Functional Isometrics in Training: Using Loaded Bars and Plates

Today’s episode features Alex Natera, senior athletic performance specialist at the GWS Giants of the AFL.  Alex has over twenty years of experience in high performance sport including time spent as a professional sportsman, a technical coach, a sport science lecturer, a published scientific researcher and his primary role as strength & conditioning coach.  Prior to the Giants, Alex was the senior strength and conditioning coach at Aspire Academy. Alex’s original article on isometric training that was specific to training sprinters “broke the internet” several years ago.   In it, Alex laid out an approach to training sprinters (and speed in general) in the weightroom in a manner that was very novel to anything coaches had seen before, using isometric exercises to hone specific elements of the run cycle.   This was followed up by podcast #86 where Alex took us in the nuts and bolts of the training system for sprinters. Since our last podcast, Alex, has spent a lot of time working with, not sprinters, but team sport athletes.  As much as the specificity of Alex’s isometrics to running still ring true in the scenario of training team sport athletes, working with this population versus sprinters is really a different “beast” than sprinters, who are more or less fresh all of the time and are athletic freaks.  On today’s show, Alex gets into the fine points of how he is incorporating his system into a team sport training regime.  Other topics we will cover will be Alex’s take on hamstring training for team sport athletes vs. sprinters, as well as a fun story regarding how the run-specific isometric protocol originated in the first place. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 6:00 The history of Run-Specific isometrics, and the necessity that sparked the protocol that has now become very popular and effective in training sprint velocity 26:00 Strength norms for the knee, hip and ankle in run specific ISO’s 30:05 Some of the big differences in applying run-specific isometrics in team sport athletes, specifically Australian rules football, versus pure sprinters 42:00 How Run-Specific isometrics have a strong impact on running efficiency in team sport athletes who have long distances to navigate with each game 50:40 What Alex does when force plates are not available for Run-specific isometric training 52:30 Some of Alex’s methods in addressing hamstring injuries in team sport athletes Quotes  “I was involved in isometric training, back to when I was a little kid in the martial arts” “I attest my strength in the scrum as a player completely to isometrics” “Our guys were getting a training effect from (weekly) mid-thigh pull assessments” “(A modern pentathlete) got 25% stronger in isometric mid-thigh pull, and then things like contact time at race pace, running economy, these things had a really positive shift” “I agree, isometrics are the safest mode of lifting work” “There is this minority group that can ruin themselves doing too much maximal isometric work” “(For the modern pentathlete) We did 3 sets of 3x4 second pushes (in the single leg isometric mid-thigh pull), mostly around the 90% effort mark” “It’s about 5x bodyweight for knee ISO push, for ankle ISO push, it’s about 3.5x bodyweight, for your hip ISO push, now it’s system mass, and it’s 3.5 times the system mass” “When it comes to team sports (versus sprinting), it’s a whole new level with fatigue; they are always fatigued” “The challenge is how do you incorporate isometrics into that program in a team sport athletes where the bucket it already full? Something has to come out of the bucket to put it back in” “The easiest thing to take out of the program is the volume of traditional lifting”