Tim Rowland Athletic Performance

Myth 1 - There is one narrow rep range for optimal muscle growth

Myth 2 - TUT is key for muscle growth

Training to near failure anywhere from 5-15 reps will produce similar results for muscle growth.

Yes, that means 3 x 5 is likely to produce similar muscle gains as 3 x 10 reps.

And 3 x 10 is likely to produce similar muscle gains as 3 x 15 reps.

You don’t need to stick to 8-12 reps to optimise muscle growth.

In fact it might be smart to cycle through different rep ranges to optimise growth.

E.g. a training block of 3 x 5, then 3 x 10, then 3 x 15

Image Credit - Brad Schoenfeld

😂😂

“Coming up as a trainer, the way I looked at the big named coaches I was learning from is similar to how I look at most politicians. In that, I thought they had some good things to say on some things, while I thought they were totally full of it or out of touch on other things. And, I still feel the same way about the various training belief circles today.

For example:

I liked that strength coaches were all about practical application, but I didn’t like how many were very dogmatic.

I liked how research types emphasize the importance of having good evidence before you make claims. However, I didn’t like the arrogance of how they often communicate, and how they were short on practicality. Not to mention, their ignorance that good marketting needed to get attention in the real world is opposite of academic language.

I liked how corrective exercise practitioners pay attention to detail and wish to provide a higher level or service. What I didn’t like is the hero-healer complex many have, nor am I into telling clients they’re broken to justify your services. Not to mention, I don’t but into keeping people from doing real exercise until they first follow arbriary corrective exercise modalities for a given period of time.

I like how functional training types talk about training transfer, the importance of rotation, and not just lifting to get good at lifting. But I didn’t like the common idea that isolation exercises or machines are not beneficial to health and performance. Or, the idea of avoiding proven lifts because they’re single planar movements.

I liked how Powerlifter types talk about the importance of getting stronger and sticking to the basics. But I didn’t like the attachment to the barbell and certain lifts by making everyone train like a weightlifter via conflating the fundamentals of weightlifting for the fundamentals of strength training.

I liked that old school coaches talk about the importance of having personal interaction and taking shop with other experienced coaches instead of just sitting on your ass and reading studies and textbooks and having social media debates. But I didn’t like the idea that somehow younger trainers are lesser (a YouTube trainer or insta-trainer) because they’re not using manuals and VHS tapes to communicate like old
School coaches produced. They’re simply using the social media platforms that are currently available to them.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

In short, I never identified in any of these “groups” because, although they had some views and values that I shared, I didn’t like that those in those groups also seemed to have certain glaring biases and blind spots they also predictably accepted to identify as being in that group.

I’m all about individualism and giving my clients the best service. I use the training education and equipment, it doesn’t use me. I’m like the Stone Cold Steve Austin of fitness because I’ve got no allegiance to any group. The only category I’ve ever cared about identifying as is being one of the best.”

-Nick Tumminello - Fitness Page

Love this!

As strength + conditioning coaches, there are two main ways we can contribute to the team’s success:

1. By reducing the risk of injury so the team has better player availability, i.e. help keep the best players on the field

2. By improving the players’ athletic performance, e.g. conditioning, speed, power, etc

I have always been of the belief that the way we can have the biggest impact is by reducing injury rates, allowing the coach to pick the best team possible each game, and allowing for combinations to develop by having the same/similar team on the park each week.

A recent study on the EPL (linked below) looked into just how big an impact injury has on team success ⚽️

It found that injury “accounts for a significant portion of the variance in league placement (21%)”

21% is massive! Arguably a lot bigger impact we can have by making the players fitter and faster 🏃‍♂️

Because at the end of the day, technical and tactical performance has a much larger impact than athletic performance on field-sport team success. Notice how the best players on the field almost always aren’t the most physically gifted.

Now this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t train for athletic performance! Here’s why:

1. Injury prevention training = athletic performance training. The same training that enhances performance also reduces injury risk!

Take ACL injury for example 🦵

Single leg/unilateral training, strengthening quads/hamstrings/glutes, change of direction training, and plyometrics are all key for injury prevention.

And you guessed it - for athletic performance too!

So a proper S+C program will achieve both goals at once ✅

2. Enhancing athletic performance can still have a significant impact on team performance, especially in less trained populations or people who don’t have much experience with a proper S+C program.

Even for someone with a few years of good S+C under their belt, large improvements in conditioning and strength levels in particular can still be made.

It’s harder to improve qualities like speed and power in people with a higher training age, but it can still be done, albeit to a smaller degree.

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Keen to hear your thoughts on this and whether you agree!

Drop them below 👇

Here’s the paper by the way (full text):

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000675?fbclid=IwAR0j8cxyiRV7Gp2m_m4hhxFIHSP_x-_ygNKczHl1vP7OjweZSCRI9dNpyuU

I sometimes write stuff that makes sense 😅

I read a post recently that said this:

“Stop and think for a minute – It takes approximately .8 of a second to express maximal strength. Most athletic movements take place in the range of .2 to .5 of a second. So why do we spend such an inordinate amount of time emphasizing maximal strength? Is it because it is measurable? Is it because it is convenient? Is it a misunderstanding of the principle of overload? Can you see the basic disconnect here? Isn’t it more important to develop strength you can use? Think about strength training as coordination training with appropriate resistance to allow you to produce or reduce force in .2 to .4 of a second. Train appropriate for the strength and power demands of the sport...”

MY RESPONSE:

“Agreed, but on the flip side improving maximal strength helps with injury prevention. And a good base of strength lays the foundation for power - I.e. If you don’t have the capacity to produce a lot of force in the first place, you won’t have much force to produce rapidly anyway!

But I agree that chasing more strength gains beyond a certain point becomes a waste of time and isn’t good ‘bang for buck’ for the athlete.

In practice - do both (and more of one vs the other depending on the LTAD of the athlete, and time of season 😀).”

________________________________________

The question is - how much strength is enough? 🤔

This is where it gets interesting.

I would argue that it primarily depends on the physical requirements of the sport. For example:
-Front rower in rugby - lot of force required
-Winger in rugby - less force required

*Important message - Don’t focus on chasing strength gains beyond the point that it starts to transfer minimally to better performance on the field. 🏃‍♂️

Why is that?

Think of each athletes’ training capacity like an empty cup of water. Every time you train you add some water to the cup. Train too hard/much and the cup overspills (I.e. overtraining - more training than the athlete is able to recover from 😵)

To get stronger when someone is already quite strong takes a lot of energy/training effort (adds a lot of water to the cup), and doesn’t help improve performance very much.

So why waste precious resources on it? Do it enough to maintain it, and focus on other areas that are going to give more ‘bang for their buck’ (I.e. enhance performance a lot for little water added to the cup). ✅

For actions like jumping and sprinting, it’s quite a common consensus that improving strength beyond a 1.6-1.8 x bodyweight squat isn’t going to help you run much faster or jump much higher.

Once the athlete is at that level, maintain that quality but focus on producing force under time constraints (I.e. explosively) 💪

Hope my ramblings make sense!

New research! 🚨

Meta-analysis shows that both heat and cold therapy reduced DOMS to a similar extent.

Given evidence that cold may impair muscular adaptations and that heat potentially enhances them (or at least is neutral), heat might be the better option!

Credit - Brad Schoenfeld

Heat and cold therapy reduce pain in patients with delayed onset muscle soreness: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 32 randomized controlled trials - PubMed The current evidence indicated that the application of cold and heat therapy within 1 h after exercise could effectively reduce the pain degree of DOMS patients for 24 h cold water immersion and hot pack therapy, which had the best effect, could promote the recovery of DOMS patients. But more high-q...

Love this from Menno Henselmans

Adaptations from different rep ranges exist on a CONTINUUM.

Yes you can build strength with 3 x 10, probably not as much as with 3 x 4.

Yes you can build muscle with 3 x 4, probably not as much as with 3 x 10.

There is no such thing as “this is THE rep range for strength”, “this is THE rep range for muscle growth”.

Adaptations overlap 💪

Return to play does NOT always equal return to performance 🏃‍♂️

Interesting new paper 👇

Don’t ignore niggles! They are a warning sign 🛑

What supplements actually work for performance? 💊

Great infographic 👇

Myth busting Sundays!

Great blog 👌

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