By Roger Schwab
Some wise man once spoke that “the more things change, the more they remain the same.” In the vast, expanding field of fitness and sports/medicine, the significance of this insight has become a double-edged sword. The consequences of which will be the subject of this viewpoint. Opinions on every facet of our “sport” seem to run rampant to the extreme. Much of this opinion is presented as empirical evidence while even more is cloaked as “scientific” and presented as fact. The new millennium is ripe with brave new concepts, readily accepted as credible. In the forefront are the high tech sounding “sport specific functional skill training,” “unstable environment training” etc. with its own widely endorsing advocates. Alas, I can only offer to you opinions based on personal interest and observation over the past thirty-five years. And, my initial opinion is that the studies in the exercise science field that I have witnessed, some close up, some from a distance leave a great deal to be desired, yet alone to be accepted as fact. It is also my calculated opinion that the immediate results (if any) of current training practices will grossly pale to the subsequent ramifications. For example: the May of 2001 edition of Sports Illustrated Magazine offers insight into a phenomenon that should be of optimum interest and concern to legitimate strength and conditioning trainers and trainees all over the globe. The cover article written by William Nack examines the twilight years of athletes who previously played in the National Football League. The article offers a chilling documentary to anyone who has ever played the game, sought to play the game or spent Sunday’s watching the game. Closer to home, it makes a bold statement to anyone of us who has spent hours in the gym, training to get strong, which at least in this aspect identifies us with those who played the game. Football, arguably, is the paramount test of man’s structural integrity colliding head-on with imposed force. Mr. Nack concludes that Mr. Unitas, Stanfill, Jacoby, Marsh, etc. finished a poor second in the eventual outcome. Chronic degenerative arthritic disease limiting function and irreparably reversing quality of life forges a common web linking these former champions.
Reference is made to “the weight room works its own form of wickedness. Hoisting iron, players’ rupture the patella tendons in their knees, put enormous strain on their lower backs and cause ligament injuries to the lumber spine. They also damage their shoulders by doing something the joint was not designed to do; bench pressing huge weights.” I AM NOT ATTEMPTING to make the case that orthopaedically questionable training routines are solely responsible for chronic long term structural degeneration. I fully realize that the inherent game itself is quite responsible for both acute and chronic injury. However, I do strongly believe that productive strength and conditioning should always strengthen muscle, connective tissue and bone and never damage the skeleton. Yet, contrary to common sense, many if not most football training rooms throughout the country at every level – high school, college and professional, base their programs on power cleans, jerks, heavy, low repetition barbell squats with many hundreds of pounds compressing the spine and numerous other types of ballistic, explosive movements. All offered under the guise of football sport specific training which its advocates claim will enhance functional ability and/or build “bigger, faster and stronger” muscles.
It should be remembered that the “quick lifts,” snatch and clean and jerk were practiced by Olympic lifters long before being adapted by football related conditioning coaches. And, if any readers go back that far in time, they will no doubt have flashes of acute injuries that once visualized will never be forgotten (ref. Bob Bednarski). No accolades should be lauded on the individual who introduced “quick lifts” as football compatible. And, less accolades should be heaped upon the shoulders of these “trainers” who make explosive exercise the cornerstone of their program today. It is the ultimate cop-out to state that explosive exercise is just one of a number of techniques in the “bag of tricks” at the disposal of the athletic trainer.
The real underlying problem, the whole “guts” of this discussion is the chronic, life-long disabilities which manifest years later and are a direct or indirect result of medically unsound weight lifting routines practiced by thousands of sincere young men (and women) who are being taught, in this strong opinion, that here are the “keys” to functional improvement.
Does anyone wonder why lifting programs focusing on competitive athletes requiring overall muscular skeletal enhancement should be different from any serious non-competitive trainee? We all want to strengthen the same muscles – safely! Of course, there will always be one variable – individual intensity of effort! The exact exercises, performed focused and safely, should and will strengthen virtually everyone.
Does an exercise such as dumbbell presses performed on a physio-ball in order to build strength and balance and those key buzzword “stabilizer” muscles in an unstable environment strike you as common sense? How about dropping a heavy barbell plate and catching it in mid-air? What happens when force exceeds structure? What happens over the course of time, acknowledging that joint stress accumulates silently? Maybe, the answer “hits closer to home” if spoken by Johnny Unitas, Joe Jacoby or Earl Campbell.
Someone once said, “instead of seeing how much exercise we can tolerate, why not seek the least amount necessary to stimulate the desired results.” That appears to be medically sound advice. Stimulating a beneficial systemic response from exercise and the time necessary to allow that response strikes a delicate balance. Joints of the body have only so much tolerance for repetitive overload imposed. Too much of a good thing can result in an overuse syndrome, which can spiral out of control and can hasten rather than prevent degenerative change. The resultant change may alter body mechanics directly affecting adjacent body parts. See how rapidly, for example, a diseased neck, in order to protect itself contributes to spasms of related muscle groups hastening atrophy in the involved areas, i.e. trapezoids, rhomboids and rotator cuff musculature. Have you ever questioned explosive advocates about the outcome of directly working the neck and lower back ballistically? Or do you take for granted, your control over your arms and legs? Is it somehow safer to train the rest of your joints in such a ballistic manner? Or is common sense starting to hit home? I find no justifiable reasonable explanation for any athletes to subject themselves to medically questionable weight training and conditioning programs compromising health and long term quality of life. The contact sport, itself, is usually capable in itself of fulfilling that destiny. It is the primary goal and responsibility of the training program to improve function while simultaneously helping to prevent injury. No exceptions! The required skills of the specific sport will be realized on the playing field.
For readers interested in specifies, which apply to anyone who trains to improve function and safely realize physical potential, don’t stray too far from the basics:
Train for the purpose of getting stronger, through a full range of motion-safely. Try to increase resistance and/or repetitions every workout. This concept will be less daunting if sufficient time is permitted between workouts. In practice, this equates to one or two weekly workouts. Or, in some cases three workouts over the course of two weeks. Don’t anguish over infrequency of workouts. If you are continually getting stronger, you are on the right track
Train your whole body every workout. Choose one or two exercises, per body part. Pre-exhaust is most efficient, demanding and safest. Perform a compound movement directly after a single-joint movement i.e. machine pullover followed by lat pulldown, chin-up or row.
Perform all exercises slowly and smoothly especially accenting the “turnarounds”. In full range movements, (single joint) pause one or two seconds in the fully contracted position. Keep focused on every repetition and do not rush through the set to make your goal.
Keep repetitions and time under load in a safe range. Trainees who seemingly are more “fast twitch” subjects and respond best to fewer repetitions may ultimately conclude that the orthopaedic risk will outweigh the potential functional benefits of keeping repetitions in a vulnerable low rep range, especially in heavy hip and leg exercises.
Finally, but forcefully, I would advise trainees who are concerned with lean, muscular appearance to achieve their goals by getting as strong as safely as possible and regulating their body-fat levels by their consumption and expenditure of calories. The biggest problem today in this society weight wise, is not so much what we eat, rather how much we eat.
I strongly question the concept that increased frequency of training rather than increased muscular strength is the primary contributor of muscular hypertrophy. Rather, increased frequency might be a factor in hastening long term degenerative change.
Train hard, train briefly, keep attention to proper form. Work each exercise over a full range of motion when possible and watch your calories.
As some wise man once spoke, “The more things change, the more they remain the same”.
