Should we train movements or muscles?

When it comes to training, I like to think about it as a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum we have muscles and on the other end we have movements. Now, obviously when we move, such as running, jumping sprinting, and playing you are using your muscles. However, unlike a traditional barbell lift, or an isolation exercise, like a bicep curl, the movement itself, is not solely determined by one or two specific muscle groups. Instead, the outcome of a movement is determined by the interaction of many different muscle groups working together. So we can think about the muscle end of the spectrum filled with movements that are solely determined by the action of a couple muscles and while on the movement side of the spectrum, we have movements that are made up of lots of muscles working together to produce an outcome.

For example, when we do a knee extension, the amount of weight you can lift, or the speed of the movement is going to be solely determined by your quadricep muscles. As for a back squat, your outcome of how much you can lift, or how fast you can move the bar is going to be determined by say your quads, your glutes, and maybe your low back. Yes, there are more muscles being worked in the back squat than the knee extension, the outcome is still determined by only a handful of muscles. When we juxtapose the squat to something like sprinting, it’s hard to say there is only one, two, or three muscle that are causal of the outcome. Instead, as mentioned earlier, it’s the dynamic interaction of many different muscle groups and coordinated efforts that determine the outcome of sprinting speed. One exercise we train “muscles” and the other we train “movements”.

Knowing which end of the spectrum the exercise is on can help you better determine the purpose of the exercise. For example, I don’t squat and happen to train my glutes and quads, I want to train my glutes and quads so I squat. The former places the squat as the centerpiece while the latter places muscles at the center and the exercise is used to fulfill these needs.

So, for one athlete, the back squat might be just fine, for another athlete maybe a Bulgarian split squat, a safety bar squat, a Smith machine squat, or some other variation that allows you to train the glutes and quadriceps to the highest degree. This is often an argument against the back squat, because many believe the back squat is limited by your low back muscles, and not necessarily your quadriceps or your glutes. So if your goal is to use the exercise to optimally train your quadriceps or glutes, but is limited by another muscle say your low back, then objectively speaking it is not the best exercise choice. Dietmar Schmidtbleicher talks about what he calls “the isolation principle”. In short, you want your target muscle of the exercise to be the rate limiting muscle of the exercise. If we think about that in terms of the back squat, then we want to miss our back squat, because our legs or are glutes are not strong enough, not because our low back is too weak. 

Now let’s talk about the movement side of things. When it comes to training movements, we want to make sure we are actually doing the right movement. A classic example of this is when you first teach someone to do repeat hurdle jumps. Often that the athlete is most concerned with getting their legs over the hurdles and not necessarily jumping high. When this is the situation, you’ll often see an athlete perform hurdle jumps in an efficient manner, where they simply hit the ground and try and pull their legs up as fast as they can to ensure their legs clear the hurdle, versus jumping as high as they can, and then pulling their legs up to clear the hurdle. In the first example, the athlete actually doesn’t jump as high as they could, they cut the force production short, and they aren’t actually doing the movement correctly.

Another common issue with movements is that the purpose of the movement is lost on the athlete. For example, when we perform plyometrics, the athlete should try to “bounce” off the ground. We’re teaching them how to interact dynamically with rapid impacts, and how to use those impacts to produce a subsequent increase in force output. With this in mind, we need to make sure our movements are actually elastic and plyometric in nature. Often we see athletes hit the ground and make it a two-part movement. They first break themselves and then try and jump up again. Instead, I’d much prefer an athlete trying to “bounce off the ground”. This way we keep the movement patterns in the forefront and actually train what we’re trying to train.

So what are the major takeaways from all this? Know why you are doing something and make sure that “why” is actually done right. Don’t try and justify it through some weird illogical means like “but back squatting does X thing I can’t really explain”. No. Just know why you are doing an exercise, what the purpose of it is and train it. Having the idea of two different ends of a spectrum allows you to weigh the cost benefit of “skill” and interaction. For example, squatting isn’t being trained for the sake of a “skill” so you can have a large variety of substitute movements. If you are doing a max effort vertical jump, because it’s a skill there isn’t really any other exercise you can substitute. One has the movement as the centerpiece and the other places the working muscles as the centerpiece

Floating Heels: A New Way To Load

Long story short, I came across this research paper (link here) and it highlighted the beneficial training effects of a “floating heel” while performing jumps. The idea of a floating heel is quite simple. The mid/forefoot is raised and the heel is no longer in contact with the ground, hence the name “floating heel”. Your mid/forefoot have to become quite active and force the arch the work a little harder than it might otherwise, as the weight and load is now place on the only spot that has contact with the ground, being the mid and forefoot.

The idea is that with the heel no longer in contact with the ground, the constraints based approach forces you to work the ankle complex in a way that might be more favorable and transferable to sport. The position of that of a floating heel and contact during a plyometric are quite similar, see image below.

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Post Activation Potentiation: Its about you

Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) is the concept that a specific type of stimulus imposed on the body can facilitate “potentiate” the performance of the following movement to be performed. In less scientific terminology, its the idea that doing one exercise, like a back squat, before another movement, like a jump will help increase the performance of the jump to a greater extent than simply performing the jump by itself.

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Velocity based training – a new approach (load-distance)

Let me say this off the bat, velocity based training is an amazing tool! However, it has unfortunately been constrained to only being performed by coaches and individuals using bar speed measuring devices, such as a Tendo unit or a Gymaware. I myself have used both Tendos and Gymawares and couldn’t be happier with my experience…But, the concept of velocity based training is exactly that, a CONCEPT!

The definition of “Concept” is: A general notion; abstract idea. By definition, a concept doesn’t have constraints and therefore the concept of velocity based training should not be constrained by bar speed measuring devices.

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Supramaximal Eccentric Training For Posterior Upper Body Strength

By: Drake Berberet, CSCS

 

By now we should all know what eccentric strength is. If you don’t, you should probably purchase Triphasic Training right here (I’ll even provide the link, no affiliation).

 

Eccentric movement in its most simplest form is the reverse muscle action to concentric movement. Concentric movement is what we all think of when we think of lifting weights. For example, during a bicep curl the concentric movement is the actual “curl” part. The eccentric movement is the lowering down of the weight down…pretty simple right?

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Assessing Energy Transfer in the Vertical Jump

Author: Drake Berberet

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Transfer of Energy 

The ability to maximize transfer of energy in sport is typically what sets the elite athletes apart from the rest. Not only does it allow them to jump higher, run faster, and move more efficiently, it also allows them to save valuable energy so that they are not burnt out at the end of the game. In the long run, efficient transfer of energy may also prevent the risk of injury. It is well established that fatigue masks fitness, and injuries typically present themselves at the end of the game when the athletes are in a high state of fatigue. If transfer of energy is optimized, that athlete might never reach that level of fatigue that puts them at a risk for injury.

What are the two assessments?

The two assessments that can be used to assess energy and power transfer in jumping are the Eccentric Utilization Ratio (EUR) and Stretch-Shortening Cycle % difference (SSC%). Both assessments help find deficiencies in jumping performance and can help practitioners create a more “optimal” jumping profile going into competition (i.e. when all of your training matters most).

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Measuring the Autonomic Nervous System: HRV

Utilizing Heart Rate Variability

The human body is extremely complex! Hopefully this comes as no surprise. Don’t get me wrong, we actually know quite a bit about it. However, there is still much to learn.

Example: Analysis of the Autonomic Nervous System

We know the brain is the master orchestrator, and from a top down approach, we can see that it has control of the autonomic nervous system and somatic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is broken into two parts, the sympathetic and parasympathetic. The relationship between the parasympathetic and sympathetic gets quite complex, so I will stop there.

Analyzing the ANS

In short, people typically analyze the ANS using heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is a wonderful metric, but it’s merely a red flag marker, not a diagnostic tool.

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Triggering the Right Immune Response

Exercise is a form of controlled metabolic stress.

Like all controlled stressors, it is applied in a fashion that is stressful enough to sound the alarm but not too stressful to break yourself. However, in elite athletics, this process becomes much more of a balancing act than one may expect.

In life, there are many forms of controlled and uncontrolled metabolic stressors influencing the body. These stressors can come in the form of psycho-social stressors, dietary stressors, lack of sleep, internal perceptions, injuries, and illnesses.

Now, these uncontrolled metabolic stressors may not be noticeable as we go through our daily lives, but once they begin accumulate, they can manifest in many different forms. This is the whole idea of the human body acting as a dynamic system.

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Exercise and ROS

The adaptability of our body is amazing, but we are able to push it a little too far at times.

ROS might just be the single universal cell signaler. From the micro level, it is a simple system designed to help keep the cell’s mitochondria alive through uncoupling protein activation. It kind of acts like an escape valve used to let off pressure when drilling. The reduced pressure may hinder the drills efficiency, but ultimately keep it from blowing up. The is the same idea but at the cellular level.

ROS is also a natural stimulator of our redox system, which is responsible for removing ROS when it is naturally produced. Thus, improvements in our redox actually increase our oxidative burden capacity (handle more stress).

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