Shock Methods - Beyond Schroeder

[Guest guest]

Niels Staerkjaer wrote:

Here's some more info on Jay Schroeder

<http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/05/06/sports/ADAM06.htm>

***What Jay is using constitutes a series of 'shock' methods (udarniye metod,

in Russian), many of which are described and applied in " Supertraining "

(2000). Some of the most prolific Western research into the method of

dropping and catching loads has been done by two scientists from Australia,

Drs and Newton. Greg has also sold a large number of his

special bench pressing and load releasing devices ( " inertia impulse "

or impulse loading machines) based upon this same principle.

The article stated:

<How unorthodox are they (Schroeder's methods) ? Well, there's one exercise

where you stand, bent slightly forward at the waist, legs spread wider than

shoulder width, holding a 45-pound barbell plate like a steering wheel with

both hands. You drop it, then catch it in midair - over and over.

Why? Because it converts to about 130 pounds of force per repetition,

Schroeder says.

Then there's the contraption that looks like a bench-press machine beneath

four poles. A heavy, rectangular,

metal slab slides up and down the poles. You lie on your back on the bench,

and two people drop the slab. You

have to catch it. Each time you do, it's 7,000 pounds of force,

Schroeder says.

An alternative exercise with this apparatus is one in which you lie on the

bench and push the slab up, let it go,

and catch it, repeatedly. Sometimes, you mix drops and catches.

There's also something called the inertia-impulse machine. A weighted block,

attached to ropes and pulleys, slides back and forth in a long, grooved base

that stands a little more than a foot off the floor. >

*** All of these methods have been described in Russia by Verkhoshansky,

Zatsiorsky and Matveyev for several decades, while in the West, Dr Greg

has researched and produced the very type of machine upon which Jay

clearly has based his devices. Even some of my senior students produced a

series of these machines back in 1992 - an engineering drawing of their bench

device appears in Ch 4.2.3 of " Supertraining " (2000, p219).

For anyone on the list who wishes to make such devices at low cost (for

standing " functional " use), simply suspend a rope from an overhead rafter or

pole to create a swing (yes, just like those swings that we used as kinds in

the park!) and attach a padded load (or punch bag filled with padded

weights). Swing the loaded bag from a given height for upper body shock

training.

For lower extremity shock training, just make a swing and locate it close to

a solid wall (or add some solid wall-like vertical surface in front of it) so

that you can swing from a given height and strike the wall with one or both

of your feet for single or multiple repetitions of 'plyometric' rebounds.

Other variations include using loads or weights attached to a power rack so

that you can strike a load which is propelled back and forth, left or right,

up or down by means of elastic recoil. Those of you who have attended my

Strength Camps will have experienced the application of such methods in

pairs, with one partner manually offering impact to the hands or feet using

simple implements such as padded foam blocks, elastic bands and sticks.

One can even apply other combinations such as electrical stimulation during

actual sporting movement to further " shock " the neuromuscular system to

exceed existing training thresholds. The vital issue of conditioning the

body to progressively exceed certain performance thresholds is discussed in

Ch 8.1 of " Supertraining " , a topic which applies not only to shock methods,

but to all forms of integrated training. I introduced this new conditioning

model to the latest issue of this book to show how one can use physical,

mental and biochemical methods to progressively shift neuromuscular and

psychological thresholds to enable any athlete to improve performance.

Note that I intentionally use the term " conditioning " because it relates to

its classical use by the great Dr Pavlov whose experiments into the nature of

conditioned reflexes still offer invaluable insights into the overall

athletic training process and not simply the behaviour of the salivating dogs

in his early experiments. Whether one is running, jumping, lifting or

dropping loads onto the body, or even using autogenic or hypnotic methods,

one essentially is manipulating thresholds in the human 'organism'.

Conditioning via the use of shock methods is only a part of the overall

athletic preparation picture. This subject will be forming a central part of

the lectures that I will be offering at this year's NSCA Conference in

Spokane (and which everyone on my recent Camps has experienced in certain

fundamental exercise drills).

All of the methods mentioned by Schroeder still fall clearly into the world

of " plyometric " training or shock method training, as Dr Verkhoshansky

prefers to call them.

In the web article cited, Schroeder admits that he didn't invent any of the

exercises he uses, but that he simply found a way to optimize them in a

certain sequence. As a matter of fact, Dr Verkhoshansky has often described

how to combine these exercises to optimise progress (see " Supertraining " , and

Dr Yessis' " Soviet Sports Review " for some of this information). With

reference to the actual combinations, both the Russians and other Western

scientists have found that these shock methods produce best results when

combined with conventional heavy weight training (research on this topic

appears in " Supertraining " , with graphs showing the sequences of free

weights, then shock method combinations).

If you wish to fine-tune the optimisation process, use a Rating of Perceived

Exertion and Rating of Technique methods combined with changes in loads

lifted (according to the principles of " Cybernetic Periodisation " discussed

in " Supertraining " , Ch 6) and some of the methods of testing discussed in the

same text.

Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA

Supertraining/