014 Transfer of training

Um, I think we can actually make it very simple though. So my proposal is that when we talk about transfer, transfer requires two separate things. It requires a transferable adaption. So when I talk about transferable adaptions, I'm talking about things that we can engineer through a strength training program or another type of training program. And the adaptation that results from that training program

uh is not limited to the exercise itself. So in other words, it's not a coordination improvement or something of that nature. Uh, it's actually a genuine um transferable adaption, something like hypertrophy, which obviously increases muscle force in any activity or it's motion accrument increase or something like that. So we need we need a transferable adaptation. And then secondly, we need that transferral adaptation to be in a relevant muscle group.

So ultimately if we're, you know, interested in a sporting activity that involves um, you know, the legs, there's no point in trying to develop strength in the arms, um, unless there's a very clear reason to do so. So The uh and you can get even more granular with that. You can kind of go, well, you know, these specific muscles in the leg or whatever are going to have the maximum impact for reasons that you maybe have to figure out. But

Ultimately, those are the two elements of transfer. We have to have a transferable adaptation under the surface, and we also have to have it in the correct geographical location. So As I said, I gave some examples of transferral adaptions just there, but fundamentally, if we kind of look through uh the possible adaptations on strength.

Um coordination is not going to be a transferable adaptation. Reductions in antagonist coactivation are of dubious transferable ability. Uh it might be a little bit of transfer there, but probably not something I would want to bank on too much. Obviously, in contrast, motivate recruitment increases are definitely uh very, very transferable and something that I think is is very cool to aim for in in training programmes.

Um as regards peripheral stuff, obviously hypertrophy, sarcomogenesis, very, very transferable. There might be a little bit of difference there with psychomagenesis in terms of it tending to shift um peak forces to longer muscle lengths, but fundamentally it's still going to act to increase force production across the whole range of motion. Anyway.

Um tendon stiffness a little bit variable in t in terms of um its contribution because of course it interferes with the stretch shortening cycle if we're trying to improve that, so it's kind of variable impact.

And then of course lateral force transmission, um very much a force producing, uh force increasing adaption, but um not great if you're trying to improve speed in that uh same athlete. As regards speed adaptations, of course, we've got Uh again, um coordination and antagonistic co activation probably aren't ones I would be uh thinking of as transferable, whereas we can obviously transfer recruitment and firing rate increases and of course muscle fiber.

shortening velocity increases. So there's a lot of transferability um, you know, muscle by muscle if we want to make use of it. So I think uh it is absolutely possible to rely on a number of strength training exercises, even though they might not traditionally be classified as

um, you know, kind of the classic athlete athletic type exercises. Um, if they're producing these adaptions, then they should be contributing to improvements in sporting performance as long as um they're in the correct location uh for the sporting movement they're trying to do.

So essentially what I'm arguing here is that we want to get away from the idea that um I mean I once saw someone argue, someone uh argue on on on social media that essentially strength training is is like a weighted coordination training. And it's it's literally the opposite of that. It it's everything not that.

Um that is as far away from my position as it's possible to get. Um ulti ultimately, um, you know, strength training is is not trying to improve coordination. Or it it is in the movement that you're doing, but that's irrelevant. Um you know, that's that's just for the gym purposes. It's not going to transfer that coordination over to a sporting activity. There's some really nice data showing that you can increase strength, um, you know, in

something like a squat exercise, uh and that uh coordination improvement that you make in something like squat really isn't going to transfer to something like a vertical jump. They're just too different in that in that regard. So ultimately, um

What this brings us to then is two very different philosophies or approaches to the concept of transfer. My uh argument here is that transfer is literally um specific um universal type adaptions that are applicable to or will actually contribute to improved performance in any movement that uses the muscle that we are adapting.

Um conversely what you've got is a lot of other people who are arguing things like, um, oh this type of exercise, you know, trains the body or teaches the body to um, you know, kind of uh work better in unstable conditions or something like that. And that's the kind of magical thinking that I'm trying to get away from and trying to argue is not actually how the adaptations process as are working, but also it's not how transfer works.

You know, transfer doesn't uh involve us teaching the body how to do stuff in particular ways. Uh that's a coordination mindset. That's going back to this idea that strength training is kind of loaded coordination training for sport and it's absolutely not. Um, what we're doing is creating muscular adaptions, as I say, in specific locations and that's then allowing us to perform better. Um

Finally, um what I'd like to just mention is that um one of the modules, uh one of the episodes rather, sorry, my brain is in uh course construction mode at the moment, uh one of the uh episodes that we've done previously uh was about a proximal to distal sequence. And that's a really, really valuable tool for helping us figure out how to construct a strength training program that transfers well to a particular sporting movement because it allows us to break the sporting movement down into

uh obviously as it sounds, proximal and distal segments. And the proximal segments can be trained more so with heavy strength training exercises, more uh kind of uh freely if you like, because we're not going to be uh, you know, losing very much uh if uh there's any negative effects on speed. Whereas the more distal uh segments tend to have to have a more speed focus.

So in terms of structuring and and figuring out how transfer can be constructed, I think the proximal digital sequence is a great a kind of skeleton key, if you like, for unlocking those kind of problems. But ultimately it still comes back to the same thing, which is that ult uh transferability of an excise to a a sporting movement is always gonna be because of an adaptation that is created, uh and that adaptation is in, as I say, at the correct geographical location. So that's enough from me.

Rob, talk to us a little bit about how you are um introducing uh transfer into your uh strength training programmes for uh you know, you can give us uh maybe some specific examples of uh places or exercises that you've chosen or ways of training that you've chosen to make sure that an athlete is going to improve a particular quality or uh say uh athletic performance metric like jumping or throwing or something like that, as a result of the kind of uh training that you're programming.

Some people I mean, I know a lot of coaches still don't when they're trying to improve sprint speed and things like that, they don't do we mentioned before, tons of heavy strength work sometimes. And sometimes they'll do things like

Uh, you know, I've seen like straight leg flutter kicks for the hamstrings, going, you know, as fast as you can. I've seen all kinds of different hip flexion exercises that may or may not work super well. Um, what I'd seen was like doing uh basically it's a hip extension on one side coupled with hip flexion.

on the other side. So you do them simultaneously. Which yeah, I mean it looks like running. Um, but at the same time neither, you know, the the hip flexors or extensors are really doing much. uh significant in that scenario. So when I'm looking at it, you know, I'm looking for things that are gonna produce a lot of force in the ways that you need to based on that proximal to distal sequence. So hip extension stuff.

mentioned a million times, you know, hip thrust, something that's gonna be like a shoulder muscle length especially. So really, really like those, bilateral or single leg, program both. Um, even things like, you know, RDLs, stiff legs, stuff like that, gonna work really well. For the the hip fortune aspect, you know, I think that one

we've talked quite a bit about, but in general it gets overlooked. So rather than doing something that's like a body weight simultaneous, you know, hip flexion and extension where the one leg is straight, the other leg is bending as you come up.

Um just doing you know easy and loaded, like a cable hip flexion where you're braced really nicely just against the other side of the cable stack. Um, starting from like a straight leg more extended hip position and then flexing up, you know, either heavy loaded, you know, lower reps trying to get more strength, increases in recruitment and some hypertrophy there, or maybe doing something against a band or something like that that's gonna give you more of the

speed end of things. Although I don't tend to do those quite as much because, you know, I feel like sprinting you're gonna go as fast about as you're gonna go. So I usually try to focus more on the the force end of things there and maybe some hypertrophy. other hip flexion exercises, you know, you said recruitment, super transferable. And not only, you know, between like

in that specific muscle. But even if you just train regions of the muscle, you still get increased recruitment across it as a whole. So that's another reason I mentioned before. I really like like the hip flexor isometrics. And yeah, you can do those in a few different hip flexion angles.

um, you know, lower, more extended hip for the rec femme and then a little more flexed position for some of the other ones, so as major in that. But um yeah, really, really like those and the the transfer, like you said, is you know, you can use it for anything that's involving hip flexion. And I mean same thing with uh the hip extensors there. If you want to chuck in some ISOs, I know people really like um like the run specific ISOs I've seen where they're doing like a single leg

Hip extension against a very heavy load, more extended knee position. And you know, I've I've used those before and I do like those a bit. But I'd say those are some of my favorites that are gonna transfer really well in terms of recruitment um in the muscles you need. Of course, hypertrophy, bigger glutes, bigger hip flexors. So those are some ones that I really like, uh just for running specifically.

and we look for the location. And you use the proximal to distal sequence to identify that applying larger uh kind of uh force producing or creating larger force producing capacities in those hip muscles is going to be really, really useful for the sprinting uh gate cycle. So it literally exactly uh you know, the the kind of the the paradigm that I argued for, you're already doing that in your programs. And just to be clear to the people who are listening,

I didn't actually tell Rob that this was my paradigm before we started the podcast. So that is genuinely why he was programming before I even uh kind of came up with this way of explaining transfer um this afternoon. So

You know, ultimately it is, I think, a good way to just describe what good programs actually look like. It's it's a very quick way. And the proximal to this tool sequence does that very quickly. And just to be clear, uh in this example that Rob's just given the proximal to disturbs has allowed us to identify that by being the most proximal segment in sprinting, the

uh, you know, the hip flexors and extensors, we can train those for strength uh to a greater extent than the segments further down the chain. Uh we have that ability because they are going to reach slower velocities and they're therefore going to be slightly more force dominant. Now, obviously sprinting is not by any means a force dominant activity.

but the hip is going to be the most force dominant part of it and as a result it tends to be able to contribute therefore the most power outputs to the entire gait cycle. And in fact Some really good data showing that pretty much all of the power output, the concentric power output is coming from the hip. Everything else is just kind of um, you know, transferring that onwards. So fantastic example. Um, you know, Rob, thanks for that. Um can you give us one from the maybe

You know, the combat sports side of things that you're so familiar with.

heavy, heavy loaded rotation. Um the bent over like 90 degree cable rotation I've mentioned before is definitely a favorite of mine. I've been using that more and more. I mean you can do some standing options okay if you can brace against something else.

But um, you know, kneeling and braced against like a box or something like that I've seen and used. But really just that that bent over one. So so easy to execute. And I think you and I have talked, maybe not on the podcast before, but separately when you have you know, comparison of different rotational athletes, the force demands in um, you know, taekwondo, karate, boxing and all that for the core are really, really high. They're producing a lot of force.

So those tend to have really, really good transfer. And I mean I've seen that work time and again with guys and uh not that I do too much f uh fighting these days, but I've been messing around with some myself and definitely feeling a a bit better because of it. Although I will not be in the ring again anytime soon.

Um, you know, but uh here is a great example of the upper body actually also having a proximal segment that we can train with force uh related variables. And of course, again, we're gonna be looking for hypertrophy and recruitment.

uh as, you know, kind of two of our major adaptations. And of course, you know, your you described a hundred times before your programming approaches to these, you know, you're kind of heavy loads where possible, uh leaving reps in reserve, one or two reps in reserve here or there. Um

And doing a couple of sets of those maybe uh twice a week, uh or three times a week if um, you know, the uh the the the situation demands it and the athlete isn't doing a hundred million other things at the same time, which they often are. So um you know, another fantastic example. Um obviously, you know, uh there are scenarios where we're looking to um improve

velocity as well as strength. And you've talked before about using things like assisted jumps for improving uh kind of velocity. Uh can you just talk us through that again just for this context?

more practical for the people that I deal with. So that's a really nice one. You can use a harness, you can use bands attached to the top of a power rack, anything like that. But that'll just let you hit

higher concentric velocities than you're gonna hit otherwise and then be able to trigger those increases in firing rates and that that we're gonna wanna see. Um so yeah, those are those are a favorite of mine. I really like them. Probably throw them in some of my group programs soon as well because People have been asking a lot about them actually.

And that's very different from things like hypertrophy, where you kinda have to, you know, get the reps in to get to a a stimulus that you're interested in. Uh that's that's meaningful, that's kind of uh interesting. Uh here

As you've said before, when you're doing jump type work, you're literally aiming for like those couple of really high quality repetitions. Um And that's enough to trigger the adaption because once we hit a uh you're using an assistance uh kind of method, so therefore you're going to hit higher velocities, as you say, than any uh than you've hit before. And as a result, it's going to be sufficient to trigger that increase in firing rates and the increase um

in muscle fibre shortening velocity that's then going to be transferable to pretty much anything else using those muscles. And again, we've fallen to exactly the same model that I explained at the beginning, which is that we've got an adaptation that is transferable, that we're we are understanding exactly how that adaption is being stimulated. So we don't need to throw, you know, kind of dozens and dozens of repetitions at it,'cause that isn't going to achieve the goal.

we can do a small number of repetitions aiming for above maximum velocity, as in using assistance to achieve a super maximal velocity. And the geographical location of those um th those adaptions is in the right place. I'm I'm trying to I pi I decided to say geographical location because it's kind of like it's it's it's different enough to get people to think, okay, th d I do need to think about where the adaptation is happening.

You know. I just kinda said muscle or region or something like that, people would filter me out. They would just ignore what I'm saying. So I'm saying something in a slightly strange way'cause I'm trying to get people to lock on to this concept of it actually, you know, we are not computer game kind of sprites that have

you know, sort of eight units of strength or nine units of speed and whatever. It's like we you can't when somebody says, How do I train for strength? I'm like, Where? Where where are you training for strength? What what are you trying to improve? What are you trying to get strong?

they improved strength and strength is one of your general physical qualities. Out. And I'm like, well that that's not an explanation for why it happened. Like yeah, for strength training versus they the other groups did like plows and sprints and then another group did quote unquote functional training like body weight stuff. So yeah, the heavy strength training, obviously and people that hadn't previously been doing it.

improved their outcomes and other things more than the other two, but it wasn't because of improving the general quality of strength. You know, somewhere along the line you either got muscles necessary to grow or recruitment to increase or one of those adaptations to happen.

That's what it feels like when I read some of this stuff. It feels like I'm reading a kind of a manual explaining how, you know, a a a computer game works. And it's it's not really how things work biologically. But no. Um Yeah, cool. So basically um what we're talking about with transfer is uh transferable adaptions that we can identify and understand the stimuli for. And then applying those with training methods in the correct muscles, the correct geographical locations.

uh in order to create the uh improvement in sport uh performance that we're trying to create. And I I just really like those examples you gave there because it allowed us to uh show how the strength training adaptations for maximum strength are going to differ from the uh speed uh related adaptation as they're obviously improving um uh maximum velocity. So With all of that uh being said, um you've mentioned a couple of times uh some of the things that

you know, you've seen that people are doing incorrectly. Can you can you kind of spell us spell it spell it out for us some of the uh you know, horrible examples of uh incorrect transfer uh logic or incorrect transfer um kind of Or programmes that have been put forward to create good transferred support, but obviously are using uh methods that don't make any sense.

So um this is exactly what we talked about in the in the throwing and punching uh kind of episodes that we've done before. Basically if you're training force production for the end uh of the punching activity, that's the opposite end that you need to be training force production for.

uh because it's proximal to distal sequence. So better off training velocity for the um punching end of the or the the the the hand and the wrist end of the of the of the kinetic chain. Uh really for the uh for the force end of the kinetic chain we want to be chain training The torso, which is exactly what you have already given us an example for, it's the torso rotation and obviously you can put the hip and the lower body on that.

Okay, fine. Um

To get you more power from the hip and then, well, they said power and strength, and then transferring that. to your sporting movement by doing it was like a clean and press, um, because it was getting you just moving the hips and everything at the same time and coordinating. You're like you said coordinating under load. This is

So converting strength into power is impossible, really. I mean strength is already there as a component of power to begin with. Uh and you can't convert strength into speed because they're totally different adaption sets. So ultimately uh any any amount of strength that you've already developed already is present in the power uh calculation because power is literally just strength times speed.

So um if you want to incre increase uh power output and you've already got a d a decent level of strength, you actually have to train in a completely different way because you don't need to add speed on top. So when people say to me, Oh, you can't develop power before you've developed strength, I'm like, well

So like you're not gonna be training your pecs very well, you're not gonna be training your triceps very well, you're not gonna be doing anything because so many other things are being activated to stabilize that load when you're doing the bamboo bar bench press. So if people tend to see

an increase in their their bench strength from those things. What I usually think is happening is they've been doing probably too much bench press. They bring in a session that has this instead of a regular bench press.

And because they're doing essentially nothing on that day, it's low reps, it's far from failure, they're just giving themselves recovery between the bench sessions then. And so they think all of a sudden now they're recovered, they're driving up strength. Oh, this this bamboo bar bench press. Is the reason my strength has gone up?

That's very likely done nothing. It's too unstable. You've probably just given yourself a program that's more recoverable. And the same thing with like I've seen hanging banded kettlebell squats and things like that to like work your your core stabilizer muscles. And I'm like, the the best squatters in the world are not doing these things. These are not useful. You know, you might as well be just

squatting on a a foam pad or a bosom ball at that point if you want something super unstable. And then that should be in theory then driving your squat up the same and obviously it doesn't. So

to improve sprinting because the idea was that by using an unstable exercise well, wait till you hear it, actually gets better. So um The the idea was that by using an unstable exercise you would um have to exp you'd have to create a reduction in antagonist coactivation. And that's absolutely true. That's what happens. When you do unstable exercises, you start out with massive levels of antagonist coactivation.

And as you do them, it improves pretty quickly and you see this very marked improvement in exercise performance in the unstable exercise. Um because ultimately you started out with a crazy level of it. But that isn't going to change your co activation in sprinting because the movements are

So you create an inhibitory effect in your brain for producing spikes of motin at accruant and firing rates, which starts to negatively affect your speed. So excessive balance training, if you don't need and I say the way when I say excessive, what I mean is uh training that you don't need. So if somebody is training balance because they need to be able to balance on a in a particular sporting context, then you just have to do it. I mean that's part of the sport. Yeah.

If you have an athlete that doesn't need extra balance type training or extra instability training and you start giving it to them, you're likely to find that that starts to reduce their speed because the balance adaption that you're programming it's gonna start to cause the brain to back off on producing that uh speed related

uh kind of uh characteristic, which is a spike in motor unit firing rates and motor unit equipment at the start of a contraction. So I think actually they may be creating um problems rather than actually or negative adaptations if you like. I mean it is an adaptation. I mean balance is It's like creating adaptation that is interfering, one of the very rare cases where one does. Um

you could argue, I guess, that uh sort of making muscle fibers super oxidative is a negative adaption for hypertrophy. But I mean, that's a little bit of a of a s sort of minor comparison to this one. But yeah, I mean ultimately even though that exercise itself is is not really transferring very much, as for reasons that you gave, uh, it's actually potentially also having a negative impact, which I think is is is problematic later.

in that training session. And it's necessary for the sport. And that's why we do it. But you wouldn't be training that outside of that scenario because it wouldn't be specific enough really most of the time for the activity that you're doing.

Cool. I think that's hopefully been a good um, you know, sort of introduction to the concept of transfer and also some great practical examples, um, you know, from from you. Thanks, Rob. So, um, cool. We will be back uh next week and I think We are going to talk about powerlifting, if that is uh still need