Deadlifts Versus Curls...............

Gunner

Just thought I'd post some interesting reading material, cut and pasted from another site, I hope this makes sense.

A-ha! #4: Strength is the single greatest equalizer in sport; therefore strength training is the most important physical preparation quality

While in college we were in the midst of the aerobic training and endurance activity focused period. Strength training studies were few and far between, to be honest. And any strength training studies were rarely performed on the more advanced programs we have available today. It was as if strength development was ignored completely, as all "training programs" for sport were based around various cardiovascular improvement programs.

While competing in various martial arts systems it struck me that all combat sports exist in a weight category system. The idea was not to prevent a fighter from facing a heavier fighter; it was based on the idea that the heavier fighter was stronger and therefore more dangerous.

Also, men and women (even of the same weight) didn't face each other in fighting sports. Incidentally, Lucia Rijker, the female boxer and kickboxer, lost only one kickboxing match ever.

By knockout.

In the second round.

In a match against the male world champion at the same weight.

So matching athletes up had nothing to do with weight or sex; it had to do with the idea that males were stronger than females, and heavier athletes were stronger than lighter athletes.

And when I thought about it more, even looking at activities such as marathon running, long distance cycling or figure skating, activities where excess weight may be a disadvantage, males still tended to perform better than females.

Conclusion: Being stronger is the single biggest advantage in most sports. Obviously not the only advantage, but definitely a serious difference maker. It was at this point (when I was still in college) that I started to realize that improving strength had to be a primary objective in any sports training program, despite what my professors were saying.

Ah-ha! #5: Hypertrophy is a systemic response and effect, not a localized one.

All the talk about bodypart training versus full body routines, isolation exercise versus compound exercise, etc. is based upon a fundamentally flawed concept: that hypertrophy is somehow completely regional-specific.

Here's a study that examines this in a bit more detail:

Rogers et al

The Effect of Supplemental Isolated Weight-Training Exercises on Upper-Arm Size and Upper-Body Strength

Human Performance Laboratory, Ball State University, Muncie, IN.
NSCA Conference Abstract (2000)

The researchers compared the effects of a weight training program on 5RM strength and arm circumference and divided the subjects into two groups. Group 1 performed four compound upper body exercises, while Group 2 used the same program but included biceps curls and triceps extensions.

The results showed that both groups significantly increased strength and arm size

However, the addition of direct arm training to group two produced no additional effect on strength or arm circumference after 10 weeks of training.

The additional localized training did not result in anything that the bigger compound exercises didn't provide.

Let me present a hypothetical example:

Twin brothers eating the same diet, working at the same job. Three times a week for the next 52 weeks, both brothers undertake a progressive resistance-training program, each adding weight, sets, or reps in a logical manner over the whole year. One difference: the first brother does deadlifts only. The second brother does arm curls only.
Twins

Guess which twin did deadlifts?

After a year, who do you think will have bigger arms? Obviously it will be the first brother, who put more overall stress and load through his system. Even though he didn't bend his elbow at all.

Charles Poliquin is fond of saying in order to gain an inch on your arm, you'd have to gain 10 pounds of muscle mass. If that's true, it'll happen a lot faster with an exercise like the deadlift than it will with the dumbbell curl.

The bottom line is that muscle growth is a systemic issue, not a localized one. If you put a stress on the forearm only, of course it would grow, but that growth would be limited because the systemic load is small. If you did deadlifts, on the other hand, the systemic load would be so big, everything would grow.

And when we think about anabolics or anything that can enhance muscle growth, they're injected or consumed into the system. You don't inject steroids in equal amounts into every muscle group, just as you don't rub Surge on your arms. Increased protein synthesis is a systemic phenomenon.

Conclusion: If hypertrophy is what you want, develop training strategies that target the entire system at once.

Wink

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