As discussed in part 1 there is a way in which training can become a bit to helter skelter, and too much chaos. Sometimes you want to train a different style, sometimes you want to add some variation to training, sometimes you are fried and can’t train well, other times you have to work around an injury a sick kid or what life is throwing at you at the moment. All of these things can add to the variation or training and end up just becoming a spinning wheel where you are not making successful gains or progress and may end up going backwards if not provided the right stimulus.
In part one of this article I brought your attention to the much needed use of progressive overload as a principal when dealing with a Crossfit COs recommendations for a WOD. Today I want to address another training style that can posit similar spinning wheel problems. It is known as auto regulation which is basically training instinctively often a result of one of the above variables that dictate training time which can limit stimulus. Now I’m not saying that Auto Regulation is better than having a program, but in some case scenarios, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”. So the question invariably is: “How do I make it work?” The main answers are follow:

1.) Prioritize the A set or Main Lifts
2.) Have a track record or Personal bests and total cumulative volume on key lifts
3.) Have a goal and a time line to achieve a goal compete in a competition or tell a friend your plans.
4.) Look in past journals to establish week’s volume in tonnage on certain lifts Bsquat/Deadlift/Fsquat/ Presses /Pulls or Rows
5.) The first lift is the main lift with the most bang for your buck. You don’t want to do pushups or pistols squats, but rather what will recruit and fatigue the greatest number of motor units in the least amount of time. So Squat variations/deadlift variations/and any press variations/or pull up variation will be best.
These are generic examples interpretation would be unrealistic when comparing ratios and deficits

 By having your weeks tonnage as a lifter you can modify frequency to prioritize a lift and a specific volume. Understand that deadlift is back squat and back squat is not front squat when it comes to tonnage they can both play into tonnage/cumulative volume, but the greater tonnage with rom will likely carryover best to achieving progressive overload.

On a similar topic, this may be why when you train DB work in the place of barbell work it can be hard to achieve direct carry over unless specific tonnage/volume stimulus is met at least this is a theory of mine. The body may not respond to submaximal loads without increased volume of sets or reps.
An example would be:
Phase 1.) Incline Press 225 6X5 = 6750 (accumulation)
Phase 2.) Incline DB Press (95+95) 5×3 = 2850 (intensification)
Doing the math you can see about a 4 thousand pound deficit, so can the body hypertrophy? Yes, but it may not carry over as well to barbell press unless you increased sets at, or greater than the volume/tonnage seen with the barbell, or better still prioritize barbell on intensification, and dumbell on accumulation phases. From my vantage the above would create a type of peaking for DB work or detraining depending on your perspective. That being said you can and will get stronger on DB press when using progressive overload. This however is a theory of mine and is a point of contention between myself, and a colleague of the iron game. This is partially why I think Undulating periodization is better at producing hypertrophy than linear periodization.

That being said you can and will get stronger on DB press when using progressive overload, but it could but in my mind would be considered a misstep when approaching progression in the above fashion unless correct stimulus is created. I would suggest testing the theory out, also understandably DB and BB work are often complimentary to one another and would be best if were done together rather than separately.

In conclusion, I hope that this provides you the reader with a better understanding of progressive overload when trying to make gains and deal with what life throws at you.

In the book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell brings up the principal of 10,000 hours of practice to be a master. In the book Linchpin by Seth Godin describes the idea of being indispensable due to talent related to practice. In the book Mastery Roberte Greene helps define how it is certain people in history become masters. I think each are brilliant books and all demonstrates how with repetition people become better as they become more specialized at their craft. Slowly they whittle away at their task blowing away the chaff, chipping away imperfection and soon brilliance surfaces and even some times genius.

It is interesting to me in my past I worked at a factory out of high school. The factory made books and we would box and ship these books off to schools, and wherever. A machine would spit out books in a stack and we would have to open a box in a certain manner and envelop a paired stack of books in the box, then fold the ends over, flip the books and the box, then fold the top’s ends down and finally push the boxed books onto the conveyor belt for the taping machine to do it’s job. The hard part was learning the procedure when first hired on. You had to wait your turn behind a proficient boxer of books so not to mess up the machine. It was overwhelming to be expected to box books at the rate that the machine spit them out, but the experienced employee could do it effortlessly. The best way I can describe the way you box books is probably a lot like when you hit a wing chun dummy in a certain pattern. There was a feel and a cadence much like everything else it became easier with practice. After a year at the place and some heavy caffeination we would challenge our coworker on the opposite side of the machine to see who was the fastest at boxing books.

In the world of exercise there as always, are multiple upon multiple repeated tasks it reminds me of the karate kid and how the master taught the student how so many things that we do when paying attention to the subtle details have a purpose in a bigger picture. In exercise as you get better you feel positions you have trained over and over again, and their isometric ranges lock into position efficiently and often look effortless to the observer. On the jerk if mechanics are correct you can feel everything snap into position. In the clean you can feel the symmetry of the bar as you receive and your heels dig into the floor. In grappling each move and position that you have rehearsed are easily reprocessed and the feel of the position lock to a posture that is stable. In boxing there is the feel of the right contact in a well-executed combination of punches. In baseball the sweet spot on the bat or in tennis the feel of the perfect return. In basketball the feel of the ball leaving your fingertips and the certainty of it’s trajectory. All of these things are built in rehearsal and repetition. Each pattern is defined by a specific feel. This feel takes a long time for people to be aware of it without repetition.

It is interesting to me in my past I worked at a factory out of high school. The factory made books and we would box and ship these books off to schools, and wherever. A machine would spit out books in a stack and we would have to open a box in a certain manner and envelop a paired stack of books in the box, then fold the ends over, flip the books and the box, then fold the top’s ends down and finally push the boxed books onto the conveyor belt for the taping machine to do it’s job. The hard part was learning the procedure when first hired on. You had to wait your turn behind a proficient boxer of books so not to mess up the machine. It was overwhelming to be expected to box books at the rate that the machine spit them out, but the experienced employee could do it effortlessly. The best way I can describe the way you box books is probably a lot like when you hit a wing chun dummy in a certain pattern. There was a feel and a cadence much like everything else it became easier with practice. After a year at the place and some heavy caffeination we would challenge our coworker on the opposite side of the machine to see who was the fastest at boxing books.

All this being said each lift, posture and pattern can become drudgingly monotonous as you concentrate on getting a certain number of repetitions with a specific weight in order that you can make the gainz that you have planned. The problem is with reps often it is forgotten to feel. In the past I have explained how a bodybuilders focuses on the feel of the movement and it’s mechanics within the muscle though I think sometimes new people get used to the rep and less concerned about the feel of the position. When you get used to the feel you will notice the subtle pattern differences of each rep and the predisposition of some muscles to override the pattern due to fatigue. As you get to the end of your rep range.

Enter the use of Tempo. Tempo is probably not something that is needed for exercise though it is a variable of training that allows you to exploit the eccentric range of a lift with greater proficiency than on the concentric due to eccentric strength being superior to concentric. Isometric strength is also greater than concentric strength so it is another variable to utilize on the eccentric and sometimes the concentric. When and how to exploit these vairaibels of a rep involve pauseing with submaximal weight in the position you are weakest at on a lift. On the eccentric focusing on decelerating within the weakest range of motion is another way. Tempo is also a way to all a new client to not just look like a pneumatic oscillating machine that has no defined pattern. The basics of tempo are as follow 4 numbers define the speed of the lift.

51X2

The first number 5 defines the speed of the eccentric or negative when the agonist muscle group is lengthening

The second number 1 defines the pause or isometric at the least advantageous position on bench or deadlift at the bottom where you are weakest on pullup at the top when you are over the bar where you are weakest.

The third number X is the concentric or positive where you are accelerating the bar as fast as you can.

The fourth number is the 2 where you isometrically pause at the most advantageous position.

I believe Ian King is the originator of TEMPO feel free to correct me if I am wrong but he used 3 numbers to define the cadence. There are ways you can modify, or accentuate positions with a pause at varying locations. There is also the use of the isometric against a relatively immovable object to strengthen a sticking point. All that being said, I believe the tempo helps define the speed of the Kata that is an exercise. When you get good at a pattern you will know by feel of your symmetry, when your scapula is in the proper position, where your heal are what your neck is doing and over all, how technical the rep is. Until you pay attention to the subtlety of feel, or Fingerspitzengefühl (borrowed that from the book 48 Laws of Power) It will be hard to understand the Kata.