Kinetic Energy Accumulation Training

Some hotness by Christian Thibaudeau.

We will now discuss a special form of strength training that I call“kinetic energy accumulation training” (or KEAT). It involves trainingmethods in which there is an important kinetic energy build-up duringthe yielding phase of a movement and the consequent use of this energyto potentiate the overcoming portion of the exercise. This type oftraining has been known under various names: shock training (in Russianliterature), plyometrics (by Western coaches) and powermetrics (a morerecent term by Dr. Mel Siff).I’d rather use the denomination kinetic energy accumulation training asit explains the nature and the reason for effectiveness of this type ofexercise. Namely, by increasing the amount of kinetic energy producedduring the yielding phase, and transferred into the execution of theovercoming phase, you increase power and force production and youimprove the neural, reflex and muscular factors involved in forceproduction.Most coaches limit this type of exercise to the classic plyometricdrills (depth jumps of various kinds) and regular jump training. Howevermany more methods are included in this type of training. Before Ipresent them and explain the reason for the efficacy you must understandthat KEAT is basically a form of accentuated eccentric training.However, instead of accentuating the eccentric stress by maximizingeccentric tension (lowering very heavy loads or lowering moderate loadsslowly) we are going to use a very fast yielding action. The objectiveis not to increase eccentric stress, but rather to build-up as muchkinetic and elastic energy as we can. To do so, the yielding action mustbe very fast and the coupling time (time between the yielding andovercoming phase of a movement) must be very short.The types of exercise that we will include in this category of methodsare:1. Depth jumps2. Altitude landing3. Overspeed eccentrics
Depth jumpsDepth jumping, also known as shock training, has been developed by YuriVerkhoshansky in 1977. The objective of this method is to increaseconcentric power and force output by stimulating the muscles andreflexes via a “shock stretching” action preceding the overcomingportion of the movement. This is accomplished by dropping from a certainheight (0.4m to 0.7m. Heights of up to 1.1m have been used but only byvery advanced athletes) to elicit a powerful stretch activation andjumping up as high as possible immediately upon landing.It has been well established in both Eastern and Western studies thatdepth jumping, or shock training, can significantly increase powerproduction and the vertical jump. This is mostly due to these factors:
1. An increase in reactive strength. Reactive strength refers to thecapacity to rapidly switch from an eccentric/yielding action to aconcentric/overcoming action. Lack of reactive strength will lead to alonger coupling time and consequently a lower force and power productionduring the overcoming portion of the movement (Kurz 2001).
2. Neural adaptations. Viitasalo et al. (1998) have found a differentneural response with in athletes doing a lot of jumping and regularindividuals when doing a depth jump: jumpers were able to activate moremotor units during the movement (greater EMG) and plan the motor commandfaster (higher and more rapid pre-action EMG). Kyröläinen et al. (1991)have also found that 16 weeks of depth jump training led to a betterjumping efficiency. Schmidtbleicher (1987 and 1982) found that trainedsubjects were better able to use the kinetic energy produced during theeccentric portion of a depth jump while in untrained subjects thiseccentric period was actually inhibiting instead of potentiating!Finally, Walshe et al. (1998) concluded that the reason for thesuperiority of depth jumping training over regular jumping was due to“the attainment of a higher active muscle state”, meaning that the fasteccentric portion of the movement increased muscle activation.
3. Structural adaptations. Depth jumps have been reported to cause somemuscle soreness and muscle damage (Horita et al. 1999). This isunderstandable since the eccentric force production is very high, albeitrapid. So this could indicate that depth jumps are a powerful stimulusto stimulate structural adaptations. Obviously, depth jumps do not leadto significant hypertrophy. So the nature of the structural adaptationsfollowing depth jumping is not quantitative in nature but ratherqualitative: an improvement of the strength and contractile capacity ofeach muscle fibers.Soviet literature gives the following guidelines when practicing depthjumps:
1. The joint position upon landing should be as close as possible tothat of an important sport action (Laputin and Oleshko 1982).
2. The amortization phase should be short enough to avoid loosing theelastic energy produced but long enough to allow for the shockstretching to occur (Laputin and Oleshko 1982). Research indicates thatthe elastic energy from landing is stored for up to 2 seconds. So intheory you have a window of 2 seconds between the landing and take-offphase, However to maximize the training effect, you should not spendmore than 1 second on the floor.
3. The height of the drop should be regulated by the preparedness of theathlete: the heels should not touch the ground during the landing phase,if they do the height of the drop is too high (Laputin and Oleshko1982). A height varying from 0.5 to 0.7 appears to be ideal for moststrength and power athletes (Roman 1986).
4. Depth jumps have a very powerful training effect so the volume ofwork should be low: no more than 4 sets of 10 repetitions (or 40 totaljumps spread over more sets), 2-3 times per week for advanced athletesand 3 sets of 5-8 repetitions (or 15-24 total jumps spread over moresets), 1-2 times per week for lower classes of athletes (Laputin andOleshko 1982). The problem with coaches and athletes is that they dofeel that depth jumping is hard: it’s not very tiring compared to othermeans of training. Because of that they do way too much volume of depthjumps.
5. Still because of the very powerful training effect of depth jumping,it is idiotic to perform this type of training systematically throughoutthe year. The shock method should be used in blocks of 3-4 weeks with atleast 4 weeks between blocks (Roman 1986). In fact some coachesrecommend no more than 2-3 such blocks per year (Medvedyev 1996) andthat these blocks should only be used when a rapid rise in power andreactive strength is needed to further performance gains. Remember thatevery training method, regardless of how effective it is, will looseit’s effectiveness over time. Shock training is no different. So if youuse it year-round there comes a point where you will get no addedbenefits from it. However by using short “shock” blocks you can give aquick boost to your performance and since you only use depth jumps for ashort period, everytime that you use such a shock training block youwill get the same performance boost.
Altitude landingsA recent paper by David Kerin (2002) concluded that it is the eccentricportion of a depth jump that actually has the greatest training effectas far as increasing vertical jump and lower body power. It makes sensewhen you think about it. It is during the landing portion that theeccentric stress is at its highest as all the kinetic energy accumulatedduring the fall is transformed into muscle loading. So this can greatlyincrease your capacity to break your fall and absorb this kineticenergy. If you are weak in the eccentric portion of the depth jump whatwill happen? The coupling time (time it takes you to switch fromyielding to overcoming) will be very high and the resulting jumpingcapacity will be low. The shorter the coupling time is, the higher willbe the subsequent jump. And to reduce coupling time you must increaseeccentric strength and the capacity to absorb the kinetic energy.Depth jumps obviously do this, but doing only the eccentric portion(landing) and practicing “sticking the landing” (i.e. immediatelybreaking the downward movement as soon as you hit the ground) canactually be more useful in that regard. And this way you can use higherdrop heights (up to 0.75-1.25m). Once again, the key point is to land ina position specific to your sport. For example football linemen andlinebackers should stick the landing with the knee bent at approximately90-110 degrees.Just like depth jumps, altitude landings have a very powerful trainingeffect and should only be used for short periods of time and at a verylow volume of work. While they can sometimes be used in the sametraining block as depth jumps, I don’t recommend it. Rather I like thefollowing progression:Block 1 (4 weeks)Altitude landingsBlock 2 (4 weeks)Low intensity jump trainingBlock 3 (4 weeks)Depth jumpsBlock 4 (4 weeks)Low intensity jump trainingThis progression will ensure for constant and rapid progress in verticaljumping capacity. You can repeat that 16 weeks cycle three times duringthe year for fantastic improvements.
Overspeed eccentricsThis type of exercise could almost be called shock training with weightsand it’s the brainchild of powerlifting coach Louie Simmons and isdescribed in his training videos “Reactive method” and “Specialstrengths”.Simmons explains that to take advantage of eccentric training formaximum strength gains in lifting exercises you should use it (theeccentric/yielding portion) to accumulate kinetic energy that you willtransform in elastic energy, reflex energy and ultimately a greaterforce production in the overcoming portion of the lift.To do so two things must be present:1. A fast yielding phase: by lowering the bar or your body faster youproduce more kinetic energy. There is actually some research to back upthis technique, not that the results from the Westside powerlifting crewdoesn’t already speak volume for the its efficacy! For example a studyby Farthing and Chilibeck (2003) found that “eccentric fast training isthe most effective for muscle hypertrophy and strength gain”. This is inaccordance with the findings of Paddon-Jones et al. (2001) thatfollowing a fast eccentric training program led to a decrease in type Ifibers (from 53.8% to 39.1%) while type IIb fiber percentage increased(from 5.8% to 12.9%). In contrast, the slow eccentric group did notexperience significant changes in muscle fibre type or muscle torque.2. A rapid switch between the yielding and overcoming phases. The bestexample of this break in the yielding/overcoming chain is the use of thebox squat. When you land on the box you immediately halt the yieldingportion of the movement, converting the kinetic energy into elasticenergy and reflex action.One doesn’t have to use the box squat. You can simply lower the bar asfast as you can and break it in a heart beat before lifting itexplosively.Using Jump Stretch elastic bands attached to the bar also have a verypositive effect because the bands will actually try to “blast” the bardown, bringing it down faster than if only gravity was acting on it.This is one benefit that you don’t get from using chains, chains areonly acting as additional weight, while the elastic bands increasekinetic energy.