POWER!

Strength is important. Hopefully we have made that clear. During sport, movements are typically performed rapidly, and involve force being applied quickly - usually under one second. In maximal voluntary contractions, force is usually applied over a period of 3-5seconds. The different movement velocities suggest that a different training protocol should be employed. This is partly correct.

Power is a word that is thrown around a lot in gyms, usually without knowing its true meaning (just like functional exercises, and core strength). Power differs to strength in that it takes into account the time it takes to perform a movement. Power exercises are characterized by higher movement velocities, because they aim to develop force quickly (high rate of force development). This means we are not concerned about how much you move, but how quickly you move it.

Don't type 'plyometrics' into Google just yet... If you are a beginner, you should still be focusing on increasing your strength. Strength training won't make you more powerful, but it will increase your potential to be more powerful. This is evident via a strong correlation between a Back Squat 1RM and a vertical jump. Consider your strength training an investment.

Beginners - don't be jealous if you see someone by your side performing power cleans because they are enhancing a fitness parameter more appropriate for sport. By using the power of your mind, you can make your strength work improve your power. No, we aren't talking about a jedi mind-trick. Studies have shown that the intention to move quickly is adequate stimulus to improve power, regardless of the movement velocity. This means if you are performing a Deadlift with 90% of your 1RM and it takes 3seconds to reach lockout - if you are trying to get to lockout as fast as possible, this is enough for a power adaptation to take place. This is because you are still trying to send the message from your brain to your muscles as fast as possible, and are refining the neuromuscular pathways responsible for power production.

Putting it into practice is easy - during your movement, whenever you are going against gravity, try and go as fast as you can!

Injuries. Some people see a closed road, others see a closed lane.

Whether you are a professional athlete, or a casual fitness enthusiast, chances are that you have been injured. Kudos to those who haven’t, but this article is for the masses, and most of us have had a sprained ankle, or a broken bone which has interfered with our training regimen. While exercises can be introduced into the training plan with a ‘prehab’ goal in mind, one must understand that due to the dynamic nature of sport these exercises may not suffice. This isn’t to say that one shouldn’t train the rotator cuff before experiencing a shoulder injury, but that if you do train your rotator cuff your chances of shoulder instability are only decreased, not eliminated.

In human movement patterns the body moves as a kinetic chain. Take running for example. At first glance it may seem simple, but when broken down it is a complex movement involving the activation of many muscle groups across the entire body. The body likes to act this way to enhance efficiency, which is why using multi-joint compound exercises in lifting are deemed functional, as they appreciate that if the body moves as a system, it should be trained as a system (not by individual muscle groups like typical bodybuilding programs).

Now, when we are injured the kinetic chain has been interrupted, and the ability to perform functional movements has been affected accordingly. Here, you can either cease training completely, let all your trained bio-motor abilities regress until your injury recovers or attempt to train around the injury to maintain your athletic condition. What’s most important for those who choose the latter is that your traditional training means will have to be modified.

If possible individuals should try to maintain their cardiovascular fitness through any training modality they can find, as some training stimulus is better than none at all. Similarly, one should try and maintain musculoskeletal ‘fitness’ via training around the injury. For lower body injuries, train the upper body. For upper body injuries train the core and lower body. Find things that don’t irritate the injury and use them. Even go against your traditional exercise beliefs. I am a firm believer that exercise machines should not be utilized by healthy populations, but I will praise their usefulness in a rehabilitory context. Machines isolate the prime mover, without calling upon assistance from the synergistic muscles. This is useless for a healthy athlete, but it may serve beneficial for an injured athlete. The athlete can now train around his injury, as exercise machines typically don’t treat the body as a kinetic chain. Take a shoulder injury for example. Rather than completely ignoring the upper body, triceps extensions could be used in attempt to maintain triceps strength. For an uninjured athlete, the close-grip bench press would be more suitable, but due to the strain on the shoulder it would most likely cause the injury to develop further. Adjustments like these should be considered, because the worst feeling is coming back from an injury in poor shape. Trash for an athlete, may be treasure for the injured.

The goal for rehab should be:
1) Prioritizing healing to the injured site through means recommended by a physiotherapist/sports doctor
2) Maintain (not enhancing) all areas of fitness via any means possible, provided these do not stress the injured area at all

Here is a video of Jason performing the Back Squat 2-days out from a shoulder dislocation. External rotation was painful, so he decided to use one arm (after lots of warmup sets so become accustomed to the movement).

Unfortunately, Jason isn't the only one sidelined at the moment. Oscar is on his way to a shoulder reconstruction, but is still training hard every day. Here is Round 4 of one of his conditioning circuits:

If you were driving on a 3-lane highway and there was a car broken down in one lane, would you stop? No, you would drive around it and it would take a little bit longer. Apply this mentality to training and when there is an injury in your way, train around it!

Bicep Curls are Functional. What?

When we entered 'Functional Training' into images.google.com, this was the fourth image that popped up. Exactly what was expected, and part of the reason this term is avoided in our gym. For some reason, people seem to think that complexity is synonymous with functional. This is not the case. 'Functional' is something which is designed to be 'practical and useful, rather than attractive'. Subsequently, we have defined functional training as:

' An exercise which aims to improve context specific performance ' 

Every exercise has the potential to be functional, depending on the person and sport. Different people encounter different activities day-to-day (elderly vs. adolescent), just like the goals of one sport may be completely different to another. 

Let's look at the bicep curl. We normally don't prescribe this to our athletes because the movements in their sport are typically multi-joint. However, if we had a bodybuilder, it would most likely be part of their exercise prescription. Judging is based on aesthetics, and to improve their performance, the bicep curl is useful in attaining this goal (=functional).

Don't rule out an exercise just because it isn't being performed upside down on a bosu ball...

Answering the Age-Old Question: How to Breathe When Lifting Weights?

The standard breathing recommendation while lifting weights is exhaling through the exertion phase of the lift. If you look at any powerlifter, olympic weightlifter, or someone on the street trying to move something heavy, you will notice something different.

The Valsalva Manouevre is a 'moderately forceful attempted exhalation against a closed airway', which will look like you are holding your breath. Contrary to what most health instructors suggest, this breathing technique is ideal for lifting weights, and here is why...

Holding Your Breath Improves Safety.
When performing any exercise which loads your spine (Deadlifts, Cleans, Overhead Pressing, Squats etc.), your vertebral column needs to be in its neutral position. Muscles usually help stabilise a joint, but the trunk is a little bit different. There are muscles in your back which you can feel attach to your vertebral column, but in front of it are organs. Your spine is only being supported from one side. By taking a big breath of air into your belly, then trying to exhale (with your mouth closed), pressure inside your abdominal (and thoracic) cavity will increase. This increase in pressure stabilises the spine anteriorly, and improves structural support.

Holding Your Breath Improves Strength.
Although the exact mechanisms are unknown, an increase in intra-lung pressure has been shown to improve force output (pneumomuscular reflex). If you compare the strength of a clenched fist without a breath-hold, or with a breath-hold, you will notice an increase in strength in the latter. You don't need any equipment, give it a try now (thanks, Pavel!).

For those of you who still aren't convinced, let's get out of the weight-room and jump in the ring. We use the Valsalva Maneuvre during the phase of the lift where exertion is the highest (concentric phase). In martial arts, this occurs during the point of impact. The sound effects you hear from a Thai Boxer aren't to annoy their opponents; it is because the mini breath-hold at the point of impact helps stabilise your trunk and improves your force output. Just look at Buakaw:

Things to Consider
- Breath Hold shouldn't exceed four seconds
- Avoid if you have high blood pressure or have a history of abdominal hernias

A quick FYI: There may be a spike in your blood pressure, but it will only be for the duration of the lift (acute). Recent studies have shown that decreased blood pressure is a chronic adaptation to weightlifting, contrary to what your doctor may be telling you.

Why the Gym Mirror is Holding You Back...

Most gyms are covered with mirrors. Most mirrors are covered with people staring at themselves. Hopefully in an attempt to correct form, but this is normally not the case. When you step into our training facility, there are no mirrors. Not because we are superstitious, and with kettlebells, kegs and medicine balls flying around we are afraid of seven years bad luck, but because we feel it is harmful in your development as an athlete.

Most individuals think that mirrors are there to evaluate their technique. Although this may sound effective as it gives immediate feedback, it does so in the wrong way. Kinaesthetic sense (body awareness) is an attribute which separates an amateur from a professional. When you perform a movement, you want to be able to correct it based on HOW it feels, not through visual feedback. In addition, when your focus is shifted on an external object (ie - the mirror), your concentration deteriorates, which is the last thing you want when lifting something heavy.

Still not convinced? The mirror only gives you feedback on the frontal plane. It has no analysis of what the movement looks like from the side, and that is sometimes what is most crucial (ie - back posture during a deadlift, or depth during a squat). For those that are smiling, and thinking 'Thats ok, my mirror is on my side so I can see what my squats look like', then also think about turning your head while lifting anything is extremely dangerous.

Listen to your coach or trainer. Their corrections are helping you learn how to control your body better. If you don't have a trainer with you, ask the floor staff at the gym. Don't be shy, it's their job! If you are by yourself, analysis via video is also effective. Tape your set, analyze it and fix your mistakes.

You want to perfect your movement yourself, not by the mirror. You want to feel the error, not see it. After all, which sporting competition has a mirror in it?

What Fighters and Females Have in Common...

Our primary goal for untrained clients is strength development. It helps with things like power, speed, muscular endurance and anaerobic conditioning. Our prescription to get there? Heavy weights for low reps.

We have encountered a standard response from our fighters, and female clients: “Won’t lifting weights make me big and bulky?” Time to attack this myth!

Firstly, it is pretty hard to get big. Just go the gym and take a look at all the guys pumping iron, then look at how many are jacked. The ratio isn’t that high. Just because you are moving a weight around, it won’t necessarily make you look like Ronnie Coleman (this is even more true for girls, because they typically have lower testosterone levels).

Time to go behind the scenes... The size of a muscle is positively correlated with strength, BUT you don’t need to make your muscles bigger to become strong. There are two types of strength adaptations that take place: structural adaptations and neural adaptations. Most people neglect the latter.

Individuals can improve their strength without adding a single pound of muscle. Have you ever heard of the story where a female moved a truck to save her baby? It is suggested that everyone’s muscle has the POTENTIAL to exert high levels of force, but our nervous system shuts the muscle off because it thinks it will become damaged under heavy loads (Golgi Tendon Organs). Learning how to activate our muscle is an overlooked adaptation to strength training (achieved via motor unit synchronization, motor unit activation, nerve firing frequency). Just look at lightweight Olympic lifters who throw more than double their bodyweight overhead. These athletes are great examples of how powerful (no pun intended) neural adaptations are.

Time to talk about structural adaptations. The type of hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) is dependent on the amount of reps and the load you use. If you use submaximal loads for 8-12reps (bodybuilding), it usually results in sarcoplasmic hypertrophy: an increase in non-contractile proteins, and when you use heavier loads for 1-6reps, it usually results in myofibrillar hypertrophy: an increase in contractile proteins. Your goal should be to increase the force producing capacity of your muscle, regardless of its size (myofibrillar hypertrophy).

Hopefully you now realize that you can become strong without becoming big. Myofibrillar hypertrophy increases the density of your muscle, not the size, and neural adaptations teach your nervous system to recruit your muscle more effectively. 

Progressive Overload is Like Walking on a Tightrope

“Steady Increments are the key for Long-Term Results”

For those who train at our facility, they know that training should be tough. They also know that training shouldn’t be stupid. We are happier with steady progress, than rapid gains. There is a saying that ‘Strength is lost at about the same rate that it is developed’ and we are strong supporters of this idea. More importantly, we don’t want people who aren’t ready for the long haul. We want athletes who will train equally hard in winter, even if their six pack is covered by two jumpers.

Progressive overload is a fundamental training principle. When we adapt to a certain training load, its training effect decreases. In order to disrupt the body’s homeostasis, we need to manipulate the training load by increasing weight, decreasing rest time or modifying tempo, for a training effect (adaptation) to be observed once again.  Simply put: to get stronger or more endurance, the volume/intensity of an exercise needs to be increased.

Just like when someone first discovers a sport they love and overkills it, this information can be misused. Many people aim to increase their lifts by big amounts, and although this may be successful for one or two sessions, the longevity of such a method is short-lived. It also doesn’t let the trainee know exactly where they stand. Failing on a 90kg Bench Press, when your last session was 80kg doesn’t let you know if 82.5kg or 87.5kg is your max. It puts you in a big range, and you never know your exact strength level. In addition, missing constantly in training is not a good thing. It teaches you that it’s ok to miss lifts, when its not, fries your CNS and is a form of negative reinforcement.

When applying progressive overload to your program, imagine yourself walking on a tight-rope. Would you rather take small steps and get to other side, or take bigger steps and run the risk of falling off continuously?