More on : An Experiment in Muscle Fiber Recruitment and Mystery Guest Chet Fuhrman Pittsburgh Steelers

"I don't want to sit on the fence, but it could go either way." -Maurice Banford

A Quick Note About "An Experiment in Muscle Fiber Recruitment"

In regards to Wednesday's article about Coach Kelso's experiment to determine the difference between muscle fiber recruitment in quick versus slow lifting protocols, we had several good questions which we would like to briefly address.

Coach Rody, I had some questions about the recent "study" that Coach Kelso performed. How do you measure a .66 or .86 rep on a bench press?

I do not want to speak for Coach Kelso but I assume the .66 and .86 were numbers that came from averaging several athletes.

I have never come across anyone that has encouraged lowering a weight as fast as possible. What do you mean when you say "quick lift", are you including all exercises that are performed in a fast manner (seems like they would then be called "quick reps")or specific lifts that are normally done quickly?

In regards to performing "quick" lifts, the test had nothing do with performing the bench press quickly. The study was for the recruitment of type IIb muscle fibers. This was sparked by an example given by Coach Whitt earlier that week on May 6; it may explain why he chose to use the bench press exercise to test muscle fiber recruitment rather than say doing the bench press fast is wrong. I seriously doubt anyone has their athletes doing fast bench press. Again this was to test fiber recruitment.

In much of your information you talk about muscular strength, what other components do you feel will help improve an athletes performance?

We would suggest, in addition to making the athlete stronger, a proper diet and sport specific drill work would be "components that will help improve an athletes performance."

Mystery Guest: Chet Fuhrman, Pittsburgh Steelers

[Correctly identifying Coach Fuhrman were Fred Cantor, University of Maryland-Baltimore; Aaron Vitt, Moberly, MO; Matt Bryzcki, Princeton University] In the future, if you think you know the answer or simply want to chime in with a guess.. drop us an e-mail at our Mystery Guest Trivia Department. All correct answers will be recognized on Friday. "This week's mystery guest was named conditioning coach, [for the Steelers], in February 1992 following 10 years as strength and conditioning coach at Penn State.

A native of Harrisburg, Pa.,he is in his 10th season with the team and his 23rd year of strength training. He served as the assistant strength and conditioning coach at Penn State from 1979-80. He was named the first strength and conditioning coach ever at Weber State in Ogden, Utah, in 1981, before returning to Penn State to take charge of the strength and conditioning program in 1982.

Our mystery guest, 48, graduated from Central State (Okla.) University in 1973 with a degree in physical education. He spent the next five years as strength coach and assistant coach in football and track at Harrisburg and Steelton-Highspire high schools. He also is a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association."

**Note** Much of this bio was taken from www.nfl.com.

Read our more current article on Chet.