Posibilidades de dinamización y gestión de la red ciclista
5. Ciudades ciclistas. Ejemplos
need periods of reduced loads, but you
don’t want to lose muscle during those
periods. Occlusion training, with its
unique hypertophic stimulus, may be the
answer.
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Occlusion Training
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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 125 flow restriction enhance hypertro-
phic signaling in skeletal muscle? J
Appl Physiol. 100:1443-1444.
Takano, H., et al. (2005). Hemo- dynamic and hormonal responses to a short-term low-intensity resis- tance exercise with the reduction of muscle blood flow. Euro J Appl Phys.
95:65-73.
Takarada, Y., et al. (2000). Effects of resistance exercise combined with moderate vascular occlusion on muscular function in humans. J
Appl Physiol. 88:2097-2106.
Takarada, Y., et al. (2000). Rapid increase in plasma growth hormone
after low-intensity resistance exer- cise with vascular occlusion. J Appl
Physiol. 88:61-65.
Takarada, Y., et al. (2002). Effects of resistance exercise combined with vascular occlusion on muscle function in athletes. Euro J Appl
Phys. 86:308-314. IM Remember Charles Atlas? He sold muscle-building
courses for years. His ads had a cartoon of a bully kick- ing sand in the face of a 97-pound weakling and steal- ing his girl. The guy with the buggy-whip body orders the Atlas course, buffs up, kicks the bully’s ass and wins back his babe. The method in the Atlas course was called Dynamic Tension—basically pitting one muscle against another in a type of opposing muscle tug-of- war. For example, you resist curling your right arm by pressing against it with your left. What a hoax! We all know you have to lift heavy weights to build muscle, right? Not so fast, mass seekers.
Here’s what happened in a study that compared lighter, slower-rep training with heavy, normal-speed sets. Three groups used different styles of training on leg extensions:
1) Low intensity. 50 percent of one-rep max—
light—with slow movement and tonic force genera- tion, taking three seconds each to raise and lower the weight, with a one-second pause at the top of each rep. No relaxing phase.
2)High intensity. 80 percent of one-rep max—
heavy—taking one second to raise the weight and one second to lower it, with one second of relaxing between reps. Conventional-style training.
3)Low intensity, normal speed. Same rep cadence
as for group 2.
The workout consisted of three sets of eight reps, done three times a week for 12 weeks. Results: Signifi- cant muscle gains occurred in the first two groups, with no gains in group 3.
How on earth did the slow-rep light training in group 1 build so much muscle? Answer: sustained muscle activation, or longer tension time. Notice that each of the light reps lasted for about seven seconds. That’s 56 seconds of continuous tension on the quads (7 seconds x 8 reps). That produces a high level of blood-flow oc- clusion due to muscle oxygen deficit, which produces muscle growth—perhaps on a few different pathways from the standard heavy training road.
The authors suggest that the increased gains in size and strength come from localized increase in hormone signaling, which spurs the release of growth hormone and insulinlike growth factor 1. Light, continuous-ten- sion training also produces nitric oxide, which helps muscle satellite cells proliferate. So restricting blood flow to the muscle releases more NO, which dilates blood vessels in an attempt to overcome the decreased blood flow within the muscle, which activates GH re- lease. (In fact, we contend that most of the upper-body muscle development of gymnasts comes from occlu-
sive activation on the rings and floor exercises, as they don’t do any heavy progressive-resistance work. Inter- esting!)
Yes, heavy sets at normal speed produce the most force, and that activates the fastest-growing fast-twitch fibers toward the end of the set. In 3D Positions-of- Flexion training, you do your big, midrange exercises, like squats and bench presses, with heavy weights for around eight reps at normal speed. That stimulates force-activated fiber hypertrophy. You finish each bodypart with an isolated contracted-position exercise, like leg extensions or cable crossovers. That’s where you get the occlusion—using lighter weight and slower reps with continuous-tension isolation. The occlusive- activated hypertrophy benefits both fast-twitch fibers and the endurance components, like mitochondria and capillaries—plus brings a rise in growth hormone.
If you do only one style of training—heavy, nor- mal-speed training or lighter, slower-speed occlusive sets—you can miss key anabolic stimulation. In other words, you won’t grow as fast as you could. That’s why it’s important to use both styles, as in this 3D HIT quad routine adapted from the program in our e-book X-
traordinary Arms.
Squats (midrange) 2 x 9-12
Sissy squats (stretch) 1 x 9-12
Leg extensions (contracted) 1-2 x 12-15*
*Slower cadence: 2 seconds up, 3 seconds down. If you keep the weight moving—that is, no rest at the top or bottom—you get some occlusion on the first two exercises. The real occlusion, though, occurs on the last exercise, when you use the slower speed—five seconds per rep, which gives you about 60 seconds of tension time, as in the study.
You also get special mass-building properties from the stretch exercise—as shown in an animal study that produced a 300 percent mass increase after only one month of progressive-stretch overload—but that’s a whole other anabolic can of worms.
So was Atlas right? His Dynamic Tension system defi- nitely had merit, if the trainee kept tension on the target muscle long enough. You could try it, although you’d have to be very innovative for some muscle groups. A better way is to use isolation contracted-position exer- cises, as illustrated above—longer tension time, maxi- mum muscle occlusion and burn. It hurts, but it works.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson www.X-Rep.com
Tanimoto, M., and Ishii, N. (2006). Effects of low- intensity resistance exercise with slow movement and tonic force generation on muscular function in young men. J App Physiol. 100:1150-1157.