The Zol Training System (ZTS) is designed to continuously stimulate your body’s neuromuscular system through progressive exercises and movements so you keep improving. Frequently introducing your body to new and demanding movements avoids the frustration of plateauing instead you will see continuous benefits to body and mind throughout the duration of your training program.
The ZTS, consists of the following 3 stages:
Strength & Conditioning: The aim of this stage is to give the beginner basic conditioning, preparing them for greater physical and cognitive skills required for more advanced movements. Put very simply the brain through the central nervous system sends a message to the muscle resulting in movement of that muscle. The base conditioning is for 6-8 weeks using exercises (mainly compound) for all the major muscle groups establishing neuromuscular pathways. Exercises are selected and used to cover the four dominant types of physical preparation Speed, Strength, Endurance, and Flexibility . This results in a decrease in body fat % and improvements in strength, flexibility and cardiovascular (VO2) capacity.
Balance & Coordination: The aim of this stage is to move away from basic exercise equipment (machines) to more free weight and voluntary movement type activities. This puts greater emphasis on the cognitive skills that allow the body to be challenged in turn enhancing physical output. A simple example is going from using a chest press machine where the movement is in one plane and focused on the muscle group being worked to barbell bench press which not only is the prime mover being worked the stabilizer muscles in your shoulders and back are also getting a workout. Stabilizer muscles help to keep you balanced and upright when moving. Your stabilizer muscles are not directly involved in the lifting of the weight, but help keep your body steady, through isometric muscle contractions. Free weight movements, which includes any exercise done with a barbell, dumbbell or cable require you to balance the weights yourself, as you are not lifting the weight in a pre-set path, as with machines. Some examples of exercises in this category are bench press, squat, dead-lift, pull-ups, rows and shoulder press. The other type of exercise introduced at this stage are unilateral ones such as reciprocal or one arm dumbbell bench press, single leg squats, lunges, step-ups, dumbbell curls to name a few. As greater demands are placed on the neuromuscular system, fat loss, strength gains, continue to increase, as do the skills that enhance your proficiency in daily movement or athletic performance.
Advanced Training: In this stage your program is designed to a higher level to help you achieve optimal fitness and highly specific goals including those for sports specific activities. Techniques relating to a sport specific activity are addressed along with an elevation in skill complexity for even more advanced and challenging movements. Once this stage is completed, the training program reverts back through the other stages using the skills acquired to achieve exercises at a more advanced level. This stage works your body so that body fat %, strength, flexibility and endurance are at near optimum levels.