Should I on the explosive lifts in H III be using weights significantly less then my four rep max to ensure that the bar speed remains high? Also has anyone done H III ? and if so do you have any comments on the workouts . I performed the upper body workout yesterday ( 4 x 12) and struggled to get through.
I just completed HIII on Friday of last week. I was glad to finally finish it. Started it during sonwboarding season and had a few delays due to boarding and a few injuries.
I had the same question about the explosive lifts. I ended up dropping down a little from my max 4 rep number to get better velocity. I found that for most of these exercises I tended to overestimate my ability in the beginning. I have done all of the workouts except ST II, and ST III, so I was surprised at how much of an adjustment I had to make to get through these exercises. I had a very tough time with the heels raised 1 and a 1/4 squat. This is with out a doubt my least favorite exercise. Watch out for your knees in this one. It is hard not to bounce at the bottom, and this one seems to encourage you to go lower.
I don't know if it was the lack of consistency (took breaks to go snowboarding instead of weights!), or just the nature of these particular exercises, but I struggled to complete HIII. It has probably been my least favorite program so far. The hardest program was FL III. But I still liked FL III better than H III, and that is saying something!
In looking again at H-III (and I have not done that workout) the "explosive" terminology is used relative to other tempos. You're still doing a controlled eccentric, so a 30X tempo simply means to move concentrically as fast as possible. It's not explosive in the same way an Olympic lift is explosve all the way through. For an O-lift I'd want you to reduce the load and focus on speed, but for NROL's H-III with its controlled lowering I think the intent is just to attempt to accelerate the concentric. So reducing the load would not be necessary, at least not necessary for the sake of maintaining speed. It's not how fast the bar actually moves, it's about how much you attempt to accelerate the bar.
It's not how fast the bar actually moves, it's about how much you attempt to accelerate the bar.
This doesn't seem right to me. Say I'm going for a 301 tempo on a bench press, there is a weight that, although I can push it up and finish the rep with good form, I can't push it up fast enough to get it up in a count of 1. Therefore, even if it is a 1-rep set, the amount of weight I would use is less than the weight I could push up at a 302 tempo. Does this make sense?
This doesn't seem right to me. Say I'm going for a 301 tempo on a bench press, there is a weight that, although I can push it up and finish the rep with good form, I can't push it up fast enough to get it up in a count of 1. Therefore, even if it is a 1-rep set, the amount of weight I would use is less than the weight I could push up at a 302 tempo. Does this make sense?
Hunter, do you own the Lift Strong CD? If you do, read Bill Hartman's article Training Deficiencies for Increased Strength. He explains this much better than I can. But here's a very short quote:
Quote:
So in my opinion, tempo, meaning speed that a weight is lowered or lifted, does matter, but the actual numbered prescription of a specific tempo probably doesn't make much difference beyond telling someone that they need to lower or raise a bar more slowly or more quickly.
The article goes in depth into the topic, but my short version is to say that tempo prescriptions are limited in their usefulness. They are a guideline, not an absolute science. You do not have someone standing next to you timing your movement and even if you did you could not, even throughout one set, set an exact 301 tempo on each rep. It's impossible. So it's a guideline to give you the idea of what the movement should be like.
I think that for exercises like squats, rows, and bench press which are strength and hypertrophy style movements (as opposed to Olympic lifts which train power), that the concept of speed is about intent of the lifter to move the bar rather than actual bar speed. If you were really trying to train power you'd simply choose other exercises.
In H-III the explosive prescription is there to train rate of force development. You're going to get that training effect if you lreduce the load and go faster OR if you keep the weight the same and attempt to go faster. Either way. I'd keep the weight higher and work to get that load up faster (assuming good technique is maintained).
I had reasoned the same as Hunter. If I am using the weight that only allows me to complete 4 reps, then it can take 3 seconds or more to complete the lift. I believe that the intent here is the generation of force. From Newton, Force = Mass X Acceleration. So I could move a heavier weight over a longer time, or move a "lighter" weight for a shorter period of time and still produce the same overall force. I just think that this another variation to keep our muscles guessing and adapting to different stresses.
For my explosive reps, I tried to find the weight closest to my 4 rep max that I could move quickly and still not blow my form. That was my logic based on the tempos for this workout (301, 30X, 201).
Good post Terry. You said you reasoned the same as Hunter, but in the end I don't think what you actually did is any different from what I was saying either. You still looked for the heaviest weight you could move quickly. You used the tempo prescriptions as guidelines. You understood the purpose of those tempos (training rate of force development). I think we're all pretty much agreeing, but just trying to understand it better.
Think of this: If you stayed with the weight you used for a 302 tempo in a previous workout, but now you attempted to move it at a 30X tempo, then you'd be generating more force (Force = Mass X Acceleration) and therefore training for improved rate of force development. But if you reduced the load so that you could move the weight faster, then it'd be more like keeping the total force generated the same, just changing the calculation to less mass and greater acceleration. It's not that exact for sure, but I'm just trying to make a point.
thanks for the comments. It seems like i should use a combination of weight and bar speed that generates the maximum amount of force. Also Terry thx for the H III comments, it will help when i'm battling through the 1 1/4 squats. Though i guessing that doing squats in this fashion will be a big help when i untertake the strengh programs
H III and Explosive lifts
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