WOD - 091109

Perform 3 sets each of:

5 Tempo XR Elevated Rows + 1 Embedded BL

5 Tempo XR PPP + 1 Embedded PL

5 Tempo Body Levers + 1 Embedded FL

Finish the workout with 10 Bridge Wall Walks

notes:

1) Warm-up by performing 2-3 easier Row/Pushup variations prior to beginning your working sets. The variations used should initially begin with one that is quite easy and then get progressively more difficult from warm-up set to warm-up set.

2) Use a tempo of 42X for the basic strength sets. This equates to a 4 second descent, followed by a 2 second pause at the bottom, then exploding as fast as possible into the ascent.

3) Choose an embedded static strength variation that allows you to hold the position for 15 seconds per rep.

4) Rest 10-20 seconds between the embedded static and the subsequent exercise. Rest 1-2 minutes in between giant sets.

5) You may scale the workout as necessary by substituting another exercise from the same movement family as necessary; e.g. substituting FX Pushups for the XR PPP.

6) DO NOT skip the Bridge Wall Walks at the end of the Workout.

Poliquin tempo protocol...this should be interesting. Coach, what's the intended affect of the tempo guidelines on todays workout? Thanks

xx

Coach Sommer said:

Perform 3 sets each of:

5 Tempo XR Elevated Rows + 1 Embedded BL

5 Tempo XR PPP + 1 Embedded PL

5 Tempo Body Levers + 1 Embedded FL

Finish the workout with 10 Bridge Wall Walks

notes:

1) Warm-up by performing 2-3 easier Row/Pushup variations prior to beginning your working sets. The variations used should initially begin with one that is quite easy and then get progressively more difficult from warm-up set to warm-up set.

2) Use a tempo of 42X for the basic strength sets. This equates to a 4 second descent, followed by a 2 second pause at the bottom, then exploding as fast as possible into the ascent.

3) Choose an embedded static strength variation that allows you to hold the position for 15 seconds per rep.

4) Rest 10-20 seconds between the embedded static and the subsequent exercise. Rest 1-2 minutes in between giant sets.

5) You may scale the workout as necessary by substituting another exercise from the same movement family as necessary; e.g. substituting FX Pushups for the XR PPP.

6) DO NOT skip the Bridge Wall Walks at the end of the Workout.

This equates to a 4 second descent, followed by a 2 second pause at the bottom

What exactly is meant by pause? Should you

a) keep the tension and hold it for 2 seconds

or do do you

b) explode from a relaxed position, e.g. in PPP lying on the ground for 2 seconds before the ascent?

Thanks

Tension at the bottom, no laying on the floor you lazy bum!

lol Slizzardman, it would be hard not to have tension at the bottom of a PPP Ring push up . . . I personally strive to do a PPP Plus at the bottom of my reps (ie I try and pick my feet off the block I am using to elevate my feet to ring height). There is however a place for dead start FX PPP (or any push up for that matter, one armers are really hard from a dead stop! 8) ). Just lay on your stomach and explode from the bottom as hard as you can. A guy that I train with can just lay on his stomach and press to a straddle planche, fingers facing back of course!

My suspicion is that some of the GB forum members following the GB WODs have been doing so with less than perfect focus on their body positioning and tightness. Employing this new protocol for this particular type of basic strength workout will hopefully allow several things to occur:

1) Increase the athlete's awareness of his body position and correct exercise execution.

2) Eliminate the use of momentum where inappropriate.

3) Increase TUT.

As you probably have already experienced, a productive ring strength series is one long set of varied movements that by the very nature of the rings are all under constant TUT. While a basic movement can never match the strength building efficacy of a correctly designed ring strength series; will the increasing of TUT allow the basic strength movements to become more productive in and of themselves? This is something that I would like to explore with this new protocol. Please keep me updated on your results.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Sorry for asking, but whats TUT?

TUT = Time Under Tension.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

It should produce good results, as long as it's varied with some more dynamic movement as well. I'm looking forward to seeing the results as well!

Can anyone explain the differences between doing the static work first and then the dinamic exercise and viceversa? Just curious, thanks.

Dynamic work takes more energy to do, since the protein filaments in the muscles are actually moving across each other, so you want your energy at its' peak for the dynamic work. Static contractions demand less energy from the muscles involved, so you generally want to do them after the dynamic work. Of course that really depends on the individual athlete's goals and where he/she wants to focus, but generally speaking it's more efficient to do dynamic first, because you can do more total work that way.

I found that the 42X tempo really fried my muscles. It was great. It hit them in a way that they were certainly not used to, between the tension and explosiveness, a great combination of hitting both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers.

Ok, so usually (my last SSC) I did PPP on the XP. So naturally I tried to just TUT my XR PPP, but I just couldnt get over 3 reps, and those 3 reps were brutal. The little hold at the bottom was particularly challenging on the rings. So I moved over to the floor to finish them off and that was also quite challenging! I did the FX PPP with my fingers facing back and the static hold at the bottom was the challenging part towards the end. Also my 'explode' out of the bottom got slower and slower to where I was fighting with everything I had to finish the last 3 reps of the last set! It was GREAT The XR elevated rows were also a lot of fun and very challenging. I made sure to strive to pull the rings as far apart at the top of the movement as I could, if I dont they just aren’t that challenging, but when I do it really kicks the difficulty up! Just looked at the book and I actually did Bulgarian rows instead . . . mmmm . . . I love that I can actually up the difficulty on some of the WOD's! 8) The body levers were the most challenging because I have never really worked them that hard but I sucked it up and did it, had a few cramps but drove through it. :shock:

I also used TUT on my pull ups and HSPU in my SSC workout which really had me working. I really do enjoy this TUT protocol, I just have to give it a few weeks and see what the results are.

Nice! The only think that I've done TUT on is the body levers, and I have absolutely seen great improvements with it. I wasn't even doing it on purpose, so I'm excited about working this in. It's good to hear how much of a difference it made in your workout, can't wait to hear your results over the next month or two!

I have had a great pump all day today . . .not sore but the pump has been insane . . . I just feel huge It just started calming down over the past hour or so but I have practice again at 6:30, so I think I am going to be nice and fresh and ready to take it to myself again. Today I am going to TUT FL rows (tucked, adv tuck if I feel up to it but the TUT might kill that :shock: ) and ring dips, should be fun! I think my increase in food intake is helping me along nicely as well . . .I have 20 min until its time to feed the machine again! I hope the results will be an increase in strength, build and 5-10 pounds! 8)

I think its hard to not do body levers in a TUT fashion, you really have to control the way down and pull as hard as you can on the way up, at least I need to! The only thing I think it added was a hold at the bottom which is what really had me working my butt off! Even when I had to downgrade to 45 degree body levers towards the end.

The only problem I am having at the moment is finding time to add in the fat bar dead lifting and maltese/victorian presses. . .

It's tough, but you only need 1-2 sets of the fat bar twice a week to see good results.

Dynamic work takes more energy to do, since the protein filaments in the muscles are actually moving across each other, so you want your energy at its' peak for the dynamic work. Static contractions demand less energy from the muscles involved, so you generally want to do them after the dynamic work. Of course that really depends on the individual athlete's goals and where he/she wants to focus, but generally speaking it's more efficient to do dynamic first, because you can do more total work that way.

My friend,

this statement is simply not true.

Dynamic work takes more energy to do because of the sliding filaments? Anyone with even basic exercise phisyolegy knowledge can attest that the sliding filaments theory shows differently -

when performing isometric work the actin and myosin will disconnect and reconnect at the same or close by site - though still requiring ATP for the action. One cannot state that isometric work has less energetical demands than dynamic one - it can be true or false. Such a statement will lead to bad planning when in actuality, each movement has to be inspected and placed in the bigger scheme in an inteligent way.

Ido.

Corrected, thank you! That made me think about a few things. Does it then follow that what really matters is the overall force required to maintain a certain position, whether statically held or dynamically moved through, is the primary consideration? I was thinking that because there was less movement that, while of course ATP is still required to maintain the reactions between the protein filaments, the consumption would be less, but I can see why that would not be so.

Is there any indication that there is less muscle damage caused by isometric work as compared to dynamic work? I remember reading something about static work doing less damage and therefore needing less healing time, but I don't know if that is accurate.

slizzardman said:

It's tough, but you only need 1-2 sets of the fat bar twice a week to see good results.

Would that be just like sets of 5 reps at whatever I can barely manage for those 5 reps?

About which is more difficult. . .I am just as sore and get just as good of a pump no matter what order I do them, just as long as I work as hard as I can during every set. I am still a beginner though and I think I am still in the stage where hard work (and LOTS of food!) counts for more than anything else. Good planning will help but its mostly up to me to get in the gym and get some!

I end up doing 20 total reps, and I try to structure that as close to 2 sets of 10 as I can. When I can do 2 sets of 10, it's time for more weight. But if you get 5 reps, take a few breaths, get 2 more, rest for 10 seconds, get 2 more, rest for 5-10 seconds and get that last rep it still counts as one set to me, it's just rest-paused. It works better for me than taking longer rests, but as long as you're getting 15-20 total reps you'll do fine. At least in the beginning you'll be putting on more weight every few weeks for a while.

Cool, thanks I will shoot for that then. . . maybe I will lift Wed and Friday, where Friday is a light day gymnastics wise (ie no rings just SSC for conditioning), Thursday is a heavy day, and Wed is flexibility and lifting and thats it. 2 sets of 10 reps with minimal rest sounds like a plan to me, I am thinking of using a little longer break between the two sets, like 1 min.

Oh yea yea, i take 1-2 minutes between the actual sets. Lord... trying to do all 20 rest pause is just a bit much to ask

Hi coach,

Like everybody in this thread I noticed a significant difference in the effectiveness of this workout with the slower tempos.

One other thing that I noticed a lot more at these tempos though is that my right side seems stronger than my left. I seem to be able to create and sustain more tension through the right arm, right oblique and right lat. The next day, when I worked on my handstands I also felt that my right shoulder was doing more work than my left, which was just catching up.

I know that imbalances across the body may be a natural occurance and on the single leg squats I work a little extra on the left by way of an extra set here and there to even it up. If you see this problem in any of your athletes how do you go about 'evening out' the imbalance?

I want to address it now before the difference becomes to big and starts affecting progress and aesthetic development.

Many thanks to the board who may also be able to offer some help or advice..

Mark