Mel Siff Blog

Here we are witnessing a discussion bwteen Mel Siff and another distinguished member on the Supertraining Forums

Member<< I might take issue with some of this and ask for greater clarification.
While it is true that for general purposes a muscle is “measured relative to
its resting, unactivated length”, the relationship between lengthening and
shortening is relative to the extremes of the specific action being examined
and would seem to have nothing to do with “resting, unactivated length”….

While it is true, that the “attempt” to contract against opposing force
provides tension to the muscle in all three muscle action/contractions, true
contraction “only” occurs when the filaments actually “slide”, providing
a “shortening”. So even though we might be able to loosely term the act of
tensioning, “contracting”, we would be acknowledging that the “attempt to
contract” is “understood”. >>

Mel Siff:

***I was clarifying the definitions and analysis of muscle action according
to what is accepted in standard high level texts and was not trying to create Read more…

Someone on another user group responded to my letter on making medicine balls
like this:

<< Someone posted before and I have tried with success a way to make your own
medicine balls. Take a kickball or soccer ball. Carefully pull out the
piece where the air goes in. It is just a rubber seal. Fill the ball with
sand or water and put the rubber seal back in. It really works! I filled a
small one with water and it doesn’t leak, it can bounce and it only costs a
few bucks! >>

Mel Siff:

***Yes, I posted that information a while ago. I have been making my own Read more…

.

Here is an extract from “Supertraining” that we discussed on some clinically
oriented groups a while ago. I felt it appropriate to repeat here, because
we often encounter spectacular claims about the magical power of some rather
dogmatic methods of ‘muscle testing’.

MUSCLE TESTING

Standard anatomical textbook approaches describing the action of certain
muscle groups in controlling isolated joint actions, such as flexion,
extension and rotation, frequently are used to identify which muscles should
be trained to enhance performance in sport. Virtually every bodybuilding
and sports training publication invokes this approach in describing how a
given exercise or machine ‘works’ a given muscle group, as do most of the
clinical texts on muscle testing and rehabilitation.

The appropriateness of this tradition, however, recently has been questioned Read more…

.

You may recall a post on the value of belts in lifting which requested that I
review a series of articles which Paul Chek, a regular speaker on the fitness
circuit, recently wrote on the subject in Testosterone emag (see the archives
of the Supertraining eGroup). Relying on some rather dubious biomechanics
and clinical anecdotes, he deduced that all belt usage is detrimental to
lifting. Well, he posted some rather unhappy reactions to my review on
another weights user group. In one of these letters, he stated:

<<In summary, it is not a case of believing in the belly button “going in, or
going out”, it is a case of the order of events. If the body functions
correctly, segmental stabilization via the inner unit will prepare the system
for force generation. This is why I often say in my lectures, “in order for
the musculoskeletal system to stay healthy, stabilization must always precede
force generation”. >>

My response may be of interest to some of you:

*** “It is totally incorrect to state that stabilisation precedes
mobilisation. Neither is this taught or applied clinically in physical Read more…

.

We often come across endless debates about the risk of using plyometrics, but
the case against the latter is usually poorly researched or emotively
argued, so let’s see if we can address a related issue in some more depth:

Is it possible to develop explosive speed and power without using plyometric
training? Can anyone quote past or present examples of world class
‘explosive’ athletes who have achieved their results without plyometrics or Read more…