Classic sit ups not bio-mechanicly relevent?

Expert Discussion Strength Training
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In the past, I did weighted crunches and ‘Dragon-flags’ (a classic Bruce Lee exercise) on a decline bench. They did not improove my sprinting speed.

However, when hopping and sprint volumes are consistent, I get great abdominal definition, and more speed in my running. And yes, even a 15 minute jog (once in awhile) makes me feel much better the next day (recovery factors ) than any amount of classic floor exercises such as sit ups etc…

In gluteal hip hyper extension tests, sprinters were the athletes that faired better (relative to their bodyweight) than all other athletes, including powerlifters. This was despite the fact that powerlifters could squat a lot more weight (including relative to their bodyweight.)
But the sprinters find hip-hyper-extension exercises very easy.
If you were to lay on your back, and push your hips up with a single bent leg, and the other leg elevated, you would find it very easy, and could bust out 20 reps without a problem. This is because you have done lots of sprinting, which from a ‘neural’ stand-point, is the best hip-hyper-extension exercise in the world. (Where as the squat is just hip extension.)

A lot of strength gain is mainly neural. A number of field athetes such as hammer throwers, can power clean ridiculous weights, comparable to Olympic lifters, despite no where near the rehearsal level of that spacific lift.

You also have to consider, that you can do more reps of running contacts in less time, than sit up contractions.

Throwing a basket-ball ( a med ball would have been a little better ) helped me to increase my speed. The one slight advantage of a basketball, is that it bounces back to you from the wall quicker than a med ball, so your reflexes are even more alert, and you can get more reps done in ess time. A med-ball will develope a little more power.

However, in sprinting, a lot of the power is expressed through the rythm and neural co-ordination. The rythm (neural) magnifies the power in sprinting, not just the ‘strength per se’ contribution. The strength needs to be reasonably relevent in my opinion, or the exercise is not worth doing. Even though niether are classed as spacific, I would contend that med ball throws are more relevent to running than sit ups. Even push ups are probably better than sit ups.

But lots of forwards hopping would be better than both the above exercises combined.

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What we get out of it (relative to the movements we perform against the wall): dynamic stabilization of glenohumeral joint and shoulder girdle, arms, and abdominal musculature in general, along with posterior musculature (erectors, glutes, hamstrings) along with improved general work capacity.

The reactive/elastic nature of the exercise ensures additional benefits to speed-power athletes; even though the physiological nature is extensive.

Research dynamic stabilization as well as perturbation training and it will become more clear to you.

I highly recommend this type of exercise regardless if the objective is high sports performance or the personal training of pedestrians. The actual ‘feel’ of these types of med ball wall rebounds is really nice. Similar to tempo in that it’s challenging in the moment yet very fast to recover from with the additional novel result/sensation of blood flow through all of the active musculature throughout the upper body.

Low cost: high benefit is always a winner for me.

Video probably won’t happen as typing is about the extent of my motivation right now.

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Speaking of med-ball rebounds, has anyone tried the “Passback” football. I just bought a couple of these for our receivers to work on their hands. These things work great. You can throw a spiral at a wall, and the thing spirals back to you. The ball is weighted properly and feels like a real football.

Lots of fun. Highly recommend it. I personally use it in the squash courts near my weight room just to entertain myself.

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Most of my ab work is of this nature. I can easily rack up 300-400 reps in about 5-6min.

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Video of a couple of my players performing the ground based abdominal work and med ball rebounds in real time; 1 series each.

They go at their own pace in terms of rest interval between movements and reps average 40-50 per move with a couple exceptions in which the movement is performed for half the reps on one side then half on the other.

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/66330892f0f11bd24fffdce884052aea/video/12257862

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lol to each their own. I’d rather spend my time doing something productive than aiming to hit the highest possible numbers. Still didn’t hit the averages claimed anyway.

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Correct, to each their own; however, perhaps you want to re-think your words as it seems you are implying that the work is not productive and that the goal is hitting the highest possible numbers.

You are incorrect on both counts and your comment regarding the averages claimed implies you have repeatedly overlooked the fact that I implied the work is completed in “approximate” amounts of time. Additionally, this video was taken today, during spring ball, so the volume is greatly decreased relative to where it was last block.

Me sharing this information has nothing to do with ‘look how many reps we perform’ and everything to do with look how easy it is to accumulate a higher volume of quality work that offers multiple benefits at a low cost.

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Volume of tapping a medicine ball against a wall with a 2" ROM =/= volume of classical abdominal exercises as discussed in CFTS and elsewhere.

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Might want to use a multiplier of .25
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/core_calculator.htm

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As I stated earlier, regarding the limited movement amplitudes: it would benefit you to study the benefits of dynamic stabilization and perturbation training.

Similarly, I’d recommend that you give this type of exercise a shot a I think you would continue to include it in your own training.

Regarding how to account for the workload, it would be rookie on your behalf to assume I haven’t carefully done this already and rookie for me not to have carefully done this already.

I consulted with John Gray Ph D, who studied under Stuart McGill, 6 years ago. Rest assured that there’s nothing careless happening on my behalf.

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To see what we do, get the med ball workout video from the site store.

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Love the exercises though could do with a few posteral changes in all but the last exercise, great position to do the squats in.

My humble opinion

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No problem with the ab movements but those MB drills look too slow…

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why?

too short??

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Don’t know, the ball could be too heavy or maybe James want them to be slower. I prefer to use CF methods, 4-8lbs ball - rapid fire. We use 6 different movements for 20reps @ 3sets for 3rds for a total of 1080. It’s a race and each week I would like to see the sets/rds take less time.

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The stuff on CF is a bit too high for beginners, they have to learn the basics before going high performance.

my humble opinion

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It’s all a function of desired training effect. Our method of execution is accomplishing the objective of extensive reactive/elastic work and the associated adaptations I’ve addressed previously.

I encourage all to give this method a shot and see for yourself.

Rest assured that I don’t have my athletes perform one single training component that isn’t strongly justified and orthopedically sound.

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What are you talking about?

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Charlie, I own the video and I have applied it multiple times with very satisfying results. It is hard as hell, especially the lumbar exercises (I don’t seem to adapt to them). How do you fit it in the training plan of high-level sprinters (so reduced GPP with respect to what presented in the GPP video) ? I remember you said that 3 rounds would be approximately 50 minutes, so a good option would be tempo days during the short GPP phase of high level sprinters, am I right?
I remember also that in another thread you said that you trained a hockey player (in off-season) who never lifted weights before by using as strenght exercise only med-ball exercises. So only medball exercises as shown in the video plus explosive med ball throws? Was the sequence (extensive + explosive) like the one you showed in the med ball video?

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I have no issues with the exercises in the videos or the volume claimed. However these are not full situps, and I would still like to see a forum member post vid of themselves doing 1000 situps in 20 minutes or less.