On 10/2/00 9:56:42 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< Interesting that you had the same theory re: atrophied muscles not able to 
be stretched. This was what I found to be very unreasonable from my studies 
at university. However, an atrophied muscle is simply a muscle that has 
wasted and has less muscle fibres, whereas a tight muscle is a muscle which 
has shortened its resting length. These two things are separate entities, 
and hence as I suggested to Dr Siff, you can have a tight but atrophied 
muscle.>>

***What you have stated takes us into very controversial territory, because 
you remarked that atrophied muscle has lost bulk due to decrease in the 
number of muscle fibres.  In other words, you are suggesting that muscle 
strengthening in general rehabilitation is due to hyperplasia (increase in 
the number of muscle fibres).  Though a few studies suggest that hyperplasia 
may take place under extreme conditions of very heavy loading, it is 
generally accepted that change in muscle bulk in typical resistance training 
is associated with change in the mass or size of muscle fibres.

<<As Philip Greenman said in one of his papers, the emphasis should be more 
on 
muscle length rather than muscle strength, and that if a muscle is both 
tight and weak, one should stretch the muscle first before strengthening it. 
This is what I do for the psoas muscle, stretch it and isometrically 
strengthen to increase the number of fibres and hence re-hypertrophy the 
muscle. >>

***Increase in the number of fibres is not hypertrophy, it is hyperplasia, as 
I commented above.   Incidentally, it can be very misleading to state that 
increase in muscle diameter necessarily increases muscle strength.  In other 
words, standing MRI studies can be totally irrelevant unless one can directly 
link increase in strength to increase in muscle diameter by means of 
standardised strength tests over the full range of psoas action. 

The production of strength (muscle force or tension) is due to nervous 
excitation, not simply structural change.  This is corroborated by the fact 
that weightlifters who remain in the same bodymass division for many years 
(with no changes in hypertrophy) still manage to increase their maximal 
strength.

Research by Russians such as Iashvili have shown that the greatest 
improvements in functional range of movement ("flexibility") is produced by 
full range movement against heavy loading (Siff & Verkhoshansky 
"Supertraining" 1999).  Thus, if one uses a system of gradual progressive 
increase in loading over a progressively greater range of movement, the psoas 
(or any other muscles, for that matter) will quite naturally increase their 
useful functional range.  Using this approach, I have coached hundreds of  
'stiff' athletes to increase the depth of squats and other extensive 
movements without any recourse to muscle isolation techniques.

Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://www.egroups.com/group/supertraining


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