Strength Training for Sports Performance – Autoregulatory Cluster Training
on April 7th, 2010 at 12:27 pmAt Evolutionary Athletics we believe in a simple formula for improving sports performance:
1. Get moving better
2. Get Stronger
3. Get faster
4. SPP
As the regular readers may know we have spent much time working on the get moving better component with the material dedicated to foot function and all the discussion surrounding core and glute function. Now it is time to discuss the get stronger component of the equation. First a brief discussion on autoregulatory training.
Autoregulation (AREG)
AREG is a method where about your daily volume is determined by your bodies performance and not by some magical number whipped out of a coaches butt. 3×10? Who says three sets is the right number. What if I had a late night studying for finals and writing reports? Maybe I need 2 sets. What if I got a massage, took a salt math, did some mobility work, and got 9 great hours of sleep? Maybe I need 5 sets. Lets not forget the sports performance part of the article title. What if my sport coach is implementing double days? What if they got mad at practice and made us run 20 suicides? To solve this volume management issue we have introduced a mathematical model of autoregulation in this article.
The problem with this method is that in a coaching setting it becomes impractical. Most athletes don’t want to do math during their workouts. Even getting them to completely understand the concept and proper application is difficult. Please note we are talking about working with a whole team, say 20-30 athletes at a time, we are not talking about coaching small groups (6 or less) or individuals.
The Solution
The solution for improving your athletes strength is autoregulatory cluster training. This is a Very simple way to autoregulate your athletes volume. It entails simply programming the weight lifted, number of reps per set, and time. For example a workout may say Squats, 80% x 3 reps, 10 minutes. In this example the athlete selects 85% of their 1rm . For programming %’s ou can use % charts or if you are familiar with the athlete you can just assign a weight and not the %. In the latter case the workout may say Squat, 250×3 reps, 10 minutes.
The Workout
So the athlete picks up their sheet and reads Squats, 250×3, 10 minutes. They then perform a couple warm up sets and then starts the clock. The athlete is to complete as many sets of 3 reps as possible in the allotted 10 minute time frame. The athlete is always allowed to rest as long as needed so that they can perform the next set with as much intensity as possible. If, for example the athlete was up late “studying” their rest intervals will naturally be longer and this will result in performing fewer sets. If the athlete is well rested they will not need as much rest and will perform more sets.
Progression
Each time period in the table below has a low, optimal, and high range of sets associated with it. Take the 10 minute time frame for example. It has a low of 2-3 sets, optimal of 4-6 sets, and high of 7+ sets. If the athlete completes the optimal number of sets you would keep the weight the same for the next workout. If the athlete reaches 7 sets or more then you would increase the weight. If the athlete completes 3 or fewer sets you would decrease the weight. The only caveat I would thro in is that if the athlete is below the optimal range by 1 (completes 3 sets in the current example) I would keep the weight the same for the next workout because the athlete should be getting stronger and fall into the optimal rnage the following workout.
Guidelines
| %/Reps per set | 80%x3 | 85%x2 | 90%x1 |
| Low | Optimal | High | |
| 5 min | 1 | 2-3 | 4+ |
| 10 min | 2-3 | 4-6 | 7+ |
| 20 min | 6-8 | 9-12 | 13+ |
| 45 min | 12-17 | 18-26 | 27+ |
*Note 45 min blocks are for concentrated loading phases and you would only pick 1 movement for the lower body or upper body.
The use of clusters simplifies the programming process and allows for the simple incorporation of autoregulatory training. I have seen a lot of success with this method and encourage you to give them a shot as well.
-Alex
Alex,
I’m interested to know where these AREG guidelines come from. As you’ve mentioned, some of it comes from the inno-sport methodology, but where’d did they get it from? where does 20% drop off for strength or 4-6% drop off for power/quickness come from? Is it purely anecodtal experience with training athletes?
And while you’ve offered a mechanism for optimizing volume within a workout (though whether 20% is optimal for strength drop off, I do not know. Actually I think it could vary), what about optimizing training frequency within a microcycle? I know in the first artical on AREG you discuss doing either a lower-upper split on M-Tu-Th-F or doing total body with a distribution of total volume over four days (e.g. 11 squats in split format becomes 3-2-4-2 or something, if total body). But how do you know four days is optimal? What if I trained less frequently, more frequently? Do you distinguish between central and peripheral fatigue? And frequency could of course change as progression in athletic mastery occurs. How do you decide to train more/less frequently? And assuming one didn’t use a generic 4 days/week template, how would you determine when to train again? Using 1RM test each day, explostive test, hand grip dynamometer, Jay’s number test, omega wave, etc?
Please don’t interpret my questions as confrotational. You post some very good, insightful articles on the website. I just wanted to see your reasoning behind the AREG guidelines.
Anyone else, please comment if you have insights into volume management.
Both great posts. I have been trying to come up with a way to implement AREG into my classes and this looks like a quick fix. However, I am confused as to what the “cluster” entails? IF I am to complete 250 x 3, 10 minutes, am I performing an upper body exercise during my rest for the squat? I agree that this has great potential for me since i teach 40 student-athletes at one time, but I also only have 40 minutes MAX to get our work in. How can I maximize this system?
Hi Ben,
Great Questions!
The drop-off’s come from the inno-sport guidelines as well as anecdotal evidence based on experience and monitoring athletes training journals. The higher drop off’s (20%) are based off of repetition drops, not weight based drops. So for example if you squatted 405 for 5 reps a 20% drop in reps is only1 repetition. I only outlined the repetition drop off method because my aim is simplicity and I did not want to confuse everyone with different drop off’s based on traits.
***Note for all others reading 20% drop off does not mean doing a 405 squat for 5 reps and dropping 80lbs and continuing doing 325×5 until you miss a rep- That is waaayyy to big of a drop off. 20% means drop the reps 20% So dropping from 405×5 to 405×4 until you miss a rep.***
You are absolutely correct, the optimal DO is variable. It is important to note that the drop offs are basically starting points. Whether you use the repetition method and 20% or go to the load based method with the traditional 1-3, 3-5, 5-7% from the IS system. You apply the drop off to the athlete, monitor their results. If there is little-no progress you tweak the drop off, usually moving into a lower DO %. Then monitor results, if that doesn’t work out well, then try moving the DO% higher and see what happens. The 4 day scale is based off a weekly cycle. and again is astarting point. You could try to figure out DO%’s based on a 2 day scale, or a 7 day scale if you like. The process is the same. Train to a specific DO and rest, train again, monitor results, and tweak the DO%.
There are other ways to set up a weekly program as well. Want to lift 4x/week, cut the drop off in 1/2 (10% using the rep method). Want to train daily, you could cut the DO in 1/2 again (5%).
Or you could train 4 days in a row, setting your initial on day 1 and on day 4 hit your drop off. Do 1 maintenance workout during the 4 day recovery, and repeat.
For example
mon squat 405×5, 350x3x2
tus squat 385x5x1
wed squat 365x6x2
thurs squat 405 x 4 keep doing 4 reps until you drop to 3 reps
Sat 315x4x1 (maintenance)
Mon work up to new 5rm
In this example you are still training your squat to the desired DO over a 4 day scale, but using a higher frequency.
Or you could take your weekly volume from your two workouts and divide up the volume throughout the week as in the seven keys article.
So as you can see you have a number of options. the M-T-Th-F program is designed to fit into most peoples lifestyles. As interesting as IS is, it does not fit into most peoples lifestyles very well. For example a true 4 day scale is M-T, Th-Fr, Su-Mo, We-Th, Sa-Su. Not many people are willing to sacrifice weekends for training. Strength coaches already put in 60+ hour a week monday-friday, Getting them to work a variable schedule would be insensitive to their needs and their families.
If you wanted to train 1x/week, then double the drop off.
Drop offs do not distinguish between different levels of fatigue. You could of course monoitor HR upon wakening as well as perform a tap test but anyone working with large groups will tell you that will be impossible. For example with the football team you might get 3-10 guys out of the 120 on the team to actually do this. The others could care less. So for pragmatism’s sake treating all fatigue the same and using AREG to monitor is the easiest way to do so. Increasing or decreasing frequency is generally done in blocks. I believe I covered the changes in frequency in another article in the seven keys series. You wouldn’t want to train more frequently until you get 4 sets or more above drop off. This is because 4 sets above drop off works out to only 1 set each day! over the 4 day scale (or what ever scale you use if you wish to create your own scale over your own# of days. If you made a seven day scale then you would want more than 7 sets above drop off) I believe I just gave you a number of ways to manipulate frequency.
The tests you mention are still not very pragmatic when you are dealing with a large # of athletes. I cant imagine how long it would take to run the entire football team through the vertec before a lift. 120 athletes / 2 per minute = 60 minutes just to start the lift. Setting up an initial and then drop off by reps is faster and easier. Clusters are even easier.
Chad,
You only perform 1 exercise during the cluster time. You could also perform it as a complex like squats w/ depth jumps. In your case I would do something like:
Warm up- core/ankle stiffness/mobility circuit continuous movement like iso lunge, non tripod, prone glute, line hopsx 30 seconds each 2-3 sets~ 5-8 min
Cluster 10 min Squat and altitude drops
Cluster 10 min Glute ham or RDL
Cluster 5 min upper body movement (alternate pushing movements 1 day, pulling the next workout)
Total time 30-33 minutes with 7-10 minutes for changing between exercises and warm up sets.
Since I do not know your frequency of training I chose a whole body workout.
Ben, just curious, what’s Jays number test?
Alex,
Thanks for the response. I realize you strength coaches have practically issues to consider in program design. Selfishly, since I don’t work with athletes, I don’t really care about those issues.
Another quick question, what are your thoughts regarding high velocity training as a means of promoting recovery? Jay of course talks about this…using high intensity to promote greater recovery. If such a mechanism existed, it would seem that the harder you trained, the faster you’d recover. Now I don’t dispute some of his methods ability to improve work capacity, but it’s not been my experience in training that I feel recovered immediately after training. Rather, I feel pretty smashed at times.
anfeyd,
Jay’s number test is a 10 x 10 grid of numbers from 1 through 100. You have to go through sequentially locating/crossing out each number, starting at 1 and ending at 100. The greater the fatigue, so it goes, the longer it will take you to complete the test. If recovered/properly stimulated, you’ll be faster. Also touches on sympathetic/parasympathetic balance.