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Think of tension in the muscles as being generated by loading the muscle or moving the limb or body through a range of motion. Movement or the initiation of movement causes tension in the muscle. It is actually the contracting of the muscle that creates the tension.
However, we can tense our muscles up, making them contract or tense up without movement.
Straighten your arm out either at your side or out in front of you. Now, without bending it, tighten up your arm muscles. All of them. Take your other hand and feel your arm. It should be tight or hard with tension. With practice you will be able to create greater tension in the arm muscles through contracting the arm muscles even without movement in a joint.
Contraction and therefore tension in the muscles is accomplished by many factors:
Consciously tensing up the muscles with no outside force or load acting upon the muscles (as in the straight arm tensing), initiating any type of movement with just body-weight, lifting or absorbing any kind of load or force, etc.
We can actually train our body to create more tension.
Of course our muscles have to also relax and lengthen. Relaxation and contraction or tension in the muscle are really two sides of the same coin.
If you can’t create tension in a muscle through contraction of it, then we couldn’t move, run, jump, throw, lift and even live. We would not be able to land from a jump. When we jump in the air and then land on our feet the body tenses up to receive the shock of landing, absorbing the forces through tension. Otherwise, if our muscles did not contract, get tense, to absorb the landing of our jump, they would simply relax and we would fold up like a dropped sack of potatoes. We’d get hurt and never jump again.
So, what is the point of all of this?
If you want to get better at any sport or physical endeavor:
Create greater tension.
Do this by lifting weights of any kind. A weight is a weight. Two hundred pounds of barbell verses 200lbs of sand bag still weighs the same, however, the mechanics of lifting the two will be vastly different and lifting the sandbag will take even greater tension and mobility to lift than the barbell.
So now you have an idea of why using different training tools is of benefit.
Another example of creating tension is a sprint from a stop. Whether initiated from a standing, kneeling or prone position (where you lie down and have to quickly get on your feet before you begin sprinting) your body will undergo rapid transitions of tension and relaxation in the muscles.
So it stands to reason if you can create greater tension in the muscles it will lead to greater propulsion of either your body or some other object you are attempting to move. It takes greater strength (and skill, technique) to throw a baseball faster and farther.
Thus, for most people looking to improve their athleticism, getting stronger, (i.e. learning to create greater tension), leads to better performance in life and in sports. However, if we can’t relax the muscles enough between contractions of tension, then we wouldn’t move very well either. It must be balanced between the two.
We can’t slow our body down without creating tension. We can’t initiate any type of movement without creating tension. And it has been found that if you can create tension, you can actually relax the muscle more after the tension has been released.
One of the ways we can get ourselves to relax to fall asleep entails alternatively tensing up and then relaxing muscles, starting with the feet and working up the entire body. Just a quick tensing and then a relaxation.
Funny thing is, this happens naturally when we go to sleep. It is called hypnic or myoclonic jerks. It is that sudden twitch or sometimes an almost violent jerking of a limb or the body that makes you almost jump in bed and kick the covers off, kick your mate or it wakes you up just as you start dosing off. It is simply a sudden contraction of the muscles followed by immediate relaxation of said muscles.
The harder we can tense the muscle the more strength we can exert. Pick up a light box and have someone squeeze our arm. It’s probably tight but not real hard or tense. Now pick up a real heavy box (you know, the large one that some friend loaded with a ton of books and wants you to pick up and move for them).
Now have your friend squeeze your arm. It will be much tenser and harder in response to the load. It takes more strength to pick up a heavier object and thus creates more tension in the contracting muscles. It takes more strength and thus greater tension in the contracting muscles to jump three feet in the air verses one foot into the air.
So, do you get the point?
If a greater load or force acting on the body elicits a greater response in the muscles leading to greater strength being demonstrated due to the greater contraction and tension in the muscles it stands to reason that we can create greater tension first leading to greater strength.
What??
Teach your muscles to contract harder with more tension.
How?
We do it all the time without thinking. (More on the no thinking part later, and it’s not what you think 
OK, you’re helping someone move (oh no! not again!) and as you begin picking boxes up or someone hands you a box to carry to the truck, you simply take the box and move it. No biggie.
Then as you go to pick up the next box or someone hands it too you they say:
“Careful with that (this) one! It’s real heavy. It’s full of books (yup, why not in a smaller box, instead of one big enough to bury a Ford Fiesta?) “.
So what do you do?
Without thinking you get all tense, tightening up the muscles (literally contracting them) in anticipation of the coming load.
Why?
Because our body knows it will make us stronger and keep us safer in handling that heavier load. We didn’t even think about it, we just did it.
So why don’t we use that bit of knowledge in our training?
Tense up before you lift a weight. Get tight and then grab the weight and lift it with tension. This works great for slow heavy lifts. Even lighter lifts can be done this way. Things like dead-lifts, squats, bench presses, over-head presses, etc.
By tensing up that muscle even harder than is needed, we can create greater tension and thus get the muscle to contract even harder. Now we don’t need to do this on every set or rep. Definitely on the heavier sets and reps to keep ourselves tight for a safer more controlled lift.
Lighter weights can be lifted with a little more tension than is needed just to train ourselves to create that tension at will rather than create the tension only in response to the load or weight lifted.
Of course, when a person is first learning how to do this, it is good to use more tension than is needed on even lighter sets until they have become adept at creating the tension and then lifting the weight with tension.
It is good to relax and shake the muscles out between sets. High tension lifting is tough to do. Thus, lower reps and fewer sets are in order until you have acclimated to it.
Tensing the muscles and the body up for a lift does not mean we move jerkily throughout the movement because of the great amount of tension we are using. It’s not like that. Tense up and get the body tight and lift with control but also with skill of movement, lifting smoothly.
Once you can create the tension and control it during your lifting, you can vary how much tension you use for various weights and lifts.
If you step up to a loaded bar and get tight before you lift it, you are teaching your nervous system to prepare for a load first, rather than merely responding to a load once it hits you.
Which do you think would be easier on your body?
Picking up a heavy suitcase and as you begin lifting it you realize
“This thing weighs a ton!” as your body tweaks sideways and you feel your muscles get strained.
Or:
You get tight, grab the suitcase handle and squeeze it hard and begin lifting with way more tension than you need. You think “This thing is heavy, but not too bad. I can handle it.” and you safely load it into the trunk of the car.
Be aware of your environment. Be aware of what you are lifting. Create tension first and adjust it as you begin the lift. Creating tension in response to the mental thought of lifting something before you actually lift it is feed forward tension or a feed-forward loop. You put your hands on the bar, grip it tight and tense every muscle in your body and then pick up or accept the load.
Responding to a load with tension after you have accepted the load is feed-back tension or a feed-back loop. You grab the bar, get under it or accept the load as you begin lifting it and you think “This thing weighs a ton!” and then you start trying to get tight.
Sorry! To late to get tense!
Once a heavy load is accepted or lifted, so the weight is fully supported by your body, it is very difficult, if not impossible to tighten up properly for the load. You are already pushed out of good mechanical advantage, losing your form and on your way to an injury or dumping the load.
Use the feed-forward loop when lifting anything. Get tight first. Then lift.
And then, once the load is felt, use the feed-back loop to adjust your tension, either decreasing the tension (as in the case of a box you thought was heavy but it only has Tupperware in it) or use the feedback of “this thing weighs a lot, but I’m ready for it. Yet, still, I’m going to get even tighter to control it better” to create even more tension as you begin to move.
Such pre-tensing of the body works wonders in keeping you injury free, not only in the weight room, but also at work or anytime you lift something that might shift, is awkward or you have no clue as to how much it weighs (like a closed box full of you -don’t-know-what).
As you get better at using this tension thing, (paying attention to tension), you will notice that running and jumping and other movements become easier, faster.
Why?
Because any movement starts with tension in the contracting muscles.
If I can contract my muscles harder, faster than the next guy, I will jump higher, run faster than someone with my same physical proportions. This is why people get fooled by big guys that look like they are slow. If you are strong, from heavy lifting of anything, then your initial movement will come from all that strength or tension you can generate and you will explode over a short distance.
That is why a huge 6’5″ 350lb NFL lineman can cover a few yards faster than some 5′ 9″ 150lb marathon runner. The NFL lineman has huge amounts of potential strength or tension in his body he can unleash. Whereas the 150lb marathoner has little strength, little tension he can use.
Lift heavy for low reps and few sets. Learn to create tension. Learn to use the feed-forward loop. Learn to manipulate the feed-back you get from heavier weights. Become a master of your body.
Relax between heavy sets. Shake out the tension so you learn to tense up but also to relax. We need both to move well.
Practice movements with body-weight and other implements you might swing, throw, etc. This will help you meld the new found strength into other movements so you get faster at recruiting your new levels of contracting strength induced tension and relaxation.
Think of it this way:
If a certain person (A) who weighs 150lbs can squat or dead-lift 100lbs, when he begins running, his reserve of strength or tension he can use is 100lbs more than his body weight. Yet many runners don’t lift weights (B) and if they do, they never go heavy, not that 100lbs is heavy.
So, let’s just say he (A) can propel his body with an extra 100 pounds of tension as he begins a sprint or jump. He will jump higher or start his sprint off faster than another guy (B) who weighs 150lbs but never lifts anything.
Now put them both up against a guy (C) who weighs the same 150lbs. But this guy dead-lifts 300lbs. When he takes off in the sprint or he jumps he has a reserve ability to create enough strength or tension in his body to lift 200lbs more than the first (A) guy and 300lbs more than the second (B) guy who doesn’t lift at all.
Do you think his body is going to feel way lighter to him?
I’ve experienced this in two ways. For a year I played around with a weight vest. Built up to doing various things with an added 60bls on my body. When I took it off I could run faster and jump higher. I also, at one point in my life, got very ill and weighed 295. I lost 60lbs within about 6 months. When I lost all that weight, same thing: I could run and jump faster and higher.
I had the strength and ability to create the tension needed to move me plus another 60lbs in both cases. So when that weight wasn’t there, that reserve capacity of strength let me exert more force when I did something.
It’s like this:
Two cars weigh the same.
One car puts out 100 ft.lbs of torque and 120 horsepower.
The other car has a motor that puts out 300ft.lbs of torque and 350 hp.
Which do you think will be faster?
I know which one I would buy!
Get stronger.
When you engage in athletic movements, running, jumping, tumbling, throwing, etc, we don’t think about tension, about tensing up and relaxing our muscles. It just happens. So continue to do things that help you move smoothly and effortlessly to blend the strength and tension with relaxed movements.
Remember, the body has to tense up to move. There is no way around this.
But you also have to relax between the explosive contractions of tension to move. People that are really strong but are tight or carry around too much tension, are stiff, they can’t move very well.
Lifting 1,000 lbs is impressive, but if we can’t dig a ditch all day long without 40 breaks to catch our breath, we are in pretty sad shape for life, though not for power-lifting. To get strong enough to create the tension needed to lift 1,000 lbs we would need to focus on getting bigger and on pure strength training. In this case, something is gotta give. And that would be generally our endurance and flexibility.
Strength or tension has it’s limits before it gives diminishing returns. But that is way higher than the average person ever gets too.
For a professional athlete, say a MXer (professional motocross, you know, the guys who ride dirt bikes for a living) being able to lift 1,000 lbs would not be advantageous. It takes too much bulk and size to lift that much.
But, being able to dead-lift 300-400lbs would definitely help them throw their bike around better, and if they wipe out, picking up that 230-300 lb bike (MX or open desert bikes) will be a lot easier. And they could gain the strength to dead-lift 300-400lbs, in all likelihood, without gaining much body-weight, if any.
Too weak and we will not have enough capacity to create tension. We will be a slow moving person, we would not be able to generate enough muscular tension at high enough loads and fast enough to jump or sprint well. We would have little strength endurance also, because there is no reserve of strength to draw upon to repeatedly move an object heavier than our own body-weight repeatedly.
Marathoning does not take great levels of strength or even medium levels of strength. Try pitching hay bales all day if you never do anything but run or bicycle and you will see what I mean. It will kick your butt even if you can run 26 miles. You don’t have reserves of tension producing capacity in your body to pitch 80lb bales all day. Most people who run or bicycle long distances usually weigh quite a bit less than an average person of their same height. It is not just because they have low body-fat. It is also because they have low muscle mass for their body-weight and height.
We need balance in both.
Train to be in between the power-lifter and the marathon man.
Get strong.
Learn to manipulate tension in your body.
Get fast, mobile and agile. Learn to move your body.
Learn to manipulate other objects that you carry, throw, swing, etc.
If you get stronger through generating tension in your lifting and you develop a faster more flexible body, you will do everything else with greater ease and enjoyment, even as you get older.
After-all, would you rather have the body of a 20 year old or an 80 year old?
When you reach your upper years would you rather get there with a non-trained body or one that is physically (not genealogically) 10-20 years younger due to smart training and lifestyle?
What’s the difference in the two strength, endurance and mobility wise and how did they get there?
I rest my case.
Get strong and learn to manipulate tension.
Learn to relax physically, mentally and athletically.
Get mobile, agile and flexible.
The fastest guys in sport are strong and very smooth, even appearing relaxed in their efforts.
Learn to move with speed, strength and smoothness without thinking and you will be awesome.
We could all use a little more awesomeness in our life.
Go get some.
I often post answers to questions that come up on other forums dealing with training. And to be honest, I never really gave them a second thought until just recently when I posted the information that follows. I am taking the advice of virgilgarcia on that forum, who suggested I put that information on my blog for others to see. So, in answer to a question regarding shrugs, these are my thoughts:
OK, here’s the skinny on shrugs:
One thing everyone forgets about when talking about power shrugs is that it is not “just” a trap exercise.
Yes, it builds big and powerful traps.
But that will not happen without lifting some serious weight.
And that results in much stronger:
feet, ankles, calfs, legs, entire posterior chain, grip, forearms, biceps, etc.
It is a power exercise, done explosively, squeezing the bar off pins in a rack set at varying heights, depending on how deep you want to start the lift. You will have to root your feet deeply.
Sets of 3-6 are in order, 5-6 sets.
Heavier weight, sets of 1-3. But gradually that heavier weight starts feeling lighter and your reps creep up to 3-6.
Work up to at least 405 if you can. For the bigger guys, go even higher. My friend Bud used to do these with 800-1000 pounds on the bar. He was 6’2″ and 300 pounds. So, if he was 250 pounds he could probably have done around 600-800lbs. Work up to 1.5 x body-weight and then continue building that up to 2-2.5 x body-weight as a general goal.
Sure you can build up your dead lift to 405 to 600 pounds for a few reps, maybe, depending on your age, size, etc.
So you can dead-lift 405-500 one time at 185 lbs body-weight?
Sure that’s pretty good. Real good at the higher end.
Now take that same weight or close to it and lift it explosively (albeit over a shorter range) for a total of around 20 reps. It will bring a different quality to your body. It will impact your muscular density to a greater range. You ain’t a gonna lift that kind of weight explosively without being strong, explosive and packed with some dense muscle.
Start heaving heavy weights (in good form) over a shorter distance for more volume and see what happens. Don’t slack chain the weight with bent arms! Tighten up all the joints, lock your body solid before you begin squeezing the bar up: no loose joints! It is an exercise in massive tension to begin with and then transitioning into explosive movement.
It has a similar effect to throwing a weight for height or caber toss in the Highland Games or in a Strongman contest. Those build strong and big traps.
Nothing inherently unhealthy about it than any other exercise or lift many of us perform.
You will be a bear. You will throw things around with more power and explosiveness. You can get much stronger with this exercise.
Power shrugs are similar to power cleans except you don’t have to rack the bar. They are similar to high pulls, the slower health lift, etc. They all build the body, not just the traps.
Heavy dead-lifts and partial dead-lifts will also build up your traps, but we don’t call them a trap exercise.
Build the weights up gradually.
Learn the proper technique.
The traps are not just a little wing of muscle sticking out from the sides of your neck. They travel down to about the mid part of the thoracic spine. They form a good portion of your middle back. They are a part of a strong and healthy neck and back. They connect into the shoulders.
Part of the reason for that power look (it is not just a “look”) some refer to in relation to a guy with a well developed set of traps is this:
If your traps are well developed from heavy pulls (power shrugs, power cleans, snatches, cleans, heavy double kettlebell cleans or high pulls, etc) the rest of the back and body is usually very well built and packed with dense muscle. Most guys who practice heavy power shrugs are usually into other explosive lifts like power cleans or Olympic lifts and usually deadlift too. Not too mention they also do a lot of overhead lifting.
If such a guy gets a hold of you, prepare to get thrown around like you are a sack of Cheerios, because the guy is probably very powerful and way faster than you think.
They do not create unhealthy shoulders. Balance your training and that is not a problem unless you have an old injury or some genetic predisposition to shoulder problems.
I think part of this ongoing miss-informed thinking about shrugs has to do with most people picturing strict body-building type shrugs done with pee-wee weights while standing stiffly upright.
That is one thing power shrugs are not!
You grab the bar from anywhere to below the knee to as high as mid thigh level, depending on where you set the pins or how high your blocks are that you may be pulling from. I have even done these starting with a loaded bar lying cross wise on an old bench.
You squeeze the bar off the pins and then accelerate and pop the bar up coming up on the toes. Look for a good video on high pulls in Olympic lifting to get an idea of the form. It is very similar to a hanging power clean done without racking the bar, except each rep is pulled off the pins.
It really is an athletic movement. It takes strength, timing, explosiveness, etc, to be able to do these heavy.
It hits many of the body’s largest muscles and it will hit your abs too if you do it correctly because you will have to get tight to squeeze that bar up and then pop it up. Your entire torso will have to be rigid, set, locked in tight to support the weight and then the blast of power you will channel into that bar to pull it up.
Cheesers need not apply.
Stick with them for at least a full year to really see the benefits or if you are skeptical or have never really given them a fair shot before. Cycle the weights like any other major lift. Build up the weight gradually. Strength seems to come pretty quick with these, so be careful in building your weights up. Eventually build up into lifting heavy weights.
If you have back problems, shoulder problems, etc, it is your responsibility to know what you can and cannot do. In-attention to detail and form will hurt you in any exercise or lift. So if you get hurt doing these, as always: It’s your fault. Take responsibility.
If you are not interested in gaining some dense strong muscle and gaining some weight, as in muscle, then you would be better served in not doing these, as they will begin to pack some meat on your body.
We are going to address two things in this article.
The first has to do with Step 2:
Horizontal Pulls (HzP’s), as found in Convict Conditioning page 124 – 125, performed from a table or some other set-up like rings hanging at about waist height.
The Progressive standard Paul Wade sets is 3 x 30, which is, a bunch of reps.
This puts the focus on the development of displaying your strength over a longer period of time than building pure strength.
For some people, this standard of 3 x 30 will be very hard to meet. It requires strength endurance. Let’s face it, that is 90 total reps. The worlds strongest men do not train a single lift for 90 repetitions in a single training session. That is not how they got strong.
Also, a pullup or chin up on a bar or rings set overhead is much different than pulling your body upward while it is laying back as in the HzP in Step 2 of CC.
HzP’s and chin/pull-ups may seem similar, because you are pulling your body weight up, but they are actually very different in many ways.
If you are more interested in building strength with body-weight exercises, I would suggest working up to 3 x 10 on Step 2 HzP’s and then start with the next exercises, steps 3-6. But even as you progress through steps 3-6, I would continue to work on meeting the Progressive standard Paul Wade sets out for Step 2 HzP’s, which is the 3 sets of 30 reps.
You might even break up those 3 sets. In other words, build up to doing a set of 30 in the morning. Then build up to doing another set of 30 later in the day and finally add in another set of 30 in the early evening.
Then, begin to merge those 3 sets all together in one training session.
If you really feel you must hit the 3 x 30 standard, start off more upright, hit the standard in a few weeks to a month or more and then gradually lower the bar or your rings an inch or two at a time. Thus, you progressively make the exercise harder while maintaining your reps.
At the first lowering, yeah, your reps might drop to 30, 25, 17, for example, but you will build them back up pretty quick:
Because you have not changed the loading all that much by lowering the bar an inch or two. It’s not that big a jump. It is sort of like adding one pound plates to a barbell.
Basically you are following a progressive movement training style.
Paul Anderson did this by digging a hole, laying a heavily loaded barbell across it, climbing into the hole and doing squats. This limited the range of motion. Then he would throw in a few shovels-full of dirt the next day or two and then squat again. This way he artificially shortened the range of motion and then progressively made the movement longer by adding dirt to his hole to stand on. Then eventually, there was no hole, and he was doing a full body squat all the way down.
This is what we are doing by starting HzP’s with the bar or rings set higher and progressively lowering them. But for this to work, you need to meet a certain set and rep standard before you lower the bar. This might take you a week or a month or two. Then once you lower the bar a little, it is good to drop the reps down and build back up your sets and reps at that new depth.
Notice in the picture that as you lower the bar you may have to shift your feet under the bar more so your arms and body are in a more optimal position to pull from.
Make small changes in lowering the bar and it will be much easier to maintain your sets and reps.
Once you meet the set/rep scheme you want to follow, get comfortable at that height for several training sessions before you lower the bar again. For example, if you make the 3 x 30 at a certain bar height, repeat that workout for a couple of training sessions before you lower the bar again.
Thus, you know you did the 3 x 30 for sure, you “own it” as some like to say. You know it wasn’t a fluke or just a real good training day that allowed you to get those numbers.
Then when you lower the bar, lower your reps for the first week by about half to two-thirds what your best set was last workout. So if you got 3 x 30, once you lower the bar a few inches, start with 1 x 30 and 1 x 15, for example. Or do 3 sets of 15. Then gradually build your sets and reps back up at this new lower height. This builds in a back-off week for you to de-load and come back stronger next week.
Also, there is nothing wrong with doing more sets for lower reps, something like 4 x 20.
There is nothing magical about doing 30 reps versus 20 reps. It is still a lot of reps to do.
Part of the problem with doing the 30 rep sets for many people is that they will attempt the next set too soon after the last set. That is why breaking those three sets up and spreading them throughout the day works so well, You have plenty of time to recover before you do the next set.
Once you get those three sets of 30 just start moving them closer together.
For example, if you did 30 in the morning and 30 when you got home from work and then 30 reps 3-4 hours later, start bringing them closer together.
The cool thing about this is that you have proven to yourself that you can do a set of 30 good reps and that you can do 3 sets with enough rest between the sets. So now it is simply a matter of reducing the rest periods between the sets. Do it this way:
Skip the 30 in the morning and do 30 when you first get home. Two hours later do another set of 30 and two hours after that do your final set of 30. Now at first, this might be hard. You might have to drop to 20 reps or so. That is OK. Build back up to 30 reps done every 2 hours apart. Once you get 30 good solid reps for 3 sets (with 2 hours between each set), gradually, over the course of weeks, subtract 5 mins from between each set.
There are twelve – 5 minute blocks in each hour. So a two hour decrease between sets would take 24 training days to reduce. And, since we want about 5 minutes between each set (so we can recover for the next set), it will take us about 23 training days to work down to 3 x 30 with a 5 min break between sets. So if we train HzP’s twice a week, it will takes us about 11-12 weeks to get from three seperate 30 rep sets done two hours apart down to 3 x 30 in one session.
 Time to knock this thought out of the ballpark... Now the second thing I want to address has bugged me for a long time and I have heard this from various people over the years.
And that is the thinking of some people who believe that body-weight training is somehow more natural or inherently safer for people to engage in.
We should not make the mistake that since we can train with body-weight anywhere without equipment it somehow makes it a more natural way to train.
Keep in mind that if you are doing pullups off anything: rings, a bar, a tree limb or you are doing push-ups with your feet elevated on a chair a rock or handstand push-ups with your feet supported by a wall: you are using other forms of “equipment” to help you get more out of your training.
Any exercise or movement is unsafe if it is performed incorrectly or in a highly fatigued state or if you have the attention span of a lab-rat jacked up on the latest energy drink.
Just because we may train with body-weight only, we should not assume it is safer. There is nothing inherently different about training with your body that makes it automatically safer.
And body-weight training is not any more natural than lifting objects to get stronger.
First off, your body is an object.
Second, watch any baby as it grows and explores it’s environment. It will pick up anything and everything ( heavier and heavier objects as it gets stronger) as the child examines everything it can get it’s hands on.
Third, how do we think people picked up and carried rocks, logs, firewood, full water containers, that deer they just killed and gutted and what about carrying babies, children, injured companions, building shelters, etc, before the advent of machines?
Even if using a horse, mule or whatever, it required lifting things to the back of the animal. How about portages with a canoe?
I do not think people were so dumb they couldn’t notice the effects such lifting and hard work had on their bodies.
 Don't believe the nonsense Fourth, stop believing the nonsense. Body-weight training is not anymore or less natural than lifting anything else. Your body responds just as readily to lifting “things” as it does to lifting your own body. What is more natural than lifting something?
There is nothing, and I repeat this:
There is NOTHING magical about training with only your body-weight. How people look and develop from training is a result of genetics, food quality and quantity, hydration, supplementation, technique and training systems followed. Or the lack of any of the above.
Fifth, in all cases, lifting your body or lifting an object other than your body: you are using the effects of gravity. Gravity acts no differently on a 100kg body versus a 100kg rock. The resistance is still 100kg that must be moved.
In body-weight training, leverage is changed or momentum is used to effect a greater load on the body. The same is true when lifting an object outside the body. Plus, the added affects of lifting something outside the body changes the leverages and force loadings throughout the body, which is a good thing.
For those that feel lifting anything other than your body is an unnatural way to train, then you need to get a hard physical job and work that for a good year and notice the changes to your body. You WILL lift all kinds of objects, and lo-and-behold:
You will actually lift objects over your head!
So, if you think body-weight training is the be-all-end-all method of training:
Get the toughest job you can find, get away from that plush office job and the treadmill and the push-ups and work that job honestly giving it your all.
And then call me in a year. I guarantee you will be way stronger than you imagined. And all that from moving and lifting objects. From digging, from throwing rocks or debris over a wall or up and over and into a metal roll-away dumpster, from lifting sheets of plywood, roofing rolls, elastic roof coating in 5 gallon buckets, etc up onto a roof, from carrying all types of wood, bags of concrete, 5 gallon paint buckets, ladders, tools, throwing hay bales, carrying baby calfs, slamming post-hole diggers into the ground, etc.
Yeah, lifting and carrying things is unnatural…
My gluteus maximus it is.
Here’s a thought:
Here is a nice progression:
HzP’s. Master them and pull-ups then learn how to do one arm rows. Then various bent rows.
Learn how to deadlift a barbell. Learn a wide variety of deadlifts: one arm, one leg, suitcase, etc.
Learn how to do a zercher lift from the ground.
Learn how to do a tire flip.
Learn how to pick up and carry large, heavy rocks, sandbags, sand/water filled kegs, etc.
Learn how to put a wide variety of things overhead.
Learn how to swing a sledge and throw things from various angles.
Maybe even learn to play around wrestling with a friend, even if you don’t want to train MA’s. Just have fun wrestling around.
When you train with objects separate from your body, you learn to manipulate and control the constantly changing center of balance between yourself and the object you are lifting or throwing. You get exposed to a much greater variety of loads and forces and movement patterns than if you trained with body-weight only.
Most body-weight exercises are not very dynamic, meaning they are not performed at fast speeds unless you get involved in gymnastics. But that is not realistic for most people. It takes a lot of experience and equipment to teach people how to perform gymnastics. And it has its’ own risks.
Performing a one arm handstand or two arm handstand push-up is way more unnatural than lifting something over my head with one or two hands.
How many babies or children do you know who start trying to walk upside down on their hands?
Compare that to how many babies and children you know who pick things up, carry them, throw them, lift them up overhead, etc.
When, in a workplace or survival situation or camping or hiking or a rescue operation, would I have to walk or stand upside down?
Outside of gymnastics or training we don’t walk upside down on our hands.
But I can think of a whole bunch of things I might have to lift overhead or pick up and carry on my shoulders, my back or lift up to someone on a roof, for example. How about helping someone climb up a high wall, fence, tree, onto a roof or reaching up to help lower a swamp cooler being lowered down a ladder or help a kid down from a tree?
This is not to say that handstand pushups and hand walking are bad, they in fact can be excellent forms of training. Yet, they are not safe for all people to perform, for a variety of reasons. But the point is, body-weight training is no more or less natural than any other form of training.
I am not knocking Paul Wade for his excellent book on body-weight training. I feel it will open up this form of training to many more people who otherwise may not be sure how to go about getting into it. I will continue to recommend it to people, I think it is that good.
But, as trainers and authors, we need to be careful that we don’t over-emphasize one form of training as being highly superior, safer or more natural to other forms of training. We need to be careful that we don’t lead others to believe that any one tool is the best. It may develop certain qualities very well in a particular area, but not in other areas.
For example, kettlebells are great for conditioning and strength development, but for ultimate one rep strength we need to use a barbell. Even the average person can benefit greatly from learning how to deadlift properly and getting stronger in that lift.
It is like firearms. A 9mm or .45 ACP might be great for a tactical officer, but for a guided hunt, a .375 H & H would be much more effective in stopping a charging bear. And proficiency at using one will not make us proficient at using the other. Though we could learn to use both extremely well if we wanted.
So, for me, I do not allow the artificial limitations of sports, competition or the thinking of some that believe such things as “Only body-weight training is natural” or “All you need is club bells to train with” limit me in how I train, exercise and move or what I train with.
I have seen the same thing in other camps, where some people think a particular “object” or training program is the best thing to train with. All objects you can lift have their benefit in getting us stronger and faster and tougher. Different programs can bring different benefits to your body and mind. Extremes are usually the danger. Singular focus on few things is a greater danger than learning and trying multiple training systems and tools over the course of years of training.
It’s like eating. Limit yourself to just a handful of different foods or eat a wide variety of vegetables, meats, fruits, berries, nuts, etc?
I will not limit myself to just a particular diet, Warrior Diet, Vegan, etc? It’s all bunk. One diet will not work for all people as medical concerns, etc, enter the picture. Even work loads (office worker versus farmer) has a great effect on when and how much to eat.
Variety from healthy sources is the best way to eat. It is the best way to train for the person not looking to medal at the Olympics or win at a professional competitive sport.
In professional sports a person has to focus on one goal: that of getting the edge to win under that particular sports regulations. That narrows things down a bit.
However, life is different.
Life involves picking things up and moving them. A wide variety of things under a wide variety of conditions.
 Fun in the sun I’ll use and train with whatever I can and enjoy the many benefits it brings me. At times I may focus on one thing for awhile, but I always comeback to a wide variety of training implements, as the benefits are too great to be overlooked.
Our brains sort out billions of bits of input every second just fine.
Neurologists adjusted their thinking on the human brain and suggest we only use, not ten percent, but only a tenth of one percent of our brain.
Not that we don’t use our whole brain, but the capacity we do use is only one ten thousandths of its actual capacity. They have learned that the brain does indeed grow new cells, even in old age and it is not a static organ, it makes more and more connections and grows in capacity as we use it.
It is limitless.
Think about that.
So, I don’t think I will have any trouble learning and performing new exercises. I am not worried that technically I can’t handle performing Olympic lifting as well as kettlebell lifting and sprinting and body-weight training too. Plenty of people can play a wide variety of musical instruments much better than the average Joe learning how to play one instrument.
So, I don’t ever worry about learning something new in training, learning and correcting the technique and putting it to use. The more things I do and learn the stronger and more connections I create in my brain.
Sure, I could focus and become the worlds best pastry baker who specializes in cream filled pastries or I could become the worlds greatest chef who can cook a 5 course meal.
I don’t worry about not being able to handle the mental and physical input of training with and learning new things.
My brain and body just aren’t that dumb.
How about you?
Are you limiting yourself artificially in some way?
Are you allowing someone else to do that to you?
The funny things is, in the real world, every one is a specialist in a way. But everyone is also highly diversified. We can walk, run, talk, sing, throw, lift, carry, etc, etc, etc. We don’t simply walk and never learn how to sit in a chair. We don’t simply sleep on our back and never move. Even in sleep the body moves.
 Loaded for bear... Spec Ops (Special Operations), we’ve all heard of them. It is sort of a catch all term for the most elite military forces of the world. And many people see them as specialists, which in a sense they are, but:
What makes them specialists is that they are actually highly diversified in what they know and can accomplish. They are actually much more diversified than the average soldier who just went through boot camp.
How did they become so diversified and capable of performing so many tasks extremely well?
By extensive, in-depth training in a wide variety of disciplines. It took many months of training, experience, the knowledge that they could learn and do it all. They learned which tool was best for which job and how to improvise if needed.
Now, I’m not a Spec-Ops soldier, but I do try to follow that mentality in my training. I want diversification. That is what makes me a specialist.
Barbell, running, body-weight, sledge, tires, rocks, sand, kettlebells, etc?
Diversified specialization or is it specialized diversification?
I don’t worry about it, I just do it.
Anyway, that’s my rant for the day.
Carbonation.
We use to call my Dad that.
Pops.
But only when we were out of arms reach and he was in a good mood. Or we’d get popped upside the head.
Do you have it? Do you need it?
It is that explosive ability some people just seem to have. Not only can they explode into action they have the timing down.
Some people play a sport and their explosive moves seem more like a push. Not too effective. Not too explosive.
Other guys can hit pretty hard. Or smack a ball real good. Or hit a tackle hard.
But there are some people that, at impact, seem to completely obliterate the object or person, sending it into orbit. They literally seem to explode into whatever they are doing at just the right moment to effect the greatest result.
Having that elusive “pop” can make the difference in winning, in setting a personal record or world record or just making it though a situation, whatever it might be.
It can be taught if you don’t have it naturally.
So, in no particular order, I will set out some ideas for you to try and some thoughts on getting this perfectly timed “pop” of explosive energy. Hopefully there will be something here that you can use.
First off, if you are heavy footed, or slow of feet, you will have a difficult time getting more explosive. You have to be able to move your body. It all starts with the feet. Explosive power comes from the hips, but starts with the feet.
If you don’t believe that, just put an Olympic weightlifter (very high hip power and explosiveness) on a sheet of ice and have them try to explode the bar up at just the right moment. It won’t happen without solid footing to drive off of.
So work on your foot speed. Rope jumping is good for this. Learn to skip rope fast and in various foot patterns. Drilling the first 10 meters of the sprint is good. Driving off the line just for 5 meters works good too. So does learning how to do split jerks.
Before anyone can really explode at just the right time, they have to have the technique down very well before their body will let them explode into an implement or object.
Let’s face it, our body is not stupid. If you don’t have the technique right and you don’t have a certain amount of strength developed to go along with the technique, your body will NOT let you move explosively no matter how hard you try.
As soon as you pick up the weight, shot-put, discus, etc, your body will sense the load and as you begin to move, if the technique is not there you will not move effectively enough to input or transfer power and mass and energy into the implement. Your form will break down. The body senses that and thus you can’t, you literally cannot move as fast as you would be able too if your technique was rock solid.
It’s like someone who never runs and suddenly they try to sprint. They hit a wall and can’t run very fast. Their body won’t let them because it is foreign to them, their body does not know how to perform at that level.
So, practice your technique. Drill it. Focus on getting “smooooth”. Make it flow.
You may need to break the steps of a movement down into more manageable segments at first. But as you string them together, you want to flow smoothly through the entire dance with whatever object you are manipulating and transferring your mass and energy into.
If necessary, start off slow and gradually build your speed, as long as your form does not break down.
Next, you have got to be strong enough to support the technique and loads experienced throughout the movement. Throwing a shot or stone or hammer or discuss loads the body with some very high forces.
It is one thing to throw a fast punch barehanded at a speed bag. Next try it at a 40lb heavy bag. Then try it again against a 80lb bag. Finally try it against a 110 lb bag. The final moment of impact is getting progressively greater and if you have not trained for it, the timing of your technique and the strength of the bones, muscles and ligaments of your body won’t let you hit as fast and hard as you could.
Your body knows this even if you don’t. It will slow you down.
It is one thing to move fast and explosively with a PVC pipe practicing the Olympic lifts and quite another to do the same with a heavily loaded bar. Even if the technique is there, yet the strength is lacking to support the loads or forces encountered during the movement, we won’t be able to move fast and pop the bar up at just the right time. If we force it we get injured.
Once again, your body knows this even if we try to ignore it.
And if you try to force the issue, trying to get more explosive, at this stage, you will generally end up moving slower, with too much tension and/or injuring yourself as you override your bodies protective mechanisms.
Every sport has a technique to it. There are leverages you need to learn, body and foot positioning, timing, rhythm, when to accelerate and then explode, etc.
Learn that.
Get stronger.
Apply the strength to the technique of your sport. Gradually getting faster and more explosive. Some times it will suddenly “click” and you will pop one out there. Other days it just won’t happen. Don’t try to force it into happening. That almost never works.
Think of it like waves on a sea. They are sort of random, various heights but every 7th wave is higher. This is true. Google it.
So, as you practice your technique, vary the intensity with which you explode. You can’t maximally explode on every rep, hit or throw. You would run out of steam pretty quick.
Why do you think powerlifters and Olympic lifters have opening lifts they make before the big one?
Why do you think a boxer feels out his opponent and hits “pop, pop, pop, BOOM!”
So, ramp up your throws or hits, etc. Start easier, ramp up a little in explosiveness and then hit a good one. Think about how it felt. Better yet, “feel” how it felt to go through the motion and then explode into the implement. Close your eyes while you do this mentally. Replay it.
Then settle your waves back down, practice some smooth technique runs through your movement and when the moment is right, that 7th wave will hit and “BOOM!”, you launch it. Learn to feel it, to build up to it and let it happen.
If you try to continue to “Pop!” every rep or hit or throw, you will lose that explosiveness real soon. You have to cultivate it.
At first, it might only be a few reps that you really explode on once per week or maybe only a couple of times in a month may feel like “Wow! I nailed that one!”
But as you learn better technique, get stronger and learn the timing of when to pop at the end of an explosive move, you will find it easier to repeat that when you want.
And you will be able to vary the intensity of that “pop” for each throw, lift or hit.
Then, to outsiders or those not as advanced as you are, all your efforts will appear to be max efforts no matter how far the implement goes. They don’t see the waving of intensity that you are using. To them, whether you throw a 35lb hammer 30′ or 60′, the intensity was the same. They can’t differentiate.
Think of that explosive pop at the end of a movement as sort of a pulse of power.
Face a wall or shed or heavy bag (or your training partner if he is willing). Put your hands on that object and push against it. How did it feel? Was it effective? Did you feel explosive?
No?
Good for you!
Now do the same thing again, with your hands on the wall. Relax and then suddenly tighten up and drive from the feet, hips and body into the object. It is like a wave running up your body, starting at your feet that accumulates in intensity and power as it passes through you into the object. Pulse into the wall or heavy bag. If using a bag, you will need someone to brace it from behind so it doesn’t swing away from you.
Pulse, relax, pulse, relax.
How did that feel? Did you note the differences in tension? When you tried to force it did you notice it wasn’t as effective as when you sort of let it happen without thinking?
Now get your hands several inches away from the wall or heavy bag. Suddenly drive into it slamming your hands into the object. But do so in varying degrees of intensity. Do several fast but lighter smacks and then when it feels right, “BOOM!” into that object. Just be sure not to injure yourself.
You should be able to see a difference in how fast and hard you can hit or explode. You need to learn to control the rate of force development you are applying, the speed and intensity, as you vary how hard and explosive you hit or throw.
Next, do this again after you rest for a minute or two.
But this time we are going to add another element. You will jump your feet a little. This is going to take more timing.
Face the wall or heavy bag with your feet about shoulder width apart. Relax.
Explode as you jump and shift your feet to a staggered stance (one foot forward and one back) . As you do this your feet come off the ground slightly.
As they land into their new position, ram your feet home at the same time as you hit or “POP!” into that wall or bag. Add in a good grunt at that moment also.
When you get the timing right you will know it.
This is what you are after when you throw an implement, hit something or tackle someone. You may be already moving quickly or be starting from a relative position of calmness.
But you have accelerated into movement or exploded into movement and near the end of that movement you add in that “POP!”
It is an explosion at the end of the initial explosion of movement that got you into the final position to apply your maximal energy.
You suddenly moved, jumped your feet, slammed them down and “gave” all that stored and rebounded energy and force into the other object at the moment of impact, with interest. You multiplied all that energy to pass it into the other object.
Years ago, a friend, Bud, was teaching me how to spin and throw a 35lb Russian hammer, as he called it. He wanted me to explode into the implement with a loud grunt at the right time. He wanted to hear me do that. He said it makes you more aggressive on your hardest throws. Don’t do it on every throw. Only on those that you put that maximal pop into. He felt if you didn’t do that, you weren’t putting everything you had into the throw.
It is sort of like a power breathing crunch. When you do Janda’s and come up near the end of the movement, if you grunt out a short blast of air, it magnifies your power, among other things.
Bud would give a “hup” every time he lifted a weight or threw the hammer. But when he lifted real heavy or threw particularly hard, it was a much louder “HUP!”
So, try putting some grunted breath into that pop. It’ll tighten you up more and transfer more energy.
Now, in some movements or sports there is more of a whip like action going on. In other activities it is more like a punch.
Shot put, punch.
Discus, whip.
There is follow through in both.
When we talk about exploding into an implement, various sports require varying degrees of acceleration to get the implement to that point where we give the final pop. But the point is:
We are trying to accelerate the object throughout its range of movement with us (before we release it) as fast as we can and then add in extra force from our combined mass and speed, like a explosion right at the final release. We can’t move at maximum speed right from the start or we would rip our arms off, but we try to go from zero to 60 as smoothly and as fast as we can.
Smooth is a big thing.
But in both cases, there is a “POP!” at the final release. You are trying to transfer all the energy and mass of your body that you can into the object.
Throwing through the object helps accomplish that.
In boxing, set-up punches are “pop, pop, pop” with a definite pull back of sorts. They sting and hurt but there is an emphasis on getting the hand back quickly to protect and cover up your own body. Thus, maximal energy is not transferred. The final “BOOM!” of the series of hits is the hit that is thrown with a complete follow through and punching through the target.This is the truly explosive punch.
This is similar to many other sports like tennis, for example. You send the ball back with fast, explosive hits, but are trying to get the racket (and your body) back into position fast to hit the returned ball, setting up your opponent for the “BOOM!” hit, that pop they can’t react fast enough to return. That hit has a greater follow through.
Same with throwing.
Practice throwing. “Pop, pop, pop”, just practice getting it out there. Don’t worry about the distance. Feel the movement. Dance with the implement. Become one with it.
Then when the time is right:
“BOOM Baby!” you’ll nail it and send that thing flying farther than you ever had.
Don’t get too excited. Relax. Think about how it felt. Smile and know that 7th wave will come around again.
In time you will find it gets easier and easier to do this.
My thought is if you can’t feel this in your sport, if you can’t seem to get explosive from practicing your throws or puts, then you need two things:
Lots of technique practice and learning how to POP! from outside your sport.
In other words:
Learn how to do a power clean and split jerk (PC & SJ).
Or learn how to throw a power punch.
Or learn how to slam a sledge into a tire with your whole body into it.
The point is, you don’t need to learn to box, or learn the Olympic lifts or how to chop a gnarly piece of wood. You just need to step outside your sport, learn how to pop; and when you can do that consistently, take that knew-found skill and plug it into your chosen sport.
Now, just to set this matter straight, it is not like a person explodes into action and then literally resets somehow while in motion and explodes again. But that is sort of how it might feel. For example, we can do a PC fast, but not get too much pop on the bar.
Or we can move fast in the PC and at just the right spot: POP! that bar up and catch it in the rack position.
I really like the power clean and the split jerk for teaching this pop. Doesn’t matter if it’s with a dumbbell, kettlebell or barbell initially. But I think learning to do them with a barbell is the best way. You can learn the technique with a bar and gradually add weight as you get the technique down and the timing of that pop just right.
If you’ve never done PC & SJ before and get to the point where you can handle at least 225 pounds in this move, couple that with continued practice on your throws and you will be throwing farther than you ever have, with more explosiveness.
So:
Learn how to PC or you might try PC’s from the hang.
If that seems like too much, you could opt out and just take a barbell from a rack or stands and practice the split jerk. But I really think the full PC & SJ is better.
Now, I picked the PC & SJ for a reason:
A power snatch is good, but there is not opportunity to do a jerk after. Both the PC and PS help drill that explosive pop (among many other things) but the PC allows a person to drill transferring energy through a rigid torso into the weight when we perform a split jerk immediately after the clean.
I like the split jerk better than the squat jerk style mainly for one reason:
We are doing this to drill that explosive quality during greater movement:
In the squat jerk, we merely jump the feet very little and squat under some to receive the bar overhead.
In the split jerk we have to move the feet over a much greater distance, splitting them, one forward one back. More movement to synchronize in a short period of time. This is more like stepping through the spinning dance to deliver the final explosive pop to drive the implement. Swinging or snatching a kettlebell does not teach this delivery of force or transferal of energy after replacement of the feet simply because the feet do not move while doing swings and snatches.
With putting a shot or stone or throwing a hammer or discus, we begin the movement and start accelerating through it and as we come to the final step right before we launch the object we try to give it an extra blast. The hammer goes low high low around us and we try to go faster through the spins adding more momentum to the hammer with each revolution. On the last spin we come out of the hammer dipped low position and try to explode it up and out of the spin with an explosion of force.
The put is similar, with a low position (from spin or glide) and then a final drive into the put/stone which takes us from low to literally jumping into and through the implement to put it, to throw it.
And the discus comes out the spin where we accelerate (maintaining that “X” position of the shoulders and hips) and we explode out of that “X” to release the discus with a blast of power.
We might also try moving through the entire sequence of the spin or glide more slowly than normal and then when we hit the power point where we would explode: EXPLODE!
At whatever point in your movement you need to blast off, think to yourself: BOOM! right at that instant you hit that point in your movement. Grunt, yell, whatever and get aggressive right then. Then step it down a notch or two, relax for a few throws and ramp it up to another BOOM!
Throwing or putting into some sort of wall can help using only the last step right before the release. This leaves out any concern for how far the implement goes and leaves out more confusing steps before the release, so you can focus on exploding. Then after this, follow up with a few nice throws and a few explosive ones to set the full technique. Sort of like deadlifting and then doing some jumps right after.
Doing a heavy PC followed by a split jerk takes a lot of technique, timing, tension, relaxation, smoothness, etc. There is a whole series of athletic movement packed into this one exercise. Highly underrated movement for those seeking that elusive “POP!”
If you are an athlete, listen to your coach. He knows better than me.
If you are an average Joe or Jill looking for some added POP! to your sport or just because, follow this:
Get stronger overall. Basics baby.
Get stronger with your implement.
Drill your technique. (Fast, slow, always smooth with and without your implement, learn the leverages, the timing, the footing)
Drill your explosiveness using various means. (Sport specific practice, non-sport specific practice, learn the timing of the pop)
Blend it all together.
Become awesome.
On practicing technique:
You have to focus on your technique. Become one with the implement you are throwing or putting or lifting explosively. It takes a lot of repetitions to learn the technique of a particular move until it becomes first nature. You want it to become like another of your bodies senses, so that when you perform the movement it is completely natural to you.
Most people who have this explosive ability can apply it to any sport or even to certain “situations”. You might not be the biggest or the strongest guy around on your field of play. But if you can hone the timing of this “POP!” and apply it at will, you will be way more effective in what you are trying to accomplish. And you will surprise a few people along the way.
So, if this helps you get more explosive, just thank Pops.
Just make sure you aren’t within arms reach or be prepared to duck
The more we can tune into what we are doing, get the feel of the movement, the more we will get out of our training.
Control of our body-weight or some outside object comes from manipulating many factors.
 I'm not counting rep speed here... At times a thought of:
“In this movement I need to step one two throw” can help, such as initially learning a sequence of moves,
but the point is to move from one point to the other and feel the flow of the movement, whatever it happens to be.
Changes of direction should not be exclamation points, they should be V’s with a tight curve at the bottom or point of change of direction.
Though at times the point of change of direction may have a faster or slower or sharper or more gradual or flatter turn-around.
Smooth comes from learning to feel what’s going on in the movement and then going with it and amplifying and controlling it rather than counting rep cadence.
 or here...lift, move! Feel it! Like comparing a dancer that dances versus one that counts his steps.
Maybe initially count but then quickly get away from that and feel it. I think in one session with a client or when teaching ourselves a new move, we can get away from counting our rep speed fast.
We need to ask:
Which one will be smoother, (whether they are moving fast or slow)?
Which one will have better balance and control throughout the entire exercise or movement?
The person counting their rep speed or the person who has learned to feel the movement and control it by spatial awareness, balance, force input and manipulation, leverage, etc ?
Of course, pause reps have their place for certain applications, but that is another story.
 Running as if I'm chasing dinner... The more the general trainee who is looking to merely “get in shape, lose weight” (as they themselves say) , can learn to feel what is going on with their body while exercising, really getting into the moves, the more feedback they will get from their environment, their training.
They will learn when to root or plant themselves, when to move fast and touch and go, when to glide or when to move slower.
We should guide them in this learning process by helping them get into the movement, not by counting rep speed.
I’d much rather see a guy learn to control a weight, for example in bench pressing or dead lifting, by focusing on doing the move correctly and feeling the load and forces as he does it and learning how various inputs from him: speed, minute adjustments, muscular tension, breathing, etc can change the exercise rather than relying on counting rep speed to try to teach that.
This gives them a greater sense of control and input as to how things affect their body.
And that can help them as they develop that awareness and apply that to other habits in life:
Like what they eat and how they live and sleep and how those things impact their recovery, their strength or endurance, the composition of their body, their overall quality of life.
It’s all about balance and control and moving smoothly through a movement, a rep, a set, a routine, a job, a life.
Smoothness creates stability and control. This gives confidence in a exercise or movement. Rep speed counting does not.
Rep speed or cadence counting: what happens if it gets thrown off somehow, like from fatigue or a slight loss of balance or loss of focus?
 Side bends...think I'm counting rep speed? We, the coach or trainer will not always be there for them or even be 100% focused on every inch of a movement during a rep. Injuries happen fast, many times.
Feeling the movement itself, when fatigue sets in or as one maybe losses control of the bar, for instance, I think the person who is focused on feeling the action of his body in the movement, feeling the object they are lifting, will adapt and complete the movement safely or bail out if needed without injury, versus the rep speed counter who isn’t aware of what is about to happen because he’s focused on:
“Up, one thousand one one thousand twelve, pause one thousand one, down one thousand one one thousand two, pause one thousand one, up one thousand one one thousand…man this is getting hard, where was I? oh yeah two thousand one or was that two?…down one thousand…what rep was I on?”
as they perform the next few reps in some sort of mentally induced counting rep cadence stupor.
We don’t ask a trainee how their rep speed was after they completed a set of movements.
We ask how it felt to them.
BINGO!
How it FELT.
Did you feel strong? In control? Did it feel too heavy? Too light? Did you feel you were losing your balance?
Do we think they will be able to tell us much if they are counting their rep speed or we are counting it outloud for them? Do we think they will focus on the movement if they are counting or they hear us counting?
Better to say:
“Try doing that a little faster or slower.”
“Try slowing down that initial pull off the floor a little more. Try to squeeze it off the floor”
“Pop it up once it reaches here…”
“Slow down a little”
“Faster”
“Stay tight”
“Loosen up”
Or:
“Man, that didn’t feel right to me. I need to drop with my feet a little closer as I catch the bar.”
Not:
“Well, it looks like to me in the first second of that pushup you were going too fast but in the second second of your pushup you slowed way down. Try to keep both seconds the same speed.”
“You’re counting too fast. Count like this…”
“Well, maybe if I shave a half second off my rep count as I pull the bar up I can drop under it better.”
We seek their input so we can adjust the movement, to make it safer, more effective and get them stronger, faster, etc.
They/we can’t provide that input if we are focused on counting rep speeds.
As a coach or trainer will we notice form flaws as readily if we are counting rep speed? Try switching from counting rep speed outloud for the client and then suddenly saying:
“Drop it!” or “Let the kettlebell go!” or “Stop that push-up!” on a rep going bad or getting too out-off balance.
Do we really need to count rep speed? The rep or movement either felt strong, controlled, balanced or it did not.
I think counting rep speed is a crutch for us when we are not sure what to focus on when teaching movements.
Imagine a dance instructor who teaches students to dance not only by counting the steps but also the speed of each step.
Now the student has to think about each step but also think about:
“Is my step too slow, too fast?”
Just teach them the steps.
The steps make up the movement.
Each movement or exercise has various steps to it and also has a rhythm to it, a flow of movement from each individual step. Once all the steps of that movement are being performed correctly, then we can begin to change the speed of that movement.
So once the rhythm or cadence of a particular exercise is learned, we can speed it up or slow it down.
Better to teach proper form, on a push-up for example, and then when we or our client can do it properly, make adjustments in the speed of each rep to create differing variables to get the results we are seeking from performing that movement at that speed.
Such as:
A Plank, pausing at various points of a push-up, a push-up done slow, a push-up done fast, a clapping pushup. Various speeds creating various results to our body. All based off a basic posture held during varying degrees of zero to explosive speeds.
Endurance, strength, explosiveness? Adjust the speed, leverage, weight or load, etc, accordingly, depending on the movement.
As Miyagi said in one of the Karate Kid movies:
“Move faster.”
And we don’t need to count the rep speed to do that. Let the client feel the changes on their body from making subtle changes in speed of movement by verbally giving them cues, not counts.
Or have them do a set and vary the rep speed as they see fit during that set and note how each rep feels.
Or do a few reps super slow, rest, try a set slightly faster, etc.
Get their input after each set. You might ask:
“How did it feel? Did you notice this _____ happening at that speed?”
The most athletically inclined people, and those who seem to pick things up quickly when learning new exercises or movements are those who put themselves into the move and feel it.
Don’t stutter step through learning movements strung together.
If it must be broken down a section at a time, like in the TGU, as each section is learned, make those two sections flow together before going on to the next section.
Seek to teach seamlessness in movements.
 learning to fly... The more we, or those we teach, learn to feel movements and exercises, the more we can pick up new movements safer, faster and with better results.
Watch a good dancer, gymnast, sprinter etc, learn martial arts or the kettlebell swing versus some guy who counts his rep speed all the time to make sure he gets whatever he thinks that rep speed is going to give him.
We should teach those we train to feel and move rather than count.
Tune them in to the music of training and movement, not to the amount of frequency waves in a particular beat.
Teach them to run, to jump, to fly.
Give them wings, not a calculator.
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