Tonight's workout idea comes from a page out of Adam Archuleta's training book. I have been fascinated with the types of methods used when Adam Archuleta did his training for EvoSport with Jay Schroeder as he became an NFL football player. This workout I found through a forum posted about this training about 4 years ago, and I seemed to put a nice spin on it with much success with our training group. The workout focuses on two movements, the bench press and basic squat. You work up to roughly 90-95% of your 1RM in both exercises, one at a time, however. You perform singles at that percentage with the intention of moving the barbell as fast as possible. You can focus on multiple aspects of training including form/technique, rate of force developed, and also being able to handle a heavy weight for multiple sets. We typically do up to 20 sets of 1 with each exercise. Much of the workout is dictated based off of "feel." Depending on how someone "feels" physically and mentally will determine the duration of the workout. You should give it a try and let me know what you think.
A1. Bench Press - Work up to 90-95% of 1RM and do multiple sets of 1 rep. Focus on bar speed and technique. When bar speed is considerably slower or technique fails, move on to next exercise
B1. Squat - Work up to 90-95% of 1RM and do multiple sets of 1 rep. Focus on bar speed and technique. When bar speed is considerably slower or technique fails, stop workout go to cool down exercises prior to workout completion.
Cool down exercises include hip flexor, hamstring, glute/piriformis stretching, as well as pectoral, delt, and lat stretches as well.
Please comment on this and what helps you improve your bench and squat!
Pete
Pete I believe in the 75% to 80% range on the account for lack of explosiveness once you're near your 1 RM. it's nearly impossible unless your Marius pujanowski (you know who imntalking about). To be explosive and heavy, it is not conducive for fast twitch muscle fibers. If I'm trying my best to increase my max in any exercise I would train at 75% for 6-8 reps max speed and effort or even 50% at 3 sets of failure, then if I train that same muscle twice a week I would do heavy negatives and possibly work on the explosions at the max scapular retraction phase of the press. Also as a side note the bigger your chest and the ant. Felt along with post felt the person needs to religiously train the rotator muscles also due to they are synergistic in nature.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment. I have been incorporating this type of training for about 2 to 3 months and I have seen good results. We usually only get up to about 15 sets of 1 at about 90-93%. Our speed is usually at about 1.3 seconds per single for benching. Squatting is about 1.5. When the bar speed is considerably less, say 1.6 seconds for bench and 1.8 seconds per squat, we either drop weight and continue with speed, or if performance is down too much, we stop completely. Personally, I like the heavy singles. Have you tried taking light dumbbells and doing timed sets for speed? I felt doing sets of those coupled with the heavy singles have had a good training effect on myself and my training partners. Thanks for your thoughts.
ReplyDeletePete, what is the benefit of doing up to 20 sets of 1, opposed to doing 5 sets of 5 or more? I have heard that anything under 3-4 reps is pointless ... So what kind of results have you seen?
ReplyDeleteWell, from our training, we found that doing multiple heavy single repetitions in exercises like the bench press and squat help us to not only handle heavier weight easier, but it allows us to work on our form in those exercises with regards to hitting new PRs with our respective maxes in those lifts. I feel that lifting with heavy singles near our 1 Rep Max allow us to expose more fast twitch fibers as well. Imagine dropping a basketball from 10 feet in the air. The highest bounce is the first one after you drop it, correct? The way muscles work is very similar. Muscle are elastic in their eccentric and concentric phases (lowering and raising portions of the lift). They are like rubber bands. So doing 20 sets of 1 rep allow for one to have 20 maximum effort repetitions, as opposed to losing speed and strength with each consecutive lift, similarly to how the height of the bounce with the basketball decreases. I am NOT saying doing 5x5 is bad. I like doing heavy 5's, especially when I would like to try and add some size to a particular area. However, right now my training focus is on explosive power and maximal strength, all while trying to stay right around 200 pounds. I am not interested in getting huge, but I want to be as strong as possible, and heavy singles keep my body strong. Thanks for your post.
ReplyDeleteContinuing, doing heavy singles can help you to find where your weaknesses are in the particular lift. Do you need help with your lockout or do you need help off of your chest? Are you slow coming out of the "hole" in your squat? These are questions that can be answered with doing heavy singles as well. Then you can readjust your training focus to allow yourself to train your weak areas harder so that you can break through sticking points! Give em a try and let me know how things go for you.
ReplyDeletePete, would this work out be beneficial if I haven't been lifting for a long time and am not that strong? And also, is this work out sports specific?
ReplyDeleteWell, I would not prescribe this workout for someone with your experience initially. I would focus first on developing a foundation of strength, including a introduction to some main core lifts such as bench pressing, squatting, barbell rows, and deadlifts. All of these exercises use large muscle groups in the body and if done properly, with proper set/rep schemes, can help someone to adapt and become quite strong. Over time, and as you gain more experience, you can assess your weaknesses with different exercises, and you can also intensify exercises by doing something similarly to how we do with our "different" methods of training. After you have been training for a while, much becomes trial and error as you try out new things and see what works and what doesn't. Thanks for the question. Hope this helps out!
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