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Four score and seven years ago,
the gyms with platforms outnumbered the gyms without 1000 to one. Today,
the gyms without platforms outnumber the gyms with platforms 1000 to one.
Indeed, four score and seven years ago, there were only 1001 gyms, give or
take a score! The one thousand and first gym was probably a Vic Tanny's
salon, then just beginning. The opening of that cute li'l chrome health
club, I suspect, marked the beginning of a paradigm shift in the art and
science of weight training as it is popularly practiced in this country
and around the world.
Our forefathers brought forth to this nation
a method of weight training that was dedicated to the proposition that all
methods are NOT created equal. Four score and seven years of scientific
scrutiny and practical experience has taught us that their methods were -
are - vastly superior to any developed thereafter. The underlying
philosophy of their methods was elegantly simple in its fundamental
thesis. To maximize your strength and fitness, you must lift heavy
weights. Since there were practically no gizmos to make this easier to do
back then, one was obliged to lift the weights while standing. Usually on
a platform.
The world of Irondom will little note nor long remember
what I have to say here. I acknowledge that lamentable fact. Olympic
lifting has lost a lot of its former popularity to powerlifting and
bodybuilding, especially in the USA. Couple this with the fact that the
fabric of the bodybuilding gym industry has become inextricably interwoven
with that of the equipment industry. You can't make a lot of money selling
pig iron and platforms, so you devise expensive equipment and sell new
models every year, like new model cars. To maintain their competitive
edge, gyms are obliged to buy the new equipment because it has been
marketed so expertly. These extant market forces mitigate so strongly
against Irondom noting or remembering what is said in this article that
that it is doomed to the same pile of trivial nonsense that is the end
fate of all such pleas for a return to sanity. Still, I must protest,
albeit into a raging wind of vile objections or (worse) utter
obscurity.
What's With The "Platform" Thing?
See, back in the
days of platforms, the weights were made of iron, and dropping them on the
floor was considered pretty "bush." You were instructed to lower the bar
to the floor under control back then, an act which had some pretty
worthwhile benefits in and of itself, besides being allowed to remain in
the gym. Of course, it was appropriately believed that the successful
raising of the weight was the primary intent of standing there in the
first place. So, the platform was there for two major reasons: To protect
the floor if you inadvertently missed a lift, and to mark the safe zone
for exercising. No one walked onto or in front of a platform back then as
a matter of both safety and courtesy. In case you haven't noticed, by the
way, weights are STILL made of iron, although some are rubber coated for
damage control.
But let's explore the benefits of the
now-all-but-extinct platform a bit more. On the platform you could do
cleans, snatches, presses with one arm or two, bent rows, jerks after a
clean or off the racks, and a host of other truly great but long-forgotten
exercises. Even ...err...squats and deadlifts! [Author's note: A great
place for pics from the likes of the early Prof. Anthony Barker's poster
courses? Or others?] And there was always chalk near the platform. The
single most important safety feature in the gym is now also
all-but-extinct. Gym owners are simply too lazy to clean the floor (you
can't expect the lifters to chalk up without making a mess).
What's
With The "Standing" Thing?
The most important benefit of doing your
exercises on a platform is that you are STANDING! You are not sitting,
lying, leaning or supporting yourself in any manner. Your synergistic
muscles, grip muscles, stabilizer muscles, and prime movers are all
synchronously endeavoring to move the greatest resistance possible, each
contributing uniquely in the effort to force an adaptive response. Over
weeks and months of training under the watchful eyes of fellow lifters and
old gym rat aficionados, it began to happen efficiently, and manifold
benefits accrued far beyond what can be accomplished with most of the
modern-day gizmos.
This does not happen efficiently in the modern
gym. In fact, it rarely happens at all. Not that it couldn't. It's just
that in today's gyms, little of scientific weight training methodology is
known or practiced. As proof of this startling pronouncement, witness the
unending torrent of shoulder and low back injuries (two of the most common
injuries among a host of nagging others). Witness the unacceptably high
dropout rate among newcomers to Irondom. In case you haven't been reading
Club Industry reports, the dropout rate exceeds 80 percent! Why? Failure,
injury or both DRIVES them out!
Problems With Lifting Weights While
Sitting, Lying Or Leaning
A greater chance for injury and failure are
two major problems. Dr. Pat O'Shea, author of the first college text ever
written on weight training (Scientific Principles and Methods of Strength
Fitness, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1976), elaborated on the
benefits of free weight training versus machine training. Said he of the
ten perils of machine training:
1. No machine can provide full
range multiple joint movements as closely as free weights.
2. Motor
skill engrams aren't established with machines as well as free
weights.
3. The carry-over value of free weight training is superior to
that provided by machine training.
4. Machine training won't help you
develop a high level of fluid, dynamic full-range athletic strength.
5.
The body is a homogeneous unit that engages in ballistic movements,
particularly those generated by strong hip thrust.
6. Machine training
doesn't provide for training variety and variability.
7. Machines don't
permit the mind and body to develop in synchronization
8. Machine
training does not stress the psycho-endrocrine systems.
9. Machine
training does not provide for positive training experience.
10. Machine
training does not provide for continuous long-term motivation.
I elaborated on these ten
points in Power: A Scientific Approach nearly ten years ago (Contemporary
Books, 1989). They explain, in large part, why so many people fail to get
themselves in peak condition if all they do is train with machines. They
also explain, in large part, why people get injured so much. Moving
through prescribed patterns and ranges of motion just aren't the way
Mother Nature intended for you to move!
But both O'Shea and I only
hinted at the one important point that needs to be addressed. It comes
closer to explaining the injuries and drop-out rates. The simple fact is
that, with the use of machines, you're almost always sitting, lying or
leaning. That is the underlying reason for all ten of the stated
perils.
There is a startling bit of information that was not
brought to light until recently. The chances of injury, both during and as
a result of training on machines, is far greater than while lifting free
weights while standing on your own two feet. Now I must admit that, at
first, this seemed odd to me. Most of us in Irondom simply assumed that
machines offered the user a bit more safety than free weights! You know,
limited range of movement, carefully hidden moving parts, total lack of
ballistic stress, and so forth. Not so according to these relatively
recent research findings:
* Weightlifters [Olympic style] have less
than half the injury rate per 100 hours of training than do those engaged
in other forms of weight training; 17 Vs 35. (Hamill, B. Relative Safety
of Weightlifting and Weight Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning
Research, 8(1):53-57. 1994)
* Retired Olympic weight lifters had
lower lifetime incidence and prevalence of low back pain than a control
group of normal active men of similar age; 23% Vs. 31%. (Granhed, H. et
al. Low back pain among retired wrestlers and heavyweight lifters. The
American Journal of Sports Medicine,16(5):530-533. 1988)
* Mike
Stone, et. Al. provided an excellent review of the research literature on
this topic. The inescapable conclusion was that weightlifting is indeed
the safest method of weight training. (Stone, M. H., A. C. Fry, M.
Ritchie, L. Stoessel-Ross, and J. L. Marsit. Injury potential and safety
aspects of weightlifting movements. Strength and Conditioning. June:
15-21. 1994)
It is clear now, that Dr. O'Shea knew what he was
taking about. The very forms of stress that machines force you to avoid
are the ones your body not only craves because they simulate all movement
on planet Earth, but absolutely requires for both safety reasons as well
as performance reasons!
Benefits of Lifting Weights While
Standing
Arthur Drechsler, author of the single most important book
ever written on Olympic weightlifting (The Weightlifting Encyclopedia, A
is A Communications, New York, 1997), hit the nail on the head. Speaking
about the unique value of the Olympic lifts for athletes, Drechsler listed
eight benefits unavailable to those using machines:
1. The mere practice of the
(Olympic) lifts [the snatch and the clean & jerk as well as related
lifting techniques] teaches an athlete how to explode.
2. The practice
of proper technique in the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete to apply force
with his or her muscle groups in the proper sequences.
3. In mastering
the Olympic lifts, the athlete learns how to accelerate objects under
varying degrees of resistance.
4. The athlete learns to receive force
from another moving body effectively and becomes conditioned to accept
such forces.
5. The athlete learns to move effectively from an
eccentric contraction to a concentric one.
6. The actual movements
performed while executing the Olympic lifts are among the most common and
fundamental in sports.
7. Practicing the Olympic lifts trains an
athlete's explosive capabilities, and the lifts themselves measure the
effectiveness of the athlete in generating explosive power to a greater
degree than most other exercises they can practice.
8. The Olympic
lifts are simply fun to do.
There is a lot of sophisticated science wrapped up in
explaining these eight benefits. I cannot delve into it in this article
enough to do it the justice it deserves. However, I can add a few insights
to the list Drechsler provided.
The fundamental reason why what
both O'Shea and Drechsler say is true is that the lifts are done while
standing! In my mind, this places a premium on such lifts and detracts
from the value of machines.
And, it's not only machines that are
suspect. Free weight exercises that require the use of benches or other
contraptions of various sorts are implicated as well. Lying or sitting on
a bench effectively limits the support and stabilizer requirements that
are part-and-parcel to lifting while standing. Removing your need for
synergy and stability, and therefore your ability to apply adaptive stress
to the muscles and other tissues which provide them, is the reason that
you are able to effectively injury-proof yourself more easily with lifts
performed while standing than any other method of weight
training.
To illustrate, let's talk about bench pressing (a free
weight movement if I ever saw one). Lying on your back with 300-400 or
more pounds in your hands presses your scapulae into the flat bench
beneath. You lower the bar to your chest. But the scapulae are pinned to
the bench and cannot slide inwards as you lower the bar. And neither can
they slide outward as you raise the bar off your chest. This is not good!
It causes undue stress on the tendons of the long heads of your biceps.
The results?
* nagging long-lasting pain from biceps tendentious,
*
you can't lift as much,
* far less strength is developed, and
* you
are saddled with poor performance in sports and daily
activities.
On top of that, all benches are made to be about 16
inches off the ground because the rules of powerlifting dictated it back
in the mid-sixties. This is downright dangerous for shorter athletes, who
have to go into spinal hyperextension in order to keep their feet flat on
the ground for better stability. The results?
* low back trauma
*
less stability during training and therefore greater exposure to injury
and less weight being lifted
* poor sports performance, or (worse)
*
ruined sports career or quitting the gym from unnecessary
injury.
Equipment manufacturers haven't even BEGUN to understand
this fundamental flaw in a piece of equipment as simple as a flat bench!
Imagine the flaws they perpetrate with the rest of their more elaborate
gizmos!
How Can I Make Platform Lifting Safer And More Effective
Than Machine Training?
The answer to this innocent question is that it
already IS! The recent scientific research says it quite clearly. On the
other hand, I would be remiss if I didn't leave you with a few points of
caution. You will not experience the benefits of platform lifting -
lifting while standing - unless you know a few things that must be
avoided:
* Poor technique in executing the movement (placing too
much stress on connective tissues, and the smaller synergists or
stabilizers by getting out of the "groove")
* Premature use of a
training method (going ballistic before a solid foundation is
developed)
* Improper frame of mind while lifting (lack of focus,
intensity or dedication)
* Repeating a movement until fatigue forces
you to fail (predisposition to focus problems as well as
injury)
Should I Abandon Machines And Benches?
Absolutely not!
After all, the use of machines and benches are quite effective! Just
expand you horizons a bit, and give it a try! Charles Staley, a colleague
of mine in the International Sports Sciences Association, put it rather
succinctly in his article on explosive lifting:
"Legions of
successful competitive bodybuilders have achieved their goals without
using these techniques. However, it has been my experience that many top
physique stars have achieved their success in spite of their training
methods and habits, not because of them. When you have a superior
somatotype and a favorable hormonal system to support it, and when you
have a superior ability to train hard on a consistent basis, you don't
need to sweat the details. Recreational pharmacology should be factored
in, also. "But let's assume that you're at least the fourth generation of
your family to stand upright. Let's also assume you have a job, and
limited chemistry skills. Let's further assume that your training program
could benefit from a bit of variation, and even some fun. If you fit this
profile, and if you employ qualified supervision (I'd recommend calling
the United States Weightlifting Federation at 719-678-4508 in order to
find a qualified weightlifting coach in your area), I would urge you to
explore these methods. The downside? For starters, HIT Jedis will call you
a fool. Also, you may abandon bodybuilding for the sport of Olympic
weightlifting. You also run the risk of slow twitch fiber atrophy, as your
Type II fibers hypertrophy to unprecedented size. Finally, you may suffer
guilt pangs as you find yourself actually enjoying training again. On
balance, I'd say it's worth the risk."
Will it ever come to
pass that platforms make a comeback in the gym? Perhaps not (market forces
y'know). But one thing is clear. It ain't gonna happen unless 1) you
demand it, 2) muscle magazines begin talking about platform lifting, and
3) personal trainers begin getting experienced at it.
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