Jim Wharton - The Whartons Complete Strength Book: The Complete Resource for Muscular Balance and Stability

Copyright 2014 Jim and Phil Wharton

Published by Jim and Phil Wharton

ISBN: 9780984966301

Originally published in 1999 by Times Books

The Whartons Complete Strength Book can serve as a personal trainer in a unique system of working individual muscles to attain not only greater strength but also improved general health. Having worked with the Whartons, I consider them uniquely qualified as teachers of this method. Andrew Weil, MD

For the athletes, dancers, clients, and healthcare professionals who share our lives and our work every day.

Acknowledgments

Thank you so much to Michael Browning, who took us into his family while we worked with Bev to write this book. Many thanks to Reid Boates and Elizabeth Rapoport. Thanks so much to our colleague and friend, Exercise Physiologist Greg Young, MS, CSCS, who opened his library and shared his experience with us. Thanks for the generous efforts and talents of Shannon Silcox, Ron Boyle, Jill Werman, Randy Brower, Tom Nohilly, Salisha Abraham, Gordon Gow, and Michelle Assaf. Special thanks and love to Hugh Hubbard. Thanks to the United States Olympic Committee for their assistance with our section on drugs and supplements. Thanks to Laura Hallam with the Florida Governors Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Thanks to the U.S. National Senior Sports Organization in Washington, DC. Thanks to Shane Powers, the Assistant Manager at Hunters Crossing Publix Supermarket in Gainesville, Florida, who opened his store before hours, and helped us weigh and measure groceries for our section, Clean and Jerk. Thanks to the strength and conditioning pioneers who elevated our field from science to art: M. Dena Gardiner, Robert E. Shelton, Leonardo Greninger, and Aaron L. Mattes.

And finally, many thanks to friend and teacher, Michael Pollock, PhD, Director of the Center for Exercise Science, and Professor of the Departments of Medicine and Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Florida. You will be missed.

J. W.

P. W.

Contents

Introduction

Active-Isolated Strength with Jim and Phil Wharton

Its new. Its revolutionary. Its the answer for every athlete who has ever asked: What can I do to maximize my performance?

Its ACTIVE-ISOLATED STRENGTH.

Written by world-renowned athletic trainers Jim and Phil Wharton for their clients, this book is a portable training guide and a companion to The Whartons Stretch Book.

The Whartons step outside the professional sports arenas and Olympic venues to reveal the secrets of unlocking the human bodys full athletic potential. Now, for the first time, YOU can benefit from the experience and expertise of personal trainers who have assisted such athletes as Art Monk, Wanda Panfill, Nelson Diebel, Anthony Nesty, Bob Arnot, and Jack Pierce.

Those are just some of their credentials. From here on, the Whartons will tell you themselves about what Active-Isolated Strength can do for you.

ACTIVE-ISOLATED STRENGTH WORK: THE ATHLETES SECRET WEAPON

A few years ago, we stood in a well-known gym and watched as a fitness trainer worked with a client. The man was kneeling under a bar that was suspended on a cable and pulley over his head. The client reached up, grasped the bar, pulled it straight down behind his head until it touched his neck, and then slowly relaxed his arms to return it to its starting position. The trainer shouted encouragement, Good job! Get those deltoids burning! The trainer might have been well intentioned, but the deltoids werent getting much of a workout. From our vantage point, we could see the clients muscles as they fired. We watched as his abdominals, shoulders, arms, neck extensors, hip flexors, quads, hamstrings, and whole back were engaged to assist the pull down and keep him in alignment on his knees. A lot of muscles were involved, but none was getting a good workout. And most certainly not the deltoids.

What went wrong? Nothing actually. The body was doing what it is supposed to do. Mother Nature designed the muscles to be helpful to each other. When one is weak, fatigued, cramped, or struggling, the body automatically recruits volunteersother muscles that can kick in to get the job done. When the body recruits volunteer muscles to assist a weak and struggling muscle, the weaker muscle gets shut out and stays weak. And the recruited muscles get a sort of workout.

Thats the problem. When a person works out using conventional methods, there is no accommodation for this phenomenon.

A slight shift in the focus of the workout could make a big difference. In conventional strength training, we work out to lift a weight. What if we slightly shift the focus so that the goal is to strengthen a weak muscle, instead of lift a weight?

Active-Isolated Strength methodically isolates muscles, so your body will not be able to recruit. It activates ONLY the targeted area. Using weights and the resistance of your own body when you work out, you activate or fire muscles one at a time in a prescribed sequence. This is why we call it Active-Isolated Strength work. As you fire one muscle, the opposite muscle will relax for and lengthen, allowing a greater range of motion and a fuller and more complete workout of the firing muscles fibers, from one end to the other. Adding weight or a greater number of repetitions to the exercises allows you to control the degree of strength of each muscle or the sculpting-and-shaping effects you want. In essence, your own body becomes your gym. Its so easy and so much fun that the excuses go away. And youll start seeing results that will please you.

Youll never grab a bar, pull down, and think deltoids again.

We invite you to join our clients on a quest for ultimate fitness with our no-excuses, no-escape workout program.

Active-Isolated Strength work is for anyone who wants to be a player in life. Our clients range from professional athletes to weekend warriors. We work with people who want to lose fat, rehabilitate from an injury, take up a sport for the first time, regain lost vitality, reshape a sagging waistline, get bigger, get smaller, get fitter. No matter what your motivation is, the benefits and rewards of fitness are impressive. Youll feel, look, sleep, eat, perform, and function better. Youll be healthier. Youll be more alert, and your senses will be heightened. Its an attractive package. Its yours by birthright. All it takes is a little time (less than conventional methods) and effort (less than you might imagine). And Active-Isolated Strength works.

We have a friendclearly a weekend warriorwho tells everyone she meets that she is training for the Olympics. When we try from time to time to interject a little reality into her fitness goals, she curtly reminds us that she can train for the Olympics if she wants to. Shes right. Anyone can.

ANYONE CAN TRAIN FOR THE OLYMPICS

Were serious. You can train with all the gusto of the Olympic spirit, even if (like our friend) you never really intend to show up at the Trials. Olympic-caliber training programs are basic, and the principles are universal and as old as time. Only the applications are new, thanks to state-of-the-art scientific research and emerging biomechanical information. We ought to know. Weve been training professional and amateur athletes for years. And well tell you something that will shock you. It doesnt take a high-tech gym to train for the Olympics. Athletes from all over the world train, qualify for their national teams, compete, and WIN without ever stepping foot into a fitness center. Its the best-kept secret around. One of our favorite stories is about the famous Olympic track champion Emil Zatopek, from the Czech Republic, who trained for his three gold medals by putting his wife on his backpiggyback-styleand running up and down the stairs in their home when it was too cold and snowy to train outside. Getting strong is a simple matter of physics in cahoots with biology. You stress a muscle with weight. It resists. It rests. It gets stronger. Easy, right? Well, almost. You have to know which muscles to stress, how, how often, and how long. But dont worry. Were here to help. Thats why we wrote this book.