"Athletes are born, not made," he claimed, and there was no better source. Arthur Jones developed a series of specific testing tools that revealed an astounding range of difference between individuals. There was no better topic than muscle fiber-type to prove his point. In an era of "fast-twitch" and "slow-twitch" slang, Jones was the only one with his hand on the wheel.
The MedX inventor built 3,000 prototypes and tested approximately 10,000 subjects before making any declarations. He was thorough - his equipment accurate. Jones first tested the fresh strength of an isolated muscle, selected an appropriate weight for an exercise (based on the results of that test) and exercised the muscle to exhaustion. Immediately after, he tested the muscle's remaining strength to determine the "effect" of the exercise. The process revealed a pattern. Using 50% of their peak strength value on the pre-exercise test, most subjects performed approximately 10 repetitions to failure and lost about 20% strength in the process. In other words, the average subject lost approximately 2% strength per repetition - with few exceptions.
Arthur then met his match. He tested a subject who could not perform ONE repetition with 50% of his pre-exercise peak value (measured in foot-pounds of torque). Jones was enraged, the man was clearly not trying. He tested him repeatedly until he was convinced of his integrity. The pre-test alone drained the subject of more than 50% of his strength, leaving him unable to perform any exercise until Jones reduced the weight to approximately 20% of his peak strength. Despite the expletives thrown his way, the man was clearly "different."
Many tests later, Arthur was exposed to another "freak" - this time in the form of a University of Florida professor. Dr. James Graves, an "occasional exerciser" by his own admission, went through the protocol. Using 50% of his peak pre-exercise strength value, he performed so many repetitions as to leave Arthur scratching his head. "Get him off the damn machine, " he blurted. Graves showed up a few days later. Jones increased the weight. It was no match. The game was on. More weight. More reps. No fatigue. In fact, every post-exercise test revealed an INCREASE in strength. Graves gained strength with every repetition . . . and the game was still on.
One day Jones put him to the test when he buried a pin deep in the weight stack and said, "OK, boy, let's see what you can do with this." Graves could barely initiate the first repetition yet performed more than 20 minutes of exercise, more than 150 slow repetitions, and felt nothing - no discomfort, no fatigue. He could have gone all weekend. James was tested more than 100 times and demonstrated two things: He was consistent and clearly "different."
Some have it, and some don't. Jones' testing demonstrated another fact about muscle fiber-type and the rate of muscle fatigue. It doesn't change - can't change, which makes current attempts at programing exercise to "develop" certain muscle fiber-types utterly useless. If you don't like your nose, you can't "develop" a new one by sneezing differently.
But apparently you can try.
The MedX inventor built 3,000 prototypes and tested approximately 10,000 subjects before making any declarations. He was thorough - his equipment accurate. Jones first tested the fresh strength of an isolated muscle, selected an appropriate weight for an exercise (based on the results of that test) and exercised the muscle to exhaustion. Immediately after, he tested the muscle's remaining strength to determine the "effect" of the exercise. The process revealed a pattern. Using 50% of their peak strength value on the pre-exercise test, most subjects performed approximately 10 repetitions to failure and lost about 20% strength in the process. In other words, the average subject lost approximately 2% strength per repetition - with few exceptions.
Arthur then met his match. He tested a subject who could not perform ONE repetition with 50% of his pre-exercise peak value (measured in foot-pounds of torque). Jones was enraged, the man was clearly not trying. He tested him repeatedly until he was convinced of his integrity. The pre-test alone drained the subject of more than 50% of his strength, leaving him unable to perform any exercise until Jones reduced the weight to approximately 20% of his peak strength. Despite the expletives thrown his way, the man was clearly "different."
Many tests later, Arthur was exposed to another "freak" - this time in the form of a University of Florida professor. Dr. James Graves, an "occasional exerciser" by his own admission, went through the protocol. Using 50% of his peak pre-exercise strength value, he performed so many repetitions as to leave Arthur scratching his head. "Get him off the damn machine, " he blurted. Graves showed up a few days later. Jones increased the weight. It was no match. The game was on. More weight. More reps. No fatigue. In fact, every post-exercise test revealed an INCREASE in strength. Graves gained strength with every repetition . . . and the game was still on.
One day Jones put him to the test when he buried a pin deep in the weight stack and said, "OK, boy, let's see what you can do with this." Graves could barely initiate the first repetition yet performed more than 20 minutes of exercise, more than 150 slow repetitions, and felt nothing - no discomfort, no fatigue. He could have gone all weekend. James was tested more than 100 times and demonstrated two things: He was consistent and clearly "different."
Some have it, and some don't. Jones' testing demonstrated another fact about muscle fiber-type and the rate of muscle fatigue. It doesn't change - can't change, which makes current attempts at programing exercise to "develop" certain muscle fiber-types utterly useless. If you don't like your nose, you can't "develop" a new one by sneezing differently.
But apparently you can try.
No comments:
Post a Comment