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Other/Mixed To manipulate HR or not to?

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
Anna C said:
Of course Pavel says it best.
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I should also recognize that Pavel is quoting/crediting Megan Kelly on this topic! She is so experienced and knowledgeable about AXE protocols with many years of experience and a world record.
 
Anna C said:
Of course Pavel says it best.

I did have a follow on thought about this topic. I was practicing today during a weightlifting session where I was testing my maxes some of what @mgracia wrote in this excellent article: Breathing—A Key Factor to Competition Success | StrongFirst

In some situations, where the heart rate is elevated due to adrenaline or nervous system excitement, it may in fact be useful to try to use breathing or other techniques to slow it down. The breathing techniques work well!

So with kettlebell training, sometimes the heart rate is driven by getting hyped up, much like it is with a heavy barbell Clean & Jerk --for example, a heavy get-up, or a heavy set of swings or snatches. But with AXE and other protocols that are sub-maximal repeat training, the heart rate usually is a pretty good proxy for overall physiological activity. Not quite metabolic activity, as it is for steady state cardio. But perhaps somewhere in between. And once we control for variables, i.e. each repeat we are in more or less the same mental and physical state, then we can use HR for a pretty good indicator of readiness. It takes some practice to learn how to "let it be what it will be" (i.e. not artificially try to make it drop faster) as well as getting regular enough with your practice that you're minimizing the variability of other inputs. Once you get to know it, it becomes pretty useful. Prior to then, it can lead you astray, as Pavel says above.

All that said, once you get to know your HR, you can use it to help you find overall recovery strategies such as fast & loose, walking, calming your mind, relaxing your muscles, that both help you recover faster and drop your HR faster.
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Yes, it's all very true. Especially about "calming your mind". Once I succeed to get my mind on completely different subject from training during the rest period, this works wonders. Doesn't matter if I jog or stand between the sets, the mind relaxation is the best tool I experienced to drop HR.
 
Thank you @Anna C . Those answers cleared up exactly what I was wondering about. In this case the AXE work wasn't applied in the proper setting, coming after the max testing for Simple Strength part 2. Normally when running agt work, that goes first and the way I recover is pure nose breathing, slow , full and controlled, standing upright and moving around, shaking limbs where needed and the HR stays true. In the case of my example normal recovery just wasn't an option so I see it's better to skip a session like that than apply it out of order and expect that my 47 year old body will be able to properly recover in an intense environment. So, no, no manipulating of heart rate during agt training.

Speaking of calming the mind, I find that when people are too close to me when hitting some AGT it's a challenge to stay focused. A couple of weeks back there was a geezer walking figure 8s around me, Wanted to yell at him to piss off but I just kept focused and hit my repeats. Funny that when I stopped the session at the 18' mark he stopped too and went somewhere else. Less bothersome moments happen all the time in a packed gym. Also noted that if you turn your head at all to watch your timer your hr doesn't recover as well. Gotta be looking straight ahead to let the circulatory system function unimpeded.
 
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Aziatik said:
Speaking of calming the mind, I find that when people are too close to me when hitting some AGT it's a challenge to stay focused.
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A distracting environment makes things harder, but (imho) it's good to be able to focus in the midst of it. Outside of certs and clinics, I've only used KBs in a large gym setting a handful of times - the struggle to maintain some awareness of doofuses that may wander into your danger zone is real.
 
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