Elite Physique The New Science of Building a Better Body

52 Elite Physique
Progressive Overload
One of the most important components for programming your training is
progressive overload, which is a gradual increase in stress that’s placed on the
body in order to elicit a positive adaptation. The act of purposefully lifting everheavier
loads dates back to the sixth century B.C. when Milo of Croton trained
for wrestling. The legend states that each day Milo would carry a calf to build
his strength. As the calf grew, so did Milo’s strength. These days, the progressive
overload principle is credited to Thomas DeLorme, an Army physician who
helped rehabilitate soldiers during World War II (Todd, Shurley, and Todd 2012).
His system was simple:
• Perform 3 × 10 for basic resistance exercises (i.e., 1 × 10 with 50 percent of
1RM, 1 × 10 with 75 percent of 1RM, 1 × 10 with the heaviest load possible).
• Try to increase the load of the third set each workout.
How to Use Postactivation Potentiation to Become
More Explosive
The way exercises are arranged in a workout can have a positive influence on performance
in subsequent sets or similar movement patterns. For example, research
demonstrates that some athletes can jump higher or sprint faster after a few heavy
sets of a squat or deadlift, thanks to postactivation potentiation (PAP) (McBride,
Nimphius, and Erickson 2005). There are two practical applications here.
First, a PAP conditioning set can be used to increase performance (i.e., rate of
force development) of an explosive activity such as a vertical jump or 40-meter
sprint. A study in the Journal of Human Kinetics compared two potential PAP protocols
on national- and regional-level soccer players (Sanchez-Sanchez et al. 2018). One
protocol consisted of performing a squat with 60 percent of 1RM, while the other
protocol was 90 percent of 1RM. In either case, the soccer athletes rested 5 minutes
and then performed 20-meter sprints. Athletes who performed the squat with
90 percent of 1RM experienced greater improvements in sprint velocity. The trick is
to manage the balance between PAP and fatigue. For example, one or two sets of
a heavy deadlift at the beginning of a workout followed immediately by a maximal
vertical jump or sprint attempt could work well. Or a few sets of a heavy bench press
before a javelin or medicine ball throw. When a heavy load with low volume (e.g., 2
× 2 with 90 percent of 1RM) is used, the PAP effect is almost immediate. Second,
a squat or deadlift can be placed before a power exercise in a circuit to potentially
induce PAP (e.g., a heavy set of the deadlift before a set of box jumps). In any case,
the act of programming heavy maximal strength exercises with lighter, explosive
strength exercises in the same workout is known as contrast training.
Although it’s still not clear what induces PAP, it seems to be a temporary enhancement
of muscular factors and, maybe more importantly, neural factors (Wallace et
al. 2019). The potential benefits of PAP to improve explosive performance appear
to be mainly limited to experienced power athletes. In other words, PAP is less likely
to work for a young or relatively weak athlete (Rixon, Lamont, and Bemben 2007).
Research indicates that the effect of PAP is very individualized, some athletes
got a positive response and others experienced a decrease in performance (Lim
and Kong 2013; Seitz and Haff 2016). Nevertheless, there appears to be enough
positive research on PAP to give it a try. Perform a heavy set of a squat or deadlift,
then wait 15 to 30 seconds and see if you can jump higher. If you can, keep this
contrast training in your program to increase your explosive power.