IOL Strength and Conditioning

I’m afraid that this is going to be a rambling post, so if you’re not in the mood to indulge me…you might wish to look at other areas of the site. Due to a recently acquired shoulder issue, I’ve been forced to change my training and re-evaluate some of my thoughts regarding training, results, health, longevity and goals. Whew! Still with me?

Most of us train because we enjoy it. We look forward to our session with the Iron…if we don’t, something is amiss. Like any enjoyable activity, we engage in it frequently. Like any enjoyable activity, there is also a potential for abuse. If we engage in this activity so intensely and so frequently that it consumes an inordinate amount of our time and interferes with our daily lives…that is abuse. It goes without saying, that if it harms us, it is abusive.

For example, the first area where I found myself engaged in abuse was the quest for results. Like anyone else that is honest, I preferred that results from my training be quickly obtained, rather than slowly. To be totally honest, I wanted “overnight” results. In order to achieve this, I was willing to engage in some training “ideas” and protocols that upon later examination, harmed me rather than helped me. Let’s examine two of them - training in mechanically inefficient positions and training to failure of positive movement.

Vince Gironda is probably one of the best known proponents of modifying movement positioning and performance to target specific areas and obtain quick results - i.e. making a movement harder and training in a mechanically inefficient position. This causes the muscles targeted to work harder and grow quicker. Which sounds OK upon shallow examination…but in my case, it proved harmful. Any time you bypass the body’s natural patterns of movement, there is the potential for harm…and that is the “dirty little secret” of training Vince Gironda style.

Let’s examine some of his recommendations for pectoral development and specific movements - the V bar pec dip and the Neck Press. In the dip, you’re supposed to use vee shaped dipping bars with the ends spaced some 32 to 36 inches apart. You dip by holding your body concave and dip to the limit of your shoulder flexibility and then slightly “bounce” at the bottom. The wide grip and body positioning is supposed to minimize the contribution of the shoulders and transfer the stress to the lower pectorals. In an ideal world, this works…but in my world, it increased the stress on the shoulder attachments and elbows, eventually hastening injury. The same situation existed with the neck (bench) press.

The neck press is performed by taking a wide, thumbless grip on the barbell. The elbows are intentionally held wide and in line with the bar. The bar is lowered high on the chest, nearly to the base of the throat and then pressed back up. This really stretches the pectorals and directs the emphasis to the upper portion mainly…again minimizing the contribution of the triceps and deltoids from the positioning. If you have robust shoulders, this is exactly how it does work. If not, you are actually causing the shoulder to rotate in an unnatural manner and are again, stressing the attachments just as much as the muscles.

Herein is the problem. Your body is efficient, it seeks to accomplish a task with the least amount of effort. Usually, this is because many, many muscles are working together in planes of movements that have the most beneficial leverage. When you modify that, you cause multiplication of stresses in specific areas. One more example: Vince was big on the use of the sissy squat, to avoid the activation of the gluteus and to direct the stress to the lower portion of the quadriceps, just above the knee. This was done by rising up on the toes, leaning back and “hinging” the movement from the knees, with a straight body. This really minimized the gluteal contribution and really focused on the lower quads. The problem with that is that it changes what kind of lever your legs are and directs most of the stress to the knees. In a normal, naturally performed squat, you lean forward just slightly and this activates the lower back, the glutes and just about everything else. Rising is effortless, compared with a sissy squat and the knees aren’t stressed as much. Why? Because your body is working in the manner that is was designed to work.

When I was young and wanted instant muscles and results, natural movement didn’t matter to me. Now that I’m much older, the accumulation of dings and dents and numerous insults from less than natural training practices, has caused me to question the intelligence of how I trained as a young man. Were I to do it all over again, I’d work more along the lines of natural patterns of movement and let the chips fall where they would…and would probably have a lot less injuries and still be able to do various movements.

Have you had enough heresy? Stick around, there’s more.

Training to failure is another training protocol that appears to be very logical and well thought out upon surface examination. You want to work a muscle somewhere in the area of 60 to 80 percent of available output, to maximally stimulate the adaptive responses that cause muscle to grow rapidly. The problem with this thought is, how do you determine when you’ve reached this percentage of effort? The easiest way is to go well beyond that…and then you can be sure that in passing, you’ve reached it. Dig? If you train until you fail to complete the positive portion of a repetition, you can guarantee that you’ve reached 60 to 80 percent output. Simple.

However, training in this manner requires exacting attention to proper form. Since you’re trying to achieve literal exhaustion of the targeted muscle mass, you’re also going to exhaust stabilizing muscles as well. When these stabilizers exhaust, your ability to hold proper form is compromised and you’re likely to experience injury. If you’re like most folks, you’re also willing to sacrifice proper form in order to get a few more reps or use a few more pounds…again at the expense of potential injury.

This style of training is also hard on your body’s recovery system. As your strength increases and your ability to train intensely increases, your demand for recovery time and nutrients also increases. If you don’t provide both in adequate amounts…you harm your system, actually creating inflammation and other “emergency” responses. As a general, continuing practice, this is not good. Your training is actually creating a continuing series of “mini-emergencies,” and your body responds appropriately to the alarm. This is something that they are discovering with marathon runners - that they are burning out their systems and accumulating lots of repetitive stress injuries because what they are regularly engaging in is an “emergency” situation. You simply weren’t designed to run 26 miles with regular frequency.

To make a long story short…I try not to train to failure. (Although it’s tough, having trained that way for so long and having my head tell me it was “right.”) I try to leave a few reps in the tank, so that I leave a training session feeling well worked but refreshed, rather than exhausted and trembling. (Yes, I trained that hard…foolishly.) If I’m doing a final set of 8 reps…repetitions 7 and 8 are very hard but completed. I feel that if I really dig deep, I’m good for 9 and 10 but I stop at 8. Again, this is the way your body works. Your body and mind want to do just what is sufficient to accomplish a task. You’ll only contract the amount of muscle fibers that are necessary to complete a movement. Granted, results won’t come as fast training like this…but neither will injury or inflammatory responses.

If you’re still with me…I’ll wrap up my ramblings with this point. Your body is a machine. All machines are subject to wear, especially in response to the demands made on them. There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. Drive with your foot to the floor all the time and your motor will wear faster. Your body was “fearsomely and wonderfully” made to be self-repairing and long term useful…but it will still wear. Wouldn’t it make sense to moderate your training, move naturally and limit high level stresses, so that you could enjoy your body longer? Granted, when push comes to shove, I’d rather wear out than rust out…but I don’t want to unduly hasten the process, either.

I don’t pretend to know how to balance the desire for results with the desire for healthful longevity. I just wanted to toss the concept out to you so that you might consider it in the light of my experience. Good training to you.