Programming intensity for non-strength athletes

[R_Morrell]

Hi there,
See “Actual questions” below for tldr.

Background
What’s prompted my thinking on this are some recent Q&A discussions:
(please correct me if my paraphrasing is off.)

In response to “if muscle cross sectional area is the biggest predictor of strength, why don’t we train like bodybuilders?”, Jordan said well firstly we do train in such a way as to promote a hypertrophy response, and any good strength programming will provide enough volume to do so, and secondly we need to spend time lifting heavier because that is a skill we need to practice; how can you be good at heavy singles if you don’t practice heavy singles?
In response to “can I skip the last few weeks of the strength program to start the hypertrophy template?”, Jordan said no, those intensification weeks are useful for skill development and for resensitising you to volume.
In response to some question I honestly don’t remember about “athletes” using barbells to drive performance, Jordan discussed how someone hoping to develop strength more generally, i.e. a capacity for force production not specific to a strength sport event, would in fact use a very broad program with all sorts of lift variations, and then practice their sport so as to transfer this increase force production capacity to their sport-specific activity. (although the drills/process etc for achieving that transfer would be more on the sport coach and not the S&C coach.)

Hypothetical “athlete” details
My personal athletic background is in rowing, so for the sake of discussion let’s say I’m wondering most about sports where aerobic capacity is (at least arguably) the primary driver of performance, but that still require much higher levels of force production than, say, running. e.g. rowing, track cycling, some rugby positions, lots of crossfit/wod/“tactical” style workouts, sailing, etc.
Let’s also assume they have the summer or winter off, but take their sport pretty seriously and spend the rest of the year in some form of organised practise/competition prep. So you have 3-4 months where you can focus exclusively on resistance training with them without significant interference from other training.
Our trainees are post-novice.

Actual Questions:
If an athlete is getting skill development, practice at displaying increased force production in their chosen skill, and resensitisation to volume through their sport-specific training and competition prep, does this make them a candidate for resistance training that focuses more exclusively on hypertrophy? You advise against running your hypertrophy templates back to back without some pure strength work in between, would this advice change for, say, the college rower taking 3-4 months to resistance train before the fall season kicks off?

If that’s not the case and you would spend some of the 3-4 months having them lift heavier, what would be your rationale?

How closely do your existing GPP templates match this hypothetical general/highly varied program an athlete might use to improve general force production? If “not very,” would you consider writing a program like this?

Thanks very much for your time.
Easily the best training content on the interwebs.

​​​​​​​Cheers,

Rio

[Jordan_Feigenbaum]

@R_Morrell

Hi there,
See “Actual questions” below for tldr.

Background
What’s prompted my thinking on this are some recent Q&A discussions:
(please correct me if my paraphrasing is off.)

In response to “if muscle cross sectional area is the biggest predictor of strength, why don’t we train like bodybuilders?”, Jordan said well firstly we do train in such a way as to promote a hypertrophy response, and any good strength programming will provide enough volume to do so, and secondly we need to spend time lifting heavier because that is a skill we need to practice; how can you be good at heavy singles if you don’t practice heavy singles?
In response to “can I skip the last few weeks of the strength program to start the hypertrophy template?”, Jordan said no, those intensification weeks are useful for skill development and for resensitising you to volume.

In response to some question I honestly don’t remember about “athletes” using barbells to drive performance, Jordan discussed how someone hoping to develop strength more generally, i.e. a capacity for force production not specific to a strength sport event, would in fact use a very broad program with all sorts of lift variations, and then practice their sport so as to transfer this increase force production capacity to their sport-specific activity. (although the drills/process etc for achieving that transfer would be more on the sport coach and not the S&C coach.)

Hypothetical “athlete” details
My personal athletic background is in rowing, so for the sake of discussion let’s say I’m wondering most about sports where aerobic capacity is (at least arguably) the primary driver of performance, but that still require much higher levels of force production than, say, running. e.g. rowing, track cycling, some rugby positions, lots of crossfit/wod/“tactical” style workouts, sailing, etc.
Let’s also assume they have the summer or winter off, but take their sport pretty seriously and spend the rest of the year in some form of organised practise/competition prep. So you have 3-4 months where you can focus exclusively on resistance training with them without significant interference from other training.
Our trainees are post-novice.

Actual Questions:
If an athlete is getting skill development, practice at displaying increased force production in their chosen skill, and resensitisation to volume through their sport-specific training and competition prep, does this make them a candidate for resistance training that focuses more exclusively on hypertrophy? You advise against running your hypertrophy templates back to back without some pure strength work in between, would this advice change for, say, the college rower taking 3-4 months to resistance train before the fall season kicks off?

How does the resensitization to barbell training occur through things outside of barbell training program manipulation? If that could/would happen, then I’d guess they wouldn’t need much in the way of a programming change you know?

I don’t think that resistance training focusing exclusively on hypertrophy without considerations for improved force production have good transference to sport, in general.

@R_Morrell

If that’s not the case and you would spend some of the 3-4 months having them lift heavier, what would be your rationale?

How closely do your existing GPP templates match this hypothetical general/highly varied program an athlete might use to improve general force production? If “not very,” would you consider writing a program like this?

Thanks very much for your time.
Easily the best training content on the interwebs.

​​​​​​​Cheers,

Rio

I would have most athletes have some continuous focus on strength improvement, in general, which requires regular exposure to challenging weights. For ideal transfer to sport, joint angles, contraction type, and movement velocity should be similar.

The intensification periods are only a few weeks quarterly for a strength focused athlete anyway, but for an non- barbell sport athlete they might be shorter or less frequent despite having regular exposure to relatively heavy weights to improve force production.

[R_Morrell]

Thanks for your response! Really appreciate getting your input on that.