JC's Musings

featured musing

Jumping Inside Jumps

Do you know what type of vertical jump force plate signal is shown in the diagram? It is a countermovement jump (CMJ). Do you know what the numbers mean? They represent different phases of the countermovement jump.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Longer And Stronger Muscles

Shifting optimum length (SOPL) of muscle, can be a goal of training if your clients/athletes have short and/or weak muscles. That is, you’re trying to make the muscles stronger at longer lengths. This is particularly important in those who suffer from recurrent muscle strain injuries.

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FLYWHEEL
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Strength at Long Muscle Lengths

Just circling around to a previous post, where I asked were there any benefits to flywheel training over free weight training given the information on gravitational dead spots?Some of you thought cable machines provided a similar overload to the flywheel. Does it?

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FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Concentrics

How does concentric flywheel resistance training (FRT) differ to traditional resistance training (TRT)? We often think that the advantage of FRT is in the eccentric phase, but it may also be in the concentric phase. One of the things you notice is that with FRT the concentric effort and therefore forces are relatively high throughout the motion...

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Movement Screening

Do you screen landing ability? The drop landing can be used as a functional movement-screening tool. This assessment was developed by Noyes et al., (2005) with the goal to devise a simple video graphic test that would measure the distance between the hips, knees and ankles in the frontal plane. Previous authors had reported that approximately 60% of non-contact injuries occurred during landing from a jump.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Wearable Resistance Where?

So, where does wearable resistance (WR) fit in the periodised plan? This is a FAQ. Short answer, anywhere. You can combine WR (combination training) with your general/maximal strength training which tends to be high force-low velocity training. This means you can overload high velocity, more specific movements in the general strength phase if you so wish.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE
TRAINING INSIGHTS
FLYWHEEL

Flying Strength

I am interested if anybody using flywheel technology feels that it engages the core more so than traditional strength training for certain exercises? When I am performing front, lateral and rear shoulder raises, using the Exerfly rack mount flywheel the activation of the core sure feels that way. I am thinking you brace more with that transition from the concentric to eccentric phases.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
TRAINING INSIGHTS
FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Training for Rehabilitation

Do you think fly wheel training would be useful in musculoskeletal rehabilitation? I think it could be better than many forms of resistance as the overload provided is directly related to the force production capability of your injured/non-injured limbs. That is, the energy stored in the flywheel and returned during the eccentric contraction is equal to that which you put into it during the concentric phase. Less in, less out!

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Extensibility vs Elasticity: Know the Difference?

So, do you know the difference? Well to be honest it is a little confusing as there is a lack of consistency in the literature. Some studies use the term elasticity to describe the extensibility of tissue. Others use flexibility, extensibility, and compliance interchangeably.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Restoring Elasticity (Rehab)

To restore musculotendinous elasticity after injury you need to be able to measure it! How do you measure whether your rehab return to play is on track in this area?

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Exercise Essentials (Rehab)

What is essential exercise knowledge for physiotherapists? Is it having a repertoire of exercises that you can prescribe specific to any diagnosis? When I look at many of the posts on Insta and the like, there seems to be a plethora of different exercises being demonstrated specific to a condition e.g., ankle mobility.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Exercise Essentials - Overload (Rehab)

I liked Mick Hughes comments about not being distracted by the cool sexy videos you see on social media. What is important is client/athlete outcomes, which is not related to how many exercises you know but rather your understanding of how to load tissue and the likely time course of adaptation.

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FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Concentrics – The Real Star?

The concentric contraction in flywheel resistance training (FRT) has received little interest compared to the eccentric contraction, however, personally I think it is the star in many ways.

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FORCE PLATES

Unweighting/Unloading 2

So what are some of the variables you might want to keep an eye on in this unloading/unweighting phase?Remember Newtons Third law of motion – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The body working with gravity or against gravity is what the force plate is picking up and determines the shape of the force-time signal.

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FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Load Quantification: Issues and Solutions

A perceived limitation of flywheel resistance training (FRT) was the guess work around quantifying load on these devices. The uncertainty I think comes from a number of origins...

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FORCE PLATES

May The Force Plate Be With You

So now you know a little bit more about force plates. Also, now you know that most practitioners can afford force plates given the competition amongst manufacturers and the new leasing arrangements, force plates have become accessible to the many. In addition to these leasing arrangements, manufacturers have got the software to a place where it is intuitive to use – “plug and play” – “set and forget”.

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Prevent Force Loss – Energy Leakage

So how can you get stronger without putting on muscle size? Well, there are heaps of ways, one of which I want to talk to today. What are you seeing in the diagram?

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ELASTIC BASED RESISTANCE

Concentric Elastic Benefits

So, what are the benefits of elastic based resistance (EBR)? As intimated previously, bands are used as a means of overcoming the mechanical disadvantages associated with specific joint angles during free weight resistance (FWR) and increasing the degree of sport specificity.

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FORCE PLATES

Blue Box What?

Do you know what the blue highlighted region of the countermovement jump (CMJ) signal is called and what it represents? This highlighted phase is when the athlete/client drops down or "unweights" and is showing a force lower than body weight because he/she is essentially in free-fall...

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FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Loading Quantification Quandaries

So how do you quantify loading with flywheel resistance training (FRT)? With free weight resistance training you have knowledge of the mass on the bar and you program as a number of repetitions you can do of that mass (e.g. 10 Repetition Maximum - 10 RM) or you establish a 1RM and prescribe loading as a percentage of that load (e.g. 60% 1RM).

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ELASTIC BASED RESISTANCE

Elastic Band Resistance (EBR) and Eccentrics

So, what are the benefits of EBR to eccentrics? Because the magnitude of EBR is primarily a function of its elastic properties and not the force of gravity, there is also opportunity for much greater eccentric velocities and accelerations. This is because the band is extended at the end of the concentric and start of the eccentric phases.

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ELASTIC BASED RESISTANCE

Elastic Band Resistance Benefits

So, what do you think some of the benefits of EBR? Because the resistance is a function of the stretch co-efficient of the band and displacement or stretch, EBR is not governed by the effects of gravity. So, what does that mean?

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FORCE PLATES

Shifting Weight Shift

In the previous post I asked, what does the weight shift (WS) seen in the force plate signal mean in practice? A very broad question. Here are some thoughts for you...

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FLYWHEEL

Inertial Load in Flywheel Training

Mass in angular terms is inertia (I) which is a function of mass and how the mass is distributed around the axis of rotation (AR). You can have larger inertia by having heavier flywheels or wider diameter flywheels (mass distributed further away from the AR - see red vs blue in picture).

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ELASTIC BASED RESISTANCE

Elastic Band Resistance and Concentrics

Do you think overloading a muscle throughout its range of motion (ROM) best optimises muscle growth? Well there is some truth to the statement, however, some parts of the ROM are more important than others. Overloading the muscle at stretched or long muscle lengths (LML) optimises muscle growth. It can also really help if you can overload a muscle where it is strongest.

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FORCE PLATES

What is Weight?

Are you a force? Before discussing what a force plate is and how it works, let’s back up the truck and remind you of some physics, more specifically Newtons third law, the Law of Action and Reaction, which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Periodising Partials

So how do you periodise partials into your yearly training program (YTP)? Let’s look at Rolf Ohmans short drop squat (SDS ~5 cm) vs full squat (FS) exercises. One school of thought would use full range of motion (ROM) exercise early in the YTP in the general prep phase.

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ELASTIC BASED RESISTANCE
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Variable Resistance - Elastic Band Resistance (EBR)

For many years, innovators have been trying to overcome some of the inertial/mechanical disadvantages associated with constant or free weight resistance (FWR). For example, it is well known you can spend a lot of effort overcoming the inertia of a bar initially and once you get it going, you can spend as much as 67% of the concentric effort decelerating a load of ~20% 1RM...

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FORCE PLATES

Force Plate Weighing Phase

What is the black boxed area of the propulsive phase of the countermovement (CMJ) signal called? It’s called the weighing phase and as the name suggests it is a phase of quiet standing on a force plate where the force plates quantify your body weight. Does this phase serve any purpose?

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FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Limitations

What are some limitations with flywheel resistance training (FRT)? One of the major things I think you need to be aware of is that due to the maximal or near maximal effort and non-stop nature of the of FRT, there is potential to rack up significant fatigue, as you are training closer to failure with each rep.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Concentrics and Injury Resistance

Did you think that eccentric muscle actions were the only contraction types that could shift the optimum length (SOPL) of muscle (see picture)? Net effect longer and stronger muscles.

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FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Resistance Training - Muscle Soreness?

Having a chat with Carmen Bott a week or so back and we were comparing notes on our Exerfly flywheel systems, and she observed that she had never got muscle soreness using it. This got me reflecting had I experienced muscle soreness with my rack mount, and I hadn’t. Now admittedly we both resistance train, but some of the exercises we were using we were doing for the first time. Still no muscle soreness?

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Partial vs Full ROM Mechanics

What do you think are the mechanical advantages of a short drop squat (SDS - 5.7 cm) vs a full (FS) squat? I've been chatting with Rolf Ohman about this and a big thanks to him for sharing his findings from 4 sets of 5 reps at 90 kg bilaterally.

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FLYWHEEL

Flywheel Muscle Soreness or Lack of Explained

In a previous post the question was asked, do you get muscle soreness using flywheel resistance training (FRT) and if not, why? A few of us had observed very little soreness when FRT, even with the introduction of new exercises.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Jumping Inside Jumps

Do you know what type of vertical jump force plate signal is shown in the diagram? It is a countermovement jump (CMJ). Do you know what the numbers mean? They represent different phases of the countermovement jump.

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FLYWHEEL

Last Call on Flywheel Muscle Soreness

Continuing on from previous posts, I was interested in whether muscle soreness from flywheel resistance training (FRT) had been documented in clinical populations? A quick scoping of the literature found...

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Isometrics Insights

Can you spot the difference that can make a 40-80 kg different to an isometric dead start concentric only contraction?

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Titin, Eccentrics, Stiffness, Injury

So what has titin got to do with eccentrics, stiffness and injury? Let me explain... During eccentric or lengthening contractions, some sarcomeres within muscle fibres are thought to stretch to greater lengths, these sites structurally weaker due to the amount of actin and myosin overlap, and hence the muscle is more susceptible to injury at these sites/lengths.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Sliding filament theory out – Winding filament theory in?

Last call on titin. I have been talking to this titin molecule over the last couple of posts and will put this discussion to bed after sharing this with you.Some of the latest research says that titin has a huge role in active force production, the winding filament theory (WFT) suggested a better explanation of muscle function than the sliding filament theory (SFT).

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FLYWHEEL
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Flywheel Pros

I’d like to thank Josh Naterman for taking time to expand his thoughts in a very articulate and knowledgeable manner, about the potential benefits of flywheel resistance training (FRT). Concepts around impulse, rubber based resistance training (RBRT) and traditional resistance training (TRT) such as cables were discussed.

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ACCELERATION AND SPEED
ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Moving Backwards for Forward Strengthening

I’m a big fan of having a healthy dose of moving backwards in your days, some of the acute benefits to backward motion (BM) listed on the slide. One of the things I’ve found most fascinating is that there is very little elastic storage and utilisation in BM. So, if you want to preferentially target the contractile component and minimise the contribution of the passive (mysial) and series (tendon) elastic components during dynamic cyclic movement, then this should be part of your exercise menu.

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Titin the Big Player

How much do you know about titin? Here is a couple of quick facts. First it is the largest protein known in the human body – aptly named from the Latin word meaning strong or giant. Second it provides ~90- 95% of endosarcomeric (within sarcomere) passive force and is a big player in terms of muscle function, mechanics, functional and sporting performance.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
FLYWHEEL

Gravitational Dead Spots

What is a gravitational dead spot? In terms of strength training, I am using the term to refer to the zone where the effects of gravity are minimal on the load and therefore the involved muscles.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Landing Preparation Training

So, are you up to speed with all the landing ground reaction forces (GRF) that your athlete’s experience and therefore should be prepared to handle? Previously, I mentioned the vertical GRF, and these are the forces that you should understand as they have the additive effect of your mass, how high you jump and the effect of gravity combining to provide a substantial musculotendinous overload on landing. You will note that the vertical GRF (A) sometimes has two peaks which indicates a toe (F1) heel (F2) landing pattern. Shorter rise times or steeper slopes to these peaks is indicative of greater stress on the musculoskeletal tissues.

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Passive Muscle Tension and Fluid Volume

I didn’t know changes in intramuscular fluid volume could influence force and velocity of contraction to the magnitude they do. I have been updating my Optimising Strength and Power course and found this article by Sleboda et al (2019) fascinating...

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Isometrics and Muscle Length

Which press-up produced a net vertical force of 575 vs. 856 N on the force plates shown in the diagram?Did you say A = 856 N and B = 575 N?Could you use the diagram in the middle to explain the differences?

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Screening

So where does movement screening (MS) fit and how does it differ to musculoskeletal screening? My bead on things is shown in the diagram, MS is the place you should start prior to any musculoskeletal testing and physical capacity testing.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Jump-Landings

What do you see in the figure? A countermovement jump (CMJ) vertical ground reaction force signal, the various phases of the CMJ and the propulsive and landing forces associated with the jump landings.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Bad Posture Is Ideal?

What are your thoughts on “ideal” posture? Just completed a resource on movement screening (https://lnkd.in/gaY9c8wX) and why this is such a great place to start with a client and/or athlete. Prior to the movement screening, getting a snapshot of a person’s static posture is usually insightful in that often it is a window to their dynamic movement. For example, if you observe femoral or tibial torsion during a static assessment, it most likely influences gait in some manner.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

When Bad is Good...

I am wondering where you stand on this one. Following on from the previous post on posture, there are a whole heap of athletic postures that would be classified far from “ideal”. These postural derivations observed in athletes, however, appear to be advantageous to the production and application of force for their sport. For example, tibial torsion and hyper extended knees for swimming, lordosis for field and track sports requiring speed, etc.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE
FLYWHEEL

Fly In And Out

Here's one observation from a newbie with Exerfly rack flywheel technology (see picture). You just can't cheat that eccentric phase during flywheel training! It catches up with you at some stage! That is, you have to arrest or brake the angular momentum (flywheel mass x angular velocity) some time/displacement during the movement.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Torque Steadiness

Big shout out to Scot Morrison who educated me on this topic of torque or force steadiness. I showed this countermovement jump signal in a previous post of an ACL injured athlete, who after 12 months still had this atypical jagged signal in the unweighting phase of the jump, both bilaterally and unilaterally in both legs, as shown in the boxed region in the Figure on the left. When you magnify a force signal you will see it fluctuating around an average value, the standard deviation of which can be used as a measure of steadiness. However, the normal force signal during the unweighting phase is typically smooth as in the Figure on the right.

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Supramaximal Accentuated Eccentric Loading

What are some of the big differences between lengthening (eccentric) and shortening (concentric) contractions? In mechanical terms, certainly the force-velocity characteristics differ markedly, where eccentric forces are greater (supramaximal) than a concentric 1RM or maximum voluntary isometric (zero velocity) contraction (MVIC) and can be produced independent of velocity as shown in the figure.

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Concentric Force-Velocity Relationship

Have you heard of viscosity or viscoelastic properties of muscle? How does it affect or explain the concentric force-velocity relationship (CFVR)? Does it affect the “feel” and function of a muscle? Can you change it to improve force and velocity capability acutely and/or longitudinally?

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Running Resisted Part 3

In a previous post I discussed how we can use limb loaded resistance to increase the inertia of the limb whilst running and therefore provide additional resistance and hence a sport specific strength stimulus. Let’s take this a step further.

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Eccentrics, Concentrics and Isometrics Unpacked

Mechanical loading or lack of, drives physiological adaptation. Let’s look at this initially with a disuse, inactivity, injury or immobilisation lens. What happens when you can’t get stress (force) or strain (length) into a tissue?

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Multidirectional Jumping Asymmetry

Can you remember what those Venn diagrams mean from your school days? Let’s try and make some sense of the figure. Hewit et al (2012) looked at the jump performance of a National Under 21 netball team. Some results from this study are detailed in the table, which shows the R2 or shared variance the tests have with each other...

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FLYWHEEL

Why Fly?

As with any form of resistance training you need to know its benefits and limitations, flywheel resistance training (FRT) is no different. The best thing you can do if you haven’t already, is get on a device and give it a go. If you don’t have access then the things you would likely notice are...

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

How to Assess Elastic Asymmetry

What’s going on in that diagram? What has that got to do with assessing elastic asymmetry? Well the signals are of a squat jump (SJ) and a countermovement jump (CMJ), which you can use to provide insight into active force capability from the contractile component (CC) and passive or elastic force capability from the parallel (PEC – mysial tissues) and series elastic components (SEC - tendon).

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Using Inertia for Improving Running Strength

So what's inertia and can you use it for rehab and/or to simply get stronger for running? Inertia is the resistance of a body to change in motion and is a function of mass. For example, if 400 grams is placed on the calf as in the runner in the picture, then the inertia of the calf and leg has been increased as the limb is 400 gm heavier and therefore requires more muscular effort to accelerate and decelerate.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Bilateral Deficit – Bilateral Facilitation

Can somebody help here? Jordan Troester, Director of Performance and Sport Science at University of Oregon shared this observation. When isometric squat assessing their athletes, he typically finds that the single leg peak forces (PF) in the diagram (see Figures B and C ), were at least 80% of double leg PF (see Figure A), sometimes even between 90-100%. In the example on the slide, unilateral isometric PF is ~83% of bilateral PF. Have you seen similar results? Why is that?

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Asymmetry Insights

How good is your understanding re. slow vs fast stretch-shorten cycle (SSC) performance i.e. coupled eccentric-concentric contractions as in typical human motion? Do you know what sort of jumps assess slow and fast SSC performance? Would you expect the interlimb asymmetry between limbs for both types of jumps be similar?

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ONLINE RESOURCES AND COURSES

Fibre Type and Function

The diagram depicts three different motor units (motorneuron and the muscle fibres it innervates), that have very different force capability as shown by the twitch responses and fatigue curves. Broadly speaking they are representative of three muscle fibre types – one slow and two fast that are known by a multitude of names.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Shaping and Shifting Muscle

Muscular tension is produced by both force generation (active tension) and stretch (passive tension), and when these two are combined there may be an additive effect. When muscles are actively contracting, they can produce force either while shortening, lengthening, or remaining at a constant length (isometric). In all cases, greater mechanical loading can increase cross-sectional area (CSA) irrespective of contraction type, thereby confirming the key role of muscular tension.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE
INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
FLYWHEEL

Flying Wheels

We’ve just entered a partnership with Exerfly a flywheel technology company here in NZ. I know a little about flywheel technology, which I will share with you. However, I am hoping also that you share with me how you've been implementing this technology as part of your practice, as I know there are 100s of research articles in this area and many of you will have been using the technology for several years.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Asymmetry Insights

What are you looking at in the diagram?? It is the force-time signal from a force plate of the jump phase of a countermovement jump (CMJ), one of the most common jumps used to quantify asymmetry by practitioners.Which signal do you think is of an athlete who was cleared to return to play 12 months previously, after ACL repair and rehabilitation?

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ACCELERATION AND SPEED
WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Strength Train Whilst You Run!

Force (mass x acceleration) capability in runners is typically developed via traditional resistance training methods where mass is emphasised, athletes overcoming large loads on bars. A consequence of such loading is that movement velocities and accelerations are slow/small. Conversely, force capability in runners can be developed in athletes by emphasising velocity and acceleration of movement, therefore moving light loads/masses quickly.

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Muscle Architecture and Movement

How is your knowledge around the effects of muscle architecture on force and function? Do you know how to train to change architecture? Muscle architecture typically refers to muscle thickness (MT), pennation angle (PA) and fascicle length (FL), an ultrasound image of the vasti musculature showing two of these design parameters.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Intermuscular Co-ordination

Intra- and intermuscular co-ordination refer to the neural factors that you can focus training on to improve force and power, whether it be for injury resistance/rehab or sporting performance. Intramuscular or within muscle factors such as motor unit recruitment, firing frequency, synchronisation and reflex activity, respond well to heavy non-specific strength training.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Interpreting Interlimb Asymmetry

There is not much to interpreting an interlimb asymmetry, right? You just look at the value to see the percent difference between limbs. Is it that simple? How do you know that the asymmetry is real or meaningful? Does any of the picture on the slide make sense to you?

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Are All Hip Extension Exercises Created Equal?

This is one of the early studies that I did with Bret Contreras that really opened my eyes to how different hip extension exercises target the strengthening of muscle at different lengths.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Core Strengthening

If you were to do a sit up, which loading pattern would overload and strengthen the core more A or B? Both vests have 800 grams of additional weight on them. I'm picking most of you would've chosen B. But can you give the reason?

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Eccentric Loading of Tissues

Do you know what's happening in the diagram? This model can tell you so much about physiology, mechanics, musculotendinous function, assessment and programming, for injured and healthy muscle. But let’s start at the beginning.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Infrared thermography (IRT) in Rehab and Performance

Have you heard of IRT? A couple years back when visiting Texas, I came across Skylar Richards the then sport scientist with FC Dallas, who showed me how he was using this technology to provide insight into injury risk and quality of recovery strategies. I found it fascinating, and am wondering if many of you use it?

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ACCELERATION AND SPEED
WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Muscle Strategy Change With Increasing Speed

Have you ever wondered how stride length and stride frequency, and associated muscular strategies change with increasing running speed? Check out this open access article by Dorn et al. (https://lnkd.in/gMb7ZbWx ) for the details. In summary, as shown in the graph, more of the speed increase at lower speeds is due to stride length, whereas high speed running is due to greater stride frequency increases.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Asymmetry Thresholds

Just been putting this free resource together about limb asymmetry and thought I’d share bits of it with you. The first area I thought I’d take on is what is considered a threshold of interlimb asymmetry that is worrisome to the practitioner.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Asymmetry Pre-Planning

Do you put much pre-planning into your asymmetry assessments? A good place to start is the why? Are you assessing asymmetry to: drive better movement and sporting performance; reduce likelihood of injury; and/or, monitor your rehab efficacy? That is the easy part.

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ACCELERATION AND SPEED

Backward Motion

What do you think are some of the benefits to backward motion (BM)? On the slide are listed some of the acute benefits. One of the things I found most fascinating was that there is very little elastic storage and utilisation in BM. So, if you want to preferentially target the contractile component and minimise the contribution of the passive (mysial) and series (tendon) elastic components during dynamic cyclic movement, then this should be part of your exercise menu.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE
INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Addressing Asymmetry

What are you seeing in the two diagrams? The belly or bigger/heavier part of the wearable resistance (WR) is oriented either medially or laterally. So not only can you make a limb heavier for movement specific strength training, but you can also orient the load in a manner to produce subtle turning forces around the joint as in the medial and lateral loading, producing internal and external rotation.

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INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Calculating Interlimb Asymmetry

Do you know how to calculate asymmetry between limbs? Are there multiple methods? How comparable are the different methods? Is there one method better than others?

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STRENGTH AND FORCE
POWER

Eccentric Quasi-Isometrics (EQI)

In the photo you can see Mel Siff’s classification of types of muscle action. Of interest is the use of quasi-isometrics and in particular EQI muscle actions. An EQI is where you maintain a specific joint-angle against a submaximal load for as long as possible; as fatigue accumulates, an eccentric contraction occurs while you attempt to resist muscle lengthening through the prescribed range of motion.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Training Adaptation

Chris Beardsley just posted on phase potentiation and interference, which I found thought provoking. Basically, the terminology refers to how one block of training can potentiate or interfere with a subsequent block of training. Chris cited research how balance training before strength training interfered with rate of force development (RFD) adaptations and strength training before balance training interfered with both RFD and strength adaptation.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Core Strength Training

What are you seeing in these diagrams? The same amount of load (1.2 kg/2.7 lbs) but arranged differently around the midline. Well, we’re playing with rotational inertia again but it is around the longitudinal axis (LA) the blue line on the figure. Remember the formula for rotational inertia – I = mr2, the resistance to angular motion a function of mass (m) and how far the mass is from the axis of rotation (r).

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Getting Primed!

This priming area has been the subject of a great deal of interest in terms of getting that pre-competition edge for your athletes. Have you integrated video into your warm-up 15 minutes prior to competition? If not, this may interest you.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Mechanotherapy and Tissue Repair For Physiotherapists

What’s mechanotherapy? This article by Khan and Scott (2009) “Mechanotherpay: how physical therapists’ prescription of exercise promotes tissue repair,” makes an interesting read...

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

The Big Three

What do you think are the big three mechanical variables that drive most tissue adaptation?Force-Length-Velocity. That is, muscles generate force depending on their force-velocity and length-tension properties. This is why the force-velocity and length tension relationships are so important to understand.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Eccentrics

Do you think eccentrics just that little bit different to isometrics and concentrics physiologically? All these contraction types are modulated by the same contractile machinery, so there should be no difference. Or is there?

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Isometric Exercise Zone

What’s an Isometric Exercise Zone? Check this free Exercise Zone out and you will understand. Basically it is part of a Block Course I just released on Isometrics, Concentrics and Eccentrics. The resources I develop have a Masterclass, Assessment Zone and Exercise Zone per topic, so this free resource shared provides information and movies into the different types of isometric training and programming considerations.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS
STRENGTH AND FORCE

Rest Redistribution vs Cluster Set Training

So, what's the difference between cluster set (CS) training and rest redistribution (RR) training? During CS training additional intra-set rest periods are added alongside standard inter-set rest periods, the net effect a longer session. RR training on the other hand redistributes the total rest time (see figure), shifting it to include shorter but more frequent rest times, the net effect a same length session.

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Foaming For More Volume

More on more mechanical loading in a session. Hot off the press is this open access article by Santana et al. (2021) (https://lnkd.in/gDzH6AC) who found that foam rolling between sets increased total training volume of a leg extension exercise. They compared agonist foam rolling (AFR), antagonist (ANTFR), combined agonist and antagonist (A/ANTFR) with a traditional control (TP).

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Strengthen muscle without strengthening muscle

What tissue do you think the picture is showing? It’s an electron micrograph of the connective tissue found around the muscle fibres, which collectively are called the mysial tissues or intramuscular fascia. The muscle fibres have been removed via acid digestion.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Overload Your Running

What determines changes in neural and metabolic loading/effort? Usually a change in mechanical loading. Let’s take the findings of Matt Brown from PSG Football Club in a previous post where he found an increase in electrical/neural activity of the muscle (EMG) during high speed running, by simply moving the same light weight further away from his knee on a calf sleeve (see picture).

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

More Mechanical Load

If mechanical load is such a driver of signalling and tissue remodelling (mechanotransduction), how can we get more load into a session? Previously, I suggested a whole lot of ways we could use the interset rest period to add mechanical stress to your training session e.g. vibration, isometrics, etc. What about ways within the set (intraset) structure? Cluster training provides a great option to increase the mechanical load of a session and we began looking at this in 2003.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Smart Strengthening

See what you think...An anonymous female competitive runner (5 km – 17.27; 10 Km – 36.12) and physiotherapist recently adopted wearable resistance (WR) into her training. She wanted to see if some WR specific drills and strengthening prior to her 2 x tempo sessions/week affected performance in any manner. The only changes to her program were these WR exercises as part of her warm-up

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TRAINING INSIGHTS

Enhancing High Performance

Most enlightening chat with Richard Young PhD a couple of days back. One part of the conversation that really resonated was when he gave me insight into what his role mostly involves when he gets called into high performing environments i.e. businesses and sporting organisations.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Is Your Toolbox Full?

How many “tools” do you use to train muscle? Pneumatics, chains, flywheel, free weights, body weight, electrostimulation, etc. I bet there is no shortage of tools in your toolbox. I was chatting with Grigoras Diaconescugrig about flywheel technology and how he uses it, “as an integrated part of training with more traditional methods … they must co-exist together … depending on what adaptation I target from training I chose my tools.”

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ACCELERATION AND SPEED

Load-Velocity Relationship

Previously I mentioned a little about resisted speed training (RST) and how the application of load has changed over the years. If you want to have a great read in this area I direct you to the work of Micheál Cahill who just completed a PhD on the topic. It's packed with interesting findings and practical applications.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE
INJURY RESISTANCE AND PREVENTION

Corticosteroids and Connective Tissue

Remember the three component model I posted previously. It’s back! I’ve found the three component model fascinating for many years, as it provides insight into those tissues that are important for force production and transmission. The parallel and series elastic components of the model are representative of the mysial (epimysium, perimysium and endomysium) and tendinous structures respectively, and these and other structures are collectively known as connective tissue.

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WEARABLE RESISTANCE

Get More Electrical

Matt Brown Academy Sport Scientist with Paris St Germain Football Club shared some interesting findings re. load and load placement with wearable resistance (WR) during high-speed running. They compared different calf sleeve loads (0.75 and 1.5% Body mass - BM) and placements (proximal and distal calf) on running mechanics and the electrical activity (EMG) of muscle.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE

Eccentrics for Propulsion

What have the two shaded regions in the diagrams have in common? Previously I talked about the many faces of eccentrics and specifically mentioned, supramaximal accentuated eccentric loading (#1). You can also classify and emphasise submaximal accentuated eccentric loading (SubAEL). It is submaximal in that the loads used are less than concentric 1RM i.e. the loading is determined by concentric strength.

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STRENGTH AND FORCE
TRAINING INSIGHTS

Eccentrics and Flywheels

How does a flywheel provide both sub- and supra-maximal accentuated eccentric loading (AEL)?Let’s delve into a little mechanics.

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