Evolving Your Template

I think its important to dial in a good template's for yourself, stick with it and make small improvements toward being more efficient and synergistic. Once you find something that works for your the next step is to find ways to make it better. You also learn how your body reacts to certain changes.

I also recommend writing little notes to yourself in your work out log when you do your exercises. Leave room to write comments on what you did good and what you can improve, if anything stands out. Its helpful for several reasons. The act of writing down a correction on paper, requires absolute intent. This will keep it fresh in your mind for the upcoming set and a lot of the time corrections are more about attention to detail. However it could also make you aware of a restriction . This can get you thinking of mobility or stability work you can sandwich around that exercise that will fix the flaws in technique.

Ill give an example.

Let's say we are doing a Single Leg Romanian Dead lift(SLRDL). You notice when are the bottom of the exercise your toe externally rotates. You make a note of it in your log and try to correct it with attention and focus in the next couple sets. You notice it still rotates out. This could tell you of a tightness somewhere. With some deduction, you narrow the problem down to be a tightness in the lateral hamstring of the standing leg. This isn't always the case when this happens in this exercise but for the purpose of hte example it is.

So with this information you decide to complex a Lateral Hamstring Stretch for 4x 7 second holds each leg before every SL RDL set. With mobility and attention the external rotation of the foot goes away over time. This is putting stability(strength) on top of the mobility you gained from the stretch, prior to the set.

I put up this video of the stretch:



Joe Sansalone showed me this stretch. I have also seen it on Mike Boyles FSC 3.0 DVDS.

Some ques for this:

Keep the toes pointed up or even slight rotated inward for more of a stretch.
Keep the ankle dorsiflexed
Flex the quad to relax the hamstrings even more
Bring the hip of the standing leg towards the knee cap of the stretching leg. All the movement should come from the hips and the shoulders only move as far as the hips
Pack the neck.

This is a great way to program good neural patterns for the brain. Some of the exercise and corrections that have worked for me:

Front Squat
Valgus problem: mini band in and outs or mini band squats with ball
Ankle Mobility problem: Ankle Rocks on wall , Leg swings, Calf Stretch
Ass tuck at the bottom problem, the technical term : Quadruped Hip Rock stretch.

SL Squat
Valgus problem: mini band in and outs

BB snatch
Shoulder mobility problem: Ys between sets, Soft tissue work with spike ball on lats and under arm.

RFESS
Tightness form Adhesion in hip flxers of back leg: Spikey ball to work out knot followed by hip flxr lunge stretch

Sprinting
To much arch in back: make sure the hips have enough mobility to get good extension . Also throw planks in the mix to reinforce a tight core.

KB Swings
Not enough hip extension or pop in at the top: Hip flxor stretch and or Glute Bridges

Another improvement I had made is to really work on monitoring my recovery and how the CNS is responding. I've been mulling over different methods of how to do this that are easy to do and consistent.

I settled on the Orthostatic Heart Rate Test. My specific protocol is as soon as I wake up and piss, lay supine with HR monitor on. Monitor my heart rate and try to relax for 3 minutes, I try to nail down the average HR in those 3 minutes. On the 3 minute mark I slowly get up I record my peak HR jump at 3:15. Than I wait till 4:15 and record the number. I subtract the HR 3 minute average from my 4:15 mark, this gives me a rough idea of what kind of state my central nervous system is is. They say anything outside of 10-15 beats means you haven't full recovered from the last training session. With this you should adjust the days training accordingly. I've put it into a spread sheet to start monitoring it. This only really works if I have previous data to compare to. My goal is to do this every morning to get a more accurate picture of how my body recovers and responds from the stress of training. Whatever protocol you choose for this is up to you, however it needs to be consistent in several ways. The testing procedure itself has to be the exact same, inconsistency can give false results. Also everything you do prior to that test should be about the same. As far as time woken up before the test, activity and actions you have done. This can be impossible to some extent if you do it later in the day. This is why I will do it right after waking up.

Post some of your evolutions in the comments.