A word from Kev about understanding why injuries occur……….. Exercise should help to avoid injury… not cause injury. But, it can do either. It can strengthen the muscles and joints of an athlete to such an extent that the possibility of a directly sports-connected injury is greatly reduced. Or… if improperly performed, it can cause injury that might never have occurred. Strength increases are stimulated by high intensity of work, and only by high intensity of work… a muscle must be worked to, or very near, a point of momentary failure. In practice it appears that approximately eight to twelve repetitions (or 30 seconds)should be used for upper body exercises and about eighteen to twenty repetitions (or 60 seconds) for lower body exercise. But regardless of the actual number of repetitions performed, the exercises must be continued to a point where it is momentarily impossible to perform another repetition in good form. In effect, if you could have done say twelve repetitions but stopped after only ten, that exercise was probably wasted…with little strength stimulation being produced by the way you performed that exercise. Also, you should not continue an exercise to the point where it becomes necessary to change the style of performance in order to continue… doing so will result in throwing the weight instead of lifting it. This is neither necessary nor desirable, but could become dangerous to causing injury. Do continue for as many repetitions as you can possibly manage in good form… do not terminate the exercise simply because the movement becomes very hard, or because the muscles start to ache; strength building exercise literally must be hard, and if it is properly performed it will make the muscles ache. Do not terminate any exercise if it is possible to squeeze out one more repetition in good form. This brings me to the next time-related factor, the speed of movement during the exercise. This point is a point of enormous controversy… with some people saying train as fast as possible, and others saying almost the opposite. So just what is the best speed of movement? Well, quite frankly, nobody knows… although some people would have you believe that they do know. But I can tell you what I have learned from our own experience. I have found that a fairly slow speed of movement produces far better results than a fast speed of movement… much, much better results. Moving the weight too rapidly jerks the muscles violently during the first few degrees of movement… after which point the weight is moving so fast that the muscles literally are not involved in the rest of the movement. The result being that a dangerous yank is imposed on the muscles at the start of the movement and then absolutely nothing is accomplished during most of the movement. In such cases you are throwing the weight, not lifting it… and such a style of training will produce nothing but injuries. Here’s the main point I wish to make about preventing/avoiding an injury. An injury occurs when a force is imposed upon a muscle (or a joint) to the degree that the force exceeds the breaking strength of the body part, the muscle or joint. That much is undeniable… and thus, it follows that the injury would not have occurred if the breaking strength had been greater than the force. If a rope has a breaking strength of 100 pounds, then it will not break as a result of 50 pounds of force. But if its breaking strength is only 40 pounds, then 50 pounds of force must break it. A coach can do little or nothing to reduce the forces that will be imposed upon his athletes on the field. But, he certainly can increase the breaking strength of their muscles and joints. In some cases, the forces will be so great that no possible level of human strength would be high enough to prevent injury… but even in these cases, the extent of the injury may well be reduced as a result of exercise-developed strength. Thus, exercise will reduce the level of damage in many cases… as well as prevent injury in many cases. Bad form, or style of performance is the culprit in almost all such cases… and this usually involves sudden, jerky movement. Jerking greatly increases the forces imposed on the muscles and joints. But in practice, thousands of athletes train in what may well be the most dangerous manner… meanwhile believing that their style of training is quite safe. And… meanwhile they avoid the most productive part of their exercises under the totally mistaken impression that they are thereby helping to avoid injury. So they train in a dangerous manner, while considering it safe… and avoid a productive style of training because they wrongly consider it dangerous. Most people are absolutely convinced that hard exercise is a dangerous exercise… and sometimes, in a few special instances, this may be true. But in most situations encountered in exercise, it is exactly the opposite of the truth… it is utterly false. Remember… force causes injuries. It matters not at all how hard it feels… all that matters is the force in relation to the breaking strength. Since we are never aware of the exact, momentary breaking strength… all we can do is reduce the force as much as possible while still working all the muscles as hard as possible. If an exerciser walks into a gymnasium with the momentary ability to lift 50 kilograms… and if he actually lifts 50 Kilograms … then he will be working as hard as he can at that point in time… and he will also be producing maximum possible force. And if it happens that the momentary breaking strength of his tendons is only 40 kilograms… then he will injure himself. Under these circumstances, injury is unavoidable. But instead, if the athlete used a lift weighing only 40 kilograms… and if he performed several repetitions with this lighter weight… and if the form was good and the movement fairly slow… then he would probably never produce more than 45 kilograms of force, which would be less than the breaking strength of his tendons… and the injury that was unavoidable with 50 kilograms is thus avoided. During the first repetition with this lighter weight, the resistance would feel light… because, at this point in the exercise, the resistance would be well below the momentary strength level of the athlete’s muscles. During later repetitions, the same resistance would feel much heavier, much harder… but in fact, the weight has not changed. All that has changed is the athlete’s momentary strength, which has been reduced as a result of the first few, seemingly light, repetitions. And when he reaches the final lift, it will feel very heavy indeed… but again, the weight remains the same. In fact, if the exercise is performed from first to last in good form, then the actual force will be lowest in the final lift because the speed of movement will be less at that point. Therefore, the final, seemingly hardest, repetition will feel very hard… and it is probably only natural for people to feel that it is the most dangerous lift, because it feels that way. But, in fact, it is the safest repetition in the exercise… Because, at that point in the exercise the exerciser is no longer strong enough to produce a force high enough to hurt himself, at least if he avoids jerking. As a result of the widespread misunderstanding that exists in regards to these very simple points… misunderstanding that has probably resulted from the fact that nobody ever bothered to consider the involved factors in the light of physical law… most exercisers avoid the final, seemingly hardest repetitions. Mistakenly they believe they are thus avoiding injury; when, in fact, all they are avoiding is the most important and most productive part of the exercise, and the safest part as well. Exercise builds strength by exposing muscles to an overload… to a level of work that is beyond the limits of momentary ability, or, at least, well inside the existing level of reserve ability… far beyond the limits of normal activity. But it is neither necessary nor desirable to expose a muscle to a maximum work load when it is fresh and strong… The breaking strength of a muscle (or tendon, or joint) does not decline during exercise… it remains unchanged. All that happens is that an athlete’s muscles become progressively weaker until they reach a point where it is impossible for them to continue with the available resistance. If an injury is going to be produced by an exercise, then it will usually occur during the first few lifts… simply because the forces are higher at that point in the exercise. With the exception of weight lifters, athletes should never be required to lift as much weight as possible for a single rep. In fact, simple common sense also makes it obvious that a stronger man is less likely to be injured in any given situation… And that a more flexible man is also less prone to injury. You should be very cautious about just where you go when seeking meaningful advice about exercise. Proper exercise provides the potential for enormous benefits, many of which are not even suspected by most people, but any attempt on your part to learn the actual requirements for proper exercise may lead you neck deep into a swamp filled with crocodiles. Kev Chevell.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 06:52:22 +0000
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