Mel Siff Blog

.Dr Mel Siff and a Supertraining Yahoogroup member going back and forth

<If you hit bounce off the box correctly you will not experience any problems
with the lower back. The bounce needs to be make on the hamstrings and not
directly with your butt. If you perform it correctly you will the hamstrings
and to some extent the gluts will absorb the impact.

If you perform it incorrectly, you will experience some pressure in the
spine. Sitting back on the box places a lot of pressure on the lower back.
If you perform the bounce correctly, this is no more loading on the
spine…maybe even less that sitting back on the box. >

*** It certainly is useful advice to make most of the contact with the back
of the thighs rather than ever sitting with any significant pressure on the
glutes. However, cases have occurred where poorly understood and
technically hazardous bouncing off a box has caused fractures of area such as
the lumbosacral region of the lower spine, while back pain is also not
uncommon among those who use a definite bounce — and that is the problem
with novice users of the box squat. One cannot emphasize Kenny’s advice
strongly enough that the exercise be done with a correct, very light touching
bounce which does not longitudinally impose impact along the spinal column or
cause the spine to lose its lumbar concavity

Remember that the act of sitting down tends to elicit a relaxation of the
lumbar spine and posterior tilting of the pelvis, which leads to flattening
of the lumbar concavity. If you sit down on a box, you have to make very
definite actions to prevent these spinal relaxing processes from happening,
as is constantly stressed by the Westsiders.

<Bouncing off the box provides a greater stretch reflex. Minimize the risk
by performing it correctly and you’ll illicit a greater training effect in
the stretch reflex.

*** Bouncing off the prestretched muscle complex stimulates the myotatic
stretch reflex more strongly if you do not sit on a box at all. Any
superficial contact with the skin that you sit on will tend to diminish the
intensity of this reflex, plus any delay incurred while you are sitting (even
for less than a second) will diminish it further. Advocates of the box
squat do not even advocate “bouncing” off the box, especially under heavy
loading with a weight or a weight and bands combination.

If you wish to retain enough of the stretch reflex in the muscles of the
“posterior chain”, you should not use the box to offer anything more than a
slight brief touch to the backs of the thighs to enhance proprioceptive
awareness of the position at which you wish to commence your upward drive.
You can gain a good awareness of the prestretch in that position by using a
“Romanian” deadlift — i.e., by lowering and raising the bar from upper thigh
to below the knees by pushing your rear end backwards. Bent-knee good
mornings with glutes thrust back (rather than relying solely on hip flexion
or simple “leaning forwards”) will also enhance one’s awareness of that same
prestretch process.

<You should ease into ballistic box squatting. Once you learn to do it
you’ll illicit a greater training effect in the stretch reflex.>

*** See above – ballistic box squatting will not elicit a greater “training
effect in the stretch reflex”. If you are using box squats to enhance
performance in the squat, the reason is not mainly because you are trying to
“train” the stretch reflex, especially since the competition squat has to be
done without a box and methods of acquiring specific neural programmes tend
to be rather specific to the way in which they were learned. Anyway, I am
sure that this is what Kenny is advising – namely not using the box to sit
upon, but to serve as just a gentle warning system to offer tactile contact
so that you know exactly when to begin your upward drive in the squat. In
this way, you will retain the necessary prestretch and manage to execute the
movement explosively.

There are several reasons why one may use some forms of box squatting, but
“training the stretch reflex” is not one of them. However, the main problem
here is more a matter of scientific correctness and differences in phrasing
the advice more accurately. Some of the box squatting and Westside fans out
there might like to list some of their reasons for using box squats with and
without the added effect of bands for those who have never used box squats.

Mel Siff

Here is an interesting paper which investigates that old problem of the
sticking point in the bench press. However, the same analysis is also
relevant to the sticking point in any other non-ballistic movements.

Note the conclusion that the sticking region does not appear to be caused by
worse leverage (“an increase in the moment arm of the weight about the
shoulder or elbow joints”) or by a significant decrease in muscle activity
during this region. The authors suggest that the problem may lie in the
possibility that the sticking region represents a force-reduced transition
zone between the earlier stretch-assisted acceleration-strength phase and the
later mechanically efficient maximum strength region. The use of limited
range elastic band and chain training (e.g. by Louie Simmons and the Westside
team) may play a useful role in attending to this specific deficit in the
transition zone referred to in this paper.

The relevance of analysing the force-time curve in terms of strength
qualities such as starting strength, acceleration-strength, maximal strength,
explosive strength then becomes more obvious, as discussed in Ch 2 of
“Supertraining”. A better understanding of these fundamental biomechanical
factors then enables one to plan one’s training more effectively.

————————

Elliott BC, Wilson GJ, Kerr GK.

A biomechanical analysis of the sticking region in the Bench Press

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 21(4):450-62, Aug 1989.

The performance of ten elite powerlifters were analyzed in a simulated
competition environment using three-dimensional cinematography and surface
electromyography while bench pressing approximately 80% of maximum, a maximal
load, and an unsuccessful supramaximal attempt.

The resultant moment arm (from the sagittal and transverse planes) of the
weight about the shoulder axis decreased throughout the upward movement of
the bar. The resultant moment arm of the weight about the elbow axis
decreased throughout the initial portion of the ascent of the bar, recording
a minimum value during the sticking region, and subsequently increased
throughout the remainder of the ascent of the bar.

The electromyograms produced by the prime mover muscles (sternal portion of
pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, long head of triceps brachii) achieved
maximal activation at the beginning of the ascent phase of the lift and
maintained this level essentially unchanged throughout the upward movement of
the bar.

The sticking region, therefore, did not appear to be caused by an increase in
the moment arm of the weight about the shoulder or elbow joints or by a
minimization of muscular activity during this region.

A possible mechanism which envisages the sticking region as a force-reduced
transition phase between a strain energy-assisted *acceleration phase* and a
mechanically advantageous *maximum strength* region is postulated.

—————-

Mel Siff

All too often, personal trainers and coaches seem to regard “cheating” as
some sort of heinous crime against the ethics and laws of strength training.
This attitude unfortunately disguises the fact that cheating can be carried
out usefully or dangerously. For example, bouncing a bar directly off the
sternum during the bench press or bouncing off relaxed knees at the bottom of
a full squat are both unwise and potentially dangerous ways of “cheating”.
We are all familiar with many such examples of inadvisable and unsafe ways of
cheating, so let us rather examine the possible merits of more intelligent
“cheating”.

For example, cheating allows one to operate in a different way over one’s
strength curve and actually produces a different strength curve to achieve a
certain activity goal. The manufacturers of variable resistance machines
would have you believe that the use of cams, hydraulic systems and levers is
the only way to enable you to adjust to the varying leverages of a given
joint action. However, one can use cheating to take you past a weaker region
and enable you to load the stronger region, if you wish to overload
eccentrically or concentrically in a given region.

Contrary to what so many average personal trainers often believe, cheating is
not necessarily counterproductive or unsafe – it may actually produce
superior results, if one knows how and when to cheat over the full range of
joint action.

Cheating can permit one to produce a very different and more appropriate
’strength’ (torque, power or force) curve to enable one to overcome a load
more competently and safely. Very often, adherents of the slow training
philosophies militate against the power clean or derivates of it, and even
refer to such movements as ‘cheating’ movements which make allegedly
‘unsafe’ use of momentum and ballistic activity.

In fact, this type of ‘cleaning’ movement is a far more efficient way of
lifting a bar from the ground to the chest compared with the crude sort of
deadlift, reverse curl, upright row combination that so many folk use.
There are several other so-called ‘cheating’ movements which offer safer,
stronger and more efficient ways of overcoming a load.

A brief aside — If HIT or ‘Superslow’ methods are indeed ‘better’ than
Olympic and other ballistic methods, can one explain how SIB adherents raise
a heavy bar from the ground to the shoulders? Do they always unload the bar,
slowly raise it with a reverse curl to the shoulders, place it on a rack,
add more weights and only then perform the exercise?)

In other words, the term ‘cheating’ may well have to be redefined.
Bodybuilders know that the term really means using a movement which
deviates from the traditional or classical form in some way such as
swinging the weights or moving parts of the body to assist one in overcoming
’sticking points’. Unfortunately, many other folk believe that cheating is a
breaking of some training law, a serious crime against the body or the unfair
use of some method that is frowned upon by the purists.

In Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting, the rules of competition DO
legislate against certain types of ‘cheating’ or illegal lifting techniques,
such as uneven extension of the elbows, not completing the movement, allowing
the bar to stop during a lift, and using series of up-and-down bounces to
complete some lifts.

In the common world of resistance training, no such laws exist, only
guidelines – ’strict’ movements are defined as such, but they are not the
only way of doing any given lift. Variations very soon become the lifeblood
of the trainee who moves out of novice ranks, so cheating is a highly
acceptable technique in the training compendium of anyone who is serious
about progressing.

However, cheating does not necessarily produce better results by allowing one
to use his/her ’strength curve’ more effectively – it may simply be that
cheating allows one to use a heavier load over a certain part of the
movement, especially during the eccentric lowering phase, which is often
implicated in enhanced hypertrophy and strength production (though not so if
used for too long or too frequently). Ballistic forms of ‘cheating’ can
elicit a more powerful myotatic stretch reflex and produce greater muscle
tension with greater potential for enhancing strength and RFD (Rate of Force
Development).

It is really interesting to see how much more can lie in an apparently
simple and time-worn concept such as cheating – no wonder the world of
strength conditioning is so fascinating! There is always something new
lurking under the surface of everything that we often take for granted, even
after years of training and research. Thank goodness we now have the
Internet to allow ideas to be tested and disseminated far more rapidly than
ever before!

Mel Siff

Almost all of the comments that one reads about the wearing of supportive
lifting apparel, wraps and belts are negative, with admonitions that use of
these compressive or supportive aids creates some sort of dependence and loss
of strength. Previously I have discussed their positive role in enhancing
proprioceptive awareness and helping an athlete train when sore or injured
(e.g. in my “Facts & Fallacies of Fitness” book), but let us now investigate
this issue further with the assistance of the following reference.

The study below shows that even moderate resistance training executed while a
muscle is compressed can produce a greater increase in strength, hypertrophy
and local muscle endurance than if one trains without the muscle being
compressed. Note that the exercise was performed with only 50% of 1RM and
that the compression only amounted to less than one-third of atmospheric
pressure, so it would be interesting to see how the results would change with
greater resistance and somewhat greater levels of compression.

Let us now recall the typical loading used in explosive lifting training
(i.e. with loads of 50-67% of 1RM), which is of the same order of magnitude
as was used in this experiment. Suppose, instead of not wearing supportive
garb, we chose to train regularly with firm wraps, powerlifting suits/vests
or neoprene sleeves. Would this not possibly result in increases in strength
and all those other performance factors?

Maybe all that theoretical advice that supportive apparel is detrimental to
training might be proved to be very wrong indeed — after all, the evidence
quoted is based entirely on theoretical grounds and anecdotes, while the
below study proved experimentally that compression-aided training improves
several fitness and strength qualities of high-level athletes. Maybe wearing
a belt not only enhances proprioceptive sensitivity, confidence and some
“core” stability, but it actually may increase the strength and growth of the
trunk musculature. Similarly, wraps around the thighs, chest and arms may
produce the same effects in those regions. What then about doing
crunches and other abdominal exercises while wearing wraps or a very flexible
corset around the trunk?

Only one way to find out about this theory without waiting for scientists to
take many months and a few years to have their research published – we can
personally try this (moderate) compression training method for a few months
and see what happens. There is nothing to lose and something to gain. We
could try squatting or cleaning with wraps (or neoprene sleeves) around the
thighs and bench pressing with lifting shirt and wraps around the upper arms
- and keep careful records of lifts and limb girths (and skinfolds) to
monitor any changes (and compare them with our usual patterns of change).

Now read the study for yourselves:

—————-

Effects of resistance exercise combined with vascular occlusion on muscle
function in athletes

Yudai Takarada, Yoshiaki Sato & Naokata Ishii

Eur J Appl Physiol (2002) 86: 308-314

The effects of resistance exercise combined with vascular occlusion on muscle
function were investigated in highly trained athletes. Elite rugby players
(n=17) took part in an 8 week study of exercise training of the knee extensor
muscles, in which low-intensity [about 50% of one repetition maximum]
exercise combined with an occlusion pressure of about 200 mmHg (LIO, n=6),
low-intensity exercise without the occlusion (LI, n=6), and no exercise
training (untrained control, n=5) were included. The exercise in the LI
[non-compression] group was of the same intensity and amount as in the LIO
[compression - MCS] group.

1. The LIO [compression] group showed a significantly larger increase in
isokinetic knee extension torque than that in the other two groups at all the
velocities studied.

2. On the other hand, no significant difference was seen between LI
[non-compression] and the control group.

3. In the LIO [compression] group, the cross-sectional area of knee
extensors increased significantly, suggesting that the increase in knee
extension strength was mainly caused by muscle hypertrophy.

4. The dynamic endurance of knee extensors estimated from the decreases in
mechanical work production and peak force after 50 repeated concentric
contractions was also improved after LIO [compression], whereas no
significant change was observed in the LI [non-compression] and control
groups.

The results indicated that low-intensity resistance exercise causes, in
almost fully trained athletes, increases in muscle size, strength and
endurance, when combined with vascular occlusion [compression].

————-

Mel Siff

A supertraining member asked this:
<I am interested in any information on depth landings and their
implementation in strength training. In post on some other boards, members
have misread the questions and responded with answers concerning depth
jumps. I am referring to depth landings. Depth landings where one drops
from a platform and simply sticks the landing like a gymnast does.

I am interested in whatever information someone might have on depth landings,
such as recommended height, how depth landings impact strength development,
how the Russians used them in training, frequency in training, etc.
Mel Siff’s response was
*** Their main role is in producing high levels of eccentric force, which
seems to be associated with increases in strength and hypertrophy, but only
for a limited time, because their ephemeral and explosive nature is
associated more with neural than muscular changes (depending on how you
amortise or slow down the landing). Russian research has even examined depth
drops from a height of as much as 9ft or more, but this has not shown any
superior increase in “functional strength” or movement speed over
conventional “plyometrics” (discussed in Ch 5 of “Supertraining”). Dr
Zatsiorsky also is not very enthusiastic in his text “Science and Practice of
Strength Training” about the value of depth landings. Russian athletes seem
to rely seldom on this type of training for any significant part of their
training, although many forms of vertical or long jumping (and low
repetition”plyometrics”) are quite regularly used.

If you are contemplating the use of regular landings for bodybuilding or
non-competitive reasons, you are simply increasing the risk of injury unless
your drop heights are no more than about 1 metre (say, about 3 ft), your
number of repetitions is low and your landing technique is exemplary. A far
better way of eccentrically loading the extensors of the knee for increasing
strength and hypertrophy is to do exercises such as heavy squats, dips for
jerks or push presses.

Mel Siff