Should we train movements or muscles?
providing useful and insightful science based training material
This piece is purely opinion, however I think it can be very helpful. More now than ever, people are searching for evidence-based practices. This article is made to help you not only ingest (read) more research, but also help you digest (understand) the research you are reading.
The stretch shortening cycle (SSC) is the physiological mechanism involving an eccentric muscular and tissue stretch, followed by an amplified concentric contraction. There are several physiological properties that play a role in the SSC. There is the muscle spindle (wants to speed up contraction), the Golgi Tendon (wants to slow down contraction), the muscular pre-stretch (puts muscles in better length for contraction forces and increases tension), there is an increase in neural output, neural facilitation, and many more possible unexplored physiological mechanisms (fascia, tendons, proprioception, intra-fiber proteins, intramuscular timing etc…)
Impulse is a very important equation to understand for optimization of performance. The equation itself is derived from the Force equation (F = MA)
The steps to get the impulse equation are as follows:
Force
Force is the product of mass and acceleration.
Force = mass * acceleration
Force is a vector quality, meaning it has both magnitude (how much force) and direction (which way the force is going).
Force = mass * acceleration