Brace Yourself

Brace Yourself

Brace yourself to get ready.
Only at a velocity of zero can a muscle produce its maximal force, yet its length does not change.   In training this is called an isometric contraction and techniques such as pushing or pulling on an immovable bar or against a given load on an exercise machine at a particular angle are used to Get Stronger.

If you brace, tensing your musculature as hard as possible to protect yourself from a collision, the velocity of the muscle fibers is  zero as impact occurs.
As the load increases during the brace due to a force applied by another object extrinsic to the muscle, the muscle will not yield appreciably up to about 30% of the change in the load.

In other words, a muscles ability to protect itself is about 30% higher than the force it can produce isometrically. This is natures built in cellular servomechanism. When the muscle is forced to lengthen against a load it is still able to resist the movement without accelerating at a velocity that will cause injury up to a inherit point.
This value or point is about a 2% velocity increase of a muscles V max or 2 % of how a muscle could voluntarily contract as fast as possible when it is unloaded.
In humans the built in servomechanism is important. If you are jumping or walking downstairs it enables a person to withstand a sudden load quite well.  This protects the musculotendon system from being improperly stretched and injured as the initial load is raised above the maximal isometric level.
When the load is above 40-50% of the muscle strength it will elongate the musculature at a fast rate and the forces and velocity begin to rise rapidly and often dangerously. Check out the above chart.
One of the many advantages of neck training is once the head and neck muscles  are strong the ability to slow down the acceleration of the head by bracing during contact is enhanced dramatically. As your strength rises so does the built in cellular mechanism of force protection against sudden loads.
A great reason to Get Strong.

Train those necks and Get them Strong

Train Year-around

Get Strong

Train Year-round

Train Year-round

The Pendulum Chest Press is an all weather year-round training machine to Get Strong.

Tags: Pendulum

Still Fast But A Lot Slower

Still Fast But A Lot Slower

Still Fast But A Lot Slower

If you look at men or women from the ages of 18-80 and examine the shortening velocity of their musculature you may be tremendously surprised to find that age has no effect on how quickly a muscle can change its length or V max.

With aging there is a decrease in maximal force and power due to the loss of muscle mass and not to the unloaded shortening velocity.
A loss of force and power makes it difficult in the ageing process to perform multi-joint movements, which eventually lead to a loss of mobility.
In future blogs we will explore what happens to muscle as a result of training and discuss the implications of a muscle’s ability to shorten at a fast rate which is unaffected over decades. The current information may change many coaches’ and athletes’ view of  strength training.

Get Strong
Photo Courtesy of Kathy Leistner

Every Weight Room Needs a Great Row

Row Row Row Your Back Muscles
Every weight room needs a great row machine. Tyler Hobson explains, the function of the upper back is complex, so I decided to make a row machine that could be done with 3 preferred grips, underhand, overhand and neutral.

The primary function of the upper back musculature is to pull the arms from an extended position either down or in. By keeping the 3 handles on the machine in fixed positions, I felt the strength coach could easily dictate which measurable protocol he felt would be key to the athletes development.

Mississippi State University Weight Room

When you use the underhand grip you bring in the biceps to assist the row and also augment the lower trapezius and latissimus. The overhand grip not only targets the upper back, but fires up the rear delts. The neutral grip is a tremendously powerful position, which you need to be in to affect this large group of back muscles.

Northwood University Weight Room

I set the seat height so that in the fully contracted position the hands land just below the pecs. Normally, in a row you sit with your feet forward, which allows you to push with your legs as your arms extend, but there is an ideal place for your feet and that is behind you as you lean forward. With your chest firmly on the pad you have limited leverage and you  stimulate the lats directly with less weight.

West Virginia University Weight Room

On the front of the machine I placed S.E.T. (set extension technology), S.E.T. allows you to change the range of motion for varying limb lengths, and  perform extremely intense 'drop sets' by running the rails.

If you are ever in Conroe,Texas or want to stop by the Pendulum factory in Clare, Michigan...........S.E.T. on one of our machines to Get Strong.

Tags: Pendulum

What A Strength Coach Does After A Great Win

What A Strength Coach Does After A Great Win

What A Strength Coach Does After A Great Win                       


Kevin Tolbert the Head Strength Coach at Stanford University visits the Rogers Factory, in Clare Michigan, after their Orange Bowl Victory.

Kevin on the 5 Way Neck

Kevin Tolbert and Kyle Camp discuss the Pendulum Lat Pulldown

Photo Courtesy of Kathy Leistner

As a young man Coach Tolbert knew how to Get Strong. Now he spends his career Getting others Strong.

Tags: neck machine, neck training, neck, success

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Ralph Cornwell: Reflecting on Deflecting

Ralph Cornwell: Reflecting on Deflecting

Ralph Cornwell is a Ph.D. candidate in health promotion/human performance at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. 

Deflection of Beams
The deformation of a beam is usually expressed in terms of its deflection from its original unloaded position. The deflection is measured from the original neutral surface of the beam to the neutral surface of the deformed beam. The configuration assumed by the deformed neutral surface is known as the elastic curve of the beam.
 
Deflection of Necks
The deformation of a neck is usually expressed in terms of its deflection from its original unloaded position.
It make since to train your beam and reduce deflection.

TRAIN THOSE NECKS-KEEP SHRUGIN'

                                            Pendulum Neck Machines Indiana Weight Room

Stanford Head Strength and Conditioning Coach-How to get Strong

Stanford Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Kevin Tolbert – Getting Strong

Posted January 7, 2011 by intelligentexerciserx in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment | Edit

The Kevin Tolbert Files

Kevin Tolbert is the Head Strength Coach at Stanford University.

He graduated from the United States Naval Academy where he played running back for the Midshipmen.

As a young man he performed 23 reps with 375 lbs on the bench press and performed 30 reps with 600 lbs in the barbell squat. Kevin knows how to Get Strong.

Kevin explains:

This is the ten question exam that I give to our athletes. They receive the correct answers before the test. The answer for each question on the exam is ‘yes’. As you can imagine, as a student athlete, it is hard to get 100% on this test every day, even if you know the answers.

As an athlete you need to get 100% – if you really want to Get Strong.

Photo Courtesy of Kathy Leistner

1.       Do you eat breakfast seven days a week?
2.       Do you eat three meals a day?
3.       Eat a mid-morning snack and mid afternoon?
4.       Do you eat 3 to 5 pieces of fruit a day?
5.       Do you eat at least one vegetable per day?
6.       Do you eat from all four food groups?
7.       Do you consume 20 to 30 grams of fiber per day?

8.       Do you get at least 8 hours of sleep per night?
9.       Do you drink (8) 8oz. glasses of water per day?
10.     Do you go to bed and wake up at approximately the same time each day?

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Train The Head And Train The Neck « Intelligentexerciserx's Blog

Train The Head And Train The Neck « Intelligentexerciserx's Blog