Legendary Strength » testing

Progress and Regress in Biofeedback Part 4

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:49:04 +0000

I’m regularly getting questions on biofeedback training, almost everyday. So I thought it was time for another report on how its working out for me.

One movement leads another...

The whole system is built on a premise. Everything is movement. We desire to move better. Often this is in the form of moving against resistance, also known as strength, but it can be better in any other way, mobility, flexibility, coordination or more.

Doing any kind of movement (actually anything) will lead to increasing or decreasing any other movement. This is because the body is a whole and what effects one thing, effects EVERYTHING.

Thus you can test any exercise, any movement and see how that affects any other movement. This is commonly done with a range of motion test as this is a simple way to test things by yourself. It’s not without its faults, and there are other methods. But it does work if you do it right.

What I’ve found is that by doing this biofeedback training for a time I got better in tune with my body. That I didn’t even need to test all the time. That I could feel the better or worse movement within the movement itself. That means if I press I can feel whether or not today would be a good day to press.

This is a good thing. And its not even the end point of where you can get.

Progress on that front. However I also ran into a roadblock, created by myself.

Not testing all the time I began to make a slight shift towards forcing my body in directions it didn‘t necessarily want to go. Overtime this slight shift got bigger because I had something on the line.

You know about my progress on the deadlift which has been great. With that goal of 500 lbs. on the horizon, and the fact I wanted to hit it by the end of this month, I starting forcing myself in that direction, rather than letting it happen as it would by itself. I’ve done this by lifting heavier than I should have on many days. Even deadlifting when that wasn’t the best choice. The total effect is that my progress has slowed.

The promise of biofeedback training is that, if you listen to it, you’ll break PR’s without really having to try to do it. Effortless progress. These may not always be exactly groundbreaking PR’s or in the direction you always want but it does happen.

What happens when you don’t listen to your body? When you do things contrary to what its telling you? At best it’ll just be slower progress. At worst no progress, sliding back, or injury.

You can, for a time, force your body to adapt. But it will fight back. The question is why would you fight against your body when you can use it as an ally?

In strength,
Logan Christopher

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Progress in Biofeedback Training – Part 2

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:37:36 +0000

This is the second in a series on my progress on biofeedback. Click here for the first post.

I still feel like I need more time to have revolutionary results. So far the results have only been great!

My lifts are going up. By following my biofeedback my body is guiding me to do higher volume most of the time versus what I use to do which was singles or maybe 5×5.

You may have heard about cycling or waving the loads before in periodization or other training plans. It looks like the reason that works is because that’s what the body naturally wants to do!

The question you may be asking is, is this higher volume leading to more strength on the top end? So far it seems to be yes. Still need more time to see the overall and definite trend but I’m starting to see it right now. About once a week or so the testing guides me to work up to a max (in different lifts). As long as the exercise keeps testing better with increasing loads I keep going.

One big change is that I no longer do a daily joint mobility routine. I don’t need to. My body isn’t beat up from training, in fact I rarely get sore and when I do its just a small amount.

I have improved my flexibility without doing static or isometric stretching. Even my hand balancing practice is getting better, when I’ve been stuck for a long, long time.

I leave each workout moving better than I did before the workout. I feel good, if not downright fresh and ready to do much more. Sometimes I feel a little worked after high volume or many exercises but I never feel dead tired or like I need to lay down to recoup.

Making it Hard or Making it Easy? The Choice is Yours...

Oh yeah, and I’m training six or even seven days a week setting PR’s each day in just about everything I do. (Training this often is by no means necessary its just something I like to do and now I can without overtraining.) For example I wrote a month or so ago how I hit 250 snatches in 10 minutes with the 24kg. I was dust after that. Had to lay down. It took everything. Just yesterday I casually did 144 snatches in 5 minutes. Nothing but a little winded.

I saw a comment on another blog regarding PR’s and I want to clarify what that really means. PR stands for personal record. It doesn’t mean you have to max out in your lift in order to get it. It simply means you’ve done more in one way or another than ever before.

Progress is the name of the game in training. And progress comes in the form of PR’s. There is no other way.

So these are my results…so far. I will continue to do this because its working. There is no turning back. I expect over time it will get even better. And I will report on what happens.

On that note, Adam Glass is re-releasing the Grip and Rip DVD’s with even more material that explains how to do all this properly.

When I got started I had lots of questions. It took time to get the feeling and to be doing it right. With these DVD’s you’ll cut the learning curve in half. And then you’ll see these results faster.

No other training information or program out there will give you the capabilities this one does. To listen to your body for your own training. To guide you in how you and only you should be training.

Not to mention I’m actually having even more fun then before with this stuff.

***BONUS***

These DVD’s are going to show you everything you need to get started fast. But I was thinking about what I could offer to complement this and I happened on this idea. You see, I learned best by going through the process myself. You can tell me something or show me how it works and I still might not ‘get it’.

Maybe you’re the same?

So I’m going to film my next two workouts and walk you through exactly what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. How I test, when I test, why I test, when I stop my sets, everything I can show you.

These will be made available as online videos on a secret page only for you who order now through this link and forward me your receipt.

Go here and order.

They made a limited number of copies and they’re likely to sell out fast. So if you want this information and my bonus, which is the closest thing I can give you to walking you through it in person, you need to act now.

In strength,
Logan Christopher

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Progress in Biofeedback Training – Part 1

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:37:19 +0000

Almost another month has passed since I last wrote about biofeedback training. I’ve decided I want to give a play by play account of how it’s working out for me. That means this will be the first in a series of articles on my progress in biofeedback training. And for this one I have to go back in time a bit to when I started.

Any and all movements can be tested.

When I first heard the idea of biofeedback for physical training I was intrigued. It made sense to me, that our own body could guide what we do. Our goal is to make the body better, to build a better mind-muscle connection in order to become stronger. If you had a way to ask your body what it preferred it to do, what was good for it to do, it makes sense then that you should listen to it, at least to me.

I got started testing out my exercises. A little later I tested the weights I was using.

For the most part, early on I ignored the testing and then had to struggle to set a new PR. Sometimes I made it, sometimes I didn’t. What I was doing was following my old routine just testing to see how the movements tested. Then I did my routine regardless of the results. That’s not how you’re suppose to do it. But it was my first step.

The testing was awkward. In a range of motion test you’re suppose to go until you feel tension. Sounds good in theory. But when you first try it you may not be the best at feeling the first sign of tension. I know I wasn’t. In order to help me out I decided to do two different ROM tests each time to see that they were giving the same results.

I continued on. I figured that I would give this method at least a month to start showing results. If it didn’t I could jump back into my routines. I started actually listening to the tests. I finally dropped the idea that I needed to known exactly what I was going to be doing when I entered the gym. I would let the tests guide me to do what I should be doing.

It took a couple weeks before I felt that I was getting it right. At that time I was testing exercises, variations, loads and rest. It started coming together and I was seeing myself hit new PR’s without struggling for them.

Of course, the testing (and moving into a new place) led me to be doing different exercises and different volumes so it wasn’t hard to be hitting PR’s. Anytime you start new exercises there is a period of time were your body adapts quickly becoming more efficient at the exercises. You become better at the exercises rather than building much strength or muscle to do the exercises.

That’s why I always encouraged sticking to a routine. You need to work the same exercises over a period of time in order to see real improvements. If you jump from routine to routine you aren’t doing much more than spinning your wheels.

This isn’t really in contrast to biofeedback training though. You still have your goals. If that involves being able to deadlift more you’ll aim your testing in the direction. Unless your body is messed up and dead lifting is not right for you you’ll be able to continually work the lift and do more.

17 Points

admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:16:42 +0000

I got back from a revolutionary weekend. Here are some of my notes. Now, you can skim these and go about your day. Or you can take some time and try to ’get’ what they are saying. If you do this you will reap the rewards for doing so.

1. Think in terms of association not causation.

2. More associations allow you to get to the right questions faster. Questions inform your experimentation.

3. Testing does not replace out intuition. It informs our intuition.

4. Its ALL movement.

5. You always get better at exactly what you do, including how you do it.

6. Adaptation does not need to be forced or coaxed. In fact, it cannot be stopped.

7. Everything you do is always making you better or worse.

8. Never miss a lift, never learn to fail.

9. Training within your limits is learning you’re limitless.

10. Internally governed, externally guided.

11. Quantity is a function of quality.

12. Superfluous movement is wasted energy.

13. We learn from gross to fine.

14. There are not different parameters for performance or recovery.

15. Integrate as soon as possible. Isolate only if necessary.

16. Asymmetry is evident all over the body.

17. All movements are correctional exercises.

In strength,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Agree, disagree or just want to discuss these points? Comment below.

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