Read on Twitter
(A Thread) Reading this morning my collection of old transcriptions from 40 years ago to help share some background. Instead of repeating myself every few years with the same old argument, I would rather post once and circle around later. If we slow down we can be more efficient.
In the early 1980s an explosion of interest was with weight machines, thanks to Arthur Jones. HIT was twice a week for twenty minutes in a circuit and became popular again with cyberpump. Several NFL teams claimed this worked, but athletes knew better and hired private coaches.
Tom McLaughlin (researcher) was freaking Rambo and was doing barbell tracking (speed and path) before most here were babies. He along with other coaches placed efforts in free weights and less commercial methods. It was a bad time and still haunts us.
in 1997 the Vern Gambetta workshops were way ahead of the curve. Key Performance Indicators (KTAs), eccentric exercise for structural change, contemporary motor learning, pelvic engine, nervous system fatigue, and the endocrine system, and yes the "train movements, not muscles".
The bullet was in the workbook, but it was a discussion point and talked about the single joint in rehab and other pros and cons. The statement was not the gospel to be perfect, but it illustrated the point that we needed to spend the majority of time training motions.
In the practical discussion of calf raises was brought up, but that was preaching to the choir as much of the training was chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, & front of the legs Wednesday. Those that were enlightened understood that training like an athlete was a different beast.
Of course, muscles matter as they help us move, but the other quotes seem to have been missing as well. The working concept was with purposeful caveats of course, but taking a sound bite and arguing about a piece of a discussion is dangerous.
So the point was not that you can't do an isolated or single joint action, it was to help us evolve out of the dark ages with machine circuits of 2 sets of 8-12 reps. Look at the great training now and ask who fought for what you see professionally?
French Contrast, split jumps, and other stuff we see is older than us, and keeping it relevant and value comes with a cost when the competition has deep pockets from corporations. Let's do our homework so we can make progress and not dogpile on phantom arguments out of context.
