Why Take RTS?

Image courtesy of salvationarmy.org

I was reading through online forums earlier this week and I came across one in which the author had heard of RTS and had looked at information online about the courses but wasn't able to understand what made this series of courses different than, say, the biomechanics course he took as an undergrad.  This seems to be a fairly common response when people have asked me what I am going to Oklahoma City for and I have given them an abbreviated answer.  When I saw this forum post I got excited because I once again had the opportunity to answer this question but I didn't have to answer on the spot and I could take a little time to explore why, to me, the RTS courses are different than any other of a similar nature.

What follows is how I responded in that moment.  I could certainly go back and edit some of the verbiage or add additional viewpoints or thoughts, but for the sake of preserving an uninterrupted stream of consciousness, I haven't altered what I initially wrote, although there are certainly MANY more points that could be made.

"Okay, so what makes RTS different than other courses? A great analogy that is used in class is that of soup. So let's say you want soup. You can go to the store and pick out a can from the selection and there, you have soup. Or maybe you have a friend who likes to make soup so they help you make some because you don't feel comfortable going off on your own and making it. Then let's say after a while you do like to go off on your own and follow recipes out of cookbooks, and from that maybe you start experimenting with your own combinations of ingredients, kind of tossing things in that seem like they may go together. A while longer of that and now you have created some soups that are your own and that are pretty tasty. Tasty to you, at least. But what if a friend is allergic to some of your ingredients so you cannot share your soup with them? Or what if your soup is only palatable to you and a few others? Your ability to alter your soup and create a dish that isn't threatening to your friend's health and tastes good to them is rather limited due to how you learned and understand soup.

Compare this to a master chef who understands the intricacies of all the possible ingredients and how they interact with one another and the flavors and textures and scents they produce when certain portions of each are mixed together. This knowledge base would allow you to create a different soup for every single person that is both extremely tasty to that person as well as meets their nutritional needs.

Substitute exercise for soup, and when you really start to grasp the principles that are presented and explored in depth in RTS, that's when you start to become a master chef. Because of these principles, you can take any person and, if you know their medical history, you can appropriately assess their abilities and apply force and progress them in a manner that doesn't cause pain or degradation of their structure and actually allows them to enjoy the experience and feel good while they are exercising.

Image courtesy of shape.com

Creating experiences is a huge part of RTS, as well. From how you construct a specific exercise for them to how you cue them throughout the exercise, you can take a leg extension machine and put three different people on it with three different knee conditions and make them each feel twenty different sensations and provide them with infinitely more experiences with this one piece of equipment performing this one motion than if they were to do it on their own or be instructed by somebody who didn't understand all of the variables that are at their disposal.

Additionally, you develop the ability to objectively evaluate equipment and exercises for what they really are and what they are actually doing to the body instead of getting caught up in the hype or magic that seems to predominate much of today's exercise world.

So that's just kind of the tip of the iceberg with RTS. A huge thing to point out is that while the physics, mechanics, and anatomy may not be any different than what you were presented with in school, the viewpoints, thought processes, discussion, and exploration of these topics are almost certainly going to be different. To illustrate why this is so hugely important, consider the following quote,

"Quantum physics shows us that when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Dr. Wayne Dyer

Relate this back to the soup example. When you were creating your own soup, you had the exact same access to ingredients and cooking utensils as the master chef, but the difference was, to that master chef, those ingredients and how to go about preparing them with the utensils carried a COMPLETELY different meaning than to the average soup maker. The master chef could see all of possibilities that were before her while the average soup maker could really only provide others with what they had already tasted and made and approved of themselves.

This is where probably one of the biggest components of RTS comes in, and that is the application of the knowledge covered in the classroom to actual exercise. I cannot speak to the ability of undergraduate courses to prepare students to effectively apply what they have learned to any situation they come in contact with, but I feel that is certainly a strong suit of the RTS courses.

If you have taken or are taking the RTS courses, what makes them different to you?  If you haven't, why not?
Your body.  Your training.

Want to use this arti­cle in your blog, newslet­ter, or other plat­form?  You can, but be sure to include all of the bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion found in the yel­low box below!

How to Add External Resistance to Box Jumps

In my last post in this series I described the appropriate amount of external resistance that should be applied to box jumps, if external resistance is to be applied at all. But, seeing as there are numerous possible ways to go about adding this extra resistance, we need to differentiate which methods of external resistance are most effective. Dumbbells, elastic bands, and weighted vests will all be discussed.

Dumbbells are commonly seen being held while an athlete performs box jumps. The problem with dumbbells is that they affect the athlete's ability to use their arms efficiently while performing the jump. The altered movement pattern this produces is most noticeable at the beginning of the movement, but can also be equally detrimental to the athlete's landing mechanics. Because the external resistance is attached to a moving limb and inhibits that limb's ability to produce force, dumbbells are not the way to go if you are wanting to load a box jump.

Elastic bands that attach from the floor to the person's waist, as can be seen on someone using a Vertimax trainer, are another means by which vertical jumping, but not necessarily box jumps, is loaded. The problem with this, as I'm sure you can tell, is that the heaviest resistance from the bands occurs once the person has left the ground and is at the peak of their jump height in the air. The bands, therefore, have their greatest influence in the eccentric aspect, causing someone to land faster than they normally would without the bands as the bands recoil and resume their original length. Considering the amount of pounding that occurs to the joints during the course of any sports season, I do not feel it is the best interest of the athlete to use elastic bands in order to improve jumping performance as the bands will only cause greater impact to occur when the athlete lands at the higher speed. Also, because the bands are connected to fixed points on the floor, it is highly likely that the fluctuating lines of force from the bands to the hip will alter the mechanics of the movement. These oblique lines of force contradict the natural line of force of gravity, straight down, causing the athlete to have to fight against an anterior or posterior pull, as well.

In my opinion, the best way to add external resistance to box jumps is by having the athlete wear a weighted vest. As I have discussed already, the weight of the vest should be limited to 10% of the athlete's body weight. The reason I believe the weighted vest to be superior to dumbbells and elastic bands is because the vest does not alter the mechanics of the movement so long as the weight is appropriate for the individual. Because the increased load will slow the speed of the movement, this tool needs to be properly and thoughtfully implemented into a training routine if it is used at all. Also, just as the weight of the body does not change as someone goes through the jumping motion, the weight of the vest will not change, either, unlike elastic bands.

Skipping back to elastic bands real quick, there is something to be said about them if you are wondering why they would be appropriate to add to a back squat or bench press but not to jumping. I will go into more depth on this at a later time, but as a brief overview, bands are implemented to improve the speed with which the bar is moved. While it may seem like this same principle can be applied to jumping, most of the bands used for jumping do not increase tension enough over the short range of motion they have available to be truly effective here. What I mean is, the range of motion used during a standing vertical jump as compared to a back squat is significantly less, so much so that Soviet athletes would train their half squat more than their back squat because of the higher transfer to jumping. The bands are implemented with lifts so once can feel the dramatic difference in tension between the top and the bottom, forcing the athlete to move the bar as fast as possible at the bottom in order to use momentum from that initial push to get to the top. With jumping, though, the tension in the bands between the top and the bottom of the movement is not significant enough to illicit an explosive push from the bottom of the movement due to the limited range of motion used during jumping relative to squatting.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't so quick, but I hope that is somewhat clear. If I were to add bands to my jump training, though, I would try to set them up such that the bands are going straight down between my legs, much like how the weight hangs during a belt squat. This would allow that line of force to be much closer to the line of force of gravity, limiting any anterior/posterior pull. I would still have to consider the faster landings, so I guess that will be something to experiment with in the future.

Get big or die tryin'.

Charlie Cates, CSCS

Self Made®, Owner

Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP’s. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

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