Day 338 - Movement Mechanics

Force is the product of mass times acceleration. Force is an especially important skill for athletes to improve. It is one thing to be strong at a specific movement or action, but if you can create a lot of force with that strength, then you can take the step from being a good athlete to being a great athlete. A couple of terms relating to force:

Impulse - change in momentum resulting from force (force x time)

Power - rate of doing work (force x velocity)

Impulse

Most athletic tasks require fast rates of force development (RFD). Force development for someone who is running, for example, is the ground contact time or push-off phase. Whether someone is sprinting or distance running, the RFD should be as quick and as forceful as possible to make the most out of every stride. The rate, amplitude and direction of force is important in any movement but improving an athlete's RFD can have tremendous benefits.

Power

The ability to achieve high movement velocities requires skillful force application across a spectrum of power outputs and muscle actions. To achieve desired power levels, an individual's resistance training program should involve a wide variety of concentric and eccentric muscle actions while using a wide range of loads and velocities.

Practical Implications

The fact of the matter is that the forces that can be created by our limbs may change depending on the angle of the limb as its velocity and force is altered.

Training activities aimed at improving the stretch-shortening cycle performance should not only involve skillful multi-joint movements, but to also exploit the elastic-reflexive components of the muscles and tendons. In order to facilitate progress, work bouts should be short with longer periods of rest to allow ample time to recover.

Another aspect that I have discussed in my blogs before, but find that it is also applicable here, is power training for aerobic events such as distance running. Marathon runners are definitely not thought of as "power athletes", but using power training in their regimen could help reduce the amount of time that their feet are in contact with the ground, not to mention improving horizontal speed and velocity which can therefore improve running economy.

Quote of the day:

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."

~John Barrymore

Check out my new Website: tylerrobbinsfitness.com

Day 305 - Resistance Training 7 Step Approach - Step 7: Rest Periods

What I am referring to here when I discuss rest periods is the amount of time between sets. For the most part, rest periods are directly related to the workload. I will break down the 4 main training goal categories below and detail the fine particulars in their rest periods.

Strength and Power
For a quick refresher, strength and power exercises usually involve maximal and near-maximal weights with repetitions of 6 or lower. Research has shown that there are much greater strength gains from individuals who rest for 2-5 minutes rather than 30 seconds.

The fact that when your training goals are for strength and power, and you are literally pushing your muscles to the limit should be no surprise that longer rest periods are necessary.

Hypertrophy

Studies have shown that 30-90 second rest periods facilitate the greatest gains for hypertrophy training goals (6-12reps). The theory behind this time frame is that you actually want to start another set of exercises for the same muscle group before it has completely recovered. This can increase the metabolic demand and damage within the muscles to facilitate muscular growth.

Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance training (12+ reps) has a goal to increase the aerobic capacity of muscles. In doing so, and the fact that muscular endurance training is training with lighter resistance, rest periods between sets should be as minimum as possible (30 seconds or less).

Quote of the day:

"Success doesn’t come to you… you go to it."

-Marva Collins

Check out my new Website: tylerrobbinsfitness.com

Day 109 - Your Guide to Sets and Reps (Recovery Time Too!)

Any training program should begin first and foremost with setting a goal or goals. Last year, I blogged a 7-step approach to program design. If interested, you can start here with Step 1: Needs Analysis

If you want a quick, straight to the point guide to sets and reps, refer to the image above, while I explain each "Training Goal" below, along with applications of each.

To begin, however, as I said before, you should start at square one, and decide on what your training goals are. Secondly, you should determine either your 1RM (1-rep maximum) or 10RM. If you look around online, you can find many different ways of calculating such a thing. You can choose to either test yourself to determine your 1 or 10-rep maximum, or you can try various testing procedures to estimate your 1RM or 10RM.

Testing your rep maximums is not necessarily imperative, but it can be helpful to accurately choose proper resistance to hone in on your repetition goals listed in the table above.

If you decide to calculate your 1RM, you can then follow this table to aim for specific reps:

%1RM - Number of Repetitions Allowed
100 - 1
95 - 2
93 - 3
90 - 4
87 - 5
85 - 6
83 - 7
80 - 8
77 - 9
75 - 10
70 - 11
67 - 12
65 - 15

So, a quick example on how to use this table: If you can bench press 250 pounds 1 time, you should use 218 pounds for 5 reps. Make sense? Good, let's move on.

What training goal should I aim for?

Hard to say, that is usually up to the individual, but for most folks who are just looking to "get in shape", usually the hypertrophy and muscular endurance categories are mostly used. Both of these categories allow for a fair amount of strength increase, but also allows folks to burn calories, etc.

Strength training and power training (for the most part) is targeted for specific sports and athletic performance. Not only that, but as I will explain later, strength and power training repetition goals should only be used by experienced resistance-trained individuals, done with safe, proper, equipment, monitored by a certified strength and conditioning specialist, and be performed as "core exercises".

Strength vs. Power Training

I don't intend on making this a science lesson, so I will do my best to explain this in simple terms. Strength is the amount of force a muscle or muscles can generate to move a load or weight. For example, an individual may be able to max out their bench press at 250 pounds. By lifting that 250 pounds, once, they can generate a lot of strength to move the weight up one time, but the repetition may be slow.

Power, on the other hand, is being able to generate force at a much higher rate. For example, an individual who can bench press 250 pounds, 1 time, would want to drop down in weight, in order to press the weight at a faster rate.

Strength training can be valuable in many facets of athletics, however, in many cases, power is far more valuable to perform better. Let me use this example, because of the recent events at the 2012 London Olympics. Usain Bolt has very strong legs. I am assuming he uses strength training to make his legs strong. Having said that, there are many individuals who have just as strong, if not stronger legs than he does.

The difference here, is his ability to generate force, or power. He is able to generate a tremendous amount of power to propel himself down the track.

"Core" vs. "Assistance" Exercises

Strength and power repetition ranges are intended to be done by "core exercises". A core exercise is one that recruits one or more large muscle areas (chest, shoulder, back, hip, thigh), involve two or more primary joints, and receive priority when one is selecting exercises because of their direct application to sport.

"Assistance exercises" on the other hand, usually recruit smaller muscle areas (upper arm, abdonminals, calf, neck, forearm, lower back, or anterior lower leg), involve only one primary joint, and are considered less important to improving sport performance.

Summary:

Strength - High-load, low-repetition training to improve overall strength of the muscle(s) being trained. Should mainly be targeted by "core exercises". Long periods of rest between sets to allow full recovery of muscle fibers in order to produce maximum amount of force every subsequent set.

Power - High-load, low-repetition training similar to strength training but designed to increase the overall explosiveness of the muscles. Also designed to be targeted by "core exercises" only. Also intended to have long periods of rest between sets to promote full recovery.

Hypertrophy - Higher repetition goals when compared to strength or power training. Shorter breaks as well, as the intention is to cause a higher metabolic demand in the muscle fibers to promote muscular growth.

Muscular Endurance - Low rest periods, higher rep goals, lower loads. Ideally used to improve the aerobic efficiency of the muscle fibers. Should be used by endurance athletes to improve muscular efficiency. Not intended to improve overall strength or power, however.

Quote of the day:
"The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work."
~ Richard Bach

Movement Mechanics

Force is the product of mass times acceleration. Force is an especially important skill for athletes to improve. It is one thing to be strong at a specific movement or action, but if you can create a lot of force with that strength, then you can take the step from being a good athlete to being a great athlete. A couple of terms relating to force:

Impulse - change in momentum resulting from force (force x time)

Power - rate of doing work (force x velocity)

Impulse

Most athletic tasks require fast rates of force development (RFD). Force development for someone who is running, for example, is the ground contact time or push-off phase. Whether someone is sprinting or distance running, the RFD should be as quick and as forceful as possible to make the most out of every stride. The rate, amplitude and direction of force is important in any movement but improving an athlete's RFD can have tremendous benefits.

Power

The ability to achieve high movement velocities requires skillful force application across a spectrum of power outputs and muscle actions. To achieve desired power levels, an individual's resistance training program should involve a wide variety of concentric and eccentric muscle actions while using a wide range of loads and velocities.

Practical Implications

The fact of the matter is that the forces that can be created by our limbs may change depending on the angle of the limb as its velocity and force is altered.

Training activities aimed at improving the stretch-shortening cycle performance should not only involve skillful multi-joint movements, but to also exploit the elastic-reflexive components of the muscles and tendons. In order to facilitate progress, work bouts should be short with longer periods of rest to allow ample time to recover.

Another aspect that I have discussed in my blogs before, but find that it is also applicable here, is power training for aerobic events such as distance running. Marathon runners are definitely not thought of as "power athletes", but using power training in their regimen could help reduce the amount of time that their feet are in contact with the ground, not to mention improving horizontal speed and velocity which can therefore improve running economy.

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. PTS

Resistance Training 7 Step Approach - Step 5: Training Load and Repetitions

Load is the most critical part of a resistance training program. I will detail ways in which fitness professionals define and use loads in a well-rounded resistance training program.

Terminology Used to Quantify and Qualify Mechanical Work

Mechanical Work - force and displacement (distance) an object or weight is moved. A quantifiable way in which you can measure mechanical work is like in Olympic weight lifting when you multiply a weight lifted by the number of times lifted.

Load Volume (or Volume Load) - Basically a measurement of weight (units) multiplied by distance (distance units) and repetitions. To note however, that certain repetition quantities alter the quality of the work being done. For example, 1 set of 15 repetitions is not the same as 3 sets of 5 repetitions.

Relationship Between Load and Repetitions

Repetitions is and should be inversely related to the load lifted, especially when calculating correct loads for specific repetition amounts. For example, the higher the load, the lower number of reps an individual should be able to lift.

Calculating 1-repetition maximum (1RM) and 10-repetition maximum for individuals is a highly effective tool to structure a proper resistance training program. Depending on an individual's goals, their resistance exercises should remain within a specific rep range to meet such goals, which will be discussed later.

Keep in mind that an individual's 1RM (or calculated 1RM) on a weight machine may be significantly higher than doing a similar action with free weights as more synergistic muscles must be involved, potentially lowering the overall strength capacity of the user.

Below is a chart that can be used to determine 1RM based on percentages of weights lifted. There are many exceptions to this chart however based upon what muscles are being worked as well as the individual's comfort and skill level.

%1RM - # Repetitions Allowed
100 - 1
95 - 2
93 - 3
90 - 4
87 - 5
85 - 6
83 - 7
80 - 8
77 - 9
75 - 10
70 - 11
67 - 12
65 - 15

Calculating 1RM

There are few different ways you can calculate a 1RM for a specific exercise for an individual. For starters, a test can be conducted in which an individual can progress through a few "warm-up" sets and then, using a hypothetical 1RM, attempt to lift their heaviest weight possible for 1 repetition. Another way to calculate is by using the above chart to have an individual complete an exercise with a desired weight for as many repetitions as they can (preferably below 10 reps or so) to then calculate a theoretical 1RM.

When attempting an accurate 1RM test, where the individual is attempting to lift their heaviest weight for 1 repetition, a few things should be considered. First of all, only those individuals who are considered intermediate or experienced weightlifters who have a lot of experience at the specific exercise should attempt a 1RM test. Also, only power or core exercises that involve large muscle groups and multiple joints can withstand the large forces placed upon the body.

Assigning Load and Repetitions Based on the Training Goal

Once a strength and conditioning specialist has made a well-judged assessment based on an individuals needs (Step 1: Needs Analysis), as well as tested for actual and theoretical 1RM's, a training program can then be designed based upon the trainee's goals and therefore load and repetition quantities.

Generally, there are 4 main categories of resistance training goal sets.

1. "Strength" training is when an individual stays in a 1-6 rep range or so (85-100% 1RM). Strength training has minimal muscular growth, but very large potential for very strong muscles. Strength training should primarily be kept to "Core" exercises (large muscle groups, multi-joint).

2. "Hypertrophy" training is the training mode that creates the most muscular growth with added strength as well. Here, an individual should aim for a 6-12 rep range (85-70% 1RM).

3. "Endurance" training is to teach your muscles to be as fatigue-resistant as possible. Not a whole lot of strength gains are found here, nor much muscular growth, but muscular endurance training certainly has its place in training many individuals and athletes alike. Here you would want to push your repetitions higher than 12 (67% 1RM).

4. "Power" training is similar to strength training but slightly different. Due to the fact that the muscles are trying to displace (move) a weight as fast as possible, the muscles can not generate as much overall force, therefore slightly lowering the power weight goals to stay within a specific rep range. Here, you would be aiming for approximately 80% 1RM in order to stay in a 2-5 rep range.

Variation of the Training Load

Although an experienced weightlifter or athlete may mentally feel prepared to lift "heavy" 3 times a week (M,W,F), the heavy strains placed on the body can quickly lead to overtraining. Instead, a 3 day-a-week training schedule involving power and other core exercises should be split into a "heavy", "medium", and "light" day where the light day involves lifting 80% of the loads lifted on the heavy day, while maintaining the same repetition counts as the heavy day.
-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. PTS