Good Maximal Strength vs Size Article

[Ford Prefect]

I posted this in an other thread, but I thought everybody might want to take a look at this. I'm not sure if I ever posted it before, but it is a very good article on breaking down energy systems, strength, and how those play into your strength or hypertrophy goals. It's intended purpose is training olympic gymnasts:

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/public...-training.html

[fa_jing]

I read it - nice article

[Ka]

Great article,my primary sport is Rockclimbing so P to BW is basically what all my training is structured around.But I also find this to be very suitable for every day strenght without the buff.

Here's the training of a Free diver you might find interesting.
www.tanyastreeter.com/?sm...d=7&apost=

[IronFist]

I found this to be very interesting:

POWER GROUP: Power training method

5 sets of 7 repetitions @ 45% of 1RM

Total 35 repetitions in 5 sets with an average intensity of 45% of 1 RM.
Pauses between sets: 5 minutes
Performance of the movements: as rapidly as possible. This kind of program produces almost as much muscle hypertrophy as repeated efforts to failure (REF).

Hypertrophy with 45% of 1RM? Wtf???

I must have missed something... what is he referring to by "strength decifit?"

Crazy.

IronFist

[Kristoffer]

ay-a! So much information, my head hurts. Weight lifting is like a martial art in it self

[premier]

Ironfist:

"The difference between the absolute strength and the maximal strength is termed the strength deficit "


The article was very interesting to read. That thing about restricted hypertrophy was interesting. What do you think would be the most important muscle groups to hypertrophy in MA?

[IronFist]

"The difference between the absolute strength and the maximal strength is termed the strength deficit "

Duh. I must have missed that part.

What do you think would be the most important muscle groups to hypertrophy in MA?

Wow, what an interesting question! I've never thought about that before. I'm going to assume you mean hypertrophy for size and weight purposes rather than hypertrophy for strength purposes, (since you can build strength without hypertrophy).

Hmmm...

Well, being that I think that if you only hypertrophy some muscles and not others you look kinda silly, I would say all of them. But if that's a cheap cop-out answer, then I would say...

1. Traps and neck - larger traps and neck most likely mean you can take more head shots. Being able to take more headshots means being able to fight longer.

2. Abs and pecs - more organ protection from blows.

I don't really know... when you're talking hypertrophy for strictly size and weight purposes and not strength, it changes things.

And if you get your upper body huge you need a huge lower body so you're not out of proportion, and also you wouldn't want to be top heavy (higher center of gravity = bad).

What do you think?

IronFist

[Samurai Jack]

You know, when I first started weight training and became interested in powerlifting in general, and the squat in particular it was because of my judo training.

I noticed how dang near to impossible it was to throw those short stocky guys with a slight beer belly. Of course this is due in large part to a lower center of gravity.

I wasn't about to start eating like crazy for the beer gut, but I reasoned that if my legs were much larger, it would have the same effect, but with the added benifit of much stronger legs. Fortunatly this has been proven true on many counts.

Not only is it easier for me to execute a throw, but my training partners find it alot harder to move or unbalance my relativly bulky frame. I'd work on my legs for hypertrophy, but frankly at this point I'm most intested in overall size and strength rather than just one limited body part.

[rubthebuddha]

i like what sj is saying, but i'm not looking to get larger legs. how about stronger/more dense muscle? would it have a similar effect?

[Ford Prefect]

Iron,

When you lift the weight as explosively as possible, you will tax the system a lot more than the 45% intensity may seem to indicate. I can attest to this as I've done 15 sets of 2-3 explosive reps at 50% when training westside style.

[premier]

Iron:

I meant hypertrophy for size. The article talked about hypertrophing only limited musclesgroups to get as much sport specific strength while mantaining optimal power to body weight ratio. I know it's hard to target any specific muscle groups for hypertrophy because the exercises like squat, deadlift, bench etc. you normally do to gain size, target several muscle groups.

But still I think it's an interesting idea especially if you're training for tournament fighting with weight divisions. You wan't to be at the top of your weight class, important muscle groups strong as possible and have minimum amount of muscles/fat you don't need. Right? We have to carry our own weight in the ring, don't we. So why not have the weight where it matters.