Iron Jungle Article 3: The Anatomy of a Workout
Welcome Back to the Iron Jungle, savages! A lot has happened since we last visited together in this sacred space of personal growth, so I want to get you caught up on the news! The first week of March hosted USAClimbing National Team Trials, down in big blue sky Texas. Elite Performance Climbing had four sponsored athletes competing for a coveted spot on the national team. “Bob” Dillon Countryman went into the combined finals in the lead and finished fourth, securing his spot on the National Team on his second attempt! Piper Kelly won the speed event landing her on the national speed team once again! Liberty Runnels also made a repeat appearance on the national speed team after finishing 8th, and Kailer Kordewick finished in fourth place just missing the national team but had 3 PR’s during the event! EPC is insanely proud of the character and performance of our athletes! Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!
In previous issues of Sport Climber Magazine, we’ve broken down what intention is, why it’s important, and how it looks in application with some of the different areas of our performance. If you missed those articles, it's worth going back for a quick read to get caught up. Now that we have this solid foundation of understanding, we can move forward with our performance training, because unless we have established intention and goals, we are wasting our very limited time. As we dissect the anatomy of our workout and why each step is pivotal, take an honest self-assessment of your current programming and see where you can be applying more intention.
The first step, as previously mentioned, is Identification of Intention. What are you trying to accomplish in your training session? Increase strength, power, balance or coordination? Trying to improve endurance? Maybe today you need to boost recovery. Without identifying your intention, how can you know you’ll be achieving your desired outcome with the exercise selections you’ve chosen? Does your rep range, time under tension and rest period match your goals and intention you’ve established? Everything you do during performance training should be driven by intention and backed by science, otherwise the return for your investment of precious time will be diminished or even nullified.
After you’ve decided your intention, and the battle plan for the training session is in place, it’s time to Assess if your mobility will facilitate an uncompensated range of motion and uncompensated plane of motion for your exercise selection. The only reason for your joints to operate outside of perfect range and plane of motion would be if they are being inhibited by muscle tightness. The only reason muscle tightness exists, is if someplace else, a muscle has stopped communicating with the brain and your brain is now protecting your joint from catastrophic injury by using muscle tightness as a brace. (For more info see our website ElitePerformanceClimbing.com) If your mobility is pure and uncompensated, then you are ready to exercise! If not, you’ll need to activate the primary movers for the exercise to ensure they are able to contract, and in turn, benefit from the stress you’re about to put them under during the exercise.
If you found through assessment, that your range or plane of motion were compensated, then its time to Activate the muscles responsible for that joint motion. We coach our athletes who don’t see us in person to do very prescriptive isometric exercises, in very specific positions, in very specific planes of motion, for very specific times under tension. If done properly, the primary movers activate and re-establish communication with the brain, allowing the brain to release the tightness it put there to protect your joint from injury. Once active, the primary movers will be able to contract, grow, and operate unencumbered throughout the range and plane of motion desired for that exercise.
Now that primary movers are active, and you know you’ll get the desired outcome from your training, it's time to train! The muscles you activated can now contract and in turn grow, so you’ll be getting maximum benefit from the time you spend during performance training. Everything you do during the Integrate/Growth phase was decided beforehand so you can put full mental energy into executing each movement perfectly. It’s not enough to just do the movements, they MUST be done perfectly within your uncompensated range of motion. This is not a time of mindlessly going through the motions, but a time of intense mental focus and muscular control. Your preparation created the environment for this to happen, so take comfort in knowing that you’re getting the most from your time improving your performance!
After each set of exercise, and again after your training session, you should Re-Assess your mobility. If you’ve exceeded the stress tolerance for the muscles you trained, communication between the muscle and brain will have stopped, with the evidence of muscle tightness returning to restrict and encumber range and plane of motion. Through Re-Assessment you’ll identify areas of neuromuscular weakness and get more dialed-in information for the next set of exercise or next training session. If you find asymmetry in this phase during a set of exercise, reactivate before starting your next set to ensure contraction of the desired muscle group and maximum benefit from the exercise.
Re-activate is exactly what it sounds like. Reactivating muscles that have lost connection with your brain from exceeding their stress tolerance ensures not only continued growth for that muscle group, but also ensures uncompensated function of the joints those muscles operate. As I'm sure you can imagine, uncompensated joint motion feels pretty amazing as does seeing better results from your hard work!
Take an honest self-assessment of the time you set aside for performance training. Are you being as intentional as you could be? Does your current programming include outdated modalities that don't address the root of your mobility problems? How can you be sure your muscles are activated and going to benefit from the exercise you’re about to do? If you’re having a hard time answering these questions or need help with your performance training, stop by our IG: @eliteperformanceclimbing You’ll find information and resources to help get you started. Until we next meet in the Iron Jungle, Cowabunga!
