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The
buzz word on every ones mind in today’s
training world is sports specific training.
“What are you doing to make sure your
kids are training sports specifically?”
I don’t buy it for one minute. I think
we should call all training movement specific.
Everything we do needs to be more movement specific
then anything else. After all, regardless of
the sport, human movement and the way we turn
muscle on and off dictate how much power we
can recruit. The sports specific part of the
equation takes care of itself in sporting practice.
Are we teaching the body how to move correctly?
You can throw 100 fast ball pitches, and if
you are not recruiting the right musculature
at the right time in the correct pattern, your
performance gains will plateau faster than you
can imagine. While you are in the process of
plateauing, you open your self up to an injury.
In
this article I want to get into the uses of
the Inertial Machine for teaching DB’s
system of Neuro-Rate functions. Remember that
plyometric training has such a diverse meaning
when it comes to performance training. Everybody
wants to ask why are there so many different
words to describe one term? This nomenclature
helps separate and define different types of
plyometric training. Neuro-Rate as DB explains
it in The Best Sports Training Book Ever is
the modality of work which is associated with
the greatest rate (interval and transmission)
abilities, of primary focus, with some support
to come from transmission magnitude functions.
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As
you can see from the video clip the inertia
machine offers high speed movements with limited
load to work on the reflexive firing patterns
of the muscle. In most high speed movements
such as throwing or swinging a racket gravity
plays a minimal role. Too the contrary, most
programs offer exercises for throwing that involve
some form of gravity (resistance) or elastic
resistance. We need to create an environment
of pure acceleration and deceleration. It is
in this atmosphere in which the inertial machine
operates by sliding on a linear track we try
to teach neuro-muscular education.
The
concept of inertial training starts with a weighted
sled on a linear track and allows you to feel
the motion and coordination of smooth explosive
movement in an almost gravity free environment.
After all, what good is a powerful muscle if
you cannot turn it on when it needs to be turned
on? When the body learns the motor pattern and
what we call the “timing” of the
movement, we can then drop the weight and increase
the speed of movement. Soon the training begins
to work on the anticipatory ability to turn
on muscles at the correct time (you begin to
do it without thinking). The inertial machine
creates a highly accelerated eccentric stretch
coupled with a functional concentric stabilization
that helps create better timing and energy flow
in all movement. Steve Davison the founding
father and creator of the Inertial Exercise
Trainer describes the ultimate benefit of inertial
training as, “we actually affect the level
of coordination and change timing and acceleration
of movement dramatically.” Steve goes
on to say that, “the inertial machine
fine tunes your neural electronic architecture
as it relates to muscle response and functional
reflexes.” What we fail to see sometimes
is that all musculature that is part of lets
say a throwing motion needs to be behaving in
a positive way.
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| day 1 |
day 13 |
Note
(click on either image
to enlarge): One
13 day study on force output found that after
training with the inertial trainer time to do
work was shortened dramatically...from 65 ms
to 40 ms. That's the neural effect we're talking
about here.
By
positive I mean antagonistic muscles need to
shut off at the correct time and turn on when
they need to. Stabilizing muscles need to be
stabilizing at the proper time also. See the
pattern? The more your muscles do things they
are not suppose to do the more prone you are
to an injury. (Trauma to the area i.e. elbow,
shoulder) These things happen so fast that we
cannot actually feel it. Again, we are talking
about high speeds here to the tune of 25milli-seconds.
If you sneeze, you missed it twice……….The
body must work in concert at all times. A program
that addresses the scapula with increased stabilization
and co-activation of the muscles that control
the scapula will give you better mobilization
and at the same time training stabilization
of the shoulder ball joint (again by focusing
on agonist and antagonist). So, when throwing,
the scapula is the primary decelerator working
with the core. By involving the core the shoulder
is exposed to less force along the chain. All
of these factors have tremendous impact on the
elbow. You need to engage all muscles in the
deceleration process with the humorous ball
centered so you will have a huge shock absorber
that includes the core during the majority of
load dissipation. This will also minimize the
geographical trauma to the rotator cuff and
elbow. I like to think of it as something a
chiropractor would do to align your spine to
solve a problem somewhere in your body. Everything
needs to be working synergistically. Note the
reference to core is not an acknowledgement
to start balancing on a Swiss ball. Again, the
core transfers power. What does all this mean?
Proper activation and utilization of muscles
produce faster throws, and efficient injury
free shoulders! The problem arises in which
we need to teach this feeling at slower speeds,
then e able to turn it loose with high speeds.
In part 2 of this article series we will talk
about posture and how it affects your ability
to create force. |
