Dennis Keiser presents his challenge to why today's athletes are still training on Iron. Presented at the Leader's Conference in London-2016.

1. Taking Human
Performance to
the Next Level
Dennis Keiser discusses the limitations and risk of injury
placed on athletes by traditional weight training and asks
if a more innovative approach would yield greater results.
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2. W
e can’t take human
performance to
the next level until
we are willing to question
everything we do. I recently
spoke to a professional
strength coach and asked him a
couple of the questions below,
and when he couldn’t answer
them, I asked him why he
trains with iron. Frustrated with
my questioning, he answered
“Tradition”. Traditional thinking
is comfortable. If everyone
is doing it, it must be right.
Unfortunately, ‘Traditional’
thinking will not take human
performance to the next level.
Stuck in the Iron Age
Have we reached the point
of diminishing returns lifting
iron? How many more ways
can we lift a bar or swing a
kettlebell? To answer these
and the questions below we
must understand the resistance
produced by iron or any mass
acted upon by gravity.
The iron used in training is
a mass acted upon by the
Earth’s gravity to create a
force. It has been a simple
and effective tool that has
served us well for centuries,
as did the wind for sailing
the seas and the horse for
getting us from point A to
point B on land.Today, neither
the wind nor horses serve
a commercial purpose for
transportation, and haven’t for
over 100 years.
We’ve all felt the extra force
needed to get iron weight
moving and the momentum
when trying to slow it.
Newton’s Second Law, Force =
Mass X Acceleration, suggests
that if we want to move the
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3. weight faster, we have to
apply more force. Once we’ve
got it up to speed, we now
have to slow the weight to a
stop before we reach the end
of our Range of Motion (ROM).
What Newton is telling us is
that the Force is highest when
we start the weight in the
upward direction and lightest
when we begin to slow the
weight when approaching the
top end of our ROM. The faster
the speed, the greater the Force
required to start the weight
moving and the less resistance
at the end of the ROM, due to
momentum. For most of our
basic exercises like the Bench
Press, Shoulder Press, Leg
Press, and Squat, this is exactly
the opposite force we want. We
are weaker when we are most
flexed, i.e., bar at our chest in
a chest press or in the squatted
position in a squat.The flexed
position is also typically the
point in the ROM where we are
more vulnerable to injury.
Dennis Keiser is the Founder of
the Keiser Corporation. For over
35 years, Dennis, along with his
innovative training equipment,
has worked with elite athletes
from across the globe and
spearheaded a NASA project to
build a multi-function exercise
device for astronauts.
Dennis Keiser has never wavered
from his goal and passion of
“Improving human Performance”.
Dennis Keiser
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4. is reasonably effective and
safe at slow speeds.
Why are we concerned
about our athletes being
hurt in the weight room and
why do we associate speed
of movement with danger?
Many coaches recognize
the importance of explosive
strength, but know the faster
they move a mass (iron) the
greater the risk of injury due to
high forces.This contributes to
many of the injuries we see in
the weight room.This is also
why we associate speed of
movement with danger, both
in sports conditioning and
rehab. It’s not the speed that
is the problem, but rather the
forces that result from moving
the iron at faster speeds.
Why do we build a strength
base first in rehab?
We build a strength base first
in rehab because we don’t
think we can begin any speed
work in the early stages of
rehab. We need the strength
base to prepare for the types
of impact loads that will
be encountered later in the
rehab when we begin to step
up the speed of movement.
We’ve been conditioned to
think this way because of the
use of iron and the impact
loads due to acceleration.
Why are we fixated on
strength despite there
being two parts to a
movement, the force we
produce and the speed at
which we produce it?
We tend to ignore what we
can’t measure or train. We
focus on strength, because
it is easy to measure. Even
before iron, we picked up
We are strongest when we
are extended.
To summarize, for basic
lifts like the Bench Press,
Shoulder Press, Leg Press,
and Squat, the resistance
from iron produces the
highest forces when we are
in our weaker position.This
is also the position where we
are most vulnerable to injury.
Where we are strongest and
where we play the game (0
to approximately 30 degrees
of flexion) the resistance is
lightest.The higher the speed
of movement, the more
exaggerated the resistance
changes become.
Now that we understand
the tool we’ve been so
accustomed to using, we
should be able to answer the
following questions.
Why do we train slowly to
play a fast sport?
We train slowly, because iron
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5. stones of various weights and
lifted them. He who could pick
up the heaviest stone was the
strongest. It hasn’t changed
much since then.
Why do we tend to
think speed is genetic,
and therefore, focus on
recruiting fast athletes and
making them stronger?
Since iron wasn’t conducive
to improving speed, the focus
remained on strength and
speed was considered to be
genetic, hence, our focus on
recruiting fast athletes and
making them stronger.
Why do we think
Olympic lifts are
powerful movements?
Given the limited range of
motion of the basic lifts, like
the Bench Press and Squat,
Olympic lifts are powerful.
When you consider the basic
lifts, and the fact that the lifter
has to intentionally begin
decelerating the bar within
30cm of beginning the lift, it is
extremely difficult to generate
the speed necessary to produce
great power, unless you are able
to release the bar at the end of
the ROM. Olympic lifts are the
only lifts that allow the lifter to
continually lift through nearly
the full ROM while gravity takes
care of slowing the bar.
While the Olympic lifts are
powerful compared to the basic
lifts, they pale in comparison
to a Squat performed, not with
iron, but with a resistance that
can be moved at maximal
speed throughout the ROM.
Returning the Focus to
the Athlete
The Coach can no longer
look at the resistance system
and say, “How do I take that
resistance system and improve
my athlete’s performance?”
“It’s finding and building the right
balance of strength and speed to
optimize the Power needed in any
given sport and any position played
within that sport.”
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6. The focus, in this case, is on
the resistance system and not
the athlete.The Coach has to
look at the athlete and say,
“How do I improve my athlete’s
performance?” and then choose
the resistance system to do so.
Once the Coach puts the athlete
first, ahead of the resistance
system, the Coach becomes
a Performance Coach and
the chief mechanic for these
high performance engines we
call athletes.Yes, engines. We
humans are engines. We take in
fuel and oxygen and produce
power, just like an automotive
engine. Anyone who has
ridden a bicycle knows this. As
the chief mechanic for these
high performance engines,
it is the Performance Coach’s
job to build the right engine for
the race.
The emphasis we have put
on making athletes bigger
and stronger is like putting
a big diesel truck/lorry
engine in a Formula One
car. Likewise, a Formula
One engine wouldn’t
work in a truck. Trucks and
Formula One cars serve
totally different purposes,
and therefore, require
different engines. Likewise,
so do athletes. Life was
simpler for the Strength
Coach when all the coach
had to do was make the
athletes stronger today than
they were yesterday.
This will not be the case
in the future. A thorough
understanding of the game
and the demands on the
athlete will be a must.
We will need to know the
angular velocities and forces
required to change direction
in soccer, to come off the line
in the NFL, to pitch or swing
a bat in baseball, to improve
vertical jump in basketball,
and to propel a long jumper
nine meters when his foot
hits the board. Data like
this will be the basis for
the training protocols of
the future. It’s not enough
to just focus on Power; it’s
finding and building the
right balance of strength and
speed to optimize the Power
needed in any given sport
and any position played
within that sport.They all
require different engines.
What if we had a
Resistance System:
• That would provide a
concentric and eccentric
resistance like iron, but
without the shock loads due
to acceleration?
• That could provide the
proper variable resistance
throughout the ROM, being
light when the muscles,
joints, and connective tissue
require it and heavy when
the muscles, joints, and
connective tissue need it?
• That could be used at any
speed and the force curve
remains consistent?
• That would allow for
maximum acceleration and
speed throughout the ROM
without the fear of injury
due to acceleration forces?
• That could take human
performance to a higher
level and do it safer?
Perhaps we already do.
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