AUTO REGULATION OR DROP OFF'S

I did running in high school, as a form of conditioning for various sports, but did not understand much. Later on, I attended the University of Arizona, I was lucky to be around a couple of good track and field athletes. I got to know them via the weight room. One was a 400 meter runner who taught some of the basics of the sport. He knew a lot, but always went out way to fast, and would pull up with the dreaded "Hamstring tightness". He was simply outclassed. Nevertheless, I thank him for what I learned. He used to run sprints with very long rest periods, and would continue until his time or form dropped off. It was interesting, but my head was into the weightroom so much, I didn't appreciate the value of that statement.
When I was older, it was accepted to listen to your body when training, and listen to what it says. That was such a vague term. I was into cookie cutter programs then, and had to do what my program said. It led to overtraining many times, and probably undertraining a few times. I remember meeting a guy in 1995 or 1996 who trained people and frequently used a stop watch to time things. I had wondered how my track experiences and what I read could some how tie in together?
In 2002 I started reading articles by DB Hammer about Auto Regulation. I never heard this term before, but he also referred to it as "the drop off method". I made the tie in and was thinking , that is interesting. In DB Hammer's book "The Best Sports Training Book Ever" he talks about AutoReg and related subjects in Chapter 5. I'm not joking about that title. When I saw that I initially went, another self promoter.
Well, I just got bounced off my computer and lost my train of thought. That sucks! Back to the article. Time to retype something the second time.
Anyway, on page 59, he states "the best way to regulate volume is at the individual level. Lower down the page he states the three major reasons AutoReg or AREG is successful. They are:
1) Increase your ability to manage an increased degree of frequency with the same measure of fatigue inducement. That means I can do more and experience the same amount of fatigue. Hey, I like that one.
2) Increase your ability to tolerate an increased degree of fatigue without a change in the training frequency. That would include lactic acid tolerance, mental toughness, and many others.
3) Increase you ability to tolerate a greater than degree of fatigue even though the training frequency is also enhanced. This is hard to do with young athletes. They usually bury themselves and possibly get injured. Only well versed coaches are capable of doing this.
Well what is AREG?
If I can paraphrase Kelly Baggett, an excellent sports performance coach from the midwest, it is the individual differences in work capacity that everyone experiences in every workout. This can be adjusted up, or adjusted down. An example of this could be used in the glute/ham exercise. I tell the athlete to start off with bodyweight only for ten reps. If successful, add 5 pounds. If successful with 5 pounds for 10 reps, then go to ten pounds. Continue adding 5 pounds until they are no longer capable of doing 10 reps. There are many examples of this. I have mentioned speed lifts in other articles. That is another example. A third example is work up to a maximum in a particular lift. Lets say you box squat 225 for 5. You can subtract 6% from either number and continue to do that until longer possible. 6% of 225 is roughly 15 pounds. You can do 210 for 5 reps, with the same rest period in between each, until you can no longer do that. You stop and move onto the next exercise. You could do 225 for 4 reps until you are unable to do 4. Stop and move on to the next exercise. This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more variations to lengthly to mention here. Track and field athletes can immediately see the tie in to drop offs as used for some time on the track. The super 7 touches a ridiculous amount of combos.
By the way, the book is available at inno-sport.net.
Any questions? acudave@yahoo.com. Thanks!!