🚀PROGRAMMING USING THE EXECUTION VELOCITY PART 1🚀

PROGRAMMING USING THE EXECUTION VELOCITY PART 1

Today we present a real case of 11 weeks programming in the high back bar squat exercise for a male athlete, 27 years old, with previous experience in strength training and amateur competitor of the weightlifting team of the Animal Factory Club.

In the following articles will be exposed:

1. General characteristics of the programming (Duration and general structure).
2. The results obtained (Evolution of the applied velocity and the estimation of the 1 RM) throughout the 11 weeks of training.
3. As starting from the traditional training variables can be included the velocity to organize the programming.
4. Comments and conclusions about programming.

 

However, before beginning, an important clarification must be made:

This is a real example, which surrounds some characteristics and specific circumstances, for a specific athlete at a given time of the season. This means that not every person who performs exactly the same will obtain the same results: For somebody it may be insufficient and for another athlete, on the other hand, excessive, although it is a conservative progression in terms of volume and intensity. However, some general conclusions applicable to any design of a training program can be drawn, as will be seen at the end of this article.

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PROGRAMMING:

• • Total duration: 11 weeks, divided into:
  • First macrocycle of 4 weeks (competition on Saturday of the 4th week).
  • Second 7-week macrocycle (competition on Saturday of the 11th week).
  • The duration of these blocks has been determined according to the competition calendar of the Spanish Weightlifting Federation.
  • Weekly frequency: 2 sessions (Monday and Thursday).
  • Total sessions: 22.

   

  Structure of the sessions:

  • General warm-up (10-15 minutes)
  • Specific heating and post-activation potentiation (PPA):

 

From the beginning of the warm up with the empty bar until the last of the repetitions of each session, the Speed4lifts encoder has been used to accumulate all training data, including the fastest velocitys in each heating load and all the repetitions of the effective series.

The same absolute loads have been used in all the sessions in the PPA, to monitor the performance throughout the programming based on the velocity applied to each load.

The weight is increased until reaching approximately 5% more intensity with which the effective work of the session will be carried out:

Example of post-activation enhancement of the first session (Up to 75% of the RM) and of the Last session (Up to 85% of RM):

 

Table 1. Velocity ​​achieved on heating loads and PPA.

• Adjustment of the load to the desired velocity/intensity: Using the RM equation for the exercise of the squat included in the Speed4lifts application, it is only necessary to include the velocity at which a load has been moved and with what intensity it is desired work and the App will indicate the kg with which you must train*.

 

• Finally, as many effective series are carried out as are necessary to reach the planned training volume, depending on the velocity loss programmed for said velocity/intensity.

 

For example:

Purpose of the session: Make 25 Reps at 70% (Associated velocity 0.72 m/s), losing 15% as maximum of the maximum velocity. That is, we will stop all the work series when a repetition is equal to or less than 0.61 m/s (85% of 0.72 m/s, the maximum velocity).

Since we do not know in what repetition within a series we will reach 0.61 m/s, we do as many as necessary to complete the total volume of the session (in this case, 25 repetitions).

* If you do not know your velocity strength pertl or your RM equation, the best thing you can do is calculate them, and in this blog there are already articles related to these same questions.

* Similarly, if for programming reasons you cannot perform a test to obtain your pertl, since it will be more accurate the closer you get to charges close to the 1RM, you can use Table 2 (Obtained from: Conceicao et al., 2016) to estimate your RM and work based on the velocity. Today is the only one I know obtained in the exercise of full back squat and free weight (Not in the Smith machine), and I can personally say that it fits quite accurately to reality.

 

Table 2. Velocitys associated with the back squat with free weight according to Conceicao, F., Fernandes, J., Lewis, M., Gonzalez-Badillo, J. J., & Jimenez-Reyes, P. (2016).

 

References:

-Conceição, F., Fernandes, J., Lewis, M., Gonzaléz-Badillo, J. J., & Jimenéz-Reyes, P. (2016). Movement velocity as a measure of exercise intensity in three lower limb exercises. Journal of sports sciences, 34(12), 1099-1106.

-González Badillo, J. J. (2017). La velocidad de ejecución como referencia para la programación, control y evaluación del entrenamiento de fuerza. Ergotech.