Years and years of research have elapsed in the pursuit to completely understand the intricacies of human skeletal muscle contraction.It has included human, amphibian, and feline muscle biopsies, laboratory tests, practical hands-on experiments, and deductive reasoning.

Thankfully, we now have a solid grip on evidence-based practical applications when it comes to designing and implementing resistance training programs. However, there still exists much controversy, ignorance, and confusion, even among educated trainers and trainees on this topic.

Before I begin to simplify this issue, I understand it can become an emotional topic due to the various schools of thought that exist regarding the best way to get stronger, increase power, maximize hypertrophy, improve endurance, or improve skill.

Because there are a number of philosophies on the best way to attain these attributes, both ego and financial gain are at the root of this. Hey, it’s the world we live in, but hanging on to proven science and research will offer you some solace and common sense to move forward.

If everyone just accepted the following three indisputable facts, training program design and implementation would be much more objective, safer, and sensible:

1. Activity on Earth is governed by basic laws of physics – one being gravitational pull.
2. The Henneman’s Size Principle of muscle fiber recruitment is the accepted gold-standard.
3. Your genetic skeletal structure, muscle fiber endowment, and nervous system “hook-ups” cannot be ignored.

Gravity’s Pull and Resistance Training

The law of gravity clearly dictates you cannot move a relatively heavy resistance quickly. That is if a resistance moves quickly it must be “light” relative to your ability.

Similarly, you can move a light resistance relatively quickly as compared to “heavy” resistance. The lighter resistance is, the faster your potential speed of movement, all other factors being equal. Common sense, people.

Take Olympic lifters. These people are strong. Look at their training regimens: they use training protocols to increase muscular strength, and then practice the skills of lifting heavy resistances with proper technique.

They can only move heavy resistances so fast and so high, so they need the ability to move fast to secure it. That is, the resistance does not move fast, but their technique does.

Slower-moving front squatting, back squatting, and overhead pressing is done to get stronger. Faster-moving skill practice is then implemented to perfect the required body actions.

What about a conventional exercise such as a bench press or leg press? It’s pretty straight-forward: load more resistance on the bar or machine and it will move slower as compared to using a lighter resistance relative to your ability.

Think about it: you can surely throw a baseball further than a 16-pound shot used in the shot put. Likewise, all other factors being equal, a stronger person can throw both implements even further as compared to someone relatively weaker.

Henneman’s Size Principle: Slow vs. Fast Muscle Fiber

Muscle fibers are recruited sequentially based on need. That is, the lower the demand, the fewer fibers required and the greater the demand, the more fibers required.

Low-demand efforts recruit the smaller, lower threshold, slower-to-fatigue motor units.

When more effort is required, the larger, higher threshold, faster-to-fatigue motor units are called upon.

It makes perfect sense and explains why you can jog for a longer time as compared to sprinting, or why a lighter resistance can be moved for more repetitions as compared to heavier resistance.

The “slow” versus “fast” muscle fiber classification is a misnomer and has created mayhem among both the scholarly-educated and the average Joe Schmoe trainer and trainee. Conventional wisdom suggests the smaller, slow muscle fibers contract slowly and is not capable of “fast” muscle contraction.

Similarly, larger, faster muscle fibers are thought to be the only fibers recruited for lightening-fast muscle activity. Yes, slow fibers do contract relatively slower than fast fibers, but the difference is between 60 to 90 milliseconds. Yes, milliseconds. This difference is virtually negligible.

Understand the fast versus slow fiber classification does not only refer to the speed of contraction. It also refers to a fiber’s fatigue capacity. The larger, greater force-producing muscle fibers are faster to fatigue as compared to slow fibers, which exert slightly less force-output but are slower to fatigue.

An explosive, bodyweight-only vertical jump is a great example:

• A single maximum-effort jump recruits both slow and fast fibers. Although it is high-effort, it creates minimal fatigue because of its brevity. Perform multiple jumps and fatigue will eventually ensue because of the greater demand and recruitment of higher threshold, faster fatiguing fibers.
• Now, jump while holding heavy dumbbells or wearing a weighted vest. What happens? The speed of movement and jump height will decrease due to gravitational pull, but you will be using more muscle fibers. Jump multiple times and fatigue will come sooner because more fibers are initially required (the faster-to-fatigue type). This higher-demand event cannot match the time frame as jumping without resistance.
• Finally, use a five-repetition maximum (5RM) resistance in a squat or deadlift and try to jump (which I don’t recommend, by the way). Because it is ultra-high demand, a large pool of muscle fibers will be recruited, the resistance cannot be moved fast, and fatigue will be realized quickly.

Genetics, Body Type and Your Ability to Contract Muscle

Touching just briefly on this topic, your body type, and the neuromuscular system can affect your ability to contract the muscle and perform, all other factors being equal:

• Longer limbs may move slower than shorter limbs.
• Having exceptional tendon origins and insertions may allow you to exert greater force/speed as compared to poor origins/insertions.
• Greater muscle mass may exert more force than smaller mass.
• Possessing more high-threshold, fast muscle fibers may allow you to exert more force than possessing more slow-type fibers.
• If you don’t “look the part” (i.e., small muscles, gangly, over-fat) but can contract muscle/exert force with above-average ability, you probably have good neurological ability (muscle fiber-nervous system “hook-ups”).

Training Mode Implications

• If you despise gravity, move to the Moon.
• Relatively heavy resistance requires the recruitment of many muscle fibers, including the high-threshold, greater force-generating fibers.
• High-threshold/greater force-generating fibers are used in explosive/speed movements outside the weight room in sports competition.
• Relatively heavy resistance cannot be moved fast. If you can move a resistance fast, it is light relative to your ability.
• Although inherently unsafe, moving relatively fast with resistance can recruit and overload many fibers provided maximum repetitions are achieved (i.e., aim for complete volitional muscle fatigue).
• If a fast speed of movement were important in resistance training, what amount of resistance would you use and how fast would you move it? 35%, 50%, or 80% of a 1RM? 115, 360, or 600 degrees per second?
• You don’t have to move fast when resistance training to develop power. Power = force x distance/time. Get stronger, (increase force) then practice your sports skills/timing (maximize distance and time), which leads to this:
• Move fast when skill training, unabated by resistance. Refine and hone sport-specific skills as they will be required in competition.

References:

1. Brooks, G.A., T.D. Fahey, and K.M. Baldwin. (2005). Exercise Physiology: Human Bioenergetics and its Applications. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Companies.

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It doesn’t take many rounds before you can see who is focused on results and who is on a Sunday morning ride through the park. Most protocols use a “tabataesque” work to rest ratio, keeping rest periods much shorter than work periods. While this method is great for grinding out sets on the way to fat loss, it doesn’t do much in the way of developing (or maintaining) power.

Find Your Power

After a few rounds at a 2:1 work to rest ratio, even a test fueled, blood transfused, EPO loaded Lance Armstrong is going to lose peak power. Try the below method to get a more “powerful” session on the airbike:

• Get on the bike and pedal/push/pull as hard as you can for 8 seconds. Note the peak power output displayed on the monitor. This can be expressed in watts, RPM, METS, etc. If you have no display, then you must go by the roar of the fan and promptly go to the office of your gym’s manager and pose a formal complaint regarding the lack of quality equipment after your session.

• Whatever number you achieve in terms of power output is your goal for each set thereafter. Rest periods should be long, think 40-50 seconds. Continue performing sets until you are unable to hit 75-80% of your peak power and then end the session.

• Try to increase the number of rounds performed prior to hitting “ride through the park” status and your peak power value each session. Once you can keep peak power above 75-80% for 12 sets, decrease your rest periods by :5 seconds and start over.

Disclaimer: If you can fit your quads into a pair of skinny jeans after this protocol, you did something wrong, try again and pedal harder!

Get the most out of your breath:

How to Activate Your Diaphragm to Improve Breathing and Performance

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I’ve recently discovered some new research on combining endurance and explosive strength training for cyclists. Researchers at Lillehammer University College in Norway analyzed the effect of combining endurance training with heavy or explosive strength training on endurance performance.

The research concluded that this combination led to an improvement in performance and improved endurance, as measured by power output (VO2 max) and time to exhaustion (for both runners and cyclists).

Why Explosive Exercise Matters

Heavy or explosive exercises help the body to recruit a maximum number of muscle fibers in order to perform the required motion, which is a neurological function, in addition to any strength development that may occur.

Since performance is related to how much power you can deliver, the development of force and speed (which together define power) seems logical.

If you are only recruiting fifty percent of your available muscle fibers, then assisting the body to use more of them will deliver greater power. Similarly, learning to deliver that force more quickly will enable you deliver more power, too.

How to Train Explosively

Explosive and heavy exercises can be delivered in a number of ways. One method is to train on the bike using a combination of sprints or hill climbs, either (safely) on the road or a turbo trainer.

If you find yourself unable to use your bike, there are some alternatives using gym equipment or bodyweight exercises. One approach could be to use a resistance program in the gym that engages and recruits muscles in a similar movement to cycling.

Another way could be using bodyweight exercises with a rapid motion using momentum to recruit many muscle fibers.

How to Train Explosively With Bodyweight Exercise

I am going to choose an example of a bodyweight exercise to illustrate some routines using a suspension trainer.

One of the benefits of using a suspension trainer is that it is portable. So if you find yourself traveling frequently, this can often be easily packed in your bags. Your training schedule can then continue while you are away, and you can get back to regular endurance training when you return home.

Single Leg Squat to Jump

This exercise uses a suspension trainer. Facing towards the point of suspension, hold both handles in a position that replicates holding your handlebar. Squat on one leg until the knee is approximately ninety degrees, then explosively extend the knee into a jump, while holding onto the handles.

This exercise can be progressed to a single arm grip or by number and speed of repetitions.

Frontal Plane Step Over

The second bodyweight exercise uses a step. With one foot resting on the step, extend the knee into a jump and land on the other foot. Jump again, changing each leg with each jump.

This exercise can be progressed by holding a light weight such as the small ViPR. Hold it like a pair of handlebars as shown in the picture. A small weighted bar could also be used. An alternative would be to stay with the same leg and use a heavier weight such as a dumbbell or sand bag.

Stair Climb

If you don’t have a convenient exercise step like the previous exercise, a flight of stairs in a local park or hotel can also make for an effective cycling-relevant workout.

Since this will be a bodyweight session, the workout simply comprises running up the stairs. Do make sure it is safe to do so first, and that you are not going to collide with anyone coming the other way.

I am fortunate that in my local park there is a small hill with some steps that take approximately thirty seconds to reach the top. I do four sets of this during my biweekly run.

Depending upon your timetable, you could mix some of these exercises before or after an endurance ride or set aside two days per week specifically for this type of training.

If you are using heavier weights, then I would start with four sets of four reps. For lighter weights, increase the number of reps up to twelve to fifteen, making sure that each exercise is performed in a controlled manner.

References:

1. Rønnestad, B.R. and Mujika, I. “Optimizing strength training for running and cycling endurance performance: A review.“Scandinavia J Med Sci Sports. 2013 Aug 5.

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

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