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Actually I may be mixing up the book that Mentzer contributed too. Come to think of it I think it may have been Max Contraction Training by John Little. Very similiar content to Static Contraction book but slightly different approach. Also John Little was co-author on the Static Contr. book as well.

Thanks,
 Aaron

There is some interesting science behind it. To summarize your muscles are made up of many motor units. Some are fast twitch, some slow, etc. What determines the tension of a muscle is how many are turned on (Also other factors contribute due to training related adaptations but lets keep it simple). so you move by activating varying numbers of motor units as necessary. slow twitch first (type I), followed by fast twitch endurance type (type IIA) followed by fast twitch power (type IIB). Each motor unit is all of one type btw. You get stronger thru adaptation correct? in order to adapt you must stress the motor unit to the point that generates an adaptation response but not so far that it cant recover in the recovery time you give it. Typical training doesnt give enough intensity to bring in all the motor units at once. ie as MU fatigue doing reps others of a higher cost are brought online and muscles are only fully contracted or maximally taxed for a brief instant during the cycle of a rep which contributes to the reduction in consistent maximal intensity time under tension. by using this method you have a targeted approach to bring the maximum number of motor units to full tension for only the required time to necessitate adaptation (strength improvement / growth) and no more. Followed by enough rest to recover and grow stronger before the next attack. Thats a nutshell of how I think of it anyway. The author of Max Contraction (John Little) also a co-author on Static contraction training collaborated quite a bit with Mentzer in his later years as a side note.

- Aaron

I think John Little's approach may be the better of the 2 but tougher to implement with standard equipment. Similiar to the heaviest weight idea but instead of just the general strongest position idea he is shooting for that contraction at the full muscle contraction position. So for Biceps it would be at the top of a curl, for quads would be straight leg, etc. Both books are good reads although they can read like ad material at times. Did not know that about Little taking over Mentzer column.

- Aaron

manning,
 Yes I did that at one point for about 6 months before my back injury ended my lifting for the next 9 years. I ruptured the disc helping someone move not training btw. I had awesome results on it and it was something I came up with on my own after about 12 years of lifting. I would train every 7-10 days full body one heavy set of 6-10reps per exercise. would change the exercises every 6 weeks or so. I was typically adding 1-2 reps per exercise per workout and whenever I would get 10 reps I would up the weight to put me back around 6 reps. as far as the determining factor of when to train, I would wait a couple of days after the soreness subsided before training and that would end up being 7-10 days for me. Over the years I've had a few other guys try it with similiar results. I truly believe that most people don't provide enough recovery time to fully overcompensate for the training they do. That and that most do too many sets of fluff and not enough tough meat and potatoes work. Those workouts typically took 25 minutes or so a week for me. Now as far as Clean and press, cleans can be a somewhat technical lift. If your form is off, or your flexibility, etc it can make a huge difference. I started doing cleans at 14 and didnt really start dialing in my form until I was about 21 or 22. I can't do them worth a darn anymore. lack of flexibility in the right places, the back injury and left wrist pain from a bad rack with 405 in 96' make even 135 painful and ugly for me now. Now all that being said if your trying to develop more explosive capabilities and your clean pull have you tried heavy high pulls? They might help. If its something else, let me know.

- Aaron

Ahh, ok. where is the problem on your press? lockout? midrange? where in your training session are you doing it? first, middle, end? It might be something as simple as a shoulder flexibility issue impeding the tracking of the bar. Have you ever tried Overhead squats? I find those are pretty good indicators of my shoulder flexibility on the press. If I can't squat down even with a lightish weight overhead then my shoulders are usually too tight. you might try that and see how it goes.

- Aaron

btw, I found that PDA had copies of the Nautilus Bulletin #3 available and ordered a copy yesterday. Looking forward to digging into it.

- Aaron