Strength and Power Notes April 2009
Unfortunately, the new Newton Sports web site remains unavailable, but expect to see a totally redesigned site within the next couple of weeks. And it will be a lot different!
April slipped by quickly, but with a fair amount of training at the Sweat Shop, the affectionate name applied to my garage gym. There’s nothing quite like training in the Central Florida heat and humidity during the summer, thus the name, provided by veteran school age lifters from Daytona Beach’s Seabreeze High School.
Of course, at this time of the year sweat is at a minimum, especially for morning workouts. As he has done for the past several years, Richard Campion, former Canadian Weightlifting Federation Technical Director, has vacationed, along with his wife, Charlotte, here in Ormond Beach. Part of his routine is 3X weekly morning workouts. Despite a new hip in ’08 and probably a matching version later this year, Richard (68) keeps plugging away.
And this year Charlotte joined the ranks of the regular trainees. Also included have been a couple of women runners, one simply wanting to improve her squat and deadlift performance and another training for the Arnold Classic’s Pump & Run event.
Jason Brown stopped by for a week of easy training during his Spring Break from LSU-Shreveport. Now successfully in the 85kg category, Jason’s lifts have taken a nice jump upward of late, both in terms of absolute weight lifted and in terms of technique. Watch for this guy at the National Collegiates later in April.
My speaking calendar changed radically this month, as the national headlines seem to have claimed more victims. It’s hard to find much good news in the media right now and it seems many workshops are scaling or holding back on their plans. After repeated messages here that I would be in Alexandria, VA and in Richmond, VA in March or April, none of this came to pass. The Richmond workshop was formally declared ‘dead’ for this year as of April 5. No doubt Coach Jay DeMayo will get this one back on the calendar next year.
Harvey Newton note: Generally speaking, weightlifting is a perfect activity in which everything can be quantified, but we all have to speak the same language. For example, this morning I heard from someone that expressed part of their workout as squats 45x10, 65x5x3, 75x2. In this case the lifter was referring to actual weight, not percentage. The first and last sets leave little to question, but is that middle reference to 65 for 5 sets of 3 or 3 sets of 5?
The following question is from a reader of Explosive Lifting for Sports. The question specifically references the workouts listed on page 162. It illustrates a frequent concern for many when dealing with resistance training programs: What do all the numbers mean?
Please help me understand how to read the sports specific training templates presented in Explosive Lifting for Sports. For example on page 162, Football (Friday), the first clean and jerk is shown as: 50/3 3
Is the "50" 50 kilos or 50% of 1-RM? What does 3/3 represent?
The second entry on Friday for hang clean is 75/3 3 which I think means 75kg or is this 75% of 1RM?) for 3 reps for 3 sets.
If the weight is in terms of kilos, then what is the 1RM in terms of kilos?
Thank you,
Bill
Bill,
This is a good question that comes up periodically. Generally speaking, it is customary for the numerator to denote a particular percentage of max, the denominator represents the number of repetitions performed, and the number to the right side is the number of sets, if more than one.
Check page 145, paragraph three. In the example provided at the bottom of that page the numerator refers to the actual weight lifted. This particular table illustrated the challenge of determining volume based on weight lifted, as opposed to total repetitions performed, with two lifters of differing capabilities following the same program plan.
In the ensuing sport-specific workouts that follow in Chapter 11 the numerator represents the percentage of the lifter’s 1RM. When planning programs for specific athletes coaches dial in the exact intensity figure to be used. But when the coach designs an identical program to be applied to a team with varying abilities, it saves considerable time to simply designate a percentage of max to be lifted.
At the bottom of each sport workout example is what I called the “intensity determining criteria.” I asked each contributing coach what lift they use as a reference for determining related exercise intensity.
Let’s use the power clean example to further explore this issue. Some coaches, especially those of teams that do not perform full cleans, may use the 1RM power clean as the best model. A volleyball player might use the 1RM power clean as their calculator for workout intensity and we’d expect to see numerators as large as 100.
Weightlifting coaches are likely to use a lifter’s best C&J to denote power clean intensities. Balanced lifters have a 1RM power clean that falls somewhere around 80-82% of the best C&J. In this case, you would never see a set of power cleans assigned a numerator higher than 82% (because that’s really 100%... of the power clean).
Let’s take this a step farther. It is important to realize that when a percentage is listed as a set’s numerator there is a fair degree of flexibility built into the exact weight chosen. It’s generally understood that an intensity zone (let’s say 70-79%) is demarked by its mid-point, 75%. But the lifter has the option to vary the exact weight depending on how they feel that day.
For example, in the question above the lifter is assigned a 75% figure for three sets of three reps. Hypothetically, let’s say the lifter’s 1RM Power Clean is 110kg. The 75% designation translates to 82.5kg and he/she is expected to perform three reps. (We won’t deal with the question of whether the reps are done consecutively, perhaps from the hang, or if they are performed singularly, with brief rest between reps).
Let’s presume the lifter’s PR for three reps is 90kg (true, this can also be viewed as a 100% figure, but let’s not get any more confused than we might already be). Lifting 82.5kg/3 when the best is 90kg/3 produces an effort equal to about 92%. This is a reasonable load for a medium intensity training session. But, what if the lifter is having a good day? Should he or she be restricted to 82.5kg? What if the lifter is fighting the flu or didn’t sleep well the night before? Is the assigned load perhaps too much for this particular workout?
So in our hypothetical example, the coach and lifter may decide to perform any of the following options and all are considered to be within the prescribed program guidelines:
| Weight | Intensity* | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | ||
| Option A | 82.5 | 75 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| Option B | 82.5 | 75 | 3 | |||
| 85 | 77 | 3 | ||||
| 87.5 | 79 | 3 | ||||
| Option C | 80 | 73 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| Option D | 86 | 78 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| *actual weight/1RM |
Thanks,
Harvey