Tissue Tolerance, Capacity & Warming up to Warm Up

Last weeks email "Energy Balance and Warm Ups" seemed well received with the amount of replies I got from it.

On in particular I want to share with you as it brings up a fantastic point:

"Hey Dave,

Just a thought to add from my own experience about 'warm ups' and aging.

It seems to take longer now to rev the engine (and mind?) into gear, and many things I used to warm up with like jump rope. are far too difficult to start with now. At first I though it was just that I could nor jump rope any more, because my back would spasm, my legs were so heavy and wouldn't lift off the floor over the rope, big lactic acid build up in my calves etc.. but, turns out - after an hour's boxing session ,with shadow boxing, footwork drills, pad work etc, I can go 3 minutes just fine!

So my conclusion is that I need to think of the whole 45 mins-1 hr as warm up!

Anyway, thought it might be a good bit of info for those others of us who are starting lower down the ladder as it were, so they don't get discouraged by not being able to use the 'warm ups' they used to be able to do. You can still do them.. just AFTER. :-)

M"

"M" is Maija, a former client and friend. Someone you should look up if you are interested in Filipino or Chinese Martial Arts, especially FMA blade work.

In a follow up email Maija also said she needs to "Warm up before she can warm up" which is very much in line with how Paulie and I would joke in Wild Geese that would have to warm up on the Monday in order to train on the Tuesday.

So what is going on?

I'm going to use the Push Up as my example for this.

To one person a full push up too much.

Yet the next person can bang out 25 perfect reps.

The difference is a thing called Capacity and can also be Tissue Tolerance.

The first person has not yet gained the capacity for push ups, the second person absolutely has. So to they will both use the exercise differently for a different outcome.

The 25 rep person can use push ups in the warm up, can throw them into a conditioning circuit, do whatever they like.

But the other person, to them it's a high strength move. A full push up at this time is beyond a 1 rep max, beyond 100% intensity. So they will do variations and other stuff in order to build the capacity to achieve a push up, and the tissue tolerance not to hurt themselves in the process.

And this can be said for any exercise.

The push up gives a very simple visual of how a drill can sit on a sliding scale depending on the individual using it.

Skipping, well that's rarely going to be a strength thing. And as Maija points out, after an hour, skipping comes onto the table.

After an hour she has the nervous system primed, the blood pumping, the joints moving and now she is in a position where skipping can happen.

A position where, and this is she chooses to, she has a window in which she can develop capacity and tissue tolerance.

And over time, maybe the warm up window she needs will lessen, and lessen and potentially disappear.

If does disappear and she gains the ability to just pick up a rope and go for it, then it's a fairly safe assumption that the muscles and joint in the foot and ankle have developed the necessary Tissue Tolerance.

That's a fair few "ifs" and "assumptions" as we don't have the specifics of Maija's case. But I merely using Push Ups and Skipping as examples of a concept.

The key concept of Progressive Resistance Training and the SAID principle drive all training.

If we gradually increase the resistance we work against, that can be more weight, or more volume, or less rest, or more frequent, or more time, or faster, or slower and so on.....

Then we develop more capacity and in a few months, what we once thought was difficult is now relatively easy.

It takes time

It takes effort

But more importantly it takes awareness and persistence.

Awareness of your actual current capacity and your ability to improve, and your persistence in making those improvements happen

And critically, awareness that there are occasions where improvement may never happen or that there's a need for medical intervention such as surgery.

So we Hope for the Best, I can and will improve, but Prepare for the Worst, maybe I'll need help along the way.

Great response from M

This is exactly what this newsletter is about, I love it when you guys ask questions and challenge my answers.

There shouldn't anyone on this list who reads my emails as if they are the gospel truth, every one of you should read my work and the work of others with your cynical glasses on.

Chat soon

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Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net