Stupidity beyond Stupidity

OK sports fans, you're friendly neighborhood fitness giant IDEA supports this sort of stupidity:

Train Fast
With the exception of power-lifting, few sports are performed slowly. While many individuals would argue that performing movements quickly in the weight room may be dangerous, speed is not the primary factor that would determine an injury; it is control. Athletes do not get hurt because they are going too fast; they get hurt because they are going fast and are out of control. If clients want to be fast, you must train them fast.

Reading this made me laugh for like 10 minutes. And then it made me really, really, MAD.

First of all, power lifting is slow because the weights are so heavy they can't be moved fast. These athletes commonly attempt one repetition maximums to see how strong they are in three different exercises, the bench press, the squat and the dead-lift.

Training fast in the weight room will not make you fast on the playing field unless training fast in the weight room makes you stronger (which it will sort of) and doesn't injure you (which it will not sort of).

Deep down inside I think anyone who reads this article knows it's just plain stupid.

If you want to be fast at a sport or activity you need SKILL and a high level of skill at that sport or activity and that takes practice. After you have developed great skill, you need great (or greater) muscular strength.

You can't make your 4-cylinder car faster by driving it fast. No. You have to take out the engine and replace it with a beefier one.

But we can't take our muscles and nerves out of our bodies and replace them with better ones. We can, however, make them better, or stronger by strength training. And as long as you are training for improvements in overall strength, you will, little by little become faster.

Training fast to be fast is like eating fast to digest fast. Two completely different things. Doesn't work like this. In fact, training fast forces you to use very light weights which do little do make you stronger.

If you want to be a fastER runner, if you want to have a fastER tennis serve, if you want to have a swiftER golf swing do this:

1.Practice the sport as perfectly as possible by hiring a coach who knows what they are talking about.

2. Strength train in a slow and controlled manner, steadily but gradually increasing the resistance over time. 

That's it!

Comments

[adam]

Hey Fred,
Took me a while to find you but glad I did; question for you--you mentioned doing weight lifting exercises slowly and with control--time-wise, can you give me some thoughts as far as what to strive for? What I think I'm trying to say is, should I be counting a certain number of seconds during the repetition? Hope I'm making sense here.
Thanks,
Adam

[fred hahn]

Hi Adam - my book explians it all but essentially you want to choose a weight load that does not allow you to get past 90 seconds of work. When you start a repetition purposefully take 2-3 seconds to move the first inch, then keep moving smoothly - don't accelerate. Lower in the same manner. Some exercises will be as short as 6 or 7 secs up some longer. The exact number is not important. Just don't rush through as this unevely loads and unlods the muscles. Hope this helps!

[adam]

Fred,
Thanks for the advice! I will check out your book--and one of these days I'll get the old Soloflex out of storage (heh heh)
Enjoying your blog, man.
Thanks again,
Adam

[fred hahn]

Sure thing Adam. Sell the Soloflex on Ebay and buy a decent set of barbells and dumbells with a bench/squat rack. Takes up about the same space and they will be far more beneficial. Or, better yet, come to my gym! You get a comp session for liking my blog!

[adam]

Fred,
Thanks, man! Just might take you up on the offer since I'm a Queens resident!
Man oh man those before and after pictures of your clients are inspirational! Whew...
Take care.
Adam

[Blaise]

Hi, Adam.
I had the chance to train for a session at Fred's gym and it was completely fantastic. I had already been using his book for a year and training myself at the Y, so I knew the basic concepts, but having a skilled trainer take me through the moves was an incredible learning experience and also fun. Wish I lived in New York!

Take him up on his offer!
--Blaise

[Bryan]

Fred, I just found a link to you on Mike Eades site, so this is my first time reading your POV on training. I must admit I'm already confused by your position in this post. At least in my observation, the strongest guys in the weight room were almost always the slowest guys when it came to dryland training. Conversely, the guys who could hardly bench an unplated bar were the ones who blew our doors off on the field.

In my training at least, I've noticed without exception that slower motion weight training slowed me down on the ice and on the field, while lighter and faster weight training made me perform faster. At the time I was reading Mike Mentzer's stuff. Perhaps his approach was different than yours?

[fred hahn]

Bryan training slow doesn't make you slow. That is ridiculous. I have no idea what you were doing. If it made you stronger it would have made you faster. think about it. What you ARE SAYING HAS NOT BEN MY EXPERIENCE NOR HAS IT BEEN THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS. Sorry for the caps. When you are stornger you will always be faster. If you get weaker you'll get slower right?

[Frank Trane]

Hire a coach. Not one of these kid gymrats who have gotten their credentials out of the back of a muscle mag. Great info. Cool site! I have been researching high and low for some of the "best bodybuilding routines"? This post has helped me a great deal.