Triphasic Training 2 is an applied performance book showing coaches how to build strength, speed, and power by targeting the eccentric, isometric, and concentric phases of training.
The Test That Might Explain Your Athletes' Tight Hamstrings
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"Coach, my hamstrings are always tight. I stretch them every day and nothing works." Every strength coach has heard some version of that sentence about a thousand times. The Flip The hamstring isn't the problem. It's the messenger. In TP2, we break down hip extension into a specific firing order, and if your athlete's body isn't following it, something downstream is going to complain — loudly and often. The Order That Actually Matters The correct recruitment sequence for hip extension is: Glute max → Hamstring (same side) → QL (opposite side) The glute max has to fire first. When it doesn't, one of two compensation patterns shows up instead, and each one carries a different, predictable injury risk. Two Ways This Goes Wrong
Cal calls the second one out directly: "The most dangerous hip extension pattern is when the little QL muscle fires first to drive hip extension, then the hamstring, and then the glute max." A 10-Second Self-Check Stand with your arms at your sides. Feel the bottom of your ribs, then feel down to the top of your hip bone with your other hand. You should be able to fit four fingers in that gap. Can't fit four fingers? There's a good chance you're looking at a compensation pattern, not a flexibility problem. Here's a line from Henk Kraaijenhof, one of our mentors, that stuck with me: Tight hamstrings after a normal day of walking around usually means the wrong muscle has been doing the work all day, every day, for years. Stretching a muscle that's compensating just relaxes it long enough to let it go right back to compensating. I'll admit, the first time I ran the four-finger check on myself I was a little annoyed at the result. Worth doing before you run it on an athlete. Reframe Stop treating a tight hamstring as a hamstring problem. It's usually a hiring problem — the wrong muscle got the job first. The full RPR breakdown — the exact drills to reset a bad hip extension pattern in under two minutes — is laid out step by step in TP2. https://triphasic2.com << order here All the best, PS - Here is what Joel had to say: "What is the correct muscle firing pattern and what is the worst hip extension pattern? This might be the reason you or your athlete experiences muscle tightness in the lower back. Learn a quick self check on how to spot it and learn a technique to correct it immediately." -- Joel Yakowitz https://triphasic2.com << order here Coach Cal Dietz, U of MN If you do not want to get this newsletter, we will miss you, sniff sniff, but you can unsubscribe by clicking the link below and -poof- we are gone. |
Triphasic II
Triphasic Training 2 is an applied performance book showing coaches how to build strength, speed, and power by targeting the eccentric, isometric, and concentric phases of training.
Your athletes got stronger. Did they get better at their sport? The First Checkpoint Transfer is a three-part problem. Build the capacity, select exercises that preserve the movement pattern, then test whether the result shows up where the athlete actually competes. The 3 x 3 Principle The Triphasic Trinity of Transfer combines three training phases—strength, power, and speed—with three transfer components in each phase. Performance Pattern Cycling helps manage opposing patterns. The Angular...
"We only have 10 weeks. Can we still run Triphasic?" That question usually gets answered with a panic-program: toss in a little strength, some speed, a hard conditioning circuit, then hope the athlete comes out the other side looking more athletic. Wrong target. The calendar is not the program The full Triphasic model runs 20 weeks for a reason. You build an aerobic base, add aerobic lactate work, move through GPP, then eccentric, isometric, power, and peaking work. Each phase gives the...
"Wait, you tape their mouths during training?" Yes. On purpose. And it's one of the simplest, cheapest tools in the whole book. The CO2 Flip Most coaches out there roaming IG late a night assume more oxygen in equals better performance. However, blood oxygen saturation sits around 95-99% even during hard exercise — oxygen usually isn't the limiting factor. Nasal breathing actually increases CO2 slightly compared to mouth breathing, because you're exchanging less total air. That sounds bad....