The qualites of strength and condtioning

[DanPartelly]

Ill write a small article on to illustrate some of the many facets of strength and conditioning. Hopefully, some will find it interesting. It will come in pieces , over several days. Ill start with a little intro in physics , which , without being a pre-requisite, I believe will help a bit later:

Basic physics (this wont be long):

1. force: the measure of interaction between 2 bodies Its a vector quantity, characterized by magnitude, direction, and point of application. It is a instantaneous measure. Its measured in Newtons.

F = m * a

Where “m” is the mass of the body and “a” is the acceleration

2. work: we call work "L" the scalar measure which characterize the effect of a force , "F", to move or to oppose to the movement of body over a distance "d" and is expressed by the equation:

L = F * d
its measured in Newton * meters , also known as Jouls

3. power: power is the rate of doing work . Since we exist in a space - time continuum, it is obvious that work can be done faster or slower.Thus:

P = L / t

where t is the time in which the work L was executed. As we will se later, power is an extremely important measure in human performance. Its measure in Jouls/second , also called Watt

4. energy: very simplistically put , the capacity of doing work

[DanPartelly]

Muscular strength

1. Terms & Definition:

Zatsiorsky defines muscular strength as the ability to generate maximum-maximorum external force against a resistance. Another way to term muscular strength is max-strength.

Maximal force in a given condition is not usually maximum-maximorum force.
For example, to move to accelerate 100g to 1 m/s2 takes nowhere near maximal-maximorum force a individual is capable of developing. By the same token, accelerating a 1kg body to 1m/s2 will require a maximum force which is higher than the maximum force required in the previous example, but again, is not the maximal maximorum force the individual can develop. Maximum-maximorum force is the absolute maximum muscular force an athlete can develop. Maximum force is the force an athlete can develop
in a given situation.

There are several different types of forces an active muscle can develop:

Concentric - is developed when the muscle is shortening for example doing a positive component during a chin-up

Eccentric – developed when the muscle is lengthening - for example during the negative (when you lower yourself from the bar) portion of a chin-up . Eccentric force is greater
then the concentric force. This is why a individual which cant perform a chin-up, i.e cannot raise himself to the bar, usually is capable , if starting from the high position,
to controllably lower himself down. His eccentric force is great enough to controllably
lower his body. Although he is not capable to develop the same force in a concentric action, i.e raise himself up.

Isometric – developed in a isometric action, that’s it, when the muscle length does not change.

2. Expression of max-strength in humans

Generally, max-strength which can be expressed by a human depends on the following most important factors:

Neural factors

rate of CNS activation
number of recruited motor units
rate coding in motor units
synchronization between motor units
inhibition or golgi tendon organs


Muscular factors
muscular cross-section of muscle (are you big , or what ? )

What means this ? It means that besides the pure physical aspects affecting expression of strength , there is a huge pure neural component to human strength. Resistance training promotes neural adaptations which will greatly improve max-strength. Some of those adaptations are directly affecting the neural factors above , such as maximum number of motor units which are recruited and synchronization between them.

It also means that while for 2 untrained persons , the one which bigger muscular cross section is stronger (bigger muscles) this doesn’t necessarily hold true anymore for 2 highly trained athletes. Their neural pathways and recruitment mechanisms are so optimized that in some cases they become the deciding factor in max-strength they can express.

3. Strength deficit

Complete motor unit recruitment only occur during a powerful electric stimulation of a muscle . All motor units are recruited synchronously , the result being a tremendous developed force.

We call strength deficit the difference between the max-strength developed in such electrical stimulation of a muscle, and the max-strength a person can voluntarily develop.

Given the above conclusion that both neural and physical factors contribute to the human strength, strength deficit is a important indicator of what should be trained.

If strength deficit is large, then the trainee has a large margin for improvement by training nerual pathways , without increasing muscle cross-section. On the other hand, if strength deficit is small , a hypertrophy program should be considered , so the muscle cross section is increased. This , besides affecting physical components of strength, it also have the consequence of increasing the strength deficit again, the newly gained muscle have space for integrating itself optimally with the neural systems.


4. Hypertrophy

One of the consequences of resistance training is increased muscle-cross section , a thing called muscular hypertrophy. We seen that is a component which affects the expression of human strength. According to research steaming from Russia and other eastern block countries, there are 2 big different hypertrophy types:

Myofibrilar hypertrophy -- hypertrophy of the muscle fibers themselves, as the number of myofibrils increases.
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy -- is the hypertrophy of the muscle sarcoplasm, which is a semi-fluid substance which is found between the fibrils. Sarcoplasm does not contain any contractile proteins, therefore sarcoplasmic hypertrophy do not directly contribute to
expression of strength (yet it may have important role in optimization of energy systems used by the muscle)

Any kind of resistance training will produce a mix of both hypertrophy cases, but using different strength training methods we can drastically shift the balance in favor of one of them.

[DanPartelly]

Earlier I said that "power" is extremely important to athletes. Because we
seen that forces are instant measures of the interaction of 2 bodies, but we exist in space-time continuum, in many cases power is more relevant for athletic performance than max-strength alone. Indeed , in many cases we are interested in how fast can we generate work.

So given this, a sport action, for example a punch, takes "N" units of time. Another action can take "M" units of time.

Another thing worth of understanding is the fact that force development by a muscle for a given motion is not instantaneous. It takes a time, called in specialty literature "time to peak force" lets call it here "T", to develop maximum force. It usually averages to ~0.4 seconds .

So we see that we have a zone in time in which is impossible to develop maximum force. The difference between maximum force and maximum force obtained in a given time lower than time to maximum force development T, is called explosive strength deficit.

If time required for maximal force development T , is much larger than the time for the sport action, for example the punch which takes N time units (N < T) becomes obvious that the sport action take places in such conditions that maximal strength is no longer very useful. (this is the time deficit zone )Indeed , this is clear, since the action finishes faster than the time required for the muscle to develop maximum force of which it is capable.

The consequence is that further improving the max strength of the athlete in this situation is not useful and is better to train the rate of force development than maximal strength if the goal is power.

But if the sport action, lets say throwing a heavy weight, takes longer than the time required for maximal force development, then we have space for improvement using max strength methods as well. It generally works well for beginner athletes , and if explosive strength deficit is under 50%.

By the same token, applying this in a inverse way, there is no sense to try to develop maximum strength using sport actions which take place inside the time deficit zone, i.e before maximum force can be developed by the muscle.

This is useful for selecting a training target for improving power : max strength or rate of force development.

It also become clear now that the target of training in many situation should not be max-strength always. Its great to have a great strength in many sports , but is many times better to be capable to develop a lot of power.

[DanPartelly]

Endurance and conditioning are important.

Muscular endurance is very important in many sports , and situations. Its basically the ability of the muscle group to bear fatigue. When training for anaerobic muscle endurance, one adapts to the fatigue causing effects of some of the metabolites of metabolic pathways used to generate ATP to sustain muscular activity. Training for muscular endurance is many times one of the most mentally demanding aspects of resistance training. Besides obvious adaptations caused by strength training, due to the high mental demand required to complete muscular endurance protocols successfully, they are very beneficial in strengthening ones determination Muscular endurance is termed by many strength-endurance.

For loads *down* to 25% of 1RM , there is a direct correlation between max-strength displayed of an individual and th strength-endurance displayed. This means, more max strength a individual have, more endurance he will display against using said resistance. However, this only apply until the resistance is about to 25% of 1RM, for lower resistances,
this relationship doesnt hold anymore true, and other factors come into play. Yet , it is also an indicator which in some cases if is useful for one to determine if an increase its max-strength, will help his endurance or not .



Cardio-respiratory endurance, especially aerobic conditioning is paramount in many activities. Ross Enamait use to say "Conditioning is king in the ring". What is the hole power or strength you have, if you cant bear fatigue during a sportive even, and you get out of gas after 2 minutes ? you become an easy prey despite your strength and might, unable to display any of it.

[DanPartelly]

Ill quote Ross Enamait yet another time: "Skills pay the bills" . In most sports and activities, a strength and conditioning performance is just a part of equation. Indeed , there is the realm of sport specific skills, skill without you will get nowhere. It can be the technik of a punch or kick , the almost intellectual effort to bring your adversary slowly into a position to execute a submission, the the skill to execute difficult technical climbing move , to hit a ball, or why not , to successfully execute a decompression profile, or negotiate problems during a cave dive.

Without skills, there is nothing. There are separate elements which are hardly functional together. So next time when you train for something, remember the importance of skills. Strength and conditioning will take you a long way, but in the end, the skills will get you to your target.

Keeping this in mind, we observe that many sports requires very different qualities of strength, conditioning, and motor abilities. Powerflifting , or weightliftintg for instance , requires max-strength above anything else.

Other sports , such as combat sports, requires a unique blend of many of those characteristics. It;s many times hard to create a effective training regimen for such sports, for developing some of the said qualities may impair other required qualities. For example improvement of max-strength
alone may lower the rate of force development, which is critical for the explosive strength an athlete can display, a very important quality to have for a combat athlete.

And other sports will require little, if any, strength training. For example, a marathon runner .

In the interest of making your training as efficient as it can , first identify the goals for what you train for. Second follow your progress in the most important things , sport specific movements and skills . In most cases l, special resistance training and conditioning is not a goal in itself , but a road to improvement of sport or task specific movements and demands.

If your strength increases, but you fail to transpose those effects in task specific improvements, which where your goals, then your training regimen is badly designed. Fire your trainer :P

Forget the overhyped statement "functional strength training". Keep your sight on transmutation of strength training effects in sport or task specific skills, and youll be happy. Besides it fast becomes a marketing gimmick for ppl to buy into it and produce some $$$$

The serious strength and conditioning trainers and coaches are extremely aware of transmutation of training results in sport specific skills from the dawn of time. Probably it was a known fact when Alexander the Great was conquering Asia and Rome still young that some exercises are better than other for some goals.

The serious coaches know this. The others just took the term "functional" and started to market it.

[DanPartelly]

Quoted works and bibliography:

Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky -- Science of strength training and conditioning
Mell Siff & Verkhoshansky YV -- Supertraining
Starting Strength - Rippetoe & Kilgore

[GLOC]

Excellent work Dan.

Do you mind if I put it in the library?

Regards