This will be the most important piece of information that you will ever read about weight training.
GUIDELINES TO PERFORMING THE PERFECT REP3. There are alternate breathing techniques but this one is simple and safe so remember: breathe in when the weight is released and breathe out when the weight is lifted.Range Of Motion�2. Breath out more forcefully as the weight is lifted (when the target muscle engages and shortens during the concentric contraction)Anyone who knows me will find that I am extremely particular about good exercise technique. I pay very close attention to the body position and movement pattern adjusting fine components so that the exercise is totally optimised. I must annoy the hell out of my clients sometimes. It works though.WHY IS PERFECT EXERCISE TECHNIQUE SO IMPORTANT?>From Kevin I discovered that each exercise has an optimum movement path to generate maximum power safely. Scott showed me a broad range of exercises and how to apply good technique to each of them for consistent effectiveness and efficiency. I have taken these lessons with me throughout my career and applied them to my training and the hundreds of exercises that I have created myself.Not exactly. Here are some of the reasons we are seeing more children injured in sports.While it's great to get your child involved because of all the life skills and physical competencies we get from sports, it should be more about health and fun than producing the next Kobe Bryant. They more parents change their focus and put it where it counts, the less likely injuries become.You cannot perform an exercise safely or effectively unless your body is positioned in accordance with the guidelines for that exercise. This means that once you are set your ancillary muscles (the direct assisting muscles for the movement) and the stabilizers (the muscles that hold the rest of the body in the correct place) must be engaged so that a perfect repetition is performed every time. This will make your body safe, strong and functional.If you isolate the target muscle group and contract it slowly and intensely through the entire movement you will activate the greatest amount of muscle fibers. A safe and full range of motion (ROM) will involve muscle fibers from the origin (initial attachment) right across to the insertion (final attachment) of the muscle. A slow, intense, precise movement during the entire concentric contraction (muscle shortening) and eccentric contraction (muscle lengthening) will innervate more motor neurons �firing� more muscle fibers. This will facilitate a maximum activation of the muscle fibers and total muscle contraction maximizing strength and muscle gain.A common trend we are seeing these days are children who play one sport year round so that they may excel. While this may make them a better player and add up to winning streaks for the team, it can also leady to sports-specific overtraining. They may be better off playing a diversity of sports throughout the year and according to the seasons.The CoachesBest Baseball Store has SMALL BASEBALLS at discount prices. Check out the BatAction Hitting Machine baseball pitching simulator. This high speed training machine is 100% Guaranteed to raise Batting Averages and has a full year warranty.At the impressionable age of 14 I was lucky enough to be introduced to the world of weight training by a competitive bench presser and ex-Olympic wrestler. He was a cartoonish 5 foot 3, 65 kilo powerhouse with a barrel chest and black pony-tail mullet down to his arse. At his gym in Bellingen he would ensure that I learned and retained precise lifting technique during my first 12 months of training. Thank-you Kevin. Under his supervision I went on to become the Australian School-boys Bench Press Champion at the ripe old of age of 15 with a lift of 87.5 kilograms (192.5 pounds) at a HUGE (laughs) body-weight of 66 kgs (145 lbs). That was after only 6 months of training. Technique and intensity is EVERYTHING!Repetitions� Your entire training career is composed of millions of them. You group them in sets and they are the basis of each workout. Performing them correctly is the difference between success and failure. A perfect repetition, seemingly simple, has many components and is powerfully effective. I am going to explain how to perform the perfect rep and why it is so important.4. Parental ExpectationsDecreased �Cheating� And Involvement Of Unrelated Muscle Groups�Apply And Maintain Proper Technique�1. More InvolvementFinally we come to my favourite word; Intensity. To cause the greatest amount of muscle fiber damage and to induce growth producing chemistry within the body you need to push each set to absolute failure or beyond. By that I mean that you make sure you grind out each repetition with perfect technique until it is not possible to perform another without losing your form. To go beyond failure you must utilise a training partner or spotter or perform intensity increasing techniques which are described on our website http://www.GlobalWeightTraining.com. You must however maintain precise technique for each repetition throughout the set no matter what your goal is or how far you push yourself.Batting practice with Small Baseballs is a proven method of improving the ability of a batter to see and focus on the baseball. The small ball concept has been around for decades. The theory is simple, if you practice hitting a ball much smaller than a baseball, then when you actually are hitting a real baseball, it will look bigger and easier to hit. I was skeptical about this movement when it first came about in the early to mid nineties. But, firsthand experience has made me a believer. I purchased 6 dozen small baseballs last season for my players to use in batting drills and the batting cages. I must admit, I had visions of the small baseballs flying through the netting of our batting cages. That concern proved to be unmerited. During months of use and thousands and thousands of batting practice swings, I never witnessed a single small baseball pass through the net.Once you have learnt the exercise guidelines make sure you apply them to your training in the gym precisely and consistently. If you forget how to do something go back to the site and look it up.One of the most common causes of an increasing injury rate is that children are not as physically prepared as they were in the past. In other words, those same problems that cause obesity in children�mainly inactivity and poor diet�are adding up to children who lack physical strength and coordination. It's great parents are trying to turn it around, but it's important to get kids active early on, just as it is important to discourage overtraining in a child whose body is not prepared. It takes time to get fit.Decreased Involvement And Fatigue From Ancillary Muscle Groups�Another big cause of sports injury in children is parental expectations. Many parents dream of their child making it to the pros, and many push their children far too hard, resulting in overtraining or playing through minor injuries, which often turns them into bigger ones.Improved Mind-Muscle Connection�2. Concentric Contraction � where the muscle shortens as the weight is lifted through the predetermined Range of Motion (ROM). Also called �The Positive Phase�.Symmetry And Precision Of Movement�2. Kids Who Are Not Physically PreparedYou need to breathe properly during each repetition to maintain a continuous delivery of oxygen around the body to the working muscles. It will also reduce the build-up of carbon-dioxide. This will give you the energy to power through the set and decrease the onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA � that awful burn from lactic acid which is caused from glycogen being burnt for energy without the presence of oxygen). Breathing properly also takes the pressure off your cardio-vascular system facilitating normal function under conditions of high stress from intense exercise. It is important to keep the blood pressure down and unnecessary strain off the body as no-one is unbreakable. Another advantage of full, rhythmic breathing is that it will pace the tempo of your repetitions. You can�t take slow, full breaths if your reps are fast and messy.Kevin sold the gym to a great man called Scott who became a very close friend of mine, a fantastic training partner and the catalyst for my career in Personal Training. He looked somewhat normal in comparison to Kevin sporting a natural, balanced, muscular bodybuilder�s physique. His basic training philosophy was to hit each muscle group from every angle with perfect form designating set and exercise volume in proportion to the size of the muscle group, i.e. back being the most complex and largest received the most exercises while biceps being one of the smallest received the least. I learned a lot from him. Exercise form was always at the fore-front of his teachings.Reduced Risk Of Injury�Players are always receptive to new ideas and concepts. My players are always eager to see what I come up with next. As the inventor of the hitting stick, BatAction Machine, Hit2win Trainer, and ZipnHit, I often use my team practices to experiment with new ideas and concepts. The players loved the small baseball on first sight. I basically gave them access to them to use in our daily batting cage workouts.They quickly developed their own routine and drills. They quickly adopted a 3-stage progression during their daily batting cage workouts. They used the small baseball in two of our 6 mini-cages. When they hit the small baseball, they would take 12 swings with a Livewire brand training bat, a small barreled bamboo bat. Then they would take 12 swings with the Sweetspot brand training bat. Then they would finish with 12 swings with their regular metal batting cage practice bat. After hitting the small baseballs, they would use regular sized baseballs in the batting cages, taking 48 swings in 4 sets. So the small balls acted as a warm-up or prep work before their regular batting cage workout with regular batting cage balls. The small baseball performed great. Soon, all of our hitters used then on a daily basis. The use of the small baseball greatly improved eye focus, batter concentration, and most of all, it improved batter confidence. There was normal wear and tear on the small balls because they were sometimes used in cage with bare cement floors. If you are looking for a new twist to add to your daily practice routine, I highly recommend small baseballs. I am sure that you will see and experience the same benefits that I did with my team.If you are to remain injury-free throughout your training career you must practise safe, tight, controlled lifting technique for every single repetition. If the movement is as close to biomechanical perfection as possible you will receive maximum stimulation with minimum risk. Injuries will halt your progress every time and can be very serious. Any chance to avoid them should be harnessed, implemented and retained.5. Finishing Point � same as the Starting Point.Repetition Speed�This level of precision for every single repetition that you perform during your workout demands a massive amount discipline, will-power and intensity. You control the movement of every exercise and apparatus as though it were part of your body. Be patient and apply it to all exercises performed until it becomes second nature. By this stage it will feel awkward to train with sloppy technique and you won�t miss it because you will become stronger and more muscular and injury-free.Improved Focus, Discipline, Intensity And Quality Of Training�Abdominals And Core Muscles�Ancillary Muscles And Stabilizers�Breathing�Related to the last point the execution of a perfect repetition every time will ensure the target muscle is isolated and fully fatigued before the ancillary muscles (assisting muscles) give out. To make this more clear I will describe two examples where this is a common occurrence. Example 1: when you perform a back exercise if you do not focus on engaging and isolating the targeted muscles of the back then the forearms and biceps will crash and burn before the back is fully worked. Example 2: when you perform a chest exercise if you do not focus on isolating the pectorals during the movement then the triceps and anterior deltoids will give out first impeding the progress of the chest. It is easy for ancillary muscles to come into play during an exercise if your form is sloppy because they are there to assist the movement. But because they are smaller and weaker if you do not make sure that the target muscle is completely fatigued first they will always give out holding backyour progress.3. Mid Point � the point of greatest contraction at the top of the Repetition where you pause briefly before releasing the weight.3. Lack of DiversityIncreased Motor Neuron Innervation And Muscle Fiber Activation�4. Eccentric Contraction � where the muscle lengthens as the weight is released to the Finishing Point. Also called �The Negative Phase�.One reason is that more children are involved in sports more often, which is a bit counterintuitive when we look at child obesity rates. The thing is that plenty of parents are beginning to see how valuable it can be and want to make sure their child grows up healthy�it's not quite enough to change obesity trends, but it is enough to impact a rising rate in injuries because there are still more kids playing.
There you have it my friends. I have given you the key. Place it in the lock and turn it. Don�t look back. There is so much out there to learn, understand and apply to your training. You may get a little lost among it all but if you know how to perform �The Perfect Rep� every time the most basic element of successful training will be with you forever. Good luck and have fun�
Author: Joey Sheather
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