Gains – Louisville Strongman

Strongman Analytics

Coaching, Gains, Movement, Programming, Strongman, Strongman Funny

Strongman Analytics

Dr. Mark Clevenger

The title of the sport of Strongman can be deceiving, it implies that only absolute strength is tested and that the statically strongest person always wins. This cannot be further from the truth. A Strongman contest is a series of 5 different events that can test an athletes absolute strength, repetition strength, speed strength, conditioning, athleticism, and equipment mastery. Too often athletes in the sport tend to focus on absolute strength and forget to think about these other aspects of events that are worth just as much, if not more points on your score by the end of the contest. I want to walk you through an analytics process of viewing the sport so you can construct your training to maximize your performance on any given event at any competition.

Absolute Strength

In almost every contest you will have a deadlift and overhead press variation event. This is automatically 2 out of 5 events that you are going to be tested on, so your absolute strength for the most carry over to these events should be in the deadlift, log press, and axle press. Where people get too caught up here is thinking your 1 rep max in these lifts carries over to more than just these lifts. A big deadlift does not necessarily mean a fast yoke run, or a fast truck pull, and a big log press does not necessarily mean a good circus dumbbell performance. They do help, but they are not the sole performance indicators to these other lifts. Being statically strong in these two lifts is important but they only directly carry over to these two event variations.

Knowing how important these two lifts are for 2 out of 5 contested events, the bulk of your offseason training should consist of building strength in these lifts, while your contest prep should be focused on refining your technique for these lifts. Take a look at where and why you fail at these lifts and let that direct your accessory work. Pick out 1 or 2 aspects of these lifts that you struggle at (hamstring strength, bar path, stabilization, ect…) and train those, because getting better at those will make you better at this main lift. Then go ahead and fill the rest of your training time with lower impact exercises that will help keep your joints and body healthy in the long term (*cough *cough cardio…. *cough *cough generalized physical preparedness).

After you’ve picked a contest with some variation of deadlift and overhead press, the next question you should be wondering is when to start contest prep? This is highly variable from athlete to athlete. Some athletes need more event proficiency to maximize their current strength levels with an implement, and thus a little bit longer of a contest prep cycle. Other athletes may have greater event proficiency, or natural ability, and subsequently need less specific work requiring less prep time. With that being said, you should be honest with yourself and see where you fall on this spectrum to determine how long of a prep you need. In either case, anything longer than 12-16 weeks, including taper and deload, is too much. At that point any extra time should just be spent getting stronger and healthier during an off season training block.

Repetition Strength

Just because you’ve got a huge 1 rep max on a given event, doesn’t mean you’ve got the movement efficiency and repetition strength to crank out the number of reps it’s going to take to win an event on game day. Don’t get me wrong, it helps, but absolute strength is not the sole determining factor to winning a reps event.

The first step in analyzing a reps event is asking yourself how the weight compares to your current strength levels in that event? If it’s less than 80% of your 1 rep max then you know the bulk of your event training needs to be focused on the conditioning, repetition strength, and overall movement economy to maximize your performance. If the event is closer to 85-90% of your 1 rep max then there should be a solid mix of absolute strength work and some repetition work, to give yourself the best chance at reps on game day. Lastly, if an event falls in the 90+% range, or above your current max, then your contest prep focus needs to be on absolute strength.

Speed Strength, Conditioning, Athleticism

This is by far the most underrated aspect of Strongman. In a typical Strongman competition 3 of the events will hinge on these things. Yes, being statically strong or having great repetition strength has scored you well in two events, but if you move like molasses, do the stanky leg while carrying weight, and get winded after 20s of work, you won’t place very high in these events. The common fault I see athletes make with regards to these events is the belief that if they get statically stronger it will magically give them work capacity, make them fast, and make them explosive. It has to be understood that these qualities, while connected in some fashions to absolute and repetition strength, are stand alone qualities and have to be trained independently.

If there’s a conditioning event (max distance carry, ect..) and you can barely move competition weight because it’s so heavy, then you probably don’t need the bulk of your event training to be lighter weight for longer distances, this is where absolute strength in the event will give you the best performance. On the flip side if the competition weight is manageable relative to your abilities, then you probably need to be hammering your conditioning and efficiency for the event (recognize a theme yet?). If this is where you find yourself, understanding the mark to beat is an important training and programming tool. This is where you guesstimate where the top performers will score and train for that mark to ensure you maximize your points earned for that event. Don’t miss out on the podium because you didn’t know what mark to train for and subsequently under perform an event that costs you a lot of points.

If you find yourself with a distance for time event (yoke, farmers, ect…) this is not about how strong you are, but how fast you are. If you can’t move fast with weight you have to ask yourself why? Is it a bracing issue? Dynamic unilateral stability issue? Hip strength? Understand why, and train the heck out of that so you can get better at these events without training them all the time. Constantly training events in this sport will wear your body down, especially moving events. So work on finding ways to get better at these events with traditional strength training methods to not only save the wear and tear of these events but this will also give you a greater carry over to other events as well.

I can’t count how many times I’ve seen an athlete in a medley carry something heavy impressively fast, then as they transitioned back to another implement 50’ away would shuffle or light jog, then again be incredibly fast carrying another heavy piece of equipment. Then you see them followed up by another athlete, not as fast carrying objects, but was an absolute blur sprinting between the implements, making up that time they lost on the carry and actually ending up beating a ‘stronger’ competitor because of it. Time is time, it’s counting from the whistle to the finish, everything you do in that span of time matters. Being an athlete and making your body fast not only with the parts where you carry weight, but the transitions between them as well, will ensure that the best time you are physically capable of is achieved. The takeaway here is, be as fast as you can at all aspects of an event, not just certain parts of it.

Equipment Mastery

The argument I hear too often in Strongman is that you don’t need the equipment, you just need to be strong. Although competitors can take the equipment specifications for contest training too far (what are the exact dimensions of the farmers’ handles? What is the exact height of the pull for the car deadlift? Ect…), the idea that you don’t need to be proficient with a piece of equipment is absurd. That’s like telling an Olympic discus thrower that they don’t need practice with the discus, they just need to be powerful. Yes, it helps, but there is technique to every different event we do for our body types, and knowing the details of how to make an event work for you is a significant part of contest preparation.

Lastly, understanding the gear allowed for a contest and how your body is best aligned for a movement pattern is hugely important. Did they say no deadlift suits in the event explanation? If it will help, throw on the suit. Did they say no deadlift suit but didn’t mention briefs? If it will help, throw on your briefs. Are you allowed to wear grip shirts or double soft/hard belts for the overhead? If so and it helps, wear it. Are you a shorter athlete who can get a wide stance and knees under the bar on an elevated deadlift? I guarantee you can pull more that way than a traditional stance with the bar under your knee. In the end, use any equipment or technique that is allowed that will help you maximize your strengths or leverages in every event for the sake of gaining the most points on game day.

The Point

The point I’m trying to make with all of this, analyze every detail of every event, in every contest you sign up for. Compare this to your strengths and your weaknesses, and let that dictate your training. Stop getting caught up in having a big deadlift and big log press (yes these are important but not everything) and neglect the aspects of other events that equally determine your final points standings at a show. Far more often in this sport we see a better all around athlete beat out a much stronger athlete because of how they prepared their body for each event. Remember, in the end it is called Strongman, but there are many different types of strength and none so more important than another.

The Glass is Half Full

Coaching, Funny, Gains, Movement, Programming

Dr. Mark Clevenger

Let’s be honest about the current state of affairs– they suck. People are worried, losing their jobs, there’s no toilet paper, and the ONE THING we meat heads use to combat the stress of normal life, let alone our now apocalyptic lives, has been taken from many of us. THE GYM.

Like every other gym rat out there I was pissed when I heard my gym was closed. After that first initial shock, the coach and physical therapist in me began to process the situation and I realized two things. First, this is a public health issue bigger than my desire to lift in the grand scheme of things. Second, the glass is half full because this is really an opportunity to grow as a coach, athlete, and as an overall person. Time to play “20 questions” to help you see the better side of this pandemics effect on your training.

Be honest with yourself, when was the last time you had a deload?

Not a missed session or two, not a taper for a competition, but an actual deload? One that is built around reducing the systemic stress on your body from heavy weights and high training volumes to let your body catch up on the fatigue you’ve been putting it through? A lot of athletes know how to push the gas pedal on the platform and in the gym, but have they ever really learned to let off and how this can help make them stronger? This forced training gap that many of us are experiencing is our opportunity to take some time away from the gym stress to physically and mentally recover.

When was the last time your training cycle consisted of large amounts of general physical preparedness (GPP?)

Let alone any GPP? As strength athletes, we’re always obsessing over that maximal number. We want to lift heavy to be strong as hell but don’t want to do the little things that allow us to recover, build work capacity (so we can compete in multiple events in a contest), or build the connective tissues that support our heavy lifting because we “don’t have time” or these things “aren’t fun”… usually because we suck at them. GPP is the base that strength and longevity is built upon and the older I get the more I’m realizing its importance. Take these few weeks and start walking. Carry your toddler around the block a few times. Do some interval shuttles. Hell, even try to go for a light *gasp* jog. If you find that a 20-minute walk carrying your young child around wears you out that’s a clear sign you’re not in very good shape and should be doing more of these types of activities. If not for your strength gains, then do it for your heart gains so you can be an active participant with that kid (or furry animal) in another 10 years. Get creative with this, find what you suck at and do more of it, so you don’t suck at it. You may find this was the missing piece to adding pounds to your total or what allowed you to not hit a wall at a Strongman competition after the third event.

When was the last time you performed body weight or calisthenic exercises as the bulk of your program?

Much of this question can be rolled back into the GPP paragraph above so I’ll leave that aspect of it alone. Research shows us that when training youth lifters we start with body weight exercises. Why? To develop neuromuscular and proprioceptive control. Why is this important? You spend most of your life moving and controlling your body which is the foundation of athleticism. While most strength athletes must be more strong than athletic (unlike say, a basketball player) they still must be able to move in fluid and controlled motion, *cough* *cough* talking you Strongman competitors. Being able to control your own body is the foundation of human movement, not the barbell (or atlas stone, or yoke.) This compares to someone who drives a race car around and around the racetrack all the time but never takes the family car out to the grocery store. They forget how to drive like normal people and end up causing an accident on a neighborhood street. So, if you struggle with body weight movements this is a great time to go back to basics and develop some of that relative strength before you wreck yourself by trying to play with your kids in the backyard because you don’t know how to move your own body.

Any nagging injuries?

I get it, when you get to a certain point in a strength sport, you’re always dealing with something. That becomes a part of the sport a certain level. Some athletes let these little things become bigger things that they try to cover up with horse creams, neoprene everything, and supportive gear, all of which ‘allow’ them to train but don’t fix anything. To those folks, this is the universe telling you to take the time to really rehab your problem. Pain can down regulate muscle activation which in turn limits force production and motor coordination, taking the time to get rid of these pains may make you stronger during this down time. Do your research, reach out to remote PT coaches for telehealth consults given the current world situation, and do the things you need to so when the zombie apocalypse finally passes, you’ll come back to the gym healthier and stronger than ever.

When was the last time you unplugged and connected with your loved ones?

Do you ever involve your family and loved ones in your house with your fitness? Depending on the level of competitor you are, your families make a lot of sacrifices for you to compete. They pick up after you, deal with you talking about it ALL THE TIME, watch the kids for you, put up with your hangry when you’re cutting, and most importantly are forced to give up their time with someone they love dearly… you. Take this time to unplug from your lifting videos on Instagram, spend time with the loved ones in your house, take them with you on walks, and involve them in your fitness as well. Now if your spouse or loved one is anything like mine, they may not like you trying to have a strict training regimen with your workouts where you’re dictating everything they’re doing. So ask them what types of things they would like to do, and do those. Moral of the story here, take this time and connect with the loved ones in your house.

I’m in the same boat as everyone else here. I’m upset I can’t train the way I want to, I’m worried about my small gym owner surviving this mess, and I’m wondering how long I have to use coffee filters in place of toilet paper since I can’t seem to find a roll at any store. Let’s all take a deep breath, remember this is a public health issue bigger than our training, and if we follow some of the points outlined above there’s a good chance when your gym opens back up you’ll make all of your gym buddies jealous when it looks like you haven’t missed a beat. Hell, you might even be hitting new PR’s to start your post apocalyptic gym life. Worst case scenario? You’ve strengthened the relationships with the loved ones in your house which is always the best type of PR.

Accommodation vs Specificity: Battle of the Training Concepts

Coaching, Gains, Powerlifting, Programming, Strongman

Mark Clevenger

As an athlete and competitor in the strength sports you may have heard a lot about specificity and accommodation. At a glance these two concepts could not be farther apart from each other. At one end of the spectrum we have specificity telling us that the things we do most often are the things we will become best at. On the other end, there’s accommodation telling us that the things we do most often become stale to us and will eventually make us weaker. Now I’ve taken some liberties and paraphrased a bit on these concepts for simplicity’s sake, but they seem to be as different as Marvel and DC comics in the exercise science universe. While they may seem like polar opposites these theories are actually both correct, it’s only a matter of when and how you apply them to your training that makes them both right.

Accommodation: A Vegas buffet

Think of accommodation as the base of your sporting performance pyramid. We want this base to be as wide as possible since the wider the base, the taller the peak. In the strength sports, this base consists of pure strength but how can you quantify ‘pure strength?’ Is it a strong deadlift or squat since those are total body lifts? Is it a strong overhead press since that is the king of upper body lifts? A strong yoke run since it’s a more dynamic movement? A strong machine bicep curl… just kidding. The correct answer is, all of them. Being strong across a broad spectrum of static and dynamic lifts is not only the definition of a wide strength base, but a solid one too. This is the definition of accommodation, building strength that is not specific to one or two movements but built across multiple physical and movement facets through varied training means and conditions.

Specificity: That friend that only wants to eat at Chipotle

If accommodation is the base of our pyramid then specificity is the peak. It’s true that the things we do most often are the things we become best at… to an extent. This specificity can only take us as high as our base is wide. So if I’m not very strong and I specialize in the bench press for example, I will see great gains in a short amount of time if all I did was work on my bench press. However, it wouldn’t take long for my strength gains to slow, stall, and then reverse because my peak was only as high as the base I built under it. Now if I’m a very strong individual I will also see great gains in strength from specializing in a given lift but my peak will be much higher because I’m starting with a larger base compared to the hypothetical weaker version of me (the real version of me is pretty weak too, just sayin’).

Your Point?

The takeaway from all this is patience. Play the long game in your strength sport and take the time to build a large solid base by preventing your body from accommodating to your training through training many different physical strengths and movement facets with varied training means and conditions. You will sacrifice a few podium finishes early in your sporting career for numerous podium finishes in the middle and later phases.

Preventing Accommodation

If accommodation is the state where our bodies get used to something, then variety is the krypton to accommodation. I believe a conjugate system of training is best suited to facilitate this type of concurrent training variety. The best definition I’ve come across for the conjugate method comes from Managing the Training of Weightlifters, “The conjugate method consists of momentary influences on the key motor quality to the interconnections corresponding to the specific activity, while preserving the structure of the sport exercise¹.” This is essentially is saying that training sessions should utilize a variety of special exercises and special developmental exercises to strengthen a specific competitive lift, in a specific training session, where the competitive lift itself is not necessarily trained. An example of this would be when a powerlifter uses floor presses as their main lift on their ‘bench press’ training day, or an Olympic lifter that performs cleans from elevated blocks as the main lift on their ‘clean’ training day. These exercises must be varied within the context of a concurrent training schedule, employing a combination of the maximal effort method, repetition method, variable method, interval method, or dynamic methods while keeping some aspects of the form and function of the competitive lift in mind^1,2. This is what is called the principle of dynamic correspondence, the further removed we get from the form, function, and energy system used in the competitive lift the less transfer of training we get from these exercises². No need to channel your inner college art student here, sometimes the smallest exercise variations can deliver the best results.

It is important to understand that this movement variety is not specific to just exercise selection but also the type of strength expressed in the selected exercises (speed-strength, strength-speed, explosive strength, ect…) This means the type of strengths required for the competitive lift must also be trained in variety using dynamic correspondence.

This training variability designed to prevent accommodation must also be applied to the accessory work performed in a training session. These exercises are designed to attack weaknesses in the competitive main lift on that training day. Using our bench press example, let’s say they struggle with their lockout, which indicates weak triceps. This lifters accessory work should be varied and selected around strengthening this weakness. For these accessory lifts don’t set out to create ‘A Clockwork Orange’ Picasso-ish masterpiece because at the end of the day the transferred training effect will be so low that it won’t make your competition lift any stronger… and then you’re just wasting your time.

Detailed programming to prevent accommodation is outside the scope of this article but you can find specific information about programming to prevent accommodation in my article ‘Programming Economy.’ Here you’ll find an outline of exercise organization and volume for each training block leading up to a competition.

Implementing Specificity

The specifics about implementing specificity into your training can also be found in ‘Programming Economy.’ A general rule of thumb for intermediate lifters (no need to advise the top guys, something tells me they already have this stuff figured out) is to test their competition lifts four weeks out to see where they’re at, then spend the next two weeks focusing only on becoming as proficient with their competition lifts as needed in order to determine realistic goals for their lifts on game day. The last week should act as a deload where they perform active recovery workouts the first few days of the week and then rest until the competition. For this intermediate level strength athlete who competes three times a year this comes out to three calendar months of specificity training, which in the grand scheme of strength training still allows them to spend the bulk of their training time building their strength base.

For the novice lifter the rule is to test their competition lifts three weeks out to see where they stand and then spend the next week focusing on proficiency to give them an idea of an attainable goal to shoot for. They would then deload in the last week just like the intermediate lifter. This novice athlete needs to gain competition experience, so I suggest competing four times a year. This gives the novice lifter three calendar months of specificity training, leaving plenty of time to continue getting stronger while still giving enough opportunities to gain invaluable competition experience.

The biggest problem I see in the strength sports is when athletes specialize too far in advance of a competition. Initially they will see great results, thinking they have it all figured out, and then accommodation creeps in and their numbers drop or injuries start to occur. More often than naught they compete and hit numbers far below what they should have if they had not specialized so quickly. Most of these athletes then believe they didn’t work hard enough and come back for their next competition specializing even farther out with higher training volumes and intensities which only makes the cycle repeat itself to a greater degree. Use these time frames I’ve listed above for optimal sporting performance. If you choose to specify outside of those time frames, you’re asking for the accommodation ninja to roundhouse kick you in the face for the KO.

In The End

Accommodation and specificity are yin and yang to each other in the strength world. Both concepts can serve every strength athlete depending on how they are used in everyday and overall training. As with anything in this world, too much of one thing is not a good thing. By taking these concepts and applying them to your training you’ll set yourself on a path of sporting achievements and longevity. In the end, that’s what competing is all about right? Lifting at the highest level possible for the longest time possible. So become the Benjamin Button of your sport by using accommodation and specificity correctly and when you retire you’ll leave your competitors wondering how you were so good for so long.

References:

Laputin N.P. Oleshko V.G. Managing the Training of Weightlifters. Livonia, MI: Sportivny Press; 1982.
Verkhoshansky Y.V. Fundamentals of Special Strength Training in Sport. Livonia, MI: Sportivny Press; 1986

Active Lifting vs Passive Lifting: The Key to Training Longevity

Coaching, Funny, Gains, Movement, Powerlifting, Strongman

Mark Clevenger

There are two types of lifters in this world, those who primarily lift with active structures and those who lift primarily with passive structures. In order to understand what type of lifter you are we need to give some definitions to these concepts. I define active structures as contractile tissues, or skeletal muscle. This tissue is the driving force of all biomechanical motions in lifting. Passive structures I define as connective tissues that help facilitate the movement produced by the active structures. I’ve chosen to grossly oversimplify each tissue type for the sake of keeping this article form being too nerdy or technical. I want the bigger picture painted with broad strokes in order to make the concepts easy to understand and apply. So hang on to your seats as we discuss the concepts of active and passive lifting, determine what type of lifter you are, and how becoming one type of lifter over the other will increase your lifting lifespan.

The idea that the body lifts, or moves, an object with great form and technique we will call active lifting. This is where joints are stabilized and moved through active structures in order to execute a given lift. In this scenario, the active structures are the pure driving force of motion with the support of passive structures helping them do their job. I equate the active structures to someone driving a car from one destination to another while the passive structures are Google maps telling the driver where to turn step by step on the journey. Google maps aren’t driving the car, you are. You are in control from point A to point B, Google maps is just telling you how to get there.

“…there’s essentially a right, and wrong, way of lifting.”

The idea that the body lifts, or moves, an object with bad form and technique we will call passive lifting. This is essentially where some point in the kinetic chain is inactive while contractile components around this snow birding segment are creating an area through the inactive segment where motion is primarily being facilitated by passive structures. A good example of this the Ninja Turtle rounded back in a deadlift. The spinal erectors and lats have turned off and now the leg muscles are generating pull through the passive structures of the lower to mid back while your arm muscles and traps are holding onto the bar for dear life. Here Google maps in the lower to mid back is driving the car with you in it… and we all know apps can’t drive cars, Google maps is not Skynet and Terminators haven’t time-traveled to stop a robot induced apocalypse… yet.

So why does our body assume the passive structure posture in certain lifts? The answer can be as simple as a muscle weakness. The muscle giving out is not strong enough to hold the position or perform the task it’s asked to perform while a given weight is being moved. The correction for this should be obvious, strengthen the weak muscle (or group of muscles). Sometimes the answer is a matter of mobility, the athlete is not physically capable of assuming the position it’s being asked to assume so the muscles required to prevent passive lifting are never active to begin with. Maybe the problem isn’t one or the other but a combination of both.

“A good coach has eyes for both gross motor function and muscle activation.”

The mobility scenario is more often than not a cop-out for many athletes and coaches who are not skilled enough to coach complex movements or adapt movement patterns to allow a lift to be performed with active structures over passive structures. While true examples of this scenario are less common, when they do occur it’s usually due to postural changes that have occurred over long periods of time (protracted shoulders, shortened hip flexors/hamstrings, ect…) or are purely anatomical in nature (excessive anteversion of the femur). In the case of postural mobility restrictions, start doing soft tissue work and exercises to correct the defective posture. For the anatomical problem, get creative and find a pain-free way to perform a given lift. An example of creativity would be having an athlete with anteversion perform sumo deadlifts from low blocks which clears the hip of impingement in most anteversion scenarios.

So how do you know what type of lifter you are since there are so many different lifts and endless strength deficits or mobility scenarios that can apply to all of these lifts? My best advice is to find an experienced coach to work with. A good coach has eyes for both gross motor function and muscle activation. I know everyone cannot afford a quality coach so for these athletes simply set your fancy smartphone up and record the lifts, record them from different angles, then watch for both gross motor function and muscle activation. The internet is full of great sources to teach us how to perform almost any lift imaginable and what muscles are doing what at each phase of these lifts. Watch the video and ask yourself, am I using the muscles I’m supposed to be using to move this weight? Do I look like a Ninja Turtle when I deadlift? Do I do the chicken wing when I bench? Coach yourself through intrinsic (I feel something) and extrinsic (I see something) feedback into a perfect movement pattern. When finding a weakness this tells you what muscles need more attention in training. When you find yourself unable to get into positions, figure out why and address that mobility problem when applicable. If the problem is suspected to be anatomical in nature get it checked out from a medical professional then get creative and find ways to keep lifting pain-free.

“…passive structures are like a fully loaded AK-47. You only have so many bullets to use before you’re empty.”

By becoming an active lifter you’re improving your quality of movement and increasing the shelf life of your passive structures. I tell people all the time that passive structures are like a fully loaded AK-47. You only have so many bullets to use before you’re empty. If you waste all of your bullets before you’re thirty, you’re going to get to the performance battleground of your 30’s without any ammo and will hurt yourself. These passive structure injuries take a long time to heal which will keep you from training/competing, and what fun is that? No one want’s to dish out copays, visit Dr’s, and go through surgeries that will leave you on your rear end for weeks or months… Plus that whole time you’re out of the gym the weights will miss you. So train to become an active lifter and keep the weights company so they never forget who you are.

Over the course of this short article, I’ve tried to simplify a complicated subject to make a point that there’s essentially a right, and wrong, way of lifting. One way is the long game which leads to a lifetime of training and all of the health benefits that come from it… like looking good with your shirt off. The other way is a sprint where short-term gains are sacrificed for lifting longevity which keeps you from a full life of the health benefits of lifting. I think we can all agree which of these two scenarios is ideal. So go forth and lift with your active structures carrying that full magazine of passive structure ammo with you throughout life, never having to worry about whether or not you have enough ammo to make it through a training session or competition.

Bigger is Not Always Stronger: Fallacies of Muscle Hypertrophy for Strength Athletes

Coaching, Gains, Powerlifting, Programming, Strongman

Mark Clevenger

Today’s diet and fitness industry preys on the insecurities of the masses. We live in a world where mass-marketing movements of companies, coaches, and trainers aim to exploit these myths on unsuspecting athletes at every available turn. From the notions that juice cleanses will result in immediate weight loss to the idea that the only (and best) way to lose fat is through endless amounts of cardio, the fitness industry is in no short supply of unsubstantiated BS. So hang through some technical terms as I establish an argument against one of these particular misconceptions- the fallacy that working out to make your “muscles bigger” will make you stronger, faster, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Hypertrophy is generally defined as the growth of a tissue or organ as a result of increased size of individual cells¹. For sporting performance there has been a quest for skeletal muscle hypertrophy since it was established that a muscle with a larger cross sectional area produces greater force than a muscle with a smaller muscle cross sectional area (a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle)^1,2,3,4,5. Unfortunately, strength athletes are so pre-occupied with getting those ‘gains’ or getting ‘big’ that they find themselves believing, and trying, every stupid broscience tip that comes down the fitness fallacy pipeline to increase their muscle mass in the hopes that they will become their strongest selves.

There are primarily two different types of hypertrophy:

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy- The growth of the structures supporting and surrounding the contractile elements of the muscle fibers such as the sarcoplasmic reticulum and sarcoplasm². This type of hypertrophy is the result of body building style training regimens.
Sarcomere hypertrophy- Growth of the contractile components of muscle fibers². This type of hypertrophy is the result of strength speed and speed strength training, aka powerlifting and Olympic lifting style training regimens.

The problem with sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is that there isn’t much growth in the parts of the muscle fibers that actually cause a muscle contraction. This can limit how strong of a contraction you can get. Since sarcomere hypertrophy has a greater proportion of contact area of the contractile elements which results in a stronger muscle contraction, sarcomere hypertrophy should be the goal of all strength based athletes. It’s important to point out that there are no distinct lines that can be drawn between these two types of hypertrophy in training, meaning while training in a bodybuilding style which produces more sarcoplasmic hypertrophy this does not mean that there is no concurrent sarcomere hypertrophy happening and vice versa. The training styles just mean that a greater proportion of one is happening over the other.

Now here is where the butthurt comes in for those coaches who prescribe inadequate, ill-advised, and malformed hypertrophy ‘templates’ aimed at exploiting strength athlete’s misinterpretation of the “muscle size equals strength” fact. The biggest problem with this ‘fact’ is that it’s taken out of context. It completely ignores the neurological contribution to force production (strength) as well as the appropriateness of hypertrophy for the athlete given their training history^2,6. In motor control and force production, the nervous system is responsible for the number of fibers active at any given instant (number coding), the rate at which fibers are firing (rate coding), and the sequence of fiber recruitment (pattern coding)². A big muscle is no good if the neurological components I’ve outlined have not been sufficiently trained for all the different types of sporting strength an athlete requires (speed strength, strength speed, explosive strength, acceleration strength, ect…).

What this means is that every athlete has a training period of 6-8 years (6 for lightweight athletes and 8 for heavier athletes) that their body maximizes strength gains via neuromuscular coordination and development in the absence of significant muscle hypertrophy⁶. Essentially, it takes our nervous system 6-8 years to maximize the muscle mass we already have, so why would someone want to take concentrated training time away from strength and skill development for muscle mass to get ‘stronger’ if they haven’t finished maximizing their current muscle mass for strength? How much in strength gains are you leaving on the table by taking this concentrated time away from strength and skill? Yes, in time the increase in muscle mass will make you stronger but in the meantime you could compete in higher weight classes when you haven’t fully developed your current strength potential. Hypertrophy training (and most techniques associated with it) will make you stronger, but not nearly as strong as you would be if your primary focus was purely on developing your sport specific strength and technique in your main lifts. This is the equivalent of an Olympic lifter concentrating on hypertrophy to get stronger before they’ve ever completely mastered the snatch or clean and jerk. This isn’t to say hypertrophy of muscle and connective tissues during those 6-8 training years doesn’t occur, it’s just not the significant contributor to the observed strength gains from training.

Deciding if hypertrophy training is beneficial or just a time-suck involves thinking through the needs of the individual athlete in their specific sport. Is mass a requirement in order to be competitive or to compete at higher levels of your sport? For a high school senior defensive tackle coming into their freshman year of college football, they will need to put on weight in order to compete at their position. Hypertrophy training for a strength athlete in this position would be appropriate. For the powerlifter who is naturally incredibly strong and wants to compete in higher weight classes for increased competition and notoriety associated with competing at that level, hypertrophy training would be appropriate. So, while the general rule for the strength athlete is that those who have less than 6-8 training experience should focus solely on strength and worry about hypertrophy after that, there are some special circumstances that must be considered from athlete to athlete.

So where have the feathers been ruffled? Wait for it… Wait for it… Right… Here. With all of these facts we can conclude that the mass produced hypertrophy templates from internet ‘coaches’ are useless for the majority of strength athletes. Almost all of them are rooted in the traditional sarcoplasmic hypertrophy style of training (body building concepts) that we all formally associated with muscle building to make us stronger… until we were further educated… like through this article. As strength athletes, this style of training and specific type of hypertrophic adaptation, does us little good and can even be detrimental to our specific sporting strength. These athletes (with the exception of those outlined above) would yield more benefit from continued strength training geared toward their sport.

Understanding that hypertrophy is not necessary for strength athletes with less than 6-8 years of training and doesn’t require special training regimens or templates is a concept that many online coaches and generally ignorant coaches alike will rebuff. These coaches make their living perpetuating the broscience falsehoods of hypertrophy training (via bodybuilding style workouts) and preying on your fear that you have to get bigger to get stronger. The proof is in the pudding and the pudding is the field of exercise science. If you’re a strength athlete within 6-8 years of training (with the exception of certain athletes defined earlier) just train for strength. Don’t get lost in the fallacy that hypertrophy is your only path to getting stronger. Motor control and force production (muscle strength), at its core is a complimentary neuro and muscular system that should be trained as such. I hope this article has clarified some of the myths associated with hypertrophy for strength athletes and will save some of you time (and money) from broscience coaches who would love to steal both from you if you hadn’t educated yourself on your sport specific training needs.

References:

Macinstosh B.R. Gardiner P.F. McComas A.J. Skeletal Muscle: Form and Function. Second Edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; 2006.
Siff M.C. Facts and Fallacies of Fitness. Sixth Edition. Denver, CO; 2003.
Baechle T.R. Earle R.W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Third Edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; 2008.
Verkhoshansky Y. Siff M. Supertraining. Sixth Edition. Ultimate Athlete Concepts; 2009.
McArdle W.D. Katch F.I. Katch V.L. Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy, and Human Performance. Eighth Edition. Baltimore, MD: Wolters Kluwer Health; 2015.
Medvedyev A.S. A System of Multi-Year Training in Weightlifting. Livonia, MI: Sportivny Press; 1989.
Ogborn D. Schoenfeld B.J. The Role of Fiber Types in Muscle Hypertrophy: Implications for Loading Strategies. Strength and Conditioning Journal. April, 2014; 36(2): 20-25

The Fallacy of Cardio for Fat Loss

Gains, Powerlifting, Strongman, Weight Management

By Mark Clevenger
December 31st 2016

I started writing this piece the other day by tactfully addressing the fat loss ignorance that permeates our culture. After 3 pages of teasing out all the misused and misunderstood information I still hadn’t started addressing the real science, the facts, about fat loss and exercise. So I decided to scrap it and write a blunt post backed by science. After all, the best argument you can make for bad or misused information, are facts.

Fact #1: Your diet dictates fat gain and fat loss¹. Fat loss is simply a matter of calories out (exercise) > calories in (food). Your body must be a state of caloric deficit to lose fat¹. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. If you eat more than you use, you will not lose weight. You can believe whatever you want about your buddy who used the pop tart diet, or took a magic pill through some Ponzi scheme, but this is a proven fact.

Fact #2: Resistance training is better than aerobic training at burning fat². This is because resistance training for fat loss is shown to reduce fat and preserve fat free mass (muscle) during times of caloric deficit². Aerobic training (cardio) on the other hand shows a reduction in both fat and fat free mass². Reduced lean mass is contrary to your fat loss goals. Don’t believe me? See Fact #3.

Fact #3: Muscle burns energy substrates (fat, carbohydrate, and protein) for fuel to perform work³. With this fact known we can logically conclude that someone with 100lbs of fat free mass uses twice as much energy as someone with 50lbs of fat free mass doing the same amount of work. So having a little extra muscle only helps you get the desired effect of fat loss quicker. Muscle is our friend in the fight against fat loss.

I can hear the women reading this now in my head as I write, ‘but I don’t want to get bulky.’

Fact #4: If you’re lifting weights while on a caloric deficit diet you won’t put on mass. The body doesn’t have the substrate quantities necessary (because of the deficit) to build new muscle and make you ‘bulky.’

What should you take from all this? First and foremost, your diet dictates fat gain or fat loss¹. Second, resistance training is better than standalone ‘cardio’ for fat loss because it preserves muscle while burning fat². This resistance training will not make you bulky when dieting, regardless of your gender. Muscle is our friend because it burns substrates, like fat, for fuel. The more muscle we have, the greater potential to burn these substrates. So please, please, please, get off the cardio train at the next available stop and get on the resistance training bus with a one way ticket to less body fat. Or just keep running all the time and complaining to your friends about how you look skinny-fat instead of just skinny.

References:

Hall K.D. What is the required energy deficit per unit weight loss. Int J Obes (Lond). 2008; 32(3): 573-576.
Geliebter A. Maher M.M. Gerace L. Gutin B. Heymsfield S.B. Hashim S.A. Effects of strength or aerobic training on body composition, resting metabolic rate, and peak oxygen consumption in obese dieting subjects. Am J Clin Nut. 1997; 66(3): 557-563.
Gaitanos G.C. Williams C. Boobis L.H. Brooks S. Human muscle metabolism during intermittent maximal exercise. J App Phys. 1993; 75(2): 712-719.

Building the perfect pressing platform: Part 2

Coaching, Gains, Press, Strongman

By Mark Clevenger
July 26th 2016

In part 1 we covered everything from the feet to the shoulders. Here in part 2, we’ll discuss the shoulders themselves and how to position them with the arms for the press. We will look to marry the safest known biomechanical principles of the shoulder to optimal performance in order to create the safest and strongest pressing position possible. This will allow you to safely move big weights for many years to come.

Everything we do from now is in an effort to create a giant helipad that the barbell lands on, rests, and takes off from. Doing so requires several talking points that must be flushed out. We will need to discuss hand placement, bar placement, define and apply scaption, forearm angle, and upper back engagement. To start, the general rule of thumb for hand placement is somewhere between the tip of the shoulder and approximately 6 inches wider than the tip of the shoulder. Anything wider than that generally creates instability, which is no bueno. As far as traditional vs thumbless grip, it’s really a matter of preference. Yes, pressing overhead with a thumbless grip can be unsafe but so can leaving the toilet seat up in the middle of the night. Understand you can drop a barbell on your head, or get stuck in a toilet at 3am, both are risks that are up to the individual to take.

Now that we have a place for our hands on the bar, we need to have a place for the bar on our shoulders. As we rotate our elbows under the bar the torque created around our shoulder creates natural tension of the musculature. This tension usually creates a shelf with the shoulder muscles that the bar can rest on. Generally the best place on this shelf for the bar is as far back toward our neck as we can tolerate.

Scaption is defined as approximately the 30-45⁰ angle of our upper arm from the frontal plane (see picture below for clarification)¹. This position creates the least amount of mechanical stress in the shoulder joint and allows for the greatest amount of muscular engagement from the shoulders and upper back¹. This muscular engagement with decreased joint stress creates stable shoulders to press with.

Forearm direction should be pointed in line with the theoretical point over our heads where the weight will end at the lockout of the press. This ensures a natural path during the press from its starting point to its lockout centered over our heads. Finding this position requires some shoulder mobility by demanding us to rotate our arms under and around the bar. If this position is difficult to find then the issue is one of shoulder flexibility and requires specific exercises to increase the range of motion of the shoulders.

The upper back is responsible for keeping the shoulder blades retracted and elevated. By keeping your upper back engaged you make the press easier by decreasing the distance traveled by the bar and by providing functional stability for the shoulders to operate through. Both of which are necessary for efficient and successful presses at higher relative loads.

Understand that in applying these concepts there will be variation from person to person at every position we’ve discussed because no two people are built exactly alike. Variation does not mean incorrect, it just means two peoples execution of the same concept do not look exactly alike. Remember, building this perfect platform for the press is a complex process that involves the entire body. Understanding how to achieve maximal pressing performance from the application of safe biomechanical principles is the key to your overhead pressing longevity. Now go forth, apply these concepts, and press the world regardless of your sport of choice. The skys the limit.

References:

Neuman D. A. Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System: Foundations for Rehabilitation Second Edition. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier.

Building the perfect pressing platform: Part 1

Coaching, Gains, Press, Strongman

By Mark Clevenger
July 8th 2016

Regardless if you’re a Crossfitter, Strongman, or Olympic lifter, the press is a cornerstone of your training. The concept itself is very simple, press the weight over your head. The proper execution of said concept is anything but easy. I want to take a look at the press from an osteokinematic, biomechanical, and maximal performance viewpoint, in an effort to marry the three into the safest and strongest pressing position possible. This first part will cover everything from your feet to your shoulders.

The stability of every platform starts with its base so that’s where we’ll begin. We want a base of support that is wide enough to offer sufficient stability while not being so wide that we lose the ability to generate maximum power from hips for any power variation of the press. A general rule of thumb is the wider your feet get past your hips, the greater the decrease in force production through the hips¹. I have found the happy medium between base of support and power production for most people lies with the feet directly underneath their hips or just slightly wider than their hips.

We can’t sufficiently discuss the position of the feet without addressing the toe angle. This angle of the foot itself serves two main purposes: First, it positions the entire leg for maximum recruitment of the lateral rotators of the hip and the gluteus maximus. Recruitment of these muscles is important not just for producing force in the power variation of the press, but they also help stabilize the pelvis during these dynamic movements¹. A stable pelvis during these power movements will decrease the risk of lumbopelvic injuries and increase force transmission from the legs and hips to the bar².

The second main job of the toe angle, in conjunction with a wide enough base, is to allow the vertical dip and drive of the torso. This movement is a combination of lateral rotation of the thighs, abduction of the thighs, flexion and extension of the knees, and slight flexion and extension of the hips. All of these movements increase the overall amount of active musculature involved across the hip which produces a more stable pelvis and generates greater force production. Lateral rotation and abduction of the thighs are what create room for the pelvis to drop vertically. Without this, athletes will be inclined to hinge forward at the waist which will create horizontal displacement of the bar in the drive. This displacement creates an external moment that makes the execution more difficult than it has to be.

Moving up from the pelvis we get to the area that creates stability in both the thoracolumbar and pelvic regions, the ‘core’. Our posterior back muscles are actively engaged when we are vertical and under load by supporting our torso to keep it upright. The other anterolateral (AL) muscles of the core must also be braced to share the weight of the external applied load and to help stabilize the pelvis. These AL muscles have anterior, lateral, and posterior attachments to the pelvis, the ribcage, and around to the fascia of the lower back². Without the active engagement of these muscles the pelvis is more susceptible to movement and because of the relationship the pelvis has with the lower back any movement here will create some sort of flexion or extension in the lumbar spine². Any flexion/extension here under load is a can of injury soup with your face on the cover.

Hopefully you’ve found this information useful and applicable to your press. Stay tuned for ‘Building the Perfect Pressing Platform: Part 2’ where you will learn how to position your hands and arms.

References:

Neuman D. A. Kinesiology of the hip: A focus on muscular actions. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Therapy. 2010; 40(2): 82-94.
Neuman D. A. Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System: Foundations for Rehabilitation Second Edition. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier.