Fast and Furious or Slow and Steady

 As we settle into a routine we tend to forget some of the details involved in what we are doing.  For me, at least, that includes weightlifting.  Back in my early military days we heard the following mantra ad nauseam. “Complacency kills.” In this case it may kill your progress and results.

When activities become the norm we tend to zip through them.  This should never be the case in weight training.  Always pay the closest attention to the details of what you are doing.  This is an implication of the mind body connection some talk about.  This is paying attention to how your body is moving and the weights you are moving. 

That is not to say that all movements have to be performed with agonizingly slow movements. Though, that is how I am training at the time of this writing. Some sports specific training is explosive and fast while other types of training must, by necessity, be slow and deliberate.  What are the refracts of each?  How does one know if they are training at the right tempo?  The answers to these two fundamental questions is it depends.  It all depends upon your lifting experience and your goals. Let’s clarify that. 

First, tempo here refers to the speed of each stroke of the movement you are doing.  Whether it is a squat, deadlift, bench, tricep cable push down there are three parts of the movement.  From the bottom of the benchpress with the bar touching or nearly touching your chest contracting your muscles to push the weight up to arms length is contracting the muscles, the concentric phase. 

Holding the bar just above your chest for a moment or several seconds is the called isometric tension. In this portion your goal is to control the weight so there is no movement of the bar. That does not mean you rest the bar on your chest in benchpress. Rather, you push against the bar enough to keep it just at the surface of your chest. This can be a fast, momentary pause or a prolonged and several second pause. 

Eccentric is the portion in which you extend the muscles. In this phase you are significantly stronger than the concentric phase. Consider bent row for a moment. The concentric phase brings the bar up to your torso. The isometric is holding the bar against your body. Now, the eccentric is lowering the weight, extending the muscles used in this movement. In bench this phase is lowering the bar to your chest.  

As stated the eccentric phase shows greater strength than the concentric. It is this reason that some lifters will use what are called negatives. These are a lifters attempts to go through the rccentric phase in a slow and controlled motion while their spotter assists in the concentric phase. 

During all phases of your lift muscle fibers are being torn. Be it and explosive movement or a controlled movement there are fibers firing.  A rapid contraction of muscles will fire the fast twitch muscle fibers. There is also an emergency stretch reflex when contracting out of a stretch position this is the emergency stretch reflex. Its purpose is to prevent tearing of the muscle. This is accomplished by firing more muscle fibers than are needed to complete the movement.  Consider decline dumbbell curls. At the bottom of the movement with your arms angled back your biceps are stretched a bit. From a still position at the bottom when you rapidly and deliberately contract your biceps to lift the dumbbell there is a massive number of muscle fibers being used to elevate the weight. 

During recovery these extra fibers used translate into more gains for you. 

TEMPO

We have touched on fast repetitions with the above. Let’s compare and contrast the differences with fast and slow tempos. 

Fats twitch training is generally more sports specific. That is, when I was doing kick boxing I trained with rapid movements. The speed of contraction was the paramount focus. We fight as we train is what the Army always taught. 

The slower tempo, for instance a 4 to 6 second concentric, 2 to 6 seconds isometric, and a slow 4 to 6 second eccentric phase puts your muscles under an extended time under tension (TUT), this slow movement and its extended TUT results in a large number of muscles fibers expended. Recovery will result in more fibers being rebuilt by the body. This translates to more gains in mass. 

CONCLUSION

Granted, most exercises done in moderate speeds will result in muscle gains. A fast tempo results in specific speed and strength. Slow tempos, the longer TUT brings about more muscle mass. 

Can the two be combined in a workout? Absolutely. There is always room for exerting more control over the weights one is moving. As for performance of a lift there are many benefits for size and strength as well as power. 

For speed, for instance in Muay Thai, one will want to use fast and explosive movements. This will train for faster muscles and redactions. 

Combining the two will build functional strength in lifters as well as add some much sought after size. 

For me, I am focusing now on slower reps as I am seeking size. I currently walk at 280 pounds and 6’1” in height. My goal is to hit 300 pounds of body weight. If former Mr Olympia Mike Mentzer is right, the slower movement and increased time under tension will take me over the line. It will add muscular bulk to you, too.

Scoliosis and Strength Training

Scoliosis, the unnatural curving of the spine.  What images does this bring to mind?  Some sort of a Quasi Modo?  A character like Igor?  Perhaps, a young child with a severely twisted back?  I have known two of these examples.  One was a woman with whom I had worked.  She could not get the surgery necessary as a youth to straighten her spine.  The other, was a vibrant, bright, active young gal whose mother was able to get her into the Shriner’s Hospital for life-changing surgery.  Surgery that straightened her spine and implanted rods in her back to hold her spine straight.  This left her with a somewhat limited list of activities for the rest of her life.

About a month ago, I was asked about lifting weights with scoliosis.  Particularly, if it is safe to lift if one has scoliosis.  The first thing I can say is to ask your doctor.  Talk to your physician about what would be recommended.

The next thing that I can say is that there have been more than a few professional strength and physique competitors who have made a name for themselves with scoliosis.   

Among those athletes we will find Usain Bolt, tennis star James Blake, Olympian Jante Evans, Olympic gymnast Alexandra Marinescu, and Hockey Player Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins.   These are some highly functional sports athletes.   You would not know, by looking at them, that there was anything off.   With the exception of the swimmers, most athletes are wearing enough to cover their back.   Physique competitors are another story.   Here is a group of competitors who make their bread and butter on how they look.

The blog, kbrocking.com, is written from the perspective of an athlete in the strength, power, and physique perspective.  This gent appears to have scoliosis.  In one piece, he mentions having his back x-rayed to ensure that he did not bend the rod in his back.  When learning that he did not damage the implant.  His confidence in what he was doing increased.   

Lamar Gant is one professional strength athlete who has scoliosis.  He set world records in powerlifting with scoliosis.

Clearly, conditions like scoliosis are limiting, but not dead ends when it comes to strength, physique, and power training.  Any limitations you may have are set by yourself.  Surpassing those limitations must be done carefully, slowly, and with consideration to your physical issues.

It may seem counterintuitive at first blush, but strength and power training actually makes sense for those with scoliosis.  Weightlifting is listed among the top five sports for those with scoliosis.  I have added powerlifting on my own bias as I love the sport and due to the extreme strengthening of the muscles along the spine, the erector spinae.

At no other time than when you are under the weights should you be more aware of your posture.  That is to say, when squatting and deadlifting, focus very closely on the details of your posture.  Mental imaging, keeping a picture in your mind, is going to be paramount.  There is a plethora of case studies on how much good mental imaging can do for you and your body, so begin here. Also, you can read about these positive effects in this piece here.  Focusing on strict posture while lifting is going to help train your mind, your conscious and subconscious awareness, and your body to better maintain its proper posture.

Nothing is going to undo the curvature of scoliosis.  That, sadly, is yours to bare.  A stronger core, which includes the below list, will help keep your body straighter and feeling stronger.  These are the muscle groups to work on for a balanced and stronger core:

Abdominal Core

Abdominal Obliques

Transverse Abdominal

Latissimus Dorsi

Trapezius

To a lesser degree, the muscles around your shoulder blades have an impact on your posture as well. Those muscles are shown in the picture presented here.

A building cannot stand without a strong foundation.  Nor can it stand if the middle floors are poorly constructed.

Aside from cautioning you to talk to your physician first I would also say that you should likely not perform any exercises that twist the core.  Movements like Trunk Twist or Russian Twists, for instance, should be avoided.  Do not twist your spine under tension, pressure, or move it laterally with speed.

Otherwise, there is not any reason why you should not lift weights.  Just be a little cautious, perhaps a touch more so than your slightly less-bent compadres.

Stay safe. Lift strong!

2017 January Tabata Challenge Week 1 Tally

This marks the end of the first week of the 2017 January Tabata Challenge. It has been great for me! I am enjoying an increase in capacity to do push-ups, pull-ups, and ab work. My squats, which were not so bad have gotten much better. I am feeling great! Everyone around me has noted that my attitude has improved tremendously. Why wouldn’t it? Exercising beats out every pharmaceutical on the market for lifting people out of depression, improving one’s outlook on life, and increasing the brain’s production of positive endorphins. This also, by the way, positively impact the hypothalamus, located in the amygdala. What? Where? Why? These organs in the brain are the center of our emotional states.

In short, depression will affect the amygdala. Over time, the amygdala shrinks. This makes it way more difficult to get out of depression. Enter anti-depressant drugs. Do they make us feel better? Yes, but they do nothing for the amygdala. It is far better to repair the damage done. Exercise helps in this endeavor.

Enter our Tabata Challenge. Not only are we all burning massive calories during the workout, but for up to two hours after the workout we are burning calories at an accelerated rate. The rate of burn will vary based on your body size and body fat percentage, but most studies show that our after burn effect can last for up to two hours and burn an additional 225 calories. While that sounds great, and I do like those numbers, yes, they could be more impressive; however, what nearly every study has forgotten is the anaerobic impact that this training has on us.

By building muscle we are increasing our resting metabolism. This increase in our metabolism when we are not training burns more calories. Muscles urn calories in order to exist and move. One pound of muscle is going to burn around six to 10 calories to remain healthy. That is quality calories. This also includes training to keep those muscles, right? Right!

Tabata drills are burning up our glycogen at an accelerated pace while doing them. We get to enjoy an after burn. AND we have some more muscle to gobble up a few more calories while bopping about during the day. Think about all of those mundane things each of us do. Walking about the office, yard work, chasing the kids about the house & getting them to school, shopping, and whatever else you may have on your list. All those activities now use more calories because you have more muscle to take you through them. How cool is that?

Anyway, truth time … my bodyweight at the beginning of the week was 240 pounds tonight, after my PT session is … 236 pounds. This week I have dropped 4 pounds. None too shabby for one week. Woo-hoo!!

So, how about you? How have you progressed this week?