Freestyle Training

[kathryn]

>Kathryn-
>
>Would you mind listing some of the "Freestyle Principles"? I
>understand the idea of "almost" overtraining the lower body
>with little rests between sets and working many days in a
>row(to gain endurance,reduce size and burn more calories I'm
>assuming?) I'm just unclear on upper body principles and why
>pulsing movements are excluded, why you limit direct chest
>work, etc.
>
>Thanks,
>Carolyn
>
>
Hi, Carolyn!

The basic Freestyle principles are:
1) higher-frequency lower body exercise (both resistance training and cardio that uses the lower body)
2) compound instead of isolation moves (to better work the body the way it moves naturally, and to promote better coordination and athletic ability.
3) keeping it lipolitic (fat burning) by limiting rest between sets

They don't particularly say "no pulsing moves," but since they say tat moves should be full range of motion (and pulsing moves aren't) to 'create a longer, more sleek appearance' and develope the entire muscle in it's natural shape, and pulsiing moves are by their nature not full ROM (and Cathe likes to use them a lot in her lower body workouts) I put that in myself!

Freestyle doesn't really say much about upper body (it definitely focuses on the lower body), except for using compound movements (which reflect more the way the body is called upon to move in real life), and limiting direct chest work (to avoid overdeveloped pecs that give the chest a boxy, unfeminine appearance. It also makes sense to me, as we use our 'front' muscles--chest, front delt---so much more in daily life that it's easy to get a chest/back muscle imbalance).

 

[pixie9]

Thanks for your replies Delphene and Kathryn. I have a much better understand of what the program means now.

One more question, if you don't mind: In limiting direct chest work, would this mean that chest work is eliminted all together and back work is emphasized? In other words, what sort of upper body exercises would this program promote(since some upper body exercises tend to isolate certain muscles like bicep curls,tricep kickback,chest presses)? Would those exercises be replaced by something like a lat pulldowns? I'm asking because I'm actually very interested in this concept and would like to try it out on some clients(as well as myself).

Thanks again!!!

CArolyn

 

[delphene]

Carolyn,
Heres another link but this one is for lowerbodysolution (same method)that may be helpful with upperbody selections for you and your clients!

http://web.archive.org/web/20010626174745/http://www.virtualfit-trainer.com/LBS.htm

 

[kathryn]

In limiting direct chest
>work, would this mean that chest work is eliminted all
>together and back work is emphasized?

Chest work is limited primarily to exercises that are compound, like pullovers combined with chest presses. Tricep push-ups are considered to be a tricep exercise, with chest helping. There would also be perhaps one other chest exercise, like an incline press, but they are limited.

For back, one example of an exercise is a combo deadlift, upright row (which also hits shoulders). They also do 1-arm lat rows in the home program, but the gym program uses pullups.

That's the info I got from "Freestyle" by George Snyder and Laura Dayton. Dayton also wrote a follow-up book called "The Lower Body Solution" that revises some of the info, but I haven't looked at it for a long time, so don't remember what her changes were.

 

[loonette]

Count me in!

 

[Spinin28]

Me too