If only pounds is on the bar at the bottom of the lift, an individual can totally relax all muscle tension at that point, which means the lifter goes from relaxed to dynamic. This is one of the greatest ways to build explosive and absolute strength. Many ight the bar eccentrically until fully lowered, but with this method, if an individual lowers pounds, it requires half the eccentric strength to lower the bar. In addition, he learns to lower the bar 25 faster, causing a greater stretch relex.
This method can be used for all power lifts and Olympic lifts. There is a second method that can take enormous loads eccentrically by catching the bar or plates or even the lifter himself. It requires two foam blocks. The lifter takes the bar off bench racks and lowers it until the plates touch the blocks and sink into the foam. How far the plates sink into the foam depends on the bar weight. We have benched over pounds using this method.
Very heavy squats and Goodmornings can also be performed. When box squatting, we place a seven-inch foam pad on the box. As the lifter sits on the foam, it sinks until he is sitting all the way on the box.
The box itself represents a collision, producing kinetic energy for a strong stretch relex. The foam causes a dampened effect. This promotes muscle work. If you have ever run in sand, you know how much it fatigues the muscles. The foam has the same affect.
I watched a tape of a world class thrower doing plyometrics on a gym loor with hard-sole weightlifting shoes. In a different segment, he was wearing cross-training shoes, and the loor was covered with gym mats.
This time his reaction time on the amortization phase was much slower. He was using more muscle work on the mats and less connective tissue work. A top sprinter said that 80 percent of running comes from kinetic energy derived from the ligaments and tendons.
By doing both methods, the thrower is using all of his potential by jumping on both soft and hard surfaces. I thought why not squat and bench the same way? We now train mostly off a foam box, but we always do the circa-max phase or an all-time Personal Record PR off a hard box. We have used this method for two years with great success. Progress can be seen on our website and on our record boards at the gym.
For deadlifting, stand on a thin foam pad, bringing the legs into the lift. Give this a try and see the results for yourself. Assisted Eccentrics There are a few who have read the exploits of a person who has been said to have made great progress doing eccentrics. But were there other factors involved in the training? I have read several articles by sports experts around the globe, yet none have conclusive evidence that eccentrics work.
Mel Siff in Supertraining explains eccentrics as action in which the proximal and distal muscle attachments move away from one another. Eccentric work uses signiicantly less energy than concentric work. When doing slow eccentrics with large loads, there is no reason to associate these advantages with the possibility of developing the ability to move quickly and powerfully in concentric work.
Lowering weights slowly builds larger muscles for bodybuilding, but will not assist concentric actions. With depth jumps, an individual is accelerating close to 9. Everyone knows these jumps work, so why would a person lower a weight at 0. In the book Science of Sports Training, T. Kurz states some athletes can lower 10 percent to 60 percent more than they can overcome concentrically. With all this said, slow eccentrics have no place in powerlifting or sports.
To build larger muscles, yes. If an individual wants to become very sore, yes. What does it matter if someone can lower 60 percent more than he can raise? If I recall correctly, a lifter must raise the bar from the loor in a clean, snatch, and deadlift. In the bench press after the bar is lowered to the chest, after the pause, the lifter must 26 raise the bar to completion, and the squat is similar.
After lowering to parallel, an individual must, for a fraction of a second, hold the weight statically and then rise to completion. If an athlete loads the bar with 60 percent more than his best squat of, say, pounds, the total bar weight would be 1, pounds.
Does this sound like a good idea? A weight that feels ine at the top becomes much too heavy in the bottom. How can a bar weight be perfect at the top and also at the bottom? The key to eccentric success is over-speed eccentrics.
Hopefully, you already know that force equals mass times acceleration. The force, however, is almost always connected to concentric movements. What about eccentric work? Light weights can be lowered with greater acceleration than heavy weights, just as in concentric movements.
It must be understood that the largest force may not always be associated with the heaviest loads. Jump-Stretch bands can produce much greater acceleration properties by pulling the bar down by means of great tension.
This causes over-speed eccentrics, adding to kinetic energy. If a lifter could triple the bar speed on the eccentric phase, it would produce nine times the kinetic energy. In a simple action, such as a depth jump, a pound man jumping off a platform of 10 feet produces many times his body weight.
Force decreases on concentric movements due to deceleration while force increases on eccentric movements due to acceleration. This leads us to a problem that many never consider: optimal eccentrics. How much muscle tension should someone use on eccentric movements? If it is true that an individual can lower 60 percent more than he can elevate, then applying percent of his eccentric strength, he could hold the bar at any position.
However, he would destroy the stretch relex with heavy weights. Overcoming inertia is done implementing light weights with a fast eccentric stop to build reversal strength.
This is ballistic training. The bar never touches the chest. One to three inches off the chest is recommended. If an individual drops a pound rock and a one-pound rock from the same distance, both hit the ground at the same time. However, as he lowers a heavy weight, as the weight increases, the eccentric phase slows down.
This is due to too much eccentric muscle action. There are optimal bar speeds for velocity training, which is measured in concentric movements.
The objective is fast movements with light loads, and for force training, the bar speed may be zero or very low to produce maximum force. Should there not be an optimal eccentric speed? Of course, it is just that no one has ever considered it until now.
How can a lifter learn to optimally lower heavy loads in the pressing, squatting, or Goodmorning exercises? A foam block for assisted eccentrics training can be employed. The same was true for a circa-max phase in the squat. A combination of band tension and weight was used. The bands cause an accommodating resistance effect on the concentric phase and an over-speed eccentric effect on the eccentric phase, increasing kinetic energy in the stretch relex.
On near-max weights, this should be 0. Remember, this was done with adding bands to the bar. How does a lifter lower just weight in a quick manner? This is done by using roughly 40 percent of his eccentric potential.
I 27 have done ballistic benching with pounds when my raw bench was It should be noted that I dropped almost 40 percent of my best raw bench. I was lowering the bar at around 0. While watching Elite benchers at Westside perform at similar eccentric speeds, I noticed that this has led to a faster concentric phase. How did we learn to lower heavier loads in the bench and squat? We use foam blocks to bench off of, lowering the plates onto the foam.
We sit on the foam for box squatting. Here are some of the methods we use. For loor pressing, lie on a seven-inch foam pad. The entire torso sinks into the foam, which causes an unstable effect. This enables the arms to relax concentrically more than normal. The king of all optimal eccentrics for benching is to lower the bar so the plates are lowered into the foam blocks, allowing the lifter to almost totally relax eccentrically.
This contributes to a fast rate of reversal strength, adding to a powerful concentric phase. Undoubtedly, this helps not only raw benching, but also lowering weights in bench shirts. For deadlifting, we stand on foam pads while doing pulls, building immediate leg drive in either the conventional or sumo style. It feels like a half box squat and half regular squat. We also stand on a foam pad while box squatting to get extra leg drive and for superior glute and hip development as well as lower back strength and lexibility.
We have used these methods for seven years because they work. They also are great for rehabilitation of knees and ankles by walking in place without shoes. Proof positive is a high school senior jumping onto a inch box.
These methods work for explosive work as well as max effort work. If a lifter is smart, it will be pre-hab if he starts now. Optimal eccentrics, a muscular and relex phase of strength training, can bring about superior gains, just as Verkhoshansky found shock training produced after watching triple jumpers perform.
A new idea, a new training method can revolutionize strength. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. The eccentric phase causes most muscular soreness, which creates much of the burn that bodybuilders discuss. When performed slowly, the eccentric phase contributes greatly to muscle hypertrophy growth. We also know that in an attempt to raise absolute strength, eccentric training alone fails miserably.
He told me that the only result he got from eccentrics was a pectoral injury. This is conirmed by research that shows most injuries occur during the yielding or eccentric phase. Vince Anello also experimented with eccentric work, doing eccentric deadlifts with as much as pounds. When he returned to the conventional deadlift, his deadlift had decreased much to his dismay. Vince told me that anything makes the deadlift go up—except eccentrics.
What does this mean? Are eccentrics a waste? Well, yes and no. Eccentric training alone is a waste. However, a strength-shortening cycle, eccentric training followed by a concentric phase, can be very beneicial when done correctly, i. When doing pure plyometrics—dropping from a prescribed height— the speed of descent is about 9. With depth jumps, there is an immediate rebound, causing a powerful stretch relex produced from the kinetic energy of the dropping phase.
Plyometrics were developed by Verkhoshansky in after he watched a triple jumper train. He was astonished by the energetic rebounding following each landing in the triple jump.
That energetic response was the basis of plyometrics. Plyometrics have proven vital in the training of explosive as well as absolute strength. It is known that training with heavy weights adds strength potential to muscles, and light weights with a rapid concentric phase increases speed and explosive strength. It is obvious that without the lowering, or eccentric, phase there would be no sudden stretch preceding a voluntary effort. Kinetic energy is gathered in the eccentric phase.
This causes a sudden release of elastic energy stored in the tendons and soft tissues of the body. Heavier weight does not add to the rebound phase as effectively as using an over speed eccentric phase. How can this be done?
Using Jump-Stretch bands causes a forced overspeed eccentric phase, which is maximal power metrics. There is no eccentric phase in a depth jump. By deinition, in an eccentric action the muscle must be active during the stretching phase, and the energy created by the body dropping is gravitational potential energy.
When the body lands on a surface, the movement becomes kinetic energy, which is transferred in the body as a stretch relex. This is why the squat-under in Olympic lifting is so important. When the lifter falls under the bar, he is producing kinetic energy for reversing the direction of the bar. This dropping under the bar should not be confused with an eccentric phase. For an eccentric phase to occur, muscle tension must accompany the action.
The squat-under has no such muscle tension. We know that 40 percent to 50 percent more muscle can be used during the eccentric phase, which is where a real problem occurs. As the barbell grows heavier, a lifter tends to lower the bar slower and slower. However, this is counterproductive. When slowing down the eccentric motion, he is limiting 29 the energy that can be stored in the muscles and tendons.
The myotatic relex occurs when a muscle is stretched by an external force. Yes, this causes a stretch relex, but the faster the eccentric phase, the greater the stretch relex. This, of course, can have a negative effect on the Golgi tendon relex, which helps prevent extremely high and potentially dangerous loads to the tendon.
With over-speed eccentrics, we try to override this phenomenon. In Science and Practice of Strength Training, Zatsiorsky states that elite athletes develop very high forces of elastic energy in the tendons rather than the muscles. This should alert us to lower the barbell at an optimal speed as weights grow heavier. If the barbell slows down as the weight grows heavier, the length of the muscle is stretched and the muscle tension increases, which could lead to injury.
Because this myotatic relex is counterbalanced by the Golgi tendon relex, an inhibition of muscle action occurs, causing a less than maximal concentric phase. Of course, this limits the potential to overcome heavier loads in training or at meet time. The answer to this dilemma is to use only enough eccentric muscle tension to control the barbell in the correct path.
If, in fact, an individual uses 40 percent to 50 percent more muscle tension to lower weights, does it not make sense to use only up to 50 percent of his eccentric strength when lowering a weight? This contributes to a stronger concentric phase, producing a higher result.
Using the Tendo unit, we found that when doing speed strength work in the bench press and squat, the eccentric phase moves at a rate of 0. This is basically the same as the concentric phase, maximizing the stretch relex. It can be stated, the faster down, the faster up. With near-maximal weight, the same trend was observed: the eccentric and concentric phases were both 0. Band and bar weight were used to achieve these results. When all resistance was from barbell and plate weight, the lowering time was considerably longer.
The eccentric phase was 0. With near maximal weight, the eccentric phase was 0. This means that bands can play a valuable role in increasing the eccentric phase of barbell lifts, teaching a lifter to use less eccentric muscle action.
As weights grow heavier, the bar speed should ind an optimal speed regardless of external resistance. With circa-max weights, I was the slowest by a small margin during both phases, and Dave Tate was the fastest. On speed work, the same results were obtained. Holdsworth was the fastest, and Chuck Vogelpohl was the slowest. Again, only one-tenth of a meter per second separated the eccentric and concentric phase of each lifter. The same results occurred in the bench press. In the above test, all bench subjects benched in T-shirts.
All squatters wore standard groove briefs, no knee wraps, and squatted on a box. Each subject was at the same level of general physical preparedness. The key to lifting larger weights is concentrating on the eccentric phase, especially with the over-speed eccentric method, i.
Learn to relax to reduce some muscle tension in the eccentric phase to prevent inhibiting the stretch relex, and watch your total go crazy. Our results speak for themselves. It was, of course, the stored elastic energy from the eccentric phase when landing, causing an energetic jump.
Verkhoshansky preferred the name shock training when he formalized implosive training in Supertraining Siff, , p. It mentions other shock methods such as: plyometrics, supramaximal methods, max-effort singles, contrast methods, maximal eccentrics, power rack work, forced repetitions, electrical stimulation.
I have found all useful except the maximal eccentrics. These methods may be rotated constantly to it into the conjugate system. For upper body, I suggest ballistic benching with 40 percent to 60 percent of one rep max with some accommodating resistance bands chains, or weight releasers. Ballistic benching eccentric phase means moving the bar one inch to three inches off the chest as quickly and explosively as possible.
A lifter must release muscle tension on the eccentric phase. There is a plyometric bench device that can be used such as the device on Page , Figure 4.
A Plyo Swing also can be used as seen on Page , Figure 6. Large weight and strong band tension are used.
Jumping rope is a very basic plyometric method. Young children can start jumping rope at an early age. High repetitions while jumping rope also thicken the ligaments and tendons that store kinetic energy. Be smart when it comes to eccentric training. Study eccentric phase training carefully; much of what I have learned is from practical experiments over 43 years.
We know there is more than one type of endurance. A person who is good at endurance is very effective at doing very little. I believe sports provide anaerobic activity suitable for the sport an individual is participating. Endurance is only improved when someone is worked into a very fatigued state.
Then, the work must stop and rest. I think so. Exercise speciicity. What does that mean? Training for a particular sport.
It does not help football players to run miles for a game that is measured in yards and inches. Yet, coaches do it over and over. Because their coach did it this way. Look at the stats of a football game. Football is not a marathon, but several very short sprints. It is an interval sport with activity working from four to seven seconds with a second rest. However long a football game lasts the offense or defense only plays half the time.
While the offense is on the ield, the defense is sitting down resting. Has a coach ever thought about this? Obviously not, or why else would he destroy his team physically? If you think running miles upon miles makes a player tough, then why not recruit marathoners? I think there is a better way. Football teams are like a restaurant franchise. All trained the same with no improvements in the game.
The better the recruiting, the better the team. Can great recruits be improved? Of course they can through physical training. For increasing endurance in a particular sport, an athlete must train speciically for his sport.
In football the play time is very explosive with a second rest; then, a player must train for the demands of football. Briely, a squat workout would look like this: Squat on a Box Week 1: 12 sets of two reps at 50 percent Week 2: 12 sets of two reps at 55 percent Week 3: 10 sets of two reps at 60 percent The sets would represent 12 plays lasting roughly eight seconds.
Using the interval method that is a second rest between work sets followed by: Week 1: 12 sets of one rep deadlift or power clean Week 2: 12 sets of one rep deadlift or power clean Week 3: 10 sets of one rep deadlift or power clean 33 Followed by benches: Week 1- Nine sets of three 25 percent band tension Week 2- Nine sets of three 25 percent band tension Week 3- Nine sets of three 25 percent band tension The deadlift is sumo style, and the power clean can be switched to a power snatch.
Again, the rest interval is no more than seconds and should last no more than 25 minutes. Do special exercises for hamstrings, lower back and glutes. The training must be dense, meaning the actual work completed during a training period. Consequently, serum testosterone drops after 45 minutes. An athlete can recover from two reps much faster than six reps, and he is much more productive for power recruitment.
Drop a basketball and watch it bounce. Each time the ball bounces, it loses some of its re-bounding property. The second bounce is much higher than the sixth bounce. Case proven. Bench training is the same: Eight to 10 sets of three reps with seconds rest intervals between sets.
After warm-ups, Westside lifters take no more than 20 minutes then add 20 minutes for special triceps, back and shoulder work. All weight training should be planned to be exercise speciic. Perfect technique with weight is a forgotten art. What does this have to do with endurance? I refer to it as explosive endurance, which is the ability to repeat explosive efforts without being fatigued. It can be if the eficiency of the Central Nervous System CNS is raised, which happens when training is planned around a speciic event.
Push the Prowler for 10 seconds with 40 seconds or less rest. This can be done for a regimen of 10 to 20 pushes; to avoid accommodation, change the rest between sets, 20 to 40 seconds. Explosive endurance should have the rest intervals changing per workout and occasionally during a workout.
It is best not to constantly stride for shorter and shorter rest, but rather to wave the rest intervals from slow to fast and back to slow. Progress comes, but be patient and plan to peak for the end of the season of camp. All strengths are important, but the amount of absolute strength is critical. By deinition, absolute strength is muscular strength, not based on body weight. In sports, there are many different body- weights as well as weight classes, competing in the same sport.
As men or women become more devel- oped in combat sports, weight, or power lifts, the larger athletes are the strongest. However, this is not true in most football facilities. Many line backers and running backs are stronger than the lineman. This should not be the case because as an athlete becomes larger his relative strength decreases. To improve slow strength, I suggest the method of accommodating resistance, which can be accomplished with full range movements in the ive classical lifts: squat, bench, deadlift, snatch, clean and jerk.
Also included are all forms of deadlifting and pulls for the irst and second movements of the Olympic lift. For all squats, front and back, a variety of specialty bars should be rotated.
The irst method is to attach chains to the barbell and add weights, teaching the lifter to accelerate the bar. Of course, this helps eliminate bar deceleration. If chains are implemented properly, it deloads a predetermined amount of weight by having the chains unload on the loor and reload as the concentric phase begins.
The general public cannot understand that this system builds a powerful start. Note that the chain weight can be as little as 40 pounds to pounds or even pounds. The body adapts quickly to the extreme overload at the top and tries to outrun the added resistance.
Band tension works in the same manner, but the elasticity of the bands causes an over-speed-eccentrics phase, which increases kinetic energy for reversal strength.
This is gravitational potential energy. The bands greatly increase veloc- ity, which increases kinetic energy for reversal strength. If one triples velocity, kinetic energy would be nine times as great.
Eccentric strength can exceed concentric strength by 50 percent and isometric strength by 50 percent to percent. However, I am concerned with raising a load, not lowering it. Many of the studies were done while lowering a load slowly, but if drop jumps work, and though dan- gerous, we know they do, the human body approaches 9.
Why do coaches insist on lowering a weight slowly? Lowering a weight slowly accomplishes two things: it can make muscles larger, which is great for a body builder, but not for other types of athletes; it also causes the most muscular soreness. Both are two unnecessary occurrences for increasing ath- letic performance. Research proves the hardest part of the squat is taking it out of the rack and standing still.
Once the ec- centric phase begins, this enormous amount of eccentric muscle strength takes over. Most injuries oc- cur on the eccentric phase because of the lengthening of the muscle in an eccentric contraction.
Also, the series elastic component SEC is exposed under concentric work Siff, The muscular pain from eccentrics is due to the damage inlicted upon the myoibrils and connective tissue elements such as the Z bands, which is a part of the SEC.
Friden and Siff found that extreme soreness disappeared and the ability to perform eccentric work increased by percent by continuing eccen- tric work, lasting eight weeks with three workouts per week. Eccentric work causes more hypertrophy than concentric work because of greater tissue damage. The results are mixed on this subject. Look at the work of Hortobagyi February Journal of Physiology, pp.
What has been learned from all this research? Not a whole lot. However, the high speed, large accel- eration smart movement along with aerobic and resistive training created by Lisa Ericson uses quick hand and arm movement eccentrically and concentrically with fast velocity. Her video is avail- able from Sports Training Inc. Because I was the irst to employ chains with barbell weight for accommodating resistance, the Lib- erty University strength coach Dave Williams asked me to experiment with jump stretch bands.
They were more or less used for stretching an athlete. I had never heard of such a band system, but I read that in L. He said an individual must use bands on rubber cords over the bar, so I had to try them. I knew the importance of increasing kinetic energy besides doing thousands of reps with light weight to thicken connective tissue, but how could I increase kinetic energy?
Bands came to me. As velocity of contraction in- creases, so does maximum eccentric force because kinetic energy is stored in the tendons and the other series of elastic components in the lower extremity and spine. Supertraining page Siff, ; Garrett, What would happen if I concentrated on kinetic energy? By using a large amount of band tension—sometimes pounds of band tension alone this would shoot the lifter down very quickly on the eccentric phase.
I felt it could override the Golgi tendon response. Remember, Komi says as velocity of contraction increases, so does the maximum eccentric force increase. Conditioning the connec-. This is a must for the stress of over speed eccentrics as velocity is much greater with bands added to the bar, than just with barbell weight alone.
This builds a greater stretch relex for phenomenal reversal strength. We know that superior athletes can produce higher forces than lesser athletes. In horse racing, the horses that come in last never get hurt; it is always the front runners or the top horses.
Humans are the same with the body depending on two relexes: the myotatic or stretch relex that keeps the muscle close to a preset length, and the Golgi tendon relex to prevent high and potential damaging muscle tension. Reversal strength depends on the amount of deformation energy built-up and then is used to enhance motor output in the important concentric phase of strength shortening cycle.
We know the greatest athletes have the highest amount of stored energy where muscles stretch and contract. The Jump Stretch bands do the same, stretching as the muscles stretch on the eccentric phase and contracting on the concentric phase. With high band tension, it can force an individual down very compulsorily, causing a strong stretch relex.
How does this work? Remember deformation? Think of a basketball. Drop it and it falls at the speed of gravity near earth 9. When it recoils, the ball has some deformation as it contacts the loor, but if it is thrown downward with great velocity, it bounces up much higher. Greater deformation acts much like the deformation of the tendon and muscle where the energy is stored.
Zatsiorsky states that elasticity plays a large role in enhancing the mo- tor output in sports movement. Rubber bands have elasticity, and the tendon and muscles have elasticity that is assisted or accelerated eccentric.
Note some of the indings I have made. This is supra-maximal efforts, and not recommended for just strong, but only the very strong. I have 21 men who are 1,pound squatters and four over 1, meet performance. Our training is on the box just below parallel. When squatting to a box, there is a collision, similar to two pool balls colliding. A virtual force effect is a force that is there, but not recognized.
A part of the kinet- ic energy of the lifter is transferred to the box. Appearing motionless while sitting on the box, muscles are stretching and contracting much like pulling or pushing of a static bar isometrics.
The bar may be motionless, but the muscles are stretching and contracting like performing a box squat. See box squat- ting page One would think sitting on a box motionless would affect re- versal strength. The separation off the box remained unchanged.
The study was conducted at Westside Barbell with the top 10 world-ranked powerlifters. I found some very interesting things.
The eccentric phase was almost equal to the concentric phase. The faster the eccentric phase occurs, the faster the concentric phase, just like a bouncing ball. The quicker the acceleration going down, the faster the ball bounces upward.
All three elements of training are connected. See the articles below. Eccentric Unloading I have written about over-speed eccentrics citing why it is so important to lower the bar as quickly as possible to produce the most powerful stretch relex as possible. If an athlete triples his velocity, the kinetic energy is nine times as great.
Without bands, a lifter lowers the bar in roughly one second. Using Jump-Stretch bands on the bar, the length of the eccentric phase can be cut in half to 0.
For instance, pounds in contact with the box causes a force of pounds because of over-speed eccentrics. Another example occurs when sprinting. A pound sprinter experiences a force per step of pounds.
However, while sprinting at top speed, he is able to produce ive or six times body- weight by over-speed eccentrics, which is caused by the speed of the foot colliding with the track.
This is a virtual-force effect, a force that is present but not recognized. Although bands do accommodate resistance, which is obvious to the observer, they also produce added kinetic energy to produce a pow- erful stretch relex.
I have written previously about optimal eccentric training. We all know that an individual can pro- duce more muscle activation when lowering weight—up to 50 percent more. This is a good thing if he wants added muscle soreness. However, who wants that? Most hypertrophy occurs when lowering weights.
An athlete can lower more weight than he can elevate. This is where the problem arises. Most tend to lower the barbell too slowly, destroying the stretch relex. If lowering the barbell slowly is cor- rect, then depth jumps and plyometrics are wrong, and we know that plyometric work, unquestionably. An experiment involving Matt Smith, when his best contest squat was , was conducted with the help of Dr.
Akita, a calculus professor. Matt irst squatted with pounds of barbell weight to a paral- lel box. The eccentric and concentric phases were roughly 0. Bands were added to the bar, and the bar weight was reduced, so the total weight at the top of the lift was and the weight on the box was With the bands pulling down on the bar, an over-speed eccentric phase was caused; the eccentric phase was reduced to 0. Increasing velocity. If an individual triples his squat kinetic energy, the over-speed eccentrics cause a virtual-force effect when contacting the box.
Why is this important? Muscle tension on the eccentric phase can be lessened to some extent, although the resistance is reduced somewhat by band shrinkage. The added bar speed increases kinetic energy when contacting the box, much like weight releasers. The brain thinks the weight or resistance is the same at the top as it is in the bottom. A ben- eit is that the band causes an accommodating resistance to the bar. For me, the hardest part of a squat is un-racking the bar from the monolift.
When the eccentric phase begins, eccentric muscle strength takes over. But how can optimal eccentrics be trained? One of the best methods is the lightened method. Here, two bands are connected to the top of the power rack.
Depending on the band strength, a predetermined weight is reduced at the bottom of the lift. As the bar is lowered, some of the resistance is reduced as is muscle tension to some extent. A strong band at Westside lightens the load pounds. If only pounds is on the bar at the bottom of the lift, an individual can totally relax all muscle tension at that point, which means the lifter goes from relaxed to dynamic. This is one of the greatest ways to build explosive and absolute strength.
Many ight the bar eccentrically until fully lowered, but with this method, if an individual lowers pounds, it requires half the eccentric strength to lower the bar. This method can be used for all power lifts and Olympic lifts. There is a second method that can take enormous loads eccentrically by catching the bar or plates or even the lifter himself. It requires two foam blocks. The lifter takes the bar off bench racks and lowers it until the plates touch the blocks and sink into the foam.
How far the plates sink into the foam de- pends on the bar weight. We have benched over pounds using this method. Very heavy squats and Goodmornings can also be performed. When box squatting, we place a seven-inch foam pad on the box.
As the lifter sits on the foam, it sinks until he is sitting all the way on the box. The box itself represents a collision, producing kinetic energy for a strong stretch relex. The foam causes a dampened effect.
This promotes muscle work. If you have ever run in sand, you know how much it fatigues the muscles. The foam has the same affect. I watched a tape of a world class thrower doing plyometrics on a gym loor with hard-sole weightlifting shoes. In a different segment, he was wearing cross-training shoes, and the loor was covered with gym mats.
This time his reaction time on the amortization phase was much slower. He was using more muscle work on the mats and less connective tissue work. A top sprinter said that 80 percent of run- ning comes from kinetic energy derived from the ligaments and tendons. By doing both methods, the thrower is using all of his potential by jumping on both soft and hard surfaces.
I thought why not squat and bench the same way? We now train mostly off a foam box, but we always do the circa-max phase or an all-time Personal Record PR off a hard box. We have used this method for two years with great success.
Progress can be seen on our website and on our record boards at the gym. For deadlifting, stand on a thin foam pad, bringing the legs into the lift. Give this a try and see the results for yourself. Assisted Eccentrics There are a few who have read the exploits of a person who has been said to have made great progress doing eccentrics.
But were there other factors involved in the training? I have read several articles by sports experts around the globe, yet none have conclusive evidence that eccentrics work. Mel Siff in Supertraining explains eccentrics as action in which the proximal and distal muscle attachments move away from one another. Eccentric work uses signiicantly less energy than concentric work. When doing slow eccentrics with large loads, there is no reason to associate these advantages with the possi- bility of developing the ability to move quickly and powerfully in concentric work.
Lowering weights slowly builds larger muscles for bodybuilding, but will not assist concentric actions. With depth jumps, an individual is accelerating close to 9. Everyone knows these jumps work, so why would a person lower a weight at 0.
In the book Science of Sports Training, T. Kurz states some athletes can lower 10 per- cent to 60 percent more than they can overcome concentrically. With all this said, slow eccentrics have no place in powerlifting or sports. To build larger muscles, yes. If an individual wants to become very sore, yes. What does it matter if someone can lower 60 percent more than he can raise? If I recall correctly, a lifter must raise the bar from the loor in a clean, snatch, and deadlift.
After lowering to parallel, an individual must, for a fraction of a second, hold the weight statically and then rise to completion. If an athlete loads the bar with 60 percent more than his best squat of, say, pounds, the total bar weight would be 1, pounds.
Does this sound like a good idea? A weight that feels ine at the top becomes much too heavy in the bottom. How can a bar weight be perfect at the top and also at the bottom? The key to eccentric success is over-speed eccentrics. Hopefully, you already know that force equals mass times acceleration. The force, however, is almost always connected to concentric movements.
What about eccentric work? Light weights can be lowered with greater acceleration than heavy weights, just as in concentric movements. It must be understood that the largest force may not always be associated with the heaviest loads. Jump-Stretch bands can produce much greater acceleration prop- erties by pulling the bar down by means of great tension.
This causes over-speed eccentrics, adding to kinetic energy. If a lifter could triple the bar speed on the eccentric phase, it would produce nine times the kinetic energy.
In a simple action, such as a depth jump, a pound man jumping off a platform of 10 feet produces many times his body weight. Force decreases on concentric movements due to deceleration while force increases on eccentric movements due to acceleration.
This leads us to a problem that many never consider: optimal ec- centrics. How much muscle tension should someone use on eccentric movements? If it is true that an individual can lower 60 percent more than he can elevate, then applying percent of his eccentric strength, he could hold the bar at any position. However, he would destroy the stretch relex with heavy weights. Overcoming inertia is done implementing light weights with a fast eccentric stop to build reversal strength.
This is ballistic training. The bar never touches the chest. One to three inches off the chest is recommended. If an individual drops a pound rock and a one-pound rock from the same distance, both hit the ground at the same time. However, as he lowers a heavy weight, as the weight increases, the eccentric phase slows down.
This is due to too much eccentric muscle action. There are optimal bar speeds for velocity training, which is measured in concentric movements. The objective is fast movements with light loads, and for force training, the bar speed may be zero or very low to produce maximum force.
Should there not be an optimal eccentric speed? Of course, it is just that no one has ever considered it until now. How can a lifter learn to optimally lower heavy loads in the pressing, squatting, or Goodmorning exer- cises?
A foam block for assisted eccentrics training can be employed. The same was true for a circa-max phase in the squat. A combination of band tension and weight was used. The bands cause an accommodating resis- tance effect on the concentric phase and an over-speed eccentric effect on the eccentric phase, increas- ing kinetic energy in the stretch relex.
On near-max weights, this should be 0. Remember, this was done with adding bands to the bar. How does a lifter lower just weight in a quick manner? This is done by using roughly 40 percent of his eccentric potential. It should be noted that I dropped almost 40 percent of my best raw bench. I was lowering the bar at around 0. While watching Elite benchers at Westside perform at similar eccentric speeds, I noticed that this has led to a faster concentric phase.
How did we learn to lower heavier loads in the bench and squat? We use foam blocks to bench off of, lowering the plates onto the foam. We sit on the foam for box squat- ting. Here are some of the methods we use. For loor pressing, lie on a seven-inch foam pad. The entire torso sinks into the foam, which causes an unstable effect.
This enables the arms to relax concentrically more than normal. The king of all optimal eccentrics for benching is to lower the bar so the plates are lowered into the foam blocks, allowing the lifter to almost totally relax eccentrically.
This contributes to a fast rate of reversal strength, adding to a powerful concentric phase. Undoubtedly, this helps not only raw bench- ing, but also lowering weights in bench shirts. For deadlifting, we stand on foam pads while doing pulls, building immediate leg drive in either the conventional or sumo style.
It feels like a half box squat and half regular squat. We also stand on a foam pad while box squatting to get extra leg drive and for superior glute and hip development as well as lower back strength and lexibility.
We have used these methods for seven years because they work. They also are great for rehabilitation of knees and ankles by walking in place without shoes. Proof positive is a high school senior jumping onto a inch box. These methods work for explosive work as well as max effort work.
If a lifter is smart, it will be pre-hab if he starts now. Optimal eccentrics, a muscular and relex phase of strength training, can bring about superior gains, just as Verkhoshansky found shock training produced after watching triple jumpers perform. A new idea, a new training method can revolutionize strength. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Optimal Eccentrics What do we really know about eccentric lowering work? The eccentric phase causes most muscular soreness, which creates much of the burn that bodybuilders discuss. When performed slowly, the ec- centric phase contributes greatly to muscle hypertrophy growth. We also know that in an attempt to raise absolute strength, eccentric training alone fails miserably. He told me that the only result he got from eccentrics was a pectoral injury. This is conirmed by research that shows most inju- ries occur during the yielding or eccentric phase.
Vince Anello also experimented with eccentric work, doing eccentric deadlifts with as much as pounds. When he returned to the conventional deadlift, his deadlift had decreased much to his dismay. Vince told me that anything makes the deadlift go up—except eccentrics. What does this mean? Are eccentrics a waste? Well, yes and no. Eccentric training alone is a waste. This new edition has been extensively revised to incorporate the latest theory and practice in sports training and coaching, with supplementary contributions from international experts.
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Because I constantly break new records all the time, check out our top lifts in the back of the book and then check out our website for correct records. You will be amazed! File Name: special strength development for all sports louie simmons pdf. No recommend documents. Share what you know and love through.
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