The 2% Rule of Progress

How do you know if you are progressing at a decent rate or when it is time to change your program?

You can use the 2% Rule of Progress.

As Charles Poliquin taught us, the 2% rule of progress states that you should be able to add 2% more weight to the bar or add 1 rep per set for a given exercise.

For example, if you squatted 100kg for 5 reps in your first workout, then you should be able to either do 102kg for 5 reps or 100kg for 6 reps in your second workout. Once you can no longer progress at this rate then it is time to change program as you have adapted to it.

Now this is assuming that recovery is optimized. If nutrition, sleep, hydration, etc aren’t in order, you can’t use the 2% rule of progress as effectively.

As a trainee becomes more experienced it drops from 2% to 1% of progress. This generally takes 5-6 years of training properly.

Stick With Basic Exercises and Methods

 

When you are starting out training you shouldn’t do anything special for at least the first 18 months, maybe even 24 months. Use basic dumbbell and barbell movements, standard set, rep, and rest schemes, and focus on perfecting your technique. You will make gains like this and it gives you somewhere to go later on down the track.

Too often I see trainers getting their clients to use chains and bands, do a heap of plyo work, use all types of specialty bars, basically anything they think looks cool for their social media. This is the wrong approach in my opinion.

We have, and do use all these tools as well but not with anyone who can barely even perform the movement correctly with the bar alone. You have to deserve the method / technique / tool. You use these tools as ways to try and further challenge the movement. If you can’t perform it correctly then no bands for you, it will only confuse your body more.

The same goes for plyometrics. They are overused first of all, and secondly, a lot of the people need to develop their strength levels before performing them. You see them collapse and spend way too much time on the ground most of the time.

“The method that gets you to bench 90kg won’t be the method that get’s you to bench 180kg” – Charles Poliquin.

We often like to look at what the best in the world are doing and try to follow their lead. This makes sense, I do it all the time. But you have to put things in perspective and know where you are currently at. Following a professional athlete’s program isn’t going to serve you well if you are a beginner. It took them many years to build up to the type of training they are doing now, they didn’t begin there. So, take the principles but don’t follow everything to the letter. Again, you have to earn the right to do more advanced things.

Even if you do these advanced types of methods early on and get good results, where do you go to once you hit a plateau? Save them for when you need them and it will help you continually progress.

 

Youths Need Better Coaches

Youth athletes need better coaches in my opinion. What you often see is that these are the roles filled with volunteers but I think it is backwards and money should be invested in coaches for these younger age groups. It is much easier to start out the right way then it is to correct problems and injuries later on down the track.

The problem is that many clubs aren’t willing to invest money into professionals for these levels. They tend to hope that the kids will develop naturally, physically, and hope that they get by skill wise with their natural ability until later ages when they do get some more specialised coaching.

So, what I see happen a lot is that the gym is overseen by someone who has the most basic of requirements and is looking to post a few things on social media to try and use the role to build their business. The sad thing is they have no idea about program design or even correct technique for that matter, and the kids tend to either get injured or miss out on key development years, from both a technical stand point, and a physical one.

It would not take a lot of money to fix this problem. In doing so, you could also offer much more to the athletes. Programs would be individualised, they could have nutrition plans, they could be trained in smaller groups, which would mean they are coached through each rep, everything being monitored and updated regularly. By doing this, results would improve, injuries would be reduced, there would be accountability, the club would be looked at more professionally, and they would build a much better culture.

It is an investment, not a cost.

We have young kids on contracts but I think the money spent should be re-invested into their development. For example, you have a kid on a $5,000 contract. That amount of money is a lot for a 14-year-old who hasn’t proven himself yet, but it isn’t going to change his life. Why not use that money to pay a coach to train him privately, look after his nutrition, conditioning, rehab/prehab etc.? That way you can see exactly how they are progressing, they are accountable, and they have some buy in to the relationship. At the moment, most kids get a contract, do the minimum with the club, and then are back to park footy two years later. I feel more can be done to guide them through the process.

We do this privately and it has worked very well over the years with great success. If clubs invested more into the development of the athletes, we would see a much better game. Some clubs do it pretty well and are well ahead of the ones who don’t.

Results Matter

 

@darcy.eade has been with us for 2 years now and is by far one of the strongest female athletes in the gym.

She has consistently increased in all her of her lifts while maintain a lean and athletic physique. One of her best lifts being a 115kg deadlift on a podium for 3 reps when she was 13 years old at 57kg body weight.

She is faster on the field and more dominant in tackles.

She achieved her goals through hard work and sacrifice. Most kids won’t be getting up to go to the gym before school, but she does, just like the majority of our junior athletes.

Looking forward to what we can continue to achieve in the future.

#thp#totalhealthperformance#totalhealthperformancecentre#teamthp

Pay Attention to Your Rest Periods

Rest periods between sets would be one of the most neglected aspects of training and program design. The whole training affect can be changed depending on how long you rest, so I think it is an important part of training that you should pay more attention to. The length of the rest period affects the recovery between sets and the hormonal responses to a training session.

The basic principle is, lower the reps and the higher the load, the longer the rest. Higher reps and lighter load, you need less rest.

In general, when training for maximal strength (1-5 reps at 85% or more) longer rest periods are warranted to allow time for the central nervous system to recover. Typically, larger muscle mass is being used in strength phases and the exercises tend to require more coordination such as when performing cleans or snatches. Two to four minutes is the general recommendation but there are many factors that can influence this as well. The strength of the athlete being one. For example, I have heard of world class powerlifters and strongman competitors resting a minimum of 8 minutes between sets, and some recommend even more. For most of us 2-4 minutes will be fine. This should allow enough time to prevent fatigue and allow you to perform repeated efforts at a high intensity. You should get stronger each set (up to a point) when training for maximal strength. If you aren’t experiencing this in your sessions, maybe your rest period is too short. On the other hand, if you are waiting too long, you may not see the benefits either as the post-tetanic facilitation effect might be lost, basically your nervous system may calm down too much before performing the next set.

For hypertrophy and body composition, the rest periods are shorter. You are looking to create more metabolic demands with this type of training, compared to strength training where a large emphasis is on the nervous system. Shorter rest periods, when using multi-joint movements, will also create more lactic acid, which has been said to increase growth hormone. This will lead to more fat loss over time. Kraemer and his colleagues determined that the highest growth hormone, beta-endorphin, and cortisol concentrations were observed when 10RM multiple sets (3 sets) of exercises were performed separated by a short (1-minute) rest. Testosterone was responsive to both higher intensities (5RM with 3 min rest) and also lower intensities with a shorter rest (10RM with 1 min rest).

There are many factors at play but the takeaway is to pay attention to your rest periods and match them to your goal.

When training for pure speed or power, then full recovery should be allowed between sets. This type of training is about quality, not quantity. Often, these sessions turn into speed endurance type workouts simply because there isn't enough rest given between sets.

Another problem area I see is with hypertrophy and body comp training. If you rest too long, results will be minimized. As the workout starts to get hard, people want to extend their rest periods more and more. It is important to stick to them to get the training response you are after. Resting too long in this case will change the adaptations that will take place.

Strength training isn’t impacted as much because you have more leeway and most people rest too long as it is.