Ashley Jones has put up a couple of interesting pieces on the Getstrength site regarding Rugby training. The first of these looks at off-season training, combining Olympic, powerlifting and bodybuilding lifts. It's a great combination.
The second addresses some of the modified games which form an effective aspect of training. Some good ones in there.
One of my mid-term goals is the completion of a full range one-armed chin-up. Prior to that I'd like to knock off 50 reps (in a single set) of the standard two-armed variety; although I'm not sure how much carryover there will be. Still, it's a good start.
This week has again centred around the first part of this goal - the ability to complete 50 reps of bodyweight chin-ups. As with last week, I gradually added weight to a few of the sets; culminating with 5×10@+5kg yesterday. That was more than enough to make sure the lungs were working.
My current strategy is two pronged : the weighted 'magic 50' (as above) will alternate with the heavy rep days (working up to a max triple or double), with a day of rest in between. The rest days (from chin-ups, at least) are filled with brief 'normal' workouts; a few rack pulls here, a few floor presses there. Only time will tell how effective this is.
Once I can manage 5×10@+20kg, I'll switch to increasing reps on the standard bodyweight chin-up. I'd guess it'll be starting from 20-30 by then.
This week's Minute of Strength newsletter features some video [.wmv, 8.5mb] of Anthony DiLuglio demonstrating a bit of kettlebell circuit training. If you thought kettlebell training had a high endurance component in any case, try this.
Here's a quick video link [.wmv, 1.9mb] showing the strength of the Front Squat Harness - a 305/672 front box squat. Not bad at all.
It started more than 40 years ago at the University of Texas in Austin. Terry Todd and his weightlifting coach Professor Roy J. McLean shared a love of strength training history, and between them amassed a sizeable collection of books and magazines.
In 1975 Terry Todd - together with his wife Jan - purchased the strength training collection of the recently deceased Ottley Coulter (who himself had been collecting since the beginning of the century). This combined gathering has widened over the past 20 years to include items from competitive sports, hygiene, nutrition, the Olympic movement, ergogenic aids, naturopathy, vaudeville, anthropometry, and the academic discipline of physical education. It's now an enormous - and exceedingly rare - collection.
A few photographs from this superb gathering provide a glimpse into just how important it is. For a little more detail, try Iron Game History - looks like a great magazine.
This is the 4th part of the article series 'Rest' - a collaboration with Run to Win's Blaine Moore.
Why we rest
Before diving into the subject of 'Fuel and Rest', lets take a look at the reasons for resting in the first place. It's all related.
Breaking this down, we have three basic periods of rest :
rest breaks between workout sets
These breaks serve to allow the body a return to a 'normal' (for that individual) range - particularly the heartrate. This slowing of heartrate is accompanied by a more regular breathing pattern.
Rest breaks also serve to replenish the body's stores of both ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) and CP (creatine phosphate) . A shorter break (say, less than 2 minutes) increases reliance on LA (lactic acid) in the following set. Lactic acid itself, elevated during periods of intense exercise, returns to normal levels after 30-60 minutes [2].
short naps
These fall into two categories. The first is a 15-20 min 'power nap', which is usually performed within a work environment as a way of recharging the batteries. Although the deeper sleep phases are not reached during this time, the nap is sufficient to regain a good percentage of mental alertness. A quick note on why this works: spending time awake gradually throws the body's sodium/potassium levels out. Sodium and potassium are involved in the transportation of chemicals into and out of your brain, and the less effective these are the more tired you feel. A bit of time in the Theta state (deep relaxation or meditation) resets these levels, leaving you feeling refreshed.
The second is a longer nap - 90 minutes or so. This is the type I personally favour (and having recently made the switch to biphasic sleeping I can clearly see the benefits), and includes all phases of sleep. From personal experience, this length of nap yields an almost complete return to mental alertness.
Winston Churchill clearly understood the power of this nap in the afternoon during WWII, writing in The Gathering Storm
Nature had not intended mankind to work from 8 in the morning until midnight without the refreshment of blessed oblivion which, even if it only lasts 20 minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces.
overnight slumber
This is a more complete version of the second nap variety mentioned above. Once again the body is moved through all phases of sleep - long enough this time to redress various imbalances that have occurred throughout the day, as well as release several chemicals for routine maintenance and regular function.
Briefly, the major changes include the resetting (return to normal levels) of :
Via Engadget: the Bio-Shirt. With built-in temperature and heartrate monitoring, it has an immediate market. Looks great.
Dan John's a funny man. If you're in any doubt, the following from his latest T-Nation piece should clear things up:
The young people reading this should know that all the following are bad for you: squats, bench presses, deadlifts, snatches, cleans, lat pulldowns, curls, leg extensions, and basically anything that Arnold did while he trained.
The article, once you manage to stop laughing, is on the most effective exercises to use when training a large group of people. And despite the preceding quote, deadlifts are top of the list.
Can't get enough of Dan's words of wisdom? If you missed it the first time, grab his recent interview on the FitCast. The video version is also well worth watching - especially if you're about to squat.
A study (abstract) published in the September Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery looks at the connection between nicotine and tendon-bone healing. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis looked at rotator cuff injury in rats (rows of bench-pressing rats spring to mind), and how their healing was negatively impacted by an increased dose of nicotine. Very interesting.
The Strength News Podcast continues.
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