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what's up guys I'm John Evans I coach
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many of the highest Jumers in the world
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one of which is this guy isaia Rivera
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he's got a 50.5 inch vertical and hello
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in today's uh podcast I hope you guys
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missed us we didn't get the podcast on
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Friday Isaiah had a crazy week so you
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know we're coming back to you live on
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Monday midday um but we're gonna be
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talking about total training load and
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how that impacts your ability to adapt
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or how fatigued you get and things along
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that that those lines so this was kind
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of inspired by a video that I saw by an
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Australian strength coach I can't even
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remember like what is Instagram thing
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was did I send it to you Isaiah no I
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might have so basically it was talking
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about how the mountain uh what's his
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name like
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Bjorn I don't even remember yeah
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something like that he uh he plays the
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mountain in Game of Thrones if you guys
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are familiar with that and essentially
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goes into how he trains and it really
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just says he comes in he squats like 400
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kilos like works up to that or something
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and then does some leg extensions and
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then he talks about his daughter and how
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she can do if she did that same session
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it wouldn't nearly be enough training
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load to really elicit meaningful
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adaptation which I very much agree with
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and it kind of brought this conversation
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of total training load to the Forefront
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of something that I was thinking about
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relating to Isaiah and myself so what
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you kind of need to understand about
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this I guess maybe some like background
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about this is when I was at athletic lab
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in
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2016 I always noticed that the women
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track and field athletes that I guess it
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was even earlier than that might have
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been like when I was in high school so
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from like 2010 or 2016 something that
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I'd frequently see pop up is that female
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track and field athletes can handle a
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lot more training volume and when you
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think about it that makes sense because
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their overall outputs are significantly
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lower so for example someone's bone
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might be able to handle a ton of
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output right like any given bone can
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handle a ton of compression and when you
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have more Force though that bone is
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liable to break whether it's a man or a
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woman same thing with a tendon or you
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know something else right like these
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tissues have a given capacity to handle
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tolerance and when you're really really
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forceful and you generate a ton of force
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in the muscle you're at a higher risk of
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damaging those tissues in terms of
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absolutes not relative so like if I'm at
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100% And Isaiah's at 100% guess he's at
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a higher risk of getting hurt him why
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because there's more weight on the bar
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and that's true of powerlifters that's
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true of Olympic weightlifters and it
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changes the total training volume that
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you should give an athlete or an
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individual like if I'm uh Sam celic
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right and I can do bi and this applies
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to like just globally this is true if I
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can bicep curl I don't know what do you
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think you can bicep curl like 200 lb or
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something like that for reps probably
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yeah so let's just say it's like 200
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pounds for reps he is going to get get
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way more of a stimulus from doing that
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uh like let's say we both do 4x1 at the
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same percentage but he's in terms of his
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relative 70% he might be moving like 135
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and I'm moving like 65 or I don't know
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85 um for 10
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reps probably I don't even know if I
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could do
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that let's say 70 pounds on a barbell
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girl um he's going to elicit way more
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stress on his tissue or maybe like I
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would probably say like nurly there's
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going to be more of a load in terms of
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the tendon there's going to be more of a
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load and maybe he does have more
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capacity it's just in terms of absolutes
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there is way more physiological stress
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in what he's doing than what I'm doing
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and this is Amplified when you get to
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something like a back squat or a power
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clean like in those cases your max power
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or back squat Isaiah is deep asag grass
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what do you think is on the Belt squat
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like 365 we think or something yeah 365
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now let's say on a barbell it's what
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45 425 in that range right now yeah I
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think on a good day you could probably
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hit that so my best on a barbell back
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squat and I don't even get to the same
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depth but let's say let's equate depths
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so let's say like just below parallel or
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something like that um I might be able
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to hit 300 315 325 in that range
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Isaiah's probably hitting 450 to 500 in
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that range probably so you know th that
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is a massive discrepancy in total load
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right like we could do the same exact
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session and we have very similar
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training ages right so I mean obviously
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as vertical is a lot higher but his
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overall workload is going to be way way
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higher like load volume is going to be
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way higher and so as a result he's going
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to need longer recovery timelines he's
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going to need longer periods of rest
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probably between sets he's going to need
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longer sessions he's going to need
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better recovery and the only way that
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I'm even going to get close to the level
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of total systematic systemic fatigue
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that he has is if I'm adding a bunch of
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accessory work to get to the same level
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of like biological or physiological
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fatigue so I was thinking about this on
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like Friday night and I was just texting
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Isaiah about it and he was like dude I
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feel terrible from the squats like I'm
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dreading them and it feels like that so
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go on like what it you know what your
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response was to you know what I just
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said and then what I was talking about
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the other day I think uh I think
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specifically I said said I'm I'm going
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to search this phrase so I can pull up
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the
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conversation y I said that's why I want
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to off myself so much
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nowadays not actually but well so I I'll
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phrase I'll just I'll phrase what
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paraphrase what we said you said saw a
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post about absolute training load and
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thought about you and then I asked how
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come and then you said your absolute
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loads are higher than like 99.9% of
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people that's why John has to add so
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much volume I can't even get high enough
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intensity intensities even if it's at
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the same percentage you're moving so
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much more weight and I said oh yeah
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that's why I want to off myself so much
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nowadays compared to back in the day
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when I wasn't as strong and what I was
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thinking when I said that I remember
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workouts from 2019 specifically when I
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first started training like hard hard
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right not not load management yeah 2019
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not load management like basically like
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we got rid of all the limit all the
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limitations and just started training
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just thp zero load management right
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and the workouts were so much more
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manageable even if the volumes like on
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paper if you were to look at it my
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volumes have actually probably gotten
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higher from that point like a tiny bit
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higher you're to now yeah but if you
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compare a similar workout let's say I
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did uh 6x3 Power Clean 6x4 back Squad at
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the same
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percentages um the Sprints at the
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beginning that same workout is so much
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harder even though on paper it's the
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same exact workout the percentages were
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the same the sets were the same the the
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reps are the same like I just get
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freaking trashed nowadays you know it
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reminds me of one of my buddies Paul
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wmer I asked him once you know oh or
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right I I was having a conversation with
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him and I was like oh you know you're
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you're still
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moving 70% or something like that he
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goes yeah it's 70% but it's still 405 on
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my back and that put it in perspective
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he's like just because I'm stronger
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doesn't mean it doesn't feel heavy as
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quote unquote doesn't mean it it doesn't
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feel heavy as [ __ ] yeah that kind of
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like was eye opening I was like oh just
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because his relative percentage is the
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same doesn't mean it doesn't
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feel just as heavy as 500 lb would feel
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on my back like if if I put 500 pounds
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on my back it would feel like it was
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crushing me it still still feels like
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it's crushing him he can just stand it
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up you know and I think that that kind
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of put things in perspective for me at
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the time um like it was very eye opening
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and it kind of relates back to what I
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was saying about female athletes like
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they're very volume uh they're not
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volume averse they can handle a ton of
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volume without seeing crazy decs in
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performance and that was true at Duke
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like when I was a Duke some of those
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female athletes could Hammer volume I
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mean they would just absolutely eat up
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all the Sprint volume in the world and
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if I gave that same sprint volume to you
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know some of my athletes that were
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faster or like you know the even even
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for the men's side if they tried to do
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that same volume they have a little
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injuries pop up they would have uh
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issues with with hamstrings they
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wouldn't run as fast like they need
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heavier unloads because they're faster
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and the forces are higher and the
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muscular you know fatigue is more
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significant and the metabolic byproducts
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are probably I mean that's maybe I guess
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maybe equated a little bit but it's like
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the
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overall what would you call that K
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kinematics uh and kinetics are
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significantly higher right the forces
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and velocities and there's a consequence
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to that you know I always like this this
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term unintended consequences you're not
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going to be able to handle as much and
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it's even more true when I was at alus
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those guys were incredibly volume averse
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like any level of volume in the weight
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room would just destroy their sprinting
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and so I basically looked at the weight
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room at the time and I thought it was
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like a joke compared to what I would
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program for other guys looking back it
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makes more sense but like Greg
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Rutherford you know going in and doing
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like three sets of three step-ups at you
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know uh 250 kilos or whatever the hell
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it was I don't even know um and then
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power cleaning and then leaving after
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long jumping like once or twice into the
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pit or doing some run throughs I'm like
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what the hell like that's it that's all
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you did and you'll hear that a lot with
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the leak guys they're like less as more
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as you get better because your outputs
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are just so high where like to push that
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intensity you don't have the luxury of
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doing a lot of other stuff whereas when
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you're a worse athlete like myself or
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like even multi to some extent compared
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to like us bolt they can eat up volumes
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because the forces are just lower right
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like an elite high jumper gets to way
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higher outputs fa is a great example of
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this you know we did a review and we did
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realize like he needs more volume but we
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also came to the conclusion
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like you have overall less because your
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outputs are so high like he's box
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squatting 275 kilos for three he's power
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cleaning 100 he's hanging power cleaning
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with high pools like six sets of three
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at 135 to 145 kilos that's like 315 Plus
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you know um he's doing sprints at 69 210
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like running 10 meter fly times of 10
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meters per second you know he's running
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really fast for especially for his size
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and it's really uh prevalent whenever I
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see him high jump and do high jump
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sessions like he gets fatigued after
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like three jumps and he's like I I can't
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like I'm my quality just dropped uh and
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it's it's really interesting and I think
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as you've gotten better I've also seen
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that happen like we s aren't long like
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my d
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and you never get to truly 100% often
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because the risk is so high and it's
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really hard to get to a point where
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you're at you know like 100 per. so the
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risk is higher the unintended
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consequences like the fatigue is more
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significant I think more than ever
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you've noticed that this year like in
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the past we used to think oh dunk
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sessions are like you can manage them
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once a week or you used to be able to do
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them two three times a week now it's
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like you know what's nuts bro I'm I'm
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thinking the last few times I've played
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basketball I've noticed I've been really
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trashed like it leaves me really trashed
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but I am dunking like you know between
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games I'm dunking during the games and
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stuff like that and looking back at at
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the videos I'm still jumping like I did
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a one-hander this last session where uh
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Joe threw me a lob and I was like like
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like this on the rim like with my with
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my hand up so I'm jumping like 47
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48 that's still really high like
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sessions in 2019 would have been like 44
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45 probably would have been my cluster
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and then my best days ever are 47 48 now
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I'm hitting 47 48 for 90% of my jumps in
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a session mid game I'm probably hitting
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similar outputs to that uh and I think
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that's why I'm so much more fatigued
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even playing defense like I noticed I
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play I was playing better defense and
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not getting as tired by just not trying
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as hard
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like like
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it it's yeah I think the outputs are
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just insanely freaking high do you so
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you feel like it's like uh in this kind
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of a is being corroborated by
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you it's like a 99 M an hour fastball
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you know coming at your bat and you're
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hitting home runs like you're just
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you're pinging off the ground a lot
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harder and you feel it more like you
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just you know it's it's not like you can
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also think about on a on a more extreme
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level like
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football when you're 17 or when you're
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13 years old you know hits don't hurt as
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bad as when you're 21 22 you know now
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you're getting your bell rung you're
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gonna feel it a lot for a while you're
00:13:45
going to be sore all week essentially
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you know and uh I think you look at
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injury rates and things like that in
00:13:50
every league and that's the case because
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guys are bigger guys are faster despite
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what other people say specifically with
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the NFL maybe not as much basketball
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but it's way bigger it's way faster it's
00:14:02
way harder hitting and the consequences
00:14:05
that is can't really do as much I think
00:14:07
the NBA seems like it's downsizing a
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little bit so maybe that's changing like
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it's not like the game is dominated by
00:14:13
guys like Shaq anymore um you know I
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guess maybe in the sense that wemi is
00:14:19
like but he's he's more mobile you know
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what I mean like he's lighter he's not
00:14:24
as big as as heavy as Shaq was I would
00:14:26
say um so the game is is shifting more
00:14:30
towards very high mobility in terms of
00:14:34
like movement you know I would say and
00:14:38
not just like feeding the post maybe in
00:14:40
the sense that they're just like
00:14:41
shooting more threes a little bit
00:14:42
different but smaller players are able
00:14:44
to to be on the court and like get away
00:14:46
with it I would say that now guys are
00:14:48
more slender more mobile more cutter
00:14:50
respiratory fit uh you're not seeing
00:14:53
just massive players like yoing and
00:14:56
stuff like that just big old fatties in
00:14:58
the paint like I don't know if you agree
00:15:00
with that but uh you know it's and then
00:15:04
load management I think is also changing
00:15:05
it but um yeah there's the consequences
00:15:08
nonetheless as you get bigger faster
00:15:11
more explosive are going to be
00:15:13
more uh what would you say like
00:15:15
detrimental to your health yeah I I
00:15:19
think this week is going to be
00:15:20
really uh
00:15:23
enlightening why do you say that uh just
00:15:27
the how hard I trained this last month I
00:15:30
think I I got after it really freaking
00:15:32
hard and you think they're going to
00:15:34
unload like quite this is one of the
00:15:36
hardest Cycles mentally to like keep
00:15:39
showing up and keep pushing hard like it
00:15:42
was I don't know what it I don't know if
00:15:44
it was the loads or whatever but um yeah
00:15:48
I'm curious if that will be beneficial
00:15:51
because it's
00:15:52
like how much of it is the training load
00:15:55
thing how much of the training load
00:15:56
thing is just being soft
00:15:59
right like I don't think that's the
00:16:03
case like I'm well I'm curious like how
00:16:06
much there's some of that I think in a
00:16:09
way I think I think most people like
00:16:12
have you heard that Marine is it the
00:16:13
Marine no it's the seals the seals quote
00:16:15
where they're like oh yeah you know like
00:16:18
quitting you're really at 1% of your
00:16:20
actual capacity you know the last time I
00:16:23
followed that I almost had a heat I did
00:16:24
have a heat stroke a minor heat stroke
00:16:26
so you know I person forgot about that I
00:16:29
hit you with that quote bro mid mid 100
00:16:33
degree day in North Carolina running on
00:16:36
black top isaia hits me with this quote
00:16:37
I'm like I don't feel so good isa's like
00:16:39
you know what the Marines or the Navy
00:16:40
Seals say when you think you're at when
00:16:43
you think you're done you're really only
00:16:44
at like 50% and I was like you're right
00:16:46
so my ass ran as hard as I could up this
00:16:48
hill and then I just started vomiting
00:16:50
and [ __ ] my brains out and purging
00:16:53
myself of everything because my internal
00:16:55
temp was literally cooking me from the
00:16:56
inside out and uh
00:17:00
wasn't good wasn't a good day you need
00:17:02
to upgrade that cooling system man get
00:17:03
an in nice fat in cooler in your body I
00:17:06
don't I don't know what happened I just
00:17:07
know I got very ill I've seen it happen
00:17:10
multiple times with you in the heat like
00:17:12
yeah I like actually get really hot I
00:17:14
think um I don't know what it was there
00:17:16
was like a I think I just don't rest and
00:17:18
I go really hard and I'm on black top
00:17:20
sometimes and then I like after like 10
00:17:22
reps I'm like I do not feel good and
00:17:24
then I'll just get really sick yeah no I
00:17:27
I still
00:17:30
I I question that sometimes how much of
00:17:31
it is being a little be with yourself or
00:17:33
other people with myself with myself
00:17:35
specifically like I've never seen you
00:17:37
throw
00:17:39
up I've never thrown up working out bro
00:17:42
the closest I ever got to was high
00:17:43
school conditioning and and the the
00:17:46
coach literally
00:17:47
said uh he's gonna keep everybody has to
00:17:51
vomit like that was the thing like you
00:17:53
like he's gonna run us until we puke and
00:17:56
I got really close everybody like
00:17:59
freaking dropped like flies and it was
00:18:01
me me and my one of my best friends name
00:18:03
is Thomas he was a beast bro he was like
00:18:06
one of the most talented distance
00:18:07
Runners I've ever met in my life but he
00:18:10
loved basketball and we always trained
00:18:12
together this is Florida yeah this is in
00:18:15
Utah and me and uh it would always be me
00:18:17
and him at the end of every like running
00:18:19
drill like like outlasting everybody and
00:18:22
then everybody had puked and it was just
00:18:24
us two and the coaches ended it he was
00:18:26
like all right like you guys you guys
00:18:27
are done I was I was legit about to go
00:18:30
puke like if I had run like one more
00:18:32
down and back I would have been it would
00:18:34
have been over but that was that was a
00:18:36
closest I've gotten sick before like a
00:18:39
little nauseous but not enough to to
00:18:41
puke after that like I I was still
00:18:43
pretty far away from it but maybe I am
00:18:46
soft if I haven't puked soft so also I
00:18:50
wanted to let it be known that since the
00:18:52
40s uh basketball has increased by about
00:18:55
four to five inches in height average
00:18:57
height until the 1990s and then with
00:19:00
position lless basketball and the three
00:19:02
becoming kind of more popular not
00:19:04
necessarily the 90s but since the '90s
00:19:06
it started to Trend
00:19:09
downwards kind I had a I had a dream
00:19:14
about my 4r Dash and apparently it was
00:19:17
fast as hell like the way we measured it
00:19:19
apparently nobody measures like that no
00:19:20
one does measure it like that I've said
00:19:22
that and then like they started testing
00:19:23
like all these like the fastest NFL
00:19:25
players and they were all running 49
00:19:27
with with our testing it might I don't
00:19:30
know I might have to check that out that
00:19:32
might be a good we be able to right you
00:19:34
just look at the first frame to start
00:19:35
moving and then yeah but you're all
00:19:38
these videos are 24 frames per second
00:19:40
because that's what they use in
00:19:41
cinematic frame rates they're not using
00:19:42
High frame well maybe no they're not
00:19:44
using High frame rates I've looked at
00:19:45
them before um but no I think you are
00:19:48
faster than you think it's just I
00:19:50
measure you in a very challenging
00:19:52
environment I think on a free lap you'd
00:19:53
probably run a 40 and like
00:19:55
46 yeah I really think so probably 465 I
00:19:58
would assume Cody Bido runs like a 44 I
00:20:02
think something like or four four
00:20:04
something low like he's I don't remember
00:20:07
what it is i' have to ask him anyways we
00:20:09
feel like is a good place to cut it off
00:20:10
if you guys are interested in getting
00:20:10
coaching we should have done this at the
00:20:11
beginning but we're doing at the end you
00:20:13
always forget I know I tried to remember
00:20:15
this time and I got most of the
00:20:17
checkpoints that I try to do but I
00:20:19
forgot this time uh go to TB
00:20:21
strength.com we're really passionate
00:20:22
about it we love what we do I take a lot
00:20:24
of pride in kind of obsessing over this
00:20:27
and making it my entire uh character and
00:20:30
personality
00:20:31
trait I've had to send stop doing it
00:20:34
quite as much because my brother thinks
00:20:35
it's detrimental to my human my
00:20:38
development as a human but all of you
00:20:40
believe otherwise so uh yeah thank you
00:20:43
guys for listening uh this far along and
00:20:45
if you guys are like I said interested
00:20:46
it's
00:20:47
126 or something like that a month right
00:20:49
now but if you get a six-month or one
00:20:50
year it's a lot cheaper so I encourage
00:20:53
that anyways that's where you're going
00:20:54
to see the most progress and the biggest
00:20:56
thing I appreciate you guys is
00:20:57
consistency stay the course and you'll
00:20:59
definitely get better so all right we'll
00:21:01
talk to you guys later byebye out
