Bullet Proofing Your Muscles with the Right Training
by Dr. David T. Ryan,
Winner of the Cecil Award, National Arthritis Foundation
Do you want to “BULLET PROOF” yourself against torn muscles? Do you want to be secure under that heavy weight? This article will discuss training principles to cover your muscles with iron. Recently, at the Westside Invitational, the number one injury was muscle tears. This article will talk about the different ways you can train to keep your muscles together under heavy, heavy weight.
Several laws dictate our daily lives. Traffic Laws, Tax Laws, Criminal Laws, etc. In science there are not many laws at all. One law that exists is Wolfe’s Law. Now it sounds simple, but when ever you stress a tissue it responses to that stress. In Layman’s terms: you lift weights and the muscle gets stronger and bigger. Is that it? Is that the end? When you lift a heavy weight the muscle breaks down and recovers. In that simple statement there is a lot of “What ifs?” What if - you lift too much? What if - you tear down faster than you recover? What if - you just train the same way all the time? What if - you mix up heavy days and lighter days? Most importantly, what if – you speed up the movement of the exercise that you are doing?
The problem is that even if you train heavy, use bands, chains and even the “reverse hyper”, YOU ARE NOT TRAINING ALL THE AREAS OF THE MUSCLE. The part you are missing will result in muscle tears. This doesn’t mean the traditional muscle tears that you are thinking about, like the muscle breaking in two parts (i.e. Common bicep tear). Sure that is a terrible injury, but it is preventable. Well at least for the most part. This article will incorporate some various concepts into your training that will help prevent muscle tearing.
Ok, now the really boring part. For those of you who don’t really care about the scientific end of it all. Take a break - skip this paragraph. For those of you who care to read-it-all, its’ “boom-boom” time. When I was a medical research student at Ohio State University, we used to take apart muscles. I am talking down to the atomic level. Our primary interest was what was happening at an atomic/molecular level. In breaking apart the muscles we noted a new form of protein that had not been identified. There was a tremendous amount of this new protein noted on gel electrophoresis after cytology studies. To make a long story short, we noted that this protein called “Titan” protein, is a major part of the muscle’s connective tissue. (You should realize that as of this date in the year 2002, doctors still don’t completely understand how muscles work. If they did diseases like muscular dystrophy wouldn’t exist.) The Titan protein is also suspected to be involved with calcium channels and therefore muscle contraction/relaxation. It is also noted that if you resolve to restrict the production of Titan protein, you will diminish the break strength of the muscle by 40%. The question is how can you train the Titan protein to become thicker, stronger and of course get more of it?
So if you left us in the previous paragraph welcome back, we learned that researchers have uncovered an amazing new protein called “Titan” protein, which acts like glue to hold muscles together. To train this muscle protein you must present a type of stress that involves the muscle stressing the limits of range of motion and stressing the sacs containing the volume of muscle. Typical training stresses the titan protein but to a minor degree. Overload training and plyometric training is the key to stressing the connective tissue and titan protein. Now let’s look at some specific ideas of how this effects your day-to-day training.
First off, let’s recognize that certain things effect your titan protein production; genetics, training, diet and drugs. Taking most oral hormones or hormonal stimulants like Anavar, will steer your cells to produce more protein of the contraction mechanics and less of the connective proteins. Your cells have factories in them, which make proteins, trouble is that those factories can only make so much protein and the trick is getting the protein made in the right types of protein in the right ratios. OK, Ok, I might be boring you, but this is the “BIG SECRET”. Learning to produce the protein by training and stimulation is the key to making your muscles stronger. Most of the supplements and “special- supplements” have a major effect on the cell by determining what gets in and what comes out. For more information on this subject see Table 1:
Table 1:
Some examples of substances that effect protein production.
Element Effect
Insulin Makes cells more permeable to allow more amino acids, sugars into the cell. This results in bigger cells and more muscle mass.
Anavar Causes specific DNA triggering to produce contractive proteins with less connective protein production. Maximum muscle growth, but extended use results in joint pain.
Winstrol Cause specific DNA triggering to produce contractive protein and protein production. Muscle growth and joint stability. Water Makes cell membranes more permeable to allow more exchange of amino acids and sugars.
Now two types of training stimulate the muscle to increase its normal amount of connective tissue. The first is overload training, this is commonly known as “Walkouts” High rack work, “partials”, etc. These work by forcing the muscle to “hold”, now it actually takes 40% more energy to “hold” weight than to move it. This is proven by our ability to hold more weight in a negative movement, than a positive one. If you need to prove this to yourself try doing only negatives with more weight than you normally use on curls, how much? HMMMMmm,,,,well 40% sounds about right. You will see that with someone helping, you can actually lower more weight in the concentric/negative part of the movement compared to the eccentric/positive. These work simply by not taxing the cross connections of the muscle, the part that contracts. Again stimulate it and it will get stronger. Now as far as how to – and which ones of these exercises, I am leaving that to Louie/Dave Tate and the boys. I just point to the correct direction and tell you why you need to perform them in a particular fashion. In a nutshell, if you are squatting 1000#’s you will need to do partials with 1300-1400 to stimulate your tissue to respond.
The second form of exercise to strengthen the muscles connective tissue is Plyometric training. This form of explosive training, puts a tremendous load on the muscle very quickly, and thus causes the boundaries of the muscle to quickly expand and therefore stresses the muscle’s titan protein to multiply and make more. To do plyometric training, you must move less weight (about forty percent), but at two to three times the speed. It is more important in the eccentric/positive movement rather than the concentric/negative movement. Another form of understanding this type of exercises is with box squats or floor bench presses. It is important to do these exercises and relax the muscles momentarily at the base of the movement, then explode the muscle in the eccentric part of the exercise. This type of loading produces a shock to the muscles, forcing them to contract with such a force that they expand and stress the tendons and other muscle connective tissue, including that titan protein. The joint and ligaments and even the bones themselves receive this shock/stress and respond by increasing density. Yes, even your bones get denser.
Several various items exist to assist you in plyometric training; one of the most popular is the bands. Try to set up the bands so that they offer you constant resistance. You can even do this using the “Reverse-Hyper”. You should devote entire weeks to training with plyometric effects. Again, Westside Barbell is better suited to teaching you where/how/when and more. I am merely trying to show you why. Understanding what is happening will assist you in confidence with your training and allow you to train harder.
I hope this article helps you to understand the principles of this type of training more clearly. You should understand the importance of doing partials and high-end rep work with the “speed of movement” as a formidable factor. Machines that work like this are called Orthotrons. They allow you to set the speed of movement between 60/degrees per. Sec. to 2000/degrees per. Sec. They are found in only the best rehabilitation facilities. Years ago, Franco Colombo would always ask, “If we train to our max, what do we do to train ourselves to handle weight, above and beyond our max?” These types of training are necessary to offer a complete muscle growth and assist in forming a protective barrier to keep your muscles fit. Now you can take that bigger weight on the lifting platform and not be looking at me cutting your lifting suit off of you.
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