Monday, August 30, 2010
Long days
Sorry- I'll get back to posting soon. This should be my last 70hr week for a while. Lot's of interesting stuff going on, just too hectic to get the digital camera out and edit.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Lou Gehrig's disease or cumulative brain injury?
I had no idea Lou Gehrig was a running back at Columbia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/18gehrig.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/18gehrig.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig
Monday, August 16, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
"Negatives"
This was a recent topic of discussion on the GAIN forum:
http://news.medinfo.ufl.edu/articles/top-stories/the-negator-muscle-building-science/
I'm not sure why this is rearing it's head again. The concept of eccentric resistance training was popular in the 80s. If I'm not mistaken, at the end of the decade there were even companies that were iimplementing it in isokinetic machines.
In my mind, strength training is more than just sarcomeres. There's a motor control element to it. On page 28 of Richard Magill's new edition of his "Motor learning and Control" book, he says, "..researchers interested.in understanding the action preparation process are able to to obtain more specific insights into what occurs as a person prepares to move. Most reseachers agree that the premotor time is a measure of of the receipt and transmission of information from the environment, through the nervous system, to the muscle itself. The time interval seems to be an indicator of perceptual and cognitive decision making activity in which the person engages while preparing an action."
The machine scenario seems not to be concerned with any of this, only overloading the eccentric phase of a specific unidirectional, uni plane movement.
Eccentric overload requires a good amount of isometric stabilization to handle the extra load. Let's take a squat. If we use a weight beyond our 3R maximum we need to lower the weight very slowly and use spotters for the concentric portion to avoid injury. However, in my scenario, we can use a weight well below our 3R max, but instead actually "pull" the weight down to increase the eccentric momentum; then abruptly stop it at the bottom and concentrically return it under our own power. The neural component of the squat can be ehanced even further with a command by the coach to abruptly freeze and hold any position for a given amount of time. It also creates a great anaerobic effect.
Comments?
http://news.medinfo.ufl.edu/articles/top-stories/the-negator-muscle-building-science/
I'm not sure why this is rearing it's head again. The concept of eccentric resistance training was popular in the 80s. If I'm not mistaken, at the end of the decade there were even companies that were iimplementing it in isokinetic machines.
In my mind, strength training is more than just sarcomeres. There's a motor control element to it. On page 28 of Richard Magill's new edition of his "Motor learning and Control" book, he says, "..researchers interested.in understanding the action preparation process are able to to obtain more specific insights into what occurs as a person prepares to move. Most reseachers agree that the premotor time is a measure of of the receipt and transmission of information from the environment, through the nervous system, to the muscle itself. The time interval seems to be an indicator of perceptual and cognitive decision making activity in which the person engages while preparing an action."
The machine scenario seems not to be concerned with any of this, only overloading the eccentric phase of a specific unidirectional, uni plane movement.
Eccentric overload requires a good amount of isometric stabilization to handle the extra load. Let's take a squat. If we use a weight beyond our 3R maximum we need to lower the weight very slowly and use spotters for the concentric portion to avoid injury. However, in my scenario, we can use a weight well below our 3R max, but instead actually "pull" the weight down to increase the eccentric momentum; then abruptly stop it at the bottom and concentrically return it under our own power. The neural component of the squat can be ehanced even further with a command by the coach to abruptly freeze and hold any position for a given amount of time. It also creates a great anaerobic effect.
Comments?
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Wait and see?
Sorry I haven't been posting. Pre season football is at critical mass. Enjoy this article brought to my attention by fellow GAINer Sal Marinello. It concerns delayed ACL reconstruction.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0907797
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0907797
Monday, August 9, 2010
Good Book
In my very limited spare time this August I'm reading the 9th edition of Dr. Richard Magill's, "Motor learning and Control- concepts and applications. I actually already own the original editon of the book, but Magill updates his reasearch every few years to stay up to date with current research. Remember function is not just biomechanical! This is the kind of stuff that seperates athletic training from the other healing arts. A thought in the back of my head- if movement is goal/task oriented...then does a one size fits all movement screen make sense?
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