Tuesday, April 24, 2012

French Contrast Training Revisited

Awhile back I wrote about my first introduction to French Contrast or Insider Training.  I've since read some more work by Cal Dietz, strength coach at the University of Minnesota, and had the French Contrast explained with examples in a little more detail.

For a quick review, the French Contrast (FC) was developed by Gilles Cometti, French Track and Field coach.  It is essentially a combination of contrast and complex training methods.

The FC consists of 4 exercises.  The first is compound exercise (lots of muscles involved) at 80-90 percent of your one rep max.  The 2nd exercise is a plyometric movement.  The 3rd exercise is the same lift as the first exercise at 30% or a slightly weighted version of the 2nd exercise.  The fourth exercise is another plyometric or an accelerated plyometric movement.

The idea behind the FC method is to produce explosive strength and speed endurance.

An example that Coach Dietz gives.  Back squat with a 3 second isometric pause at the bottom.  A hurdle hop.  A weighted squat jump.  Finally, a quarter squat jump.  There is not rest between exercises, one immediately goes into the next movement.  There is 3-4 minutes rest between the last exercise and the start of the new set.

Coach Dietz book is called "Triphasic Training:  A Systemic Approach to Elite Speed and Explosive Strength Performance.  

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