The effect of varying quadrant notch settings on MyoQuip's range of variable resistance machines

MyoQuip's QuadTorq technology is designed as a compensation mechanism for biomechanical disadvantage. When a limb is fully flexed, i.e., the foot or hand is close to the trunk, the muscles of that limb are operating in a position of considerable biomechanical disadvantage, but as the limb extends away from the trunk it moves into a progressively more biomechanically efficient orientation.

An example of this changing biomechanical efficiency can be seen with the barbell squat. When the hip and knee joints are flexed as in the deep position of the squat, the lifter's capacity to cope with resistance is considerably reduced; but as they rise and the joints fully extend, the amount of resistance that can be coped with increases dramatically. This is why there is a very strong tendency for unsupervised and inexperienced lifters to perform only partial squats and why the squat does not effectively work the leg extensor muscles through their full range.

Each of the ScrumTruk, HipneeThrust and JumpTruk use the QuadTorq technology to provide increasing resistance. This enables the exercise to operate comfortably and effectively in the region of biomechanical disadvantage. In addition the technology exposes them to substantial effective loading and high-range muscle fibre recruitment throughout the whole range of movement.


The rate at which the effective resistance changes is varied by selecting different notch positions on the machine's quadrant.

Mid-range notch settings are designed to broadly compensate for the improvement in biomechanical advantage throughout the exercise movement. The increase in effective load from the start of the movement to full lockout is intended to match the body's capacity to handle resistance, so that the exerciser has to expend basically the same degree of effort throughout the movement. This can be contrasted with the squat where considerable effort is required at the bottom of the movement and very little at the top end.

Thus with a mid-range notch setting the leg extensor muscles experience substantial activation throughout the whole range of movement.

With low-range notch settings the increase in effective load from start to finish of the exercise movement is greatly increased. These notch settings are ideal for practising explosive or ballistic movements. The exerciser chooses a weight load they can comfortably handle at the start of the movement and then attempts to perform the concentric part of the exercise as rapidly as possible. However, as they move toward full leg extension the effective load is rapidly increasing thus slowing their momentum. As a result there is a "ballistic braking" effect toward the end of the movement, eliminating the need to decelerate. Because of this the exerciser can utilise explosive strength over the full range of the movement.

This range of settings is particularly useful with the HipneeThrust where concentration on plyometric-type movements can be expected to produce significant improvements in vertical leap.

With high-range notch settings the increase in effective load from start to finish of the exercise movement is greatly reduced. High pin settings are ideal when the focus is on overcoming inertia, i.e., moving a heavy load from a position of rest. A typical real world application is in rugby when there is the need to "shunt" the opposing pack. A similar situation applies in the rugby lineout when a lifter with poor vertical jumping ability has to be hoisted.

High-range notch settings are also useful when the ScrumTruk or HipneeThrust is being used to improve performance in the barbell squat, because the additional loading at the start of the movement conditions the leg extensors to operate more effectively in the region of greatest biomechanical disadvantage, e.g., in the deep squat position.
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The role of synchronised hip and knee joint angles in efficient squatting

In recent days there has been discussion among some who use their blogs as weight training diaries about difficulties with squatting. The author of A prop's journey talks about "the quarter and half squats I'm stuck with at the moment because my leg/back/ankle (it's all connected) flexibility is terrible."

And then we have Scott Bird posting in 99 shades of grey >> straight to the bar that "there was going to be some work to do" in order to reach parallel in the squat which he conceded he was "nowhere near." This was confirmed by a photo showing his inability to descend to the parallel position even with an unloaded bar. I hope that Scott doesn't mind me reproducing that photo in order to illustrate some of my own ideas on squatting.

I have endeavoured to estimate his joint angles from that image and I trust that the first stick-figure diagram is a reasonable approximation. Not to put too fine a point on it, Scott's squat technique looks ugly and uncomfortable.

The first problem seems to be very limited ankle flexion as indicated by the fact that he is having difficulty getting the angle between his shanks and the horizontal below 70°. You have to wonder whether he does much calf work and if so whether he trains full range. Most people who exercise their calves only do plantar flexion - raising their heels from the floor - and never attempt dorsiflexion - lifting their toes.



But the main problem appears to be with his knee flexion; by my estimate he seems unable to flex the joint below 85°. The apparent 30° difference between his flexion at the knee and the hip is indicative of very poor squatting technique. A number of things flow from this. Firstly he is only activating the quadriceps group through the top half of contraction, i.e., from 85° to 180° of knee joint angle - he is missing out on at least 50° of movement through the most vital range. One can almost guarantee that he has poor leg extensor strength.

Note that he is working his hip joints through a much greater range. Basically for Scott the squat is only really a glute exercise, and to the extent that he was able to attempt heavy poundages he would be likely to impose severe loading on the lumbar region of his back.

We can also see that until he learns to further flex his ankle and knee joints he cannot really take a loaded bar much lower than in the photo. This is because of the gravitational necessity to keep the bar directly above his feet. If he flexed his hips much more he would begin to lose balance.

Compare Scott's articular geometry with that of the second stick-figure. Biomechanically there is no comparison - the second figure looks comfortably balanced with the gravitational path of the weight bar passing through the midline of the feet. Greater ankle flexion is a contributing factor but the most important point to note is the symmetry between hip and knee joint angles. In fact an exerciser adopting this posture would probably have synchronicity between these angles through the whole range of movement. As a result the shanks and back remain parallel and there is no adverse loading on the spine. The weight of the bar is always directly above the feet and both the quadriceps and gluteus maximus are being worked through their full range.



The first advice that I would give Scott would be to concentrate on keeping his back more erect. This would almost certainly lead him to flex his ankles more thus shifting his knees forward. It will probably feel uncomfortable at first as his quads are not used to being asked to do any serious work.

I suspect that many people fall into the habit of excessive forward trunk lean from observing power lifters. However a typical power lifter is probably someone with a very strong back who is focussed on muscling up maximum weight without being concerned as to whether they are adequately exercising their leg extensors.

In any case a 1978 study (McLaughlin, T.M., Lardner, T.J. & Dillman, C.J. Kinetics of the parallel squat. The Research Quarterly, 49, 173-89. 1978) of nationally-ranked and world-class powerlifters identified a tendency for less-skilled subjects to exhibit greater trunk torques than more highly-skilled subjects. "It would appear from the data that high-skilled subjects attempt to minimize the trunk torque, and do so largely by reducing forward trunk lean." It was noted that among the subjects, the then world super heavy weight champion maintained the greatest trunk angle of all subjects and, despite his much greater bar load, had a lower trunk torque than many smaller, less-skilled subjects.

The high-skilled subjects demonstrated larger trunk angles, lower trunk torques and more extensor-dominant thigh torques. "It therefore appears that the high-skilled subjects strive to use the leg extensors to a greater extent than do less skilled subjects. This greater emphasis on the leg extensors is obtained by a minimization of the trunk torques by the high-skilled subjects (achieved by maintaining more erect trunk positions)."



The final stick-figure shows a typical starting position for an exerciser using the ScrumTruk. So long as they are instructed to pack low against the shoulder pads and keep their hips low they tend to automatically have their backs and shanks parallel and consequently achieve and maintain synchronicity between their hip and knee joint angles. An almost universal observation from athletes using the ScrumTruk for the first time is that they have a definite "burn" or "pump" effect in the quadriceps indicating that the device is very much leg extensor specific. The apparatus also encourages them to significantly dorsiflex their ankles.

Our observation from two years of athletes using the ScrumTruk is that its techniques and balanced development of the hip and leg extensors transfer well across to the barbell squat - athletes with extensive Scrumtruk experience tend to subsequently show very good form and depth on the squat.
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The Strength for Sport Refertory

It has now become standard practice to click on search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN whenever we require information but the results are frequently frustrating. Spam sites, dead sites and pages which contain the search term but have no real relevance to the object of the search can make the search process very tedious.

A quite common and irritating occurrence is to find what looks like a very useful article only to be denied access to it. Usually an abstract is provided but in order to read the full text you have to subscribe to the journal or pay an exorbitant fee to read a few pages. Increasingly academic journals have been taken over by publishing companies who are motivated by the pursuit of profit rather than the dissemination of knowledge.

Fortunately there are still some authors and websites who are happy to provide free access to their output but it is often difficult to find this material.

I spend a lot of time trawling the 'net for information relevant to my company's activities and as a result have accumulated a fairly substantial data bank of useful articles and web pages on specific topics. I have recently assembled some of it as a section of our main company website which I have named the Strength for Sport Refertory.

In the sense in which I am using the word, a "refertory" is basically a directory or catalog of references. However it is not a normal web directory as the links are not to whole websites, but to individual pages. Nor is it an articles directory as we don't store the articles on our own server, but rather simply provide a link to the host website. This use of the word "refertory" is not an original coinage as I have come across a university library website where it is used similarly to characterise a directory of references.

What we have in my refertory is a theme-specific directory of articles, posts and web pages which conform to the commons principle by being freely available for viewing without payment and by not being password-protected. We have already created sections on specific sports such as American Football, Basketball and Rugby, as well as general strength themes such as Biomechanics, Explosive Power, Speed Development and Trunk Stability.

Over time I will be progressively adding links to the site and also hope that others will suggest material for inclusion.

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A prop's journey

I came across a potentially interesting new blog, A prop's journey, the rugby diary of a young front rower from Brisbane, Queensland. It will be interesting to see how active he is in posting in the off-season but he seems determined to use the time for building up for the 2007 season. It could be worth following.

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Building bigger and stronger rugby players - the Sydney University experiment

It is widely acknowledged that the average bodyweight of rugby players has increased considerably over recent years. Less recognised is the extent to which modern defensive alignments and strategies have transformed rugby matches into contests of attrition where bigger and stronger teams tend to wear down their smaller and physically weaker opponents over the course of a game. Perhaps the most notable change has been the increased importance of physical dominance in the backline.

Responding to this, Sydney University's rugby club has been able to demonstrate that with the right combination of coach and infrastructure, it is possible to fast track the physical development of players outside a professional playing environment. In fact within a couple of seasons these players are able to achieve a body mass comparable to that of seasoned professionals together with a solid foundation of basic strength.

In late May, Sydney University announced its team for the first round of the Tooheys New Cup, the premier competition in Sydney club rugby. All of the fifteen players are past or current students who had been developed through the Club's Colts and lower grade teams. None of them are paid to play for the Club, although the eleven who are still students receive modest scholarship assistance. Only three of the players are on professional contracts.

It is instructive to compare their bodyweight and age profiles with those of squads from four major rugby countries:

Comparative Bodyweight and Age Profiles

Team	Average Weight (kg)	Average Age
Wallabies - 2006 Squad	102.6	26.1
All Blacks - 2006 Squad	102.9	25.5
Springboks - 2006 Squad	102.2	26.8
England - 2006 6 Nations Squad	101.2	27.2
Sydney University - 2006 Tooheys New Cup Team	100.5	22.5

It can be seen that the part-time, unpaid Sydney University players, though three to five years younger, weigh only a couple of kilograms less than the world's best players. This is quite extraordinary as normally a much greater weight disparity would be expected.

For the past three years Sydney University Football Club has been operating an Elite Development Squad (EDS) program for its top grade and colts players. Utilising one of the best equipped gymnasiums in Australian rugby, players train for eleven months of the year and undertake four weights sessions per week off-season and a lesser number while playing.

The program's strength and conditioning components have been devised and administered by Martin Harland, a sports scientist who has previously worked with professional rugby league, Australian football and basketball teams. His programs for rugby players place a high degree of emphasis on basic strength development and rugby-specific fitness. A distinguishing feature of his approach is a concentration on heavy lower body work through exercises such as squats, deadlifts and cleans. In addition, both backs and forwards make intensive use of the MyoQuip ScrumTruk, a rugby-specific apparatus that targets the large mass leg extensor muscles, specifically the gluteal and quadriceps groups. Hypertrophy or increased muscle mass is a natural and not unintended by-product of such training.

Exposing backline players to basic strength training

Another distinctive feature of Martin Harland's rugby training regimen is his requirement that backs undertake the same rigorous basic strength routines as forwards. Many strength and conditioning coaches reserve the heavy "grunt" work for forwards, or even restrict it to the tight five.

Exposing backs to very serious weight training has produced a quite extraordinary outcome at Sydney University, as evidenced by the following table comparing body weights of forwards and backs for the Wallabies, the four Australian Super 14 franchises and Sydney University:

Comparative Bodyweight of Forwards and Backs

Squad/Team (2006)	Av Weight (kg) - Forwards	Av Weight (kg) - Backs	Difference
Wallabies - Squad	111.1	91.8	19.3
ACT Brumbies - Squad	110.3	90.9	19.4
NSW Waratahs - Squad	110.8	92.8	18.0
Queensland Reds - Squad	109.7	92.4	17.3
Western Force - Squad	109.1	92.9	16.2
Sydney University - Team	105.3	95.1	10.2

Not surprisingly, the University's young forwards are outweighed by each of the five professional squads. However, in the backs the situation is reversed. The University players outweigh the national and provincial squads by between 2.2 and 4.2 kg per man.

If we look at the column showing the difference in bodyweight between backs and forwards it can be seen that for Sydney University it averages 10.2 kg, against 16.2 to 19.4 kg for Australia's professional squads, a very substantial difference.

The Sydney University experiment seems to be providing clear evidence that the bodyweight of rugby backs can be dramatically increased through serious weight training, but the question arises as to whether this has benefits in terms of playing performance.

One answer is that the other strength-oriented football code, American football, has traditionally used training methods similar to those of Martin Harland. All players, whether linemen or running backs, are required to do heavy gym work. Surely no one would seriously suggest that their quick players have inferior dynamic abilities to rugby players.

Another justification for building heavier backs with superior leg drive lies in the already mentioned importance of physical dominance in the rugby backline. With the modern emphasis on structure and coordination in defensive alignments, bigger and stronger backs are better able to continually repel opposition attacks and also over the course of a game are likely to create physical and mental fatigue in their counterparts.

Having achieved a strong foundation of basic strength and greater body mass, Martin Harland is then able to focus on speed and explosiveness in his players. It is clear that the Sydney University approach yields results on the playing field. 2005 was the Club's most successful year, winning the Sydney Club Championship, the First Grade Premiership and four lower grade Premierships.

Even more importantly, players who graduate from such a program are much better equipped to withstand the rigours of modern rugby.

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backline
Sydney University
Wallabies
All Blacks
Springboks
bodyweight
ScrumTruk
Queensland Reds
Waratahs
Western Force
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Essentials of the Argentinian 'Bajada' rugby scrum

Argentinian teams are renowned for the effectiveness of their scrummaging and the central importance of the scrum to their game. From an early age, Argentinian forwards are schooled in the 'Bajada' or 'Bajadita,' a radically different scrum method invented in the late 'Sixties by the legendary Francisco Ocampo.

The most obvious characteristic of the Bajada is that second-rowers bind with their external arms around the prop's hip rather than between their legs. But, as explained by Springbok coach Jake White (SARugby.com), one defining characteristic of the method is that "all the power is directed into the hooker. In other words, they scrum along an imaginary arrow drawn pointing inwards from either side of the No 8, which means all the power is directed towards the hooker."

The other defining characteristic is the "Empuje Coordinado" or "Coordinated Push." "The scrumhalf gives a three part call after the "engage". On "pressure" all members of the pack tighten their binds and fill their lungs with air. On the call "one" everyone sinks; the legs at this point should be at 90 degrees. On "two" the pack comes straight forward while violently expelling the air from their lungs. A key note is that nobody moves their feet until forward momentum is established. If the first drive is insufficient the scrumhalf begins the call again and the opposing pack is usually caught off guard and pushed back." Rugby Union from the Virtual Library of Sport

A more detailed explanation of the Bajada was recently published in the World Rugby Forum. It was written by Sergio Espector, a Level 3 coach with Club San Patricio in Buenos Aires. Sergio played for 27 years with the Club and has coached for nearly 20 years. He has kindly given me permission to reproduce his notes which I have reformatted - hopefully without too much distortion of his meaning:

Empuje Coordinado is the resultant of a lot of little details in the way that the props place their feet, the locks bind,and the flankers and the number-eight bind and push too. The eight players push at the same time and in three movements, put all the power to the center of the front row. But the most important thing is that here in Argentina we believe that the scrum is not just another way to put the ball in play.

To have a successful scrum with all eight forwards pushing in a coordinated way, the players' obligations are:

to respect individual techniques;

to respect group techniques;

to not initiate individual confrontations;

to stay in place before the opponent and focus on the task to be carried out; and

to undertake physical training appropriate to the demands of their position.

Individual skills

Backs to be straight

Heads lifted up

Hips lower than shoulders

Knees flexed to 90 degrees

All eight forwards must bind strongly and there must be no space between players

Feet placement must not change when the scrum is formed

All players must be able to see the ball at every moment in the scrum

Feet placement must be shoulder width

Correct body position

Front row

Props bind strongly on the hooker below the armpits, and the hooker binds on the props in the same way

Hooker's feet in line

Props' internal foot in line with the hooker's feet, and external foot a little bit backward

Hooker determines the right distance between packs

At referee's signal to engage crouch and drive forward

Never enter diagonally or across the opponent

Heads should be in contact with the chest of the opponent

The push must be FORWARD

Second row

They bind on the other second-rower around their back

They bind on the prop with their external arm around prop's hip and strongly pull together the front row

Before engagement must have the knee of their internal leg resting on the ground

Internal foot a little bit backward

The shorter second-rower binds under the taller one

Heads below props' and hooker's buttocks

Back Row

Flankers bind on the second-rower below the other second-rower's arm

Flankers' external hands on ground

Number-eight binds around the second-rowers' hips

All must have feet in line

Flankers put shoulders below prop's buttocks

Number-eight puts head between the second-rowers' buttocks

Pack Technique

After referee's command: "Engage"

First command by the scrum half: "Pressure" - on this command the eight players must grip strongly with their arms and fill up lungs with air

Second command by the scrum half: "One" - at this time all eight players must flex their knees to 90 degrees

Third command by the scrum half: "Two" - the scrum half puts the ball into the scrum, or his opponent puts the ball in, and the players must expel the air in their lungs while pushing violently FORWARD, never up or down, nor to the side

With this all the force is transmitted to the hooker

Players must never move their feet off the ground until they overcome their opponents and have positive inertia - it is very important that the hooker respects this even though he has the ball under his feet

It is not necessary to hook the ball, but in my club we use hooking when the ball is put in by us, and all players push when the ball is put by the opponents

We spend a lot of time in training, developing individual and group skills to be able to scrum the way we like, because we think scrum is a strength that not only produces benefits to our forwards' minds, but equally produces collateral damage in our opponents. This is because in the first place their front-rowers and second-rowers lose energy to contribute to open play, and in modern rugby if you don't have 15 players playing all the time you are lost, and in the second place their back-rowers lose speed in defense, because they are busy pushing.
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