Specifically, Peter will be discussing:

This week we are unlocking the Secrets of Elite Performance with Dr Peter Tierney! From the high-pressure world of professional rugby and football to cutting-edge performance apparel, Dr Peter Tierney has seen it all. In this episode, we dive deep into what it takes to win at the highest level, exploring the critical lessons from his time with Leinster Rugby’s Heineken Cup-winning squad, the evolving science of athlete recovery, and the power of data in shaping the future of sports performance.

Discover:

• The biggest mistakes teams make when trying to replicate success
• Why recovery isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach – and how to get it right
• How wearable tech is changing the game (for better or worse!)
• What elite coaches like Stuart Lancaster do differently

If you’re serious about maximising performance, this episode is packed with practical insights you can apply straight away. Whether you’re an athlete, coach, or sports science enthusiast – you don’t want to miss this one!

About Dr. Peter Tierney

“Dr Peter Tierney is a highly experienced sports scientist and performance coach with over a decade of experience working across multiple sports, including rugby, football, and athletics. He has held key roles with Leinster Rugby, contributing to their Heineken Cup success, and has worked in industry innovation, focusing on performance apparel. Dr Tierney specialises in athlete recovery, data-driven performance strategies, and applying cutting-edge sports science to optimise results. He actively shares insights on social media and contributes to advancing the field through research and applied practice.”

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The post 252: How to Maximise Athlete Performance & Recovery appeared first on Science for Sport.

In episode 117, Steve Thompson, Course Leader for the Masters in S&C at Sheffield Hallam University, joins us.

Specifically Steve will be looking at:

• Obstacled to VBT use
• Best practice in VBT
• How anyone can use VBT to optimise training for under $10

Velocity-based training (VBT) might seem like the biggest thing in physical training since the barbell itself, so why aren’t you using it yet?

If you still haven’t started, you’re not the only one. Due to the perceived difficulty in its implementation, many coaches and athletes choose to look the other way, missing out on a range of fantastic benefits associated with this top-level training tech.

If you are one of those who consider it too difficult, time-consuming, or expensive to implement, you’ll need to hear what Steve Thompson has to say and how you can overcome these obstacles.

Thompson has just finished his PhD investigating the use of VBT, where he performed leading research through Sheffield Hallam University, while also implementing his research as an S&C coach in the field.

Thompson’s research has great importance to the strength and power training world, with VBT touted as the future of the strength training industry. However, the uptake has not been equal to the hype. 

Athletes could get a wide range of benefits from VBT such as daily autoregulation, velocity cut-offs, and increased motivation during lifts. But despite such a great range of benefits, there are several barriers which stop widespread adoption. 

So we wanted to grill Thompson to see whether coaches and athletes can overcome the obstacles preventing them from using this game-changing technology.

The first issue is likely the price – when you see triple or quadruple figures on an internet sales funnel, it can be easy to switch off and file VBT under ‘one for when I’m rich’.

But before you give up on the idea, it’s important to consider the different types of VBT devices available on the market and their price points.

“VBT requires or utilises technology which might be a linear position transducer, an inertial measuring unit, a camera, or a smartphone,” Thompson said.

Generally speaking, the linear position transducers have been seen as the gold standard as they use a string attached to the bar to directly measure velocity, however, recent research shows that cheaper options like smartphone applications might be equally valid and reliable.

“In terms of the data, certainly from some of the research I’ve collected as part of my PhD, smartphones were there or thereabouts when compared with a linear transducer. If you consider the price difference, then there are benefits to those that have tighter purse strings,” Thompson said.

This makes VBT accessible to almost all practitioners, with smartphone applications available in the region of $10. These devices might take more time to configure and be less useful in large team settings, but they certainly lower the entry barrier to VBT and might be perfect for an athlete training alone.

That time investment when using a smartphone might be reduced when using higher-end devices designed for large teams, but Thompson shares some of his research insights which showed that coaches were still worried that they’d be spending time with their heads in an iPad, instead of coaching their athletes. Another barrier to overcome.

Fortunately, the Englishman performed further research with the goal of using VBT at the start of the session to prescribe training loads with sniper-like accuracy, with coaches then having the luxury of putting the tech away in favour old school face-to-face contact.

“We came up with a system and an approach to daily one rep-max prediction, allowing you to do it right to start the session, that would adjust the loads for that day. You could then put the technology down and be a coach,” Thompson said.

If reading Thompson’s latest research isn’t for you, he has a simple alternative.

“Another way of getting around the issue would be simple education for the athletes. So spend some time upskilling the athletes on how to use the devices – this frees you up to be more present on the gym floor,” Thompson said.

So there you have it, the most common barriers to VBT usage, and how to overcome them. You can get started for a tenner and potentially spend just minutes on VBT training per session. 

If this has got your brain whirring and you want to learn more about VBT, including how to practically implement it in your setting, listen to the full podcast using the link below.

You can download the podcast on any of the big hosting services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or just use this link: https://scienceforsport.fireside.fm/117

The post Episode 117. Overcoming the barriers presented by Velocity-Based Training – Steve Thompson appeared first on Science for Sport.

Specifically Matt will be looking at:

• How to program plyos for younger and older athletes
• How he classifies plyometrics
• How to apply plyometrics for elite performance

Do you have zero jump game but want to upgrade to NBA-level hops? These massive explosive outputs are the pinnacle of many sports, but training to get them can be really tricky. 

That’s why we asked Matt McInnes-Watson to join us on episode 136 of the Science for Sport podcast. 

McInnes-Watson is renowned for his plyometric coaching talents through his company Plus Plyos, he even combines his love for speed and power with a self-funded PhD investigating plyometric exercises and their application to sport performance.

Before we dive into the depths of plyometric training, it’s important to define what plyometrics are.

“My term for plyometrics now is becoming more and more simplistic in that it’s a landing and take-off based action that’s pretty fast,” McInnes-Watson said.

Easy right? Well, there’s just a little more to the story.

“It’s it has that elastic and reflexive nature to it. And we’re able to use a lot more of the tendon’s ability to give us a bit more of a snap back as opposed to more of a muscular base movement that might be a bit slower and more of a kind of concentric effort to get out of the bottom of the movement,” McInnes-Watson said.

But why are plyometrics so important? Well, they underpin athletic performance in a range of movements, not just jumping.

“I think that it’s all part of the foundation of movement that we use within sport. How many sports use landings and take-offs regularly? Are you running well? If it’s yes, then you’re probably using some sort of plyometric ability,” McInnes-Watson said.

Despite the use of plyometric type movements across a wide range of sports and sporting movements, when the majority of coaches think of this type of exercise, they go immediately to ‘shock training’ made popular by the Russians in the nineteen eighties, however, McInnes-Watson believes that this type of training isn’t necessary to elicit adaptations in the majority of athletes.

“I think realistically we have probably 95% of athletes that just need to learn how to land and take off effectively using typical ground-based locomotion,” McInnes-Watson said.

So how does McInnes-Watson plan plyometrics? Well for beginners, he keeps things simple.

“They’re going to start with more general capacity-based plyometrics and realistically that shouldn’t leave that program throughout the year. They’ll have a sprinkling of high-intensity stuff, but the likelihood for them to be able to handle a high volume of more intense stuff is a lot lower,” McInnes-Watson said.

As athletes progress, he uses increasing amounts of higher-intensity plyometrics. In this case, he increases that to approximately 40 % of the program.

“We want to get to a stage where we’ve got advanced guys that are getting more exposure to higher demanding movements. It still might only be up to 40 % of the program. That’s is where I’ve got to with a junior international athlete,” McInnes-Watson said.

This begs the question, what exactly are these higher-intensity plyometrics? 

“If I can get them to be doing more things for height, hops for speed or distance. If I can do more of that in the whole of their year, that ultimately becomes my goal,” McInnes-Watson said.

So there you have it, a glimpse into how McInnes-Watson programs ground-based plyometrics for sport performance. 

It’s interesting that he tries to save the higher-intensity plyometrics until they really need it, and just gradually increases the volume of these as the athlete progresses.

If you want to hear more from McInnes-Watson, be sure to check out the full podcast using the link below, which includes a detailed description of how he uses a four-tier system for planning and progressing plyometrics.

The post Episode 136. How to use ground-based plyometrics for ultimate sport performance – Matt McInnes-Watson appeared first on Science for Sport.

In Episode 138, Ashley Jones, Strength & Conditioning Coach, joins us.

Specifically Ashley will be looking at:

• How performance training in rugby has changed in the last 30 years
• Influence of technology on performance
• Training methods which have stood the test of time
• The future of rugby performance

Strength and conditioning in rugby union has come on leaps and bounds over the last thirty years, but what does the future hold? 

If you want to be one step ahead of the game, you’ll need to hear what Ashley Jones, Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coach with thirty years of experience, has to say.

In those thirty years, Jones has worked all over the world, including with both northern and southern hemisphere international rugby teams. He also boasts the personal accolade of NSCA Coach of the Year in 2016. 

But before we dig into the future of rugby, it’s important to look at where the performance world has come from. 

Jones was at the front line of those developments in the nineties.

During his first professional role in rugby, Jones wanted to ease his players into their preseason running. Unfortunately for him (and the players) the head coach had different ideas.

“I know these guys haven’t done a lot, so I thought we’d just do a forty-minute run and we’ll get on to the next session. The coach turned around and said no, take them out again, flog ‘em,”

The ‘flog ‘em’ mentality has been increasingly difficult to find in elite sports in recent years, but what has led to this change?

Well according to Jones, the education levels of everyone in and around the team have improved.

“I think the education of the coaches has grown in parallel with the education improvements of the strength and conditioning coaches, and also in parallel with the education of the playing group as well,” Jones said.

This means that everyone on the staff is working with a higher baseline of knowledge, potentially allowing higher-level conversations around load monitoring and training principles. 

In some instances players are even educating themselves to the same level as coaches, this bodes well for the future of athletes and coaches alike.

“When I was working in Edinburgh, I had two players that were actually doing their master’s degree in strength and conditioning. So you can actually talk to the players about some fairly complex topics,” Jones said.

This level of player education is set to improve in the future with information readily available to any athlete who cares to google it.

But where does Jones think that the future of rugby will go? Well, firstly he thinks that the rule-makers will have a massive impact.

“I think the rule changes in the game will dictate where we go,” Jones said.

Those rules dictate the rest and work players undertake during a match, and therefore the conditioning needs.

“The year 2000 was the last season where we had unlimited interchange in rugby league. And I remember the time I was with at that stage we averaged 47 substitutions a game,” Jones said.

This had a significant impact on the type of physicality players brought to the game.

“You saw they saw the size of rugby league players changed significantly from the 2000 and earlier to what we have now, where it’s quite rare to have some of those monsters still playing the game,” Jones said.

Next to any rule changes, Jones is looking forward to the development of new technology and its impact on health and performance.

“I’m actually excited about some of the wearables coming through, for example, the use of the mouthguard for data collection and particularly for head injury observation is going to be extremely important moving forward,” Jones said.

These mouthguards can provide staff with real-time data on the impacts that players receive. This means that medical staff can track data on head injuries and reduce the risk of long-term injuries such as concussions.

If you want more information on these mouthguards, check out episode 95 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

Next to the education levels of athletes and technology improvements, Jones thinks that making the players one of the key stakeholders alongside other staff members can improve performance.

”The playing group themselves is a very, very important to connect with, what they bring to the table is often missed and can actually add value to the overall program and I think to build great compliance into the program itself by having them as one of the stakeholders in the group,” Jones said.

So there you have it. The past present and future of rugby performance. 

If you want to hear more from Jones including some awesome stories from his coaching career, check out the full podcast using the link below.

The post Episode 138. What is the future of rugby S&C? – Ashley Jones appeared first on Science for Sport.

In episode 140, Tom Watkins, High Performance Manager at Fiji Rugby League, joins us.

Specifically Tom will be looking at:

• Demands of tournament rugby
• How to manage players arriving from various clubs
• In tournament gym sessions
• Week planning

Have you ever wondered how elite teams prepare physically for highly demanding long-duration tournaments? I for one love hearing the secrets which drive success for elite-level teams.

That’s why we asked Tom Watkins to join us on the Science for Sport Podcast.

Watkins is the high-performance manager of the Fiji Rugby League team, who made it to the quarter-finals of the recent rugby league World Cup. He is also the Head of Performance at Athletes Authority, one of Australia’s leading athletic development facilities. 

With a wealth of experience to his name, we wanted to hear how he helps the physical mountains that are Fijian rugby league players to perform optimally. 

Firstly we need to look at what rugby league players need during a match, as this is different from many other sports, including rugby union. 

Obviously, rugby is known for massive hits and the necessity to have super-human strength, but rugby league is more than just smashing into massive blokes.

“They need to be able to compete over a ninety-minute period. So obviously they need to have some sort of a rugby capacity and base,” Watkins said.

Next to this massive aerobic capacity, they’ll also need upper-echelon repeated sprint ability.

“It’s really being able to repeat high-intensity efforts or those anaerobic efforts over and over again in the moments that matter,” Watkins said.

That means that when designing a program, they need a diverse range of physiological adaptations which allow them to perform optimally throughout the tournament.

“They sort of need a bit of everything, but really a strength and power game underpinned by some aerobic really aerobic capacity and then the ability to repeat high-speed efforts,” Watkins said.

So how do they develop that strength and power? Watkins generously shared some key methods he used to keep things simple, but also allow the players to produce massive power outputs.

“So from a power development standpoint, we looked at doing some contrast stuff. We got the guys that could and had experience power cleaning and then we’d paired that up with a standing broad jump where they could really express a lot of force into the ground,” Watkins said.

Watkins also mentioned that the power clean was often switched for a loaded jump if the athletes in question could not perform Olympic lifts.

“Then obviously we went into our key lift, where we would squat, with some kind of vertical vector jump to kind of pair that up nicely,” Watkins said.

Obviously, these athletes need some serious upper-body strength and power too, again, Watkins has us covered.

“From there an upper body perspective, bench press contrasted with some supine med ball throws, where we really encouraged a partner drop so they could load and explode and utilise that stress shortening cycle,” Watkins said.

So as you can see, the focus was on big bang-for-your-buck exercises, using contrast training to elicit a potentiation effect and therefore further improve outputs.

But how was this combined with the important aerobic and anaerobic adaptations Watkins mentioned earlier? 

Well, Watkins gives us the low-down on exactly how he structures a training week so that the players are match-ready. So if you want to know exactly how he planned the training week, fitting together this incredibly complex puzzle, hit the link below to listen to the full podcast!

The post Episode 140. How to prepare for a Rugby World Cup – Tom Watson appeared first on Science for Sport.

In episode 142, Tanno de Pender, International Powerlifter and S&C Coach at TeamNL, joins us.

Specifically Tanno will be looking at:

• What powerlifting is and how to train for it
• What other sports can learn from powerlifting

Have you ever seen those super-human meathead athletes in lycra lifting seemingly impossible weights and thought “I could probably learn something from them”? If you’ve not, you’ve probably never seen powerlifting.

The sport is strength in its purest form, and there are a tonne of lessons that the rest of the sporting world can learn from these colossal feats of force production.

With this in mind, we invited Tanno de Pender to join us on the Science for Sport Podcast. Tanno is not only the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Dutch Track Cycling Team but also a world-class powerlifter himself.

This combination makes him a great person to listen to when it comes to applying the lessons learned from powerlifting to other sports.

So before we get kicked off with exactly what other athletes can learn from powerlifting, it’s important to get to grips with what the sport is.

“Powerlifting exists in three different disciplines. So we have the squat, the deadlift, and the bench press. Within the competition, we get three attempts per lift in front of a jury to try and lift as much weight as possible,” de Pender said.

So to do this, powerlifters will need some serious muscle, but because of weight classes, hypertrophy can’t be the only adaptation that powerlifters look for. Of course, this is an aspect that many sports have in common.

“Strength is, of course, it’s a mixture of physiological development, it’s a mixture of neurological adaptation, and it’s a mixture of your ability to produce force based on the muscle mass that you have,” de Pender said.

So when it comes to developing this strength, powerlifters have a special advantage compared to other sports. Their sport is exclusively lifting weights.

“One of the unique perspectives I think you can get from a powerlifting background is the ability to control exercise variables to a very large degree, something that is definitely not possible in team sports.

What is the advantage of this? Well, crucially you know exactly how much you did, and where any fatigue comes from.

“I think it gives you a deepened understanding of being able to play around with those variables,” de Pender said.

This brings up one key lesson that other sports can learn from Powerlifting: Monitor workload well.

Obviously, in powerlifting, the fact that there is limited or no workload outside of lifting weights makes things easier, but if other sports can apply the same principles to their practice, there could be some big performance improvements.

“Modelling your workload is very important and you can do that in powerlifting in a very simplistic way. That basic understanding opens up some doors, especially if you’re able to bring this also to a sport setting which comes with many more challenges,” de Pender said.

Next to workload monitoring, de Pender thinks that the detailed eye that is needed to improve exercise technique in powerlifting is highly transferable to other sports.

“Take a couple of moments and really dial in what good technique. So things such as movement, efficiency, being able to keep your bar path in check, and what kind of cueing you would be able to use to reinforce those moving patterns. I think these are very valuable things that are not as emphasised in many team sports,” de Pender said.

This technique emphasis can easily be extrapolated to on-pitch movement, though the big Dutchman does appreciate that team sports don’t have the same one-on-one training luxury which powerlifting often does.

“Individual attention is much more challenging within group settings than it is in individual coaching,” de Pender said.

But maybe this is something that clubs and organisations could look to improve on in the future. Especially given the relative cost of coaches compared to, for example, Premier League Footballer salaries.

So there you have it, some great lessons that every sport can take from the world of powerlifting.

If you want to hear more from de Pender, including a tonne more great advice for athletes and coaches working in other sports, hit the link below to listen to the full episode.

The post Episode 142. What can the rest of the world learn from powerlifting? – Tanno de Pender appeared first on Science for Sport.

In episode 144, Luka Milanovic, Head of S&C at the Croatian Football Federation, joins us.

Specifically Luka will be looking at:

• How Croatia overperform with a population of only 4 million
• How Croatia used the gym during the world cup
• How recovery was used

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the closed gym doors at the World Cup? I have, and that’s why we asked Luka Milanovic to join us on the Science for Sport Podcast.

Milanovic is an Associate Professor at the University of Zagreb and pulls upon his twenty-four years of coaching experience in his role as the Head of Strength and Conditioning with the Croatian National Football Team. The very same Croatian team which lost in the final to France in 2018, and finished third in 2022, while having a tiny population of just over three million people. So what makes the Croatians so successful? According to Milanovic, it’s resilience.

“It is not easy to grow up in Croatia because you need to develop some kind of resilience. You need to be resilient in your classroom, in your locker room, in your street to be able to survive,” Milanovic said. Next to this, physical activity is a massive part of everyday life.

“We are fortunate enough that our kids are still playing a lot outside,  they are involved in biking five to ten kilometres per day. Practically all of our players now in the national team grew up playing outside a lot, and I’m confident that that helped them to develop,” Milanovic said.

Before we kick off with the football talk (pun intended), including the fascinating insights into life at the World Cup, it’s important to frame the context of the latest World Cup, which is vastly different from previous years.

“It was a different World Cup than, for example, the last one, especially in terms of the schedule. It was right in the middle of the season. So some players played only twenty or twenty-five games, which is actually perfect for us because the last World Cup in Russia was like 50 to 60 games per player,” Milanovic said.

This means that fatigue levels before the competition kicked off were far lower than in world cups which have been traditionally played at the end of a season. When it comes to monitoring that fatigue, Milanovic places a large importance on paying attention to what his players are telling him, both verbally and non-verbally. Next to the use of traditional data, of course.

“We make our decisions based not only on numbers, but we like to view data as eyes, ears, numbers in that order,” Milanovic said.

This is not to say that hard data is unimportant, just that data can also be gained from simply talking with and listening to the players. That hard data can be wide-ranging, as before the start of the national team training camp, the coaches are busy collecting mountains of data from each player.

“So before the competition, we gather all of the information from the players directly, but also from their personal trainers, and from the clubs. We get the reports from the last month so that we know what was going on,” Milanovic said. Interestingly, the data that is collected is individualised to each player based on their wants and needs. Milanovic gives the example of one player who used to wear a sleep-tracking device, only to stop with it a year later.

“Now he says, I don’t want to wear a ring because that’s too much for me. I think I sleep well. And then if I wake up in the morning and see the report, okay, I didn’t get enough deep sleep stuff that is going to mess me up, you know?” Milanovic said. In this way, there are no compulsory methods of data collection, just a discussion with the player as to what they prefer and how the staff can help them.

But what about the gym? Well, it turns out that the same individualised approach was taken for the gym-based sessions too.

“In these 36 (World Cup) days, we had 30 individual gym sessions in the morning. Actually, everything that’s off the pitch, it’s extremely individualised and it’s not mandatory,” Milanovic said. Obviously, this is a massive insight and a complement to the players who are able to be a massive part of their own process. But was it the case that everyone skipped the gym and took a lie in? Absolutely not.

“Out of 26 players on average we had 18 players coming in. So not always 18 players every day, but on average 18 players in the gym,” Milanovic said.

But what actually happens in those sessions? Well, again, that’s highly individual.

“It’s such a wide range of programs, from low-intensity muscular endurance type of programs to high-intensity power programs, for example, and even match day for some players. So such an extremely wide variety of programmes, but everything is individualised,” Milanovic said.

So there you have it, behind the scenes at the World Cup, it’s a highly individualised approach looking to ensure each player is ready for performance when called upon.

If you’re interested in hearing the full podcast, including loads more details on how Milanovic trained the Croatian National Football Team at the World Cup, hit the link below to listen to the whole interview.

The post Episode 144. S&C Secrets Helping Croatia at the World Cup – Luka Milanovic appeared first on Science for Sport.

In episode 145, Joe Dolcetti, Founder of Lila, joins us.

Specifically Joe will be looking at:

• What wearable resistance is
• How wearable resistance affects running technique
• How to use wearable resistance to improve performance

Speed kills, but training speed can be an absolute minefield. There are massive debates as to the effectiveness of particular exercises and methods and their transfer to sprinting. But what about just loading the movement itself?

Step forward wearable resistance. Wearable resistance could unlock your true speed potential by allowing you to train the skill of sprinting with resistance while maintaining perfect technique.

Sound too good to be true? We thought so too. That’s why we got Joe Dolcetti, founder of Exogen, a wearable resistance company that provides athletes with the opportunity to attach light weights to their body so that they can practice sprinting (or any other sport skill) with increased resistance.

Now I know what you’re thinking, loading up a sprint with weight will make it slow and cumbersome, and ultimately it might alter the technique of the athlete for the worse, so how do you avoid this pitfall?

The trick, however, is to make sure that the load is not too heavy. That’s where wearable resistance comes in, with weights as low as just a hundred grams.

“It’s a lot lighter than people think. Weighted vests, ankle weights, and wrist weights are kind of measured in pounds and kilos. Our loading is measured in grams and ounces,” Dolcetti said.

In fact, when used correctly, wearable resistance might actually be able to improve technique, by accentuating certain areas of the running pattern.

“When the loading is the optimal load, you not only won’t negatively affect technique, but you can actually improve it. If you have an athlete who is an under-strider, we can create an over-striding pattern. If you had an over Strider, we can create an under-striding pattern. So the load starts becoming a coaching cue,” Dolcetti said.

This sounds great, but how do you actually use these weights to improve performance? Initially, you might have to use some trial and error.

“The first thing you do is go for a run and move the weight around the body part, put it in the front, put it in the back, put it at the ankle, put it at the knee. One two-kilometer run later you’ll come back with an acute understanding of where the load moving around different positions affects your body,” Dolcetti said.

The second recommendation Dolcetti gives is to attack a problem area. 

“Where’s the slowness coming from? Is it the recovery from the front of the hip? Then? If it’s the front of the hip, let’s put the load on the front of the hip, because that’s the problem. And so loading the problem gets really intuitive,” Dolcetti said.

When you’ve got a grip on using wearable resistance, you’ll likely want to progress the load. However, because limb length plays a large role in the equation (literally), it’s important not to just crack more weight on the body, like you might on a barbell.

Progression should initially be down the limb, instead of using more weight.

“If you just move that load from the shoulder to the elbow or from the hip to the knee, you increase rotational workload by 25%. Just moving that load down the shaft. Obviously depending on how much the load is,” Dolcetti said.

This is an important point because the body is moving at speed, using various lever arms at different limbs, it can be complex to know exactly what is happening at specific joints when the weight is moved. 

One example of this is when sprinting legend Justin Gatlin tried wearable resistance for the first time. Dolcetti advised starting with a light weight on the hip, and when this was easy, he moved the weight down the limb.

“Let’s just start with a little bit of weight on the hip. And then, once he said, okay, I can handle more, boom, they moved it to the knee. And now he’s like, oh, wow, it changed everything,” Dolcetti said.

So there you have it, the power of wearable resistance to improve sprinting performance through light-resisted sprinting and even optimised technique.

If you want to hear more from Dolcetti on how to use wearable resistance including exactly how he prescribes this for sprinters and how he helps other coaches to optimise movement with these weights, be sure to check out the full podcast using the link below.

The post Episode 145. Can wearable resistance take your speed to the next level? – Joe Dolcetti appeared first on Science for Sport.

In episode 147, Greg Haff, Professor at Edith Cowan University, joins us.

Specifically Greg will be looking at:

• Physiological advantages of cluster sets
• Disadvantages in using cluster sets
• What ascending cluster sets are
• Case study: How to use cluster sets to improve performance

Do you want to maximise your gym results while reducing fatigue costs? If this sounds attractive, you’ll need to understand how to use cluster sets to maximise power, hypertrophy, and strength.

In order to get this imperative information from the source, we invited world-renowned coach and author Greg Haff to episode 147 of the Science for Sport Podcast.

Haff is a Professor of Exercise Science at Edith Cowan University, as well as a Strength and Conditioning coach. Over the last 40 years in the strength training world, he has built up a serious CV which includes time as the President of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

In recent years Haff has produced tonnes of great research in the field of strength and conditioning, including how you can use cluster sets to maximise performance and the physiology which underpins their effectiveness.

But before we delve into the physiological depths which sound so interesting, it’s important to define what cluster sets are.

“Custer sets are where we intersperse brief rest intervals and in-between either individual repetitions or groups of repetitions,” Haff said.

This basically means just splitting regular ‘straight’ sets up, by pausing and re-racking the weight. But why is this important? Well, it turns out, that the small rest allows you to do more total work.

“It allows us to accomplish more work so we can lift a heavier thing more frequently,” Haff said.

As I’m sure you’re aware, lifting heavy stuff more frequently leads to improvements in strength and muscle mass.

“If we look across the literature, if you can lift heavier things, you get stronger. If you can lift heavier things more frequently, you can build more muscle mass. So we can manipulate the set structure to change the physiological adaptation and the performance outcome,” Haff said.

Next to this, the short break and partial recovery allows more repetitions to be performed at higher bar speeds. 

“I really think where cluster sets are powerful is that they allow you to maintain movement velocity and the rate of force development,” Haff said.

Of course, rate of force development is an important variable for many athletes, as producing a tonne of force in a split second could mean the difference between a nice shiny gold medal, or no medal at all. So being able to train your rate of force development at no extra cost could mean that you can work more specifically for your given sport. 

Sounds good right? But increased power, strength, and muscle mass are not the only benefits. You might also be able to improve the technical aspects of a lift.

Performing lifts with less fatigue means that the exercise technique is less likely to deteriorate, as seen when performing sets to failure. But not only this, when coaches program cluster sets they may be able to give technical cues between repetitions, which could provide an improved learning effect.

“It’s a sneaky tool because we can also use it to teach people lifting technique by giving them a short rest and interspersing some instruction with novices,” Haff said.

Improved technique, strength, and hypertrophic responses are all amazing benefits, but, I hear you cry, surely there are some downsides?

Well yes, the big cumbersome elephant in the room (gym) downside is that your sets will take longer. So that means more time spent in the gym, which could be an issue for those on a tight timeframe.

The good news is, however, that if you’re working with a partner, you could easily just switch after the first part of the cluster set. But if we are honest, most people have a few extra seconds spare in order to maximise the effectiveness of their training. Next to the potential time costs, there may be an increased recovery cost if you are using cluster sets to increase training volume.

“There can be a pretty high metabolic cost because you’re lifting more load, you’re doing more volume. So there could be fatigue and you have to account for that a little bit,” Haff said.

This warning is important to heed, as performing cluster sets might feel easy at the time, but without careful monitoring of your training load, you might just be able to perform vastly larger volumes of work than previously possible. This means you will need to plan your training load increases carefully to ensure you don’t get unnecessarily fatigued from the sessions.

So with the advantages and disadvantages clear, how do these cluster sets look in practice? Well, you can take the following as an example:

Instead of doing 3 x 10 reps at 65 %, you may split the sets up to be 3 x (5 + 5) at 65 %, with a twenty-second intra-set pause.

Taking this a step further you may wish to increase the load due to the improved recovery that the cluster allows. This could be 3 x (5 + 5) at 70 %. In this second example, you can see that the clusters have allowed more total load on the bar and therefore more work to be performed.

So there you have it, a sneaky tool to improve power, strength, and hypertrophy, while ensuring lifting technique is always optimal.

If you want to hear the full podcast, including how to use advanced clustering methods, hit the link below to listen to the full podcast.

The post Episode 147. How can cluster sets maximise strength levels? – Greg Haff appeared first on Science for Sport.