Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky RIP

[James_Smith]

Dr. Verkhoshansky succumbed to health complications on Wednesday the 23rd.

He had not been well for some time. I am awaiting more details.

He is survived by his daughter Natalia Verkhoshansky PhD and her husband Massimo.

Another immeasurable loss to the sport training community.

[lylemcd]

I received thsis email from Yosef at UAC earler today

@yosef

With sadness, I am writing to inform everyone of the passing of Dr Yuri Verkhoshansky on June 23. He was easily one of the fields greatest minds in history. His contributions are monumental and have heavily influenced all great coaches.

Personally, I have been honored to be his publisher and representative to the the english speaking world. I have enjoyed a great business relationship with Yuri and considered him and his family personal friends of mine. The scientific world has endured an enormous loss and has void that cannot be filled.

[RandyG]

The athletic community lost 2 giants the past couple of months. May they all rest peacefully.

[100m001]

So sad… His website is amazing.

[Flash]

Damnit! It seems like we’re losing all the greats now. Okay, from now on, no more dying. I’m serious. This shit is getting depressing.

[adarqui]

“Nature has provided man with the possibility to enhance his abilities in extreme situations, and we need to utilize it in the training of the high class athlete.” – Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky

His writings, research, and forum posts are a gold mine.

RIP.

[kitkat1]

@adarqui

“Nature has provided man with the possibility to enhance his abilities in extreme situations, and we need to utilize it in the training of the high class athlete.” – Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky

His writings, research, and forum posts are a gold mine.

RIP.

This is the man who wrote he would “like to congratulate Charlie Francis for coming up with a unique training system all of his own.”

If his advice and words of wisdom can be edited concisely it would be great if someone could create a thread for Prof Verkhoshansky so we can all learn more about his own ideas.

[ASheaff]

@kitkat1

This is the man who wrote he would “like to congratulate Charlie Francis for coming up with a unique training system all of his own.”

If his advice and words of wisdom can be edited concisely it would be great if someone could create a thread for Prof Verkhoshansky so we can all learn more about his own ideas.

I have a ~40 page word document distilled from his responses on his forum. Everything is organized by topic and flows pretty coherently. If there is a way for you to post it here on the site, I would be happy to provide it. As the information is already available for free, there shouldn’t be any copyright, etc… issues.

The information is pretty invaluable. I should note that the vast majority of his translated articles are available for free on his website and on the Athletics Canada Coaching Centre website. This information, however, is different from the information from his forums.

Please let me know if there is a way to make this available here.

Thanks

[Chris6878]

yes please make it available. thx

[Race_Radio]

@Yuri Verkhoshansky

The renowned Russian Scientist Yuri Verkhoshansky states, “Each 6-second isometric contraction is in effect equal to many dynamic contractions in which maximal force is of a duration no more than 0.1 seconds.” Isometric contraction can enhance strength and hypertrophy, as it can recruit almost all the muscle fibers in the targeted muscle group within few seconds.

I have a lot of his stuff, especially on Isometrics, which are obsolete on these forums, which I find quite startling TBH, as the fastest runners need extreme explosive isometric strength for block clearance, the first 2 strides, greater stiffness during maximal speed because they can’t collapse at the ankle, knee and hip & hamstrings/glutes work isometrically at ground contact. To top all that lot off, ISO’s are needed to strengthen tendons (rubber bands), dynamics don’t cut it.

Nobody talks about isometrics, just squats, squats & more crap squats.

Good to see what other people have on him.

[adarqui]

@ASheaff

I have a ~40 page word document distilled from his responses on his forum. Everything is organized by topic and flows pretty coherently. If there is a way for you to post it here on the site, I would be happy to provide it. As the information is already available for free, there shouldn’t be any copyright, etc… issues.

The information is pretty invaluable. I should note that the vast majority of his translated articles are available for free on his website and on the Athletics Canada Coaching Centre website. This information, however, is different from the information from his forums.

Please let me know if there is a way to make this available here.

Thanks

Awesome… I actually made one yesterday, interesting that a bunch of people all thinking about this. Verkhoshansky & Francis both gave so much to the “online athletic community”, they were very similar in their generosity.

This link contains some notes and forum posts from Professor Verkhoshansky, that I had in a file:

http://www.adarq.org/forum/performance-training-blog/verkhoshansky-notes-methods-ideology-gems-forum-responses

His forum got broken a few times, it’s hard to go back and search for his posts. What’s ironic is I actually broke the forum twice unintentionally, there’s a bug in his forum software. When you are writing a post and your session times out, yet you then hit post, it would mess up the structure of threads. I told them but they were unable to fix it.

I would love to see all of his replies structured properly, even if it’s not on his site. I have referred people so many times to signup/read everything on verkhoshansky.com, even in that article, so hopefully they wouldn’t take issue.

Cya.

[adarqui]

@Race_Radio

I have a lot of his stuff, especially on Isometrics, which are obsolete on these forums, which I find quite startling TBH, as the fastest runners need extreme explosive isometric strength for block clearance, the first 2 strides, greater stiffness during maximal speed because they can’t collapse at the ankle, knee and hip & hamstrings/glutes work isometrically at ground contact. To top all that lot off, ISO’s are needed to strengthen tendons (rubber bands), dynamics don’t cut it.

Nobody talks about isometrics, just squats, squats & more crap squats.

Good to see what other people have on him.

I don’t want to create an argument in this thread, so this is all I will say on that. If you look at his many writings, especially on speed enhancement, you will see the use of squat as a primary resistance exercise, not isometrics. Isometrics can very well be added in addition to the program, but he doesn’t go out of his way to advise them.

Most everyone who has gotten addicted to isometrics for speed improvement has gone no where, as is evident by the many journals on forums around the net, including the inno sport forum. Sure they are good in theory, but the basics are for more effective. That being said there’s no reason to not experiment with them IN ADDITION to a sensible isotonic resistance training program.

Tendons strengthen significantly through sprinting/various jumps, leaps, and bounds. Dynamic resistance training would also, considering REA Squat, REA Lunge etc is included in that category.

IMO, regardless of what resistance training ideology you follow, it has to make you maximally stronger over time, if it’s squat or iso lunge, it shouldn’t matter too much but i’d give the edge to squat

The most important aspect of lifting to aid in speed/vert improvement, imo, is the delayed stimulation from the session and how it effects subsequent speed/power sessions. This can be done with isometric or isotonic lifting, but i’ve only used exercises such as barbell squat & barbell lunge due to their success throughout history. When I’m out of my GPP phase, the most effective form of stim i’ve ever used comes from Verkhoshansky’s Maximal Strength Effort Methods; High intensity squatting with rest between reps (2-3x2-4 90+%). Nothing comes close to providing as much potentiation as this simple method, IMO. I’ve used it for same-day stim, next-day stim (1-3 days), in season strength maintenance with very low fatigue, and a quick peaking method consisting of high frequency MSEM (multiple sessions in a row) + very small deload.

My point in all of that, is that even though Verkhoshansky makes isometrics seem very alluring, if you read all of his forum posts, he really sticks to the basics and to his system. If you were to utilize isometrics, he would probably advise you use them in block A.

Sorry for possibly derailing.

R.I.P.

[Race_Radio]

@Yuri Verkhoshansky

Doing a set or two of overcoming isometrics followed immediately by a set of the regular lift can also have a potentiating effect on the lift. Performance plateaus and sticking points can be a thing of the past.

Continuing on to the potentiating effect of isometrics, Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky has stated that an isometric contraction followed by a concentric dynamic movement will increase the force of the movement by up to 20%!

@adarqui

IMO, regardless of what resistance training ideology you follow, it has to make you maximally stronger over time, if it’s squat or iso lunge, it shouldn’t matter too much but i’d give the edge to squat.

Isometric contractions can produce up to 20% more force than a concentric contraction at similar ranges of motion and strength gains in isometric workouts carryover +/- about 15 degrees so these types of workouts can also be used as a stimulus for improving strength in standard versions of the lift as well. Also, there are times when variety for the sake of variety can be valuable.

There are benefits to long duration iso holds (several minutes in duration). In addition to providing quick increases in ROM, the method is also great for causing hypertrophy in fast twitch fibers almost exclusively, and increasing mitochondrial mass and anaerobic energy pathway power.

In case of motor unit recruitment, tendon strengthening, overcoming sticking points, squats are so far away, there nowhere. Can’t see the big attraction myself.

[James_Smith]

Dave Tate just posted a tribute article I wrote:

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/sports-training/in-honor-of-dr-yuri-verkhoshansky/

It was difficult writing this one just over one month after I did the same for Charlie.

Two individuals who have played an immeasurable part in countless coaches development; not the least of which is my own.

[James_Smith]

Gentlemen, please create a separate thread for discussing the application of Dr. Verkhoshansky’s methodological concepts.

I would appreciate if this one were to be left for honorary thoughts versus training discussion.

[kitkat1]

@Race_Radio

I have a lot of his stuff, especially on Isometrics, which are obsolete on these forums, which I find quite startling TBH, as the fastest runners need extreme explosive isometric strength for block clearance, the first 2 strides, greater stiffness during maximal speed because they can’t collapse at the ankle, knee and hip & hamstrings/glutes work isometrically at ground contact. To top all that lot off, ISO’s are needed to strengthen tendons (rubber bands), dynamics don’t cut it.

Nobody talks about isometrics, just squats, squats & more crap squats.

Good to see what other people have on him.

ISOs give you hypertrophy: that explains my fat tummy! Duh! That’s it! No more planks for me. :mad: