A heck of a workout. Here, I put the Courage Corner to good use using Ori Hofmekler’s Controlled Fatigue Training spiced up with his advanced ideas from his “Super Muscle” ebook.
As I mentioned before, incorporating his CFT ideas into my typical way of training is not really that much of a stretch. In principle, it’s how I often train anyway, but it’s nice to have a refresher and a dose of specific tips. These might help maximize my efforts in this area.
To reiterate, the key concept Ori is trying to get across with CFT is to train to withstand fatigue, and to that end, he stresses pre-fatiguing before doing any of your core exercises, whatever they may be (mostly strength-focused). Again, since you’re training with the idea of simulating fight-or-flight stresses, you finish off with a round of post-fatiguing exercise after you’ve done your core set of focus training (As they say, “It’s always the ‘dead’ lion that kills you.”).
The idea is that humans are built to exist in short states of high stimulation, which sets off a shower of adaptive hormones for recovery. The adaptive, recovery hormones are by-and-large, extremely beneficial to human health. One of the reasons for emphasizing brevity of workout is that if you are stressed for too long a period, you can compromise said bath of hormones, resulting in a decreasing return situation.
A secondary concept is the idea of intervals, which is a wave-like or sawtooth pattern of intensity, which can be carried fractally from a macro sphere to the minute details of a workout. You can have a giant wave, cresting in weeks, and work down to every 30 seconds of portions of the training session, such as what he outlines in the pre-fatigue phase. (Anybody remember the “Big Beyond Belief” workout system by Leo Costa, Tom Platz, and Russ Horine? That was a very well-defined hyper-controlled fractal wave cycle, and it *did* really work. My only problem with it–it DID really work. Ask my bro about that. And my interests are simply not in getting as big as I can.)
Here, for instance, you run for high intensity for one minute, followed by a low intensity run for a minute, then back up to the higher intensity, and so on for as long as you choose. With that minute, you alternate for 30 seconds running with your hands up in front of your face, and the next 30 seconds with your arms extended overhead. Then hands back in front of your face, and continue to repeat for as long as you run.
In the strength (“core”) phases of training, you effect intervals by using an “upside down pyramid” (UDP), going up, then down in intensity as with the running.
The “super muscle” key concept adds (or perhaps I should say, “emphasizes”) super-setting (immediately alternating) power or strength elements with speed or velocity elements. (If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice this is exactly what Pavel Tsastouline’s earlier kettlebell routines did from his Russian Kettlebell Challenge-grind element followed by ballistic element, back-and-forth, and alternating hard lifts with easier lifts.)
This is done because of the adaptive stress philosophy that states that the body adapts exactly to the stress that is applied to the body. In Ori’s case, he wants to encourage the muscle fiber, neuro-wiring, and hormonal bath to adapt to the real-life stresses of being both strong, and explosive, and sustained.
And to repeat, this is right up Dr. De Vany’s bag, too, when he talks about Evolutionary Fitness.
Today’s wasn’t too different from the last posted PT session. The main difference is that I added five lb dumbbells to the pre-fatiguing section, then alternated the upside down pyramid kettlebell LCCJs (strength) with one minute sessions punching and kicking the heavy bag for speed (velocity) sessions. My last velocity minute was a set of quick-snap snatches with the 16 kg bell. After that I hit the abs, then stretching.
To wit:
Pre-Fatigue
5 min run in place, alternate I min high-intensity, 1 min low intensity, 30 sec hands defensive position, 30 seconds arms extended (two 5 lb dumbbells)
Core
1 min, each arm, LCCJ (32 kg)
1 min, striking heavy bag (punch/kick/tackle)
1 min, each arm LCCJ (24 kg)
1 min, striking heavy bag (punch/kick/tackle)
1 min, each arm LCCJ (16 kg)
30 sec, each arm, high velocity snatch (16 kg)
Post-Fatigue
20 reverse crunches
cobra stretches
10 four-count alternate side curls
cobra/cat stretches
10 regular crunches
cobra/cat stretches
10 lower back extensions
Stretching and cool-down
About 30 minutes. And you’ll notice, no rest sets in there. I’d pause long enough to catch my breath or manipulate the workout equipment, and that was it.
There you have it. Enjoy!
