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WEIGHT TRAINING
By
Dr Grant Wilkinson D.C, B.Sc, M.Sc*
Most athletes and coaches in surf life saving see the winter or 'off-season'
period as a time to reflect on the previous seasons results and to conceive new training plans that will produce even greater increases in performance and better results for the season to come. For most, this will involve incorporating some sort of weight or resistance-training program with the aim being an increase in muscular size as well as strength.
In physiological terms, an increase in muscle size is known as muscle 'Hypertrophy'.
Muscular hypertrophy is an overall increase in muscle mass or girth. Although there are other mechanisms that can cause this increase it is generally believed that in response to weight training, muscles grow in size due to the growth of existing muscle fibres - that is, hypertrophy results primarily from the growth of each muscle cell rather than an increase in the number of muscle cells (known as hyperplasia). 
So what happens to a muscle when we undergo a weights or resistance
exercise program? The first measurable effect is an increase in the neural drive (i.e. the message transmitted from the brain down the nerve going to the muscle) stimulating muscle contraction. Within just a few days, an
untrained individual can achieve measurable strength gains resulting from "learning" to use the muscle. As the muscle continues to
receive increased demands, the synthetic machinery that ultimately
stimulates muscular growth is "upregulated" and each muscle fibre begins to increase in size.
To induce muscle hypertrophy an external mechanical load is necessary. In order for the
loading to result in significant hypertrophy, the stimulus must be applied with sufficient frequency to create a new "environment", as opposed to seemingly random and acute assaults on the muscle.
In simple terms, this means that for the best results athletes need to be consistent in their training and not just do a "session here and there" thinking that will be enough. When an
athlete does a weights session then has a week or more of rest, many of the acute responses that occur within the muscle tissue, such as increased protein synthesis, all return to normal
after about 36 hours. This means that true muscle growth occurring from loading these muscles only lasts 2 days at best and that recovery can still take place unabated even if the
muscle is loaded again 48 hours after the preceding session.
As mentioned, most athletes and coaches aim for a dual effect from a weights or resistance
-training program being an increase in strength as well as muscle size. As opposed to muscle hypertrophy, the foundation for the development of strength is "neuromuscular" in nature. In
lay terms this means that the mechanisms that cause the nerve to stimulate the muscle to contract adapt to a given load and over time increases in
this load can be achieved.
In more strict physiological terms, the neural adaptations that allow increases in strength as a result of resistance exercise include altered recruitment patterns, rate coding, motor unit
synchronization, reflex potentiation, prime mover antagonist activity, and prime mover agonist activity.
The question now becomes, "what sort of weights program is best for me or my athletes?" It is
generally thought that weight or resistance training programs that emphasize high-loads and low-repetition, with sufficient resting periods lead to increases in strength, power and speed.
Training regimens emphasizing only a moderately high load but with a high number of repetitions and many sets with short resting periods usually lead to greater muscular endurance.
This second type of weight training is most often used by bodybuilders however it must be noted that although the hypertrophic effect is greater in this type of training regimen, high
repetition programs do not improve muscle fibre composition and will not lead to the overall increases in strength that the high load, low-repetition programs do.
Although there are countless articles and loads of information on weight training and resistance based exercise programs, it should be remembered that surf life saving is very
different to most other sports in a number of areas. All water-based disciplines in particular, require exceptionally high levels of skill due to the ever-changing nature of the ocean.
Including weight training into an overall training program should never be at the expense of fitness or more importantly skill development. As such, incorporating weight training should
only happen once an athlete has an adequate skill level in his or her respective discipline and the base fitness levels to truly take advantage of the gains in muscle size and or strength.
