This discussion is for advanced and extra class lifters who are interested or has incorporated concentrated loading into there training. (Concentrated loading is dangerous and will make you more susceptible to injury. )
Since apparently there is little advantage for high class athletes to utilize complex systems of training, I've been attempting to understand everything that I can about training at a higher and higher level. There are too many sides to the complex system that advanced class lifters will encounter a faster diminishing return on such training. So I've been giving more attention to concentrated loading. It's got my attention for the moment.
In the Russian Manual - Programming and Organization of Training, it basically describes concentrated loading as controlled states of incomplete resotoration causing a persistant and prolonged disruption of homeostasis. The manual also states that it is appropriate to utilize concentrated loading for raising the effectiveness of SPP. It should be part of an athlete's preparation. The manual says that 2 months is the typical 'block' length (which sounds like a lot) and should hold roughly 25% of the year's general volume (that's debatable, but it illustrates its unusally high volume). It does have a score of negative side effects while training this way, but if used correctly and safely, it will allow an athlete to supercompensate if their training is programmed accurately.
Now I am interested in learning 'when' it should be applied when planning and organizing training for a world/national level competition. We aren't weightlifters, we are powerlifters. In my opinions and from what I've read, it is best utilized further out from competition (12-16 weeks). How far? What is common?
People in my gym have had success with this form of training through various translations. In other words, we've used fatigue percents, NL charts, NL regulation/experiments, and other forms/combos.
What forms have you utilized? How did it work? How did you organize training after such a block? How many weeks on?
Do you phase/wave volume through the 'concentrated loading block'? Or did you keep it constant.
In Verkoshansky's book, Special Strength Training, he talks quite a bit about concentrated loading. For discussion's sake, let's break it down into two periods... the loading period and the adaptation period. These pseudo-periods occur in conjunction with other acutal training phases, so they only serve discussion purposes here.
The effect is like this (which is a bit of a re-hash of what you said, but it's for clarity's sake). During the loading period, you overstress the organism by doing more work than you can recover from. Then during the adaptation period, you recover and supercompensate for that stress. Think of it like a beachball that you push under water. You push the beachball under water and let go, it pops up out of the water -- higher than it's starting point. This is kind of what happens during concentrated loading. The thing is, you have to imagine the beachball being very fragile. So you want to push it under the water as far as possible without it breaking (because a broken beach ball goes nowhere).
From what I've read on the topic, the loading period can vary in length from 3 weeks to 2 months. I've been better at dealing with 3 week periods, but then again, I haven't done one of these in a while. Look at Eric Talmant's prep cycle for the Raw Unity Meet this year. Definately concentrated loading. The loading period is usually better suited for volumetric means because of the large stressor it is on your body. In Supertraining, it describes some of the side effects of CL as decreased motivation, stiffness, soreness, lethargy, etc. So those are the reasons why injury rates go up. If you can deal with those things in a minimizing fashion, I think the chances for success go up. Now, I've talked about this with Landon (maybe he'll chime in so I don't put too many words in his mouth) and he doesn't think it's a good idea to push into the extreme soreness and breakdown described here. He thinks that if your preparatory work is as it should be, these effects should be minimal and your recovery should still be good despite the large increase in loading. I don't quite know where I stand on this yet -- I can see both sides. As far as how specifically to organize the loading, if a 2 month period is 25% of the annual volume, here's what we can assume about the loading reccommendations. In a distributed model (all volume is distributed evenly accross 12 months), you reach the 25% mark after 3 months. He says to do it in 2 months, which means during the concentrated loading block, do 150% of your normal workload. To me, this means 150% of your normal stress for 3-8 weeks. You can do that however you like -- higher loads on some weeks and lower loads on others (all loading, of course, is higher than "normal"). Or you could just flat load it. I know I like varying the loading. I need to get SOME recovery at some point to avoid injury.
After the loading period, you enter the Adaptation period. This is marked by reduced stress and a focus on intensity (rather than volume). This is the period where you accept the residual training effect of the concentrated loading period. ***Ideally the Adaptation period is about the same length as the loading period***. So if you do a 3 week concentrated, volume loaded prep cycle, follow that with a 3 week lower-stress, intensity loaded comp cycle.
Once you get good at stress management, this becomes easier. What you want to do is stress your organism (push your beachball under water) to a certain degree (the actual point varies with person, qualification, and intent of the block). Then, you want to program the Adaptation period so you recover more than you work. How much more recovery than work? Well, you want to fully recover from all stress by the end of the adaptation period.
It's a tough way of training. And keep in mind, it's a syle of loading, not a style of periodization, so it's placement in the larger scheme must make sense and the traits you develop must be deliberate and consistent with the periodization you are using.
ALL of that said, I haven't done a dedicated "This is officially concentrated loading" period in quite some time. Like many things, I think it's a continuum. This illustrates one extreme example of training. If you learn the mechanics of it, you can take the principles and adapt it to what you need. For me, I didn't do well or enjoy the loading periods. It's a beat-down! So I adapted it to a reduced form of the same principle (I'll have multiple High Stress weeks in a row followed by reduced stress in an intensity phase).
I think this might have answered some questions. Make sure to hit up some followups!
