From developing strength in exercises to becoming efficient

[gymrob]

Hi all,

I have been wondering. My routines are mainly based around developing strength. I use low leps and don't go to failure. Anyway...I was wondering.

Coach Sommer mentions that often the way to progress with bodyweight skills is to decrease the leverage. Now another to increase difficulty is to add weight to an exercise. Once this becomes easy, you can add more weight. But I was thinking, if you didn't up the weight until you could do say 10 reps of the exercise, would you develop efficiency in the movements carried out, aswell as strength?

I may be off but please help me out

Thank you

[George Launchbury]

Hey gymrob,

I'll add my take since this one's been hanging around unanswered for a while. I am making my best guess at what you mean by efficiency, so please forgive/correct me if I'm off base.

A rock climber might improve efficiency by learning to reduce over-gripping, etc. In gymnastics I would imagine this might translate as the upper-arm muscles contracting harder than necessary to stabilise the elbow in a planche position, leading to premature fatigue. Over time the body should adjust to what is necessary, but I couldn't say whether adding endurance would be more/less effective than adding volume in terms of improving efficiency. I would guess the latter, as you would stay 'fresher'?

You would be adding some endurance to the movement by working up to 10 reps, which could be a way of preparing for a larger change in load when small increments are not possible. You would have added to the intensity* and volume over time, and when you switch up to the harder exercise, dropping the intensity* and volume makes it more manageable.

* The concept of intensity can get a little confusing when you're talking about changing reps/time and load at the same time, as it's often used to measure intensity as a percentage of your max reps/time in an endurance exercise (like pull-ups/planche) or of a percentage of your 1 rep max in a strength exercise (like deadlifts).

Does that make any sense, and/or help!?

Cheers,

George.

[gymrob]

Hey George,

Thanks for the input! Makes perfect sense!

Infact I am just about to undertake Pavel's grease the groove program. I have heard much success from it, suits me personally and I will see how it goes.

Thanks George!