Lecture on strength training exercises that I gave as a lecture for Wilmington College students in HPE 345, Strength Programming for Sport. Taken from the text: Science and Practice of Strength Training, 2nd edition.
2. A General Overview
With so many exercises to choose from in designing a program,
it is important to know the factors behind each exercise.
3. The MOST IMPORTANT exercise
In any sport, the most important exercise is
the actual sport movement.
If my sport is sprinting, I need to practice sprinting
the most.
If my sport is volleyball, I need to actually play
volleyball the most.
If my sport is arm-curling, then I need to practice
arm curls the most.
If my sport is underwater basket weaving, well….
4. Strength Exercise Classification
Isometric (same length)
Joint angle specific!
Isokinetic (same speed)
Research and Sports Medicine
Isotonic? (same tone…not really)
Tension in a muscle changes as the moment arm
changes during the exercise
Dynamic
Concentric
Eccentric
Reversible
5. The most popular
Dynamic exercises with concentric muscle
action
Typical up/down weightlifting
6. Further Classification
Non-specific
Squats for a javelin thrower
Bench press for a basketball player
Specific
Barbell pullover for a javelin thrower
Push jerk for basketball player
Primary Sporting Movement w/ resistance
Throwing overweight javelins
Rebounding drill with a weighted vest for b-ball
7. Strength Topography
Strength topography is the comparative
strength of different muscle groups in the
body.
An athlete can be extremely strong in one
movement, say bench press, but extremely weak
in another, such as a barbell row.
Estimated ratios exist between the different
muscle groups in the body. For example, the
hamstrings should be 2/3 as strong as the
quadricep muscle group.
11. Exercise Selection for
Beginning Athletes
Strengthen muscle groups, that, if weak can
cause potential injuries.
Neck in wrestling/football
Rotator cuff in throwing sports
Hamstrings in running sports
12. Exercise Selection for
Beginning Athletes
Train the large muscles in the core/trunk of
the athlete. Specifically, the abdominal wall
and spinal erectors should be trained.
Lifts should be performed through the full
range of motion.
Use only submaximal efforts, do not “max-
out”
3 year rule….
13. Selecting Exercises for
Advanced Athletes
Specificity becomes more important the
more advanced an athlete is.
Training drills that are not relevant are often
discarded for the regime of an elite athlete.
14. How are exercises specific?
The working muscles
The type of resistance
The rate of force development (RFD)
The velocity of movement
15. Working Muscles
The same working muscles used in the given
sport movement should be emphasized in the
training regimen
Examples:
Rock Climbers do not want to spend a lot of time
doing barbell squats
Basketball/Football players do want to spend a lot
of time doing barbell squats
16. Type of Resistance
Barbell (MostTypical)
Compound
Bands/Chains+Barbell
Lighter bands are usually better for sports
Bands/Cords
Bodyweight
Pushups, Situps, Pistol Squats
17. Rate of Force Development
The goal of training can lean towards:
Increasing Fmm (low velocity/high force
movements)
This strategy is only useful is ESD is less than 50%
(no modern coach in the west actually calculates
ESD)
Decreasing ESD (high velocity/low force
movements)
18. A practical question:
2 athletes of similar dimensions have equal
standing vertical jumps. They have different
Fmm abilities though. Athlete A squats 1x
their bodyweight, while athlete B squats 1.5x
bodyweight.
For which of these athletes will improving
Fmm in the barbell squat be more beneficial?
Why?
19. Velocity of Movement
Performance will tend to improve relative to
the velocity of the performed movement
The book recommends training movement
velocities in the same velocity range as the
given sport
This is very impractical, hard to emulate
20. Velocity of Movement
Strength exercises should not be performed
withTOO light weight and high velocity, if
this is done, Fmm will not improve.
Research shows that strength gains were
much higher in bench press when the reps
were done at 1 rep every 4 seconds or slower.
Trying to move as fast as possible limited
strength gains. (seems to contradict
Waterbury)
21. Velocity of Movement
TrainingTempo
Tempo is not really discussed in this chapter
Lifting tempos are broken down into
eccentric phase, isometric phase, and
concentric phase of the lift.
An example of tempo would be 3-0-1. This
would mean the “down” part of the lift would
take 3 seconds, the isometric part would be
disregarded, and the concentric part should
take one second
22. Tempo Recommendations
Athletes tend not to like tempo and will often
disregard it if you don’t enforce it
Tempo doesn’t make much sense when you
think about motor recruitment, but the
purpose of lifting is not always motor
recruitment; that can be left up to sport
specific exercises in some/many situations
23. Tempo Recommendations
It is OK to use tempo in static lifts if you are
also using explosive exercises in your
program.
It can be a good idea to use tempo only for
the eccentric part of the lift, such as a 5-0-1
tempo. This way you can still have the
athlete perform the concentric part
somewhat explosively.
24. Velocity of Movement
During static lifts (bench, squat, presses,
pulls, etc.) it can be a good idea to prescribe a
lifting tempo. The main reason for this is that
it is a variable that can be manipulated
throughout the year to prevent
accommodation
25. Peak Contraction Principle
The peak contraction principle is
based on adding more resistance to
the parts of the lifts that are more
difficult
This is effective in increasing strength
but might have a limited value in
transfer to sport abilities
26. Another Method of Peak
Contraction
In this exercise, resistance is manually applied
in the most difficult part of the movement.
27. Accommodating Resistance
Cam Based Machines
Chains/Bands
Attempting to maximize tension through
the whole range of motion rather than one
point
28. So What?
I am in favor of the ‘general’ theory of
strength.
Basically, no matter how you lift weights, you
will not be able to emulate the muscle-
tendon interaction present in most sporting
movements
Therefore it is usually pointless to get carried
away with strange weightlifting exercises,
although it is good to switch things up for the
sake of variety
29. More General Theory
Increase your muscle mass and power with
power lifts (squats/bench) and olympic
variants. Do your lifts slow and controlled to
increase strength. Don’t worry about the
weight room to increase speed, worry about
the weight room to increase force.
Use sport specific exercises and plyometrics
to address rate of force development and
velocity, but remember straight velocity
cannot be improved.