I have heard that some athletes squat heavy before a race. Has anyone ever tried this?
Depends if you are subject to stomach upset pre race.
:D:D
if i havent played a game of rugby the previous saturday, then i usually gym before monday nights training, pumps me up, and doesnt affect me!
There was a lot of discussion on this topic on the old forum. One of the main proponants of this concept attempted to use Ben Johnson as support for this theory, claiming that Ben squatted 600lbs 1/2 hr before running the 9.79 in Seoul. This was absolutely NOT TRUE. Ben never squatted before races.
In fact, the athletes who have the most ability- in other words, the most white fibre- will have the worst response to this approach, as their fibre can be depleted sooner. Pre-race stimulus via weights can be achieved and maintained for DAYS before the race.
so i dont have the most ability… cause i feel bouncy if i go to gym before training…
Bah… well lets hope i have a good mix of white & red fibres:clap:
Not sure I understand why you think those with the most white fibres will have the worst result with stimulus such as squatting b/4 a race Charlie. Gullich and Schmidtbleicher published an article in New Studies in Athletics (11:43;67-81, 1996) demonstrating if memory serves that elite level power athletes got more potentiation from doing max contractions than non elite when it came to vertical jump and H-reflex…
Rossa,
That ability to create a greater contraction is exactly the reason why such a strategy would be folly for a highly talented athlete. A very strong contraction indicates that the athlete is using a larger then average portion of their muscle fibers, hence, they have fewer fibers that were not effected by the lift, jump etc. If that athlete also has a larger then normal amount of white fiber, those fibers that were used in that maximal contraction are also more slow to recover then red fibers. Basically, my understanding is that the closer to absolute maximal performance that an athlete can voluntarily achieve, the farther into available energy they can go, the longer it takes to recover, both metabolically and neurologically. Contrast that with me, for instance. I am not even a high level athlete, as such, I do not have a great deal of white fiber, nor do I have a super efficient nervous system, therefore, I do not have as much capability to voluntarily drain my system with a 1RM squat as an elite athlete. As such, I would be able to perform a very high level sooner after a maximal effort then an elite, because I am actually not working nearly as hard, although perceived effort might be identical. I hope that explination was clear enough
Also, the deeper you can get into the muscles- the longer the stimulation cycle (days, not minutes or hours).
thanks for the replies Beta and Charlie… makes sense that white fibres would be slower to recover, i guess there is less capillarisation around them and their greater ability to develop tension leaves them more susceptible to damage. However just dug up that paper I referred to above, and the authors conclude " a high proportion of Fast twitch units and maximal stimulis intensity and considerable stimulus duration (several seconds) are neccessary to trigger off the neuronal PTP (post tetanic potentiation) effects induced by voluntary treatment contractions"
The results showed the elite athletes did show some reduction in force output immediatly after the MVCs but by 4.5 to 12mins or so afterwards they were signficantly higher… H-reflex which gives some indication of motoneuron excitability was also reduced immediatly post contractions (and more reduced in the elite athlete population) but also rebounded more and was potentiated (enhanced) to a greater extent with the elite group as compared to the phys-ed students they were compared with. The authors suggest MVCs (3 x3) were used by the bobsled teams that won 1995 world champs to good effect as part of their warm-up. My take on this is that some elite fast twitch endowed athletes will get a positive result out of using squats or similar prior to other power ex as a stimulus. Be interested to hear more Charlie as to how long stimulation can be maintained for elite athletes and how do you know… i find that the confusing part!!
I know of an Ivy league football team who would weight train the morning of an afternoon game They did olympic movements with low intensities.Their goal was to excite the C.N.S. I also remember reading the University of oregon does a session the day before a game.
I dont see how low intensities would stimulate the CNS. What type of volume were they doing? If they did low intensity and low volume i could only see this as a muscular warmup, and if they were doing low intensities with higher volume i would see this as fatiging muscles.
It doesnt make much sense.
Charlie, you said that,
<Also, the deeper you can get into the muscles- the longer the stimulation cycle >
How can one do this?
Quick,
Reps were low.(2-5) range. Also I believe intensity were in the 70-85 % area. When I say low, I mean nothing in the 90% area.They would spend about 20-30 minutes top on a couple of lifts. Perhaos clean and squat.Coach said players liked the feeling it produced.
gotcha…
well in that case it would fire up the CNS.
But so would contrast showers.
Load47,
I will ask some of my track and fb friends what they do around comps. I will try to get access to Coach Radcliffe, but he is probably pretty right now, especially considering that I am a lowly undergrad.
Could You please post the entire study? I know its a bit tedius but we have a really good discussion going on in the wts before speed thread. Also, I would do this myself but I don’t have access to that magazine (small town library) at least not without subscribing to it.
Thanks in Advance.
I liked doing Olympic lifts before a game. I felt I was more explosive on the line if I lifted. If I didn’t lift I felt kinda slow.
i agree acarl i normally do some speed snatches and light jump sq before our pregame routine.