| Strength
classifications-definitions-
Part one |
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by Danny O'Dell
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Fall
is here and with it comes the chance prepare your
body for some heavy lifting over the next six months.
But it is not enough to just go to the gym, pick
up a weight and lift. Give the end goal some serious
thought even before stepping outside your door.
For those of you older than thirty five years of
age it would seem |
reasonable to have a thorough physical
check up just to make certain your body will be able to
tolerate the rigorous training schedule.
Once you and your Doctor have come to an agreement
about your capabilities and possible limitations then
it is time to decide what particular area strength training
you want to improve. There is more to getting strong
than doing bench presses. Each part of strength requires
a different approach.
Bear with me as we travel down the winding road of
strength, rambling here and there until the final destination
is reached, a proposed training schedule.
First up, and most basic, are the three major components
of maximal strength:
1. Concentric
2. Isometric
3. Eccentric
Examine your prior lifting records-you are keeping
a log book aren’t you? See what and how you have
been lifting for the most recent six months. I will
bet it is nearly the same every week isn’t it?
Now is the time to change your program.
Before delving into these various strength types let
us look at a brief definition from the fine book by
Thomas Kurz Science of sports training. He states that
“the maximal strength of a muscle, or a muscle
group in a given movement, equals the highest external
resistance and athlete can overcome or hold with full
voluntary mobilization of” the neuromuscular system.
Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky writes in Science and practice
of strength training “strength, or muscular strength,
is the ability to generate maximum maximorum external
force Fmm.” Remember that force is an interaction
of two bodies and that these forces are divided into
two possible groups, internal and external.
Internal forces are the forces acting within the human
body on another part of the human body such as “bone
on bone and tendon to bone”. External forces are
those forces that interact on the body from the outside;
an example would be the weight of a barbell.
In layman’s terms this simply means how many
muscle fibers can you voluntarily recruit to exert the
counteracting force on the resistance be it lifting
up, holding stationary or lowering under control. And
in most instances and especially in this paper we are
concerned with the external forces. READ
MORE
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Danny M. O'Dell, MA.
CSCS*D Copyright 2003 Explosivelyfit Training Systems
Danny is co-owner of ‘The
WeightRoom’ gym and Explosivelyfit.com,
both located in Nine Mile Falls, WA.
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| His
Masters Degree is in Human Services and he is a
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with
Distinction through the National Strength and Conditioning
Association. He is a member of the Washington State
Coaches Association. His website is http://www.explosivelyfit.com
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