Scientific Principles of Strength Training PDF

CHAPTER SEVEN VARIATION SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION The principle of variation is not “shocking the muscle” or “switching things up” or “muscle confusion,” though the latter term, bro as it is, comes a bit closer to reality. In order to understand what variation is and why it’s useful, we have to beg...

CHAPTER SEVEN VARIATION SCIENTIFIC DEFINITION The principle of variation is not “shocking the muscle” or “switching things up” or “muscle confusion,” though the latter term, bro as it is, comes a bit closer to reality. In order to understand what variation is and why it’s useful, we have to begin with a short working definition and then describe two fundamental concepts within that definition. The brief definition of variation is: “The manipulation of training variables to prevent staleness and injury and to magnify the long-term adaptive response to training.” Variation can be created through basic changes to the training program: Changes in volume ranges (low, moderate, high) Changes in intensity ranges (low, moderate, high) Changes in repetition ranges and metabolite loads (low, moderate, high) Changes in exercise selection (leg press vs. front squat) Changes in frequency (low, moderate, high) Changes in velocity (moderate, fast, maximal) Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 243 Smaller changes like those in exercise order can also matter, but make a likely tiny difference and will be omitted from this discussion for the purpose of economy. The two fundamental concepts critical to understanding the principle of variation are “negative feedback loops” and “adaptive resistance.” Once both are well defined and described, variation can seem rather obvious and quite straightforward. N E G AT I V E F E E D B A C K L O O P S There are two main types of feedback loops within biological systems; positive feedback and negative feedback. Positive feedback loops are characterized by processes in which the product of the process leads to an increased rate of production of that same product. When a blood clot forms, it signals the formation of other blood clots to form in the immediate area. As those clots form, they signal still more blood clots to form, and the wound is closed off to bleeding at a (thankfully) rapid pace due to the exponential growth of clotting in that area. More clots lead to more clots which further lead to even more clots. To use a social analogy, if one fan starts a chant at the stadium, fans nearby may pick it up and begin chanting, which gives the chant even more exposure and leads to the whole side of the stadium chanting in mere seconds. More chanting leads to more chanting. If positive feedback loops were the dominant form of regulatory process in muscle growth and strength enhancement, we’d all be like the Super Saiyans from Dragonball Z and the whole universe would probably have been destroyed by Ed Coan long ago. Unfortunately, the primary form of regulatory process in strength development is the negative feedback loop. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 244 Negative feedback loops also detect the amount of product made by the system, but instead of signaling for more production with more product as positive feedback loops do, the opposite occurs. The more product negative feedback loops detect, the more powerfully they suppress the system creating that product. This leads to a balancing act that conserves homeostasis as opposed to spreading events like wildfire. There are a huge number of examples of negative feedback loops in the body, and we’ll look at many of the ones directly related to muscle growth and strength gain shortly. For now, a quick example in the body and one outside of it just to iron out the basic patterns of negative feedback loops. Food consumption can be a simple way to understand negative feedback in the body. The more you eat, the more various hunger-suppressing hormones are produced. Thus, the more you eat, the less hungry you become. You might be skeptical of this analogy until you try to purposefully gain weight. It’s all fun and games until you’re eating 7,000 calories per day and you literally forget what hunger ever felt like because it’s been weeks since you’ve experienced it. A simple example of negative feedback not in the human body is actually that of the home thermostat. If the thermostat is set at 65 degrees Fahrenheit and we open the living room door to let in some summer breeze, the AC will turn on and begin to cool the house. If we close the door and let the AC run for a couple of minutes, the temperature will fall back down to 65 degrees and the AC will turn off. More cold air lead to a decrease in cold air production. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 245 A D A P T I V E R E S I S TA N C E Negative feedback loops are critical for mainlining proper levels of hydration (thirst), feeding (hunger), and a host of other critical functions. As well as those life-preserving basics, negative feedback loops also govern the function of adaptations. Every system in the human body that chronically adapts to stimuli is governed by negative feedback loops. The more your technique improves, the harder technical improvements become. The more muscle you grow, the harder further muscle growth becomes. The more force your nervous system can get out of your muscles, the tougher it is to get further enhancements, and so on. When presented with a certain stimulus, adaptive pathways respond and improve the performance of the system but do so less and less robustly Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 246 each time due in large part to the actions of negative feedback loops. We can describe this phenomenon as the development of “adaptive resistance.” The more we signal a system to adapt in a particular direction, the more resistance to adaptation it develops and the harder gains are to make. If we’re going to have the fastest rates of long-term gains, we had better do something about adaptive resistance and find a way for recalcitrant systems to improve their performances more rapidly. The primary way of doing this is to stop stressing a system in a certain way and stress it in other (though still similar) ways. During the time that it’s being stressed in other ways, that system’s adaptive resistance to the first way falls slowly, as its most recent exposure to that first stressor grows more and more distant. After some time, we can go back to the first way of stress and notice significant improvements to system performance as adaptive resistance is initially much lower. Of course adaptive resistance will start growing yet again, but we can always continue to repeat the process of purposefully changing the stimulus in order to cause improvements from one direction while those from other directions are given time to lower their adaptive resistance to prepare for future focus. In the context of improving powerlifting performance, there are four basic abilities which demand our attention and understanding of their individual forms of adaptive resistance. A.) TECHNIQUE There are three general phases in the learning of a new technique. When a new technique is first introduced, early learning is slow and mistakes are plentiful. Once the early slow phase has been completed, a rapid Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 247 phase of technique learning begins, whereby enough of a base has been acquired in the first phase to make this second phase more productive. The third phase of technique learning occurs when a technique has been trained consistently for a bit too long without any breaks. This phase is characterized by very slow improvements, and sometimes even stagnation or regression. It is this last phase that is caused by adaptive resistance. A single technique presented too long in sequence develops adaptive resistance, whereby further technical improvements are slow or non-existent. The way to avert staying in the adaptive resistance phase for longer than needed is to introduce technical variation into the program. If you’ve hit a point at which your competition bench press feels off, but isn’t feeling better week to week (from a technical perspective), it might be a good idea to stop competition pressing altogether for several weeks and focus on other variants such as wide or close grip work, incline work, or dumbbell work. This removal of competition pressing can allow the neural pathways that execute the technique to re-sensitize to training. This can allow for the movement to feel novel upon its reintegration and for some possible further progress in technical execution to occur. Another major benefit of coming back to a movement after a layoff is the ability to see the technique cues in a new light, and specifically to stop making old mistakes. Because a bit of re-learning the movement has to occur upon return, that re-learning can be with better cues or at least a lack of older mistakes. In basic terms, doing the same exact techniques for too long on end can result in a poorer long-term mastery of those same techniques, so that a regular “deletion and replacement” of techniques may yield best results. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 248 B.) HYPERTROPHY Each time a particular exercise is performed, certain groups of muscle fibers in the muscle used activate, while others remain dormant more often than not. For example, some sternal fibers in the pecs are used maximally in competition bench pressing, but are not used during incline pressing or only used on the last, hardest reps and not all the time. The end result is that some muscle fibers will be very overloaded and exposed to lots of stimulus by a certain exercise, while still other fibers are only trained enough to maintain their adaptations. The muscle fibers being overloaded the most encounter two problems in the medium term (weeks): Constant overload leads to local overreaching past MRV for those fibers Similar stimulus leads to adaptive resistance for those fibers As in the above discussion on technique, the altering of exercises is a very helpful tool to combat both of these problems. Firstly, a new exercise will no longer stimulate the same fibers in the same patters, as it will direct forces from a novel angle. This will allow the overreached fibers to make a complete recovery and supercompensation while the newly targeted fibers are now themselves overreaching. Secondly, the new exercise will allow the originally trained fibers to reduce their levels of adaptive resistance and become more sensitive to muscle growth again. When a still-newer exercise or even the old exercise is brought back in, the old fibers are now recovered and no longer as resistance to growth, so the cycle can begin anew. Experienced lifters will recognize this process by noting the higher levels of delayed onset Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 249 muscle soreness that occur when introducing a new exercise, indicating a lessened resistance to disruption and thus growth. Altering exercises once every mesocycle (too often would interfere with the Specificity sub-principle of Directed Adaptation) can work for several mesocycles on end to continue to push along muscle growth results, but this is not a process that yields infinite gains. After multiple months of training for hypertrophy in general, the very molecular pathways that signal muscle growth can become somewhat blunted. Even with proper fatigue management, it’s likely that over the longer term, mTOR activity begins to be eclipsed by AMPk activity if high volume and metabolite-generating hypertrophy training continues unabated. In this case, a wholesale declination from hypertrophy training is likely effective for re-sensitizing pathways such as mTOR and de- sensitizing pathways such as AMPk so that another several months of productive size training can occur. Training for strength offers almost the perfect break from hypertrophic training, as it conserves muscle well but provides neither the volume nor the high-rep or short rest time to generate appreciable metabolite concentrations. Because powerlifters will likely be training for strength/ peaking regularly throughout the year, few lifters will run into this particular form of longer-term of hypertrophy adaptive resistance. However, those doing more dedicated hypertrophy work to move up a weightclass may keep these limitations and remedies in mind. C. ) N E U R A L LY- M E D I AT E D S T R E N G T H P R O D U C T I O N In plain terms, training any sort of neural output by itself for too long on end will lead to adaptive resistance even with proper fatigue Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 250 management. Months upon months of dedicated short bursts of maximal motor unit recruitment eventually becomes somewhat less simulative of progress. In order to keep nervous system gains coming, an occasional layoff from the maximal recruitment of strength and peaking training may be warranted. Does this imply that we have to back off from overloading training altogether during this time? Not in the least. The stimulus to the nervous system just has to be significantly different, not less. An almost tailor-made solution for “max effort staleness” is to focus for a mesocycle or two on repetitive, sub-maximal actions of the nervous P 251 system and avoid low rep maximal ones. Hypertrophy and work capacity training fall squarely into this requirement and are thus nearly ideal variants from dedicated strength and peaking training when the latter encounter too much adaptive resistance. D. ) CO N N E C T I V E T I S S U E S When a connective tissue is first deformed in a novel way, it rapidly accretes more tissue in those force lines to strengthen and become less likely to undergo further deformation (or as rapidly as connective tissue alters, anyway). After a period of stressors from similar angles and with similar forces, adaptation generally slows down significantly. If exercise selection changes (squat to front squat, for example), the lines of compression and tension change, leading to a reduction of stimulus to the original lines and an increase in the new ones. Coming back later to the original exercises is likely to re-ignite adaptations as the original force lines had time to re-sensitize to tissue alteration mechanisms. Fatigue Management relates highly here (and it could in fact be proposed that the entire principle of fatigue management is but a subset of the grander principle of variation) in relation to potential injury. If no variation in exercise occurs, the chances for the same microfractures and microtears to be aggravated into larger deformities will likely increase. Training the same movements chronically with little or no variation then interferes with fatigue management and can lead to a higher injury rate. In effect, the use of movement variation in regards to connective tissue adaptation can be a way of continuing to train with overloads for longer but still reaping the benefits of reduced injury rates. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 252 G E N E R A L PAT T E R N O F VA R I AT I O N Varying at least the exercise selection, volume, and intensity of a program can have very beneficial effects on long term adaptation. More specifically, changing those variables strategically every mesocycle or so offers the best tradeoffs of variation with directed adaptation, as there is still enough time for new variants to generate solidified gains in ability that don’t melt away when the focus changes next. However, it’s very important to remember that while variation is a helpful tool, it has two distinct limits. The first (and actually less important) limit is that of directed adaptation. Too frequent of variation (trying a new exercise every week) may not allow adaptations to settle in and be retained as well in the long term. More on this in the upcoming section on the over-application of variation. The second limit to variation (which will also be discussed in greater detail later) is that of using variants that exit the general boundaries of powerlifting training that are set by the most important of principles; specificity. All variants used in a program must be in line with the specific goals of that program. For example: If you’re choosing variants for hypertrophy, all chosen intensities, volumes, and exercises must induce hypertrophy well If you’re choosing variants for strength, all chosen intensities, volumes, and exercises must be optimized for generating strength gains Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 253 All use of variation must in the final sense be bounded by the fact that you’re training for powerlifting. If you choose a set, rep, weight, or exercise that you can’t clearly see a benefit from to your powerlifting training or any factors that underlie your ability to lift, then that’s one step too far in attempting to vary training. Taking all of the above together, we can make a more precise technical definition of variation: “the strategic alteration of training variables to decrease adaptive resistance, bounded by the specificity of the demands of the sport.” P OW E R L I F T I N G D E F I N I T I O N In powerlifting, the definition of variation is a very short drive from the one for all sport above. It’s simply: “the strategic alteration of training variables to decrease adaptive resistance, bounded by the specificity of the demands of powerlifting training.” If it gets you big, strong, or peaked for training, then in its right place it’s probably just a fine variant to use. Pretty straightforward. In the section on under- and over-application to come, we’ll take a look at some ways in which we can avoid the mistakes of using variation improperly and continue to use it productively to spur new gains on a continual basis. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 254 P R I N C I P L E I M P O R TA N C E R A N K The basic powerlifting movements work so well that with appropriate fatigue management they can yield impressive gains in ability all by themselves for years, and in fact just training the lifts themselves can make you incredibly successful. Variation is a great tool, but it would be a pretty far stretch to call it all-important, which is why it ranks fifth on our list of priorities. While variation for the purpose of reducing adaptive resistance is not the most powerful principle of training, it is effective nonetheless and will have at least some role in almost every lifter’s training. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 255 I M P L I C AT I O N S & E X A M P L E S O F P R O P E R A P P L I C AT I O N O F VA R I AT I O N 1. ) P R O P E R T I M I N G O F VA R I AT I O N When we vary our exercise selection for the purposes of reducing adaptive resistance, we take away certain exercises (competition bench presses, for example) and replace them with others (close grip bench presses, for example) for at least a mesocycle. At the very least, once competition benches were re-introduced, a faster level of improvement in competition bench performance would result due to a lowered adaptive resistance. Exercise variation can be as simple as this, but for it to be more effective, when we choose to replace the competition lifts with certain variants also matters. There are constraints on when we can use non-competitive variants. The most obvious and important of these constraints is that the principle of Specificity dictates that we must use the competition moves at least in the mesocycle leading up to the meet, if not for several mesocycles before. This is of course to make sure that technical, muscular, neural and connective tissue systems are all optimized for actual powerlifting performance on the date of the meet when it matters most. The second constraint comes from Fatigue Management. Volumes of training in especially the peaking phase leading up to the meet need to be low, so there’s also not much room for much variation on top of the competition lifts even if we wanted to throw some in there. That being the case, we cannot use much if any variation in the mesocycle or two leading up to the meet and most if not all work must be done with the competition lifts. The third most important constraint is that of intensities and Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 256 repetition ranges. Because training at similar intensities all the time promotes adaptive resistance (training heavy year round without higher rep lighter periods, for example), there must be a time to vary the training intensity with planned reductions. But just as with the first two constraints, we can’t quite train lighter and for higher reps right before the meet as we must be training with our heaviest weights here to avoid violating the specific demands of the nearing meet. The problem is, we can’t just do the competition lifts heavy all the time because then they’ll build up a high adaptive resistance and will be recalcitrant to improvement. Thus, we can conclude that the best time (or rather, at least not the worst) to use variation in both exercise and intensity selection to reduce adaptive resistance is the deep offseason (aka general prep phases), or the time of training right after the last meet and far away from the next. By putting much of our variation far away from the meet, we can both have the adaptive resistance-reducing powers of variation and the concordance of specificity by still training with the competition moves leading up to the meet itself. Because our specificity must be highest right before the meet and because variation is best used far away from the meet, a pattern emerges in our training structure. With each mesocycle from the beginning of the macrocycle to the end (one competition to the next), the specificity of training increases and the variation of training declines. Exercises begin to biomechanically resemble the competition lifts with each mesocycle. Skull crushers in the early mesocycles are replaced with close grip benches in the later mesocycles and again with competition benches right before the meet. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 257  Intensities of training increase on average between mesocycles. Training gets heavier and heavier until it approaches competition weights. There is no distinct cutoff of time after which all further mesocycles are completely specific, nor is there a time before which all mesocycles are completely variable from the competition lifts and intensities. Rather, the transition is gradual, which among other things allows the variants of the early phases to potentiate improvements in the later phases, a concept we’ll explore in great depths in its own chapter on Phase Potentiation. 2. ) S T R AT E G I C VA R I AT I O N The basic reason that we’ve explored so far for the use of variation is in its role in reducing adaptive resistance. We use variations in exercise selection and intensity far away from the meet itself in order to make meet training modalities effective again and prevent their staleness. This is a good start to the use of variation and definitely its best effect, but we can do even better. While we know that the tools we use in creating variation need to be different in intensity and exercise than the powerlifts themselves and overloading enough to be effective, we can make an even more precise recommendation. So far as it meets the aforementioned criteria, variation can also be directed to improve particular systems that yield the best outcomes for our particular situation over the long term. We are no longer just varying loads and exercises in a “random if meeting basic criteria” fashion, but rather we are also choosing to meet our particular needs at the time. Because intensity variation will be covered completely Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 258 in the chapter on Phase Potentiation (it turns out that there is not much leeway in intensity anyway once the three different phases are applied properly), the remainder of this discussion will focus on variation in exercise selection. The basic question on “needs” in training is answered by “whatever gets you the biggest total in the long term,” and this is definitely true. The process of choosing the right variants in exercise to do this is constrained by two factors; what we will call Adaptive Proclivity Training and Limiting Factor Training. A. ) A DA P T I V E P R O C L I V I T Y T R A I N I N G When we’re constructing our early-macrocycle mesos far away from the next meet, we can choose our exercises with the goal of capitalizing on our individual adaptive proclivities. This method works especially well for intermediate lifters. In essence, we choose our variants to work on our genetically-endowed advantages, because it is these advantages that will propel us by leaps and bounds towards at least “good” performances. If you are just starting in lifting, you may not know what these are for you yet, and using a more non-directed variation for a time can be the best way to find out. Once you’ve done several macrocycles of non-directed variation (training every muscle involved in powerlifting evenly), you’ll be able to more clearly identify your advantages in genetic potential and responsiveness to training. Just pick effective lifts that you’d like to do, so long as they are not the powerlifts themselves. Track your performance, and you’ll find that some lifts and body parts in particular seem to make much faster and more consistent gains than others. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 259 Once you have identified where your strengths are, it’s time to make them even stronger (and bigger). For example, if a lifter’s quads were always pretty big and responded very well to training, it’s probably a good idea for them to choose quad-heavy variants like leg presses and front squats early in the macrocycle. The rapid growth in quad size will be used to propel impressive increases in quad strength and thus build a massive base for a huge squat. If your triceps are enormous to begin with, make them bigger by choosing close grip and triceps work. If your upper back is downright freaky in its response to training, focus on that in your deadlift work. There will be a time later for working on weak points, but to have anything like a true weak point, you’ve gotta have strong points first. Use your gifts and make them as good as you can for a long time (years) after your beginner phase is over, because it’s those gifts that will contribute the most to your strength. People might Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 260 call you a “quad squatter” or “triceps bencher” or describe your deadlift as “all upper back,” but so what? Those descriptions have been used to refer to lifts of many of the greats earlier in their careers. And this is no hypothetical... there is not a single great in the sport of powerlifting that did not take advantage of their gifts. To do so would be sheer lunacy. They don’t give an award for “most balanced” lifter... only for the lifts and the total. B. ) L I M I T I N G FAC TO R T R A I N I N G Once a very strong base has been built on the genetic endowments of the individual lifter, some cracks can begin to show. There comes a point when certain muscle groups are so strong that the weight lifted by them can leave other contributing and supporting muscles behind. This risks both injury and performance plateaus. For example, if you squatted mostly with your glutes and hamstrings while having decent quad development, you may get to a point where your quads are too weak to power your unprecedented squat weights out of the hole to let your posterior chain even begin to take over. At this point, your quads begin to seriously hold back your squat. If your bench has been chest-powered for a long time, at some point your triceps might be incapable of locking out the massive weights your chest throws up almost to lockout before the triceps must kick in. In the deadlift, your massive grip and hamstrings are getting you both crappy performance and injury risk as your much weaker back begins to round at your heavy training weights. Because adjusting proper technique can allow you to make the best possible use of your advantages, truly limiting factors are not quite universal. But in more advanced lifters with incredibly well developed strengths, they are very commonly what are holding improvements back. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 261 When such limiting factors present themselves, further work on the advantaged body parts and movements will not yield almost any more improvement on the competition lifts themselves. To make the clearest example, it doesn’t matter how strong your hams and back are... if you can’t grip the bar, you can’t count it towards your competition deadlift. At some point the intelligent lifter has to focus on these limiting factor weak points. One of the best ways to do this is through variation in exercise selection. Variants early in the macrocycle can be chosen with the specific intent to target weak points. Pause squats and front squats for quads, wide grip benches and dumbbell flyes for the chest, and rowing, pull-ups, and block pulling for the upper back. Once limiting factors have been brought up, the powerlifts themselves will likely improve as well! This method works especially well for intermediate and advanced lifters that actually have a big enough “advantage base” to have weak points to begin with. This is last point is important. Many beginner-intermediate lifters spend countless hours trying to figure out their weak points. When all is said and done, it turns out that they don’t really have the strong points to even justify that distinction and that everything is a weak point! These lifters can of course continue to employ more random variation and train everything with the same level of commitment, but this would be an error. By definition, your strong points will respond better to training and it is thus a better use of time to train those body parts and movements. The only time limiting factor training comes in handy is when... you actually...have...limiting factors, and aren’t just “weak all over.” Once a lifter finds their strong points, it’s probably the best idea for Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 262 them to train those with the most priority, as those are their tickets to the top. Once limiting factors present themselves, they need to be dealt with and variants chosen to improve them. This variation and improvement of weak points will buy the lifter more time to work again on improving strong points, as just continuing to work on weak points won’t itself lead to much gain. If you squat mostly with your quads and have a genetically weaker back, all you need to do is make sure the back is strong enough for your quads to use it as a launching pad for big squats. If you spend years working on your weak back so that you can transition into a normal squatting style that uses back a lot, you’ll simply end up being an average “normal squatter” as your now stronger back will never be as strong as backs of the greats that squat in that style, and your quads won’t get to contribute as much to the new style of squatting and “come to the rescue” of your back. Play to your strengths, so long as your weaknesses don’t hold you back and don’t fall for the illusion of “balance.” Another reason that a base of strengths needs to be built is that weaknesses need to be clear enough to be targeted and only distinct strengths can show that. If random variation is no longer improving your squat as quickly as you’d like, you might want to work on your limiting factors for that lift. But if you’ve been training everything evenly up until now, you might not even know what body parts or movements are even holding you back! Is it the glutes? The hams? The lower back? You know your quads might be the strong link but you’re really not sure about that either. Only by developing your strengths can you properly expose your weaknesses so as to select them for targeted variation. The long term pattern result for very advanced lifters is that alternate phases of working on advantages will be paired with phases of working Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 263 on weak points. A big point here is that a lifter not need ever stop working on his advantages lest he kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Another big implication of the use of variation is that it’s probably not a good idea to do exactly the same variants as your training partners are doing once you are no longer a beginner. Once you know where your strengths and limiting factors lie, training should be designed to strategically alter those for your needs, which will necessarily be different in almost all cases from those of your training partners. This concept will be further explored in the chapter on individual differences to come. 3. ) H O W M U C H VA R I AT I O N I S E N O U G H ? When variation in exercise selection is being applied, what are the rules for the minimal amount of difference between exercises? For example, if we move out one finger width between each mesocycle of training, is that really enough variation? Here are some guidelines, to be taken with a big grain of salt as they tend to be based much more on experience and informed reasoning rather than direct research. The most important minimum recommendation in choosing exercise variants that present a sufficient level of variation in order to reduce adaptive resistance is to use variants that feel different. This is probably one of the most wishy-washy recommendations of the book, but it is grounded in some decent reasoning. Only when different neural circuits are engaged does an exercise feel different. Only when the muscles are engaged in different patterns or different muscles are engaged Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 264 altogether does an exercise feel different. Because it is precisely the different neural and muscular recruitment that we want, the “feel” of an exercise is an ecologically important datum. To make a more particular recommendation and to make sure exercises do feel different and are thus presenting the needed neural and muscular variations, we can set some basic application guidelines: Bar position for squatting should be only in one of 3 basic categories. Front, high bar, and low bar squats are leveraged differently enough to offer a beneficial level of exercise variation. “Medium bar” squats or some other “in between” variants likely do not. Foot positions and grip widths should be at least one foot width or hand with apart. For example, if your competition bench is pinkies on the rings, pinkies one inch in from the rings is not a close grip bench. It’s unlikely to be different enough to offer either adaptive resistance effect or directed variation. So at a minimum, bench, squat and deadlift grips and stances should be around 3-4 inches apart from one another to be likely to have a beneficial effect on variation. U N D E R - A P P L I C AT I O N O F VA R I AT I O N 1. ) T R A I N I N G W I T H T H E S A M E I N T E N S I T I E S , S E T S & REPS ALL YEAR ROUND While exercise variation is perhaps the most effective form of variation, manipulation of sets, reps, and intensities can improve training outcomes. On the other hand, failing to sufficiently manipulate these variables can needlessly slow the improvement process. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 265 Perhaps the most common and obvious violation of the principle of variation in this regard is in the design or implementation of programs that specifically restrict their set and rep ranges to one condition. One such example is the 5x5 program. Though there are many variants of this approach, with some being much more variable than others, some 5x5 programs are literally just that, five sets of five reps, all the time. The problem with such a program is twofold. First is that it does not allow for directed variation in any ability that is outside of its prescribed set and rep range. While 5x5 is very well suited for building basic strength, it is poorly suited to both peaking and hypertrophy training, both of which are important at various times. The second problem with such static programs is that they don’t accommodate progression and (in a glimpse of a later principle) individual variation. The same lifter might first get amazing results from doing 5 sets of 5 reps, but over the course of several mesocycles need more volume to progress as the fastest rates. On the other hand, 5x5 will be too much for some lifters and thus may result in rapid fatigue accumulation from the very start. A good powerlifting program will usually have a wide range of sets, reps and intensities based on the phase of training (and their different MRVs) and the goals of the lifter. One size does not fit all in most respects, powerlifting included. 2. ) D O I N G T H E CO M P E T I T I O N M OV E S A L L Y E A R R O U N D There are two potentially problematic approaches with performing the competition lifts year-round; doing only the competition lifts or doing other lifts as well but never removing the competition lifts from the program for any meaningful length of time. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 266 A. ) D O I N G O N LY T H E CO M P E T I T I O N M OV E S According to some, Ed Coan himself only really used the competition lifts year round and just changed the sets and reps as the weights got heavier through the macrocycle coming up to a meet. According to Ed Coan himself, he never did this, and instead used close variants of the lifts (shoulder presses, high bar squats, deficit pulls, etc…) as the bulk of his training in the early part of the macrocycle, and would only transition to competition lifts as the meet neared. Well, there goes that one. But now there are rumors that Andrey Malanichev himself only trains with the competition movements and does nothing else, so it seems that this idea about training has some appeal, at least to the people that relay such stories as “see, I told you the best guys only do the competition lifts... you’ve gotta practice how you play.” The proponents have a point. You do have to practice how you play, especially as the competition nears. Specificity is very important, more so than variation, in fact. But specificity is not a stand-alone principle that is a net positive no matter how excessively it is applied. By only doing the competition lifts year round, you miss out on the benefits of directed adaptation in a big way. If you triceps are holding you back on the bench but your shoulders and pecs have already been plenty beat up, insistence on a “comp lifts only” routine will leave you with no options of triceps development. By sticking only to the competition lifts and avoiding any specialty targeting moves, your ability to improve both weak and strong points in a purposeful manner declines greatly. You don’t get to be the best at basketball by just playing games and you don’t get to be the best at powerlifting by just doing the competition lifts. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 267 An equally large problem with this approach is that adaptive resistance to the lifts is never reduced. After some time, productive stimulation of adaptive pathways becomes severely hindered and performance improvements decline in magnitude. B. ) N E V E R R E M OV I N G T H E CO M P E T I T I O N M OV E S While training using only competition lifts is often rumored, very few people actually do this. It turns out even the famed Bulgarians of Olympic lifting lore didn’t just train with the competition lifts all the time. However, while few lifters never do anything but the competition lifts, many lifters never completely drop out the competition lifts. A lot of lifters will do close grip benches for triceps, front squats for quads, and rack pulls for the back, but will always do the competition lifts in addition to these specialty variants. Every mesocycle of training Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 268 may include new specialty moves, but it also includes the competition lifts. Some lifters will subtract assistance work as the meet nears and add it back in after the meet is over and when the next meet is still far off. While this method of training is quite sound, it can be improved. By adding and subtracting assistance lifts, directed variation can be adequately high. However, the ability to reduce the adaptive resistance of the competition lifts is severely hampered. If the competition lifts are never removed, the systems responsible for improving them with training dull over time, and eventually progress from doing these lifts grinds to a very slow pace, if not completely, which is not the best for results. An argument in defense of this approach is that specificity is important and that it’s never a good idea to move away from the competition lifts for this reason. It’s true that specificity is important, but it’s much more important leading up to the meet than it is far away from it. And if specificity is not nearly as important far away from the meet, what exactly is the reason for keeping in competition lifts? All hypertrophy work can be done in a directed manner with special variants, and the plus side is that during this time the competition lifts can regain their sensitivity to adaptation for the time that they will be used again in the time closer to the meet. If we never stray away from the competition lifts, this adaptive resistance is never dealt with, and the benefit of such an approach is not clear. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 269 O V E R - A P P L I C AT I O N O F VA R I AT I O N Variation can be effective in both reducing adaptive resistance and in allowing for a directed targeting of needed areas of improvement. While most any exercise or set/rep range that is different from current training can accomplish the former, the latter is not as straightforward to achieve. Not just any variant can promote the best directed variation, so we have to choose wisely. Specifically, there are at least four distinct constraints on directed variation worthy of discussion: The use of non-specific variants The use of non-overloading variants The use of phase or goal-inappropriate variants The use of excessively frequent variation Let’s take a look at each one in more depth. 1. ) N O N - S P E C I F I C VA R I A N T S When choosing variants of exercises or set/rep schemes, it’s important to choose variants that are specific enough to the sport of powerlifting to be worth using. For example, running is a fine variant for leg training, but its volume, load and repetition scheme is wildly inappropriate to the goals of powerlifting (build muscle, get stronger, peak, etc…). Doing exercises for sets of 20 to 30 reps suffers from similar limitations. Calf raises and biceps curls are of course possible to integrate into a good powerlifting program, but their overuse violates the specific needs of the sport and can quickly become underproductive or counterproductive. If Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 270 you continuously employ exercise variants that give you bigger arms and calves simply to have bigger arms and calves, this is unlikely to make you as good at powerlifting as the use of variants that best transfer to sport performance. It’s a very small difference, but PRs on the platform can be very small as well, so it’s worth considering even the nitty-gritty if maximal performance is the goal. 2. ) N O N - O V E R L O A D I N G VA R I A N T S Because our variants need to make us at least bigger, stronger, ready to peak or something along those performance lines, they all need to be overloading enough to actually stimulate adaptations. Some exercises are simply not as overloading as others, and should be used sparingly if not at all as variants in powerlifting training. To quote elite powerlifter and famous Facebook troll Michael Zundelevich, “how many band rear laterals do you have to do to bench 600lbs?” That’s a very difficult question to answer, and perhaps the answer is that the benefit of this variant is so indirect and so small that no amount of ability or work in this move will be productive enough to be worth a major investment. Other, more specific and overloading lifts don’t share such problem. With even mediocre triceps, if you can dumbbell flye the 100s for strict sets of 8 reps, you’re going to bench a lot. If you can front squat 600lbs, you’ll have 99 problems but your squat won’t be one. These moves are so overloading that the adaptations they cause readily transfer to performance in the competitive lifts. How many leg extensions with how much weight do you have to do to squat more? What about reverse curls? One-arm cable pec flyes? With such non-overloading moves, strength and size gains may be tiny compared to their much more effective alternatives. So how many of those does it take? To quote the Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 271 wise Tootsie-Roll Owl, “the world may never know.” Just make sure you don’t overuse such low-overload moves yourself and avoid the largely pointless quest to try and find out! 3. ) P H A S E - I N A P P R O P R I AT E VA R I A N T S Each phase of powerlifting training has a specific goal. Some phases are designed mostly to build muscle, some to build general strength, and some to perfect the expression of that strength at maximal loads. Whatever the goal, the variants used have to match up with it. If you’re using low bar squats to pack on quad size, chances are your back, glutes, and hams will tire out and reap the benefits well before your quads get their due diligence. If you’re using dumbbell flyes to get stronger, you’re going to mess your pecs up and possibly cause a muscle tear with sets of 5 in this isolation move long before you get any stronger. Lastly, if you’re using banded cambered bar squats in your peaking phase, that’s all well and good, but when the meet requires you to do competition squats instead, you’ll realize that you’ve been peaking for the wrong lift! In general, it’s recommended to stick to more focused lifts that are conducive to high reps when hypertrophy is the goal, stick only to stable compound lifts and away from isolation moves during strength phases, and focus most of your energy on the actual competition moves during peaking training. Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 272 4. ) T O O F R E Q U E N T VA R I AT I O N Variation that occurs at too rapid a frequency can become less that optimally productive because it can violate the Specificity sub-principle of Directed Adaptation, and in some cases the sub principle of training modality compatibility. Directed adaptation describes that a similar stimulus must be presented in sequence for some time in order that the adaptations made be retained when the stimulus is altered later. For example, the triceps muscle tissue added with close grip benching has more of a chance of sticking around when regular benching is resumed if the close grip work was presented in a sequential manner concentrated over the several weeks of a dedicated mesocycle rather than sporadically throughout the training macrocycle. Training modality compatibility describes the extent to which different methods of training interfere with one another. For example, the high volumes of hypertrophy training produce too much fatigue for meaningful peaking training to occur at the same time. Two common violations of directed adaptation and training modality compatibility in powerlifting training include the overly rapid cycling of exercises and the overly rapid cycling of repetition and load ranges. A. ) TO O FA S T O F E X E R C I S E R OTAT I O N When exercise selection is altered every training session, directed adaptation is violated and adaptations are not likely to be retained as well as they are with blocked training phases of distinct exercise selection. The Westside method is probably the best example of this slight error in programming, as it advocates rotating exercises completely usually within the span of just a week. Westside programming Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 273 thus developed a reputation for allowing its lifters to PR often in a seemingly endless number of variants, but such PRs sometimes failed to translate to steady strength gains as much as those of other, more monotonous programs. B. ) TO O FA S T O F R E P R A N G E R OTAT I O N There are two kinds of daily undulating periodization (DUP) training styles, both employing a variation in repetitions performed within each training week. The first kind of DUP varies the load and repetitions slightly, keeping them in the same range of physiological effect. Some DUP programs will do sets of 6 one day, sets of 4 another day, and sets of 2 another day within the same weeks. Because all of those repetition ranges are close to or within the “general strength” range, they are actually an effective way to provide variation and manage fatigue at the same time. A well designed powerlifting program is likely to have some variation in rep range within the week and technically be a form of DUP. The second, more extreme type of DUP is characterized by variations in rep range and volume that span multiple physiological ranges. Some forms of DUP will do sets of 12 for hypertrophy, sets of 6 for strength and sets of 2 for peaking all in the same week. The first problem with this approach is that directed adaptation is violated. It’s difficult to make meaningful strength improvements to the nervous system when it’s concurrently being re-trained for repetitive rather than maximal exertions on a weekly basis, for example. The second problem with this extreme form of DUP is that of adaptive interference of multiple physiological abilities with one another, violating the specificity sub- principle of training modality compatibility. When training the three different powerlifting sub-goals of size, strength and peaking in the same week, some problems may arise: Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 274 Hypertrophy vs. Strength Hypertrophy training benefits from high weekly volumes, so strength training will lower the volumes needed for best hypertrophy Strength training requires lower fatigue levels, the very same fatigue levels that are raised by hypertrophy training Hypertrophy training tailors the nervous system for repetitive, submaximal exertions, strength training needs forceful and low-endurance exertion characteristics Hypertrophy vs. Peaking Hypertrophy needs high volumes, peaking creates the lowest volumes Peaking needs the lowest fatigue levels, hypertrophy creates the highest fatigue levels Peaking needs conversions to fast-twitch fibers, hypertrophy training coverts to slow twitch fibers Peaking needs explosive neural characteristics, hypertrophy promotes submaximal repetitive neural characteristics Strength vs. Peaking Peaking needs lower fatigue levels than the ones caused as a side effect of strength training In the above ways, the best environment for any particular goal is sullied by an inclusion of a radically different form of training. The end result is Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 275 a good overall training effect, but a limited amount of progress in any of the particular abilities, leaving a good deal of total progress to be desired. DUP is a great way to train, but taking it to the extremes of rep ranges and physiological effects may be unwarranted and perhaps less than fully productive. SUMMARY Variation is an important principle in powerlifting training for two main reasons. First of all, variation lowers adaptive resistance, keeping our training methods continuously refreshed and effective. Secondly, directed variation allows us to target needed areas for improvement to our capabilities by emphasizing certain muscle groups and movements that could benefit from focused development. With the tools of properly executed variation, training will not be revolutionized. But, it will go a heck of a lot smoother and plateaus in performance as well as nagging injuries are likely to become less common. Key Points Variation is a break in linearity of the training process. Stimuli which are repeated for long periods of time tend to become ineffective at causing the best rates of gain. Variation of variables such as volume, intensity, exercise selection, and other factors can help maintain adaptive sensitivity and prevent staleness By periodically varying the training stimulus, the athlete is simultaneously managing fatigue by allowing certain muscle fibers to recover and adapt while also presenting an overload stimulus through the use of novelty Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 276  Variation works very closely with directed adaptation. Training cannot be spontaneous and random for best results; rather training should be focused for periods of time and subtly varied between training phases while still within the constraints of specificity SOURCES & FURTHER READING Variation Defined Periodization 5th Edition Theory and Methodology of Training Principles and Practice of Resistance Training Training principles: evaluation of modes and methods of resistance training — a coaching perspective Manipulation of Training Variables Designing Resistance Training Programs Periodization: Effects Of Manipulating Volume And Intensity. Part 1 Periodization: Effects of Manipulating Volume and Intensity. Part 2 Effects of Single vs. Multiple Sets of Weight Training: Impact of Volume, Intensity, and Variation Chapte r N o. 7 Sci en t if ic P r in c ip les o f St ren g t h Tra in in g P 277