Sports Science Friday: The Barwis School of Pukitude

AKA: STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING.

The language of Barwis (spoken in a gravel-like rumble at 78 rpms, minimum). As many of you know, I have been calling for Mike Gittleson's head for AGES, but who knew that the transformation / evolution of Michigan's S&C program would be, ahem, Barwinian????

In an attempt to define and translate what the heck Barwis is doing, I went to what is clearly his "Origin of the Species"......The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research......proving that there is definitely method behind the man's madness.

THE GOAL: condition, speed, agility, balance, flexibility, power, explosiveness

MATERIALS:

1) FAST-TWITCH FIBERS + Olympic training movements = Explosiveness

Human skeletal muscle contains 2 muscle fiber types: slow twitch (type I) and fast twitch (type II). The slow twitchers are involved in sustained strength movements and provide endurance. Fast twitchers are best at quick force generation and fine motor activities. Slow twitchers have a long latency period, meaning you fire them, and they provide a long, strong contraction but then take a while to recover. (sound like anything we know Catie???? )

anywho.....

Fast twitch fibers however, can be recruited quickly, with maximal force generation and then recover quickly---but they can fatigue faster. SO, by recruiting fast-twitch fibers you get an explosive response in terms of quickness and amount of force generated, but you can flame out quickly. (as it were, so to speak, DRINK YOUR MILK)

Barwis' Olympic weight lifting regimen involves (wait for it)...THE TWO HAND SNATCH and THE CLEAN AND JERK (heh heh heh, tee hee)

That's why the weight room is now full of free weights. It's all about reps, weight, and recovery....reps, weight, and recovery....REPEAT!!!!!

2) BALANCE & FUNCTIONAL AREA, control in 3D space. This seems to encompass a lot of things for Barwis. First he wants to stabilize things ANTERIOR TO POSTERIOR ie, building up agonist/antagonist muscle groups. Think biceps/triceps pairs or hammy/quad pairs. Delts/Lats. Pec Major/Trapezius. Rectus abdominus/Erector spinae. Iliospoas/Gluts. Tibialis anterior(shin)/Gastrocnemius (calf). The agonist is the muscle being exercised, while the antagonist acts in opposition to the agonist. You want the two muscle groups to be balanced to avoid injury since you wouldn't want your quads stronger than your hammys.....OUCH!

This concept then leads to something he refers to as:

3) FUNCTIONAL FLEXIBILITY PROGRESSIONS, active movements, dynamic flexibility, and static stretches. Basically the idea here is to increase flexibility and stretch on the muscle groups so that the range of motion around a joint is not limited by the muscless' inflexibility. You want to increase the flexibility of all the things connected to the joint thereby preventing resistance from one's own musculature in whatever action you are trying to perform at a joint. The science isn't as robust around static stretches---I won't bore you with the 129+ articles I found but basically for every article that says that stretching helps performance, there is another one that says not so much. But this leads into what Barwis calls

4) INJURY PREVENTION AND "PRE-HAB", His point is that AFTER an injury at a joint occurs the treatment is all about strengthing surrounding muscle groups to support the joint, increasing tendon strength and length etc. He (rightly I think) says HEY, let's do that stuff BEFORE someone gets injured....

Case and point?? Women and ACL injuries. Women have a rate of ACL injury 2-8 times higher than that of men, particularly in sports such as soccer and basketball. The original research was done by U of M's own Dr. Ed Wojtys, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, and a member of the 1972 Football Team. He and his group (among a zillion others) have done extensive research showing that you can decrease non-contact ACL injuries in women by neuromuscular strength training, teaching appropriate jumping and landing techniques, and of course---the right shooooooes.

Walking us right into>>>>

5) CORE TRANSFER, where you strengthen the core muscle groups such as the abs/low back/pelvis/spine in order to provide a stable center thru which force can be transferred, stabilized, and/or generated. This prevents buckling or twisting of the back and hips providing a strength and power advantage. How does one do this you ask??? By using an unstable apparatus like a crazy-ass exercise ball, balance board, or heaven forbid...performing pilates. The instability triggers ones' proprioceptors, which are sensors within a muscle providing your brain with information about joint angle, muscle length and tension as well as your own sense of self in space. By training on an unstable surface you actually train yourself to adjust in 3D space more quickly and accurately--as Barwis says, think about a wide receiver reaching back across his body to catch a ball, or a running back making a quick juke move....

"whammo"

6) PLYOMETRICS AND EXPLOSIVE TRAINING thru impulse training and the development of muscle elasticity/rebound (aka the stretch reflex). Basically developing springlike action within the muscles to transfer potential energy to kinetic energy. BOING!!!!

WTF are plyometrics you ask??? Things like two-foot ankle hops; 15-cm cone hops; tuck, pike, and box jumps; one- and two-leg vertical jump and reach; squat jumps. Basically stuff that will KILL you at first, but make you strong grasshopper in the end...Not yet a believer?

Take a look at the science as demonstrated by women in bikinis on the beach. REALLY!

Marques, MC, van den Tillaar, R, Vescovi, JD, and Gonzalez-Badillo, JJ. Changes in strength and power performance in elite senior female professional volleyball players during the in-season: a case study. J Strength Cond Res 22: 1147-1155, 2008

It is often recommended that in-season training programs aim to maintain muscular strength and power developed during the off-season. However, improvements in performance may be possible with a well-designed training regimen. The purpose of this case report is to describe the changes in physical performance after an in-season training regimen in professional female volleyball players in order to determine whether muscular strength and power might be improved. Apart from normal practice sessions, 10 elite female volleyball players completed 2 training sessions per week, which included both resistance training and plyometric exercises. Over the 12-week season, the athletes performed 3-4 sets of 3-8 repetitions for resistance and plyometric exercises during each training session. All sessions were supervised by one of the investigators as well as by the team head coach. Muscular strength and power were assessed before and after the 12-week training program using 4 repetition maximum bench press and parallel squat tests, an overhead medicine ball throw (BTd), as well as unloaded and loaded countermovement jumps (CMJs). Strength improved by 15% and 11.5% in the bench press and parallel squat, respectively. Hope you liked the healing picture because Mikey B also digs.

7) BIOENERGETICS which, fingers crossed, is not this, but rather the study and understanding of energy utilization within human tissues. Things like aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, oxidative stress, heat transfer, and nutrition extraction, maybe?????? I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt....

Add it all up, and here are the RESULTS, which many of you have already seen---but maybe now we can all understand.....????

GOT IT????

GOOD, cuz here comes Barwis' F*%& LION (work alert)

One last thought...

Core transfer healing picture for the ladies:

Don't you wish your boyfriend had abs like these??????

dayyyyum.

that is all.

HT: Shawn Windsor and SiC