Golf Specific Exercise

Dear John,

Just saw a male golfer in our private country-club gym perform a series of torso rotational golf turns on a Bosu ball (flat side down). He placed a weighted bar across the front of his shoulders to measure the extent of his turn and tried to maintain balance during the movement. John's a good golfer (carries an eight handicap) and makes a consistent effort in our facility to improve his game. But he's wrong on this.

As John turns into a golf backswing position, he must shift weight toward the center of the ball to maintain his balance. In golf, it's called a reverse pivot. Ideal weight distribution during a backswing should leave the golfer with approximately 75% of his weight on the rear leg - loaded for action. The ideal distribution would send John into the adjacent flower garden, and quick.

As John turns into a golf follow-through position, he must again shift weight toward the center of the ball to maintain his balance, a reverse pivot Part II. Ideal weight distribution during a follow-through should leave the golfer with 90-100% of his weight on the front leg - fully unloaded. The ideal distribution here would send John into the adjacent flower garden even quicker.

The point is this: Skill training is specific, must be THE SAME AS THE MOVEMENT ITSELF to properly register with the nervous system. John's training will serve one purpose only - make him more proficient at standing on a Bosu ball as he twists. It will not help his golf ; in fact, will hurt it.

GB

Motor Learning and Today's Training

I just read Ellington Darden's chapter on motor learning in his latest book, "The New Bodybuilding for Old-School Results." He put into perspective why and to where motor learning has disappeared and how it has reappeared in several distorted forms. Brilliant read.

Training centers and gyms around the country have become bastians of functional training, performance training and whatever other training - everything but what should be the focus, proper strength training. The entire field has willingly substituted valid resistance for no resistance or body-weight, machine- and free-weight-training for floor exercise, and logical, safe training for dumb training - all in the name of "function."

They've crossed the line.

Standing on a Bosu ball while you perform bicep curls and squats is quite a feat if you intend to include it in your daily activities. As a skill it has little or no "function." As a strength exercise, it compromises what could be achieved in the same time frame. I was once a physical education teacher and coach (four years, college; four years, high school). I taught movement skills. Students practiced movement skills. Sure, they gained strength and cardiovascular benefits as they performed those skills, but the emphasis was improving skill.

Strength training, when applicable, was practiced separately from skill training. "You need strong hamstrings? Here's an exercise. Strengthen them to their limit and take them to the field. Stronger hamstrings will improve performance in your sport." That was it. We knew enough to separate skill training from strength training. Textbooks and research told us so.

Not so now. A few self-proclaimed experts have decided to make a quick buck on something unique by combining the two (strength and skill) into what they call "functional" training. They're wrong.

Skill training is specific, must be applied using NO overload. Anything not exact to the movement itself confuses the nervous system - can screw up the skill.

Strength training is general (a strong triceps might help in various tasks such as swimming or throwing) and involves a MAXIMUM overload for best results.

The two are opposites and should be treated as such. Anything else is dead wrong.

And that makes the majority of today's athletes wrong (in their training) as well as the many fools following in their foosteps - fools because they are ignorant of the facts, and fools because they're being misled by others who sound as if they know what they are talking about - and have the ammunition to back them up. "Look at Joe Blow who trains with our methods. He's a world champion. And this entire team uses our philosophy."
Hook, line, and sinker.

Darden summed it up; "If almost everyone is practicing incorrectly, the best athlete/team still wins." So it makes no difference anymore - except that there are still a few sane people on the planet who train the muscles they need, apply the new strength to skill practice and avoid the negative transfer applicable to today's shenanigans.

Protein Supplements

The other day a male trainer in his early 20's was mixing a protein shake in the locker room of a gym where I once worked. The ensuing conversation could have been 40 years old. He was convinced his success was due to his protein habit. According to his sources (bodybuilding magazines), he required "1.5 times" his bodyweight (200 lbs.) in grams of protein to build significant muscle mass. Sounded like something I subscribed to when I was young.

Today, I have a different take.

According to Ellington Darden, a significant bodybuilder in his day and a PhD in nutrition, the optimal amount of protein required to build muscle is .36 times one's bodyweight. Which means the young man requires only 72 grams, not 300. The extra is a burden on the liver and kidney and can increase body fat (more protein = more calories, and calories are stored as fat). Darden once spent $400 a month on supplements - including a 300+ gram/day protein consumption. His post-graduate professors performed an experiment on him, establishing his requirement at 86 grams. In May of 1969, Darden took his final supplement(s) and won the Collegiate Mr. America title in 1972 - eating food from the local grocery store.

A new stance on protein may save this young man a lot of time and money.

Training Intensity

Two factors influence the production of results from strength training - form and intensity. Both are abused in the general training environment. Intensity is simple: Work as hard as you momentarily can. Don't stop when you think you've had enough, or think you can't continue, or when you reach that magic number of repetitions. Stop when the resistance stops you, when muscles fail in the face of an all-out effort.

Intensity can be achieved by working harder, by pushing yourself, by being pushed. It can also be achieved by spending less time between exercises - reaching a level of systemic shock greater than the norm. This ultimate level of physical excellence was named "metabolic conditioning" by Nautilus inventor, Arthur Jones and defined as the ability to work at 100% intensity for a prolonged period of time. Impossible? Dichotomy of interest? Not so. Metabolic condition can be obtained through proper strength training.

1. Select a circuit of exercises (10-12) that cover the major muscle groups (large to small).
2. Perform the first exercise to a point of momentary muscle failure (use a weight that allows 8-12 repetitions) in good form.
3. Within seconds, start the next exercise.
4. Repeat - until the circuit is complete.

As simple as it sounds, the effort required is beyond the capacity of most (no athlete made it in his first attempt the first four years it became available under Jones' supervision). So, ease your way into the intensity part (learn to work hard) and gradually reduce time between exercises. If and when you make it, you'll be in your best possible condition . . .
. . . and the toughest kid on the block.