Good-for-naught in your strength training program.

Are there any exercise that you refuse to use in your strength program?

Everyone in coaching or strength training learns through trial and error, mistakes, the literature, and input from other coaches and the athletes themselves.

We are constantly searching for safer and more effective methods of conditioning, and whenever anything good comes along we pass it on to our staff people and athletes.

Several years ago, we received a negative report on several exercises which we turned over to our medical staff. When they concurred with the findings, we felt obliged to drop the exercises from our program.

You may be interested in checking out these exercises and making your own decisions on them.

1. UPRIGHT ROWS

Horrigan and Robinson recommended the elimination of this exercise from strength-training programs. They reported that the exercise places the shoulder in internal rotation as the arm is raised, making it difficult for the greater tubercle to clear the acromium.

In the "proper form" for the upright row, the athlete is required to pull the elbows as high as possible. This movement simply increases the degree of internal rotation and magnifies the danger of impingement.

The authors report that since "upright rows accelerate the degeneration of the rotator cuff, they increase the risk of developing tendinitis or bursitis."

2. SEATED PRESS BEHIND-THE NECK

Horrigan and Robinson also state that behind-the-neck presses require a fundamental range of motion and flexibility, and that athletes who do not possess this capability can run a problem:

"The strain of having to work against the resistance imposed by the weight is too much to ask of the rotator cuff. Over time, it may strain, inflame, become fibrous, and weaken."

3. LAT PULLDOWN BEHIND-THE-NECK.

We eliminate this exercise for the same reason we dropped the previous exercise (#2).

Early in our career we were resistant to change. Our ego wouldn't permit it. Our athletes had been performing these exercises for years and we weren't willing to admit that some exercises can, over time, create problems. It was very easy to say, "We have never hurt anyone knowingly."

Remember, the physical problem may not appear until the athletes have left the program.

"WINNING" ADVICE

We have stopped relying upon win and lose records as a justification for anything we do in our program. The unvarnished truth is that most games are won by the team with the better athletes. (And we are always trying to make better athletes of all our players.)

Many coaches choose to identify only with success. Why follow the advice of an unsuccessful coach? What can he possibly tell us?

In no other profession can a person achieve respect and credibility as quickly as he can in sports. Winning coaches become instant authorities on everything.

As they say in the market place, "Caveat emptor." Don't buy anything until you've tested it out.

Twenty-five years ago, many players were forbidden to drink water in a game or even in practice. Their coaches had learned this from their coaches. We don't want you drinking everytime you get thirsty. Discipline yourself. Stay away from the water bucket. It will make you "tough."

Nothing could have been further from the truth. The rejection of water did not make anyone tough. But it might kill him. Young athletes died of dehydration because of this unsound coaching ritual.

We can sympathize with the coaches who cringe at the thought of how wrong they were, but we cannot accept their explanation that the information had never been available to them "back then."

It had always been available, but not in the places where the coaches looked. The medical community and the academic community had always warned the athletic community to allow the athletes to drink all the water they wanted.

The coaches chose to listen to their leaders, "the experts" among them.

It wasn't all that long ago that the same kind of "experts" were telling their athletes to take salt pills, put hot packs on muscle pulls, eat meat to get stronger muscles, avoid lifting weights to prevent "muscle-boundness," jump rope to get "quick feet," wear rubber suits to sweat and lose fat, do sit-ups to lose fat in the midsection, do neck isometric exercises before practice to strengthen the neck . . . just one unsubstantiated misconception after another.

Over the years, we have trained many high school, college, and professional athletes without using any of the above activities or practices. We have learned through experience that they do not produce the best results and may actually compromise the athletes' safety.

Mark Schlereth, one of our former offensive linemen (now with the Denver Broncos), said it best: "I don't want to get hurt, but if I'm going to be hurt, let it be on the playing field, not in the weight room."

REJECTIONS

We couldn't agree more. Strength training should provide the safest form of exercise extant. There must be zero tolerance for any injuries in the weight room.

Your program may include one or more of these exercises. If you are satisfied with your program and haven't had any injuries that could be attributed to the exercise, you don't have to change a thing. But you had better not claim that "his technique was bad" when one of your kids does get hurt.

CONCLUSIONS

We have learned through the years that facts are facts. Because something is popular and the "experts" recommend it does not make it right.

The strength and conditioning professional remains a relatively new discipline. Do not accept an exercise because someone has won a lot of games or lifted a lot of weight or ran the fastest races "because of it."

Anytime you accept the advice of a coach (including us), do so because the facts support it - that it is the safest, most efficient, and most productive alternative for your athletes.

May the power be with you!

Additional movements we avoid in our program:

1. Any exercise that incorporates momentum or sudden and jerky movements to help raise the weight.

2. The power clean, hang clean, clean and jerk, and snatch.

3. Barbell squat.

4. Standing military press.

5. Bent-arm pullovers lying on a bench (with dumbbell or barbell).

6. Plyometrics (to include bounding and depth jumping).

7. Attempts to imitate a skill with weights.

We do not include any of these movements in our conditioning program. We have found safer and more productive alternatives.

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO: Dan Riley/Jason Arapoff, The Power Line c/o Washington Redskins 21300 Redskins Park Drive, Ashburn,VA 20147

Dan Riley & Jason Arapoff, Conditioning Coaches, Washington Redskins