High rep partial-rep training

[John Dalton]

I read these articles about high rep (2-3 sets of 20-25 reps) of partial rep training of a basic barbell movents ( usually involving the last few inches of the lockout). It is said that these help build the tendons and ligaments of the joints. Does anyone here have experience with this kind of training? Also is the increased tendon strength from this type of training useful for gymnastics training?

[Rik de Kort]

You're going to need to lift a boatload of weight for that, so that would translate to a very disadvantaged leverage position in gymnastics. It might be possible, but I don't think it would be easy.

[Nic Branson]

The higher reps stimulate blood flow quite well as for the strengthening portion most of that has to do with time spent at lockout.

One example. One of the best rotator cuffs exercises is Farmer's Walks. Just picking up a couple "heavy" weight and setting your shoulders. The action of holding them at arms length causes the cuff to fire and suck the joint into the socket. Assuming you have good mobility this would be a good stability drill.

Not on topic but, do not confuse mobility with stability. This is a very common mistake. Become mobile first then become stable. One builds on the other. Many "mobility" drills fail in this area

[seiyafan]

In the Navy SEAL training, they do 2 months of strength training followed by 3 months of endurance training. In the endurance training, they use 30-50% of 1 rep max weight and do high reps, as high as 60 per set to build endurance.

"Although it may seem a bit foreign to you to see up to 60 reps per set,

this is the best way to convert your strength gains to applied strength, or functional strength.

You will be amazed at your muscular endurance and ability to perform mission-related

tasks and other strenuous physical tasks, if you truly stick with a program such as this"

[Nic Branson]

That training is for conditioning not for tendon / ligament strength. The injury and degeneration rate in BUDs is extremely high. It takes months to recover when you finish.

[Joshua Naterman]

In the Navy SEAL training, they do 2 months of strength training followed by 3 months of endurance training. In the endurance training, they use 30-50% of 1 rep max weight and do high reps, as high as 60 per set to build endurance.

"Although it may seem a bit foreign to you to see up to 60 reps per set,

this is the best way to convert your strength gains to applied strength, or functional strength.

You will be amazed at your muscular endurance and ability to perform mission-related

tasks and other strenuous physical tasks, if you truly stick with a program such as this"

Where the hell did this come from? I want a source.

[Nic Branson]

I almost went there Josh but umm yeah. You and I both know better.

[Joshua Naterman]

That training is for conditioning not for tendon / ligament strength. The injury and degeneration rate in BUDs is extremely high. It takes months to recover when you finish.

No kidding!

If anything, BUD/S is designed to break you if you can be broken. That goes for physically as well as mentally. I have heard they have gotten a bit softer, but it's probably always going to be rather bad for your health.

It takes most people 6-8 months for their bodies to truly be knit back together properly. My toenails didn't start growing back on my big toes (they fell off during hell week) for 8 months. Think about that. 8 months before my body decided that it had finally fixed the rest of my body to the point where it felt comfortable contributing proteins and energy to nail growth.

The training is in no way designed to make you bulletproof, it is designed to figure out who actually wants to be a SEAL, who has a body that is naturally (or through proper training) tough enough to withstand the lifestyle, and who can learn the basic skills they teach you safely. That's it.

Even in the teams, there isn't any kind of implemented standard training protocol. Perhaps Jeff @ Trident A will weigh in, but I won't blame him if he doesn't... people will tell you whatever they want to try and sell you a product. That doesn't make what they say true, and it certainly doesn't mean they have any idea how to get you where you want to be. Wherever that quote came from regarding BUD/S is a giant pile of rubbish. Bollocks. Hogwash. Poop.

[Nic Branson]

Yeap, lots of ego's enter...you get broken, fast. You have to be a team and that is a huge reason you get broke and re-broke over and over. Your swim-buddy and your team are your life. I don't know about currently, got out in 2001.

[Vincent Stoyas]

In the Navy SEAL training, they do 2 months of strength training followed by 3 months of endurance training. In the endurance training, they use 30-50% of 1 rep max weight and do high reps, as high as 60 per set to build endurance.

"Although it may seem a bit foreign to you to see up to 60 reps per set,

this is the best way to convert your strength gains to applied strength, or functional strength.

You will be amazed at your muscular endurance and ability to perform mission-related

tasks and other strenuous physical tasks, if you truly stick with a program such as this"

Where the hell did this come from? I want a source.

I googled it quickly and found it coming from here,

"The U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition

By Patricia A. Deuster, U.S. Navy, Anita Singh, Pierre A. Pelletier"

[seiyafan]

In the Navy SEAL training, they do 2 months of strength training followed by 3 months of endurance training. In the endurance training, they use 30-50% of 1 rep max weight and do high reps, as high as 60 per set to build endurance.

"Although it may seem a bit foreign to you to see up to 60 reps per set,

this is the best way to convert your strength gains to applied strength, or functional strength.

You will be amazed at your muscular endurance and ability to perform mission-related

tasks and other strenuous physical tasks, if you truly stick with a program such as this"

Where the hell did this come from? I want a source.

I googled it quickly and found it coming from here,

"The U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition

By Patricia A. Deuster, U.S. Navy, Anita Singh, Pierre A. Pelletier"

Bingo!

[seiyafan]

It takes most people 6-8 months for their bodies to truly be knit back together properly. My toenails didn't start growing back on my big toes (they fell off during hell week) for 8 months.

Since you were in the SEAL, could you tell me if you guys followed the guidelines in "The U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition"?

By the way, that quote was in no way referring to BUD/S. The book was written for people who are already in the SEAL.

[Nic Branson]

Hell and No. It is not indicative of SEAL training. More importantly how any special operations force, SEAL or otherwise trains while qualifying should not be considered for anyones training purposes. If I need to explain why, then you need to do more basic reading around here.

Decent summary is you're a specialized competitive full contact sport athlete with no off season.

[Joshua Naterman]

In the Navy SEAL training, they do 2 months of strength training followed by 3 months of endurance training. In the endurance training, they use 30-50% of 1 rep max weight and do high reps, as high as 60 per set to build endurance.

"Although it may seem a bit foreign to you to see up to 60 reps per set,

this is the best way to convert your strength gains to applied strength, or functional strength.

You will be amazed at your muscular endurance and ability to perform mission-related

tasks and other strenuous physical tasks, if you truly stick with a program such as this"

Where the hell did this come from? I want a source.

I googled it quickly and found it coming from here,

"The U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition

By Patricia A. Deuster, U.S. Navy, Anita Singh, Pierre A. Pelletier"

Wow. Well, that is a flat out lie. She clearly has no idea what strength training or endurance training means.

When I was there they started implementing weekly weight workouts either post hell week or starting with 2nd phase, but that was a fairly recent development at the time and I believe that book is quite old.

At any rate, the first sentence is ridiculous.

The sentence regarding muscular endurance and mission-related tasks is fairly true since they are essentially pure endurance in nature. That does not mean anything beyond energy system specialization. There is nothing in place for injury prevention as far as physical training is concerned. They may think there is, but they do no joint prehab and no structural strength/balance assessment or correction. As such there is no actual injury prevention in the physical training.

The military wants you to believe everything they say without question. Don't be that stupid guys, the military is a pretty backwards place. Moving forward in some areas, but by and large they are well behind the curve. I think they are trying, but it's hard in that environment.

[Joshua Naterman]

Hell and No. It is not indicative of SEAL training. More importantly how any special operations force, SEAL or otherwise trains while qualifying should not be considered for anyones training purposes. If I need to explain why, then you need to do more basic reading around here.

Decent summary is you're a specialized competitive full contact sport athlete with no off season.

Full contact backpacking

[Nic Branson]

Oh good one, I like that.

[Joshua Naterman]

It takes most people 6-8 months for their bodies to truly be knit back together properly. My toenails didn't start growing back on my big toes (they fell off during hell week) for 8 months.

Since you were in the SEAL, could you tell me if you guys followed the guidelines in "The U.S. Navy Seal Guide to Fitness and Nutrition"?

By the way, that quote was in no way referring to BUD/S. The book was written for people who are already in the SEAL.

That book was written to sell copies. I will have to break out a copy of the book that I have downstairs after finals, but the nutritional advice in that book is way, way out of date. I'm not suggesting that everything in it is crap, but I can tell you right now that THAT book is what was recommended to us for BUD/S prep. SEALS do what the hell they want. The prep in the book, by the way, is crap. Stewart Smith's book is much better, but again does not have anything covering specific prehab. I actually used Pain Free for my prehab, weekly weight workouts every Saturday for deadlifts, squats, and bench (a total waste of time, bench... but try telling that to me when I was 20) as basic strength maintenance and leg prehab (there is no leg strength training at BUD/S whatsoever, unless you count log squats). All that definitely helped, but if I had it to do over again I would use Pain Free and BtGB for prehab and strength training, and I would run through Stew Smith's book 14 weeks before I shipped out to BUD/S, at which point I would resume BtGB maintenance work and maintain the run, swim, flutter kicks and other high rep "core" work because you just do so much of it that it is kind of a specific sport at BUD/S and it really helps to be used to it ahead of time.

I was in class 245 and 246, but never made it into the teams. I was not in the SEALs.

[seiyafan]

I knew it! I should have taken it with a grain of salt. There are movies mentioning about certain SEALs don't do push-ups because they don't want their chest to be TOO big, I guess that's BS too, right?

[Joshua Naterman]

I knew it! I should have taken it with a grain of salt. There are movies mentioning about certain SEALs don't do push-ups because they don't want their chest to be TOO big, I guess that's BS too, right?

Most of the guys are pretty small, honestly. They are in decent shape but they aren't physical specimens. Someone like me would be the odd man out. Now, in Dev group... that's different. They are elite of the elite within the SEALs and can't be compared to the others. Most SEALs can't hack it, if that tells you anything.

One of our instructors was from DevGRU and man, it was ridiculous. He would lead the entire morning PT, and by lead I mean do everything perfectly in front of us for an hour straight, and didn't even seem to sweat. That includes the day we did 300+ 4 count flutter kicks. 45+ minutes and it looked like he was on the first rep. It was insane.

[Nic Branson]

DevGRU are mental. Those guys are intense and I think the only reason they are not pro-athletes is it was not intense enough for them. Talking of training brings back memories.

[seiyafan]

I remember back in the days my roommate was in the ROTC Navy, and once he told me that his instructor could still manage to kill anyone even with both of his hands tied behind his back.

So I guess the DEVGRU is so classified that we don't even know what those guys look like right?

[Nic Branson]

Unless you know them than not typically. But that goes for most active SEAL's. I know one guy who was on team 6. Sadly at the time you had to have the right source rating for the SEAL's when I was in. Ended up going rescue diver instead.

[seiyafan]

Just curious, would someone with the power and agility like Lebron James qualify for that? =)

There is a ten year old at our school who one day asked me that he wanted to be in the demolition squad when he grew up. I basically said that you need to do push up like chewing tofu and pick me up like I did to you, after I said that I picked him up over my shoulders.

[John Dalton]

Thanks rik and nic.

Can the others please not go off topic? I want to hear your opinions too.