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FUNCTIONAL SPECTRUM STRENGTH TRAINING:

A MIXED-TRAINING APPROACH TO RESISTANCE EXERCISE PROGRAMMING

NICK TUMMINELLO’S

WHO ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

•  These groups — field, court, and combat athletes, as well as athletic-minded folks who also have bodybuilding-related goals— are the ones for whom this is training approach is for.

“Athletes (and athletic-minded individuals) are not in the gym to become weightlifters; they’re there to be athletes made stronger

(and bigger) in the weightroom.”

-- Richard Sorin, Iron-game legend

WHAT IS THE FST SYSTEM?

•  Improving overall health, building muscle and one’s general performance capability is the multi-factorial goal.

•  ^This requires several different resistance exercise components because no single type of resistance exercise will be ever able to fully address such multi-factorial demands fully.

•  It makes sense that taking a mixed approach to exercise programming – an approach that utilizes the entire functional spectrum of resistance exercise will provide superior training results than exclusively using only one type of exercise.

•  ^ This is why I developed the Functional Spectrum Strength Training approach.

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USING THE TERM "FUNCTIONAL” IN RELATION TO HUMAN PERFORMANCE TRAINING

•  “Simply throwing up our hands and declaring it a

meaningless industry buzzword is inaccurate, not to mention gets us nowhere.” – Me

•  “Strength” also means different things to different people, but we don’t call that a “meaningless buzzword.

•  It’s time to start thinking with consistent logic.

WHAT DOES THE TERM “FUNCTIONAL” EVEN MEAN?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word functional pertains to something having a

special task or purpose.

WHAT FUNCTIONAL TRAINING FOR HUMAN PERFORMANCE ISN’T:

Functional training has nothing to do with what the exercise looks like, nor does it have to do with the type of equipment

you're using.

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WHAT FUNCTIONAL TRAINING FOR HUMAN PERFORMANCE IS:

Functional training is all about applying the principle of specificity to improve in

specific (i.e., special) athletic/movement actions (i.e., tasks).

IT’S ALSO ABOUT IMPROVING GENERAL FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY!

•  Functional capacity can be summarized as how broad one’s range of ability is.

•  A person capable of performing a broader

range of specific tasks can be considered to possess a high functional capacity.

TRAINING FOR ENHANCED PERFORMANCE IS ALL ABOUT TRANSFER!

•  It’ all about the type of transfer! •  Some exercises have an obvious and direct transfer into

the improved performance of sporting actions and overall functional capacity.

•  ^ These are Specific exercises. •  Other exercises offer a less obvious transfer, known as

indirect transfer. •  ^ These are General exercises.

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  THE 4 TYPES OF EXERCISE IN THE FUNCTIONAL

SPECTRUM TRAINING SYSTEM

1. Total-Body Power Exercises (Specific) 2. Cross-Body Exercises (Specific)

3. Compound Exercises (General)

4. Isolation Exercises (General)

•  Each of the four types of resistance exercise should not be looked at as mutually exclusive.

•  Each type of exercise should be viewed as complimentary training components because each type of resistance exercise offers unique benefits the other types may lack.

SPECIFIC EXERCISES

•  These exercises are based on the principle of specificity.

“The concept of specificity, widely recognized in the field of resistance training, holds that training is most effective when resistance exercises

are similar to the sport activity in which improvement is sought (the target activity). Although all athletes should use well-rounded, whole-body exercise routines, supplementary exercises specific to the sport

can provide a training advantage. The simplest and most straightforward way to implement the principle of specificity is to select exercises similar

to the target activity with regard to the joints about which movement occur and the direction of the movements. In addition, joint ranges of

motion in the training should be at least as great as those in the target activity,” (1).

-- Dr. Everett Harman in the NSCA’s Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning (3rd Edition)

GENERAL EXERCISES

•  These exercises are essentially conventional strength training exercises that consist of compound or isolation movements using free weights, cables, or machines.

•  These applications offer a general transfer into improvements in human performance by increasing muscle hypertrophy, motor unit recruitment, bone density, and connective tissue strength, which can reduce injury risk.

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THE UNIQUE BENEFIT OF SPECIFIC EXERCISES:

Specific exercise applications tend create a more ideal stimulus than general exercises for enhancing the specific force generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns of

target movements in athletics.

THE UNIQUE BENEFIT OF GENERAL EXERCISES:

In most cases, general exercises create a more ideal stimulus than specific exercises for stimulating increases in overall muscle

strength and size.

COMMON CONFUSION ABOUT SPECIFIC EXERCISE APPLICATIONS

•  Adding load to one’s specific sports skill is a misapplication of the principle of specificity.

•  The movement skills required in sports have accuracy components that are exact—not similar.

•  Weighted baseball bats alters the batter's perceptions of bat heaviness and swing speed, and slows down his actual swing speed for up to five swings after using the weighted bat! (2,3).

•  Specific exercises aren’t about loading skills; they’re about working on improving specific force generation patterns, which transfer into target movement actions.

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TOTAL-BODY POWER EXERCISES

•  Ex: Med Ball Vertical or Diagonal Squat Push-Throw

•  These exercises involve a coordinated effort of the entire body to summate force, which is a sum of the total individual muscles added to together, in an explosive manner.

•  The total body power exercise applications are designed to use as many muscle as possible, in a sequential and explosive (i.e., fast) manner, to obtain maximal force in what I call the three pillars of power:

THE 3 PILLARS OF POWER

1. Vertical/Diagonal power 2. Horizontal power 3. Rotational power

•  Total-body power exercises are categorized as specific exercises because they replicate the force generation patterns that form the foundation of all explosive sporting actions, regardless of the individual sports skill.

TOTAL-BODY POWER EXERCISES

•  These exercises also more closely match the force production patterns of fast, ballistic, sporting-type actions, which require what’s called a tri-phasic muscle firing pattern.

•  A tri-phasic muscle firing pattern of predominantly burst-like muscle activation developed when the same movements were performed at fast speeds. (4,5,6)

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TOTAL-BODY POWER EXERCISES

•  We must incorporate some fast, ballistic exercises in our training if we wish to maximize our potential to safely and effectively perform a variety of fast, explosive, athletic movements.

•  For men and women, the single-leg vertical, horizontal and lateral jump tests are, for the most part, measuring different leg power qualities and shouldn’t be used interchangeably (7).

•  Not only are the total-body power exercises used to enhance your body’s ability to summate force, in an explosive manner, and to train and potentially refine the tri-phasic muscle firing pattern involved in high-speed actions, but also to do so in all directions, since power (and agility) are direction specific.

CROSS-BODY EXERCISES

•  The anatomical characteristics of the human body dictate that it commonly functions in a crisscross manner, with the arm and shoulder mechanism on one side linking diagonally through the torso mechanism to the hip and leg mechanism on the opposite side.

•  EX: running, punching, throwing, golfing, batting, etc.

CROSS-BODY EXERCISES

•  Because these X-factor linkages are a big part of athletics they’re specifically addressed with Cross-body exercises.

•  X-factor linkages are usually used standing, and heavily called upon when the body is rotating or is resisting rotation due to dealing with an unbalanced load.

•  Cross-body exercises utilize single arm loading or off-set loading (e.g., two unevenly loaded dumbbells) movements from various stances.

•  Ex: Standing Single-Arm Cable Press

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CROSS-BODY VS. COMPOUND EXERCISES

•  Compound exercises serve to improve one’s general strength, but they aren’t ideally suited for maximizing improvements the coordination of the bodies x-factor linkages.

•  The single-arm standing cable press performance is limited by the activation and neuromuscular coordination of torso muscles, not maximal muscle activation of the chest and shoulder muscles (10).

•  The unique benefit cross-body exercises offer is the consistency between these exercise applications and the specific force generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns that commonly occur when movement heavily involves the body’s x-factor linkages.

COMPOUND EXERCISES

•  These exercise applications primarily consist of conventional, multi-joint strength and bodybuilding lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, chin-ups, rows, etc.

•  Indirectly transfer into improved performance increased general functional capacity by increasing muscle mass, motor unit recruitment, bone density, and connective tissue health.

“JUST GET STRONG, BRO” ???

•  In other words... "Don't worry about replicating any force generation patterns of athletic movements, just get strong in the basic compound lifts you'll be more athletic.”

•  Improving strength in basic compound lifts absolutely contributes to improved sports performance, which is why they’re an integral part of the functional spectrum muscle training system.

•  However...

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STRONG CONTRADICTIONS

•  Assistance exercises powerlifters use to help maximize their strength in the bench, squat or deadlift all replicate the specific force generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns of the movement they’re supposed to be "assisting.”

SAME LOGIC, DIFFERENT EXERCISES

•  Using assistance exercises to improve strength in a specific specific force generation and neuromuscular coordination doesn’t only apply to the squat, deadlift, and bench press.

•  Specific exercise applications apply the very same wisdom

used successfully by powerlifters with “assistance” exercises to improve target movements in the sport of powerlifting (e.g., bench, squat, and deadlift); to improve in the target movements of other sports.

THE REALITY!!!

Using general exercises to get bigger and stronger does help you to improve you overall

performance and functional capacity. But it has its limitations, which is why specific exercises are also incorporated to gain benefits in the areas where the general

exercises fall short.

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MACHINES AND (MORE) CONTRADICTIONS

Many who preach to “just get strong in the basic compound lifts” and say “you

shouldn’t train for a sport by replicating target movements,” are often the same

trainers and coaches who tell athletes they “shouldn’t use machines because they don’t replicate any REAL movements in

sports or life.”

ISOLATION EXERCISES

•  Isolation exercises are exercises that create a more focused resistance challenge on certain joints/ muscle groups.

•  These exercises primarily consist of classic bodybuilding exercises such as biceps curls, triceps extensions, shoulder raises and machine-based exercises such as leg extensions and leg (hamstring) curls.

•  Like compound exercises, indirectly help general functional capacity by increasing muscle mass, motor unit recruitment, bone density, and connective tissue health.

•  Help to bring up weaker, underdeveloped/ utilized areas.

RESEARCH ON THE BENEFIT OF ISOLATION EXERCISES:

•  The lying leg curl exercise (where movement originates at the knee joint) elicited significantly greater normalized mean activation of the lower lateral and lower medial hamstrings compared to the stiff- legged deadlift (where movement originates at the hip joint) (15).

•  “Askling et al. studied the effects of prescribing elite soccer players an additional specific hamstring training using the lying leg curl machine. Compared to the group that were not prescribed lying leg curls, the group that received the addition of lying curl increased sprint speed and decreased risk of suffering a hamstring strain injury.”

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“DON’T USE ISOLATION EXERCISES WITH ATHLETES – THEY’LL BECOME

LIKE BODYBUILDERS” ???

•  Doing some biceps curls and leg extensions won't automatically turn you into a professional bodybuilder anymore than doing sprints on a track will turn you into an Olympic sprinter.

•  It’s not that bodybuilding (i.e., size) training concepts make you less athletic, it’s that, if all do is bodybuilding you’ll become less athletic simply because you’re not also regularly requiring your body to do athletic actions.

•  ^ This is why we do also do specific exercises (i.e., total-body explosive exercises and cross-body exercises).

2 WAYS BODYBUILDING CAN IMPROVE

ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE

1. STRONGER FROM YOUR FEET

•  One of the factors that determines our levels of stability and strength from our feet is our bodyweight.

•  Heavier bodies are harder to move and hence are more stable. Lighter bodies are moved more easily and are less stable (16).

•  Research comparing the single-arm standing cable press and the traditional bench press also demonstrated that in a standing position, one’s horizontal pushing force is limited to about 40 percent of body weight, rather than your bench press (10).

Getting bigger (gaining muscle weight) can help you better use your strength (regardless of your weight-room numbers) when standing by

providing you a greater platform from which to create and resist horizontal and diagonal force.

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2. HARDER HITTING •  Research on baseball pitchers shows that increased

bodyweight is highly associated with increased pitch velocity (17).

•  Athletes who weigh more tend to punch (and throw) harder than their smaller counterparts do - all other things (e.g., technical ability) being equal – because they have more bodyweight behind their punches (and throws).

•  Although a gain of 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of muscle mass constitutes a significant increase, that additional muscle is not so noticeable if it is spread throughout the body.

ISOLATION EXERCISES: THE TAKE AWAY!

•  Research highlights the importance of including isolation exercises for overall development and strength in addition to the other types of exercise.

•  The research highlights the importance of incorporating exercises focused on a single-joint action (i.e., isolation exercises), such as movements targeting the hamstring and adductor musculature, in addition to the other types of exercises in order to make programming more comprehensive and effective.

THINK ABOUT YOUR TRAINING JUST LIKE YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR

NUTRITION!

•  These arguments about specific versus general (i.e., movement focused versus muscle focused) are ridiculous because they’re like arguing about whether you should eat vegetables or fruits.

•  Avoiding one or the other will leave your diet deficient.

•  ^ This is why nutrition experts always encourage eating a ‘colorful diet’ with a variety of both vegetables and fruits because they all have a different ratio of vitamins and minerals.

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THE FINAL WORD

A training plan that exclusively focuses on either general or specific exercises leaves some potential benefits untapped since each method offers unique training benefits the other

lacks.

In contrast, a training plan that combines both specific and general methods—one that utilizes all four types of resistance exercises—enables you to achieve superior results by helping you build a more athletic body that’s got both the hustle and

the muscle.

THANK YOU!!!

REFERENCES: 1.  Harman, E. (2000). The Biomechanics of Resistance Exercise. Baechle, E.R. & Earle,

R.W. (Eds.). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. (pp,.25-55). Champaign: Human Kinetics

2.  Otsuji T, Abe M, Kinoshita H. After-effects of using a weighted bat on subsequent swing velocity and batters' perceptions of swing velocity and heaviness. Percept Mot Skills. 2002 Feb;94(1):119-26.

3. Southard D1, Groomer L. Warm-up with baseball bats of varying moments of inertia: effect on bat velocity and swing pattern. Res Q Exerc Sport. 2003 Sep;74(3):270-6.

4. W. Gilleard , European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology, volume 63, number 5, 381-386.

5. Motor Control. 1999 Oct;3(4):346-71. Natural goal-directed movements and the triphasic EMG. Morrison S, Anson JG.

6. Movement-related phasic muscle activation. I. Relations with temporal profile of movement. S. H. Brown and J. D. Cooke, J Neurophysiol 63: 455-464, 1990.

7. Meylan C, McMaster T, et al. Single-leg lateral, horizontal, and vertical jump assessment: reliability, interrelationships, and ability to predict sprint and change-of-direction performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Jul;23(4):1140-7.

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REFERENCES: 8. Logan, G, and McKinney, W. The serape effect. In: Anatomical Kinesiology (3rd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Brown; 287-302, 1970.

9.. Vleeming, A, Pool-Goudzwaard, AL, Stoeckart, R, van Wingerden, JP, and Snijders, CJ. The posterior layer of the thoracolumbar fascia - Its function in load transfer from spine to legs. Spine 20(7): 753-758, 1995.

10. A kinetic and electromyographic comparison of the standing cable press and bench press. Santana JC, Vera-Garcia FJ, McGill SM. J Strength Cond Res. 2007 Nov;21(4):1271-7.

11. Ebben, WP. Hamstring activation during lower body resistance training exercises. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 4(1): 84-96, 2009.

12. Schoenfeld, BJ, Contreras, B, Willardson, JM, Fontana, F, and Tiryaki-Sonmez, G. Muscle activation during low- versus high- load resistance training in well-trained men. European Journal of Applied Physiology 114(12): 2491-2497, 2014.

13. Weiss, LW, Coney, HD, and Clark, FC. Gross measures of exercise-induced muscular hypertrophy. Journal of Orthopaedic Sports Physical Therapy 30(3): 143-148, 2000.

14. McAllister MJ, et al. Muscle activation during various hamstring exercises. J Strength Cond Res. 2014 Jun;28(6):1573-80.

15. Schoenfeld BJ, et al. Regional Differences in Muscle Activation During Hamstrings Exercise. J Strength Cond Res. 2014 Jun 24.

REFERENCES:

16. William C. Whiting, and Stuart Rugg. Dynatomy: Dynamic Human Anatomy. Human Kinetics 2006. Taken from Human Kinetics website: http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/Five-factors-determine-stability-and-mobility

17. Werner, S.L., et al. 2008. Relationships between ball velocity and throwing mechanics in collegiate baseball pitchers. Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery 17 (6): 905–8.