d-dub said:
Heh, u know i read in depth mate
I am running on 3 cylinders.
With Areg stuff, you count 85% bodyweight as part of the load (roughly) for squats.
Any idea what you would calculate for bulgarian squats?
edit:to say for squats - im caffeine defficient at the moment
ahh must be one of those Daihatsu Charade 1.3 litre 3 cyclinder engines you got
Just make sure you get at least 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight and you will turn it into a 2 litre engine soon enough
That's the mistake I made before, not getting enough protein, now that I am, look at my recent gains on crap sleep! I wasted a good 1.5 years of training because of this spinning wheels....
Plus because I was protein deficient, for the level of training and activity I wasn't recovering as well in my tendons and joints
this article is pretty spot on with my own experience
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=2483BC2374D0E7F924D89AE74893956C.hydra?id=844243
yeah, splitsquats is about the same I think, maybe a little less on Bulgarians due to the bench
I don't really folow AW% all that closely now, I can figure out my dropoffs by intsinct now. Since I have been applying it for a while now and know my body pretty well
here is the article in full
AW Percents Revisited
You factor in a percentage of bodyweight to calculate dropoffs, ie 85% for squat and so on. I was wondering if this should be applied to rows, HF Abs, Military press,bicep curl, tricep extension, reverse back raise and glute ham raise as well? If so, what would be good values to use for each of the above exercises?
AW techniques should be used for every exercise, all of the time. Now, as for your exercises in question:
HF Abs: avg. 47%
MPress: avg. 15%
Biceps/Triceps: avg. 6%
RBR and GHG depend on unit used. RBR ranges go from 40-60%. GHG ranges go from 65-90%(i.e. GHG machine vs Lat-Machine version in TSB). This is why a 100kg man who can use 30kg on a GHG machine may only be able to perform a rep with bodyweight on a version likened to the lat machine setup.
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Workout Wisdom: Appropriate Measures
There is a big difference between taking straight weight percents and using my Appropriation of Weight(AW) techniques. For instance, some generic repetition-percent charts will tell that you can only get 2 reps with 90% of your max whereas others will claim that you should be able to get as much as 6 reps per set with the same percent of your max. And not only do these generic charts hold more faults as the training percent get further away from your established one rep max, but there are individual differences that must be taken into account. Moreover, even if the proper chart is adopted for a specific athlete in a specific movement, the chart automatically becomes invalid once the movement is switched up.
This was obviously baffling to the coaches of yester-year who strived to assign loading parameters to their athletes based on percent guidelines for a given repetition count(i.e. 3 x 8 reps @ 77.5% 1RM). They didn't know if they should trust one chart that said the athlete should be able to get 8 reps with 85% of their max or another one that said 75% of their max is best. And frustration really set in when they tried to apply these same chart guidelines to various movements. For instance, one particular athlete may be able to get 11 reps with 80% of his max in the bench press but only get 5 reps with 80% of his max squat, whereas, another athlete may be able to get 6 reps with 80% in the bench and, say, only 3 reps with 80% in the squat. So as the movement and athlete varied so did the reliability of the charts. This quickly resulted in some athletes over-training, others under-training, and a very, very small population of athletes training correctly and seeing the results that go with it! What a crap shoot it was, indeed!
We knew immediately that the problem was rooted deeper than just neuro-muscular efficiency. We know that an athlete can be strong but have no strength endurance just as much as an athlete can have pretty good strength endurance but not so great absolute strength(even though the broad-scope correlation is still there). So these charts were almost immediately found to be a poor resource for duration methodics. Again, this is because we know that we can manipulate the system to decrease magnitude ability through conservation of work techniques. But, hold on tight my friend, that's not the only reason these charts were complete crap. In particular, these charts were less reliable during the movements that involved a large portion of bodyweight lifted in addition to bar weight.
For instance, some athletes can't do a pullup with external resistance. Others can't do a body dip or squat with any "additional" load. This doesn't mean that they aren't encountering any resistance when they attempt to do a free body squat or a parallel bar body dip...it means that a certain percentage of the athletes bodyweight is lifted in addition to any external resistance added to the movement (and this "rule" holds true for every movement in the weight room!).
For instance, if you weigh 150 kg (330 lbs) and you can squat 300 kg (660 lbs) of barweight then in all actuality you are a 438 kg squatter (963.6 lbs)! Some of you are probably still wondering why this particular example athlete isn't considered in my book to just be a 300 kg squatter...whereas others are probably baffled as to why I consider him a 438 kg squatter instead of a 450 kg squatter. For the first crowd, you need to realize that bar weight is only a portion of the total weight lifted. Whether the weight is a "part of you" or stacked on your back, it doesn't really matter, it's all still a portion of the total weight lift. Counting only bar weight is just as stupid a mistake as counting only the proportion of body weight lifted for a given movment and assuming any degree of additional bar weight to be a non-factor. To the rest of you: the answer to your questions is in the immediate information below!
Even though most of my duration methodics use the constant of time and are then "fitted" with the correct amount of additional load, there are some duration methodics(such as paused repetition protocols) that make it mandatory to know appropriation of weight techniques(in addition to knowing how the speed of movement for a certain portion of the lift changes the amount of weight needed for the movement). And without a doubt, magnitude methodics are heavily reliant on knowing how to use appropriation of weight techniques. So let's take a look at some basic bodyweight percent-factors to work with and then discuss how to use 'em.
Approximate Percent of Bodyweight
Head: 10%
Trunk: 45%
Upper Arm: 7%
Forearm: 4%
Hand: 1%
Thigh: 25%
Lower Leg: 6%
Foot: 2%
Now, all you have to do is total the percents of bodyweight lifted for a given movement. For instance, according to this chart, 92% of your bodyweight (everything except the lower leg and foot is "lifted") is needed to be overcome when performing a squat. However, laws of leverages and other finite variances of lifter to lifter and athlete to athlete have lead us to adopt an 85% factor...but, nonetheless, now you should be able to understand why a bodyweight squat is never "loadless." Ever wonder why pullups are so damn hard? Well, look no further than appropriation of weight techniques to understand this. The only body parts not lifted in the movement are your forearms and hands...a measly 5% of your total bodyweight. This means that you are actually lifting 95% of your bodyweight when performing a pullup. That is, a 100 kg (220 lbs) man would need the strength to overcome 95 kg (209 lbs) just to perform a single pullup with his bodyweight alone! And if he cradles a 20 kg (44 lbs) dumbell between his legs or straps it to a loading belt then he isn't just lifting 20 kg's...no sir...he is lifting 115 kg (253 lbs). Now do you see why your years spent with inferior weights on the lat machine have failed to help you become a better "pulluper"?
Now, to appropriate weight you have to calculate the actual load (using the chart above and referencing the above examples if needed) by calculating how much bodyweight is lifted as well as additional loading (such as barbells or dumbells). You then multiply by the training percent desired, followed by subtracting out your bodyweight lifted to result in the appropriate training percents.
For instance, if you want to train in the magnitude modality with speed reps in the bench press and you are a 120 kg (264 lbs) man with a 240 kg (528 lbs) max then you first have to decide what percent you want to work with. Let's say that you are going to use a wave load technique and alternate sets of 74% AW 1RM with 63% AW 1RM. Using the chart above, you can see that only 5% of the bodyweight is "lifted" in this movement. (note: we often use different percents for the same reasons listed above regarding the squat example) This means that only 6 kg or 13.2 lbs are lifted when this athlete lays on his back and presses his arms in a bench press motion. It also means that he is actually lifting 246 kg (541.2 lbs) when he hits a max single. Now, step two calls for multiplying this value by your training percent. We have two in this example: 74% and 63%. So after the math we find values of 182 kg (400 lbs) and 155 kg (341 lbs). We then need to subtract the bodyweight lifted in the movement to finalize how much bar weight is needed to train with. So after subtracting 6 kg from each of these values we find that the appropriate weight (AW) to train with for 74% and 63% mag work, respectively, in this sample bench press workout are 176 kg (387 lbs) and 149 kg (328 lbs). Had we simply taken straight-weight percents then we would have arrived at training weight values of 178 kg (391 lbs) and 151 kg (333 lbs). And even though it is only a 2 kg mistake for each case, this small degree of error eventually leads to overtraining. But more importantly, when you take a movement with a greater percentage of bodyweight lifted, such as a pullup, bodydip or squat, then you will find the degree of error to be much greater if you don't appropriate weight. For instance, the degree of error for an athlete who uses straight weight techniques in the squat who weighs 100 kg man and who can squat 350 kg, assuming a 63% training weight value, is about 35 kg (76 lbs)! Now that is a huge error to make day in and day out, wouldn't you agree?!
And since I brought it up earlier, I may as well leave you with a more advanced application of appropriation of weight techniques. It involves the duration methodic of paused-reps. Now, in the bench press you can get away with using 75% of your 1RM with straight-weight techniques for a set of 6 paused reps, each held at the CJC for a 5 count before pumping a rep. This is because the bodyweight factor is low. However, with a movement like barbell squats, you would get crushed if you tried to use the same percent techniques! So here's what you do:
(1) Determine the "actual load" lifted in your one rep max
A 100 kg man who squats 200 kg has a bodyweight factor of roughly 92 kg, meaning his actual one rep max in the squat is 292 kg (bar weight lifted plus bodyweight lifted). This is the number you will need to go off of in step two:
(2) Take of 2% for every second pause in the isometric and take off 2.5% for every rep.
So if you want to hit 6 reps with a 5 second pause for each then you have a total of 15% off your 1RM because of the number or reps desired and an additional 10% lost because of the "pause durations" in between each rep. That is a lost value of 25%. Which means that you will need to train with 75% AW 1RM. Again, in bench press the bodyweight factor is so low that a straight-shot 75% may be close to working out just fine...but in the squat movement the margin of error would be way too great to even try it.
(3) Use Appropriation of Weight techniques to determine how much bar weight is needed.
In this example we are striving for 75%. So I will spare laying out the math for you because I want you to break out the pencil and paper and learn it for yourself, but I will tell you that the correct answer is 127 kg (280 lbs) of bar weight. Had you taken the old-school straight weight approach then you would have made a 23 kg blunder...which means that you would have strapped on over 50 lbs more than you should have to the bar. And needless to say, this is precisely the reason why you wouldn't have been able to complete the 6 reps as prescribed.
The moral is an easy one to remember: Don't get lazy, use appropriation of weight (AW) techniques whenever appropriate!
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