SSP 139. More Biomechanics with JC Santana

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♦︎ More Biomechanics with JC Santana ♦︎

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JC Santana and Scott continue their conversation on biomechanics and functional training. In this episode, they examine how training methods and intensities should be re-examined to preserve joint health and athletic performance.

JC just released a new book, JC’s Total Body Transformation. A prolific writer, he’s written 17 books in 20 years.

♦︎♦︎ “Heavy training is over-rated and mostly unjustified from a scientific and practical standpoint.” - JC Santana ♦︎♦︎

• Training isn’t meant to be entertaining. Would you rather be serious and obtain a goal you’re pursuing, or just have fun?

• JC briefs his prospective clients on what to expect from a coaching arrangement with him. He’s a serious coach; he’s not an entertainer.

• [Many] professional athletes today present a challenge to trainers. Many have a sense of entitlement and aren’t willing to do what a coach tells them to do.

• Expertise is based upon one thing: tireless repetition of the basics.

• JC talks about heavy weights’ effects on joints. Mass deteriorates structures.

• If you slow it down, squeeze [the rep] and feel it, where every rep becomes deliberate, enormous loads can be placed on the muscle while sparing the joints.

• Training with lighter weights saves tons of overload on the joints over the years.

• Bob Paris was one of the first to say that there’s only so much muscle mass the human body can accumulate and still look aesthetic. Paris also said that his [training] goal was to make 300 lbs feel like 500 lbs.

• People who take up fitness later in life have the advantage of not having the same amount of wear and tear on their joints as long-time strength and physique athletes.

• JC and Scott discuss the out-of-control pharmacology in use in bodybuilding today.

♦︎♦︎ “If you want to soar like the eagles, get ready to crawl with the roaches.” – JC ♦︎♦︎

• Santana is re-examining the squat and other basic exercises to re-evaluate their use in training athletes in various sports. His new book gets into the physics of body movement.

• Muscular strength has been assumed to enable better athletic performance of all types. However, powerlifters don’t have good vertical jumps yet they’re the heaviest squatters. So does it make sense to train, say, a basketball player with heavy squats to improve vertical leap?

• Why is it that basketball players don’t have large calves? Could their ability to jump be more about the tendon size?

• Hard training of performance athletes takes its toll [on the body].

• Injuries from long-term heavy training aren’t always visible. JC compares these to undetected damage done by undiagnosed high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

• Technical lifts shouldn’t be done to volitional failure [as some training methodologies dictate]. You don’t want to break form with cleans or snatches.

• CrossFit style of training has infiltrated performance athletics. Performance athletes [who train that way] are being injured in ways never before seen.

• JC believes CrossFit will die off in a few years.

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More about JC

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• JC Santana is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with distinction (CSCS,* D) and a Fellow (FNSCA) of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

• He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Exercise Science from Florida Atlantic University.

• For eight years, he was the sport-specific conditioning editor for the NSCA Journal.