Developing Tendon Dominance

If we want to have these amazing tendons, what are we going to do? We need to progress the load, length, and speed. There's going to be a point with each of these where doing more becomes more of a risk and we get diminishing returns. Having a foundation of daily circulation is what's going to help the tendons.

With that as the underpinning. . .

We can progress the load. We can progress length. We can progress speed.

As I said with Devon Larratt, he's training three times a day with super high loads in a short range of motion.

To be able to do that, you have to progress to it.

This is the most obvious and the most popular. Everyone likes putting more weight on the bar. Working towards heavier and heavier weights is going to mean that the tendons are more and more prepared. If you can get to those weights without causing irritation, then you're getting to a better place.

The way the tempo that we use on the lift is also going to play a key role.

If you're lowering the weight slowly then you're favoring the muscle.

If you jerk the weight then you're going to favor the tendon and the forces are going to be much higher.

Sequencing length: athletic range

Progressing from short range to extreme long range allows us to gradually develop the tendons, this is the concept of athletic range. The ATG system is the first system that I’ve seen that sequences length in this way and I believe that that is at the heart of why there are now over 2 000 ATG success stories.

This is really at the heart of getting the tendons that you want. Working through and understanding the sequencing of length, progressing the weight that you're using, and then progressing speed or amortization.

With these, we're trying to get a fast transition between down and up.

I think it's 100 kilos on here, you're trying to get that down-up phase, reverse the speed of the bar.

It's 100 kilos but I think if I drop that 100 kilos off the floor into someone's foot from my back it's going to have a very different impact if I roll the bar over their foot and sit on their foot.

It's not just the weight, it's the tension we need to be looking at.

Are we lifting with high tension or are we lifting with just heavy weights on the bar?

For athletes, we want that tension because you might have 10 times body weight.

Let's listen to one of the guys in the group, Kieran talking about in downhill skiing, you're getting four times body weight on one leg, so, each leg needs to be able to handle four times body weight, eight times body weight.

Is anyone squatting eight times body weight? No.

They've got that sort of force. I think there are 50 turns. So, 50 times in like 60 seconds, was the number, and then in the slalom, it's just only possible with extreme tendon strength.

Strength training, we need to look at tension training instead and understand that it's really the tendons that need to be at least equally considered developed and they are the real foundation of elite athleticism.

To challenge our tendons, we're going to challenge them with high-speed movements, with reactive movements, with things that are very heavy, mechanics and joint angles are also going to challenge tendons if we're loading them from angles that they're not used to or not designed for and that's going to present a challenge.

Spikes in the volume are also going to challenge tendons.

Using very low loads can be a way to regenerate the tendon and support the tendon and not challenge it, but that seems to be better than rest and is low loading.

If you look at the Westside Barbell System, they will encourage their athletes to do 300 triceps extensions each day, and 200 abandoned hamstring curls. They have these baselines of activity sled dragging, reverse hyper, these baselines of activity that are all kinds of elastic movements in a way creating circulation, and regenerating.

The high-speed stuff, the reactive stuff, this is what's going to challenge, what's going to flare up tendons. If the tendon is sore, something probably happened along these lines.