The Force System in Training

About a year ago, I wrote an article here titled “Redefining Strength: High Force Does Not Equal High Load.” Little did I know then, but that would be the tip of the iceberg for what has ballooned into an entire system that I decided to name the Force System. This system is a compilation of years of learning from various resources and many people much smarter than me. Many of these individuals I’ve worked for or with and communicate with weekly; however, some of this knowledge has been gained from individuals I’ve never spoken to. This is possible because of the ease of access to information on social media and platforms like SimpliFaster.

Another percentage of this system has been born from self-experimentation, asking questions, trying to find answers, and challenging tradition. I’d like to put the disclaimer early in this article that I am not trying to reinvent the wheel; however, I do believe that the elements within this system complement each other in a very powerful way. Allow the Force System to reimagine how we look at sports performance without the reliance on powerlifting, Olympic lifting, or bodybuilding. Elements from each are present, but at a much smaller scale than the average program.

I also believe plenty of elements within this program have been around but are often not utilized to their full potential. Depth drops and overcoming isometrics (isos) have seemed to get the most buzz within this system, but there are many more important aspects that I am excited to dig into in this article. To introduce the Force System, in its totality, it consists of four pillars:

• High Force
• Fast Force
• Slow Force
• Human Force

Each carries its own power to create the highest-performing and most robust athlete possible.

High Force

Tradition says that progression within a training program typically includes an increase in volume or intensity (e.g., total weight). While that creates beneficial physiological adaptations, I always felt that it didn’t best prepare athletes for the physical stressors they encounter in sport. Movements in sport, such as a rapid deceleration, change of direction, or maximal jump, create extremely high ground reaction forces, and you obviously don’t perform these movements on the playing field with a barbell on your back or a dumbbell in your hands.

While typical progressions include an increase in volume or intensity, I always felt that didn’t best prepare athletes for the physical stressors they encounter in sport. Share on X

This led me to a series of experiments. Do traditional movements (squats, deadlifts, etc.) loaded at near maximal intensities produce high forces, or can you manipulate components of the Force equation (Force = Mass x Acceleration) to expose athletes to higher peak ground reaction forces?

Ideally, my goal with this is to increase the magnitude of an athlete’s force production and build resiliency against these high forces they experience in sport. That led me to depth drops, overcoming isos, and drop catches. The initial “Redefining Strength” article focused on this High Force portion of the system (before I even knew there was going to be a system). If you’d like to hear more about my early thoughts and the creation of the High Force pillar, be sure to check out that article.

The first thing I’ll say is there’s a portion of that first article that I now believe to be wrong. I stated: “I believe a belt squat overcoming iso to be the highest force-producing exercise an athlete can perform.” A year later, I’ve found it’s not first or even second in regard to peak force.

To start, the second-best exercise I’ve found when it comes to producing the highest peak force is actually a harness overcoming iso. The harness I use, which I believe to be most comfortable, is the Exxentric Squat Harness. The ultimate High Force exercise—number one on my list—is a depth drop. Since releasing that first article, I have had more time to experiment with the power of depth drops and also collaborate with other practitioners who use them at a very high level.

At Furman University, Matt Aldred has seen his guys hit more than 12,000 Newtons in depth drops: more than 12 times body weight. I can confirm that I have seen the same with athletes and myself. For this reason, depth drops are the king of High Force exercises. While I’ve changed my tune on overcoming isos in terms of their place on the High Force podium, I still utilize them, and they remain a staple of this portion of the system.

The last primary exercise variation is drop catches. Drop catches involve holding a weight (dumbbell, barbell, trap bar, etc.) at the top of the range of motion and dropping and catching the weight at a lower position. This exposes the body to much higher forces than the traditional version of any exercise because of the change in acceleration of the movement. Remember, Force = Mass x Acceleration.

Instead of more weight, the progression is done by increasing force. Share on X

Depth drops, overcoming isos, and drop catches continue to be the backbone of High Force days. They are implemented through a progression that is much different from traditional progressions—instead of more weight, the progression is done by increasing force.

Video 1. Depth drops are the king of High Force. Landing rigid like a statue will increase peak force much more than a compliant, “melting” strategy. If you have access to force plates, try some drops from increasing heights and track your peak force.

It’s also impossible to talk about High Force without including the work that should be done outside the weight room. Damian Harper is one of the leading researchers in the realm of deceleration training. He has shown that, between max acceleration, max velocity, and max deceleration, decelerations produce the highest forces (more than six times body weight). Because of this, the development of deceleration outside of the weight room is vitally important within the High Force framework.

The development of deceleration outside of the weight room is vitally important within the High Force framework. Share on X

While I believe deceleration qualities can be developed within the weight room, putting athletes in positions to actually feel high-level deceleration is essential to realize the adaptations that have taken place in the weight room and to build capacity and performance in this area. I think there is value in the “deceleration drills” that you see plastered all over social media, including a medball chop or a band around an athlete’s waist as they are pulled into a deceleration. However, I don’t believe these touch the GRFs present in the max decelerations athletes experience on the field/court.

I understand there isn’t an objective way to evaluate what I’m about to say; however, I think a game as simple as tag can allow athletes to experience high deceleration forces, and they’ll probably have fun doing it. Fun = intent = higher forces.

Video 2. Tag game with basketball players. There are countless variations that you can introduce, including 1 v 1, 3 v 1, Team Tag, and Sharks & Minnows.

I’ve been asked why this matters. Why is it important to expose athletes to high forces as opposed to just high loads, like in traditional training programs? I have a few thoughts on this.

The first is a disclaimer: I am not throwing out traditional exercises or progressions through increasing intensities. Instead, I am offering a progression from them when an athlete becomes “strong enough”—which, in my opinion, is much sooner than most think. If you’re looking for standards and objective numbers to determine these things, I don’t have them…yet…as it pertains to the Force System. However, individuals like Matt Rhea of the New Orleans Saints have put out some interesting “strong enough” standards in relation to contributions to speed.

My other reason for the importance of High Force training is that it’s what sports demand. While plenty of sports involve trying to move or control another individual’s mass (lineman in American football, MMA, etc.), a lot of the force that athletes experience has to do with ground reaction forces (GRF). Research has shown that triple jumpers can experience up to 22 times body weight on a single limb! (Hay, 1993).

To a lesser degree, I’ve watched my basketball athletes move at full speed on a fast break and slam on the brakes, hit a Euro step, and launch themselves into the air to dunk on an oncoming defender. This in-game action may be impossible to quantify in terms of GRF at this point in time. While different from a triple jump, it’s similar enough to assume extremely high forces that aren’t even touched by traditional movement. I want to use these higher-force exercises to build the capacity to tolerate these high forces in competition and also, when appropriate, move the needle in terms of an athlete’s ability to express even higher forces.

These two things, in theory, should help reduce the likelihood of injury and improve performance. Again, do you replace every movement in your program with a depth drop? No. However, there is absolutely a time and a place and a growing argument that these elements should at least be included if you want to best prepare athletes.

Fast Force

As I began to develop the High Force section of this system, I realized that expansion was needed to encompass all of the aspects of physical development that I find most important. While deceleration fits well into the High Force theme, for the reasons stated in the last section, acceleration and max velocity development fit well in the Fast Force theme.

I would like to mention that I think acceleration AND max velocity speed should be trained, regardless of the sport. I see coaches shy away from max velocity sprinting because it’s not “present in their sport,” but from a general perspective, as my close friend and co-business owner Mike Sullivan says, max velocity sprinting is the most prolific combination of coordination, force, and short ground contacts possible in movement. And, as you’ll come to realize, the Fast Force theme is constructed around these things, along with elasticity.

To most, the concept of elasticity sounds like a cool buzzword to draw attention on social media, but to me, it is much more. Along with linear speed, the other pillar of Fast Force training centers around this ability to build more elastic athletes. This seems, at first glance, to be subjective; however, after digging through force plate data for years, I’ve begun to create models of what depicts elasticity. This involves looking at the change in certain metrics, including time to takeoff, countermovement depth, and braking forces, and noticing the shape of the force-time curve.

From a developmental perspective, I believe elasticity starts at the feet by getting athletes out of their shoes and exposing the soles of their feet to sensation. Share on X

From a developmental perspective, I believe elasticity starts at the feet by getting athletes out of their shoes and exposing the soles of their feet to sensation. I love walking outside on various surfaces and/or using neurospike balls (available on Amazon) to drive tactile stimulation through the soles of the feet. Often, feet that are labeled “weak” are actually just lying “dormant” from a lack of tactile stimulation. Next, I think exposing the body to high volumes of extensive plyometrics begins to transition it away from muscular-driven movement to a reliance on the power of connective tissue.

“Oscillatory” exercises are a staple of Fast Force days. Not only are these a unique and powerful training stimulus, but I believe they complement the development of both important aspects of Fast Force training: speed and elasticity. Traditional training turns muscles on and keeps them on…and on…and on. The power of oscillatory movement is found in training the ability to turn muscles off and, with certain variations, rely on and force the connective tissue to produce a larger percentage of the movement. The three main oscillatory variations I like to use are categorized into three Rs:

1. Rhythm
2. Rapid
3. Relaxation

Video 3. Oscillatory variations—for visual learners, here’s a demo of the three Rs in action.

Key takeaways from this section of the article are that Fast Force training’s two main focuses are speed and elasticity. Some of the ways you get there are:

• Sprinting
• Going barefoot
• Doing extensive plyometrics
• Engaging in oscillatory movements (along with a few other elements not included in this article)

Fast Force training will probably look the most unique compared to most traditional strength and conditioning programs. You may spend more than half of a session outside: sprinting, jumping, being athletes! And once you transition to the weight room, you won’t see heavy barbells and horizontal pulls, vertical pushes, etc., but a much more unique training style. A style of training that all contributes back to speed and elasticity.

Slow Force

While High Force and Fast Force training fall in the realm of go, go, go, training this way can beat an athlete up—especially if that athlete is also playing their sport. This is not to say that these training means are unsafe, but any intense style of training will take a toll. And, to a certain extent, that’s what we want!

We need to disrupt homeostasis to create adaptation. However, after developing these first two themes, I realized I needed a more restorative, “therapeutic” stimulus that works to restore tissue quality at the muscular and connective tissue levels. And that is precisely what I wanted Slow Force to be: therapeutic, with a dose of development.

The first element of Slow Force training involves the goal of improving tissue quality—specifically, tendons. While I’ve worked in a multitude of sports in my career, basketball has been a focus throughout, especially in my most recent positions. Because of this, I have become hyper-focused on the ability to prevent tendonous injuries or take a tendon that is beat up and painful and contribute to improving its health.

While overcoming isos have their own contribution to tendon adaptations, the ability to create high forces lends to them fitting in on High Force days. However, there is another isometric variation that leads to proven improvement in tendons: yielding isometrics.

While overcoming isometrics involve pushing against an immovable object, yielding isometrics involve holding a static position against additional load (either gravity or weights). The power of yielding isometrics has been extensively researched by individuals like Keith Barr, Ebonie Rio, and many more. What I’ve come to hold as true is their ability to effectively negate stress shielding and contribute to stress relaxation. These things allow them to effectively work to heal damaged collagen found in painful tendons. For this reason, Slow Force days include high amounts of yielding isometrics. Typically, early in a Slow Force training session, I program global exercises with this yielding isometric theme, such as rear-foot elevated split squat (RFESS) isos or push-up isos.

Video 4. Rear-foot elevated split squat yielding isometric.

From a muscular perspective, I include all higher-volume hypertrophy training within Slow Force. I think that not only is hypertrophy obviously an important quality to improve from an “armor” development and potential force-producing perspective, but higher volume training can bring more blood flow to certain areas of the body, which can aid in recovery and also expansion. This expansion occurs from the inside out through acute “swelling” of the musculature, offsetting the fact that most sports and High Force and Fast Force training require high amounts of internal compression.

The last detail of Slow Force training I’ll include in this article is the use of local tissue prep (LTP). This is a concept I took from my time with the Sacramento Kings, working for Jesse Green and Jas Randhawa. To keep things simple, specific attention is given to tissues and structures within the body that are under the most stress during competition. You may focus on different tissues, depending on the sport. Yielding isometrics can be applied here and often should!

Allow Slow Force days to be the ‘therapy’ for your athlete’s body so they leave the weight room feeling better than when they entered. Share on X

While the RFESS yielding iso mentioned earlier uses a global approach to apply this training method, something like a leg extension yielding iso would be a local application specifically for the patellar and quad tendons. High Force and Fast Force training are powerful, stimulating, and potent. Slow Force training includes those same attributes but in an opposite fashion. Allow Slow Force days to be the “therapy” for your athlete’s body so they leave the weight room feeling better than when they entered.

Human Force

The last pillar of the Force System is Human Force. The most subjective of the four, this fills the gaps within the system beautifully. Human Force is highlighted by innate movement patterns. No, not squat, hinge, push, pull—but crawl, climb, hang, roll, throw, gymnastics, partner combatives, carry, etc. I say “etc.” because I see things daily that fit within this theme, and it is constantly evolving.

Anything that allows athletes to move in innate, foundational, and early developmental patterns is the perfect fit for Human Force. Honestly, go to a playground and play lava tag, and you’ll probably have the best Human Force stimuli possible. Because the other three themes within this system are more rigid, structured, and objective in nature, I program Human Force training with more freedom. For example, my athletes may complete three rounds of:

1. Lizard crawls
2. Alternating hang
3. Forward roll to SL squat
4. Medball lateral rotational throw
5. Cartwheel
6. Lateral shoulder push partner combative
7. MB hug carry

Video 5. Human Force exercises—there are endless possibilities within Human Force training, and this allows for creativity.

While I believe High, Fast, and Slow training cover a multitude of qualities, movements, speeds, forces, etc., there was still something missing. Allow Human Force training to complement these other three days to create the most holistic and complete system there is. While Human Force training can be a stand-alone day, I often program a Human Force warm-up to be completed before another one of the Force System days. I think including daily Human Force warm-ups can be especially impactful in-season: during times of hyper-specificity, there is a need for the most general of stimuli.

While I believed High, Fast, and Slow training covered a multitude of qualities, movements, speeds, forces, etc., there was still something missing. Human Force training is that missing piece. Share on X

Learn More About the Force System

This system is a product of multiple years’ worth of learning, asking questions, and experimenting. It is not a finished product yet, and to be honest, I hope I never feel as if it is. I want to constantly evolve and improve, adding layers of complexity as often as possible to create the best possible way of preparing athletes.

If you’ve liked, disliked, agreed, or disagreed with anything I discuss here, please feel free to reach out. Challenge my thoughts and ideas; this allows the system to grow and improve. If you think you like the system, you can head over to the linktree in my Instagram bio (@huntereis_sp) or follow the link and try a Force System program on Trainheroic. Also, stay tuned for more elaborate and in-depth information on the Force System coming in the near future.

I hope this article at least helps you look at performance through a different lens—a lens not jaded by powerlifting, Olympic lifting, bodybuilding, etc. I’ve always said the phrase “because we’ve always done it this way” is a dangerous trap. There’s nothing wrong with challenging tradition, and I understand some may think that’s exactly what this system does. You have to continue to try and move the needle in this industry, and I hope the Force System does just that.

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Reference

James G. Hay. “Citius, altius, longius (faster, higher, longer): The biomechanics of jumping for distance.” Journal of Biomechanics. 1993;26(1):7–21, ISSN 0021-9290, https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9290(93)90076-Q.