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Bodyweight Keeping leg raised comfortably for at least 2 minutes

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IlChengis

Level 1 Valued Member
Dear StrongFirst Community,
I would value your input with a specific roadblock I encountered during my training.

Required information:
- 35, male, 6'0", 180lbs
- No current injuries.
- I have not had a FMS. My joints feel good.
- Martial arts in the evenings and Crossfit 4-5 times x week (Crossfit is to support my body, Martial art is primary focus).

My question:

I have been working towards a specific type of conditioning for the martial art I practice. I need to be able to keep one of my legs raised comfortably for at least two minutes. Here's how the position looks:

SSCAvWT.jpg


During those two minutes, I need to complete a form slowly... then switch legs, and execute the form again with the other leg raised to groin level.

Best I've been able to do is around 1.5 minutes, after which the leg shakes and drops down.

Most of my approach to this training has been working the muscle to exhaustion multiple times per day, but I am beginning to understand that the methods taught by your community use a radically different approach.

I would like to ask you if you could give me a strengthening routine to achieve this goal. I've been trying various methods over the past years, but I've hit a plateau.

Thank you in advance for your attention, I sincerely appreciate it.

Cheers.
 

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Strength training - try holds in the 60-70 second range instead. Build up your volume this way. Also try short holds at a higher position.

-S-
 
Thank you, Steve.

Any recommendations on how many sets per day? Any details on the short holds at higher position routine?
 
You must build up your volume gradually. Consider a marathon runner - he/she doesn't run the full distance several times per day but rather strives to build up their weekly volume, and supplement that with speed work, so that when race day comes, they are ready.

You should gradually increase the volume of what you do; I cannot offer you any guideline except to say I would vary it from day to day, and take a day off as needed to avoid overtraining.

For short holds at a higher position, I would go by feel. If you think that you want to be expending about a 75% effort most of the time and follow that guideline, you will be OK.

There are "tricks" you can apply here but I would like to see you simply shorten the time and aim for a gradual increase in volume. You might start by practicing your holds of ~60-70 several times per day, widely spaced out as individual efforts, and then see if you can begin to create a "set" wherein you do something like hold :30, rest, hold :45, rest, hold :60 and you're done. That is but one of many approaches. Remember that volume is a key component of strength training, and one of the keys to volume is to dial back the effort to a point where it becomes more sustainable while still staying vigorous enough to have the desired training effect. Again, 70-80% is a good guideline.

If you wish to test yourself with an all-out effort, once every two weeks or so, try a 2:00 hold after first taking a day or two of rest, and see how you do.

-S-
 
Great info, thank you Steve.

To calculate 70-80% effort... should I time my current max hold and derive it from there?
Example, assuming my current max to be 75 seconds (1:15): 75% of [max] would be approx 56 seconds.

So, a good starting point could be:
- one set of 56 seconds each leg, several times through the day
- every couple of weeks, measure my (new?) max and obtain a new 75% value in seconds (hold)
- begin new regimen with ~75% of new_max
- repeat

Correct?
 
Yes, that sounds right. You want to choose a length of time you're confident you can achieve, and you want to do that in concert with making sure you're sufficiently rested from any previous effort before you try again.

75% is approximate. 80% may be better for you, 70% may be better, and the real best is a mix of efforts, some even down to 50% and up to 90%+ at times but not often.

I would also experiment with how you time your holds. If your test will be done with you watching a clock, you may choose to train that way, but my own personal preference would be to set a timer and then focus on the task at hand rather than watching the clock - let the bell ringing be your indication to lower your leg. And, btw, lower it under control - needn't be slowly, but it will help you realize that you stopped with something still left in your tank.

Look around on our forum for some of the advice Master Instructor @Karen Smith has given about doing bar hangs for time - see if some of that thinking and those methods can apply to you as well.

-S-
 
When I have done similar things in the past I have approached it in two ways

1) decrease intensity with higher volume (typically in bodyweight exercises bending a limb to reduce mechanical load or leaning in/back etc)

2) break up the volume and add reduced rest as your overload method.

I.e

4 x 30 seconds with initially 30 seconds rest - decrease rest by ten seconds each week until down to ten.
Bump the work volume per set up and restart with higher rest and repeat the decreasing rest periods.

As such it would look something like
4 x 30 seconds with 30 seconds rest
4 x 30 seconds with 20 seconds rest
4 x 30 seconds with 10 seconds rest
4 x 45 seconds with 30 seconds rest
4 x 45 seconds with 20 seconds rest
4 x 45 seconds with 10 seconds rest
3 x 60 seconds with 30 seconds rest
3 x 60 seconds with 20 seconds rest
3 x 60 seconds with 10 seconds rest
3 x 75 seconds with 30 seconds rest
3 x 75 seconds with 20 seconds rest
3 x 75 seconds with 10 seconds rest
2 x 90 seconds with 30 seconds rest
2 x 90 seconds with 20 seconds rest
2 x 90 seconds with 10 seconds rest
2 x 105 seconds with 30 seconds rest
2 x 105 seconds with 20 seconds rest
2 x 105 seconds with 10 seconds rest
Easy peasy 120 seconds
 
Hi Glen, thank you for taking the time to chime in.

I have a couple of questions:
1) "decrease intensity with higher volume" - I understand that part, however could you provide some examples of what you mean by bending a limb/leaning to reduce mechanical load?
Just trying to understand fully what you mean and see if I can apply it to the specific strengthening I am trying to achieve.

Regarding 2)... I actually measured my max hold this morning. Conditions were less than ideal for two reasons:
- I had not been training that hold regularly after hitting that plateau a couple of months back
- I happened to exhaust it during training yesterday evening

That said, my max hold on both legs was just around 75 seconds (1:15), which happens to match the made up number I used to calculate a hypothetical rep scheme in my post above (#5).

So my 2nd question pertains to your sample rep scheme, since now I collected the data I needed to get started.

What percent of my max hold (75) should my first week's hold time be? In your example, it's 30 seconds, which is exactly 40% of my max (could be even less than 40%, had this morning's conditions been better).

Do you think it's still a good number to work with? Meaning... should I try your rep scheme verbatim, or should I make some changes now that we know my starting max hold?

Thank you for helping me out. I really hope this works.
 
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1) if you have your leg raised straight tgis would be a harder intensity than if you started to bend the knee - decreasing the moment arm which means less force required. So in essence decreasing the weight through improved leverage.

2) start with multiple blocks of an easy time period. Ifyou need to start of with six sets of twenty seconds so be it. Always better to start off easy and slowly build up then rush to a harder amount. More manageable time periods builtup over time might take longer but will ne less likely to hit plateaus i feel
 
Glen:

1) makes perfect sense. For some reason I misinterpreted you the first time you mentioned this. In my case, the position requires the leg to be bent, so training the holds in that position seems optimal.
2) sounds good. Looking forward to trying this new rep scheme.

Thanks for the follow-up!
 
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