Supertraining

Here's additional insights from the archives:

****Lynn Jones from the US Olympic Training Center summarizing some 
research that was done on elite weightlifters in Colorado Springs using dual 
force plates - one for each foot. Almost none of the lifters produced 
symmetrical force profiles on both legs. At first they thought this was a 
problem and tried to fix it, to no avail. Since these apparent "imbalances" 
did not seem to be causing any decrease in performance, I think they decided 
to leave it alone and chalk it up as "the norm". What do you all think?**** 

*** Yes, this apparent 'imbalance' is quite normal and is characteristic of 
attempts by the body to stay within a certain region of homeostasis. Since 
perfect balance or homeostasis is not attainable in a dynamic system like the 
body in motion, the body "hunts around" using feedback from the 
proprioceptors, vestibular system and other sensory systems to keep it in a 
type of dynamic balance within a certain range of tolerances. 

This sort of research has been carried out frequently on lifters and it is 
virtually unheard of to observe symmetric patterns of Left-Right force 
production in any lifters (or any other athletes). As I have remarked in 
earlier letters, it is common for different patterns of muscle action to 
produce the same skilled external movement, so that these simplistic beliefs 
about muscle balance and symmetry have nothing to do with reality. I have 
also recorded similar results with powerlifters. 

Moreover, the patterns of force production do not consistently favour left or 
right throughout any movement, but can change from side to side as the lifter 
or athlete makes ongoing adjustments. If this type of continuous adjustment 
did not occur, it would mean that once a movement is a little too much to one 
side, then it would always remain so, thereby usually culminating in an 
unsuccessful or dangerous lift. 

All space probes aimed at certain very distant planetary targets function in 
this same feedback guided manner and that is how such orbiting or landing 
precision is attained. So, when you next see how the Space Shuttle docks 
with Mir or the latest orbiting station, just appreciate that the process of 
achieving such accurate docking relies on processes much like those 
left-right-up-down manoeuvres used by competent lifters and other athletes. 
No scientist ever expects space vehicles to reach their targets with perfect 
symmetry of control - our bodies are no different, because nature is an 
outstanding educator. The overall scheme is known as "cybernetics" - the 
science of control and communication, or the way in which control is 
facilitated by communication between the input (or sensory) and output 
(motor) systems of any technological or living system. 

We can apply this same science to those very overplayed and unnecessary 
schemes used for recruiting abs, transversus, psoas and many other isolated 
muscles in the healthy person - or for stabilising the core or balancing 
agonists and antagonists - but enough has already been expressed on that 
topic for a while! 
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Jamie Carruthers
Wakefield, UK