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Mad hops: using plyometric training to increase reaction time and explosiveness

If you remember last week, I talked about using eccentric muscle training to improve the results of your exercise program.  If you have a really good memory, you remember me saying that generally, lifting at a slower tempo is better.  The key would here is “generally”.  Enter in plyometrics.  Plyometrics is essential for those that require fast reaction times for explosive events.

“What is plyometrics Dan?”  Good question.  Plyometrics is another name for reactive training; it requires an eccentric deceleration, an isometric stabilization, and a concentric acceleration.  So what does that mean?

Let’s take a look at an example of jumping off one box and then jumping back up onto another box.  When you jump off the first box, as your feet hit the ground, you start to bend your knees and your body sinks toward the ground as it tries to slow itself down and cushion itself from the jump.  This slowing down is the eccentric muscle contraction part.  (Do you remember talking about the different types of muscle contractions?)  Good thing the body knows to slow itself down; otherwise, you’d slam into the ground.  Ouch!

After your body slows itself down, there’s a moment where it stabilizes itself.  This is considered the isometric contraction phase of the jump.  Once your body gains the stability it needs, you explode up and jump up onto the next box (the concentric acceleration phase).

Putting all three of these phases into one exercise, such as a box jump, gives you plyometrics.  There are all sorts of different plyometric drills that can be done, anything from ladder drills, to skips, to jumping drills, etc.  The important thing to remember when doing plyometrics is to make sure they’re explosive.  Unlike slow eccentric weight lifting, you want to perform the different contraction phases of plyometrics as fast as possible.  The goal of plyometrics is to decrease the amount of time it takes for your body to slow itself down and explode back up (decrease the stabilization phase).

So why is plyometrics such a good form of training when it comes to improving areas such as reaction time, vertical jump, accelerating off a starting line, etc.? 
When you talk about improving reaction time, you essentially are looking at improving the efficiency between your nerves and muscles.  A good example of this is balance.  If your balance is poor, then your nerves aren’t telling your muscles fast enough that they need to contract to keep you balanced; there’s a lag in the time it takes for the nerve impulses to tell your brain to send more nerve impulses to contract the muscles.  It’s basically like watching news reporters reporting over in the Middle East.  There’s a lag in the time from when a question is asked at the news station until they hear it and answer it.

Plyometrics improves the efficiency of the nerves and muscles communicating back and forth with each other; it also increases the elastic properties of muscles.¹ This concept is very important to understand.  Your muscles have elastic properties similar to a rubber band or spring.  The amount of acceleration you get out of pushing off a surface depends on the amount of elastic energy that’s built up in the muscle as a result of the eccentric deceleration phase of plyometrics.  Just like a rubber band, the more you pull on the band, the more elastic energy is built up.  The more elastic energy built up, the farther the rubber band will fling off your finger.  The same can be said with plyometrics.  The more elastic energy that is built up through the eccentric phase of a jump, the more explosiveness there will be for the concentric acceleration phase and the faster you’ll explode up.

Another thing to understand, if the nerves and muscle aren’t working efficiently, the balance required to remain stabilized between deceleration and acceleration won’t be there.  A good stability base needs to be established in your training before moving on to reactive training/plyometrics.

Also, if a significant amount of strength isn’t present in your muscles, you won’t be able to develop the power you need for the explosive phase of plyos.  Make sure you address balance/stability and strength before moving into reactive training.

Remember, speed is king when working with plyometrics.  If you do plyos with a slow speed, you’ll develop slow reaction times.  If you try to get through every contraction phase of plyos as fast as possible, you’ll develop more explosiveness.  More explosiveness means a better vertical jump, a faster time off the blocks, quicker cuts on the field, faster bat speed, faster jumping out of the way of a runaway kid on a bike, and so on.

It’s important to realize that this type of training is pretty intense, and if you ever experience signs of overtraining such as decreased balance, vertical jump, or explosiveness, compared to what you normally have, it’s a good idea to stop and allow your body to recover over the next few days or even weeks.

Plyometrics are only one phase to a training program.  Remember, workout programs should be progressive so that your body’s always experiencing new things.  Staying in one phase of a training program for too long can lead to poor results and even injury, and when dealing with reactive training, a fitness professional is the way to go because it’s so complex.  Also, checking with your doctor before starting a workout program is a grand idea.

References:

¹ The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), 2005.

Note: Your Live Trainers was featured in The Cincinnati Enquirer this week. 

Just finished

I just got done presenting at the 2008 FitcomXpo.  What an experience!  This fitness expo was really the first of it's kind because it was all done online.  There were so many great speakers at this conference, and it actually is still going on until tonight at 7PM EST.  The topic of my presentation was on "Developing the successful client".  I was talking to about 10,000 fitness professionals on what makes a trainer great and what we can do as fit pros to set our clients up for success, whether that be through motivation, accountability, developing a positive mental attitude, program structure, whatever it is.

I think mindset is everything.  The successful people in life, no matter if it's fitness, business, life, or anything in between, have the right mindset for success.  Relating to weight loss, the successful exercisers who lose weight are the ones who know that it takes hard work and dedication, and they're willing to put that effort in and stick with it.  Whatever your goal is in life, surround yourself with those you want to be like.  If you want to be an uplifting family man/woman, surround yourself with other uplifting family men/women.  If you want to be a good volleyball player, surround yourself with good volleyball players.  Hanging around depressing people isn't going to help you be happy.  You must surround yourself with uplifting people that challenge you to be your best.  When I used to work for a gym, I couldn't stand listening to other employees complain; it started to drag me down too.  Whenever I was around that, I'd try and walk away so that I wouldn't be affected by their negativity.  Try it.  See how much more positive you'll be during the day if you don't participate in negative talk with others. 

That's the kind of stuff I went into a lot more detail on at the conference.  If you missed it, I'll have CD copies and MP3 downloads of the entire presentation on the website very soon.  I'll let you know when I do.  In the mean time, if you want, let me know what you would rather have available, a CD or an MP3 download.

Better balance and a stronger core with this exercise

Today's the day!  I finally launched a new section to the Your Live Trainers website!  It's packed full of FREE exercise video demonstrations, like this one, that'll help you stay fit.  You can even download them to your iPod!  I hope you enjoy the new addition!

If you haven't already, make sure you check out the FitcomXpo; the largest online fitness expo ever!  It's great for learning from some of the top fitness professionals in the business.  It starts tomorrow, so time is running out.  I'm really excited because I'll be presenting at 9AM EST this Thursday.  Afterward, you can ask me all the questions you want, and you can even burn the presentation onto a CD for free!  Hope to see you there.

A different way to train: eccentric muscle development

Eccentric muscle training is something that most gym-goers really aren’t too familiar with, but in some cases, it can provide your muscles with an even better workout compared to typical resistance training.

Think of eccentric muscle training as arm wrestling; as the weaker competitor starts to tire, his arm starts to fall over.  Typically, his arm doesn’t give out right away.  He starts to make weird faces, and his arm slowly starts to come closer to the table, even though he’s still pushing against his opponent’s arm.  That’s eccentric muscle training in a nut shell.  Even though his arm muscles are still contracting, they’re lengthening out as his arm falls toward the table.

From a gym standpoint, if you’re doing a biceps curl, as you curl the weight up, your muscle contracts and shortens.  This is called a concentric muscle contraction.  As you let the weight fall back down, this is called an eccentric muscle contraction.  Eccentric muscle training would be allowing the weight to fall slowly, so you’re basically resisting the force of the weight, but at the same time, you’re allowing your biceps muscle to slowly lengthen back to its original length; this brings your hand back to your side.

So after seeing what eccentric muscle training is, have you ever done this?  Like I said earlier, some have and some haven’t.  For those of you that have, do you know why you incorporated eccentric muscle training into your program, or did you just do it because you saw others do it or you read about it in a magazine?

The reason I’m asking is because there’s a time and place for eccentric muscle training.

I’m a big proponent of a concept called time under tension (TUT).  TUT is the amount of time a muscle is contracting.  Eccentric muscle training is one way to increase the amount of time a muscle is contracting.  Other ways are by slowing down your repetitions, doing more repetitions, doing more sets, etc.  For some fitness goals, slow eccentric muscle contractions are bad, but for other goals, slowing down the eccentric phase of your lift is a good thing.

Let’s take a bench press exercise for example.  I guarantee that if you walk into your local gym right now, you’ll see some guy who thinks cranking out repetitions on a bench press with a ton of weight on the bar is the best way to bulk up.  He’ll probably be one of those guys that loads the bar down with as much weight as he can, does his repetitions as fast as he can, allows the bar to bounce off his chest to help him get the weight back up, and squirms all over the bench when pushing up the bar.  As you can probably tell, this isn’t too smart.

The repetition tempo for an exercise is something that’s very important.  For those that have a goal of bulking up, slowing down the speed of your repetitions is crucial to your ultimate success.  By lifting a little less weight and slowing down the eccentric phase of your lift, you’ll be able to achieve your goal of muscle development a lot faster.¹  So for example, when you are doing a seated cable row, by slowing down the exercise (not using jerky movements), and by slowing down the time it takes for the weight stack to fall back to its starting position, the more time under tension there is in your back and biceps muscles, so the faster the muscles will develop.

I use this concept all the time when I work with clients who want to put on muscle.  During the “bulking” phase of a program, I typically have my clients slow down their eccentric phase to about 3-4 seconds.  It’s something that they’re not used to, and takes some time to adjust to, but in the long run, they can always tell that the quality of their workout was better.

For some of you, you may be saying, “Well that’s great Dan, but I could care less about getting bigger.”  Well guess what, eccentric training is vital for endurance training too.  Endurance training is all about training your body to withstand long durations of exercise.  If you go for a long run, but then come into the gym and lift weights at a fast pace, does that really make sense?  No, it doesn’t.  Going back to the whole time under tension concept, if you keep your muscles under tension for a longer period of time, similar to running for a longer period of time, your muscles will start to develop that endurance to handle the lengthy TUT.¹

Slowing down the eccentric phase of your endurance lifting to about 4 seconds will give you the tempo you need to stimulate the muscle fibers in your body to adapt to a more endurance role.  Remember talking about muscle fibers?

Even though bulking and endurance lifting have about the same tempo for the eccentric phase, what separates bulking from endurance lifting is the volume of lifting (sets and reps), rest break, intensity, speed of concentric phase, speed of isometric phase (the phase between the eccentric and concentric phases where you have dropped the bar all the way to your chest and are about to push it back up), etc.

Just like any program, there needs to be different phases, so you don’t always want to focus on eccentric training.  You need to change your program up by cycling in and out of eccentric training so that your body doesn’t get burnt out.

For the typical person, slower is better when it comes to lifting weight.  For the most part, no matter if your goal is weight loss, getting in better shape, putting on more muscle, etc., including program phases that incorporate slowing down the eccentric phase of your repetitions, as well as the repetitions in general, will help you achieve better results.  But when can slower be a bad thing?  We’ll talk about that next week.

References:

¹ The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), 2005.

Happy first day of spring!

It's kind of surprising to think that today's the first day of spring, considering that yesterday in Columbus, my car was covered in snow.  Oh well, I guess I'll believe it.  I love this time of year; there really is a different smell to the air ... I'm serious, I can really smell a difference.  I don't know if it's the new buds on trees, or the constant rain storms, but spring air smells great.

I don't know about you but spring really motivates me to get outside.  I feel like a cooped up chicken during the winter, but with spring, I start thinking about all the fun activities I like doing outside and the beach during the summer months.

My family has this cottage up on Lake Erie, and when spring rolls around, I always start to get excited because I know the beach is right around the corner.  It's almost time to start slalom water skiing; swimming; playing golf, tennis, sand volleyball, and pick-up basketball, soccer, and football; fishing, all sorts of fun things. ... You can tell I'm getting excited right now. 

This is also the time of year that so many people start to realize they need to get going with their exercise programs because they have to look good for the summer, beach months.  Or maybe they're dreading that they didn't start earlier since spring break is right around the corner.

You know another thing I like so much about the start of spring?  The start of great, sunny weather brings people out off the couch and gets them active outside.  When I used to work in downtown Columbus, I'd walk through this park everyday, and through the winter months, the handful of people that were outside were those that were playing with their dogs. ... God bless those people; I know the dogs certainly enjoyed being out and active.  When the spring months and better weather came though, that park turned into an ant farm.  There were people outside everywhere!  People were walking and jogging, playing volleyball, the tennis courts were filled, even more people were out with their pets, kids were out on the playground; it was so great to see.

Take advantage of this time to give yourself a boost and get active.  Don't let another beautiful time of year leave you cooped up inside.  By taking an hour a day, unplugging the TV (or turning it off, unplugging is more dramatic), and getting yourself outside and active will make a world of difference for you.  You'll start to have a better feeling of self-worth, you'll sleep better, you'll be in a better mood for your friends and family, you'll have more energy, and most importantly, your health with thank you.

"Spring into fitness!"  I'm sure you've heard that a million times around this time of year, but do you heed the advice?  Go ahead, make a lifestyle choice that will change your life for the better!

Welcome to the world Lila Marie

This weekend was a very exciting time around Your Live Trainers; my friend and business partner, Jared, is now a papa!  Jared's wife gave birth to the cutest little baby girl on Friday, Lila Marie.  She was 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 inches long. 

Amber and I were over at their house last night, and man was it weird to see them with a baby.  We don't have kids yet, and to see some of our closest friends having their first baby was crazy. ... I'm already picturing her running around the house at 3 years old. 

So in a matter of days, our get-togethers with Jared and his wife have gone from playing games to watching a baby sleep. ... It's definitely going to be different, but it's also going to be exciting to see.

Oh yeah, I'm happy to say, she's already a Buckeye.

Anyway ... congratulations Jared and Carissa!  I can't believe you're a daddy and mommy now!

They have their own blog about the whole experience, so make sure you check it out.

Note: I know I look like a dork in this picture of me and Lila; I was kinda freaked out having the responsibility of holding her as you can see in my "holding technique" and my Hollywood smile/uneasiness.

Featured on Reuters!

Keeping old age at bay

If you’re like me, the thought of hip replacements, aching joints, broken bones, and being confined to a walker or motorized scooter doesn’t exactly fire you up.  Make no mistake, I’m not trying to be disrespectful to older adults, but these types of issues are reality for some as they age.  For some, current diseases and other medical problems may make it inevitable that you’ll be faced with future problems, but for those of you who are perfectly healthy right now, there’s a lot you can do to make sure you increase your chances of living a healthy, active lifestyle during your older years.

Immobility, it’s a sad story, and I’ve seen it far too often with some of the older clients I’ve trained over the years.  Too many times I’ve worked with elderly clients who can barely walk or lift their leg up over a weight bench because of knee problems, who drop 5 lbs. dumbbells because their painful arthritis caused their hand muscles to give out, who I have to hold on to while they exercise because their balance is so bad, who can’t even do certain exercises because their muscle are too weak.  The truth is, for some, even though they’re motivated to get in better shape, it can be too late to reverse the damage done to their bodies.  For others, they’ve been able to start early enough that by participating in an exercise program, for the first time in their lives, can be unbelievably beneficial for them.

Alright, time to take a break from this depressing truth.  I want to share with you a few quick stories about some older adult clients who had their lives changed by exercise.

The first client I want to talk about is this lady who came to me with a horrible shoulder problem.  Her shoulder was so weak that she couldn’t even lift it over her head because of the pain it caused.  After working with her for some time, we were able to strengthen the shoulder and increase the flexibility of it.  By the time she was ready to go off on her own and exercise, she was able to lift her arm all the way above her head without any pain.  This may seem like a small achievement, but for her, it was huge!  Now she could put her jacket on without pain, she could reach into a cupboard and get a glass out without pain, she could do all kinds of things that she wasn’t able to do before because she was willing to put the time and effort into an exercise program to improve her lifestyle.

Another client I worked with had horrible balance.  When I first saw him, he couldn’t stand on one foot if his life depended on it.  Over the months that we worked together, I worked heavily on improving his balance.  By the time we finished, not only was he able to do one-footed exercises, he was also doing squats, riding his bike, and losing weight!  Balance and coordination exercises are essential as you age because with older age comes decreased balance and coordination, and if you aren’t working to maintain the two, injuries such as broken bones, concussions, and dislocations can result from a fall.

Hopefully by now you can see why exercising is important not only for the present, but also for the future.  Just in case you still aren’t convinced, we’re going to go in depth on all kinds of issues with old age and the benefits that exercise can have on them.  Here’s how you can keep old age at bay. …

As you age, your lean body mass starts to decrease; lean body mass is considered to be areas such as muscle, ligaments, tendons, and bones.  With decreased lean body mass comes increased risk for osteoporosis and arthritis, decreased metabolism, body fat gain, bone fractures and dislocations, decreased balance and coordination, decreased strength, and more.

By doing resistance training, you not only strengthen your muscles, you also can improve all the areas just talked about.  When muscles are worked, they put more force on the tendons that are connected to them; these tendons connect to your bones.  Not only will your tendons be strengthened through exercise, the force put on your bones will help strengthen your bones as well.  As a result, the risk for osteoporosis and bone fractures is decreased.  On top of that, stronger muscles lead to stronger joints, so the risk of arthritis and dislocations is decreased.  Also, increased muscle tissue leads to increased metabolism, which leads to less body fat.

Excess body weight is such an important concept to grasp.  By carrying around excess fat, your body has so much extra stress on it, and as a result, so many injuries, diseases, and other medical problems can result.  Someone who is in their 40’s can actually have a body that functions as if it were in its 60’s; the opposite can also be said.  Someone in their 60’s can actually have a body that functions as if it were in its 40’s!  The key is making smart choices such as proper eating and exercise.  These two choices alone can be so advantageous to a healthy lifestyle as a person ages.

Like I said before, balance and coordination are very important for older adults.  Decreased balance and coordination can cause all kinds of problems, so it’s important to make sure you address these issues with your workouts.  By improving muscle strength and flexibility, you allow your nerves and muscles to function together properly.  This helps your body be able to carry out daily functions as you age.  It helps keep your circulation in good condition because tight muscles lead to poorer circulation.  It also keeps your reflexes in tip-top shape so as to avoid a fall resulting in serious injury or even death.  According to The American Council on Exercise, by age 90, 32% of women and 17% of men will have suffered a hip fracture, and a large number of these cases will lead to death as a result of complications.  Balance really is a serious issue, and the earlier you start to maintain it, the better chance you have of preventing a traumatic fall from occurring in the future.

Some other benefits of exercising for the future are increased cardiovascular strength and lung function.  Most likely, everyone knows that exercise can improve cardiovascular strength.  Increased cardiovascular strength leads to better endurance, a stronger heart, decreased risk for cardiovascular and heart disease, and decreased blood pressure.  Did you know, however, that as we age, our vertebral disks start to degenerate?  This degeneration leads to the shrinking of our thoracic cavity (the area of the lungs), which means that our lung function decreases.  Exercise combats this effect by decreasing the degeneration and strengthening the thoracic cavity.¹

Exercise also leads to better sleep, decreased stress, a stronger immune system, and a better mood.  Not only does exercise release “feel good” hormones, it also leads to a greater feeling of self-worth, something that can decline as people age.

Getting older doesn’t have to be something you dread.  By starting or continuing a good exercise program, you can keep your body “young” and healthy, but as always, it’s a good idea to check with your doctor before starting.

References:

¹ American Council on Exercise (2003). ACE personal trainer manual: The ultimate resource for fitness professionals, (3^rd ed). San Diego, Ca.: American Council on Exercise.

Are you doing a push-up with proper form?

Hiking during the Blizzard of '08

As you might have heard, we here in Ohio got slammed with a blizzard this past weekend.  Now I realize for some of you in places like Colorado and Minnesota, you're sitting there and laughing.  But in Ohio, over 20 inches of snow is a big deal!  In fact, I can still hear the crews clearing the parking lot outside as I'm typing this.  We haven't had this much snow since before 1910!

My wife and I went out for a walk on Saturday because we felt like prisoners in our own home; it was illegal to be out driving, not like we could have though, as you can see from the picture.  We ended pushing out three cars who had no choice but to drive to work; it was amazing to see that people just left their cars stranded in the middle of the road because they got stuck.

Finally, after two days of snow, it stopped, and we were able to get out.  All the schools around us ended up canceling yesterday, so since my wife didn't have to go in and teach, we went to the park. 

Let me tell you, hiking on a snow-covered trail is no easy task.  In fact, for the first time ever, running was actually easier then walking.  The snow was starting to melt yesterday, so as a result, anytime you took a step, your feet would slide a little bit and make it that much harder to walk.  If you ran though, your feet didn't have time to slide in the snow; so here my wife and I are, running in boots to give ourselves a break from walking!

We had a lot of fun though.  We ended up going on a little over a mile hike through the snowy woods, which took a little over an hour!  By the time we were done, we were ready to take a nap. 

What a great way to get some exercise.  Not only is it a good change of pace from walking on a sidewalk or treadmill (as well as a lot harder), but it's also so refreshing to be able to get out in nature with family and friends. ... I know it sounds corny, but it's true!  There were so many families and friends at the park yesterday.  People were sledding, other were building snowmen, and other were just running around in the snow.  And guess what?  They were all laughing and having fun!

So my advice to anyone that's bored ... instead of turning on the TV, get outside and experience the fresh air.  Not only will you get some exercise, you'll also boost your mood and be thankful for what you've been blessed with.

The tortoise and the hare, as it relates to sports performance training

Who do you more want to be like?  Do you want to be fast and quick for short bursts, or do you want to be slower, but more enduring?  It’s a question that needs to be addressed when deciding how to train for your sport or targeted fitness goal.

You see, there are two types of muscle fibers that make up our muscles.  Basically, your muscle can be thought of as a rope; there’s all those fibers of the rope that when bundled together, create the rope.  Same thing with muscle; a muscle is a bundle of muscle fibers.

There are two types of fibers that make up muscle.  There are slow-twitch muscle fibers (Type I), and there are fast-twitch muscle fibers (Type II).  The fast-twitch muscle fibers can actually be broken down into two different variations: type IIa and type IIb.  Type IIa is a fast-twitch muscle fiber that has characteristics of a slow-twitch muscle fiber, and type IIb is a fast-twitch muscle that is really the “fast-twitch” muscle fiber.  It’s basically a spectrum; on one side you have the slow-twitch fibers, on the other side you have the type IIb fast-twitch fibers, and in the middle of the spectrum you have the type IIa fibers.

Slow-twitch muscle fibers make up the majority of an endurance athlete’s muscles.  In fact, world-class endurance athletes have anywhere from 60-90% slow-twitch muscle fibers in their muscles.¹  Slow-twitch muscle fibers have a high aerobic capacity, and because of this, they don’t fatigue very easily.

Fast-twitch fibers, on the other hand, make up the majority of a sprinter’s or power athlete’s muscles.  Again, about 60-90% of their muscles are made up of fast-twitch fibers.¹  Fast-twitch fibers don’t have the aerobic capacity like slow-twitch fibers (they get energy without requiring oxygen), so as a result, they tire a lot faster.  The aerobic process of using oxygen to create energy is slower than the anaerobic process that fast-twitch fibers utilize; this is why fast-twitch muscle fibers can create fast, quick movements.  They have energy that’s more readily available compared to slow-twitch fibers.  I could go on and on about this stuff, but I realize that unlike me, not everyone is fascinated by how the body works, so I’ll spare you the lecture.

Ok, well maybe just a little bit more.

Alright, so here’s the thing.  A person is born with a certain number of slow-twitch fibers and a certain number of fast-twitch fibers.  That’s why you can say some people are just “gifted”; some people just have an unbelievably large amount of one type of fiber or the other.

Now you may be saying to yourself, “Well, I want more slow-twitch fibers!” or “I want more fast-twitch fibers!”  The problem is you can’t train your slow-twitch fibers to turn into fast-twitch fibers, and you can’t cause your fast-twitch fibers to decide to be slow-twitch fibers.  As my great, great grandpa Willard used to say, “Ya done got what the good Lord blessed ye wit!” … Bless his soul.

Even though I never had a great, great grandpa Willard, that great, great grandpa Willard really knew what he was talking about.

Here’s the good news though.  Just because you have the genes for either endurance-type muscles or sprinter/power-type muscles doesn’t mean all hope is lost!

Remember those type IIa fast-twitch muscle fibers?  Well guess what, “the secret's in the puddin’”, or in this case, the type IIa fibers.

Like I said before, type IIa fibers have a mix of slow-twitch capabilities and type IIb fast-twitch capabilities.  If you design a training program accordingly, you can actually cause the type IIa fibers to lean to one side or the either.  You’re not changing them, they’re still fast-twitch fibers, but they can have more properties of one side of the spectrum.  On top of training type IIa fibers, you can slightly increase the explosiveness of slow-twitch fibers and the endurance of type IIb fast-twitch fibers with proper training; the keyword is “slightly”.  Training will have more of an effect on the type IIa fibers than on the other two types.

“You play how you practice.”  I’m sure most of you have heard this saying before, but now you know that it’s actually true.  If you want to be faster and quicker, you need to train your muscle fibers to be that way.  Running on a treadmill, at a steady pace, isn’t going to make you quicker on the basketball court; it may allow you to be able to play longer, but it’s not going to help you “break ankles”.  If you want to be quick, you need to do quickness drills.  If you want to be able to run a 5K, you need to run the miles, and you need to lift weight with a purpose.  Don’t walk into a gym and see how much weight you can bench press, walk into a gym and lift with less weight but a larger number of repetitions.  If you do endurance weight training for your muscles, your muscles are going to develop more endurance.  Period.  Try a circuit.  Circuit training is about as close as you can get to a cardio workout with weights; your body is constantly moving, so you’re teaching your body to have more endurance.

For an effective circuit, try designing a workout that has 2-3 groups of 3 exercises each.  Within each group, start with the first exercise, perform it for 30 seconds, and without a break, go straight into the next exercise.  Complete 30 seconds for each of the 3 exercises, and then take a break.  Repeat that entire process for 2-3 sets.  After finishing that group of 3 exercises, do the same for the next group, and so on.

On the flip side, if you do power weight training with little weight, but quick movements, you’re going to become more powerful and quicker.  Remember though, just like with trying to bulk up, you need to have a base before you progress to weight training for power (stability, strength, power).  A goal power workout to work toward would be 3-5 sets of a group of 1 strength exercise (1-5 reps) followed by 1 power exercise (8-10 reps with less weight) for each muscle group.

Whether you want to be more like the tortoise or more like the hare, implementing the right program is the first step to take toward achieving success.  As I’ve said before, program design can get pretty complicated, so consulting with a fitness professional might not be a bad idea.

References:

¹ American Council on Exercise (2003). ACE personal trainer manual: The ultimate resource for fitness professionals, (3^rd ed). San Diego, Ca.: American Council on Exercise.