Could it be that training in North America is not the best way to lift like an athlete? Do we not open up our minds enough to what people are doing around the rest of the world?
Remember back when I made the post (fill in the post link here about lifting slow or fast), it was a question that I did not know the answer to and up to this day I still do not.
What I did was read a book on the methods of training from Eastern Europe and Russia. It opened up my mind to different things I had never thought of. I felt like a person who had never left their little hometown that has only 300 people. MY EYES GOT OPENED UP. I am going to open up your eyes to some of the ideas that came from the book, and you can make a choice based on the information.
The North American Way
On this side of the planet, we tend to lift to get stronger all the time. Most athletes never want to mix it up with any other forms of lifting. I am guilty of this also as though I will change up the way I lift, at the end of the day I just want to be as strong as an ox.
Specialization
In Eastern Europe, they firmly believe in playing other sports, not only in their offseason but their training almost every day. The book gave this example of how this Russian Team played basketball as their warm-up for every practice.
Another example was a volleyball team trained by going for a mileage run and then played soccer for 45 minutes, then continued to run, and then ended it off by playing soccer for another 45 minutes. As a result of this training, these ladies attracted local media as they were training for a volleyball game against the US national team. The media thought they were a fantastic soccer team, but the crazy thing was that they were not even a soccer team, they played volleyball.
The results of this training were the athletes having excellent fitness levels, not only as volleyball players but as athletes in general. Their training is designed to build athletes not just volleyball players or wrestlers. They believe that by playing other sports, it allows the damaged muscles in the game being played to be relaxed while strengthening different muscles that would be weak otherwise. Just for the record, the Volleyball team BANGED IN the US national team in the volleyball matches.
Flexibility
Their theories on stretching are a bit different than us, but there are some similarities in them. They are not big on the whole static stretching, as they believe stretching can be pointless the way we tend to stretch out muscles in the west. The only muscles they static stretch are the muscles they believe get stretched during activity. They do not just stretch their whole body because they do not believe in stretching just because.
They believe that genes have more effect than actually stretching constantly. Some athletes will always be tighter than others. The problem with stretching statically is that if you stretch a muscle too far and the muscle and the tendons cannot take the stress than guess what takes the stress, ligaments. Ligaments were not made to be stretched in any way shape or form. If ligaments get stretched out than the infrastructure of that area and body is now weakened, and that can lead to serious injury.
Weight Training
The Eastern Europeans train quite different and have a different mindset of the one we carry over here in North America. They believe in lifting weights in the same manner that we compete, which in most cases is FAST. Athletes who rely on their fast twitch muscles need to complement those fast muscles with fast-twitch lifting.
Speed training does not mean they do not ever have that “get stronger mentality” as we do, they just do not carry it on for as long as we do. Believing a strong base of strength is needed before changing to lifting with speed. They spend anywhere from a month- 3 months training for strength. In this time period, they try to get their strength levels as high as possible at the given time.
Their next step is to transition to what they call Speed-Strength Lifting
The Breakdown and the advantages of this training
- Lifting 30%-50% of max
- They believe strength gains made earlier will not be lost during this period
- Body will recuperate faster from workouts
- Nervous system gets used to fast speeds instead of training slowly
Some of their Favorites
- Squat Jump
- Deep Squat Jump
- Scissor jump
- Step Ups
They also believe in a going through a solid plyometric routine. As plyometric training is the perfect mix of speed and strength. There were a few exercises that seemed to be favorites so I will explain them.
Ankle Jumps
To do an ankle jump you in the air but do not bend your knees at all. It can feel awkward at first because we are to jumping in the air and using our knees to do it. The ankle hops allow the athlete to acquire explosiveness in the lower legs.
Once the point is reached where 30 can be done. They should begin to go to be done with light dumbbells. Also if the flexibility in an athlete’s ankle is not good, then get down on your knees and sit on your ankles to stretch them out. Over time this will only make an athlete faster.
Depth Jumps
This exercise involves jumping off a box that is anywhere from 20-40 inches off the ground. The higher the height, the more strength is trained as to speed. As you jump off the box, the point is to jump as high into the air as soon as you land.
Naturally, as you land your knees will bend to brace the impact of the ground, the key is that before you even take a step off the box thing in your mind that you need to get off the ground quickly. This drill trains the muscles to work like elastic bands that get loaded up with tension than released.
Variations of Depth Jumps
Activities to perform as soon as landing instead of jumping in the air
- Standing Long Jump
- Hop over three low hurdles
- Hop over three high hurdles
- Laterally hop over three low hurdles
Nutrition
When it comes to the nutrition, they have many of the same basic principles that we have just with some subtle differences. When it comes to nutrition, you have to sit down and decide what you need to based on your lifestyle, and sport to succeed.
They believe in the simple equation of energy intake= energy expenditure. That is coaches minimum requirement for an athlete. Of course, if you are trying to gain weight than they believe more calories should be consumed but only 500 calories more.
They believe it is also essential to watch how much calories you are eating because if you eat more than you need you could be gaining weight when you do not need to be. For example, a sport like gymnastics where lightness is preferred, eating more calories than you expend is probably not the best idea.
They also have a different view on vitamins and minerals than most people in North America. In North America, many athletes are told that they do not need to take vitamins because we should get all the vitamins and minerals we need from our food we eat.
In Eastern Europe, they believe that athletes do not get the number of vitamins needed for our food. They think vitamins are too essential to be lacking any specific vitamin or mineral. Vitamins and minerals provide the capacity for physical work to rise.
Recovery
The Eastern Europeans do not have any methods that are mind-blowing inventions that we have never thought of. They just use what we both have a bit different in a manner. They had a lot of listening recovery, but these are the two that stuck out as things we do not often do in North America as athletes.
Massage
They love messages, but they do not use them as relaxing lie on a table and fall asleep treatments all the time. They believe in self-massage and here is why
- Athlete knows their own body best, they know how deep, and what feels good
- Getting a massage often from someone else is not always easy for athletes to attain
- Using massage as part of warm up. Or 30 minutes after training can increase work capacity, accelerate recovery, and reduce injuries
The Sauna
Their athletes spend a good amount of time in the sauna as the advantages can be amazing from doing this after a hard workout. Here are some tips and reasons to use the sauna.
- The sauna rids the body of waste that has built up in it from training
- Wait at least an hour to get in the sauna after a hard workout
- Shower before entering to create best conditions for releasing sweat
- Stay in for 10-15 minutes
- Stay low in the sauna in the first bit of time with feet horizontal
- Then move up to a higher bench in the final minutes and sit normally
- Drink a lot of water and salt to replace what you have lost
At the end of the day, my goal was just to present the information to you. It is up to you to decide whether you want to believe it or not. A lot of what I read this book makes a whole lot of sense to me though. If anything stood out as being something you want to try and leave a comment saying what it is.
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KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.
