“If you are not assessing, you are only guessing”

TRAINING A SUPERHUMAN STEP BY STEP MANUAL

HOW DIFFERENT ARE YOU?

“If you are not assessing, you are only guessing”

-This is a saying I heard loads of times while studying with the Poliquin Group. And it’s one of my favourites.

THIS CHAPTER IS ALL ABOUT THE VALUE OF KNOWING WHAT WE DEAL WITH BEFORE CREATING A SPECIFIC PLAN.
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY SAME AS MARKET RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTMENT.
TRAINING AND NUTRITION ARE INVESTMENT.
IF YOU DON’T WANT TO RISK GOING BANKRUPT IN YOUR “FITNESS INVESTMENT” – YOU NEED TO ASSESS TO CREATE A RELEVANT PLAN OF ACTION.
IF YOU HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY – THINK OF IT AS INVESTMENT OF YOUR TIME, AND YOU HAVE AS LITTLE TIME AS SOMEONE POOR.

IF YOU DON’T NEED BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION, IF YOU ARE ALREADY ASSESSING EVERYONE YOU TRAIN (honestly?), JUST SKIP MOST OF THIS TEXT AND GO STRAIGHT TO “MANUAL” AT THE END OF THIS SECTION, WHERE YOU HAVE 4 VITAL ASSESSMENTS MENTIONED. DO ALL OF THEM. NONE OF THEM IS NEGLIABLE.

IF YOU FEEL YOU COULD NEED MORE REASON TO ASSESS – GO ON AND READ IT ALL, ITS JUST FEW MINUTES OF READING ANYWAY.

Before I ask you how did you come up with a plan of action in the areas of training and nutrition, let me ask those IMPORTANT questions:

-How would you feel if you went to a doctor and you’d be diagnosed instantly without any assessments?
-How do you feel when you remember your doctor prescribes you PARACETAMOL 10 times of 10? Even in case … well … any case.
-How would you feel if you did 3 sets of 10 reps all the time, “because everyone trains like this in your gym”, and after HIRING A PERSONAL TRAINER, you are given 3 sets of 10 reps “because everybody trains like this in his gym”.

Sure we are not as different as we sometimes think we are, but differences are this little detail that changes everything.

To show how little change makes MASSIVE DIFFERENCE: apparently PLASTIC SURGEONS believe that
-distance between lips and nose equal to eye “height” makes woman “beautiful” (OPTIMUM RATIO)***
-1mm bigger distance in this area makes her “average” (NON-IDEAL RATIO)***
-2mm bigger distance makes her “dead ugly” (HARMFUL RATIO)***

ALSO ALL LITTLE DIFFERENCES IN POSTURE make a hell of effect in how we are perceived, our body language can change DRASTICALLY when we fix postural issues***.
– Our messages are perceived as trustworthy (works like magic)***
– We appear much more attractive***
– Our moving patterns are so improved, that any sport we do – we get better at it
– All sorts of different muscular/soft tissue pains (often manifesting as joint pains/low back pains/”pins and needles” ) originate from bad posture, so why don’t we fix the posture?

***I am not an expert on this, so please treat this as a hint. I am only repeating after Tony Robbins (you know who he is, don’t you?)

LETS TRANSLATE THIS TO STRUCTURAL BALANCE BETWEEN MUSCLES/EXERCISES
We will discuss ratios in muscle strength many times in this book.
-Optimum ratios = maximum performance, supports good posture,
-Non-ideal ratio means plateaus and under-performance, indicates minor postural issues
-Harmful ratios – “building of Injury in progress”, bad posture AND often moving/walking patterns that are literally funny to observe, which may have implications even in social life.

Same in training design, certain “unthinkable” changes – totally change the game. But which changes to do? Well – I can tell you after assessment J . We will discuss assessments in more detail later on in this book.

If I told you don’t really know yourself or at least your body, you would most likely deny at first. But give me a chance here! For example I am using my WEIGHTLIFTING SHOES. I seem to know them. But really how much do I know? I know how my foot feels in them; I have no idea and no resources to build shoes like that. I know of the brand, and even know the model!  I know some of the names of parts (sole, shoe lace, insole).
But when I recommended them to one of my clients Marcin Pyrzyński, who is a Doctor (Orthopaedic, Chiropodist), he examined them and started elaborating on different sorts of wedges build inside to correct the posture when lifting.
It made me feel like he told me things I was only guessing before.
“If you’re not assessing – you are only guessing” – remember? It applies even to shoes, so why would anyone not apply this to living human being?
SERIOUSLY, it happens all the time. Go to any gym – and see that over 90% trains the same way.
In the little world of PERSONAL TRAINING or even SPORTS COACHING unfortunately same happens, maybe not on such a scale but it does.
If you get what I try to say in this article, you will understand how WRONG this negligence is.
One of the main purposes of this book is to show what to assess and WHY. If you don’t know why – you won’t have any motivation to do it.

Now think about it – do you know your car so good, that you could build it? Most people can hardly drive and fill the tank. Using your car doesn’t mean knowing it well.

What about your body? Oh, yes… we know names of some organs. But is that same as knowing all you need to know about health?

Now the same applies when it comes to training and nutrition OF INDIVIDUAL CASES.
FORGET that training knowledge is the same for everyone. I know this is how we were taught. Even scientific studies mislead us into thinking “this works because statistics say that”, and then we extrapolate statistics of “averageness” (=mediocrity) into every person. And trust me – even most average person will have at least one muscle far from average in terms of how it should be trained.

1. Do you know which muscles are tight and how your posture affects your performance?
2. Do you know what your Structural (im)balance is?
3. Do you know what your current personal 1RM continuum is?
4. Do you really know all your food sensitivities?

I’m quite sure that over 99% of people wouldn’t know much of those 4 assessments.
They wold be the first 4 to test and assess.
Once we made those 4 assessments, we know how to build your training program, manual therapy and diet.

Sure, without this knowledge you will have results, but results arising from ignoring who you really are will be quite limited. Often the difference between success and failure on the World Level is as little as symbolically 1%.

Aim for the top.

-Andrzej Wodyn Roszkowski

EVERYDAY SQUAT – WHAT YOU MOST LIKELY OVERDO…

TRAINING A SUPERHUMAN STEP BY STEP MANUAL

EVERYDAY SQUAT – WHAT YOU MOST LIKELY OVERDO…
PATIENT LIFTER METHOD…

Every day squatting is a STANDARD among elite level weightlifters. Even 2x a day!!!
 And surely there is a method in this “madness”. Squat is a king of exercises for a few good reasons, and if you are a natural athlete you need to BOOST your HORMONES in a natural way.
Best way to do it is by squatting as often as you can recover from.  It means that before you will squat heavy 2x a day you will have to spend months/years building up slowly to this level.
TO REPHRASE: NO – YOU CANNOT DO ALL-OUT HEAVY SQUATS EVERY DAY , YOU NEED TO BUILD YOUR WORK CAPACITY TO IT, AND IT TAKES MONTHS/YEARS (probably no more than 3 years).

I can give you a great way to get started, and benefits will be very easy to observe, in just week or two you will notice your technique and coordination on a totally new level.
 
Test your maximum weight for 1 rep squat (1.R.M.) in both front squat and back squat.
According to Structural Balance charts, ideally front squats would be representing 85% of back squat. This indicates perfect balance between quads and hamstrings and makes you better in any sport, plus reduces the risk of injury. In my experience to avoid skewing of results, during the test use
-olympic weightlifting shoes (My recommendation Adidas Adipower, size 0.5 bigger than your everyday size).They will take away any calve tightness from equation.
-pausing for 4 seconds on the bottom in the tests. That will take any differences in “bounce” between exercises out of equation!
-doing no more than 2 reps in warm up sets to preserve energy
– 8-10  warm up sets of front squat / followed by 5-8 warm up sets of back squats. It takes 8-11 sets to fully prepare Central Nervous system for a maximal effort. Back squat needs less sets only if you have already done front squat and your CNS already runs “on high revs” thanks to front squat test.
Still you need some “feeling sets” to adjust CNS to a different movement/motor pattern.

-If your front squat is less than 85% of back squat – you are hamstring dominant.
-if your front squat is more than 85% of back squat – you are quad dominant.

You will probably have to re-test in few weeks’ time…

If you train 5 days a week, and would like to introduce every day squats without compromising recovery,  I suggest waving like this:

Day 1:
suggested muscle groups : chest, triceps
SQUAT  60% , 5sets x 5 reps , speed work, because weight is ridiculously small

DAY 2:
suggested muscle groups : QUADS, CALVES, HAMSTRINGS, LOW BACK 
SQUAT HEAVY :
-quad dominant athlete: DO BACK SQUATS
-Hamstring dominant athlete: DO FRONT SQUATS

EXAMPLE OF A PROGRAMME FOR A QUAD DOMINANT ATHLETE:
A. PAUSED (at the bottom) Back squat 10 sets x 3reps, when you reach the bottom  position, count to 3 and drive yourself up accelerating as fast as possible.
-Constant weight, rest 2-3 minutes, begin the cycle with “too easy weight” , probably @75-80% of maximum (or a weight which allows you to perform 6 reps in one set). If you manage all sets of 2 reps – you are allowed to increase the weight by 2.5kg next week

B. Calve raise with the bar, squat weight plus 20kg, 1set x MAXXX reps –  as many reps as possible without shoes.  If you can do 50 reps – next time add 40kg to your squat weight for this exercise
B1. Calve raise with body weight, immediately after exercise B. 1 set x MAXXX reps

C. Leg Curls 5 sets of 5 reps (Please read the chapter about hamstring balance to determine more sophisticated exercise selection)

D. Good Mornings 4 sets x 8 reps
 If you are flexible enough do Seated Good Mornings.
If you are not doing well even in standing good mornings, usually due to flexibility issues, please do Back Extensions with a light bar on your back

EXAMPLE OF A PROGRAMME FOR A HAMSTRING DOMINANT ATHLETE:
A. PAUSED (at the bottom) front squat   5 sets x 2 reps ,  constant weight, rest 2-3 minutes, begin the cycle with “too easy weight” , probably @80-85% of maximum (or a weight which allows you to perform 4 reps in one set). If you manage all sets of 2 reps – you are allowed to increase the weight by 2.5kg next week

B. Calve raise with the bar, squat weight plus 20kg , 1set x MAXXX reps –  as many reps as possible without shoes.  If you can do 50 reps – next time add 40kg to your squat weight for this exercise
B1. Calve raise with body weight, immediately after exercise B. 1 set x MAXXX reps

C. Snatch Grip Deadlift on the podium 5sets x 5 reps
-If you are not flexible enough, do it without podium
-if you are still not flexible enough, do classical deadlift with a shoulder shrug , and stretch 3 times a day  god damn it ! 😉
D. Petersen Step Up 4×20 reps
-if you cannot do it for any reason, try Poliquin Step Up
-If you still cannot do it – do Poliquin step up from twice lower platform (step box)

Day 3:
suggested muscle groups : Biceps, Forearms
SQUAT  60% , 5sets x 5 reps , speed work, because weight is ridiculously small

Day 4:
suggested muscle groups : Deltoids, Trapezius, Rotator cuff  
SQUAT  65% , 6sets x 4 reps , speed work, because weight is ridiculously small

Day 5:
suggested muscle groups : Lats, Neck,  Abs.
SQUAT  70% , 7sets x 3 reps , speed work, because weight is ridiculously small

Next two days – rest in case of 5/7 cycle, and/or begin all over again (in case of 5/5  or 5/6 days  cycles)

And Remember, Incorporate this into the rest of the knowledge from the book, this is a piece of a “BIG PICTURE puzzle” .