Dr Mel Siff Blog

>>Who can say that walking, swimming, bicep curls, stair climbing, karate,
fencing and so forth are entirely non-functional for an athlete in a sport
such as football, powerlifting, wrestling or soccer?<<

How can a bicep curl be considered functional for a soccer player?

>>An exercise that is highly sport specific and “functional” at one time
might be equally “non-functional” at another time.<<

Can you give an example?

———–

*** Mel Siff:

1. Since the biceps flex the elbow, supinate the forearm and swing the arm
forwards (as during walking and running, together with corocobrachialis and
all of these actions occur in soccer, then any form of improving bicep
functioning ostensibly could be viewed as being relevant to soccer, provided
that one does not train it simply for bodybuilding aesthetics.

Now, I know that this remark of mine may well attract comments that one may
as well do a general weight training session using any old exercises and let
the sport itself attend to the specifics. Indeed, such comments would be
quite valid, e.g., for general physical preparation or for restoration at
other stages of training or competition, depending on how the various
exercises are used, but the same exercises would not universally be suitable
at all stages of training.

In other words, as I stressed before, functionality is context dependent and
cannot be regarded as a universal characteristic of given exercises or
regimes of exercise.

2. Any muscle group which is exercised or developed more than is necessary
for achieving a given sporting purpose can cause either structural and/or
functional “imbalances” that may be viewed as “non-functional” under such
conditions, often because of competing neural patterns (e.g. try to play
tennis, badminton and squash or racquetball effectively soon after one
another)..

Suppose that a gymnast or jumper does an excessive amount of hypertrophy type
exercises (e.g. because tests may have revealed that they have adequate
explosiveness, but inadequate hypertrophy), the added muscular weight can be
detrimental to any pulling movements with the upper extremities. This is one
reason why we struggle more to complete pull-ups as we gain overall muscle
mass.

Dr Mel C Siff

<< In keeping with this discussion I recently found an excellent literature
review-
“Myths and Truths of Stretching” at the following website:
www.physsportsmed.com

It discussed some interesting principles such as desensitisation to stretch
rather the muscle spindle lengthening, which make one think about our
treatments and advices in the past. >>

*** Several of us have been questioning the necessity for the use of
dedicated “stretching” and “warming up” sessions for many years, so it is
good to see a review of this stature examining these issues in depth (see
Siff MC “Facts and Fallacies of Fitness” 2000). I also like to point out
that stretching exercise (which are meant to deform tissues) are not
necessarily the same as flexibility exercises (which are meant to increase
range of movement).

There are several interesting issues in Shrier’s article on stretching facts
and myths (THE PHYSICIAN & SPORTSMEDICINE – Vol 28 – No. 8 – Aug 2000), such
as this one:

< With respect to alleviating the pain associated with stiffness, the weight
of the evidence suggests that the decrease in stiffness is not as important
as the increase in “stretch tolerance”. Briefly, an increase in stretch
tolerance means that patients feel less pain for the same force applied to
the muscle. The result is increased range of motion, even though true
stiffness does not change. This could occur through increased tissue strength
or analgesia; however, increased stretch tolerance that occurs immediately
after stretching must be caused by an analgesic effect because tissue
strength does not increase during 2 minutes of stretching. Unfortunately,
evidence of a possible analgesic effect is recent, and the underlying
mechanism is unknown. After weeks of stretching, increases in stretch
tolerance could theoretically occur because stretch-induced hypertrophy may
increase tissue strength , and/or an analgesia effect may be present. >

***The use of the term “analgesic” may not be entirely appropriate. While
there may be an as yet identified analgesic effect associated with intense
stretching, this may be greatly overshadowed by an accommodation effect which
changes the Rating of Perceived Effort (or pain) with regular imposition of
progressively increased stretching loads. This happens with all lifting -
the load progressively feels lighter and the lifter then can execute more reps
or a heavier 1 rep max.

This is not necessarily the same as the so-called disinhibition effect which
is an objective altering of nervous processes in the body – it is an effect
that is more subjectively psychological in origin (even though it also
obviously involves neural processes).

Despite the very useful and interesting nature of this review, the reference
list was disappointingly small and it made no use of some really relevant
work by Russian scientists such as Iashvili (see Ch 3 of Siff & Verkhoshansky
“Supertraining” 1999).

At least, the high profile given to this article will tend to make the
fitness pros and sports coaches start wondering a lot more about all those
traditional ideas about stretching and warming up.

Dr Mel C Siff

<< What are the possible physiological (muscular) changes that occur in the
development of tone and/or definition. I realize they are not synonymous.

I would like to hear opinions and research based fact. >>

*** Muscle definition tends to increase as bodyfat decreases – the less fat
there is over and within the muscle, the more ‘defined’ and obvious the
muscle appears. Muscle ‘tone ‘ (or tension) has to do with the regular
involvement of the muscles in adequately strenuous physical effort. To be
entirely accurate, one would refer to ‘resting tone’ (which has a lot to do
with the connective tissues in the muscle complex) and active tone or tension
that is generated by muscle contraction.

All too often, we have fitness fans wanting to ‘do weights’ to increase
muscle tone but not muscle bulk, but they are completely unaware of what
‘tone’ really is. What they are doing is confusing a toned look with an
increase in muscle tone (tension), so that they probably are more preoccupied
with improving muscle definition than tone. Ideally, an optimal combination
of both would be necessary for improving physical appearance, but not to the
extent that one loses too much essential bodyfat or gains too much muscle
bulk that, paradoxically, may decrease one’s relative strength and become a
type of ‘muscular adiposity’.

There is some research which shows that there seems to be an optimal level of
hypertrophy for any individual in terms of metabolic and mobility efficiency,
so that it may be that the belief that there may be such a thing as excessive
hypertrophy is supported by research (and theory, as can be confirmed by the
application of what is known as ‘dimensional analysis’ in physics). In other
words, one may refer to two types of overmass: excessive bodyfat and
excessive muscle.

Dr Mel C Siff

How Important is Lifting Tempo?
Mike Adams CSCS

(*About the author: Mike Adams is a physical preparation consultant working
in the UK*)

In order to fully address this question it is first important to clarify what
is meant by tempo. During most lifts there is potentially an eccentric
action, an isometric pause following the eccentric, a concentric contraction
and a pause in the top position. The cumulative time it takes to do each
phase of a given lift refers to the lifting tempo. The general advice given
by coaches and instructors across the industry is to lower the weight under
control and accelerate the weight back up. Now this is fairly sound advice,
but as I will explain, there is a whole lot more to lifting speed.

I will not attempt to cover every aspect of tempo and how it interacts with
stages of periodization, the stretch shortening cycle and exercise and load
selection but I will offer a basic review of its importance.

The desired training response plays a vital role in determining the lifting
tempo and the time under tension (TUT; the total duration of the set) of the
working set.

If your training goal is speed strength or maximal strength then the TUT
should not exceed 20 seconds.

If maximal strength and hypertrophy is the goal then the TUT should be
between 20-40 seconds and for hypertrophy and endurance the TUT should be
between 40 – 70 seconds.

As illustrated here there are overlaps in training responses as expected.
Muscular endurance TUT can of course extend past this limit (70 seconds). I
have emphasized the word ’should’ because there is not a cut and dry (sic)
approach to strength training and TUT. There are of course guidelines based
on empirical and scientific foundations, but I encourage people to make up
their minds from their own experiences.

Many strength coaches use a 3-4 number system attached to their training
programs to indicate lifting tempo. Examples of this would be 301, 4211 and
6130. The numbers refer to seconds and the order of the numbers refer to the
eccentric phase, the isometric pause after the eccentric phase, the
concentric contraction and finally the pause in the top position of the
movement, respectively. For example, in the bench press, 301 equals a 3
second eccentric phase, no pause as the bar touches the chest and 1 second to
lift the weight back up. 4211 would mean an eccentric phase of 4 seconds, an
isometric pause of 2 seconds, 1 second to ‘lift’ the weight and another 1
second pause at the top position.

Now who came up with this? As far as I know, Ian King, one of the worlds top
strength and conditioning coaches and someone whom I am honored to be
associated with, first started using tempos in his programs. This was then
popularized and brought to the world by Charles Poliquin, the famous Canadian
strength coach.

[Actually, the first one who came up with a scheme like this years before
King was none other than the irascible Arthur Jones, who designed the
Nautilus range of training machines. If you read old Jones material or some
Nautilus sponsored books, such as those written by Ellington Darden and Wayne
Westcott, you can check this for yourselves. Interestingly, the four
component version suddenly appeared after I had pointed out on several
discussion lists and at conferences that anyone using a simplistic three
phase tempo system seemed to be forgetting the very obvious fact that there
are not three, but four, phases to any resistance exercise! Mel Siff]

Using the bench press as an example again, if the training goal was to
increase speed strength, as is for most athletes, then the set duration
should not exceed 20 seconds. Suppose that the desired number of reps is 3
per set, then each rep must last a maximum of 6 seconds (20 seconds divided
by 3 reps). The tempo therefore may look something like this, 2011. The
eccentric is kept fairly strict and the concentric fairly quick (remember
that force applied to the bar will be maximal but the bar may still move
fairly slowly, re force-velocity curve).

[Some terms need serious attention. Force will be "maximal"? And "re
force-velocity curve"? This disconnected jargon has been thrown in for what
purpose? Mel Siff]

A pause can be taken at the top position in order to relax the tension from
the muscle in preparation for the next rep. Again in this example only, there
is no pause after the eccentric phase in order to use the elastic energy
stored in the muscle to accelerate the weight back up.

Using the stretch shortening cycle (elastic energy) is a valuable tool in
athletic training and is also in most cases far more sports specific. But if
hypertrophy were the training goal, as with bodybuilding, then measures to
negate its effect could be used. Using the stretch shortening cycle to lift a
greater weight is not desirable in body builders as this decreases the amount
of work the muscle has to perform in order to lift the weight. If the muscle
is doing less work, then less motor units are recruited and there is less
stimulus for muscle fiber hypertrophy.

[Some very dubious information on what stretch-shortening and elastic energy
are and what they do. The comment about work and hypertrophy is also
incorrect and misleading. One can do a huge amount of work by exercising
with a light load for several hours, but that will not necessarily produce
any increase in hypertrophy. Similarly, very brief episodes and reps of
explosive type training by weightlifters is responsible for their
hypertrophy, which can be quite impressive among some of them. Mel Siff]

In order for the elastic energy to be completely dissipated prior to a
concentric contraction, there must be up to a 4 second pause in the stretch
position. Now this considerably lengthens the rep time and adds to the total
TUT of the set resulting in fewer reps being able to fit into the set.
Bodybuilders commonly use 8 -12 reps as their rep range and therefore using a
full 4 second isometric pause is just not practical or comfortable!

[The pause at the top or the bottom is not necessarily "isometric" for all of
the mobilising muscles concerned , but often provides a short period for
recovery. He is also forgetting about the deliberate and common bodybuilding
use of pre-stretch before the concentric phase of the exercise, which can
facilitate this concentric action even without the use of stored elastic
energy. This is another limitation in the use of the 204 or 2042 or whatever
tempo counting system is used - it always presumes either a rest period or an
isometric phase as the transition between the eccentri and concentric phases,
but it entirely ignores the possibility of intentional use of a very powerful
prestretch, an action that can have profound effects on the entire exercise.
I have written quite extensively about this in "Supertraining" and in a few
letters on weightlifting technique on this list. I wonder how long it will
take for this comment of mine to once again surreptitiously alter the "tempo
counting" rules? Mel Siff]

A 1 second pause however will dissipate some of this elastic energy (about
55%) and will result in more muscle fibre recruitment. An example of a
typical lifting tempo for a bodybuilder may look like this. 10-12 reps, tempo
3110, TUT equals no greater than 60 seconds (12 reps x 5 seconds per rep).

[He is relying on bench press research done by my colleague, Greg Wilson (see
"Supertraining" Fig 5.6) - this 1-second pause information applies to the
bench press, but not necessarily to other exercises and other muscle groups.
Mel Siff]

The pause in the top position, following the concentric contraction, is
another important variable for training. A pause in this position of the
bench press, with the arms at full lock out, releases the tension on the
muscles. However pausing just short of lock out maintains that intramuscular
tension and fatigues the muscle more. So which one is best? Neither and both!
If strength is the training goal then a pause in the full lock out position
in bench press, squats, etc., may enable the lifter to be potentially
stronger in the next rep and is therefore desirable. But if hypertrophy is
the goal then a pause just short of lock out or no pause at all would
maintain muscle tension and potentially elicit a greater hypertrophy
response.

[Once again, the additional alternative of prestretch has not been considered
or another alternative involving small oscillations or ballistic jerks in the
pre-concentric phase or throughout the whole exercise (see "Supertraining"
for more on this technique. In addition, no mention is made of how "tempo
counting" can be of value during "cluster training" which requires one to
rest the bar for a brief instant on a rack between phases of the exercise,
between each rep or between every few reps (also desrcibed in
"Supertraining"). As may be seen from my brief remarks here, tempo methods
contain some major shortcomings that limit its use to only very basic
training conditions. Even then, it is not only Time Under Tension (TUT) that
counts, but Time above a certain threshold muscle tension that is of far
greater significance. Shall we call this TATT (Time Above Threshold
Tension)? Mel Siff]

Of course neither method is ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ rather variables can be
manipulated to produce a more optimal result.

[There is no such thing as "more optimal" - optimal is optimal! Mel Siff]

Desired training response, time under tension, load selection, sport
specificity/transfer and exercise selection are all variables which affect
lifting tempo and should be addressed by strength and conditioning
professionals and reflected in their program design. I have just touched on
some issues surrounding lifting tempo and I expect that this is merely a
refresher for many of you anyway.

———————

Dr Mel Siff

In Supertraining Dr. siff talks about sarcoplasmic and sarcomere hypertrophy however most refer to the latter as myofibrillar hypertrophy. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is all about fluid. In sarcoplasimic hypertrophy the "non-contractile ...