@Scott Hagnas thanks! I need to pick your brain soon, @Haley Ruth is doing a trail 50k in Dec and would love to learn from your experience & insights. To your question - no I have not recommended they change their ski tech... but I could see there being some value in adjusting it to be more upper-dominant. My counter point would be: most of these athletes ALSO need ski-erg development so I want to spend time developing that pattern while also reaping the capillary benefits.

@Scott Hagnas IN!

@Jonathan Miller are you saying athlete B is just going through the motions while athlete A is maximising training adaptions? --> Athlete B in the example is just going through the motions. Completing the prescription, but not maximizing the adaptation. Also, from what I understand, as coaches, we should put a lot of effort into building the right cues to help build intended outcomes from training? --> I would agree with this statement 100%. if we are training an athlete with a back squat 5x5@70%, the intention should always be to have “max concentric intent”? --> short answer, generally yes. Longer answer is that it depends on what YOUR intention is when prescribing the 5x5 back squat @ 70% Examples: • Building absolute strength? maximal concentric intent increases adaptation (see the studies I referenced in the article) • Want to build strength that transfers? maximal concentric intent results in better speed and power adaptations than low intent (again see the studies). • Need to improve specific positions / posture / breathing / rehab / return to play? tempo work, pauses, or slower concentric phases may be valuable here. From my own training: I'm rehabbing a minor pec strain from bench press - my first phase was yielding ISO's, then an Eccentric-ISO coupling, then chains (set to off load the bottom range of the movement), then full reps @3030 tempo. My pec is at the point that it will tolerate up to 70% of 1RM with slow concentric speeds but coupling a rapid stretch-shortening cycle in the "turn-around" at the bottom of the rep still causes pain. A deeper way to think about this: Yielding ISO's --> strengthen positions & tendons Overcoming ISO's --> improve nervous system drive Slow Eccentrics --> build control, develop load tolerance Fast Eccentrics --> supramaxial loading tolerance (either with things like depth landings OR eccentric hooks) Slow Concentric --> increase TUT, create fatigue, tissue remodeling High Intent Concentric --> maximal strength gain / transfer to sport

I've started to shift away from doing classic forearm flexor / extensor work for the purpose of improving an athlete's grip. I try to focus now more on hand strength with things like DB hex head holds, plate pinches, towel grip carries, and "crush grip" exercises. The other thing that I've found to make a big difference here is to use barbell and DB complexes to create the specific grip-endurance necessary for the sport. A classic example would be 5x sets of DT, each set must stay UB; rest 2min active on C2 bike b/t (to flush some of the blood from the forearms). Also I have athletes with weak grip perform all deadlift work as double overhand, without hook. It typically takes them a little while to get their grip strength to catch up to their hinge strength, but long-term its a net positive. Finally check out the discussion on BFR that we just had on the Coaching Conversations pod. Building grip endurance is one of the places that I think BFR has real application: https://www.skool.com/ruth-performance-lab-1681/coaching-conversations-ep11-bfr-training-isnt-just-for-elite-athletes