34 Study review

Hello and welcome to the High Performance Physiology Podcast. I'm Chris Beardsley. I'm here with my co-host Rob Mausari and we're going to do a study review or more accurately a program review from a study today. So this is a departure from the way from the typical podcast kind of topics that we tend to cover and it's going to be a departure from the way that we approach them. So I'm just going to give a two minute intro into the study and why we've chosen to look at it. It's not going to be a, as I say, a strict study review of the findings of the study. It's much more focused on the actual training program that was used. Although if you're interested in the study itself, then what we say about the training program will be pretty important. It actually completely changes the findings or how we interpret, sorry, how we interpret the findings of that study. So we just grab the paper in front of me so I can read the details out to you guys. Okay, so the title of the study is exploring the upper limits of resistance training volume for muscle hypertrophy and strength in trained athletes. And obviously that title is going to, I suppose, suggest that this is more of a kind of hypertrophy sort of bodybuilding style investigation. It's actually not. It's very much an athletic training program that was used and it's very much designed for trekking field. Another similar strength and bar athletes. So very, very quick overview. Basically, this is a training study. So we're looking at strength trained male athletes performing specific strength training programs for, I think, at 17 weeks in total. That divides into three phases and we'll talk about those specific phases as we go through. Basically, the athlete population came from a mix of sports. So we just try and find the relevant paragraph and I'll tell you which sports they came from. But basically, they're all competing at national levels in Finland, which is where the study was conducted. So just trying to find the, okay, so yeah, track and field, no endurance athletes and floor ball, which is a sport I don't know at all. So more than five years of sports specific practice and at least three years of strength training experience. As we get through, we can talk a little bit about some of the issues that we would see in the program. But I just want to mention that the strength reference values that are given for baseline characteristics seem to me to be very, very low for a track and field population. So back squat of 125 kilos and deadlift of 135-ish kilos. So I would say that those are strangely low for track and field. I'm not quite sure why that is, but there we go. So yeah, basically what we're going to do is talk through the training program and what it's actually doing. As I say, there's three separate blocks, sort of first five weeks, a second five weeks for a total of a ten week kind of section divided into two pieces and then a final seven week block at the end. So yeah, I think that's probably everything I want to say about the study in general. Did I miss anything Rob? No, no, nothing's all right. Cool. Okay. So as I say, the purpose of this episode is just to review the training program. And the reason for that is because it really is a very interesting insight into what is actually happening in literally elite sports. That's what, you know, these athletes are kind of being described as national level athletes. And it's really useful to window into seeing what is actually being done and what we would do kind of differently. So I'm just going to very quickly describe the first, so just to kind of before I jump in. What I'm going to do is we're going to take each workout one by one. There's three workouts per week. And obviously each kind of section of the whole program is slightly different. So what we'll do is we'll talk about the first five weeks and we'll give workout one workout two workout three. We'll talk about it workout by workout. Then we'll talk about the week and then we'll talk about the kind of training blocks as we go through. So workout one of the first block. There is a clean and front squat combination done for four sets. And it says two plus two reps. So I guess that's kind of maybe a cluster format. I'm not entirely sure it doesn't have a description, but you know, we could say you know, maybe four sets of four or something like that. And the intensity of that is 75% of one. We're at max. Then there's two sets of eight. Back squat again with 75% of one. We're at max. And then there's two sets of eight. I've had press military press with 75% and then there's three sets of six Nordics. Okay. So the problem or not the problem, but the description that we can now kind of to amplify that description is useful to recognize that 75% of one max is approximately a 12 rep max. So if you're doing set of four repetitions, then that's kind of around about sort of, I guess eight reps in reserve. Yeah, we've got that. Yeah. So I'm kind of wondering, I'm guessing that's therefore more of a power type exercise. I mean, again, I probably should give more detail than I am giving regarding the training program, but it's difficult to pick it out because it's all over the place in the paper. But basically every repetition because there's a athletic program, every repetition is done with maximum effort in the concentric phase. And then kind of a control eccentric. So I guess we can assume that it's kind of a power type training kind of protocol in this workout. Yeah. And with that, the clean plus front squat there, they tested the front squat max before the training program. So they trust it and they test it like a 5 RM. And if you're doing that clean plus the front squat, it's probably like a 2 plus 2 is probably two cleans and then two front squats with that weight. Um, is what I would think. But again, like you said, it's kind of weird. It's hard to piece together exactly what's going on because it's kind of all over the place in the paper. But yeah, I would guess it's kind of like a complex. So like two cleans and then two front squats. 75% of your front squat max, which you know, not basically actually be then a double with that weight for the front squat. And you know, I mean, 75 is either way. I mean, it's still a power exercise at the end of that. Yeah, still that one like a power exercise for sure. There's going to be no kind of meaningful peripheral adaptions. No, zero. Um, with the back squat, we've got a little bit of something interesting going on because we've eight repetitions. We've kind of got into the stimulating rep territory. So we've got like four reps in reserve. So we're getting kind of one stimulating rep per set with that. So back squat is kind of the back squat section of that workout is going to give us two sets, it's going to give us two stimulating reps. Not really anything to write home about, but there you go. And then the same would apply for the overhead press, I guess. So there we go. So really, the Nordics are kind of the only part of that workout that are going to give us any meaningful kind of peripheral adaptions. Three sets of six, probably the absolute top end of what I would be happy with. Truly ironic because the rest of the workouts really kind of low in terms of what the peripheral adaptions and fatigue are really doing. But yeah, finishing strong with three sets of Nordics, again, you and I would probably be more like kind of one set of a couple of reps or a couple of sets of a couple of reps or something like that. I mean, that would be a long way away from that. Yeah. And, and that, I mean, we'll get into the rest of the week, but yeah, definitely we will now be doing three sets of that many reps. Absolutely. Yeah, especially not as you say right to the beginning of the week. So session two, um, there's a deadlift to begin with off a five centimeter block, um, two sets of six reps at 70% of all remarks. And then a real elevated split squat, three sets of five rip max, okay, interesting. Um, then a split squat, another three sets of another five rip max load. And then we've got a nice symmetric calf raise, three sets of five seconds, maximum effort, biceps, three sets of 10, pull over three sets of 10, and there's no, uh, description given dead. I didn't know if you saw anything else where in the paper or is that just kind of like do you think that's kind of like three sets of 10 right max? I mean, it would seem a little bit out of place. You know, I didn't, I didn't see anything else and they don't have any intensity prescription there or RRI or anything like they do for some things. Yeah. So I, I mean, maybe that's max effort, but you know, not a big deal. So in terms of the deadlift, then three, two sets of six reps at 70%, which is a 15 repetition maximum is doing basically nothing from a peripheral point of view. It's just going to be also it would be if they tested the regular deadlift and then did it. Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. Yeah, absolutely. That's a really good point because as it changes over the program that basically goes to a deadlift from the deadlift off the block. It does mean that, yeah, it must be even easier. But honestly, at 15 rep max, that's like, seriously. I mean, I would feel like I was just kind of moving the bar around for somebody else or something. I mean, it would just be really weird. But we've got these five rep maxes in. We've got two exercises, both split squats, curiously. And interestingly, those are the only thing in the entire program that are actual rep maxes. Exactly. No, like five RM, really almost nothing else is like a rep max like that. Yeah. Yeah. And then we've got isometric golf raises and max effort. So again, that's going to be doing something. I seconds, it's not bad. Yeah, I mean, again, I wouldn't personally be programming calf raises for peripheral adactions. Sorry, isometric calf raises for peripheral adactions. But in the context of this program where there's very little else doing peripheral adactions so far, it's kind of, you know, you take what you can get at you. And then by this it goes pull over, okay, fine, interesting. And then finally, session three, we're back to the similar kind of thing that we didn't work at. One, we've got a clean pull and a clean four sets of again, two plus two. So I think you're probably right. It's probably this kind of two, three, three thing idea. Again, 75%. Followed by front squat for three sets of four at 70%. Now, back squat to two sets of six, 82 and a half percent. Hamstring curls with three sets of six, four, with four reps in reserve. And then a barbell row for three sets of ten without any intensity prescription. So very quickly, the clean pull and the clean at 75%. Again, that is a tall rep max, not probably doing anything, I think, a little power related. Front squat, three sets of four, 70%. Again, 15 rep max, not doing anything that isn't power related. Back squat, two sets of six, eight, two and a half, eight, two and a half, as an eight-round max, so we're now well into two reps in reserve territory. So that is, that's a really nice prescription actually, two sets of six with two reps in reserve. I like that. That's not bad at all. Hamstring curls, three sets of six with four reps in reserve, honestly. I think that's probably a bit a little bit of a letdown. I can compare some with the back squat prescription. Yeah. We'll be nicer to see that with two reps in reserve, but there we go. These, there is a stimulating rep going on there. I'm three of them because I've got three sets. And then I was going to say, Bob, I wrote the same problem applies for the other kind of, as we talked about for the biceps curls and pullover in session two. Okay, so. I think the first thing I'll say about the week is a whole. By the one positive, is that it's three, four body days? Yeah. Yeah, that's a win. That's what you can do with that. Yeah, that's a win. And I guess. Where are we? So, we do actually have the back squat done twice with stimulating repetitions. I'm searching for things that I can say that are positive here. So I'm searching for things that I can say they're positive. So we do have a back squat done on the Monday or whatever day of the week is the first session. And we've got two stimulating reps in it and we've got the back squat again on the final day of the week and we've got probably more like eight stimulating reps. So 10 stimulating reps across the week with the back squat, but distributed across two workouts, very unequally, but distributed across two workouts. So that probably is going to lead to net peripheral adaption accumulation over the week, which is great. Honestly, you would have been much, much better to kind of just have those two back squat sessions done identically, I suppose. Two sets of six relates to two and a half percent, so two reps are reserved and twice a week, that's not a bad protocol. I don't know. No, no, no. Wouldn't hate that. In fact, you could probably just kind of mimic that with the hamstring curls and, you know, a couple of other things and you'd probably be well on the way to a really good program. In terms of like a lot of the upper body stuff, I really don't like the way that they distributed this. So like having the military press, the overhead press on its own in one session and pretty much that's the only thing for adults that are really anything else pressing wise across the whole week. And there's a single single workout with and it's not even entering into stimulating reps territory. Nope. So there's basically nothing really going on for pressing at all. In terms of again, say the upper body stuff with the biceps curls, three sets of 10 once per week is maintenance for you. Pullover obviously does kind of sit with the barbell row, so you've kind of got some lat going on, but they're very different kind of bits of lat. Depending on how the barbell row's done, I mean if the barbell row is done like more kind of wagr, then okay maybe there's not so much lat at all. So again, we've kind of got this problem with exercises just being done once a week for a few sets. Even if they're hitting max efforts, so you are getting three sets to feed there, they're just going to sit people on maintenance and there's no actual kind of maintenance growth happening across the way. Really they're probably two different to be doing. Yeah. So really kind of problematic there. Regarding the Nordics and the Supermax and eccentric, I mean the thing with these entrances you can kind of do that, kind of protocol once a week and it will kind of maybe move you forward, certainly would keep you anything that you've got previously because maintenance does is just much lower for Supermax and eccentric. But again, as you're saying, it really does create problems for the latin a week, so it'd be much better to have like one set of two reps or two sets of singles or something like that done twice a week, that'll be a hundred times better I think. Anything else you wanted to say about that? I mean, I think as a whole, you covered it pretty well. Yeah, there's nothing really for pressing, there's really nothing significant for pulling, nothing, if you're talking about individual muscles, really nothing for triceps, really nothing, nothing of a pecs at all. And then I guess the other issues I would have, I'm sure you do, is doing that rear foot elevated splits, what followed by a split squat, both for three sets of fiber, max max. Yeah, like the defense. And in the middle of the week, that is, I mean, that is a lot. It's doing the same thing basically on both of those. And then, you know, it's not even in my opinion, and probably yours not even a great exercise choice to begin with depending on you execute it, which I don't see here. So you know, if you're doing it without like a hand support or something to make it a little more stable, you know, it's going to be pretty, pretty man. You could just do a single leg, leg press or something much better. And just by itself, you know, not do three of one and then three of the other back to back. And it'd be pretty miserable. Totally. I mean, even if they just moved one of those to another day, it would be immediately a lot better. I mean, that would be a much, much better program. But yeah, I'm not a fan of this split squat, so I think a lot of coaches tend to gravitate towards it because they go, oh well, you know, track and field, most people are on one leg most of the time, probably in a split stance most of the time. Therefore, I want to be doing that in the gym. And it's like, that's nonsense. It's just not how things transfer, physiologically ignorant. So again, not a fan of the split squat in general or even though we're for elevated split squat. But yeah, I mean, just simply moving one of those two to a different day would have been so much better. Cool. So the next block, five week block, we've got, I'll go quickly through these because we've obviously kind of done this once already. Session one, clean, three sets of two, 85%, back squat, three sets of seven, 77.5%, push press four sets of eight, no intensity description, Nordics, two sets of six, assuming that super maximal, lateral squat, three sets of two with body weight. Okay, so what does that give us? What does that give us? Well, basically 85% is kind of a seven rep max. So three sets of two with a seven rep max is literally right on the edge of kind of estimate, peritory, but again, clean probably is changing the parameters because obviously it's a very, very dynamic movement. So 85% probably isn't the same thing as it would be for a back squat, for example. Three sets of seven with 77.5%, that's probably kind of about, I don't know, sort of somewhere between a 12 and a 10 rep max. So a 11 rep max, I guess, numerically, three sets of seven with a 11 rep max, yeah, four stimulating reps would be, sorry, four stimulating reps, no, hang on, where are we? Sorry, but I meant, was four reps in reserve. So seven with a seven reps with a 11 rep max is four reps in reserve. So I get one stimulating rep per set. Yes, yeah, three sets. Yeah, three. Yes, yeah, not sure what type of rep is, knowing intensity description Nordics again two sets of six rather than three sets of six so at least slightly better from a kind of a deep point of view and that lateral squat I'm not really sure I mean you actually commented on that to me previously that what is that doing I mean three sets of 12 bodyweight I mean even even in the suspiciously love strike numbers from these guys you know if you do three sets of 12 bodyweight what a lot of what you're doing literally enough you're just about it's almost like you know some deep to your bouncing around stuff so in terms of what that that workout is doing we're getting a stimulating rep from each back squat set so that is a third of three and the Nordics obviously doing exactly what the Nordics were doing previously so we're getting you know kind of you know whatever five or so stimulator is per set but again it's super maximally centric so it's more of the fascical length stuff rather than the hypertrus stuff so again a little bit of a strange workout session two deadlift cyclist squat unilateral back extension in glimension press and pull ups deadlift is four sets of five at 75% 75% is 12 at max so that's not doing anything cyclist squat three sets of 15 with 35% of one rep max 35% of one rep max is a 40 or 40 to 42 rep max so 15 repetitions with a 42 at max is kind of nothing nothing you know electro back extension two sets of 10 for each leg okay 10 plus 10 means 10 reach leg 15% of bodyweight again I'm not really sure what that would be in intensity terms and depending on the person that he's not gonna be doing anything could or could not I mean I've imagined a lot to male track and field athletes with this level of strength it probably is good doing quite a lot in kind of different populations probably not doing anything but yeah I would say that in this population it probably is something reasonable yeah you know you and I wouldn't get anything out of it but well yeah so incline bench press two sets of 10 no intensity prescription so maybe we'll assume that last to failure pull ups three sets with no intensity prescription but a rep and reserve of two so maybe max bodyweight until you have two reps in the tank yeah probably so okay so being climb bench press and pull ups there nothing wrong with that really I'd probably prefer slightly heavier loading on the bench press but honestly if somebody's doing tens I'm not going to be you know kind of arguing too much with that deadlift is doing nothing so it's what's doing nothing back extension is probably doing something in this population so really that session too is just back extensions really and that that's not bad I mean okay fine you know I'd want other stuff but you know that's there's there's at least something in there yeah two sets on those two sets on bench two sets there are three sets on pull ups you know you know he's got just I just throw a squat in there and actually that's not a bad workout clean from the knee I guess ten sets of single reps 83% of one rep max yeah sort of 80 straight max okay front squat three sets of three 75% 75% is 12 rep max not doing anything back squat for it's a 4 to an hour percent again so an eight rep max so yeah once to a minute you're at percent you know lateral deadlift three sets of four 25% of I guess two leg deadlift I guess again that's another one here that's kind of hard to piece together exactly yeah and I have to read back through but I don't and then another Bobo reveriation two sets of ten so yeah um back squat sitting there's a little bit yeah deadlift you know that's your deadlift my tool might not be but I'm not a fan of you know that's what deadlift anyway um Bobo row is probably doing what the ballerow did previously so let's talk about across the week in this particular block yeah um again we've got a little bit of back squat stimulus twice per week we've got a four sets of four at eight two and a half percent that's one stimulating rep per set um so four stimulator it's in total um so kind of like one set to failure ish uh interesting they kept they kept up um intensity the same from week one do we hear from block one to block two and then just change the reps there's two sets of six yeah it was yeah it's four but it's the same in percentage yeah and then the other workout of the week with the back squat three sets of seven at 77 and a half uh so kind of again one yeah increase the change the sets in reps a little bit and increase the percentage um and yeah that gives us another four stimulating reps so across the week in the second block we are getting again kind of basically equivalent to doing a back squat for a single set twice a week which is probably what we would program yeah twice per week uh for reps with a rep in reserve you know that would be a pretty solid kind of starting point I think they've just taken an enormously long way around doing that um again not really sure what the other stuff is doing um like okay once again we've got Nordic's once per week not a fan of doing it like that two sets of six is better than three three sets of six but again still a little bit uh topy much preferred to do a couple of singles twice a week um the again the same problem applies for all the upper body stuff it's just like got um okay we've got a push press once per week but then we've also now got inclined bench um and then pull up yeah it occurs out and now we've got pull ups uh the end we've got the another bar bar reveration so that's stayed so the same criticism really applies in this training block that we've got like a sort of overhead pressing one day inclined bench press on another day um like an arrow and pull up sorry and then a final workout with a row and basically we're not really getting anything that is likely to stick because the variety is being moved from all get one by cut to the other. The clean work is just kind of making you better acclaimed it's pretty much with a little bit of a little bit of of kind of motine accruement to the extent that that is possible um obviously what's interesting is the stuff that's kind of now appeared that was on 10 the previous section so um I mean without going to our stuff that's staying the same what we've got is changing is we've come from an overhead press to a push press that's not like horrible but um given the loading that was used for the overhead press but if I were doing that then obviously if I plan to do an overhead press then I want to do an overhead press um the push press is much more leg drive than um than the overhead presses. And there are just got to come up more sets of eight on that as well and so are the two so so big emphasis yeah um let's just go out of come out of absolutely left field I've got no idea why it's there and what it's doing um the split squats which we were so kind of invested in in the first session by doing six sets of five rep max have completely disappeared in terms of the slinkless squats like 15 per or 35 per cent for 15 reps yeah um the hamstring curls again have disappeared and been replaced by you know our tro back extensions um again as you said the biceps curls are disappeared us as the pullover and now we've got pull-ups incline bench presses appeared from absolutely nowhere um maybe it's replacing the overhead press in the first workout with the previous block and then in the final section um I guess you know that all that left yeah that's kind of again appeared um out of nowhere so okay there we go um let's look at the final uh kind of seven week block and then we'll come back and just talk about this as a block periodization uh conversation so okay first workout power clean two two 85 per cent of one max back squat four sets of six 80 per cent uh reverse split squat I guess three sets of 10 60 per cent overhead press three sets of 10 no intense description nor expect three sets of six and now we have some biceps curls three sets of 10 okay so power clean two 85 per cent 85 per cent um it's about seven rep max does that mean that we're getting any kind of hypertrophy stimulus probably knocks it's still a fast power exercise but you know okay we are starting to move up in in intense two terms here both squat four sets of six 80 per cent 80 per cent is a kind of a ten rep max so okay we're back to the four reps and reserve protocol those split squat three sets of 10 60 per cent six 10 to the 20 rep max that's doing zip um militer per set three sets of 10 Nordix these sets of six biceps curls these are 10 so okay yeah um basically it's the back squat again that we're getting a single stimulating rep plus yeah we'll get a little bit out of there um militer presses back and instead of two by eight like you know block one it's three by ten but with nine tens T so is that to be in yeah because the first block was at 75 per cent yeah now it's no listed intensity it's you know we'll assume it's to failure or close so many are at least getting something you know maintenance one day we got of that Nordix is a back three sets which is worse than two and then the curls are back same thing, no intensity. you know, make it there. So, um, session two deadlift four sets of three 85% 85% is several max. So, um, yeah, okay. We've got a stimulating rep on each of those sets. So, wow, that's a shock. Um, step up. 40% of eight 40%. Um, that probably, I don't know, I literally don't know. 40% is a 35 rep. Sorry. 40% yes, 3035 36 max. So, um, if that's true, then that's not doing anything back extension with a snatch group. Yeah. Yeah. So, barbell. Two sets of eight, 70% 15 rep max. It's not doing anything. Cyclist squat, three sets of 15, 20%. I don't even have a 20% on my chart to tell you what max that is. It's probably 60 plus. So, not doing anything. Drives with extensions, three sets of 10, pull ups, two sets of reps in reserve two. So, like, as you were saying before, body weight, just reps in reserve of two. So, um, deadlift, um, that's interesting. So, suddenly got something, um, some stimulating reps on the deadlift, which we hadn't had previously. Step ups, yeah, not really sure whether that's come from, I guess it's tracking you across from the split squats and the cyclist squat. And now step ups, kind of assuming that they're all doing the same kind of thing. Back extension tracks across from the unilateral back extension, I guess previously. Um, but we've got slightly squat in there as well. So, uh, the cyclist squat has stayed. Yeah. And then suddenly we've got these triceps extensions that have come out of left field again and suddenly appeared like we need them. Uh, we hadn't had them previously, but now we need them. And then pull up two sets instead of three. Indeed. So that's emphasis is dial back. Look at three, um, clean, this is four sets of three 85% so seven reps max. Okay. Interesting. But again, it's power exercise, probably not really much happening from a peripheral option standpoint back squat pieces of five 82 and a half percent. So kind of a, yeah, eight max, I guess. So that's interesting. We now got two stimulating reps per set because five reps of eight reps max is three up to zero. Also, you know, the one thing I just realized, so they did the testing, um, beginning of training program and then they kept that same push. Sure. Sure. The whole way through and adjusted the reps, but I honestly don't think there's much strength being gained. No, I mean, you would also, if they gained any strength, then they're really doing nothing at that point. Exactly. Yeah. I don't think they were. So, both squat, three sets of five 82 and a half percent done that rear foot, elevated split squats about three. Again, three sets of eight, but 70% were down at 15 max. So that's not doing anything. Kettlebell swing, three sets of eight with 40% to body weight. Okay. It's just not the power exercise, but more horizontally directed. Okay. Dumbbell row now instead of the barbell row, three sets of 10, no intensity prescriptions, assume that's to pay the, okay. So across the week, um, same problems before we've got overhead press in once, uh, three sets. So that's maintenance. We've got my sister one, three sets. That's maintenance. Uh, drives its extension has appeared, but it's three sets. So that's maintenance, um, pull ups, um, well, pull ups and dumbbell row together. You might, depending on the row, if you didn't like with your elbow, way out, it would be up or back. You're doing normal one. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So if it's a wide grip row like the, uh, like the ball, row is probably are, then it probably isn't, um, doing anything in combination with pull ups. But if you're doing it more as such to blame, like, you know, a lot of people do tend to do. For example, using an incline bench or something, then yeah, it's more likely to be pretty, uh, kind of good, um, pairing with the pull ups in all, uh, honesty. So okay. So there's a lot of detail in there. And hopefully, um, that hasn't been too horrific to follow along with. Um, you know, obviously if you do have access to the paper and I think it is fairly easy to get older, then just look at table one, which is the training program for the intervention to be able to track all this that we've been talking about. I guess I should have said that at the beginning. Um, let's talk about the periodization of this. So, so weeks, one to five, weeks, six, 10 weeks, 11 to 17, uh, two, five week blocks full of by a, uh, seven week block at the end. I, I'm, I'm struggling to see much of a progression other than a few areas where intensity has increased very slightly. Like you pointed out one, um, where back squat went up from 75% to 77, and then again, uh, it actually goes up to eight percent for the final block. So you can kind of see a gradual increase in density, but I think that more reflect the point that you were making, which is that strength is probably going up a little bit. So it's just intended to kind of take into account the strength games that are being achieved. So it probably isn't a percentage change in reality. It's probably more of a, uh, kind of, uh, accommodating the athletes increases in strength. It's very, I mean, though, the progression here just, because like, you know, like you said, like with the squat, a few things like in session one, the squat, you know, just literally goes up at 75%, 77 and a half, and then 80. But then on the session three, it's 82 and a half the whole way through. And they go six and four, then five reps across the three blocks, the cleans. Initially, like in session three, 75% and then it goes to stimulus at 83. And then it goes to triples at 85. Um, well, I guess one's a queen from me and the one's a queen. So yeah, it's clean, pop was clean, clean from me and then clean. But it's very, very hard to see the, the idea here with the way it was progressed. It hasn't went on. And then, you know, the dead lifts, when you start with it from that five centimeter riser and then you have two blocks of normal dead lifts, which, um, progress linearly, you know, four, seven to five and then four sets of three, the pressing and like the day to you only have incline bench press only in the second block. Um, it's so many things here that are so odd, the hamstrings training, like in block one, you have Nordics and hamstring curls. Sure. In block two, you have Nordics. And then you know how to do deadlift. I'm sure people are assuming is training hamstrings. It's probably not. And then the unilateral back extension and then in block three, you have Nordics again. And then, um, kettlebell swing, which I'm assuming people also would think is training the hamstrings one, um, you know, it's, there's the back extension with the snatch group as well. Oh, yeah, yeah. Back said it was an actual without a hamstrings, but it's 70%. You know, really getting anything. Yeah. Um, I think really that's, that's the kind of encapsulation of the problem with almost all of the individual workouts is that most of the exercises being done with insufficient intensity. So miles away from muscular failure most of the time. I mean, like, I think a lot of the time when, when we comment that many strengthening conditioning coaches in in the, um, kind of wider kind of, um, it's hard to kind of describe. Because it's like, there's this social media microcosm isn't there. So there's like the social media microcosm where the obsessives talk about this kind of stuff. And then there's like the rest of the world who are kind of doing their own thing. Um, and I guess what we're trying to draw attention to with this episode is that most of the rest of the world is not social media. Most of the rest of the world is doing things like this. And it doesn't work. Um, I mean, like physiologically doesn't make any sense. Um, and what we're seeing is like just to kind of encapsulate the two biggest problems. Firstly, exercises aren't being done consistently, um, across either a week or even a training program. So there's stuff changing around all over the place. Um, what that means is that specific exercises are doing specific things. And a lot of that specificities is just getting lost because of the dissipation of the adaptions that are unique to exercise. And I'm not talking about coordination. I'm talking about like specific muscle fibers being trained by those exercises that they end up just to have to feel or lose the adaptions that you previously had for them. That could be psychomyogenesis. It could be tight in. It could be, you know, customers could be anything. And so that massive variation exercises across the week also across the training blocks. Um, and this huge, huge, huge, uh, kind of tendency to be miles away from muscular failure, like, like, so underloaded. It's crazy. And, and I guess really this is one of the reasons why when you look at a program and it's, like, I imagine a lot of people have stopped listening to this podcast because they're been like, I can't listen to him list out another set of exercises for another workout and give the sets and reps. It's so boring. But that's the point because I could literally give someone a single workout and say, do that twice a week for the next 17 weeks. And they'll, and I could literally go do, you know, one set each, one set each with one reprimal reserve. And this isn't going to be perfect. This is the whole point of me doing this is just kind of show how quickly I can do it. So I could literally say do one set. with one reprimand serve with an 8-Ret max, and I'm not choosing that because I like a remaxes, I'm just choosing because it covers a multitude of bases, different exercises. It's the kind of a happy medium. It's not going to be bad for anything really. I can say just to one set with one reprimand serve of an 8-Ret max of Bancs, what hamstring curls, steep incline press, pull ups, and biceps curls, and if you need an audit, do the audit to get the end. Literally, that would be better. You can really do a better one off the top of your head. It's just so easy to come up with an example that's totally usable twice a week. Makes so much more sense. And then you don't need to worry about anything else. You don't need to worry about doing different blocks and switching the reps and all these things. You just do that. You'd make way more progress. That's the entire point of this episode. It's to show that you can have this gigantic table with all this information about exactly changing exercises and moving them around and intensities and reps and reserve, and all that kind of thing, you literally just go, no, just don't do any of that. Just do two workouts per week of six exercises, six to eight exercises, single sets, leave a rep and reserve on everything. One, don't think about they moving, you know, kind of reps and reserve and percentages and all that stuff. Just do that twice a week and you'll be like so much better off than what we've got here is not funny. And it's absolutely mad to me that something like that can happen, where the obsession with complexity and changing and fiddling around with percentages ends up completely ignoring the fundamentals of how physiology is working, which is to create adaptions and that will require certain things to be true, one of which is you have to be training not just with the given level of effort, but also with a given, you know, kind of proximity to failure in order to generate the peripheral adaptions that we're looking for. Because this similar to what you're talking about on the podcast with Jake the other day, some of this might actually feel pretty terrible, especially depending on rest periods and things like that. Wow, yeah. Three sets of 15 on a psycho squat, you know, six sets and five reps max on two different squat stuff like that. You might actually feel even though a lot of this isn't doing much and well, anything, you might feel like you did something very hard after some of these sessions. And then you just, you did nothing, you literally did nothing. And if you think like, like, you know, when you didn't really mention like the adaptations of like a track and field athlete would really need, there's really nothing in here that's going to be working on maximum speed. There's, you know, like you said, there's a few reps here and there that'll be getting you some hypertrophy and strength gains, but really nothing. And only in kind of the squat consistently, like there's just, there's literally almost nothing here that's useful. I think that's a harsh, but fair analysis. I mean, like if we go back to our bench mark, which is the high performance physiology method, we would say start with speed. If you want to shoe on some isometrics for a recruitment purposes in, you can shoe on them in there and then go on to heavy strength training and then do some plyometrics if you need them and then finish up with super max and these entries. I guess we should comment that at least when the Nordics are being done, they are being done at the end of the workout, which is good. That could have been an error that would have been worth mentioning, but it wasn't an error in this program. It was definitely put at the end of the workout. So that's good. But yeah, I mean, we would want speed stuff at the beginning of each workout, but because they're doing so many of these exercises for so many sets, so many of them acquired, they're doing kind of Olympic weight lifting variations, which takes time and effort and kind of focus. And that choose up space, we would just get in there, do a couple of max have a jumps, throws, that kind of thing. If we need to do a couple of ice metrics, we can do those, then do the heavy strength training set, which is the example that I gave. We'd probably program it differently for trying to make it work really, really well. But as I say, we want to literally just do six exercises, one set each of eight max with a rep and reserve, probably okay. And then yeah, there's no plyometrics stuff in this program. They're tracking field athletes and then the plyometrics are being completely outsourced to the sporting situation. Okay, well, that's necessary, that's necessary, but we probably want a little bit more input into that. And then the eccentric at the end, they're literally just doing Nordics. Well, there are other ice metrics, there are other eccentric's, no ice metrics, there are other eccentric's that we could do. I mean, if you're doing, if you've got any kind of, you know, change a direction, or if you're, say, triple jumper, you're going to want a little bit more landing phase eccentric pin worked. So there's kind of, there's, there's other stuff that we could put in there to use entries. And really with the calf stuff, you know, I can understand why you might want to do calf isometrics, if you're going the opposite direction from plyometrics to kind of stiffen the Achilles tendon. All right, we talked about in the block periodization podcast. There is a high risk that athletes who are doing a lot of running have a very high risk of Achilles tendon opathy, isometric contractions for the calves are going to help you move the tendon in the opposite direction to make it stiffer, stop it from moving around so much that gives you some protection. Is it a good thing from performance point of view? Well, probably not, but, you know, if you can't train, then you can't compete. So it's probably like a balanced thing we've got to make your own risk assessment. But if we're going to put it in the program, then I'd want to keep it in the program if it's basically, we want to keep it. Exactly. It disappears. And this comes back to the block periodization point that we made last week, which is that, you know, a lot of people think they can just do something for five weeks, then to be there for the rest of their kind of training year or season or life or whatever. And it's like, that's not how this works. No, I mean, tendon, tendon stiffness, you know, detrains pretty quick. So, yeah, I think, I think, I think, the opponents of block periodization would probably just argue that you could do good block periodization and like make it work. But, you know, I'm just you end up having to move so far towards our position doing basically the same thing, but just varying a focus. It really becomes quite difficult to defend. Cool. Well, we've gone on very, very long time, and I can hear some noise coming around the lot from me at Mayan, so I think it's probably a good place to stop. Thank you for staying with us. If you've stayed with us all this time, hopefully that was illustrative of what is happening in the mainstream part of the defense industry. We will be back with another topic next week.