
Right. I mean you can only do so much right? I mean you can send them videos
and yeah, whatever you count that. Okay? Yeah,
but you can if they have a bunch of exercise you can easily tell
them to go do something else, right, you know, or you can
you know, apply constraints and things like that, right or you can
easily say Hey, you know, we can always use more
sets right efforts another one, right? If you're training people virtually,
you can't force people to do the Reps. They don't want to
do but if you know, they're not gonna do it then you could
give them the sets. Yep, right like so so really it's about
hey, these are these are the tools that you have available to influence
this equation, right? Which of
these can you most easily crank up
with the least amount of effort right? And I
would say, you know if you have like
My view is like look neglect nothing.
Right focus on optimizing the things
that are least objectable and getting give
you the highest Roi so that means that if you have an area
that's right at the threshold and you can bring it up. That's probably more
worth your time than an area where you're really
great and you're just trying to get to the top of the pyramid.
Unless that comes as like no extra cost or
energy to just get that last little bit of improvement then like well, why
not take it right? If it's a free lunch, go ahead. Right? So, you know,
if if you're here, I'm not gonna be like, well, I don't
want to focus on exercise selection too much. I'm gonna give
you the second best exercise available like not just use the best exercise available.
Yeah, right. Um, but I'm not gonna be
like look what you really need is buy your
own gym. And you know, like it's gonna be like no. Okay. This is
what you got. So if all you got is that's all you
guys are very squat. Then that technique thing is gonna
become so much more important and managing the volume and effort
is gonna like these now become more important because I'm
constrained on this other one.
Right, so it's like I got it like if I'm limited so we'll go
through like basically what I
do, I don't want to take up the time. But what I'll do is I'll put up things where
I'll constrain some of these variables like who is this client
that can improve here? And then how would
we adjust that? Right? So that's where we got some sort of
sliding scale with these things depending upon
you know, but it's not
value. It's opportunity. Oh, right. Where do you have opportunity? I
get what you're saying. It's a gap analysis what's missing
here? You know this person sleeps four
hours a night. Boom. There's a huge red flag,
you know, you know, I'm a big Bill Hartman guy
and he's always talking about blue coffee cups, which
comes from the Jeff Hawkins book
on intelligence, you know, it's like the brain notices errors
and the story with that is like, you know.
Hey you work in an office every day and you're
used to coming in this office. You know where things are one
day you walk in the office and for some reason there's a blue
Coffee cup in the middle of your your coffee table that doesn't
belong there. So you you notice it. And so Bill's
always talking about we're always just trying to find blue coffee cups.
What does it make sense? You know, and if
we can eliminate blue coffee cups, then
we really provide an appropriate
answer from the circumstance.
so I I kind of understand that like
When I'm looking at this, you know, I see like
some some sort of low hanging interactions that I
think are worth pointing out. Like, you know what I
really picture like what's happening to grow. It's kind
of like I I think about like I have
to eat food and I have to turn that food into my
muscle.
And that's a weird like, you know process that
we're going to go through and I have to
eat enough of that food to provide
that and that's gonna be a sliding feeling. So
I I think of food in the same way of
progressive overload as I think of training like I
just think like I have to make my two Progressive with
sleds push uphill
at a certain point and eventually
I can reach a point
of incredibly diminishing returns which
eat with each of those processes. So I like
I get to the point where my training is just like on Godly and
it's like I should probably now reduce and
hopefully maintain in this
place same thing with food like I'm gonna get bigger.
I gotta eat more more food on the plate more weight on
the bar more mass on the organism. So I'm gonna try to push
that sled but then it gets to the point where I'm like eating
You know 800 grams of carbs a day
and I just can't fathom eating 850. And so
maybe I can kind of take a base camp rest right
here and hold on to the amount
of muscle mass. I have will bring my calories down to
a certain point and resensitize and
now make another push up
a mountain and try to do that because I basically don't
want to try to push training volume
super hard. If I'm in maintenance
calories, it's like well, I can't
grow tissue because I don't have the raw supplies.
I'm just trying to hold and resensitize with
less in the training and the
nutrition phase right now so that
when it's time to make my next slog up
the hill.
I can I I'm starting from an easier
place and I give myself a longer Runway.
You know, I mean to me that's sort of like just this
watch rinse and repeat kind of
a model where in both directions like if
I'm trying to lose fat like it's, you know
at a certain point. It's like I've reduced everything so far
that it's like we don't have anywhere left to
go and I need to kind of have a base camp and maybe build back
up. Hopefully, I don't get any fatter as
I just progressively eat a little bit more food and
I resensitize myself for a loss again,
so
You know that like as I was looking at those things like
I don't I don't you know, that's a different visual
than whatever it is. I have in my head. I sort
of just picture like these efforts of going
up a mountain, you know, and the top of whatever Mountain you
have is your ultimate genetic expression
for this thing and it's really hard to
go up this mountain like it takes
way more effort. Well, the beginning of the mountains
usually not so bad. It's like a gradual slope pretty easy to
walk that thing newbie gain sort of a thing
but the higher up a mountain you get usually the grade gets nastier
and nastier and nastier. So it's like a concentrated
major effort push with
a lot of calories and a
lot of nastiness in the gym and I can
only make that push for a fairly short amount of time
and I got a base camp. We're not a base camp. I just a new
camp and then move again and then rest and and
like being able to
sequence that is sort of the big deal
in my mind, you know, and it's always just
like these
Points, I like the term constraints with
this because you're ultimately kind of constrained by
like well s***, man. I'm so
strong and all my exercises are so
heavy that if I do a bunch of them, I'm like
a, you know a cripple and I have
to eat so much food at this
point in time. I hear about guys that have to eat over a
thousand grams of carbs a day and it's like
Oh my God, like I can't even imagine that like
the highest I've gone up to six forty
and that's horrible. That's just horrible
and like you can only sustain that for
so long and it's like at a certain
point you're just constrained by some part
of your system, you know, so I I
You know, it's not I wouldn't even say this isn't that
isn't even necessarily a question or anything.
From that I'm not looking for anything from you from
that statement. It's more that I I was seeing some
of those pieces and I was thinking of it from like a holistic ecosystem
thing. And and that's that's
how I view a lot of things is it's like a multivariate number
of things that are kind of coming together
that give me this opportunity to display
the expression of
a quality or a realm of
adaptation that's possible and like I'm
going to run into bumpers
in my pursuit of
this thing.
You know and and oftentimes like I
try to go in a different direction a lot of times and I
just picture like a different Pursuit if I wanted to
be a really good mile Runner, you know,
I picture like the best way to do that would probably be do a lot
of repeats of running a mile.
And like that's s*****, you know what I mean? Like but what
gets really really s***** is if
I actually get pretty good and then my training repeats are
like hey on Thursday, my
program says I have to do.
six sets of one mile runs
and each one has to be
Three minutes and 55 seconds
or less, you know,
and that's the program. That sounds
like the worst thing in the world. You know what I mean? And that could legitimately
be a training day for one of those athletes and
You know at a certain point because that
might be weak 10 of their program on
a week one. It might have been four minutes
and 15 seconds and then gradually shaving off
time and then we get to week 10. It's
like oh no and like you literally can't
imagine anything being worse than
repeats at that level of effort.
But guess what? If you actually want to
get better you'd have to do either more
repeats at that intensity level or
repeats at an even
higher intensity level and there's going to be so many
bumpers that you're going to run into if that's
like what you're what your goal is.
Sorry. I gotta shut that offer Apple.
You'd be copyright because those screen savers gonna it's
right in front of you.
Yeah, there you go.
but you know in that instance like and and to
me so many times it's the mind that can become the
bumper where it's like I see it with
personal training clients a lot and it's like hey, we
did a hard set and they're just like so overwhelmed
mentally from that experience and
they can't even imagine something getting worse
and it's sort of like
Listen buddy, like whatever it is that you perceived
that to be.
That that was nothing man and like, you know
as a quick anecdote on this, you know,
I am I went on a trip to Las Vegas
and on that trip one of the activities that
we did was we we went to the exotic car
racing place and got to drive cars
around this track. And so I get a
Mazda. What do you call it?
Am right now, I can't think but it wasn't a Lambo wasn't
a Ferrari. It was the McLaren. So
I'm driving to McLaren. I got the the Pro driver next
to me in the passenger seat. He's got another wheel
and a break in case he needs it.
Well this first lap I get this thing up to
about 155 miles an hour. Like that was
crazy. Okay, this guy kind of says to me like, hey man,
you know, you can really step on it if you want.
I go.
One like he's like, yeah, just put
your foot to the floor.
I was like, okay, here we go. Like I
think I got up like 161 162 on
that lap, and he goes listen man like
You can literally stop your foot to the floor. And
then when it's time to take a corner you smash the
break with your foot and you ripped the
wheel.
I was like this guy is kind of calling me see right
now. He's saying I'm driving like a b**** like and
like I I got this thing up to like a
hundred and sixty seven hundred and sixty eight miles an hour and like
the whole time. He was kind of like, yeah, okay, and I
realized like oh my God.
This is the same thing as being a personal
trainer and watching your client trap bar
deadlift 135 and then just being
like Oh my God. That was the craziest thing
I've ever done in my life and you're kind
of like yeah, you know, like you're grown ass man and you
can probably deadlift at least two plates. Like it's really not
that extreme or anything like that and like
actually completely reframed my
entire like perspective because it was like,
this guy sits here all day
every day and watches guys like me
come in and drive this car 165 miles
an hour thinking that that's crazy and this
guy probably takes this car around this track
after hours at like 200 miles an
hour and
it's just like the perspective is so completely
different that it's like I can't fathom
what it would be like to actually
operate it at that level.
So, you know that that to me is always been kind of
this real. I I am such
a believer in the constraints
of the system can be very different than what
you initially think but one of the biggest ones
is your perspective on
what's possible and unlocking that
with people is oftentimes to
me the biggest challenge and it's
oftentimes what I return back to in terms
of who I think actually makes it
the farthest because maybe it's genetics
but I do think that there's such a big contributing
piece of like
How much like straight up animalistic sort
of?
Psychotic s***. Have you been exposed to you
know think how early
You get exposed to things is a
big part of that and I think that goes into the nature that
you kind of develop as a character as well right if
you if you do hardship when you're younger.
Then you are a different person later. But yeah, you know physically and
psychologically right? I I
think that that is a point that is not brought
up enough and I think it is one that
is a huge distinguishing. Peace. You
know, I I know that in the Endurance
Sports World, they have a bit
more of like a biopsycho social model of performance
and it's because they're all psychos. They
actually have to be in order
to actually
you can participate in the Tour de France.
By having the genetics to be
in that group.
But oftentimes the guys that they test in the lab
that have maybe like the highest VO2 the
biggest engine don't win and one of
the more recent findings in the in the Endurance Sports World
is you actually had to have like a sweet spot
of traumatic experiences earlier in
your life to give you some sort
of a mindset that's
willing to experience or even
in some ways craves like a a
twisted distorted reality that
is extremely painful to go through and
and I do think that from a hypertrophy
standpoint. It's maybe a
similar kind of ingredient that's incredibly
important for that Pursuit, you
know, you know
I can I can see that I would say there's probably more for
the performance Sports than I
would say in bodybuilding. I mean, I know a bunch
of big teddy bear bodybuilders, right and I know a bunch of
bodybuilders that like
If you saw them train, you would think this
person is extremely soft interesting, but I
but that I think that works in their favor because
I think from her purchase standpoint.
It's actually in your favor. If you don't
have to take your body through hell to get
the results. I think the guys that love to
train hard.
Actually probably on average
or doing a little bit more than they need
to which potentially holds them back or
runs them into injuries and stuff a little bit sooner. Right and I
think on the opposite side of the spectrum there's a few guys
that like haven't ever had to work that hard and if
they worked just a little bit harder they reach,
you know their potential but because
they're potential of working not that hard is so high.
Those are the hardest people to convince to work a little
bit harder, right? And then the people that love working hard. There's
the hardest people to convince that you actually
need to back off a little yeah. Yeah. I want
to do a hard transition. Absolutely. That's okay
with you sure we can get as
many of these found it out.
Um, so I'll do yours first Alex
and then if you guys have questions or
whatever, I'll do those and then I will jump into the
ones from from online.
We'll find that out dieting regard. So
like I need to go to that cycle Place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah like
yeah. Yeah the artist issue is
the ones that brought that
you
that's okay, but it's it's such a perpetual.
State of stock. Yeah, yeah.
Thank you.
example of
people who like body orders
will go somewhere along. Yeah, Minnesota starvation
expert or something. I read that I'm like, holy s***
like this is what bodybuilders
thank you. So and I
agree. Yeah, it's like
some say that'd be a little while. I mean
like that Steeler. It's
like yeah he had
The ability to find muscle structure was amazing, but
when it came to actually kid that hard work.
Thank you.
The willingness you've never had to do hard stuff. It's
it's too big of a change, right?
Yeah.
I mean I've dieted for other things before and I look
at it as like the Inception point, you know
what I mean? Like when you watch the calories drop
even more it's like I actually am like oh
a new realm of f***** up
that I get to meet I get to meet some new
demons in I wonder what kind
of voice is they're gonna come out now and it's
like oh like, okay, let's see
what happens but there's a weird part of me. That's like cool.
you know, so
and yeah, like a lot of people like I don't even I totally know
what you're talking about. It's like watching an animal with its food bowl. You
know, it's like get the uncle away from you.
Yeah, like it's the point I can make this
catch.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
I know you're talking about yeah.
So Alex, do you want to provide any
more specificity on your your commentating resistance
question? Okay. Okay.
Yeah, I'll start off, you
know, when I think about accommodating resistance. Usually what
I have in mind is a lot of people are talking about bands and
chains and
I think that bands and chains aren't actually accommodating resistance.
They're just unilateral loading and
unloading tools.
You know accommodating resistance is supposed to be something that
matches the strength profile
of the human for a given movement, which
is not always a unidirectional lighter
at the bottom kind of
a perspective and like, you know, I know Arthur Jones
with the original creation and Nautilus had
that cam shape thing.
In the shape of the camp. She's supposed to change depending
upon the specific movement and trying
to match like, you know, a lap pull Downs profile
with you know,
exactly where it should be light and exactly where it should be heavy so that
we create the most time
spent at the maximum
muscular tension. So like the concept
is like
You know, typically you're really only
challenging the muscle at the sticking point
of the exercise and wouldn't it
be great if I kind of turned the whole movement into
a big giant sticking point because then
I'm challenging it here and here and here and
here maximally, so I'm spending more time near
maximum muscular tension at
more places and that was kind of the pursuit
of you know, that concept and
you know, I know that
with you know, like Louis Simmons sort
of utilizing bands and changing starting that approach
a lot of that was was more towards
meeting or kind of
matching the profile of equipped powerlifting.
We're the equipment is is actually
making it easier at the bottom of
the squad of bench, press in the deadlift and then
as you get to the top the equipment,
Provides less help. And so you have to use
more of your own self near the lockout. So if
you want to be more specific to training
the exact same way and you're
not wearing equipment all the time in training, you could
use bands and chains to kind of mimic that so I
think that that's the general premise is in
one Avenue of like truly what
I would call accommodating resistance. The original
goal was to create
a greater amount of time per
rep that would be near maximum muscular
tension.
For that movement and in the
other that somehow has kind of
earned the title of accommodating resistance more.
It's the unidirectional loading and unloading
that was created to mimic equipped
powerlifting. And I know that
Louis also is big into like, you know, the band
providing a potential hyper
gravitational eccentric speed
which could potentially create
a greater miotatic stretch
reflex that you could utilize to
increase Force production through muscle
spindle activity to potentially
get more gas out of agonists
and inhibit antagonists for
neurological stimulation of boosting
the exercise. I think
that from what I understand about traditional machine
building for
leading resistance is that each individual
human has their own sort of distinct profile
depending upon their anthropometrics. So
it's very hard to build any piece of
equipment in a way that really like is great
for everyone. You could probably build one
that's fairly good for the middle of the bell
curve of humans, but that's you know,
it's it's
Challenging to across the board build something
that would be great for everybody from an
accommodating perspective.
I disagree. Okay. Well great
s*** very good. Um
The the strength profile in humans is gonna vary but
not to the margin that like you would need drastically like
nobody there's nobody out there that's gonna have like, oh
I my biceps have greater internal
moment arms at the bottom and they're less up here. Right? He's just
like we have anatomical constraints. So when
it comes to like individual very soon
in terms of like
exercise motions and strength profiles. We
are more similar than we think now we may
have greater absolutes meaning like okay a person that's got
a longer forearm for instance. Well the resistance
profile and they curl a dumbbell
is different than a shorter person because the levers
getting going to a longer Peak, you know, and things like
that but also because their bone is longer they're insertion likely
is out a little bit further as
well. So we tend to see that there's with
all of our structural differences.
We also have the same kind of compensation for those
differences and we end up being relatively similar meaning that
you know.
Anybody here the hardest part of their squad is the top.
Right, like, you know, like it's just
the the last quarter. You just can't lock it out. But the bottom you could
do all day. That's sort of I feel like as people get stronger.
They start to approximate that more and
more. We're like the bench press for for weaker people
sticks down here. But then as you get stronger,
oh and it starts coming back down and like
I fail near the top of squats. I'll fail
near the top of the deadlift so I
can that's I have seen that out
change failure failure is different than
hard right you everybody fails in
the short position unless the profile is extremely opposite
because that's the place that you'll physiologically lose
the ability to contract to First.
Right. So Nomad like an exercise has to
be very very length and bias.
for you to get pinned and then the stronger and whatever the
less likely you are to get pin pin and the more like you are to be,
you know, you get a few inches out of the bottom and then pinned right
but so regardless of whatever exercise we
do the first thing that you will lose in terms of like failure
in a given exercise is the ability to fully shorten
through that tissue because as soon as that muscle fatigue, that's the
one length that it can no longer get to oh, right,
so,
If you are doing a Max effort deadlift Max upper
Squad, are you taking them to failure?
There's a good chance that.
Yes, you will get to the point where the fatigue will
just come in and make the finishing the last rep challenging.
But if we were to actually take you fresh.
And just have you do like a squad into an ISO
kinetic machine or whatever. You're like the profiles would
vary a little bit, but they wouldn't be like drastic flips.
The fatigue profile I would also be very similar because we're all going
to get we're all gonna start fatiguing faster at
the shorter position.
Right, so and those are also then going to be very similar.
Right? So strength profile is
different than what happens over fatigue, right? You have to look at
a strength profile fresh, right? And then when you're
looking at like say like we have this crime equipment or whatever
we're looking at kind of choosing it. Like I'm actually looking
at trying to choose a good resistance profile
from trying to come up with some sort of a commenting resistance. I'm
not gonna choose a resistance profile that's
gonna match your strength profile in the first rep.
I'm going to try and make it match kind of what
you're going to be capable of doing as we get into those significant reps.
Right. So for instance like when you
did the leg curl the other day.
And I told you hey put that cam, you know back here.
The very top position was probably fairly easy on the first rep,
but then as you started getting there.
That's the part that basically became harder
during the course of the set. So essentially the
resistance profile is too easy in
the short on rep1.
But by rep7 it that actually becomes the part
that you fail.
went past a question on this because
Is it that?
You are expressing the effects of
fatigue in the short part because it's
the last phase of the effort. You know,
it's just like I'm less fatigued out here. I'm getting more fatigued
than most fatigued here. Is that is that
what you're saying? It's or is it something else? I mean?
There is that time question that the last like the end
of the last rep is the time that you have been working the longest but
there's also simply the fact that you just
simply have to have more contractile unit shortened.
Who be fully shortened?
Okay, right like he just you like on like
under like for a given amount of load.
To be here a greater proportion of my muscle.
Has to be engaged in fully shortened reading of
the sarcomeres have when tension relationship to produce
force in there. Is that it so
that
At a sarcomere level.
Right. Yeah you there's there's something less of
them in the fully short, right? So but that's
not but you leverage also Place into a fact
of that right and it's not just sarcoma live the
architecture of the muscle Place into what your strength
profile would be. So your strength profile isn't
based off of sarcomere length It's a combination
of
the actual like the whole the length tension of the
muscles a whole.
It's architecture and it's leverage all of
those things combined give you a strength profile. And then
as you can see that profile changes every
rep.
Based off of the fatigue and what happens is
the profile becomes more and more and more length and bias.
As you fatigue, right? So if we if you sat here
on an ISO kinetic machine Any busted out reps right
where you would see the biggest drop off in force
would be this very short position. This would disproportionately
drop right in the
course of the Reps. I can just like
Intuitively sort of understand that if someone's getting
weaker, they're like, oh I can get it to here, but I
can't get it any further, which is funny because this is actually the
hardest part like that's what the resistance is actually great. Yeah, but
yet you can somehow get it to there were there you can't get right
where it's getting easier. I I get that. I guess that
I'm I suppose I'm just still
I'm struggling to conceive like what you're saying is the
reason behind that, you know, like
and enter in terms of that, right? Yeah, so
I could picture like just literally, you know length tension
relationships and then I needed help to
be able to create enough force and like the length tension relationship gets
worse when I get super short. Yes, you know,
is that is that it or is it that plus something
else here or a sacrament to get shorter? It has
to form more cross Bridges. Yep, which means that it
has to relieve more spots for
cross-bridgeing to occur right has to pull
more and those are really dependent processity and
calcium dependent right? Yep. So as you're
fatiguing, right and all the sudden, there's a
little bit of inefficiency in that process, right then it's gonna
get harder and harder because the more you go through that contraction the
more inefficiencies the fewer, you know,
those cross-bridges are gonna be optimally aligned over the course. So on
a sarcomere perspective, basically you're gonna
see as
As the as the sarcomere becomes
biochemically challenged the efficiency of
the contractile units drops off. Okay. Okay from
a global muscle perspective, right?
As you're going through and you're starting to fatigue you now need
like there's a scaling of this right? So there's a certain number of
motor units that have to be active for me to produce a
certain amount of force here, right? But that's so you
have what's happening basically like sarcomers can
transfer Force laterally right to you know to a
good degree, but it's still a certain amount has to a certain
amount longitudinally have to shorten for this
muscle to get to a link. So that means if a couple of these guys are
reaching to a greater state of fatigue,
That the part of the range that that's going to impact the most is
going to be the most short.
Right. So as a
practical I have a practical question around this
and it's something I've observed. Okay. It's almost like if
you watch people.
And they start a set off and they're doing kind of partial reps
up here. And then as they get tired, they actually
end up getting down here a little bit more is that
an effect that I'm observing that's similar to what you're talking about.
Okay, so okay, I I can see
that end just so I'm clear like the mechanistic reason
that that's happening is that it's more
costly from a calcium and
and I I I'm not
sure I understand either right? It's it's more costly from
a calcium and an ATP perspective
to do the really short part of it due
to the actual Anatomy at
the level of you know myosin.
Cross Bridges and actin binding
sites to be able to have the that
those processes take place in terms
of binding coupling Powerstroke uncomforting. It's
more costly but also, it's just at the
when you're getting fully shortened.
You have less ability to compensate with the like less
ability to compensate with other people. Right? So
basically, you know, I can use
the more imagine all of these guys like the men's were
doing a tug of war. All right on both sides of the room here,
right? Okay. So if basically
if one of these guys starts to Slough off
A little bit right then the other guys now have to
work a little bit harder, right? So when we're when we're
looking at this, there's the effect of like well s*** as
soon as like one can't do it others have
to do more right now in a fully lengthened that could
be that the guy sloughed off is still able to just stretch out
and hang back. He can still contribute. Oh, right,
but if he's too tired to
do it and he's trying to like, you know, get in here and hold it whatever, you know,
he's like not but if he could possibly help which is
essentially as we fatigue,
I can use a little bit of passive tension out here
that can contribute a little bit. This gets super super
deep because sarcomeres don't even have to contract the same
on both sides.
They can contract asymmetrically mean like meaning
that like if one side is under a greater state
of fatigue girls are you talking about?
You start against our community. The two
halves one side could be using a little bit more past attention
and one can be using a little bit more accurate. So Z disc over
here versus Z disc over here. Yes. Yes.
So basically within the
sarcomere can be getting pulled so that this is using a little
bit more passive. This is a little bit more active within within the
same sarcomere, right? So the end that's on the
distal attachment side versus the end that's on the
proximal attachment side. They can have slightly
different strategies or how
they're actually coping and allowing for
Force transmission to occur. So there's an elastic
component in here. So say on one side, it just
got a couple more molecules of calcium or ATP in
there and it gets a little bit more pull. Okay, well shift
and then the passive elements on this side will take
that. So the net tension is the sum of some of
basically the strongest side that's pulling and the
other side can be
Saying actively this is I mean, we're getting yeah way
down physiological rep Hold Us probably beyond what we need to answer the
question, which is great like yeah. It's
like I I like I like bands if you use them right
Alex, that's that's what I'm trying to say,
but the stuff of the left half of the sarcomere and
you know what? We're what I what I'm hearing here and this
is something I'm pretty familiar with is the AV Hill
model of how to put together the the
components of a sarcomere and that
model you has a contractile model
doesn't have tighten though, right? That's what it
has is a contractile element and then
it has a series elastic component in
a parallel elastic component. Okay, and
that the series elastic
component is in series
with so it's
it's kind of like I have the entire muscle belly and you
know, here's the
A little muscle belly and here is where it tapers
at the end. And I have a tenderness attachment to
a bony articulation over here
and a bode articulation over here. And when the
entire muscle tendon unit goes
through Force production it transmits
that Force to the Bony articulation
over here which causes one bone
to rotate around another bone through
space and the first
and so I have the contractile elements
aka the contractile tissues and
then I have two different elastic components
the series elastic component,
which is in series with where
the tendon is because all Force transmission
has to be sent to the tendon so that the
tendon pulls on the bone to rotate the bone the and
then the parallel elastic component, which is
You know just simply not.
In the same line as where the tendon is
that attaches to the Bone.
all of them contribute to Force
transmission to the Bony
attachment that makes one bone rotate on
around another bone for expression of movement and
Whenever you talk about this in order for
Force transmission to be expressed to the
Bony articulation. The very first thing that
you have to do is take the slack out
of the series elastic component.
It's kind of like if you pictured this the analogy
I typically give is that I would
have a truck that's trying to tow
a boat and there's a rope connecting the
back of the truck with the front of the
boat. And in order for the truck to tow the boat.
The first thing that I'd have to do the truck is the contractile element
and it would have to
produce enough Force to take the
slack out of the Rope. Once the slacks taken out
of the Rope the boat can now move through space and you know,
essentially it's like why it's much harder the
deadlift of a barbell
off the ground because I first have to
create enough tension to pull the slack out
of the system to be able to start moving it
as opposed to when the slack is already out
of the system by preloading it and now
it's able to move through space, you know,
that's at least
the my understanding of the mechanical
model of
Force transmission to make bones
rotate through space is based
upon that model. And so
whenever I hear about like,
you know length tension or different contributions
like if there is an elastic contribution
You know that can be a major factor in what
it is that's creating some
of the Force transmission that goes to rotation and
if we are talking about like kind of
this situation, I could Envision where
some of those elastic components are
able to assist the contractile element
to get the thing moving out here
and then as I shorten the contributions of
the elastic components are reduced therefore
forcing the ratio of
contribution to have to go more and more
towards purely the contractile element as
I get more and more towards that point.
So the onus of work being shifted in
that direction, I could see just making it
more challenging as an overall force
transmission perspective of continuing to
move something. I don't know if that's directly in line
with what you're thinking but from the
perspective of my awareness of the anatomy
and the contributions of different physiological
components. That's that's how
I understand Force transmission
and movement.
So the elastic component there.
Would not be unique to the because it has to still be
driven by the active component active
component there right since the hill
model. We've had the three filament model.
which basically is where we incorporated the Titan mechanisms,
and now nebulin which is the protein that
runs along actin is becoming, you know,
really well looked at which I think might might be the protein
that is involved in true stretch me or perturing
meaning that the type that you get from passive stretching
and tighten is likely more the what we get from the
passive elements contributing during active training
because essentially
Like the reason the three filament model looking at
this is going to be an upgrade to that thinking is is that so tighten
it's it's an elastic Protein that's like
existing in the muscle but it has a more rigid segment.
And so as soon as activity like as soon as calcium Flows In
what Titan does is it comes down and it latches on to
the actin and now this more rigid arm
that is less elastic is attached to
the contractile element, which is why there's a very big difference between in
an inactive passive tension versus what
we get in an active State like doing an overloaded
active eccentric versus like what we would get passively
pulling on, you know, a fiber and a lab
and stuff like this so,
like when we're talking about the elastic components they are not
one like
If you're good, like if they're contributing at the
beginning, right, like they're not they're not producing the force in
their own. They're just buffering the the force
generated by the contractile unit to the Bone right? It's
just creating like it's creating a little bit of buffer. Right? But the
loss of those would not prevent like how
much shortening that you would get. It's it's special not like in
a resistance training environment like if we're talking about like throwing or
something like that.
Maybe but it's because the forces in the momentum that's
being generated by the elastic component that's allowing just
for us to have a greater net force and momentum is we're coming
across they're not because they're somehow contributing to adding the
force here because all of the force was made back here the
follow-through is you know, it's a break. Yeah, right.
Yeah. So so in that context that doesn't that doesn't
apply. Okay, right. So I don't like
I don't see that explanation that you're looking at the hill model being something
that's reflective of what we're seeing like in
terms of like failing first in the in the short position.
Okay, but I would love to send you some stuff
on. Yeah. Yeah, I would like to read on
it model if that's something you're interested in. I
mean, I don't know that it affects whether or not you're gonna choose to heal
a little squad or not today, but it's you know fascinating. Yeah,
right? Yeah. Okay. So to
answer the question Alex accommodating resistance
here's like I think that
you I think applying it is good,
but it just depends on the goal that you're applying it for. What I
don't like is applying things like band and
chains where we're increasing load.
In the areas that are most indirect for
the Target tissue. So for instance if I'm trying to
if I'm doing a press for PEX right at
the top of the bench like to load
the PEC the the force needs now
like be horizontal or in one of these planes not this
way so much, right? I mean, yes, I'm loading this journal clavicular
joint but not so much if I'm sitting with my shoulders packed on
the f****** thing, right? So essentially when I'm doing is increasing
the amount of tricep fatigue that I'm getting each rep,
you know in that press and I'm spending more
time now because the rep is going to be slower at the top and stuff.
So I don't like using a commenting resistance to
make a place of extreme mechanical advantage
and stacking art, right? So I don't like
like I wouldn't band a squat, you know to just
make the lock out at the top part to me. All you're doing is just putting more
pressure on your joints because there's no amount of bands
that you can put on a squat that's gonna turn it into locking out a
leg extension, right? That's just that's you know, that's
It so that's why like when we use the hack squat, we reverse Bandit.
We're only focusing on kind of optimizing that bottom
half. So it's like we're not trying to make it hard all the way
to the top. What we're trying to do is make it so that basically the whole
bottom third or bottom half is a socks right
but then it's still like the lockout is like fine,
right? Because I'm I'm not trying to train, you know scapular
depression at the top of a hack squat, you know,
just make it harder to breathe between sets. Right. What I'm trying to do
is be like look if I know that maybe the whole
bottom half or bottom third of this exercise is that's
where baby I'm getting a lot of these extra mechanical tension
benefits. Why would I only want to take advantage of
the bottom five degrees at that motion if I could get you know,
the bottom 45 degrees all productive, but I'm
not trying to completely switch it so that you know, basically I'm
just like grinding this lock out of just
like how much can I compress every disk and meniscus, you know
that I have right? Okay, so that's where
I think, you know a common resistance becomes.
Stupid is if you're just saying hey, I'm just trying to match how much
force you can produce. Well cool. Then you're gonna have 72 bands
on the hack squat, right so that it's in
your reps gonna take you 15 seconds. Okay, and
you're gonna be able to do two of them. Right? Like that's to me. That's like,
okay. That's that's not that's not an appropriate application for
that. It should be matching it to the physiological goal.
Not just to the strength profile. Sometimes those
are the same thing.
but now like in an in a straight
hit like, you know single Arc Movement Like a leg extension
leg curl bicep those tend to be the same thing matching the
strip, you know, getting close to the strength profile is pretty much
close to the same objective, but in
compound movements, they tend not to correlate because most compound
movements and in a stack
Right so and but why would you load a
stack right? So I mean if you want to do that,
you know, just let me throw it did that
one guy that throws like 8,000 plates on the bar and he
just unracks it and sets it back down and unracks it and sets it
back. Yeah, right.
you know, so that that's that's that that is my
Application of them but obviously I mean you've been here we know use them. I mean
we use them here. I mean we use bands on the pendulum Squat and
how did that feel
I would say if the if the absolute rock
bottom of the movement is so
difficult that it's actually preventing you
from being able to get a decent amount decent
enough amount of work done. Then that
could be a problem. Like, you know, it's it's
I I don't want to create a situation where I
am excessively fatiguing the
person in the shortest position of the movement. Like I'm
I'm sticking much more on the side
of I want to stress you in the long position, you know,
I think that I'm probably getting increasing my
probability that I'm going to grow some tissues if
I stress long
But if I make the stress in long
so disproportionately hard
that you get no work done. I don't
think that's a good idea either.
So it's kind of like I think with the setup
that you created, you know, it made the bottom still
the bottom was still the most challenging part, you know,
the top wasn't so hard that I
was like as you're describing like taking a five-second
lockout grind kind of experience the
top still felt fine. The top was
easier than the bottom. I think the bottom should still
be harder than the top but the
degree to which it's harder than
the top.
Doesn't have to be that it's an order
of magnitude of 25,000 times
harder than the top.
It I don't know what the order of magnitude is,
but it doesn't need to be incredibly excessively
harder. It just needs to be harder reasonably
harder and I
don't want to compromise the most stimulating
part of the movement by fatiguing the
hell out of myself in the least stimulating part
of the movement.
And do you think that the very very
bottom is more stimulating than say 10%
up in the bottom. I don't know but I
don't think that there's probably that much of a difference.
The reason I ask is so
A lot of people they'll do a pendulum or hack, you know, and they'll
experience some Orthopedic discomfort, you know, like oh, you
know hurts my knees, you know, whatever and then
a little bit of banding where basically it's you're just
you're just making it so that the hardest part is not the absolute
most extreme. It's just a few degrees out of that.
Seems to basically allow them to get significantly more
output with no discomfort, you
know, so I wonder if like, you know, we talk about Sinister fatigue
ratio, but also we could just talk about a stimulus to
just you know, overall stress is that you
know, are there instances where you know, maybe there's
maybe there's a fatigue Orthopedic cause at
the very very extreme that we could buffer
just a little bit. I mean, I don't know for sure but anecdotally that's
something we see all the time. It's like hey if
we also this profile a little bit it actually allows somebody to train
a range that they otherwise wouldn't train it all. Yeah, right
and in many cases go from, you know,
not being able to tolerate much loading to actually being able
to do significant loading, you know.
This is just I'm here everything you're saying.
I'm gonna address it specifically I'm just gonna kind of go in
a slightly round about fashion. I just won't worn before I say
what I'm gonna say. I think that the hormone hypothesis failure
has been very instructive for
a lot of things. Okay. It used
to be you know, I when I was learning as a student about hey
factors associated with with hypertrophy, it
was all like,
hormone-based responses to training
You know, hey what we really need to do or like repeat
sets of about 10 RM with
compound exercises because that's going to make your
growth hormone cortisol and testosterone
responses become the highest that they can possibly become.
And then all of a sudden there's this
finding or analysis of the
data. That's like
actually
We're just witnessing a stress response and the time
under the curve for elevated hormones
is a blip on the radar and
it is basically meaningless. So
when you have those workouts that
Spike GH and
test and cortisol, they do it for such a short amount
of time that it's meaningless physiologically.
It's not the same thing that steroids would do
steroids are enough time under the
curve of elevated hormones to where
like, well that makes a difference. So time under
the curve is just such a big deal and
to me like
I'm under the curve of training is the
big deal. You know, how long
can I sustain good enough
training?
And if so, I could see like if I
make the bottom of the pendulum squat.
so like an order of magnitude harder than
15 degrees up from there.
And I'm driving.
You know, I might see this this tiny spike in
activity and I could come to the same kind of conclusion. Like,
oh see there it is. That's like the major difference
and that's the thing. I need to Chase from from now on.
But the reality of experiencing that tiny Spike
might be well, yeah, but I
also I'm like drastically increasing the chances of
like an orthopedic problem beginning to emerge so
I'm always like well, how low should you go?
low enough to where we're experiencing those benefits,
but not so low to where
you're now drastically increasing, you
know, the chances if it starts to
hurt like you're going too low just don't f****** go that well, so
I I think that I don't know who's the originator
of this statement but
In complex situations, there
are no Solutions. There are only trade-offs.
So we are finding this interesting perspective
to look at about length and
depth and all that kind of stuff.
But it's not an all-encompassing solution.
It will potentially have
some trade-offs in terms of the stresses associated
with it and how those stresses
might impact different tissues. So
I'm it's kind of like if the
cost of doing business down there becomes
so extreme on connective tissues,
you know, skeletal pieces all that
kind of stuff the the trade-off might
not be worth it particularly thinking
about it from a time under the curve standpoint.
You're going to have to do a lot of challenging exercises
that stress the musculature for a
long time in order
to really be able to witness tremendous benefit.
And if you compromise the
time under the curve through some very
specific small thing
that can become not such a small thing. Well, then
you really ruined maybe the most
important thing by becoming so myopically focused
on this thing that you overrated in
terms of its importance level.
So that's that's the Viewpoint that I would have on what that
is and where a benefit like banding the
absolute Rock Bottom of something where the order of magnitude is
so much higher in terms of the stress at the very bottom.
It just needs to be harder enough.
I don't know exactly what that is, but
the canary in the coal mine
of like this is starting to not feel
so good on my knees might be
a great kpi or some kind of
indicator that like
don't necessarily go there.
Reduce that absolute threat
a little bit more. It's not
worth.
the trade-off
if I were to merge these two schools of thoughts, I would
think in terms of
But I would think of find a stable position for Center of mass
within the context of Body Center Mass consider maximum
range of motion long to short within
those constraints. Am
I correcting? I think I think if the goal is hypertrophy, I
think they're they're going down the right the right
rabbit hole, but there's a lot of other kinds of
adaptations that you could be searching for that that
would have a very different trajectory that you
would go down and in particular. What I think of is like reactive
athletic movements such
as you know changing direction or
sprinting or jumping where what my main goal
is is to yes control
center of mass. That's a given that's step one.
But with those kinds of activities I need to
start short, stay short never
lose short
That's really the key with being and and
the reason for that.
Is a embedded in the kind of a discussion on
the tissue architecture? So, you
know, I I have again kind
of like the contractile element and
the elastic element or muscle and tendon,
so to speak and with
With Ballistic or reactive movements
if I break down
walking versus running? Okay when I'm
walking my foot hits the ground
and a lot of things evenly deform.
Okay that which deforms is
lower in a stiffness rating.
Okay, I could even show with this. I can push my
arm and clearly like the skin deforms
the muscle deforms everything to forms. If I contract
the muscle it deforms. Yes
that
so I I will just
I will differentiate what deforms.
Based upon the contractile state of the muscle.
and when I'm thinking about reactive activities
the thing that
I want to deform and reform and be the
source of my Force production
is the elastic tissues, you know, so I
I need a short muscle that is
extremely highly contracted contracted
so that I limit the
muscular deformation as much as I possibly can
and if I ramp the can
the the contractile state
of the muscle up to incredibly High degrees. It just
won't deform almost whatsoever and that
forces deformation into the tendon
and the series elastic components inside
the muscle. And when I
do that, I will create the miletatic stretch
reflex and signals of muscle spindles and creates
a two-pronged response from the nervous system and I
will increase agonistic Recruitment and
decrease antagonistic recruitment,
which creates this net force production.
I will also capture and utilize elastic
energy and release that through space which gives
me this Amplified.
movement through a stretch shortening cycle
a neurologic contribution and a viscoelastic
contribution and that
is a completely different animal
as compared to
lifting weights.
You know if I'm lifting weights in my
mind, I'm trying to deform the
muscle in many ways in the most challenging
place or at least threaten the
deformation of the muscle and have all
of these cellular pieces be like, oh no,
I'm gonna go into my tug of war and I'm gonna fight like hell
to prevent this deformation.
To me like things always respond through threat, how
can I threaten the tissue and make it
like hold on for dear life? And then if I scare it
enough it'll adapt to prevent that level
of threat from being a threatening. So I think
if if my goal is to grow it. Yeah. I am
looking for Center Mass control and these excursions and
it the very
least get the muscle to reach a
long state.
If it's Athletics and having
a point guard be able to hit a really
good crossover dribble.
I need that individual to learn and own.
Court
I would say the only thing that I would add
to the description this person put in.
I'm trying to make Center of mass Irrelevant in most
of my exercise. Right like I'm I'm not trying I'm not trying
to to fix it. Solve it. I'm trying to make it just in irrelevant
thing right with whatever constraints it
happens and some instances. That's not the case. And then those
are the probably the areas where that terminology she would
most align with what we're doing. Like if we're doing a squat, you know,
I'm gonna use heel wedges, you're gonna use heel wedges, right? You
know, you're gonna maybe goblet I'm gonna design a squat
bar. Yeah buck up with other stupid. Right? Well, I
only use it as like a tool to you know, that's
it if I can use the bar that loads it.
I'm all about it. I know I just like my tools to
be big.
Yeah, barely and sound like Marvel characters, right the infinity
bar. I mean, yeah, like the thing comes with a
special Gauntlet. You have to reassure to hold it. It's yeah, but
and we're both focusing on you know.
I'm not always focusing on maximizing range of motion as much
as making sure that I'm able to go through the
range of motion that I want right now and a
lot of times that correlates to finding positions that go through what like
anytime you are working. You you're
shifting more towards the path of motion for a tissue likely more
rain just gonna become available.
For that right, but it's not always
the case like sometimes in some exercises like we did
pull around right or and press arounds.
The you like those exercises give you more range
of motion than a linear. But if we're doing them for
one extreme it limits the other right like we didn't do any fully
shortened lat work or Peck work right? Because a press
around can be on the length and half of the arc the middle of
the arc the shortened part of the arc. It's more range than you
again in a linear press on all of those but the goal isn't like
we're not using that technique simply because it's more we're
using it because it's basically creates the only
opportunity of us getting to maybe the extreme length
under short and if it's the goal. So when I'm looking
at this, it's not just hey, it's more range
of ocean. It's does this give me the range that
I want right and have I eliminated everything
else but isn't like something is
not going to be benefiting from this
in terms of being loaded.
Orbit, applying to my goals that's wasted neurological
energy to me. Right that's you know, those are
carbs that I could have put somewhere else. You know, that's that's
what I'm thinking of right so it's like when I'm looking
at making exercise efficient efficient, right? I want it
to be as like only moving at
the joints that are important for this and it's you know
as stable and as little effort to manage the rest
of the body the rest of the joints as possible. So yeah, I
think the best way for me to put it is I try and make Center of
mass irrelevant whenever possible
from her perch we spent and standpoint if you
are coaching Athletics, well, if you're
looking at stuff that isn't just
Strength that's going to transfer but actually some sort
of dare. I say functional, you know or performance
capacity. Well, then that's stupid. Right? Like you're
not, you know hack squats are not going to carry over to running very well,
right other than whatever strength that you gather right?
So if you're looking at stuff that is going to be closer to
transfer, you know, or is gonna somehow
Put another skill in an athlete's toolbox. Then then
actually manipulating Center of masses most
sports, right? There's you know, very few Sports
where you don't have to control center of
mass. Right? So those would be two total opposite
goals. But if your goal is to purchase you're pretty much
doing the opposite of every other sport, right? You're
like I have nobody I am bicep, right
so both eventually and and physically yeah, right
and and I will say like
where I start people is to
try to reduce the need to manage their
Center of mass and I artificially give
that to them by
In making it easier for them with more constraints and
more pieces of external support. So I
always start everyone there. And then
it's a question of like, how much
do you like some sports don't
need to move very far away from that. But
if I'm like, I think like tennis for me is like
an easy example of like there's nothing around you
there's you're not interacting with another body a lot
of times. They're hitting the ball when they're up in the air. They're
not touching practically anything. It's very
low feedback. Like they need to have
amazing control of center of Mass to
be good at that Sport and I better bring them
to a place where we're doing training involving
that okay, so it's
it but at the same time I need
to start them in a place of resistance
training where I kind of take it
out of the picture because I need them to do it, right.
Right if we're trading a knee-dominant movement
and we're trying to Bend knees and make a pelvis
go up and down. I don't trust that they're going to do that.
Well in open space where they
have to manage the center of mass. I I'm going
to put them into an environment like what you would construct and
now they have a memory in
their brain of what it should feel
like on the target tissues under best
case circumstances and I can always return like
I need them to return to that
place of knowing what the right feeling is as we
do drills that strip away all of
those supports.
And you know, I I always give the signature example,
I don't need to do that right now, but it's that's the
thought process here is I need
the original memory to be one
that is anchored in as accurate.
A targeting of the Prime movers
for that motor program as I
can create and if they hold
on to that memory and recreate it
with less Support over time with
a need to manage their Center of
mass.
To a greater degree over time. I think
that's the win for that athlete in
their resistance training.
Yeah for most of my athletes.
Managing Center of masses learning to
walk in a tea and heels. Yeah, right. That's
that that's as far that's as far as as far as it
goes It goes right guys. Um, let's we'll
take a an hour for lunch. And then
when you come back, we're gonna go through the workout.
Basically the what we're gonna do
is Pat's gonna take you guys through one
of his exercises or drills
for either upper or lower body.
And then you will follow that with basically a
purchase style exercise for
that. So hopefully you guys can see you know,
what impact that drill has
carrying over to the more constrained
exercise, right? So probably break
up into two groups have half of you do lower half of you do upper and
then we will flip and repeat right? So, let's be back.
All right at 2.