Retrenchment
19 December 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
The proverbial phone has been ringing off the hook with folks wanting to know more about the cumulative progress and methodology used by the Cat Herd. The Gang of Five has graduated kindergarten (their first 60-days) and is now ten days into their second 60-day training phase. This will conclude with group participation at the AAU World Powerlifting Championships in Richmond Virginia on January 28th. Whats next in terms of training, eating and cardio, web followers want to know. Each of the five need lose more body fat while simultaneously adding more muscle quite a daunting proposition. Across the collective board, the group did just that in the first 60-days. A lot of people were intensely curious: what tweaks and tricks would Karwoski and I implement to keep the progress ball rolling? Webmaster Lee indicated that our traffic had tripled with folks wanting to find out what magic wed used to get such sensational progress for such an out-of-shape bunch. No magic just Old School basics applied with relentless tenacity. Our group definitely peaked in anticipation of their 60-day report card: training intensity increased dramatically as the 60-day deadline approached. Eating tightened up significantly and cardio intensity geometrically multiplied of its own accord. When you know TV cameras are going to show up to tape your progress, when friends and family are invited to the climactic Day 60 training session, when fitness experts travel from great distance to witness you - kicking the training intensity and diet discipline up to the next level is no problem. Then comes the inevitable post-event letdown; it was predictable and understandableyou have all this attention focused on you and suddenly things are back to bleak normality.
It didnt help that a vicious cold snap hit just as we swung into our second sixty. Despite fixing the broken window pane and for the first time ever heating the unheated garage (with not one but two kerosene heaters) the morning training sessions were brutal. On December 10th the indoor garage thermometer at the start of the session registered 19-degrees. By the end of the session body heat and heaters had boosted the inside temperature to 36-degrees hardly ideal. The freezing temperatures also cut into our outdoor cardio sessions. I consulted with Kirk and we agreed that it would be an ideal time to drop the training poundage and retrench technically. These folks had peaked on day 60 and now it was appropriate to drop the weight, increase the repetitions and really polish the technical execution of the three lifts. Since Day I of this odd odyssey weve purposefully limited ourselves to three lifts and three lifts only. Not a single other exercise has been practiced; squat, bench press and deadlift are done to the total exclusion of everything else. Not a single other exercise, no curls, no presses, no nothing no abdominal work of any kind. The only cardio used was walking. Karwoski and I agreed to stick to the purity of this approach for the second 60-days. The Cat Herd was enthused about competing but reality need be recognized and the reality was that they needed a break from the all-out pound-and-ground leading up to the day 60 festival conclusion. The technical focus was suddenly shifted to ever-subtler performance points. Since the group was familiar with the lifts, we could now begin discussing refinements that they could appreciate and incorporate.
SQUAT: Optimally knees should stay over the ankles from start to finish from an engineering vantage point when the shins are held vertical and the lowering and push is off the heel instead of the toe, leverage is maximized. In order to preserve the knee-ankle optimal push axis, after the lifter clears the racks, steps back and sets up, the first body movement is to push the glutes rearward. The normal reaction to commence a squat is to break the knees and allow the torso to drop straight down. This is problematic: dropping straight down pushes knees out and forward and ahead of the toes. Leverage is dramatically decreased with every inch the knee travels forward. We dropped squat poundage back to nothing, relatively speaking, and would command each lifter in turn (after the setup) to push the butt BACK! as they broke their knees to commence the rep. We made a chalk mark on the floor to make sure their stance width was consistent with every set and made another chalk mark on the ceiling. We instructed each lifter to look at the ceiling chalk mark and not let their eyes stray from the mark from first rep to final rep. We instructed them to inhale as if they were attempting to suck all the air out of the room as they descended. A huge inhale inflates the torso and allows the lifter to maintain a tense, upright torso. Bad squatters go down fast and come up slow good squatters go down slow and come up fast. Kirk instructed them. Depth was called on every rep of every set. In this way we ingrained a consistent groove. 6-rep sets will be used for three weeks after which reps will be cut to triples to peak strength leading up to the competition. I told them not to pay any attention to the poundage. We were going for feel rather than weight. As soon as any technical disintegration was detected, as soon as any bad form crept in, the set was immediately terminated.
Wednesday: bench press and deadlift fine points.
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