Bag Fit. What is that? Part 1 of 5: Muscular Strength
January 25th 2011
This is the first post in a five part series that we will be covering over the next 5 weeks. The focus of this post is on Muscular Strength.
Balanced Movement
I say, “Get Bag Fit” a lot, and it’s printed on my shirts. But what does it really mean? Put simply, it means balanced movement.
Balanced movement is having a balance of the many physical attributes that when put together make up movement for any given activity or sport. The Bulgarian Bag provides a great platform to establish what I believe are the required attributes to maximize your ability to move efficiently.
The following is a fairly thorough list, and the exact order of importance will vary from person to person and sport to sport, but they are:
- Muscular Strength
- Muscular Endurance
- Speed / Power
- Balance and agility
- Flexibility and mobility
Muscular Strength
Strength, or muscular strength, is the ability to generate maximum external force. Normally we think of this simply as how much weight can I move or overcome. But, in the case of the Bulgarian Bag there are other factors at work that effect how we exert that maximal force since the absolute resting weight of the bag is generally light to moderate. As I have previously discussed in other articles and during my courses, force is a vectoral quality that has:
- Magnitude
- Direction
- Point of application
Usually we don’t look at the force at one specific location or moment in time, but at the force over time. There are internal and external forces, but normally we are concerned with the external forces that are commonly used as a measure of strength. Again, force is the measure of the action of the body against another so the external forces of the other objects also affect the body’s ability to generate force.
Mechanical Feedback
Strength exercises can be divided into two types, those with mechanical feedback and those without. In the case of the Bulgarian Bag, the force applied to move the Bulgarian Bag in the case of the spin, the bag’s velocity is the result of the efforts of the athlete. In the spin, the more muscular force that is applied, the higher the velocity of the bag as it whips around. However, the athlete now has to overcome the increased gravity and rotational (centrifugal) components and the increasing force of momentum pulling the bag outward, placing increased demands on the grip.
The athlete is constantly adjusting his or her muscular tension throughout his or her entire body based on the feedback received from the movement. Most activities, especially in sports, involve some degree of mechanical feedback. The movement, as well as resistance, is constantly changing as a result of an athlete’s force application. The carryover effect of Bulgarian Bag training to sports or everyday activities is clearly superior than many other training modalities available due to the athlete’s ability to vary the amount of forces placed on the body with a single training tool, and even a single movement.
Neural Adaptation
The level of intramuscular coordination also affects muscular strength. This is the extent to which individual muscle fibers in a muscle are voluntarily recruited or activated. Maximal exertion is a skilled act. Movement involves many muscle groups working together and recruited or activated together (intermuscular coordination). This results in our ability to communicate with our muscles via neural adaptation increases.
When we look at muscular strength and its application to the Bulgarian Bag, the entire movement pattern should be analyzed rather than focusing on the strength of individual muscles or single joint movements. Mastery of the entire movement pattern should be the primary training objective.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where we look at Muscular Endurance and its application to being ”Bag Fit.”