Building Strength

I've been doing Foundation One and the Stretch Series consistently for the past 10 months and have really enjoyed it, especially how flexibility/mobility are given equal weight to the strength exercises.  In fact, this has been my primary S&C program and workouts outside of jiu jitsu and JKD/striking.

I was curious as to what the philosophy is behind doing higher reps and multiple sets in order to build strength.  Is that primarily to strengthen connective tissue?  "Conventional wisdom" would say to lift heavy weights and low reps (5 or under) with lots of break time in between.  GB seems to take the opposite approach.  Thanks.

Hey @Sam Jarvis

Great question! That's definitely one of the many reasons why Coach Sommer has programmed higher rep ranges for multiple sets.

Of course, connective tissue strength will increase due to increased blood flow to your joints.

Also worth mentioning is that you will develop enhanced work capacity which will allow you to perform more work without suffering from premature muscular fatigue.

The shorter rest periods will help teach your body to recover faster between sets.

PS- That's awesome to hear you are enjoying the courses!

 

 

 

@Sam Jarvis I think the connective tissue strengthening has 2 angles you can come at it with. 

1) Higher reps and range of motion, restorative, nourishing, lots of blood and synovial fluid circulation. Low stress on the tissue.

2) Low reps, high load, high impact. Less restorative but more of a stimulus to growth. Can overload and overstress the tissue if done too hard.

There's less margin for error on #2, so it's less suited for beginners. I think GST transitions from method 1 towards method 2 over time. Method 1 has additional benefits like building work capacity as Mikey mentioned above so it builds a good work foundation.

Best,

Matt

@Sam Jarvis

 

I was in the same predicament when I started GST as well so dont you worry. The conventional strength training model is heavy loads with long rest periods. I know pavel tsatsouline will even prescribe up to 15 minutes of rest between sets. Coach Sommers takes almost a polar opposite approach but with good intention. 

1)  joint health: your pumping a ton of blood into your tissues which is going to result in healthier joints and connective tissue. This is very important for long term shelf life, along with fixing any damage that has occurred prior to your GST training. Also with the greater emphasis on higher reps for mastery it is giving your body time to put all structures in place before increasing loads. 

 

2) Work Capacity: as mentioned above increasing work capacity is going to allow for more efficient strength training without excessive muscular/neurological fatigue later down the road in F2-F4. Also your joints will be healthier and less susceptible to injury because of all of the foundations work you put in prior to the heavy loading. 

 

3) Practice: Your getting a crap load of practice in with higher rep schemes which pays off in the long run. By the time you get through your foundations work you will have very good body awareness/mechanics which will be very important for getting in proper positions for heavier load strength movements. 

 

4) compensation : Building up from the very beginning will help find and solve a lot of weaknesses in both connective tissue integrity and muscular development. Super Super important to start from the beginning and allow time for the smaller muscles that may be underdeveloped to super compensate and grow stronger. When your always doing heavy heavy loading the smaller guys may never even be given a chance to fire, or fire to full capacity. If there is a weakness present the nervous system will skip right over them and place the loads on the big guys, Lats for example, which will continue to grow strong whilst the smaller muscle remain weak. This ultimately results in a body that is injury prone and suffers from a lot of compensation patterns and dysfunction.

 

This is my take on it, I hope this helps (other please chime in if what I said is not accurate). The road is long but if you want to preform at a really high level without injury (which is saying something in a sport like GST/Calisthenics where injuries are super common) I suggest following the road that Coach Sommers has so nicely laid down for us.