If I had to reduce ground contact time as I accelerate, moving into an elastic resistance is probably an ineffective strategy. Good morning. Happy Monday. I have neuro coffee in hand and it is perfect. All right, Monday. Looking forward to a great week. Kind of start off with a couple of housekeeping things. If you're on iFast University, we have an iFast University Q&A call at 1pm Eastern time. So be ready for that. If you're not on iFast University, please go to iFastUniversity.com and get yourself signed up so you can participate in those calls and in the private discussion group as well. The intensive applications are closed. Obviously, if you're paying any attention to that quick story, went to dinner with mom Hartman over the weekend, came back and had more applications in the email box than it usually takes about a day or two to accumulate and we did it in about three hours. I had to close that very, very quickly. So I apologize for this view that did not get a chance to apply. But we got, like I said, we got way more than we normally do. So yeah, a little bit of work to do on that. We're gonna try to get through this as quickly as possible. So I can notify the people that do get to attend. Keep in mind that there's only eight people that get to come. It's important that we keep it very, very small, thus the intensive. So again, appreciate you all there. Today's Q&A is with Greg speaking of the intensive. Greg was an intensive attendee and a participant in the current group with the intensive folks that is ongoing. So I know Greg a little and we got a chance to talk over the weekend about some elastic resistance issues about how I would typically use it, why I think there might be some negative secondary consequences associated with using band resistance. We have to be judicious in our approach when we're using elastic resistance because of the increasing force as you obviously elongate that. So Greg and I got into that a little bit. So this is going to be interesting for those of you that do like to use elastic resistance because there may be some things that you're doing that are actually creating some interference. If you would like to participate in a 15 minute consultation, please go to askbillhartmanedgmail.com, askbillhartmanedgmail.com, put 15 minute consultation in the subject line so we don't delete it, and we will organize that and arrange that at our earliest mutual convenience. Have an outstanding Monday, enjoy the call, and I will see you guys tomorrow.

All right, Greg, we are rolling. Clock has started. Let's talk. What's going on?

Yes, so I'm answering that email and asking about the bands. Essentially, how can a band be utilized to create specific adaptations? So in various ways. I'm thinking it can go horizontal, vertical, just on the muscle itself, if you will, like you're curling it or anything along those lines. How does one utilize and manipulate what we're trying to get?

So a couple things that we probably want to understand about the elastic resistance is the fact that to deform the elastic element more requires a higher force production. And so there are certain circumstances where that's really, really helpful. And then there are certain elements, certain times where that's going to be interference. So for instance, if I was trying to teach someone to accelerate and you and I have them accelerating into an elastic resistance, so if I had to reduce ground contact time as I accelerate, moving into an elastic resistance is probably an ineffective strategy because what it's going to do is as I push into it the force goes up and I get pushed into the ground harder and longer and that kind of defeats the purpose. Under those circumstances, I'm not a big fan. So I don't create a lot of accelerative activities into elastic resistance under those.

What would that do?

So like if I'm pushing into the band, so okay, so let's take it back to the first ten yards in a sprint. So you're accelerating, your ground contact time is longer compared to top speed. But if I'm moving into greater resistance, I'm getting pushed into the ground longer when I actually want my ground contact time to get shorter. So I'm actually training myself to produce a longer duration of force when I need to teach them to produce a shorter duration of force. And so, again, I'm just not a big fan. Like I said, like a first step, maybe not too bad. The more you get into it, again, where you see decreasing ground contact time, not a big fan. When you think about certain activities where, like, the highest force production in a loaded squat of some sort is through that middle range plus or minus the sticking point. That's where you would produce the highest amount of force. If you're only using elastic resistance, then the highest resistance is at the top when I'm standing up. So again, it's like, is it useless? No, is it best? No, right? There's some resistance there, but it's not where you would want them to be. So if I'm trying to enhance their ability to produce force at that end range, then by all means we're okay because we've got an increasing requirement of force production to deform the elastic element, right? So again, it's like, where are you applying this? How can we use this to our advantage? Okay, so if we're talking about, and you know, I like to talk about box squats and banded squats and things like that. If the highest force production is at the top of the squat, I can take advantage of that because if I lower myself onto a box very quickly from a position where the force is actually higher at that initial position, I can accelerate myself towards the box, which provides me any number of advantages. So I can get the body to descend faster than the internal organs would be applied by just my internal organs. So they actually float. So if I can go faster than the guts fall, I get my body down onto the box, I create the yielding action there, and then the guts follow down, and now I get this trampolining kind of effect. So I'm actually creating something that's very, very similar to the yield and overcome action of what people would classify as plyometrics. So under those circumstances, I'm actually going to enhance my ability to spring back off the box because if you can picture the pelvic outlet like a trampoline, right? So I come down, I set the trampoline down on the box, the guts come down right after the body does, I get this nice little recoil and it throws me back up on the box.

So under those circumstances, we've got something very, very useful. If I flip flop that, I have somebody that's kind of, you know, those people that look like they're stuck to the ground, they got the two inch vertical jumps, right? Or they have trouble managing gravity, right? They just can't overcome. Now I've reversed the elasticity, so the force is greatest at the level of the box. Now I enhance their ability to accelerate off the box and I teach them to throw their internal organs up in the air. Right. So there's a little bit of delay. So as they get up off the box, now the guts pushed down. So I'm still using the trampoline concept. The bands are helping me get the body ahead of the, of the guts. The guts get thrown up in the air. The longer I can keep my, my guts in the air, the longer I can get off the ground or the faster I can, I can cycle my leg. I have more time to cycle my feet for quickness purposes. So again, I can take advantage of these points where the force is the highest because it's going to provide me an advantage as to what's moving at what rate. Does that make sense?

Yeah, so the one thing I got confused with was you're saying that the force is highest at the lowest point on the box squat. How can you have that with the bands unless you're getting assistance with your hands?

Yes, sir.

How can you have that with the bands, unless you're like getting assistance with your hands? Does that make sense?

Because if I have a bar on my shoulders, it's connected to me. I'm holding it onto myself, right? So you're using your hands. I mean, and we'll have situations where we'll just, we'll just strap people to the bands, under their arms.

When you drop down, at that point, the band's tension is right? So you get unloaded technically.

That is true. You are absolutely right. But understand what my intention is. My intention is not working on that dissension element per se. What I'm trying to do is emphasize one element of this whole thing. For example, I have people because of their physical structure. So if I'm talking about some of those people we discussed with a 'pile on' structure, or I have someone with a descended diaphragm that I'm trying to teach them to ascend, going from eccentric to concentric or accelerating off the box. Because the band tension is highest going upward, the force is highest at the bottom, which gets everything moving faster because what they can't do—what they have trouble with—is that the guts are creating this downward force internally. The rubber band, just like a slingshot, if I pull the slingshot back and let it go, whatever I had in the slingshot is going to go forward faster. The guts are essentially sitting in this slingshot, which is the pelvic outlet and the rubber band. I slingshot that stuff up in the air. This teaches them how to accelerate their body and then unweight themselves internally. The guts will follow with a slight delay, which creates my little 'yield' and throws them up. It teaches them how to get their guts off of that pelvic outlet, which will improve their ability to reposition their feet more quickly. Potentially, it increases their ability to jump higher. However, because of their physical structure, they will always have some limitation in that regard. What we're trying to do is give them a little more of a mechanical advantage under those circumstances. We can progress this by starting with a really thick band, then a medium band, then a thin band, which is the reverse engineering of progressive resistance. Instead of putting more weight on the bar, we just reduce the amount of assistance. This is how it carries over to when they're just trying to manage their own body weight. Again, under these circumstances, if we have to use that strategy, chances are their genetic potential for vertical jumping and high-speed activities is probably not in their future. What we can do is teach them how to position themselves more effectively. If you've got a guy with an eight-inch vertical jump, but he can reposition his feet faster, now he's going to be in a better position to be a position player on a basketball court or get himself in position for a rebound more effectively. We're taking what their potential represents and manipulating it to the best degree possible. It would be very rare to take somebody with a physical structure that only allows a couple of inches of vertical jump into a 30-inch vertical jumper. The physical structure is not there. We can take what they have and enhance the elements we can. This is where the elastic resistance really helps—for me, I like to play on this vertical element a whole lot more than the horizontal. Moving into elastic resistance does not enhance your ability to accelerate horizontally. On the horizontal, we can pull people more aggressively into a cut, which I really like for people who have trouble dampening those forces. We do this quite a bit for a preload for somebody coming out of a cut. We'll load them a bit more aggressively into the cut and then take the resistance away as they move out of it. This teaches them how to hold position and how to decelerate those forces into the cut so we can teach them to dampen or return. Under those circumstances, I really like the elastic resistance there.

Gotcha. Okay.

So I slingshot that stuff up in the air. So what that teaches them is how to accelerate their body and then to unweight themselves internally. So the guts will follow. There's a slight delay. That creates my little yield and it throws them up. And again, it just teaches them how to get their guts off of that pelvic outlet. And that's what's going to improve their ability to reposition their feet more quickly. Potentially, it increases their ability to jump higher. But again, because of the physical structure, they're always going to have some sort of limitation in that regard. What we're trying to do is just give them a little bit more of a mechanical advantage under those circumstances. And then there's ways that we can progress this. You start with a really thick band, you go to a medium band, you go to a thin band, and that's just the reverse engineering of progressive resistance. So instead of putting more weight on the bar, we'll just reduce the amount of assistance. And so this is how they're going to get carried over to when they're just trying to manage their own body weight. And again, under these circumstances, if you have somebody that's relying on that strategy, if we have to go to that strategy, chances are their genetic potential for vertical jumping and high-speed activities is probably not in their future, but what we can do is teach them how to position themselves more effectively. So, you know, if you've got a guy that has like a, you know, an eight inch vertical jump, but if he can reposition his feet faster, now he's going to be in a greater position to be a position player on a basketball court, or he's going to know how to get himself in position for a rebound more effectively, right? You see where I'm getting? We're trying to do is we're trying to take what your potential represents. Here's how I can manipulate this to the best degree possible. It would be very rare that you could take somebody that has a physical structure that only allows a couple inches of vertical jump into a 30 inch vertical jumper, right? It just doesn't happen. The physical structure is not there. But we can take what they have, we can enhance the elements that we can. And this is where the elastic resistance really, for me, I like to play on this vertical element a whole lot more than I do on the horizontal. Because moving into that elastic resistance does not enhance your ability to accelerate. What we can also do though on the horizontal is pull people more aggressively into a cut. I really like that for the people that have a lot of trouble, you know, dampening those forces. So we'll do that quite a bit in regards to like a preload for somebody that is coming out of a cut.

So we'll load them a little bit more aggressively into the cut and then take the resistance away as they move out of the cut. And so again, it teaches them how to hold position, how to decelerate those forces into the cut so we can teach them the dampen or we can teach them the return. So under those circumstances, I really like the elastic resistance there.

That makes sense. And so I'm going to mess around a little bit with that increase the speed of gravity, like I said, and pull it into something and then stop. That means a lot out of the basketball guys from a jumping standpoint, that transition of vertical to horizontal movement. So I'll pull them into it to the point of no stretch on the band. And so they can come out. If you had mentioned to me, like you said, if you had to stretch on the band when trying to put your foot into the ground and trying to jump, you're defeating the purpose because you're increasing the time now. But you can get that the speed of increase, and then take the resistance away to get that transition, and that's where it's at. And that's actually what gangbusters for us. It's been the same. We've got eight creators dunking basketballs now. It's nice. It's been really cool. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. A lot of times I'll say, hey, we'll do a Zercher squat or something. Buff it, elevate it, or heal it, elevate it. utilizing that band as resistance. A lot of times that's just because of the strengths. Like they don't have a cable. They don't have anything like that. Yeah. Is that, is that still like, is there, would it be, so like, say they're getting pulled into it versus like, say maybe being behind and you dropping down as an assistance, like forward motion thing, would that be any difference? Like how would that make a difference? Does that make sense? I have a hard time visualizing that.

So whenever we use the elastic resistance under these circumstances, I tend to make it more of a rate-related intention. So if you had a front foot on a ramp, is that what you're talking about? Like for a split squat? Like a lunge? Yes. Okay. So under those circumstances, what I would prefer from a utilization standpoint is to take advantage of the high resistance at the top but try to get down into the split squat very, very quickly because again, what I don't want to do is slow this down per se. What I want to teach them to do is to dampen that force. So if I was going to use any resistance that would be elastic, again, I want the differential of rate. It's not about the resistance in and of itself because all I have to do is put a bar in the crook of your elbows and I've got resistance. What I want is the reasoning behind it is the differential. There's more force at the top than there is at the bottom. If I do it very, very slowly, under some circumstances, maybe that's useful. You've got somebody that can't hold the lowered position towards that IR. They don't produce a lot of force, but they do at the top. I suppose it's useful. But again, I tend to use it more for a rate dependent versus just pure resistance. A rubber band is not a substitution for a cable. They behave differently. Because of the elastic resistance, the force at the bottom is so much harder. It doesn't mean that I can't use it to my advantage. You know how I like to use the staggered stance chops to create the D-load? So at the very bottom of an elastically resisted chop, I am the lightest that I will be under those circumstances. So in that situation, I do like to use the resistance because it does unweight me to a significant degree. And it will allow me to capture a position because if I reduce the influence of gravity, I am less likely to superimpose a superficial strategy that will limit the relative motions that are available to me in the axial skeleton.

Yeah, so let's say we use that example because a lot of these bands like you can use so we say we get a really skinny one always a really thick one, right? Like there can be drastic changes and, you know, between even a little small one, a big one, an individual. So like say you're trying to do that chop like then you have like us as yellows are really skinny one. We have a yellow as like, I don't feel anything for say like, no, I get you're not necessarily what you're trying to get is one thing was like it's just they can kind of get it. Yeah, let's say you add that you go up one side and then they go to do the chop and it's You know, we can't right your arms are strong enough now. It's also a huge Shoulder frog. Yeah, like and that's where it's like it matters in regards to a lot Yeah, and okay. I know how do you at that point is it's like all you have to Do something else, less of a chop, essentially?

Yeah.

Like there can be drastic changes between even a little small one, a big one, an individual. So say you're trying to do that chop, and then you have like using a really skinny one. Like, 'I don't feel anything.' For say, no—I get you're not necessarily what you're trying to get is one thing. It's just they can kind of get it. Yeah, let's say you add that you go up one size, and then they go to do the chop, and it's, you know, we can't—your arms are strong enough now. It's also a huge shoulder load. Yeah, like and that's where it's like it matters in regards to a lot. Yeah, and okay. I know, how do you at that point? It's like, all you have to do something else, less of a chop, essentially?

Well, it's going to come down to resistance. So again, what I'm talking about here is an intention to capture a position. It's not about how much resistance that they feel. We're not worried about force production per se. We're worried about reducing the influence of the downward force that is their body weight, a.k.a. gravity, right? If I'm pulling a band downwards, the farther I can push that band down, the more I'm unweighted. But if I can't push it down, then I'm definitely not going to capture the position that I would want if relative motion is the case. Now, if I'm trying to create a situation where the axial skeleton has reduced motion, and I want to influence the relationship between an extremity and the axial skeleton, so the true hip joint. If I'm trying to create motion at just the true hip joint, I can increase the resistance. So now we do have a lot more tension through the axial skeleton. And if I can create the turn at the true hip joint, now I'm influencing that position where I'm capturing relative motion there versus the distributed relative motion that I talk about in the axial skeleton. So we just have to decide what our intention is, and then that's going to determine what the strategy and the resistance is going to be.

100% makes sense. And I say that in certain circumstances, that's very useful. And I'm not like in athletics, that plays a little bit more of a role in regards to stability and things like that, and like what you need to do. Yeah, pushing against you and things like, yep.

Yeah, I think that the confusion lies in what the intention really is because most people think that if I'm applying resistance to something, then force production is my goal. When that's not really the case, what we're doing is we're manipulating forces to allow us to accomplish a specific outcome. And so again, if I'm trying to capture motion, I can definitely use the elastic resistance to my advantage. But what are the secondary consequences? We always have to consider secondary consequences. Right? Is there something that am I creating interference for? So again, high resistance—a high resistance band chop—creates interference for relative motion in the actual skeleton but it also may buy me the extremity position that I wanted in the first place. Now now I'm fulfilling my goal. It's like, so we have to define, we have to be better at defining what our intention is, and now we just follow the principle. So again, elastic resistance follows a very specific principle: the greater the elongation or compression of an elastic element, the more force is going to be applied. That's the rule. That's Hooke's law, right? It's Hooke's law. So as long as we understand how to apply Hooke's law and then how does our system behave under those circumstances, now we can make better choices.

And I just want to verify that you just said that the greater the stretch on the elastic elements equals greater compression on the elastic elements.

Higher force.

It's higher force. Yes, yes, yes. But yeah, I like how you, yeah, okay.

For us as humans, the higher the force production that we have to produce, the greater the compressive strategy that we're going to use, and the reduction in relative motion is going to be observed. So that's why we have to play with these resistances a little bit. It's like, some people come in and they go, 'just feels like I'm going through the motions,' and I go, 'good, because that's what I'm gonna do.' Everybody thinks that everything has to be more force, more force, more force. When the reality is, it's like, what are we trying to accomplish? If I need movement, I don't want maximal compressive strategy. I need to optimize it based on the outcome that I'm intending.

Right, and you have the bands essentially to unweight that situation a lot of times.

I use that a fair amount because it's one, it's really, really easy. And it's something that I can give somebody to take home. Like in my situation where I'm working in the purple room, it's like I can give somebody elastic resistance and I can say, here's what I want you to do. Here's why I want you to do it. And then they can capture their positions that I'm looking for. Because typically, a lot of the folks that come to see me need more relative motion. What makes sense?