Training

The true meaning of power is the ability to generate as much force as fast as possible. A golf tee-off, a vertical jump, an Olympic clean and jerk, or swinging a softball bat are all examples of power. Basically, if you do these things slowly, they just won’t work very well.

Strength, on the other hand, is the ability to generate as much force as possible with no concern for the factor of time. A 1RM bench press or a 1RM deadlift are examples of pure strength movements. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to complete these tasks. All that matters is that it gets completed–doing it slowly doesn’t take away from the success of the exercise.

Power, which is often referred to as speed-strength, is an important factor in sporting activities, but it is also used in everyday activities such as moving fast, running up a flight of stairs, or just keeping up with your kids. This book will incorporate power exercises into its program not only for these reasons, but also for the added benefits of these exercises such as increased caloric expenditure, increased work capacity, and increased overall body strength.

How Strong Are You?

Ahh, the question heard around every gym on the planet. What are people usually asking about when they ask you how strong you are? Well, nine out of 10 times they want to know what you bench-press. How on earth did the bench press become the marker from which one is judged as strong or not strong? It’s baffling when we observe the actual exercise and analyze its benefit in the real world. Don’t get me wrong, as I think there are benefits to this exercise, but to label it as the exercise by which we judge strength is just plain silly. This chapter will explain why.

I will pose some questions to you. Who is stronger, the guy who can bench-press more than 400 pounds or the guy who can do 100 pushups nonstop? How about the guy who can squat well over 500 pounds versus the guy who can do 10 perfect, full single-leg pistol squats (page 73) with just his body weight? Okay, maybe that’s not fair since one is a demonstration of maximal strength and the other is a display of muscular strength, endurance, and even balance. My point here is that there are many definitions of strength; some are just more applicable in the real world than others. There is only so much we can do with the strength that we develop from a bench press, but there are lots of things we can do with the strength we develop from an exercise like a standing push press (page 93).

The term functional training is not a new one. In fact, it is probably one of the most overused terms in training today. There is a phenomenon in fitness training where the pendulum tends to swing hard toward one end of a particular training trend spectrum. The case in point is this concept of functional training. There was a period when many trainers utilized what I like to call the “Cirque de Soleil” training method. The philosophy went that if we were not doing one-arm dumbbell shoulder presses while standing on one foot atop a BOSU Ball, then we weren’t training for “real life” function. The problem with this philosophy is twofold. For one, how often do you find yourself having to press a weight overhead while standing on one foot on an unstable surface? The second problem is that the more instability we add to the equation, the less load we are able to handle. This type of training enables us to overload the central nervous system but rarely allows us to overload our muscular system. We know that an overload effect is necessary for size and strength gains. This is an example of a concept that might have had some merit but was taken to the extreme. The backlash to this philosophy was a hard swing of the pendulum in the other direction where trainers started to look upon this style of training (Swiss balls, balance boards, and so forth) in a very negative light. While many people tend to believe there is one superior way to train and that anything that doesn’t fit within their training philosophy is worthless, I like to think that there is a place for many, many different types of training. Whatever works for my goals is what I want to be using.

The point I want to make is that when I talk about functional training, I am talking about just that–your ability to improve your everyday function via the Men’s Health Power Training program. No nonsense, no fluff, no gimmicks–just effective workouts. The movement patterns this program incorporates are movements we use every day. The exercises included in the program’s menu are exercises that will get you bigger, stronger, and more powerful–and are influenced by many training philosophies.

Let’s look at a few of these philosophical points–these points are adapted from Mike Burgener’s Power to the 4th exercise guidelines.

1.    Train unsupported as much as possible. This means that we should try to perform the majority of our resistance training while standing and not supporting ourselves with an outside object. Doing all of your training while supported (i.e., lying on a bench, sitting on a machine, and so forth) puts your body in a fairy-tale-like world in which core stability and balance are of no consequence. It has also been stated that you can only apply about one-third of your bench press strength when you attempt to use this strength while standing. Boy, that 300-pound bench press doesn’t look very impressive anymore, huh?

2.    Train using primarily free weights. Free weights, especially dumbbells, not only improve strength but also help promote muscle balance and increase range of motion simply by their unstable nature. They also go well with the unsupported points I just mentioned.

3.    Train “explosively” each workout. I believe there are many benefits to explosive Olympic-style lifts. Even simple variations of the classic Olympic lifts such as the clean, snatch, and jerk can improve your overall strength and power, increase metabolism, and improve fitness not to mention benefits for balance, range of motion, and flexibility. In addition, there are tremendous strength benefits in trying to move loads as fast as possible regardless of the weight. It is this “intent” that is the key to fast-twitch muscle fiber development and therefore a huge role player in getting stronger and more powerful.

4.    Focus on compound exercises. While I will talk more about multiple- versus single-joint exercises in this chapter, it is important for me to be up front about Men’s Health Power Training philosophy on relying on multiple joint, compound lifts in its programs. Compound lifts are not only superior for building strength, but they are also more calorically challenging and elicit a greater endocrine response which results in elevations in testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH). In other words, you will get a boost to some great strength-building hormones each time we train with compound movements. These exercises are also much more functional than isolated exercises.

The other points of this training philosophy are the requirement that trainees push and pull in both vertical and horizontal planes, perform rotational movements, do knee- and hip-dominant exercises, and train all of these movements both bilaterally (two limbs) and unilaterally (one limb).

(from Men’s Health)

By Scott Quill

By Lucy Danziger and the staff at SELF

Sometimes a good sweat session is just what the doctor ordered: Exercise has been shown to help ease menstrual cramps, joint pain, headaches, stress and depression, for starters. But if you’re not feeling up to your workout, your body might be trying to tell you that it needs a break. Here are five science-backed reasons to throw in the towel (for today).

Something hurts
There’s the good, normal kind of postworkout pain—the achy soreness you feel for a day or two after you’ve pushed your muscles a little harder than usual or tried something new—and the bad kind that feels like more of an ouch and lingers, explains SELF contributing expert Lisa Callahan, M.D., codirector of the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. If a pain persists longer than 72 hours, causes swelling at the site, keeps you up at night or hurts more when you exercise, it’s time to sit on the sidelines and call your doc.

You’re sleep-deprived
Insufficient zzz’s could be as devastating to your well-being as lack of exercise, says James B. Maas, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. “Your body uses sleep to restore itself both physically and mentally, yet people continue to put it off as if it’s optional,” says Maas. If you’ve been falling short of the seven to eight hours of nightly shut-eye experts recommend and feel downright exhausted when your alarm goes off in the morning, hit snooze and leave your workout for another day. Bonus: The extra rest will give you more energy to punch through that last mile or set of reps when you do hit the gym again.

You feel dizzy, thirsty or clammy
These are signs of warm weather injuries like heatstroke and exhaustion, cases of which are up 133 percent in the past decade, a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine warns. Heatstroke can happen even on mild days, so always keep water handy, and if you start to feel the above symptoms, rest, drink up and call it quits for the day. Better safe than sorry!

Your stomach’s been feeling queasy
A little bit of indigestion is no biggie, but if you’re throwing up or experiencing severe diarrhea, you’re already on your way to dehydration and exercise will only make it worse. A 12-hour bug causes most upset stomachs, so you should be fine after a day in bed (or in the bathroom). Just be sure to drink plenty of clear fluids in the meantime.

You have a fever
If the thermometer reads above 100 and you feel exhausted or achy all over, you could have the flu, so trade your gym clothes for your PJ’s and get thee to bed! You’ll likely be too zonked to work up a non-fever-induced sweat anyway. Plus, you’re contagious a full day before you have any symptoms and for the first few days after symptoms strike, and I’m betting your fellow gymgoers don’t want the flu any more than you do. So rest up, drink plenty of fluids and don’t even think about those sneakers until your fever breaks and you’re feeling normal again.

Written by: Will_Brink

Here we are, the year 2011, and it’s stunning to me that myths surrounding weight training and women still exist, and worse yet, it’s the same myths I was hearing a few decades ago! It seems I can dispel these myths ’til I’m blue in the face, and yet, they persist! In addition to the myths, it seems many women are simply unaware of the many benefits weight training – also called resistance training or strength training – can impart. Some of those benefits are sex specific in fact, that is, they are specific to women.

The following review below from the “THE PHYSICIAN AND SPORTS MEDICINE” May issue covers the major myths, which are:

Myth 1: Strength training causes women to become larger and heavier.
Myth 2: Women should use different training methods than men.
Myth 3: Women should avoid high-intensity or high-load training.

For commentary on those myths above, see the review below. In addition to covering the myths, the review does a fine job of listing the benefits for women, which are :

• Enhanced bone modeling to increase bone strength and reduce the risk of osteoporosis
• Stronger connective tissues to increase joint stability and help prevent injury
• Increased functional strength for sports and daily activity
• Increased lean body mass and decreased nonfunctional body fat
• Higher metabolic rate because of an increase in muscle and a decrease in fat
• Improved self-esteem and confidence

One benefit I think this report missed, is strength training reduces the risk of sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is an age related loss of muscle mass which negatively impacts health of men and women. However, because women have less muscle mass to begin with, they are at a greater risk of sarcopenia as they age. I highly recommend women reading this also read my article on sarcopenia and how to avoid and or treat it. Most women are aware of osteoporosis -as it’s been drilled into their head via the media – but know little of sarcopenia, which is arguably more important to women than osteoporosis!

Without further delay, here is a great review on the importance of strength training for women with some old, yet enduring, myths debunked!

Strength Training for Women: Debunking Myths That Block Opportunity

William P. Ebben, MS, MSSW, CSCS; Randall L. Jensen, PhD
THE PHYSICIAN AND SPORTSMEDICINE – VOL 26 – NO. 5 – MAY

In Brief: Traditional gender roles and differences in absolute strength have resulted in misconceived approaches to strength training for women. Male physiology, more than hormones, explains men’s superior absolute strength. When other measures of strength are used, such as strength relative to cross-sectional area of muscle, the strength of men and women is nearly equal. Women who practice the same well-designed strength training programs as men benefit from bone and soft-tissue modeling, increased lean body mass, decreased fat, and enhanced self-confidence.

Although American women first began strength training for sports in the 1950s to improve their performance in track and field, they have traditionally participated in strength training less than men. Such exercise has not been considered feminine, and a lack of research and information regarding the effects of such training on women has made it a predominantly male activity. Women’s participation was particularly limited until 1972, when Title IX mandated equal access to educational programsincluding athletics—for men and women in schools that receive federal funding. Since then, women’s sports participation has burgeoned, traditional gender roles have loosened, and strength training has grown in popularity among active women.

Nevertheless, the social stigma and lack of accurate information persist and feed misconceptions that keep women away from strength training or prevent them from training in optimal ways (see “Dispelling Misconceptions,” below). Though gender differences regarding absolute strength exist, women are as able as men to develop strength relative to total muscle mass. Consequently, women should strength train in the same ways as men, using the same program design, exercises, intensities, and volumes, relative to their body size and level of strength, so they can achieve the maximum physiologic and psychological benefits.

Gender Stereotypes

Our culture has traditionally viewed strength as a masculine trait and promoted a small, frail body as feminine. Consequently, girls have been discouraged from participating in gross-motor-skill activities and strength development. Such sex role stereotypes, formed early in childhood, can dictate behavior and limit women’s and men’s ability to express their full humanity. This means that some women may have never achieved their potential for physical well-being, fitness, and athletic participation.

The advent of the women’s movement in the 1970s allowed many women to overcome such traditional socialization and participate more freely in sports and strength training. However, change occurs slowly, and physical strength and strength training are still not as common or accepted for women as they are for men.

A Gender Gap in Strength?

Research (1,2) on male and female strength potential reveals that women possess about two thirds of the strength of men. However, the measurement of strength in absolute terms fosters misconceptions about the strength of women, how women see themselves, and the way they exercise.

What causes this strength difference? Are there ways to conceptualize strength that affirm women’s potential and encourage their development?

The role of hormones. Hormones play a role in the development of absolute strength in men and women, but the exact influence is not clear. The androgens that come from the adrenal glands and ovaries are the hormones most likely to influence strength. The most important androgens for strength development are testosterone and androstenedione. The absolute androstenedione response to weight lifting is similar in females and males (3).

The role of testosterone in strength development is complex and significantly more variable than that of androstenedione. Though women on average have about one tenth the testosterone of men (4), the level of testosterone varies greatly among women and influences women’s strength development more than is typical in men (3). Women who have higher testosterone levels may have a greater potential for strength and power development than other women. An individual woman’s testosterone level fluctuates, so a woman who is near the upper limit of her testosterone threshold may have an advantage in developing strength compared with other women. Though hormones may influence strength development potential among women, they most likely do not account for significant male-female differences in absolute strength.

Physiologic factors. Physiologic differences such as size and body structure are more likely explanations for the average absolute strength differences between men and women. For example, the average American male is about 13 cm taller than the average female and about 18 kg heavier. Men average about 18 to 22 kg more lean body mass and 3 to 6 kg less fat than women. Men typically have a taller, wider frame that supports more muscle, as well as broader shoulders that provide a greater leverage advantage.

The Strength of Women

Strength, however, should not be viewed in absolute terms. The gender differences in absolute strength, for example, are not consistent for all muscle groups. Women possess about 40% to 60% of the upper-body strength and 70% to 75% of the lower-body strength of men (3). Men may have an advantage in neuromuscular response time that results in greater force production speed than women (5). However, the distribution of muscle fiber types—fast and slow twitch—is similar in the two sexes, and women are able to use a greater portion of stored elastic energy than men during activities in which muscle is prestretched, such as in the countermovement prior to jumping.

More significantly, if the amount of lean body mass is factored into the strength equation, the relative strength difference between men and women is less appreciable. Based on a strength-to-lean-body-mass ratio, women are about equal in strength to men, and when strength is calculated per cross-sectional area of muscle, no significant gender difference exists. For example, a 15 cm2 cross-sectional area of an arm flexor has about 19 kg of force for both women and men (6).

Measuring strength in this way suggests that muscle at the cellular level has a force development capability independent of sex and that women benefit from strength training at least as much as men. Hence men and women should follow strength training procedures that include periodization, variations in the resistance training program that are implemented over a specific time, and exercise performed at intensities and volumes suited to physical ability and level of strength conditioning. Ultimately, each athlete should be assessed as an individual, and training programs should meet individual needs and goals, rather than those based on preconceived ideas about gender.

The Benefits for Women

Women benefit from strength training in several ways (table 1).

Table 1. Strength Training Benefits for Women*

* Enhanced bone modeling to increase bone strength and reduce the risk of osteoporosis
* Stronger connective tissues to increase joint stability and help prevent injury
* Increased functional strength for sports and daily activity
* Increased lean body mass and decreased nonfunctional body fat
* Higher metabolic rate because of an increase in muscle and a decrease in fat
* Improved self-esteem and confidence
* A number of factors may reduce or eliminate these benefits, including the exclusive use of weight training machines, training with loads that are too light, and not progressing in resistance or intensity.

Bone and soft tissue. Women, more than men, need to meet the minimal essential strain required for bone modeling to occur and ultimately for reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Prevention of osteoporosis requires above-normal axial skeletal loading (7,8). The strain tolerance for skeletal bone is believed to be more than 10 times the typical load that humans bear in daily activities (9). Since bone modeling is proportional to the degree of overload (the amount of stress applied beyond the normal load), the greater the overload- within limits-the greater the amount of bone modeling. Bone modeling helps prevent fractures and insure against osteoporosis.

Cartilage, tendons, and ligaments also have minimal essential strain requirements. Optimal strength development requires loads and intensities that progressively increase the training stimulus or stress. Strong cartilage, tendons, and ligaments are essential for joint integrity, stability, and injury prevention.

Lean body mass and fat. Strength training also increases lean body mass and decreases fat; this results in less nonfunctional fat to carry and a greater proportion of lean body mass, which can provide functional strength. Compared to fat, muscle is metabolically active and increases metabolic rate, fat oxidation, and calorie consumption. Increased muscle mass and muscle cross-sectional area also correlate with increased strength. Participation in “functional” strength training exercises will develop functional strength and most likely improve performance, whether it is an increased ability to spike a volleyball or pick up a child.

Psychological well-being. Finally, studies (3) suggest that women who engage in strength training benefit from improved self-esteem. Female athletes appear to be able to balance strength and femininity; according to one survey, 94% of the participants reported that athletic participation did not lead them to feel less feminine. Strength training also appears to give women a sense of personal power, especially for women who have been raped or abused.

Such psychological benefits arise from the physiologic changes that occur as a result of strength training and from the process of encountering and mastering physical challenges. Thus, both the process and the outcome of strength training benefit women (3).

Strength Training Guidelines

Since well-designed strength training programs include exercises with free weights and dumbbells and exercises that use body weight resistance, both women and men should include these in their training, and women should train at the same intensities as men.

The use of strength training machines and abdominal exercises need not be discontinued, but emphasis should be placed on the use of free-weight exercises including foot-based lower-body exercises such as the lunge, diagonal lunge, walking lunge, step up, lateral step up, and squat. Women should also include upper-body exercises that employ multiple muscle groups such as the bench press, incline press, latissimus dorsi pull-downs, pull-ups, and back extensions. Finally, women who have developed a strength base should consider total-body exercises such as the push press, hang clean, power clean, clean and jerk, and snatch.

A training program should also stress multiplanar, multijoint, functional exercises because they develop intermuscular coordination, proprioception, and balance and result in strength that transfers to sports and daily activities. For example, the step-up exercise is superior to using the leg-extension machine because it offers functional strength for walking up a flight of stairs while carrying bags of groceries. For athletes who play foot-based sports such as basketball, the squat is superior to using the leg-press machine, since the squat is functionally more similar to the sport and requires greater balance and weight and body control in all three planes of motion.

Fostering Strength

Though sex role stereotypes still powerfully shape our culture and behavior, physical strength is no longer the sole domain of men. More and more women are claiming strength as their own through participation in sports and especially in strength training programs. Such participation helps to counter the stereotypes and fosters an appreciation of strength as desirable for women.

Dispelling Misconceptions

Recent studies counter several widely held beliefs that may limit the physiologic and psychological benefits of weight training for women.

Myth 1: Strength training causes women to become larger and heavier.

The truth is, strength training helps reduce body fat and increase lean weight (1). These changes may result in a slight increase in overall weight, since lean body mass weighs more than fat. However, strength training results in significant increases in strength, no change or a decrease in lower-body girths, and a very small increase in upper-extremity girth. Only women with a genetic predisposition for hypertrophy who participate in high-volume, high-intensity training will see substantial increases in limb circumference.

Myth 2: Women should use different training methods than men.

Women are often encouraged to use weight machines and slow, controlled movements out of a fear that using free weights, manual resistance, explosiveness (high velocity, low force), or exercises that use body weight as resistance will cause injury.

In fact, no evidence suggests that women are more likely to be injured during strength training than men. Proper exercise instruction and technique are necessary to reduce the risk of injuries for both men and women. All strength training participants should follow a program that gradually increases the intensity and load.

Furthermore, sport-specific exercise should closely mimic the biomechanics and velocity of the sport for which an athlete is training (2). The best way to achieve this is to use closed-kinetic-chain exercise that involves multiple joints and muscle groups and the ranges of motion specific to the sport. For example, the push pressrather than triceps kickbacksoffers a superior arm extension training stimulus for improving the ability to throw the shot put in track and field.

Myth 3: Women should avoid high-intensity or high-load training.

Women are typically encouraged to use limited resistance, such as light dumbbells, in their strength exercises. Often such light training loads are substantially below those necessary for physiologic adaptations and certainly less than those commonly used by men.

Most women are able to train at higher volumes and intensities than previously believed. In fact, women need to train at intensities high enough to cause adaptation in bone, muscle, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. When exercise intensity provides insufficient stimulus, physiologic benefits may be minimal (3). To gain maximum benefit from strength training, women should occasionally perform their exercises at or near the repetition maximum for each exercise.