Ultimate Exercise part 2

Part II of Bill Starr's discussion of isotonic-isometric exercise is up over at Starting Strength.

I linked to and discussed Part I on this blog here.

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Squat Tips

Eric Cressey has a new site up, and if you're willing to sign up to his newsletter for it you can access a few videos about improving your squat.

So far, one is about warming up, the second shows some variations of the squat and what to do if you just can't squat for some reason. Good stuff.

It's called Show And Go.

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Motivation

Here is your periodic collection of motivational moments.

From Diesel Crew - the year in training:



From DeFranco's Training, Brian Cushing hits a 60# lateral jump. Love the slow motion sounds.



And Andy Ruse - noted for his videos where he knocks out crazy high-rep squats - totaled 1600 at a powerlifting meet coming back from an injury. It's really inspiring for me to see folks come back from injury to compete at a high level.

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Breathing

In the "Do I really need to learn this?" category comes the subject of breathing. Obviously, we're all doing it, automatically and unconsciously, or we'd be dead.

But recently I received a testing protocol I'd agreed to do, and one of the tests is a breath hold for time. That may seem a bit strange but the test is for MMA competitors, who routinely get choked and thus must develop some capacity for holding on without taking in - or letting out - a breath.

There was a short but interesting article on breathing over at T-Nation (formerly T-Muscle, formerly T-Nation before that . . . ) on the subject of breathing. It mostly covers the abdominal vacuum exercise and some breathing practice, but it's interesting to read nonetheless.

But yes, we have to re-learn how to eat and move, now we're re-learning how to breathe. Make of it what you will!

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Power Production

There is a new video from Bret Contreras talking about power production - physical traits, physiology, and training.

Maximum Power Production Presentation

He may have linked this elsewhere, but I saw it as a result of subscribing to his Youtube channel.

Why should I watch this? I think it's worth checking out if you engage in either a power-related sport (in other words, most of them) or train folks that do. You'll understand what elements make up power production.

What isn't it about? It's not a training program. He's not going to tell you how to optimize power production. But you will learn about what it consists of, which will help you understand what you need to work on.

It's all of 10 minutes, and it's succinct and easy to follow.

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Book Review: Why Michael Couldn't Hit

By Klawans, Harold L., M.D.
Published April 1998
308 pages

I picked up this book after seeing it referenced on an blog entry of Eric Cressey's. The book is an examination of sports neurology by a neurologist.

"Sports neurology?" Pretty much. He examines cases such as Wayne Gretzky's reaction time, Lou Gehrig's ALS progression, the return from polio to sprinting gold medals of Wilma Rudolph, and many others. Especially interesting are why Muhammad Ali has parkinson's disease-like symptoms from too many punches and the title case - why Michael Jordan couldn't hit a major-league baseball.

The author keeps the information flowing and the stories entertaining. Sometimes they flow into each other oddly, but the stories are all interesting.

As for training value, there isn't much direct value. Inspiring stories, yes. Tragic ones, yes, them too. But this is a classic example of "too late!" By the time you read this, it's already too late for you to spend your youth practicing the motions required to perform sports skills at a professional level. The fact is - as Michael Jordan found out, resulting in the name of the book - is that unless a sports skill is grooved and trained at a young age while your brain is still plastic, you can't ever fully master it. You'll never be able to improve enough, athleticism and similar sports skills aside. This "critical period" is the same one that's postulated for language learning. It starts to taper off young, like around 7, and seems to end close to puberty. Once you're set to procreate, you've lost your chance to really learn skills at a very high level. Depressing, eh?

The book is 12 years old by this point, so it's a little dated in spots. There is a great bit about how we know that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is superior to chest compressions for CPR - yet the recent trend has been towards compressions only. So it's funny to hear someone explain what we "now know" only to know that the accepted wisdom has changed already.

Rating:
Content: 3 out of 5. Very interesting information on neurology, not much that can be directly applied to training. Slightly dated.
Presentation: 4 out of 5. Well-written and a fast read.

Overall: While it's a bit dated, there are a lot of great stories in here. You get a good idea of what the neurological underpinnings of sports performance are. And sadly, why it's already too late for you to do much with that knowledge by the time you're old enough to read this book. Sigh. Still, very interesting despite the lack of training information!

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Snatch Grip Deadlift

In response to a question I had about improving my own deadlift, Stephen Johnson over on the EXRX forums suggested I look at this article, which discusses the snatch grip deadlift.

What is a snatch-grip deadlift? Essentially it is a very wide-grip deadlift, using the same grip you would use for an Olympic snatch. For a very tall lifter, this is often collar-to-collar. This forces you much lower, which reduces the weight you can use but also involves the posterior chain - the hamstrings, gluteals, and back - to a great degree than even the deadlift. Grip can be a limiter, though, because of the extreme width of the hands. It's of the rare lifts that even strap-hating lifters will accept straps on. It's just not meant to challenge the grip, so it's okay not to allow the grip to limit you.

It's a good discussion of the lift, and ways lifters use it to increase their overall strength.

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