Supplemental Notes - Strength Flashcards
What is Muscle Irritability?
- amount of stimulation to initiate the response of a muscle fibre. Minimal amount of stimulation is required; this is called the threshold stimulation.
- if the stimulus is above the threshold level, the response is greater b/c either more motor units are affected or duration of discharge of impulses along one motor unit is increased
What is Muscle Contractility?
ability of a muscle to contract
What is Muscle Viscosity?
the internal resistance that limits the rate of muscle contraction. The general rule is that the faster the rate of muscle contraction, the greater the internal resistance and the less the external force that can be exerted. At faster speeds, more force is required to lift the same weight
What is Muscle Fatigue?
it can result either from exhaustion of a muscle with prolonged activity or from failure of the circulatory system to provide the necessary nutrients to continue muscle activity. One agent response for local muscle fatigue is lactic acid.
What is Muscle Endurance?
the ability of a muscle or a muscle group to perform repeated contractions against a less-than-maximal load.
What is Absolute Strength?
Absolute strength of a muscle means its maximal strength plus the reserve protected by the ANS, which cannot be voluntarily activated.
What is Relative Strength?
Relative strength of a muscle is a result of dividing the approximate value of the absolute strength of a muscle by the athlete’s body weight.
Relative muscle strength is very important in weightlifting, boxing, and wrestling (where there are weight categories) or in sports like gymnastics (where the entire body has to be moved).
What is Explosive Strength?
Explosive strength is the ability to rapidly apply as much force as possible in the shortest time.
What are forced repetitions?
This is a method whereby the athlete works to failure, then executes a few more repetitions with the aid of a training partner, whom provides minimal assistance to enable the concentric phase to be completed.
What are restricted range repititions?
the athlete uses a heavier than maximum weight through a specific range of motion. This method may be used to work on specific areas of weakness. It can also be called the sticking point.
What are supersets?
this is a method where the athlete combines 2 or 3 exercises or even 4-6 different exercises (giant sets) to exhaust a specific muscle group. There is no rest between exercises
What is the Pyramid method?
this method involves performing 4-5 sets of an exercise where the load is progressively increased and the number of repetitions is decreased with each set.
What is stripping/drop sets?
It involves working progressively with an increasing load and a decreasing number of repetitions in a pyramid fashion until the target load is reached with about 3-4 reps. There is not rest in between.
