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Floating Heels: A New Way To Load

Long story short, I came across this research paper (link here) and it highlighted the beneficial training effects of a “floating heel” while performing jumps. The idea of a floating heel is quite simple. The mid/forefoot is raised and the heel is no longer in contact with the ground, hence the name “floating heel”. Your mid/forefoot have to become quite active and force the arch the work a little harder than it might otherwise, as the weight and load is now place on the only spot that has contact with the ground, being the mid and forefoot.

The idea is that with the heel no longer in contact with the ground, the constraints based approach forces you to work the ankle complex in a way that might be more favorable and transferable to sport. The position of that of a floating heel and contact during a plyometric are quite similar, see image below.

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Post Activation Potentiation: Its about you

Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) is the concept that a specific type of stimulus imposed on the body can facilitate “potentiate” the performance of the following movement to be performed. In less scientific terminology, its the idea that doing one exercise, like a back squat, before another movement, like a jump will help increase the performance of the jump to a greater extent than simply performing the jump by itself.

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Power Producing Movements

The Limiting Factor

I read a quote the other day from Verkhoshansky discussing the role the gastroc and plantar flexors have in vertical jumping. In short, he pointed out they are not a primary force producer during the jump, however, they are often the most important force transmitted (especially for jumps that do not start from a stand still).

He expressed that athletes need strong calves to allow for proper force absorption and transmission during ballistic actions. If the calves are not strong enough, they will hinder the expression of the larger power producing movements.

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Percentage Drop Offs

Plyometrics, Ground Contact Time, Jump Height and Power Monitoring

When performing movements that require reflexive actions such as depth jumps, the ability to monitor jump height and ground contact time is critical.

Reflexive plyometric actions can stimulate near maximal muscle contractions. However, like voluntary contractions, reflexive actions can fatigue.

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Creative Ways To Train Rotational Power

 Coach: Bill Miller

Baseball, golf, tennis, track & field…the list goes on and on of sports that rely heavily rotational power. It has been well-documented how important strength is for all athletic movement. After all, Power (Force/Time) requires Force in order to be displayed. The issue for many athletes and coaches may become the application of that strength through higher speed movements, especially in the right planes of motion. Rotational power (Transverse Plane) requires kinetic energy built up from the lower body and transferred to the upper body and through the hands.

Rotational movement pattern in most athletic scenarios:

  1. Static energy built up on rear leg
  2. Kinetic energy transfers through the front leg (front side bracing mechanic)
  3. Torque is created between the rotating pelvis and torso (hip/trunk separation)
  4. Energy is dispelled through the upper body as the torso and arms continue rotation

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Integration of Velocity-Based Training and Heart Rate in Training

Using data to manage training takes out the guesswork that a coach may deal with when trying to determine optimal load or rest time for an athlete. There are different types of data to help manage a program: external metrics and internal metrics. Velocity-based training is an external metric that I use daily to track bar velocity via Gymaware, and an internal metric I use daily is a Polar heart rate monitor. I am going to talk about how to integrate these tools in a training session simultaneously to autoregulate programming for an athlete. This means that from set to set, from day to day, or one training block to the next, I can manage load and rest time correctly to try and give the athlete optimal amounts of both.

Why Use Velocity-Based Training?

Velocity based training allows us to see external outputs of the athlete on a given day. An athlete’s output can change daily based on sleep, diet, physiological and psychological stress, so working off a %1RM that was tested 3 weeks ago may not be the most accurate loading strategy. Instead, we can use the Gymaware to determine how fast the athlete can move a given load based on their current state. If I want the athlete to move the bar at 1.0 m/s for a back squat, the Gymaware allows intra-set feedback to the athlete so he or she can understand what 1.0 m/s actually feels like, not to mention the added motivation to beat the previous rep’s velocity.

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Case Report (Bench Press)

Design

Perform 8 sets (only last 6 recorded) of 4 reps at 80% of my 1rm. Perform each rep with maximal effort. Record velocity of each set.

Analysis:

Calculate the rate of velocity drop-off in each set (as determined by the slope of the 4 reps). Record the Min and Max velocity of each rep in the given set. Report the raw velocities of each rep and each set.

Data

Graph 1 is the raw data of each rep’s velocity in each set. There is an obvious drop off in velocity between reps.

GRAPH 1

 

Graph 2 is a lot more interesting than Graph 1. What we have here is the slope of velocity drop-off between reps in each set (blue line and left vertical axis). There is also Max velocity and Min velocity (orange line and right vertical axis).

GRAPH 2

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Potential Versus Expression

 

Force potential is the maximal amount of force one could possibly express if all contractile properties were to act in an optimal fashion. It is dependent on the raw physiological properties of the body. Force expression is the amount of force one actually expresses in a movement. Force expression is much more complex. It involves the dynamic nature of skill (neuromuscular timing), which is what ultimately the limiting variable in force expression. Think about jumping to dunk versus performing a single arm, maximal arm flexion against an isokinetic device. Both movements require maximal force expression (in context) to get the best results, but the complexity of the jump compared to the single arm flexion is exponentially greater.

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Developing Power

Power development is one of the most sought after training adaptations. In order to understand how to develop power, one has to first understand the physics behind power and how power expression is quite contextual.

Power = Force x Velocity

 

Power is the ability to express force at a given velocity. The interesting thing about human movement is that velocity is always changing. Think about a jump starting from a static position. The athlete starts at a velocity of zero and then finishes with a velocity of say 3.8m/s. This means the individual had to continue to produce force as they gained velocity through the different portions of the movement. Because of this, one can quickly see how power development over a spectrum of velocities is needed. The whole idea of power is kind of a funny forward loop, more force expressed equals higher acceleration (highest acceleration is during the initial stages of the movement), which means greater changes in velocity and then the need to express force against an even higher velocity than before! So as we gain momentum throughout a movement, power output becomes greatly influenced by the increasing velocities.

So why does this all matter?

Well, only training force expression against heavy loads and slow velocities will only go so far. Yes, it is true that the expression of large forces at slow velocities is what will be responsible for the greatest amounts of acceleration, but that isn’t the whole story.

Training the ability to continually express force throughout the full range of motion and at regions that are responsible for high velocity (high knee angles) is critical for power development (more force at a given velocity = more power).

 

Examples:

 

Increasing initial acceleration of a movement through high-load weight training:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acC9T7tFITM[/embedyt]

 

Continued force production throughout the full range of motion can be done with accommodating resistance and high load jumps

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzJ5haNQmM[/embedyt]

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vBWO0Difmc[/embedyt]

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTAT30x0W3E[/embedyt]

Maximal intent/maximal velocity at high knee angles can be done with rapid tension isometrics, band assisted movements and low/bw load jumps

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzJ5haNQmM[/embedyt][embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMJRHTKa3c8[/embedyt]

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajRi3RUuxNQ[/embedyt]

 

Conclusion

Training for power is not just about chasing a number. Power is contextual to the velocity at which the force is being produced. Thus, training ranges of motion and movements that are responsible for specific velocities can help optimize the full power producing abilities of an athlete.