Classroom Experience

Recently I was invited to speak at an Exercise Physiology class on campus. It was kind of a "career day" talk...the prof was trying to expose his students to new and budding fields related to exercise physiology. I took an informal pole before the class started and ~70% of the students were on a pre-physical therapy path. First, let me say that none of the following comments should reflect poorly on the prof but should reflect poorly on our education system regarding our profession.

I opened the lecture with a series of pictures depicting what strength and conditioning is and what it isn't. For instance this is what S&C isn't:



I told the students that we aren't training for an earthquake...I understand the concept of proprioception and enhanced motor unit recruitment, but this is not the appropriate means for achieving the desired effect. We also discussed "Sports Specific" training. I'm stealing from Chad Dennis on this one, but there is no such thing as sports specific training. If you want to be sports specific...well go play the sport. What we can do as S&C Coaches is train muscle contractions, motor patterns, movement patterns ect. This concept lead into my next point which was why train for strength.

I put up the graph from Dr. Mel Siff's book Super Training. Which by the way, if you haven't read it you are about 10 years behind. Not one of the students understood what the terms absolute strength, accelerating strength/rate of force development, starting strength, or strength endurance meant...regarding training. These are supposed to be students that are learning not only about cardiopulmonary function/aerobic training adaptations, but they are supposed to be learning about muscle physiology and basic adaptations from training. The real problem is that this is not an isolated case. You can graduate with a MS from a MAJOR institution in Exercise Science and you will no absolutely nothing about the science of training.

Oh and then I really offended everyone when I told them that the NSCA was about 25 years behind. We discussed how Western Linear Periodization is the reason for a lot of our training related injuries: CNS fatigue, Adrenal Fatigue, Muscle Strains/Sprains ect. I wasn't rude in my delivery but I wanted these young and impressionable minds to see what is available to them.

So, moral of the story...if you are Ex Phys student out there and you are also lost just reading this blog, start reading now!! And here is a short list to get you going:

Super Training: Dr. Mel Siff
High Powered Plyometrics: Radcliffe
Running Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology in Practice: Bosh
Explosive Power and Jumping Ability for All Sports: Starzynski
Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods: Thibaudeau
Special Strength Training: Yuri Verkhoshansky