por Strength training has many connotations and implications. For athletes, strength training is the first step in maximizing one’s athletic potential. Strength training provides the athlete’s body with the stimulus to make the necessary changes for increasing basic peak force production while preparing the body for the numerous destructive forces that sports can involve. Take control of your athletic ability by first laying the proper foundation. The subsequent phases of a complete training regimen involve more specialized drills which are simply ineffective without the proper strength foundation first.
Specifically, nature shows that we must crawl before walking. We must become proficient with walking before running. This is a simple reality that forms the fundamental basis of our movements for the remainder of our lives. However, this simple idea of progressively reaching a certain level can be overlooked and rushed, resulting in a completely failed attempt to reach a goal, sometimes with undesirable consequences.
Take jumping, for example. Jumping is an activity that athletes of all ages begin performing and take for granted. However, jumping before strength training is somewhat analogous to sprinting before crawling, in terms of unnecessary risks. Given the properties of hardwood and/or asphalt, forces upon landing can instantaneously be as high as several times the athlete’s bodyweight!
This is highly unnatural, as are these surfaces for the design of the human body’s tissues. Without a proper strength foundation, the athlete’s muscles will be unable to eccentrically co-contract effectively and potentially transfer unhealthy stress to the fragile connective tissues. Although the environment (i.e. surface) is unnatural, through proper training combined with the body’s amazing plasticity and ability to re-design itself to adapt to imposed demands, one can easily lessen the risks of a potentially injurious scenario. The key is slow and progressive overload. Please refer to the article «Squatting to Succeed – Landing Gear» for a more detailed explanation of this theory.
Strength training, at its simplest level, is a form of progressively overloading the neuromuscular and skeletal system in workload for more strenuous future tasks. It has many different forms, variations, and branches that address different goals. However, all goals ultimately still involve progressive overload.
With the plethora of exercises available, it is first important to define a true strength training exercise to maximize an athlete’s abilities for a certain sport. The focus of pure strength training should be increase the cross-sectional area (CSA) of muscle tissue, increase motor unit recruitment (i.e. train the nervous system to properly activate as many muscle fibers as possible), as well as increase connective tissue strength to minimize future injury. So what exactly constitutes a true strength training exercise? A true strength training exercise is one that consists of the following basic elements:
1. Allows the load to be progressively adjusted
2. Intensity, volume, and overall workload can easily be calculated and monitored
3. Consists of BOTH an eccentric AND a concentric phase
4. Simple enough to minimize chances of technique breakdown
The reason for including both an eccentric and concentric component is related to muscle physiology. Eccentric overload has actually been shown to be just as beneficial, if not more than the concentric phase, for producing strength gains as the micro-damage done to the muscle fibers can actually be greater during this phase. Technique is also considered for strength training criteria as it is crucial that the athlete not be enticed to cheat and use additional muscles at higher intensities, leading to inefficient mechanics. The next feature of choosing an appropriate true strength training exercise is to examine the forces involved in the exercise. The exercise’s forces should overload the skeletal structure according to the following principles:
1. Force-direction compatibility – The net direction of the resultant force should match as many forces encountered during competition as closely as possible
2. Force-pattern resemblance – The magnitude of the force should vary with position in a similar manner to the target activity
3. Force adjustability – The exercise should permit easy adjustment of the magnitude of the force to be overloaded along the intended direction
Force-direction compatibility can be an arduous task at times. It is important to remember that an exercise for every movement is not being designed yet. Strength training is a more generalized, foundation-laying phase. Instead, the exercises used need to give the most «bang-for-the-buck», or allow as many forces to trained to the highest degree in the same exercise. Since the goal of this phase is to build strength, heavier weights will be employed and too much volume (e.g. too many sets of too many different exercises) may be counterproductive as the volume exceeds the body’s recovery abilities and overtraining syndrome may begin to set in. A costs-benefits analysis must be done to an extent by the athletic performance specialist to choose the best exercise for this phase that will lay the foundation for the future, more advanced and specialized phases.
For example, in the case of basketball, properly strength-training the lower body can be a very cumbersome task for the myriad of forces encountered by the lower body musculature during competition. A few of the basic, fundamental motions occurring in the horizontal plane include sprinting, backpedaling, and left/right lateral shuffle. In addition, vertical jumping is omnipresent throughout the game. So how to take into account all these forces in the most precise manner?
What if we simply perform each of the movements under tension (e.g. resistance band)? Wouldn’t this satisfy specificity of movement while also providing a force in the desired direction? Yes. But can any of these exercises be classified as a true strength training exercise? Definitely not.
The reasons for this seemingly counterintuitive conclusion are manifold. Remember, this is not to say the resisted movements are not very beneficial – we are considering true strength training exercises at the moment. First of all, let’s use a resisted sprint as an example. If we were to use a sled as the resistance, then the criteria of having an eccentric component would not be fulfilled. The force of the sled simply acts to resist motion via a non-conservative force – friction. This type of resistance is similar to isokinetic devices employing hydraulic resistance. The resistance increases as one attempts to move faster, providing a variable force. However, in order to have an eccentric component, the force should be conservative – meaning that it has the capability to store potential energy. Gravity is the most omnipresent conservative force known.
Additionally, the use of a sled may lead to technique breakdown as the load gets heavier. Since the focus is on the motion of the sled, the athlete may change his/her technique as the load becomes heavier. For instance, the athlete may begin taking shorter steps to decrease the range of motion experienced at the knee to provide favorable leverages to move the heavier load. This may be counterproductive for sprinting technique if the steps become too short and load may shift more to the calves. Of course, the trainer can tell the athlete to maintain proper form, but the athlete’s focus is on moving the sled at all costs. Sports psychology may play a role in how a certain exercise motivates the athlete to perform the exercise and the goal(s) of the exercise for the athlete.
In contrast, let’s examine the barbell squat. First of all, the use of weight as the source of resistance provides a conservative force, as previously mentioned. This automatically provides eccentric overload. With respect to technique, it is simpler for the athlete to understand that range of motion dictates a successful rep. A box may be placed behind and underneath the athlete as a depth guide. In addition, the athlete can focus on pushing via extending at the hips and knees while maintaining a flat back as this technique should allow the athlete to more efficiently overcome the load.
With regards to direction of forces, it may appear at first as if the forces are directed vertically and may only cater to a static vertical jump as opposed to the many horizontal forces in basketball. While this is true, it is important to remember we are speaking of a general strength training exercises catered to overloading a certain muscle group. The barbell squat is essentially taking into account the many oblique forces in all directions into a net direction – downward and vertical. This vertical force direction of the barbell squat represents a pseudo-combination, or average, of multiple directions which are still done via linear extension of the hips and knees simultaneously, similar to squatting. The perfect exercise? Not quite. The most beneficial and efficient of those available? Certainly. And remember, squatting is also being performed to a large degree during many basketball movements. We will get more sport-specific and specialized exercises in the more advanced phases after laying the basic strength foundation. Remember, crawl before walking.
To summarize, true strength training is the phase where the foundation is laid for the future phases. Psychological benefits may also be realized, as the athlete may gain a new level of confidence in his/her body after pushing one’s limits and getting stronger. Upon becoming stronger relative to the demands of the sport, the athlete is ready to go from crawling onto more advanced training, namely the speed-strength phase where one’s newly acquired strength is converted into the highest levels of speed and power.
