i think i understand the reasoning that the abs are dominantly red endurance fibers and that CFTS focuses on that when training them directly, but i dont understand how that relates to a 100 meter, 10 second event.
why is it recommended to strengthen red fiber when the goal is a white fiber dominant performance? i just dont see how really high rep, low intensity abdominal work would help a 100 meter sprinter maintain the sprint position better than low rep abdominal work.
Short answer - it doesn’t.
I am not enterely support Charlies opinion on ab work, why… read
http://www.dolfzine.com/page212.htm
http://www.dolfzine.com/page28.htm
and maybe this one also helps
http://www.dolfzine.com/page210.htm
Yes, abs should be low int and high volume only for one reason (in sprint training) - not burning CNS and maybe for recovery, but doing squats, deadlifts etc… enough develops abs and more functionaly that doing thousand sit-ups
Duxx, you are exactly right. Squats and deadlifts offer far more specific relevance to sprinting than any abdominal exercise.
So why doing them (sit-ups)??? For aeshetic reasons only??
Low intensity work supports high intensity work.
I disagree. Sprinting is a fast, ballistic activity generating very large forces - relatively high mass moving with exceptionally high acceleration and velocity.
Considering that the force of a contraction is a function of the load what benefit do exercises performed in a slow manner with low mass confer?
Surely we are all aware that a load that is too low will not increase strength significantly? Science has shown us that the load lifted influences the adaptation - therefore movements with a low load do not necessarily enhance one’s ability to perform the movement with heavier loads.
Further more studies have shownnjh that low velocity isokinetic training improves low velocity strength but does little to increase high velocity strength.
There are non-written rules,that just stand as a matter of (successful) experience.
One might be the simple recognition of different activities supporting each other in complementary ways,and other actually detracting from each other.
I always found low intensity abs to be nicely complementary to high intensity activities like all out exertions and heavy weight training,the target being either sport performance or simple fitness .
I think low-int abs (sit-ups etc) have only role in providing training variety (psychology factor), but the real deals are more functional excercises (sprint itself, expl. medbal, power lifting, olimpic lifting) and they chalenge abs in functional way, teaching athtlete to develop core-stability in very usabel manner…
I mean the recovery aspects of low intensity training. If you do low-intensity work you will better be able to recover from your high intensity work. Better recovery = better quality of high intensity work more frequently which leads to quicker results.
There’s so much more than “functional” and “core stability” issues involved in Low Intensity ab work for a power-speed athlete!
This is where polite literature and studies give way to hard lived on field experience…
thanks for all the outstanding replies!
why any focus on low intensity ab work? because they’re somehow different than all other muscle groups that they need to be stimulated differently to induce optimal recovery? or perhaps they are just another way to add low intensity variety instead of just doing more tempo?
It is exactly the opposite: abs are NO different than all other muscle groups,and since-as the discussions in this thread point righteously out- they already receive more than enough High Intensity stimuli from sprinting,weights ,plyos,and explosive throws, they do need adequate Low Intensity activity to optimally recover!
Anyways I would start out trying to think in terms of general effects on the whole organism of a single activity (be it L.I. ,or H.I.) rather than specific effects on isolated muscle groups.
well that clears a lot up. for a while ive been confused because my interpretation of CFTS and abs was that they are a different muscle group that needs different stimulation. this was quite confusing for me because i know that’s not how CFTS works.
What about doing isometrical abs (exerc. proposed my Stuart McGill - Low Back Disorders)??? It consist of isom abs (on back, one leg curled in knee, one straight, both arms under low back making slight curvature, and just making curling in the thoracik spine (neck is straight all the time), birdog, side-bridges…
I tottaly drop-out doing dynamic sit-ups, curl-ups, rotations etc. based on the facts from his book…
I also love to do isom. exercises for back lying on stomach. I had some problems with back but when I start doing this exerc from book and stay away from too-much bending in low-back I just feel great!!!
I dont know is it good to tottaly drop out dynamic sit-up (witch bend spine a lot of time) and just to do isom. exercises for abs and core??? Can this be applyed with childerns???
I think there is enough work on core doing powerlifting exerc, olimpic lifting, medball throwing, sprinting… but you can use “big three” (birdog, sidebridge, curl - McGill exerc and maybe isom. torsion exerc for trunk rotators) as supplementary and for LI workout and for recovey and offcourse as prevention of injuries???
Low intensity circuits combined with tempo does a better work for recovery between high intensity sessions than tempo alone. Moreover, some of the total tempo volume can be reduced and substituted by circuits if access to soft surfaces (grass, sand) is limited, making tempo on tartan or mondo somewhat tough on joints and tendons.
I always found alternating isometric and dynamic abs exercises -like those you mention- in subsequent Low Intensity sessions accomplished most of my goals with swimmers and soccer players.
The tricky part is quantifying the isometric exercises relatively to the dynamic ones to keep track of the numbers.
Clemson proposed something along these lines in the early ages of this Forum,or in one of his articles.
Clemson?
You can find the article at elitefts.com. Its called Core Calculator (from 12/03) and its under misc articles.
I plan to update that article in some way…add in photos (video perhaps) as well as a quantification table based on force units.
ccardill tnx for the adress, and Clemson the article is great it just give me an idea…
I am preparing to work as a condition coach (volonteeering) in soccer and I am preparing a model of year round program… so I need to classify exercises according to their specificity and HI-LI continuum for easyer planning… and you article just give me some ideas… great tnx!
By the way, we concluded that ab-work have their role as LI intensity (rest,inj prev, general development etc) but is it appropriate to tottaly replace dynamic sit-ups with isometrical (6-8 sec tension, rest fo 10-15sec)??
The only dynamic sit-up I am doing is that when you partner toss you a medbal, you lay down, do a curl an give him a medball back… But my opinion that in this case the abs are working isom too, only the hip-flexors (m.iliacus and others) are contracting dynamicaly…
See you for 10day, the I will post my “clasification” mentioned above… see you guys