Improving Performance with Selective Tension
As our spectrum of courses increases as well as our panel of experts, it's opened up an opportunity for me to give some of our tutors the opportunity to guest-write on my blog. Here's Ben Walsh giving an extremely interesting insight into incremental tension.
The incremental use of tension is a concept we apply in our regular day to day lives, although we are most likely unaware that we use it. This is a good thing; if we were constantly thinking about selective tension then we would never get anything done! Let’s look at a few examples; when opening and closing doors we don’t use all our strength, as we know that doors don’t need our full force to close and we are likely to damage ourselves and/or the door if we apply too much. Opening a can of cola is a gentle operation, avoiding shaking the contents and breaking the ring pull. Over the course of our lives we have finely tuned our skills to optimise movement efficiency, using selective tension among other proprioceptive attributes. Unfortunately a number of factors affect this including age, injury, over/under training, disease, fear, nutrition and many more.
As we use selective tension in our lives you would think we use it when exercising, right? More than likely not! Let’s take a conventional resistance training exercise, the pull-up as an example. The pull-up is easy to relate tension to; think about the last time you completed a set of pull-ups and remember what the limiting factor that caused you to fatigue. You would expect 99.9% of the answers to be grip strength and forearm fatigue, which is not surprising given the size of the muscles compared to those of the back. Now let’s go back to the start of the set you were about to complete, ask yourself, how much grip force you applied while holding on to the bar? Did you use all your fingers to grip the bar? Was there a pause before starting the set? Did you pack your shoulders and drive your elbows back to fire the lats and stabilise the scapula? It was likely that an over exertion of force at the start of the set and/or the under use of the lats lead to early fatigue. How many of us run heel to toe and bang the floor as we foot strike? Are we aware that banging our feet into the floor is unnecessary wasted energy and increasing the likelihood of stress related injuries?
The obvious question arises, why don’t we use selective tension when exercising? There are many physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual factors that influence the ability to apply selective tension, the most important thing is being aware that we use it and can therefore apply it in training. Breathing, exertion and tension are interrelated. As tension increases, so does exertion and subsequently the rate of breathing to allow the uptake and transfer of oxygen in line with exhalation of carbon dioxide. We all exercise at different levels so surely those who exercise at a less intense level should apply selective tension, right? Maybe, although many who exercise at lighter levels are novice exercisers, unaware of technique, potentially unfit and gassing out or wishing the time away, thinking of nothing but finishing the session. Those that train intensely and follow the ‘no pain no gain’ principle are more than likely unaware of using selective tension. As our heart rate increases above 140BPM the body prepares itself for the ‘fight or flight’ response, dumping adrenaline into the bloodstream and increasing the force and rate of respiration. Unfortunately this shuts off fine motor controls like selective tension in favour of gross motor controls. If the heart rate continues to rise then it is a matter of time before the body will fatigue its fuel sources and performance will be affected. This is also dependant on the nature of the exercise and the muscles and fascial chains stressed. Take the Kettlebell/Clubbell clean and jerk as an example; you are more than likely to see fatigue in the grip, forearms and shoulder before the glutes, hamstrings and quads, especially while performing G/S or ICS lifts. Seasoned lifters utilise partial or switching grips throughout exercises to share the load, allowing recovery during work.
Unfortunately many people neglect training flexibility and mobility in favour of cardiovascular and strength training. It is the body’s springs that allow us to absorb energy on impact and transfer it back through the kinetic chain. Inflexibility and poor mobility restrict the transfer of energy, creating shock points, altered neuromuscular co-ordination and faulty recruitment patterns, affecting performance and increasing the likelihood of injury.
The next time you are training, observe how much force you are applying while carrying out that exercise; be it a pull-up, interval training session, G/S clean & jerk, clubbell mills or any other example. Aim to minimise the amount of tension you use to carry out the exercise correctly and note any changes in muscle fatigue, repetitions, time under tension, weight lifted etc.
Happy training!
Coach Ben Walsh (CSCS, CST Coach, BSc, DipION, QTFE)
Selective Tension – Improving Performance
The incremental use of tension is a concept we apply in our regular day to day lives, although we are most likely unaware that we use it. This is a good thing; if we were constantly thinking about selective tension then we would never get anything done! Let’s look at a few examples; when opening and closing doors we don’t use all our strength, as we know that doors don’t need our full force to close and we are likely to damage ourselves and/or the door if we apply too much. Opening a can of cola is a gentle operation, avoiding shaking the contents and breaking the ring pull. Over the course of our lives we have finely tuned our skills to optimise movement efficiency, using selective tension among other proprioceptive attributes. Unfortunately a number of factors affect this including age, injury, over/under training, disease, fear, nutrition and many more.
As we use selective tension in our lives you would think we use it when exercising, right? More than likely not! Let’s take a conventional resistance training exercise, the pull-up as an example. The pull-up is easy to relate tension to; think about the last time you completed a set of pull-ups and remember what the limiting factor that caused you to fatigue. You would expect 99.9% of the answers to be grip strength and forearm fatigue, which is not surprising given the size of the muscles compared to those of the back. Now let’s go back to the start of the set you were about to complete, ask yourself, how much grip force you applied while holding on to the bar? Did you use all your fingers to grip the bar? Was there a pause before starting the set? Did you pack your shoulders and drive your elbows back to fire the lats and stabilise the scapula? It was likely that an over exertion of force at the start of the set and/or the under use of the lats lead to early fatigue. How many of us run heel to toe and bang the floor as we foot strike? Are we aware that banging our feet into the floor is unnecessary wasted energy and increasing the likelihood of stress related injuries?
The obvious question arises, why don’t we use selective tension when exercising? There are many physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual factors that influence the ability to apply selective tension, the most important thing is being aware that we use it and can therefore apply it in training. Breathing, exertion and tension are interrelated. As tension increases, so does exertion and subsequently the rate of breathing to allow the uptake and transfer of oxygen in line with exhalation of carbon dioxide. We all exercise at different levels so surely those who exercise at a less intense level should apply selective tension, right? Maybe, although many who exercise at lighter levels are novice exercisers, unaware of technique, potentially unfit and gassing out or wishing the time away, thinking of nothing but finishing the session. Those that train intensely and follow the ‘no pain no gain’ principle are more than likely unaware of using selective tension. As our heart rate increases above 140BPM the body prepares itself for the ‘fight or flight’ response, dumping adrenaline into the bloodstream and increasing the force and rate of respiration. Unfortunately this shuts off fine motor controls like selective tension in favour of gross motor controls. If the heart rate continues to rise then it is a matter of time before the body will fatigue its fuel sources and performance will be affected. This is also dependant on the nature of the exercise and the muscles and fascial chains stressed. Take the Kettlebell/Clubbell clean and jerk as an example; you are more than likely to see fatigue in the grip, forearms and shoulder before the glutes, hamstrings and quads, especially while performing G/S or ICS lifts. Seasoned lifters utilise partial or switching grips throughout exercises to share the load, allowing recovery during work.
Unfortunately many people neglect training flexibility and mobility in favour of cardiovascular and strength training. It is the body’s springs that allow us to absorb energy on impact and transfer it back through the kinetic chain. Inflexibility and poor mobility restrict the transfer of energy, creating shock points, altered neuromuscular co-ordination and faulty recruitment patterns, affecting performance and increasing the likelihood of injury.
The next time you are training, observe how much force you are applying while carrying out that exercise; be it a pull-up, interval training session, G/S clean & jerk, clubbell mills or any other example. Aim to minimise the amount of tension you use to carry out the exercise correctly and note any changes in muscle fatigue, repetitions, time under tension, weight lifted etc.
Happy training!
Coach Ben Walsh (CSCS, CST Coach, BSc, DipION, QTFE)
