I briefly went over Compensatory Acceleration Training (CAT) earlier in the week, but wanted to dive a little deeper to make sure we’re doing a good job of explaining “the why” behind our training. CAT is when you deliberately accelerate the bar through the concentric phase of the movement, instead of using less force because the bar is lighter. We are trying to move the bar as quickly as possible through the lift.
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We can generate force by increasing mass (weight on the bar) and acceleration. A basic concept in sports science is the SAID principle (Specified Adaptation to an Imposed Demand). This means that everything we program is a demand on the body to drive a specific adaptation. We use CAT to adapt our CNS to accelerate the bar more rapidly through the range of motion.
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Moving on now to the training specifics. Make sure you are doing the movement prep. If you don’t have the balance yet for the Hip Airplane, you can place a bar on the rack to hold on to.
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Don’t underestimate the engine work. I came out the gate a little too hard and tried using 75s on the Floor Press. I hit muscle failure pretty quickly and dropped to 50s for the rest of it. Choose a weight on the MedBall seated throws that really allows you to whip it. Be explosive.