By Dan Carter
ÒNo
amount of low-intensity exercise will produce the results that come from an
actually small amount of high-intensity training.Ó Arthur Jones, Creator of Nautilus
and MedX exercise equipment.
This
article begins with a discussion of the benefits from proper strength training.
However, its major purpose is to define the real objective as it applies to the
performance of each exercise in a strength training session. The concepts that
form the knowledge to get the most from SuperSlow exercise.
Strength
training increases muscle mass and strength. Increased muscle mass improves
body shape and raises metabolism. Most important but often overlooked,
increased muscular strength improves functional-ability. The ability to perform
work or recreation with less effort. There are many other positive
physiological benefits of strength training, but for this article, these should
suffice.
It
is important to understand the degrees to which cardiovascular ability and
muscular strength can be improved. Both factors are genetically determined and
differ for each individual. The major components of cardiovascular
conditioning, the heart and lungs, can be improved very little if at all,
however, muscular strength can be increased an average of 300%. Cardiovascular
improvements are near impossible to measure, but strength increase can be
measured easily by charting weight and time (repetitions or time-under-load).
Even if cardiovascular ability could improve dramatically, it would not produce
one ounce of work, only muscles produce work. (Strength increase is usually
responsible for what is perceived as cardiovascular improvement.)
Realistically, the heart and lungs exist to serve working muscles. Therefore,
the ability of strength training to vastly improve functional-ability, and
cardiovascular conditioning through working muscle, is by far the most
productive form of exercise. It is not unusual for male and female clients to
double strength in twenty sessions of SuperSlow exercise, an approximate
eight-hour investment.
The
three most misunderstood components of exercise are intensity, duration, and
recovery. In most cases, intensity is too low, duration too long, and recovery
too short to produce optimum, if any benefit.
Intensity
refers to degree of effort. To produce positive physical change, the body must
be threatened with a degree of effort never before experienced. Continuing an
exercise until, despite 100% controlled effort, the weight will not move, then
continuing to try to produce movement achieves the required intensity. This
process is known as reaching momentary muscular failure, which results in a
stimulus, a condition that elicits a physiologic response. Lesser intensity
poses no threat, therefore the body responds with no change because there is no
stimulus. Proper intensity is the first prerequisite of the real objective.
Duration
of each exercise, as well as the session, is directly related to recovery.
Exceeding 20 to 30 minutes of intense exercise can prolong recovery by days.
Fortunately, if intensity is high, and rest between exercises is minimal, it is
almost physically impossible to continue exercise beyond 30 minutes.
Intense
exercise consumes a tremendous amount of biochemical resources. Recovering
these resources is immediately necessary for survival. Depending on the
individual, this process can take from 3 to 10 days. The production of
additional muscle (overcompensation) will occur only after this process is
complete. Most importantly, if recovery is not complete before we exercise
again, no overcompensation will occur. This doesnÕt mean optimal overcompensation,
it means none.
Understanding
these biological processes is important to fully understand the real objective
of strength training. The following concepts provide the knowledge needed to
stimulate a growth mechanism within minimum time, and reduce impact on precious
recovery resources.
The
assumed objective is to lift as much weight for as much time as possible. This
more-is-better mindset leads to form discrepancies (cheating), many of which
are attempts to find rest, make exercise easier, and therefore delay or avoid
momentary muscular failure. Popular discrepancies are grimacing, moving too
fast, val-salva, wiggling, jabbing at the weight, starting and stopping. This
approach may result in more weight and time, and possibly the desired
intensity, but at the expense of recovery resources. Like conserving fuel by
driving from Chicago to Miami by way of Phoenix.
Increases
in weight and time should be viewed as byproducts of the real objective, not
the objective itself. They occur after proper application of intensity, duration, and recovery. If the
assumed objective unnecessarily consumes recovery resources, overcompensation
can be delayed, if not prevented.
The
real objective is to fatigue the muscle as deeply and quickly as possible
regardless of weight or time. Achieving momentary muscular failure directly and
efficiently. This process requires constant striving to perfect exercise
technique. Avoiding even the slightest discrepancy, therefore eliminating rest,
making the exercise harder and more efficient. A great degree of muscular
discomfort will result, caused by lactic acid produced when fatiguing a muscle
faster than it can recover. This discomfort will not hurt us, is not an indication of impending injury. It is the
stimulus-producing realm of exercise, the good stuff. This discomfort is the
achievement of the real objective, up to and beyond the point the weight will
no longer move, we want to get as much as we can stand.
The
last seconds should be approached calmly. Continue pushing though the weight
does not move. Resist the temptation to compromise form for additional
movement. The muscle is fatiguing rapidly despite lack of movement. Within
seconds the weight will begin to fall regardless of efforts to stop it.
Controlling this descent, as the muscle continues to fatigue, is the last step
to the real objective. These last 10 to 15 seconds are a huge challenge, but
are the most productive part of the exercise. These are the seconds you should
enter the studio to challenge.
Exercising
with intense effort is an acquired skill. Though you have the knowledge to
exercise with great intensity, you do not have to use it every session.
Initially, use it when you feel able, and as you apply it more frequently your
results will improve.
The
last, most uncomfortable seconds of an exercise are often perceived as
dangerous. This discomfort is simply lactic acid produced by fatiguing a muscle
faster than it can recover. It is not a sign of impending injury. It is
actually the safest point in the exercise. The muscle is at its weakest and
cannot produce enough force for movement, let alone injury. As Arthur Jones
once said ÒThe harder it seems, the easier it is.Ó
Duration
is an overlooked factor as strength is increased. Dramatic strength increase
should be accompanied by reductions in both individual exercise and session
duration. Doubling strength without reducing duration can result in twice the
amount of work performed. This additional work can delay recovery by days.
Therefore, moving quickly between exercises and reducing duration are
absolutely necessary to minimize work.
Rest
between exercises might seem beneficial, allowing more weight and time.
Unfortunately, it is again, the assumed objective. Moving quickly raises
metabolic and cardiovascular demand, reducing weight, time and work, while
increasing depth of fatigue. If rested strength is 100 pounds, but moving
quickly produces muscular failure in the same time with only 80, fatigue is 20%
deeper. The body perceives this deeper fatigue as a bigger threat, a greater
stimulus. This is a rare case when less work produces greater benefit. Time
between machines should be 15-30 seconds. If you can talk, youÕre moving too
slow.
Aggressively
increasing weight, thereby reducing individual exercise duration and total
session time, results in significant work reduction. For example, increasing
weight by 30% can reduce duration (time) by as much as 50%, and work by more
than 50%. Multiply this by four to six exercises for significant recovery
resource savings.
A
degree of effort, qualifying as 100% intensity is the first requirement to
produce a stimulus serving as an ultimatum to the body to adapt and enhance.
Without this stimulus, proper duration and recovery are irrelevant; the body
simply maintains the status quo. If the stimulus is present and duration is too
long and/or recovery is too short, intensity is irrelevant. Only 100%
intensity, approximately fifteen to twenty-five minutes duration, and a minimum
of seventy-two hours recovery will result in optimum progress.
Below
is a mental checklist to use in achieving the real objective.
Real
Objective; fatigue the muscle as
deeply and quickly as possible, regardless of weight or time.
No
talking; concentration is impossible
for client and instructor when talking.
Concentrate; perfect form requires much thought, clear your mind
of all distractions.
Go
slow; maximizing safety and
concentration of muscular effort, and minimizing momentum to better load the
muscles we are exercising.
Breathe; raising blood PH, allowing muscles to work longer
and fatigue deeper.
Challenge
muscular discomfort; this is the stimulus-producing
realm of exercise. It will not
injure you. DonÕt sacrifice form for movement or rest; keep the muscles
loaded, fatiguing the muscles quickly. Move quickly between machines; in 15 to 30 seconds, fatiguing muscles deeply and
conserving precious recovery resources.