Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Imperfection Training.........Have you tried it?





My twin brother Keats wrote a article called "Imperfection Training" for T-mag a couple of years ago. The basic premise of the article is that in our quest for the holy grail of strength and fitness, training PERFECTLY or safely is not always to our advantage. In other words, mixing your training by using barbell that are unevenly weighted on each side, performing your exercises blindfolded or even having someone unexpectedly bump and push you while exercising can have tremendous benefits. So rather than always mixing up our movements so we never make any real progress, we take Pavel's concept of the "SAME BUT DIIFERENT" and tweak the current exercises we currently do.

Well that is what I did today during my Single leg deadlifts, I used a blindfold and man was it difficult. Talk about a nervous system cocktail!!! If you have not tried it, do it, you will be shocked how difficult it is. So go ahead and try to spice up your current training program my using the "Imperfection" technique.

Is safe always better? Not always!!! Is your posture always perfect in a sporting environment? If a lineman tackles you are worried about posture? Questions to ask yourself. I am all for posture and maintaining integrity in your structure during training but I think we can get carried away with it. Read my brother's article for a more indepth discussion!

Training:

A-1 Pistol on Bench (to rehab the left hammie)
8kg 3 x 5/5

B-1 Single Leg Deadlifts (blindfolded)
24kg 5 x 5/5 (left hammie is feeling better. I'm Pummped I could even do this)

C-1 See Saw Press
24kgs 5 x 5/5

D-1 BW Chin Ups
12,12, 8

E-1 Farmers Walk
2 x 20kg 90 yards x 3 sets

7 comments:

Taikei Matsushita said...

Hope no victims will be blind folded at RKC cert. Possibly you'll implement this concept at next RKC.

I'll be at St.Paul this June. Hope I get to meet you then.

Thanks for the comment to my blog. It's been a big push for me.

Lauren Brooks said...

The blind folded single leg deadlifts are incredibly difficult. It's amazing how the vision is such a powerful sense during an exercise like that. Never thought it would be such a challenging exercise.
That's great that you were able to do those, even with your injured hamstring!

Franz Snideman said...

Taikei,

That is great news that you will be in St. Paul in June. I will be there with my wife Yoana. Look forward to meeting you.

Franz Snideman said...

Lauren,

the blindfolded drill is worth it weight in GOLD. Very valuable as you have experienced! Hamstring is feeling much better, thanks!

Adam Davila, Owner at Active Posture Care said...

Hey Franz, thanks for your comments on my Blog, looks like you guys are doing a great job too. I checkout your website and your Blog from time to time looks like you are kicking butt. Where did you get your CES certification? I am an Egoscue Method practitioner, I am considering trying Z-Health or maybe something else. I've considered MAT but not sure if I wanna spend the money. Any suggestions?


Adam Davila
www.adamtraining.com

Franz Snideman said...

Adam, thank for the feedback. I do not have a CES certification through Egoscue. I have a CHEK Certification (Level II) from the CHEK Insititue (which was one of the original corrective exercise cert's out there). Rather than call myself a CHEK practitioner I prefer to call myself a Corrective Exercise Specialist.

I have taken some of the one day and two day Z-health courses and they were great. I have not taken the Z-health Cert R-Phase, although I hear it is very good. You can talk with Ken Black as he just got through taking the R-Phase cert. Personally I am focusing on taking all my NMT Seminars in corrective Massage these next two years and then I'll take the test to get certified. You should check out the NMT courses, they are AMAZING! And you learn your anatomy like you wouldn't believe.

Check out www.nmtcenter.com

Best,

Franz

Joe Sarti said...

I train imprefect everyday...lol :-)

Nice post my friend and I do hope the hammie heals fast. I like the improvement and I understand what those numbers mean. Look forward to the 10.9 or less.