New Study Claims To Disprove Static Contraction Training
Posted by Clint Robson on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 Under: Training
If you have followed my blog lately, you'll know how I love Static Contraction and how impressed I am with the principles and the new philosophy of weight training. I use it and I teach it. Thank you Pete Sisco! However, there are always skeptics and people who just cannot accept that maybe, just maybe, their beliefs are wrong.
Every few months some or other "medical study" reveals some aspect of strength training, that they believe disproves the fundamental principles behind static contraction training. You'd think they had better things to do!
The latest "expose" is a study by McMaster University in Canada (a very good university for kinesiology studies, by the way). This study was headlined all over the Internet as a ‘new’ way to build muscle, without ‘straining’ or ‘grunting’.
The "new, big secret" is that lifting only 30% of your one-rep maximum, 24 or more times - until muscular failure is reached - can build muscle. Many people wanted me to know that this new information could overturn all that I’ve been saying about Static Contraction.
So let’s have a look at some aspects of this "startling new" information and how people interpret it:
- The truth is people have been working out with less than their 1-rep maximum (1RM) and gaining muscle for many years. Swing a sledgehammer all day for a living and watch what it does for your muscularity. Plenty! My point with SCT is that if a 5-second maximum hold will also build muscle, then why spend time performing 24+ reps with a lighter weight? To me it’s a matter of efficiency and not that lifting less weight fails to build muscle.
- The part about lifting lighter weights, meaning there is no straining and grunting, is also misleading because the study talked about lifting until failure. By definition, lifting to failure demands straining and possibly grunting, so that claim is not really valid. Reaching muscular failure is very demanding, irrespective of the weight used.
- There is a simple and logical fallacy in thinking, that a study that proves lifting 30% of 1RM builds muscle, also somehow simultaneously disproves that lifting 50% or 80% or 100% of 1RM builds muscle.
- Finally, none of the studies done by these august universities, ever (that I know of) tests what happens when you use 150% to 200% of people’s 1RM. That’s right; what is called “maximum” is not really the maximum at all. Static Contraction training (and Power Factor) limits the range of motion, so trainees can lift much more weight, than what is called their “maximum”.
Static Contraction training requires lifting the absolute heaviest weight you can possibly lift, under ideal conditions. That weight is invariably much heavier than any weight you have ever lifted, on any given exercise. That builds muscle. Simple. It has for many thousands of people. There just isn’t going to be any future study that says lifting that much weight will not build muscle. That can’t happen without overturning several long-settled laws of physiology and physics. End of story.
So, this study, like the others, is a lot of poppycock and I still stick to the logics of Static Contraction Training - and I will continue raving about it, until someone is able to disprove it! As Pete says, "Build Muscle the EASY Way - With the World's Fastest Workout! 10 Exercises - 5 Seconds Each - All the Muscle You Want - Guaranteed". So, either you want to build muscle as quickly as possible, or you don't. I do.
For a limited time, Pete is allowing you to try Static Contraction for yourself, with his training program Power Factor, without risk, for 60 days. Get it by clicking here,or copy this link into your browser: http://dersalsites.eca.sh/pfactor
Clinton Robson is a South African fitness fanatic and is a qualified Personal Trainer. He has completed a recent contract to run the gyms on a couple of luxury cruise ships. He has done a special higher level fitness training course and has qualified as an Exercise Specialist, or Conditioning Coach. He manages a local gym, assisting staff and clients with training plans and one on ones. He has been working out regularly, since 1996. He writes articles on many fitness topics, such as training, bodybuilding, working out, losing fat, toning the muscles, nutrition, supplements and more. Visit his blog at Fitness And Fatness, by clicking here, or by copying this link: http://www.fitnessandfatless.yolasite.com
Every few months some or other "medical study" reveals some aspect of strength training, that they believe disproves the fundamental principles behind static contraction training. You'd think they had better things to do!
The latest "expose" is a study by McMaster University in Canada (a very good university for kinesiology studies, by the way). This study was headlined all over the Internet as a ‘new’ way to build muscle, without ‘straining’ or ‘grunting’.
The "new, big secret" is that lifting only 30% of your one-rep maximum, 24 or more times - until muscular failure is reached - can build muscle. Many people wanted me to know that this new information could overturn all that I’ve been saying about Static Contraction.
So let’s have a look at some aspects of this "startling new" information and how people interpret it:
- The truth is people have been working out with less than their 1-rep maximum (1RM) and gaining muscle for many years. Swing a sledgehammer all day for a living and watch what it does for your muscularity. Plenty! My point with SCT is that if a 5-second maximum hold will also build muscle, then why spend time performing 24+ reps with a lighter weight? To me it’s a matter of efficiency and not that lifting less weight fails to build muscle.
- The part about lifting lighter weights, meaning there is no straining and grunting, is also misleading because the study talked about lifting until failure. By definition, lifting to failure demands straining and possibly grunting, so that claim is not really valid. Reaching muscular failure is very demanding, irrespective of the weight used.
- There is a simple and logical fallacy in thinking, that a study that proves lifting 30% of 1RM builds muscle, also somehow simultaneously disproves that lifting 50% or 80% or 100% of 1RM builds muscle.
- Finally, none of the studies done by these august universities, ever (that I know of) tests what happens when you use 150% to 200% of people’s 1RM. That’s right; what is called “maximum” is not really the maximum at all. Static Contraction training (and Power Factor) limits the range of motion, so trainees can lift much more weight, than what is called their “maximum”.
Static Contraction training requires lifting the absolute heaviest weight you can possibly lift, under ideal conditions. That weight is invariably much heavier than any weight you have ever lifted, on any given exercise. That builds muscle. Simple. It has for many thousands of people. There just isn’t going to be any future study that says lifting that much weight will not build muscle. That can’t happen without overturning several long-settled laws of physiology and physics. End of story.
So, this study, like the others, is a lot of poppycock and I still stick to the logics of Static Contraction Training - and I will continue raving about it, until someone is able to disprove it! As Pete says, "Build Muscle the EASY Way - With the World's Fastest Workout! 10 Exercises - 5 Seconds Each - All the Muscle You Want - Guaranteed". So, either you want to build muscle as quickly as possible, or you don't. I do.
For a limited time, Pete is allowing you to try Static Contraction for yourself, with his training program Power Factor, without risk, for 60 days. Get it by clicking here,or copy this link into your browser: http://dersalsites.eca.sh/pfactor
Clinton Robson is a South African fitness fanatic and is a qualified Personal Trainer. He has completed a recent contract to run the gyms on a couple of luxury cruise ships. He has done a special higher level fitness training course and has qualified as an Exercise Specialist, or Conditioning Coach. He manages a local gym, assisting staff and clients with training plans and one on ones. He has been working out regularly, since 1996. He writes articles on many fitness topics, such as training, bodybuilding, working out, losing fat, toning the muscles, nutrition, supplements and more. Visit his blog at Fitness And Fatness, by clicking here, or by copying this link: http://www.fitnessandfatless.yolasite.com
In : Training
Tags: static contraction power factor stc
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