L. Simmons - Factor of Time
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Topic: L. Simmons - Factor of Time
Posted By: Pingleton
Subject: L. Simmons - Factor of Time
Date Posted: 1/06/08 at 5:12am
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The Factor of Time
As told to Powerlifting USA by Louie Simmons
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Has it ever occurred to you how fast you can start a barbell moving, or how fast you can move light weights (50-60%) or maximum weights? And what about weights that are in between? Some athletes are very fast, and others are very strong. Yet the best are both fast and strong.
One must develop special strength qualities. These are defined by Dr. Mel Siff as explosive, meaning high velocity; speed strength, meaning intermediate velocity; strength speed, meaning low velocity; quasi-isometric, meaning very low velocity; and isometric, meaning zero velocity.
What does all this mean? It is quite apparent that a time factor is present. Remember, force=mass x acceleration. As the bar becomes heavier, it will of course move slower. But it is crucial to know what is too fast or too slow.
We use a series of 3 week plans.
The first is a 3 week reactive phase using eccentric work with a small amount of weight, a large amount of rubber bands, and weight releasers with a chain device added. This will build not only eccentric but also explosive strength by developing tremendous reversal strength. After a good warm-up, work up to a squat weight of 120% of your best contest squat, at the top. This should consist of 31% bar weight , 55% band weight, and 14% chain weight. At the bottom, the weight should be 65% of your best squat.
The second phase is for strength speed. This will teach you to push a near max or max load as fast as possible. The bar velocity will appear to be slow, but only because of the nature of the massive resistance. After a good warm-up, 5 sets of 2 reps (10 lifts) are done. This is done one time a week. An equal amount of band and bar weight are used. This is very taxing and can only be accomplished by using two types of resistance: rubber bands and barbell weight. This is a key to raising your max. It is designed to cause you to maximally accelerate against maximum loads. The bar speed is slow, but this is as fast as the large amount of resistance will allow. This is strength speed.
The third phase is speed strength. A second 3 week wave is done. This time the mixture of band and bar weight looks like this: bar weight 47-53% of your max squat; band weight about 30% of your max squat.
How do you know if you lack strength speed? Chuck Vogelpohl was doing speed work with a visitor named Jack. They both used 405 plus blue bands and both had identical speed. Then Chuck added 90 pounds for a set. Jack couldn't do the 495. Chuck worked up to 585 and 635. How? Chuck possesses both speed strength and strength speed. Jack lacks strength speed. Chuck's top squat is 1000 at 220 and Jack's is 675 at 220.
How about speed strength? A visitor named Rocco and I were doing strength speed work. Rocco's best box squat was 415 plus two blues and a green band on both sides. When I was using two blues and a green band, my best meet squat was 900. Rocco's best is 675. Rocco lacks speed.
Explosive strength is another strength quality. This type of strength is displayed best after a mechanical stretch. The menas the switch from stretching to active contraction. This is the reactive ability to change directions. For pulls, use hang cleans. For the bench, use the ballistic method, meaning drop and catch, off floor press done from a relaxed phase overcome by dynamic work. For squatting, box squat correctly. Sit on the box and release the hips and glutes, holding all other muscles contracted. Then flex.
Here are two of the best methods to build explosive and absolute strength: 1 :static overcome by dynamic" work and 2 "relaxed overcome by dynamic" work. Box squatting accomplishes both: Some muscles are held statically and some are relaxed during the movement.
Before we move on, I want to address the following: why do many fail to increase their jumping ability while increasing their squat? The most probable reason is that as their squat weight went up, the bar speed slowed. They concentrated only on strength speed, while neglecting speed strength. Approximately 80 lifts per month must be devoted to explosive and speed strength and roughly 16 lifts per month for strength speed. Both should be done during the same week. If you work for only quickness, you will lose some absolute strength in 2 weeks. If you work only to raise absolute strength, you will lose some quickness in 2 weeks as well. You must train for all types of strength during the week.
How do you develop quasi-isometric strength? In powerlifting you may have to push or pull for a long length of time while locking out a bench or deadlift, respectively. But if you think in sports terms, this can also occur when two linemen or two wrestlers are in combat. Here, the velocity is extremely slow. This is different from standard isometrics, where the bar or object is motionless or fixed. To develop quasi-isometric strength, use a barbell at the position where you are having problems, for example, the last 4 inches in the bench press.
Next, apply a large amount of bands to the bar so a slow start is achieved and making the lock out nearly impossible. A second method is to start the bar below the minimax and extend the arms to the precise point where you fail, with or without the arms locked. This can be done with any lift, including the snatch and clean. Of course, this can be done in eccentric or concentric fashion. The benefits are that it can build maximal strength and active flexibility. The cons are that it has no effect on maximal power or speed.
With standard isometrics, strength can be developed not only at the precise angle one exerts from but also in a radius of 15 degrees either way. Here the velocity is zero. When moving a bar off the chest dynamically, the work at that point is very short. The same would be true when lifting a bar off the floor while executing a second pull. This may occur in only a fraction of a second, or as you can see, the work is done in a very short amount of time. This can be greatly changed by isometric contraction at those desired positions.
In sports where high-speed movements are present, isometric work is less effective. Its main purpose is to develop absolute strength when doing long contractions, 3-5 seconds. But it can also be used to develop explosive strength, just as dynamic exercises do, by pushing or pulling violently with quick jerks. With pure isometrics, the rise in muscle tension is slow, and with explosive isometrics the rise in muscle tension is fast.
If you look at, for example, a deadlift in simple terms, the rate of movement starts explosively and eventually reaches zero velocity at the top, or somewhere near isometric.
Here are some things to think about.. A boxer will fight with 8 ounce gloves. When the boxer goes from 16 to 8 ounce gloves, he finds an increase in hand speed. This is a contrast effect and an example of explosive strength. Sprinters will wear a weighted vest or a parachute when training and remove it for competition. This is also a contrast method.
Having trained a 70' 10" shot putter, Kevin Akins, I found that shot putters were very explosive and very strong. Kevin was very fast as a freshman at OSU but not strong. At 6'4" and weighting 260, he could squat 450, bench 360, deadlift 500, and power clean 275. He threw 60 feet. As a senior, weighing 330, he squatted 825 with no suit, benched 550 with no shirt, dead lifted 710, and power cleaned 420. He made a 70' 10" shot. He was now fast and strong. Kevin was very good, but what about the very best in the sport? Udo Beyer of the DDR was, to say the least, ungodly strong. At 352, his squat was 992 without equipment, he did a 672 pause bench 418. But possibly his greatest lift was a push-jerk form behind the head: 660 for 10 singles in one workout. His best shot put in 1978 was 72' 8" (world record). He was able to make progress up to 1986 and made a world record 74' 3.5". Udo was a product of great strength with little concern for raising speed. His teammate and prototype of the future was Ulf Timmermann. His strength was not that of Udo's. Ulf had a 727 squat, 352 snatch, and 418 bench. But he was the fastest with weights of 50-70%. Ulf's shot put distance was 75' 8" (world record). The DDR had arrived. They found that to succeed, one must become stronger and faster.
Vasily Alexeyev, the great former Soviet super heavyweight, was a perfect example of the importance of speed. He was ranked 10th in the late 1960s. At that time he was required to lose weight until he was able to execute a pull fast enough to satisfy the coaches. Once that was accomplished, he could again gain weight. But if his pulls slowed, he was not allowed to gain more weight. As time went on, his strength and size increased, as did his speed. The end result was that he produced more would records than any Olympic lifter. The Soviets knew how important it was to match force and velocity 40 years ago.
Being fast won't do it alone and being strong won't do it alone. We found this to be true at Westside in 1983. We were constantly getting stronger but were not making the big lifts at the meets to correspond to our training lifts. Although we were getting stronger, we were getting slower. We started using the dynamic method with submaximal weights. In 1993 we were using 72% of our contest best in the bench press. Now in 2001, we are using 45% and we may go lower. We were already strong in 1993, and now we are much stronger, but also, much faster. If you are fast, don't neglect getting stronger.
Remember these two important points: 1 be very explosive and accelerate throughout the movement; 2 and this is very important you only have so long to complete a max lift (or a work set).
Through many experiments I have performed at Westside, a time effect became apparent. I performed 35 fast reps with 315 in the full range deadlift. This was an all-out effort, to say the least. This effort took roughly 60 seconds. I have performed 26 reps with 315 in the full deadlift using a slower, more deliberate style. I was completely fatigued at the same 60 second period even though the effort exerted was influenced by different rates of speed. I was limited by a time of 60 seconds. I couldn't go beyond this time regardless of the number of reps.
In a different experiment, I did 58 pushups with my feet on a box and with a 100 pound plate on my back. This took roughly 60 seconds. At the same level of fitness I was able to perform only 60 reps without a plate on my back, going to total fatigue, which occurred in 60 seconds. This, of course, is strength endurance. This time element is an important factor.
Many of our all-time world record bench pressers and large 900+ squatters were timed, and the same time factors occurred. For example, the max bench press effort took 3 ¼ seconds. This told us that we should be doing max effort exercises that take at least 3 ¼ seconds in full-range movements. We would fail if the max lift was not completed in this time frame. The time elapsed during strength efforts is dependent on the length of time each individual can exert maximally. This is true regardless of the magnitude of the load. Strength is measured in time and should be controlled by the coach for each athlete.
Westside Barbell
614-276-0923 |
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