Leg Press Those Linemen?

Leg Press Those Linemen?

Leg Press Those Linemen With few exceptions muscles exert smaller tension at shorter lengths.
The rectus femoris muscles and wrist extensors are in deference to the above rule in some populations.
The rectus femoris is one of the four powerful quadricep muscles of the upper thigh. The rectus can flex the thigh at the hip and extend the leg at the knee.
In a seated position since the hip is flexed and the muscle is at a shortened length the action of extending a leg is primarily driven by the other three muscles of the quadriceps, the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and vastus intermedius and less by the rectus femoris.
Biomechanically, you would think that the strength of the shortened rectus in knee extension would be weaker for everyone. Not true.
There are the aforementioned exceptions, thus the relationship between muscular strength and the tension a muscle can produce is very complex, especially across groups of individuals.Comparing cyclists with runners, you find the cyclist tend to be strong at a short compared to long rectus femoris length.
It has been argued that since cyclists have a shorter range of hip motion when cycling, compared to the range of motion of runners, that producing more tension at a shorter length is due to training. Other scientist argue that a strong rectus femoris in a shortened position is the result of genetics or of both genetics and training.
Whether the answer is training, inheritance or a combination of both, for the coach and athlete it raises an interesting conundrum about playing sports that require you to keep your knees bent.
When playing offensive line in football the position of choice is bending at the hip and knee. The lineman are also taught to slide their feet to keep an effective posture. They must be strong with their rectus femoris in a shortened position.
Knowing this, a leg press should be the tool of choice to agument strength.  Something for coaches and athletes to think about as they design their workout to Get Strong.



Leg Press Those Linemen With few exceptions muscles exert smaller tension at shorter lengths.
The rectus femoris muscles and wrist extensors are in deference to the above rule in some populations.
The rectus femoris is one of the four powerful quadricep muscles of the upper thigh. The rectus can flex the thigh at the hip and extend the leg at the knee.
In a seated position since the hip is flexed and the muscle is at a shortened length the action of extending a leg is primarily driven by the other three muscles of the quadriceps, the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and vastus intermedius and less by the rectus femoris.
Biomechanically, you would think that the strength of the shortened rectus in knee extension would be weaker for everyone. Not true.
There are the aforementioned exceptions, thus the relationship between muscular strength and the tension a muscle can produce is very complex, especially across groups of individuals.Comparing cyclists with runners, you find the cyclist tend to be strong at a short compared to long rectus femoris length.
It has been argued that since cyclists have a shorter range of hip motion when cycling, compared to the range of motion of runners, that producing more tension at a shorter length is due to training. Other scientist argue that a strong rectus femoris in a shortened position is the result of genetics or of both genetics and training.
Whether the answer is training, inheritance or a combination of both, for the coach and athlete it raises an interesting conundrum about playing sports that require you to keep your knees bent.
When playing offensive line in football the position of choice is bending at the hip and knee. The lineman are also taught to slide their feet to keep an effective posture. They must be strong with their rectus femoris in a shortened position.
Knowing this, a leg press should be the tool of choice to agument strength.  Something for coaches and athletes to think about as they design their workout to Get Strong.

The Ralph Cornwell Files

Three Ways To Innervate The Lower Trapezius


Ralph Cornwell is a Ph.D. candidate in health promotion/human performance at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prior to pursuing his Doctoral Degree he was a collegiate strength coach.

Although it is one continuous muscle, the trapezius has three distinct sections: the upper, middle, and lower trapezius. It has a diamond shape, with the triangle of the upper trapezius attaching to the occipital bone at the base of the skull and spreading outward to the top of either scapula.

Beneath the middle portion is the inverted triangle of the lower trapezius, which runs diagonally on either side of the spine from the spinous processes of the middle-to-lower thoracic vertebra to the lower inside edges of the of the scapula.

The lower trapezius is positioned to pull downward and inward on the scapula toward the spine.

It works in opposition to the upper trapezius which is the division of the muscle whose job is to elevate the scapula, or shrug the shoulders.

A strong lower trapezius is critical in the positioning of the scapula for developing a base for power in the upper torso. And is one of the areas of our anatomy that is a dissipater of kinetic energy during head collisions.

Lower Trapezius

Three Ways to innervate the lower traps

1. Scapular depression

On a dip bar, keep the arms straight and let the entire body lower in the direction of the force of gravity. In this phase of the movement the scapula actually elevates.

Now the arms are fixed and the lower fibers of the trapezius will have to raise the weight of your whole body.

This is a lot of effort for a small amount of muscle fiber to perform this movement.

2. One arm dumbbell seated overhead press

The dumbbell must be directly over the trapezius. This produces a rotary movement of the scapula; moving the inferior angle of scapula laterally and upward.

3. Use a seated row machine, such as the Pendulum 3-way row. The lifter does one set of rows with a neutral or parallel grip. This should be performed for period of 60 seconds or less to momentary concentric failure or until a repetition cannot be performed with good form. The athlete will pause at the top of each repetition retracting the scapula. This is to fatigue the larger muscles such as the rhomboids.

With minimal rest the load is reduced by at least 40 percent, more if needed. With an underhand and wide grip, the arms are pointing at a slightly downward angle approximately 10 degrees.

This exercise has two movements. The first is similar to a Kelso Shrug. The arms do not bend and all the movement is done by scapular retraction. Once the scapula is fully contracted the athlete flexes the elbows and pulls the weight 10 to 12 inches and pauses for a second. At that moment the athlete should be envisioning depressing the scapula.

The weight is then lowered under control and another repetition is then performed. The exercise is terminated when form is compromised. This movement innervates the lower most fibers of the lower trapezius.

Tags: neck training, shrug, neck

Little Movements Make Big Changes

FROM THE COACH'S DAUGHTER

My Dad was a Strength Coach for 30 years. We literally live in a gym with furniture. I remember when my brother asked to play contact sports, my father agreed, but said, “You
will have to train that neck.” Shortly afterwards a neck machine
appeared about 8 feet from our living room couch.

“Little Movements Make Great Changes"".....he said

My Dad said this to me when I was running track,”Little movements cause great changes, make the little stuff count.”

When I first started hurdling, I had a lazy trail leg. I didn't have to bring it very far to make my step over the hurdle quicker, and lower my
time. Of course, this took years to perfect, but the results were clear:
small movements make great changes.

When my brother began neck training on our neck machine, my father also showed him an exercise for scapula retraction. He said, “KC, you need to include Kelso and Hise shrugs in
your neck routine.”

He marched KC down the steps to the downstairs lat machine, I followed. Dad showed KC this little shrug movement that made me laugh; it seemed so
silly.

He had my brother keep his arms straight and and try to pinch his scapula together, “Retraction” he called it. “Keep your arms straight. Now squeeze. Again squeeze. I began to giggle
and crack jokes.” Dad got mad and went to his library, in what we call
the. ‘gun room.’ You know the exercise-for-your-arms room. He threw KC
this book, "Kelso's Shrugs". “Read it,” he said.

Materials exhibiting characteristics that are both solid and fluid-like, are simply categorized as viscoelastic materials. Most of the biological tissues, such as your
muscle tendon unit, and ligaments, are viscoelastic materials. The human
head-neck system is a fluid-filled spherical cavity supported by a
viscoelastic neck.

Viscoelastic materials possess time dependent, or rate sensitive stress-strain relations. In other words, the stress-strain relationship will change as
the loading speed, or strain rate, changes. The goal in a collision is
to deflect and dissipate force, and effect the strain rate. Building up
the size of the cylinder, that is, the upper neck muscles, is only part
of the goal.

Strengthening the muscles that run down the cervical and thoracic spine, the rhomboids major and minor, middle and lower traps, are all tremendously important. Therefore, scapula
retraction is a must-exercise for the dissipation of a deflected force.
Remember, it's not easy being in head-on collisions.

Now that I am older, and have been in athletics, I don’t giggle when KC is doing his tiny lifts.

“Little Movements Make Great Changes”.....he said

G Force deflection and dissipation exercises for the cervical spine:

(1)Front of the neck

(2)Right side of the neck

(3)Left Side of the neck

(4)Back of the neck

(5)Shrugs

(6)Scapula retraction

(7)Hise shrugs. (KC does these on our Pendulum Squat Pro; it is in the garage. Dad asked if he could put it in my bedroom...seriously!)

Tags: athlete, athletic, best, neck, rodgers, strength, tech, training., virgin