Review articles  EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOMECHANICS 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2002 September;42(3):267-73

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Is velocity-specific strength training important in improving functional performance?

Cronin J. B., Mcnair P. J. *, Marshall R. N. **

From the Sport Performance Research Centre *Neuromuscular Research Unit - School of Physiotherapy Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand **Department of Sport and Exercise Science The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

A var­i­able con­sid­ered ­when design­ing pro­grams to opti­mize ath­let­ic per­for­mance is train­ing veloc­ity. It has ­been sug­gest­ed ­that train­ing at a spe­cif­ic veloc­ity ­improves ­strength main­ly at ­that veloc­ity and as veloc­ity devi­ates ­from the ­trained veloc­ity, the ­less effec­tive train­ing ­will be. How­ev­er, the ­research describ­ing veloc­ity-spe­cif­ic adap­ta­tion and the trans­fer­ence of ­these adap­ta­tions to oth­er move­ment veloc­ities is by no ­means ­clear. Com­pound­ing the prob­lem in ­this ­area is the fail­ure of ­research to ­detail the rela­tion­ship ­between train­ing veloc­ity and actu­al move­ment veloc­ity of a giv­en ­task or ath­let­ic pur­suit. In ­most cas­es ­there is a ­great dis­par­ity ­between train­ing veloc­ity and actu­al move­ment veloc­ity. Fac­tors ­that may bet­ter devel­op and ­explain veloc­ity-spe­cif­ic adap­ta­tion in rela­tion to func­tion­al per­for­mance are dis­cussed. Devel­op­ing qual­ities ­such as ­strength, pow­er and ­rate of ­force devel­op­ment ­would ­appear of great­er impor­tance ­than train­ing at the actu­al move­ment veloc­ity of a ­task. It may be ­that irre­spec­tive of ­load and ­limb veloc­ity, the repeat­ed ­intent to ­move an iso­iner­tial ­load as rap­id­ly as pos­sible ­might be an impor­tant stim­u­lus for func­tion­al ­high veloc­ity adap­ta­tion. The abil­ity of the ner­vous ­system to acti­vate and coor­di­nate ago­nist, syn­er­gist and antag­o­nist activ­ity ­would ­seem essen­tial. It was sug­gest­ed train­ing tech­niques ­that sim­u­late the veloc­ity and accel­er­a­tion pro­files asso­ciat­ed ­with the ­desired func­tion­al per­for­mance, ­such as ­throw or ­jump train­ing, may opti­mize func­tion­al adap­ta­tion. Fur­ther­more com­bi­na­tion train­ing ­that incor­po­rates ­same ses­sion ­sport spe­cif­ic train­ing ­with ­either a ­heavy ­load or a ­mixed train­ing ­load ­approach ­might pro­vide an opti­mal strat­e­gy for pro­mot­ing intra­mus­cu­lar and inter­mus­cu­lar co-ordi­na­tion and improv­ing func­tion­al per­for­mance.