Maximal Strength or Strength Endurance

Which do you prioritize and why. Coach Sommer made an interseting point on this subject on the gymnasticbodies forum:

"Maximal strength is "the peak force developed during a single maximal voluntary contraction". Work capacity is simply a term for attempting to measure the strength endurance being exhibited. The higher one's maximal strength, the greater the potential for demonstrating superior work capacity once the body has adapted to the higher volumes of work output involved. This period of adaptation for increasing work capacity is usually measured in months as opposed to the years required to develop optimum maximal strength.

Maximal strength development should always be the first priority for beginners. As noted above, strength endurance is far easier to develop than maximal strength and its ultimate development will be restricted by the degree of maximal strength which the trainee possesses."

This certainly accords with my experience, have you guys found this to be true?

Injuries

For me they come in bunches. About a month ago I hurt my toe coming down from a handstand in a cramped space, and hitting it on a hard part of the couch. The toe is all better now, but a couple weeks ago I strained an intercostal muscle (one of the muscles on the chest that controls expansion of the rib cage. At first when I injured it I thought I tore my pec, so I rushed to the bathroom to have a look at it in the mirror. I expected to see some nasty sight like this:

Torn Pectoral Muscle


I was relieved to see my ordinay pecs starring back at me. I'm pretty sure I hurt the intercostal because I had been focusing on upper body work due to my toe injury.

For those of us addicted to exercise it is tempting to work around injuries. I think that is fine so long as you don't take the extra time that would have been spent on the injured area and use it to increase focus on the healthy parts. This is not the first time that I doubled my injuries by putting 100% of my focus on a few bodyparts, and I'm guessing others might find the same thing.

How do you guys deal with injury, does it depress you, do you appreciate the break?

World Class Gymnast

with a full time job:



some good training footage, here. Pretty inspirational that he is able to achieve that level of strength even though he doesn't spend all his time in the gym.

Thanks to Coach of gymnasticsbodies for the link

More Requirements Videos

Looks like people can't get enough of the requirements work-out. It is brutal, that's for sure.

Here's Bandanna Redd with another sprint through the exercises:


and Neal Holmes with an improved second try:


Two very hardcore trainers!

Bondi Beach

Recently Marcus posted some new clips from the outdoor gym at Bondi Beach in Australia.

Marcus with 5 one armed chins


Jaz with 27 very good muscle-ups:


I think it's warm there pretty much all year, I hear the climate is similar to So-Cal. Ofcourse it is also summer there too. I'm pretty jealous.