Home Blog Athletes aren’t as smart as we think….

Athletes aren’t as smart as we think….

Written on May 2, 2008 at 7:05 pm, by Eric Cressey

It never ceases to amaze me when we have an athlete do a 30-second isometric hold (such as a side bridge), and then they’ll finish the set at 12 or 13 seconds and think that they’re good to go. Apparently, I’m not the only one that noticed this phenomenon – and athletes will unintentionally go overboard as often as they’ll underachieve.

According to Wilk, Meister, and Andrews, when professional pitchers were asked to throw at 50% effort, the radar guns showed that they were actually throwing at 83% of peak velocity. And, at a requested 75%, they were popping 90% fastballs.

Perhaps we should stop worrying about ascending oscillatory conjugated inverted periodization, and instead teach athletes how to count and follow the perceived exertion chart.


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