THE #1 REASON THAT DURABILITY IS ELUSIVE FOR TODAY'S ATHLETE (PART 3)

RELATED: Hurt Locker Rooms - The Four Injury Risks Today's Young Players Face

the #1 saboteur of durability

The #1 reason that durability is elusive for today's athlete is because their training environment has been founded on everything but the skills of the weight room/lifting heavy weight. There is one thing that has the ability to directly prepare the support structures of an athlete's body for the demands of sport: lifting, pulling, pushing or generally moving heavy weight. Athletes are playing more during their developmental years and using evidence-based strength building approaches less. 

Athletes are playing more during their developmental years and using evidence-based strength building approaches less.

There's only so much time and energy that an individual can dedicate to training. When you add novel training methods, something has to go - traditional barbell and dumbbell strength work is often being pushed aside. There's a solution to this dilemma but let's look at the science and evidence behind it first. 

benefits of lifting heavy are far more than anecdotal

Applying forces to the musculoskeletal/neuromuscular system through progressive resistance exercise will prompt muscle tissue to respond by becoming stronger, more robust and more functional but that's not all. Support structures such as ligaments, tendons and bones also fortify in response to this stimuli.

Strength gives rise to athleticism 

The topic of this post is focused on durability rather than performance, but consider how the two are intertwined. Enhanced ability to run, jump, react or generally move more efficiently and effectively during sport greatly improves an athlete's ability to withstand or avoid potential pitfalls. It's no secret that building maximal strength at the levels necessary for competition is accomplished through high load resistance training as shown herend here. Improving neuromuscular strength, in turn leads to improved sprinting, jumping, quickness and agility performance as evidenced herend here. In other words lift heavy to gain strength, athleticism, performance and durability. 

the muscle-bone connection

Since we're talking about developing the physical resiliency of the human body, obviously bone integrity needs to be addressed. Lifting heavy weight is not just about bigger/stronger muscles or jumping higher, it's about reinforcing the support beams of performance: bones.eglecting to include traditional progressive resistance exercise during the developmental years of an athlete's body will all but guarantee that the soundness of their boney structures will struggle to be up to the challenge later in life.

RELATED: The Stunt Your Growth Myth - Why Your Kids SHOULD Be Lifting Weights

Neglecting to include traditional progressive resistance exercise during the developmental years of an athlete's body will all but guarantee that the soundness of their boney structures will struggle to be up to the challenge later in life.

Bone tissue responds to progressive mechanical loads AND forces produced by muscle strength gains by becoming robust enough to stand up to those loads/forces - Wolff's Law and Frost's Mechanostat Model describe this process. 

RELATED: Muscle-Bone Differences in Elite Australian Football & Rugby Union Players

Phasing the skills of lifting heavy weight out of an athlete's training environment in favor of other fitness modes is more crippling than it appears at face value. The necessary loads to stimulate muscle and bone strength are omitted and on top of that, the alternative "functional" fitness modes of training are often more aerobic in nature. Lack of progressive mechanical loading and aerobic work dominance promotes an environment primed for muscle/bone catabolism and atrophy. In this setting the building blocks of these tissues are constantly being underminednd never stand a chance versus competitive sport demands. Our athletes deserve better. 

RELATED: Biological Underpinnings of Frost's Mechanostat Thresholds 

support structures beyond bone

Wolff's Law (referenced above) is a physiological principle related to the adaptation characteristics of bone. It is familiar in name or at least in property by many fitness professionals or enthusiasts - bones need to be loaded/used to stay strong. Davis' Lawn comparison tends to fly under the radar - or at least it went under mine. Digging around to refresh myself on the adaptation characteristics of tendon, ligament and fascia brought Davis' Law to my attention. I was glad to learn that there is a physiological principle (corollary to Wolff's Law) dedicated to how soft tissue (specifically dense connective tissue) responds to imposed demands. 

Davis' Law along with more than adequate amounts of related research evidence (here, here, here and here) indicates that soft tissue such as tendon, ligament and fascia have adaptation capabilities similar to those of muscle and bone tissue. Soft tissue becomes more robust in response to mechanical loading such as that imposed by traditional progressive resistance exercise. 

RELATED: Random Thoughts (#9) - Bret Contreras

Soft tissue becomes more robust in response to mechanical loading such as that imposed by traditional progressive resistance exercise.

This has been recognized for quite some time - see the below excerpt from an 1867 book titled Conservative Surgery, as Exhibited in Remedying Some of the Mechanical Causes That Operate Injuriously Both in Health and Disease - Dr. Henry G. Davis. 

RELATED: The Influence of External Loading and Speed on Muscle-Tendon Unit Behavior and It's Implications for Training. - Jacob Earp 

additional considerations

Make movement a priority. All of this chatter about traditional strength development strategies would be incomplete without mention of movement assessment, literacy and correction. Jumping right into loading up the bar or pushing heavy dumbbells before appraising movement quality and symmetry is a disaster waiting to happen. Just like trying to out-train bad eating habits is impossible, attempting to out-train bad movement patterns is as well. We need to honor and reinforce this especially during an athlete's developmental stages. Waiting until an athlete is knocking on the door of the pros to address movement quality and symmetry is too late - the damage will have been done. 

That being said, be sure to acknowledge that overreacting to a specific method or macro-aspect of the training environment can have unfavorable results. The key to movement correction is to assess early, correct rapidly and move on to building a base of strength. As you know there are cases where adding strength can correct movement. It's important to be able to identify those instances to avoid fruitless hammering on corrective exercise work when all you needed was legitimate strength. Movement and strength are valuable parts of a durable, high performance athlete foundation but by themselves, they are much less valuable. Train for both. 

Use your body's hormones to your advantage. For the sake of this point, let's zero in on testosterone. Trying to stand up to the rigors of sport competition with less than appropriate testosterone levels is like trying to play an entire hockey game with one player in the penalty box. It's doable but eventually the team with the one player down will suffer the effects of playing catch-up for too long. 

Testosterone promotes muscle growth as well as tissue maintenance, recovery and healing. Bone, fascia, ligament and tendon based structures that have adequate exposure to testosterone have a huge advantagen the battle to heal from the micro and macro traumashat competition brings about. In addition, testosterone has the ability to positively impact nervous system related functions, such as cognitive reasoning, vigor, motivation and reaction time. 

There is no better way to naturally keep testosterone levels topped offhan routine bouts of high load resistance training. To continue the above hockey analogy - when you spend less time "under the bar" you are effectively tossing testosterone in the penalty box, forcing your body to constantly compete with a player down. Making sure that testosterone "stays on the ice" has major implications on human performance and durability - yet another reason to master the skills of lifting heavy weight. 

take home

The stimulus of heavy load resistance training is the most effective way to promote structural robustness and durability of the human body. Absence of heavy load resistance training is the #1 reason that durability is so elusive for today's athlete or fitness fanatic alike. The temptation to turn away from traditional resistance training skills in favor of exercises that appear sexier, more novel and generally more exciting will always be there. The solution to capturing durability in human performance is to make a lasting commitment to learning and employing the classic skills of lifting heavy weight.

I caution you not to fall for the false notion that skilled resistance training is strictly for top-level athletes. These durability principles apply to all humans and will help you stand up to the demands of performance - no matter what performance is in your daily life. 

References:

Arampatzis, A. (2009, April 1). Plasticity of the human tendon to short- and long-term mechanical loading. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Boyle, M. (2008, November 4). ACL Injury Prevention Is Just Good Training. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Campos, G. (2002, August 15). Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance-training regimens: Specificity of repetition maximum training zones. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Couppe, C. (2008, September 1). Habitual loading results in tendon hypertrophy and increased stiffness of the human patellar tendon. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Craig, B. (1989, August 1). Effects of progressive resistance training on growth hormone and testosterone levels in young and elderly subjects. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Davis' law. (2015, May 11). Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Davis, H. (1867). Conservative Surgery as Exhibited in Remedying some of the Mechanical Causes that Operate Injuriously both in Health and Disease. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Demling, R. (2005, January 17). The Role of Anabolic Hormones for Wound Healing in Catabolic States. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Earp, J. (2013, February 1). The Influence of External Loading and Speed of Movement on Muscle-Tendon Unit Behaviour and its Implications for Training. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Frost, H. (2004, February 7). A 2003 update of bone physiology and Wolff's Law for clinicians. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Hart, N. (2014). Muscle-Bone Differences Between Elite Australian Football and Rugby Union Players. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Hermans, E. (2008, February 1). Exogenous Testosterone Enhances Responsiveness to Social Threat in the Neural Circuitry of Social Aggression in Humans. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Hughes, J. (2010, June 1). Biological underpinnings of Frost's mechanostat thresholds: The important role of osteocytes. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Holmes, B. (2015, July 8). Hurt locker rooms: The four injury risks today's young players face. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Kongsgaard, M. (2007, October 1). Region specific patellar tendon hypertrophy in humans following resistance training. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Kraemer, W. (1995, March 1). Compatibility of high-intensity strength and endurance training on hormonal and skeletal muscle adaptations. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Lauder, T. (2000). The relation between stress fractures and bone mineral density: Evidence from active-duty Army women. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Procopio, A. (2014). IMPACT OF RESISTANCE TRAINING ON BONE MINERAL DENSITYAND PERFORMANCE IN COMPETITIVE FEMALE GYMNASTS. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Rippetoe, M. (2015, July 11). The 'Stunt Your Growth' Myth: Why Your Kids SHOULD Be Lifting Weights. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Ronnestad, B. (2008, May 22). Short-term effects of strength and plyometric training on sprint and jump performance in professional soccer players. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Souza, E., Ugrinowitsch, C., Tricoli, V., Roschel, H., Lowery, R., Aihara, A., . . . Wilson, J. (2014, September 1). Early Adaptations to Six Weeks of Non-Periodized and Periodized Strength Training Regimens in Recreational Males. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Spiteri, T. (2015, February 14). Mechanical determinants of faster change of direction and ag... : The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Testosterone in Healthy Men Increases Their Brains' Response to Threat. (2014, August 11). Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Thayer, R. (2000, December 1). A decade of aerobic endurance training: Histological evidence for fibre type transformation. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Tuck, S. (2009). Testosterone, bone and osteoporosis. Retrieved July 22, 2015.

Vingren, J. (2010, December 1). Testosterone physiology in resistance exercise and training: The up-stream regulatory elements. Retrieved July 22, 2015.