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1. the state of being stretched tight."the parachute keeps the cable under tension as it drops"

synonyms: | tightness, tautness, rigidity;Morepull, traction"the tension of the rope"

the state of having the muscles stretched tight, especially as causing strain or discomfort."the elimination of neck tension can relieve headaches"

a strained state or condition resulting from forces acting in opposition to each other.

the degree of tightness of stitches in knitting and machine sewing.

electromotive force.

2. mental or emotional strain."a mind that is affected by stress or tension cannot think as clearly"

synonyms: | strain, stress, anxiety, pressure

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a first, typical or preliminary model of something, from which other forms are developed or copied.

Clariese Natal

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The 38 hand bones are the 10 metacarpal bones and 28 phalanges (finger bones).

Anna Nguyen

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Volume is a function of state and is interdependent with other thermodynamic properties such as pressure and temperature.

Hannah Ly

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Force is a quantity that is measured using the standard metric unit known as the Newton.

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When I was in eighth grade, my first powerlifting mentor, Steve Holl, took a hasty glance around the Santa Barbara Gym and Fitness Center. "Look around this gym," he said. "It's filled with the same people lifting the same weights, doing the same exercises, and looking the same for the past 15 years."

After shaking his head in disgust, he added, "If you take one thing away from today, remember, you gotta put more weight on the bar. No matter what you do, you have to put more weight on the bar."

Steve gave me my first lesson in overload.

Milo of Croton was a wrestler with several ancient Olympic titles under his belt. He's considered to be the greatest wrestler of antiquity by most history buffs.

Despite the fact that his championship reign dates back more than 2,500 years to 6th Century BC, his name still holds weight in contemporary weightlifting circles, and he is still the quintessential example of progressively overloading for strength training.

According to the story, Milo owned a calf. Milo lifted that calf every single day and, as the calf grew bigger, Milo became stronger. Milo did this every day until the calf was a full-grown bull and Milo was the strongest man in the world. In due time, Milo carried the adult bull on his shoulders around the Colosseum.

Milo started small and used incremental microprogression to become the strongest man on the face of the earth.

Is Progressive Overload Necessary?

The law of overload is one of the first principles in exercise physiology, and no resistance program is successful without it. Basically it means Mother Nature overcompensates for training stress by giving you bigger and stronger muscles.

A couple years ago, I was reading a 1980s bodybuilding magazine, and a quote by Lee Haney jumped out. He said, "The key to building massive, powerful muscles is to doggedly increase the training weights you use."

"Luckily, when adding pounds hits a plateau, there are other variables you can manipulate to effectively overload your training."

Basically, it's what my mentor Steve Holl taught me when I was 14 years old. This tenet is undisputable. But there is a problem: the buck eventually stops.

With the logic of overload training, if someone just benches the bar and adds five pounds each week for three years, they'll break the 722-pound bench world record by 103 pounds in that short time span. Not very realistic! While piling the weight on the bar is the most effective overload technique, it only works to a point. Luckily, when adding pounds hits a plateau, there are other variables you can manipulate to effectively overload your training.

Overload Misapplied

Many fitness professionals who are more concerned with entertaining clients than getting results dismiss progressive overload with randomization. Their train of thought usually goes something like this: Why deadlift when you can do one-legged kettlebell deadlifts on a BOSU ball?

"Doing squats on an unstable surface may make sense for an advanced alpine skier, but it's downright debauchery for anyone hoping to make serious gains in size and strength."

My question is, how can you continually overload training if it is totally randomized? Put simply, you can't. The idea of overload is to make training harder but keep the same end game in mind. Doing squats on an unstable surface may make sense for an advanced alpine skier, but it's downright debauchery for anyone hoping to make serious gains in size and strength.

Why? Simply, balance is the limiting factor; you cannot produce enough mechanical tension-the primary mechanism to spark hypertrophy-when balance is the primary concern. High amounts of tension are produced by lifting heavy weights.

Be smart with your technique, and put strength training first. Trying to build huge traps with shrugs? It would not make sense to overload your training by taking off your hand straps; the goal is to build the traps, not the grip.

Overload must be approached using sound scientific training and common sense. Sure, you can do dumbbell curls while you lunge, but don't con yourself into believing you are providing any sort of serious overload to your legs. Want real overload? Hit the squat rack.

Let's look at seven ways to continually overload training for continuous gains. While bodybuilders may need more frequent exercise rotation, they often make the mistake of not overloading when cycling between exercises. It's important to bump up the weight that was last used. Keeping a training journal makes that simple.

My advice is to load linearly as long as possible. As plateaus hit, start pulling these tricks out of the bag as you journey from beginner to intermediate to advanced.

Increase Resistance

This is the most obvious way, by adding weight. Newbie trainees should milk this method for as long as possible. Each session, incrementally lift more.

Some bodybuilders with low IQs and large egos only add weight to a barbell in terms of 45-pound and 25-pound plates. A 25-pound plate on each side is an additional 50 pounds on the barbell; in many core lifts, for an advanced trainee, this would require fighting tooth and nail for years to make this kind of increase. Don't let your pride make judgment calls when it comes to loading the bar. Remember, your gym has 10-pound plates, 5-pound plates and even 2.5-pound plates; plates lighter than 1 pound can be purchased very inexpensively on the Internet.

Half-pound plates added to a bench press weekly over the course of a year would equal a 52-pound gain; 1-pound plates would equal a 104-pound gain. Think microprogression for long-term success.

"Ultimately, with proper planning, you can continually get stronger for years using periods of increased loading."

Some Internet strength coaches point out that this pace is impossible to maintain forever, which is undoubtedly true. The late, former Soviet sports mastermind, Yuri Verkhoshansky, offered a solution called "periods of increased loading." This means cycle training.

At the start of a new training cycle, use more weight than at the start of the previous training cycle. This means that at the midrange point, you should be ahead of your previous cycle's midrange point. Ultimately, with proper planning, you can continually get stronger for years using periods of increased loading.

This was exactly how the greatest powerlifter of all time, Eddy Coan, did it.

Increase Volume

Just do more; volume is increased by performing more sets and lifting more weight. Volume = sets × reps × weight lifted.

Keep in mind that, except for the rank beginner, volume with weight under 65 percent of a one-rep max (i.e. light weight) is not heavy enough to have a real training effect. And don't go by total volume. Squatting 100 pounds for 10 sets of 10 provides a different training effect than squatting 500 for 10 sets of 2 reps, although both are 10,000 pounds of volume.

There are a number of ways to add volume to your routine. Try adding an extra set to your workout. If you benched 4 sets of 5 with 200 pounds last time, you performed 4000 pounds of volume; if you do 5 sets next week, that becomes 5000 pounds of volume. One extra set has a profound effect on total volume; imagine doing that for multiple exercises.

As long as you don't sacrifice intensity in the process, you'll find that higher volume is superior for increasing strength and hypertrophy.

Increase Range of Motion

Range of motion can have a huge impact on a movement. Doing a deficit deadlift (a deadlift done while standing on a plate a couple of inches off the ground to increase the range of motion) with 80 percent of a one-rep max is much more difficult than a regular deadlift at the same weight. Similarly, doing deep, Olympic pause squats instead of power squats can add an extra level of difficulty.

"Another alternative is to take a full range-of-motion exercise like a deadlift and turn it into an extended range-of-motion exercise like a deficit deadlift or a snatch-grip deadlift."

The key is to increase your range of motion gradually over a series of workouts. A popular method used over a half-century ago by immortal strength legends Paul Anderson and Bob Peoples was progressive distance training. These lifters would start with a partial range-of-motion exercise lift like a rack pull (partial deadlift) and eventually work to a full range of motion over the course of weeks and months with the same weight.

Another alternative is to take a full range-of-motion exercise like a deadlift and turn it into an extended range-of-motion exercise like a deficit deadlift or a snatch-grip deadlift. Just a slight increase of one-quarter of an inch overloads the movement.

Vary Repetition Speed

One of the fabled Weider Principles is the retro-gravity principle. This essentially says to prolong the negative portion of a rep, which increases muscular tension and prolongs time under tension-two major players in catalyzing hypertrophy.

Lifting weights faster gets you stronger. Remember when your geeky high school physics teacher taught you that Force = Mass × Acceleration? Were you even listening? Well, without adding any weight to the bar, you could produce higher amounts of force simply by lifting the weight faster. Laboratory study after laboratory study confirms superior strength gains when athletes purposefully lift a weight as explosively as possible instead of with a slow or traditional cadence. Don't forget the acceleration component of the force equation. Lifting a weight with greater force overloads training. This method is most effectively used by controlling the negative portion of a lift and exploding the positive.

Rest Less Between Sets

Doing the same amount of work in less time or doing more work in the same amount of time is accomplished with decreased rest intervals. This is called "density" training because you are packing more volume into less time, making the workout denser.

Performing 10,000 pounds of volume in 90 minutes will yield less hypertrophic and strength gains as lifting the same amount in 60 minutes or, better yet, in less than 45 minutes. The key to effective implementation is not sacrificing bar weight. Remember, shortened rest intervals are no excuse for lifting pygmy weights.

Changing Movements

For powerlifters, Olympic lifters, and anyone else that competes in specified lifts, the core lifts have to remain at the nucleus of the program. But, for most bodybuilders, doing a core lift-and not a specific lift-is key.

So for legs, squats don't necessarily have to be performed week in and week out. For bodybuilders, variations like Olympic pause squats, safety squats, squats with accommodating resistance, and front squats can be used.

Front Squat

More frequent changes in exercises are needed when hypertrophy is the objective. Changing exercises helps the bodybuilder not succumb to repeated bout effect (RBE). Changing exercises causes overload.

Increase Frequency

Increasing frequency simply means train more often. Squatting twice a week, for example, overloads your system more than squatting once a week. For the bodybuilder, this might mean training five days per week instead of four, or giving a double split a shot.

For the strength athlete, it could mean performing one particular exercise more frequently. For a strongman, an increase in frequency could come in the form of an extra events practice session, and for the general fitness enthusiast it could mean an extra training day dedicated to focusing on a particular weakness. The possibilities are endless, and the fact remains that training more often is an overload.

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When I was in eighth grade, my first powerlifting mentor, Steve Holl, took a hasty glance around the Santa Barbara Gym and Fitness Center. "Look around this gym," he said. "It's filled with the same people lifting the same weights, doing the same exercises, and looking the same for the past 15 years."

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a cord or band of dense,tough,inelastic,white,fibrous tissue,serving to connect a muscle with a bone or part;sinew.

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1.

the state of being stretched tight.

"the parachute keeps the cable under tension as it drops"

synonyms: | tightness, tautness, rigidity;

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stress, strain, a force

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the formal iterative process used to design and build solutions.

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Unbalanced forces can lead to a change in direction, a change in speed or both a change in speed and direction

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Joints are the flexible parts of the bodythat allow for various degree of movements between two or more bones.

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1. Biomedical engineering (BME) is the application ofengineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g. diagnostic or therapeutic).

Arianna Stratman

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Reduction of volume along with the increase of pressure on/in an object.

By: Andrea Mechery

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a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities

Malaika Ngigi

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Muscles of

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Biomechanics is the science that is at the heart of all. Biomechanics is a sub-discipline of kinesiology that is generally defined as the application of the principles of mechanics to animate motion.

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A person who pays a professional person or organization for services

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Definition: slowing down force: exerted by a surface as an object moves across it

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It's perhaps the second week of your introductory physics course. Your instructor starts talking about friction and writes the following two formulas on the board.

Then there is probably some sort of lecture like this:

Friction is a contact force when two surfaces interact. The second equation is the kinetic frictional force that is used when two surfaces are sliding against each other. The frictional force in this case depends on the two types of materials interacting (described by the coefficient μk) and how hard these two surfaces are pushed together (the normal force). The static friction case is similar for when the two surfaces are stationary relative to each other. In static friction, the frictional force is whatever value it needs to be to prevent sliding up to some maximum value.

Technically, this is called Amontons' First and Second Law of Friction. See, it's not just Newton that has laws. Notice that both of these friction formulas ONLY depend on the coefficient of friction and the normal force. It does not depend the area of contact, it doesn't depend on the sliding speed.

Next, there will probably be some type of friction laboratory experiment. In this lab, students will measure coefficients of friction and show that the frictional force doesn't depend on surface area in contact. Also, the coefficient of friction doesn't depend on the mass of the object. Pretty standard stuff here.

Friction Is Just a Model --------

How about another experiment? In this experiment, I am going to put an object on an moveable plane. I can then increase the angle of inclination until this block just starts to slide. At the moment it starts to slide, I can calculate both the normal force (pushing the plane against the object) and the friction force (the maximum static friction force).

Here is a force diagram at the instant the block starts to slide.

Just at the instant this thing starts to slide, all of these forces still have to add up to the zero vector (object is in equilibrium). That means that the component of the gravitational force perpendicular to the plane must be equal to the magnitude of the normal force and the component parallel to the plane must be equal to the frictional force.

With just the mass and the sliding angle, I can get both the frictional force and the normal force. How can I calculate the coefficient of friction? What if I made a plot of friction vs. normal force for the same surface but with different masses? If the normal force and the frictional force are really proportional (like in the model above) then this data should be linear with the slope of the line being the coefficient of friction.

It's simple, right? Ok. Let's do this. In order to keep everything the same except for the mass, I am going to put masses into one of these small boxes.

This box has a teflon bottom with an open top so you can put masses inside (oh, it's from PASCO). There is also a variable angle inclined plane. This one in particular has a large angle measurement on the side and here you can see the friction box with a large amount of mass both inside and on top of it.

Actually, there is also a similar plane that is made of metal instead of wood. I tried this experiment both with a felt-bottomed box on wood and a teflon box on metal. For each mass, I slowly lifted the incline until the box slipped and then recorded the angle. I repeated the experiment for the same mass 5 or 6 times so that I could get an average angle and a standard deviation in the angle measurement.

Here is a plot of friction force vs. normal force for both surfaces. The error bars are calculated ( using the crank three times method) from the standard deviation in angle measurements.

What's going on here? Let's look at the data for the teflon (the blue data). I fit a linear function to the first 4 data points and you can see it is very linear. The slope of this line gives a coefficient of static friction with a value of 0.235. However, as I add more and more mass to the friction box, the normal force keeps increasing but the friction force doesn't increase as much. The same thing happens for friction box with felt on the bottom.

This shows that the "standard" friction model is just that - a model. Models were meant to be broken.

A More Detailed Look at Friction -----------

Really, what is friction? You could say that when two surfaces come near each other (call them surface A and surface B), the atoms in surface B get close enough to interact with surface A. The more atoms that are interacting in the two surfaces, the greater the total frictional force. How do you get more atoms to interact from the two surfaces? Well, if you push the surfaces together you can get more atoms from A to be close enough to the atoms from B to interact. Yes, I am simplifying this a bit. However, the point is that contact area does indeed matter.

I am talking about contact area, not surface area. Suppose you put a rubber ball on a glass plate. As you push down on the rubber ball, it will deform such that more of the ball will come in "contact" with the glass. Here is a diagram of this.

Greater contact area means greater frictional force. If the contact area is proportional to the normal force, then this looks just like Amontons' Law with the frictional force proportional to the normal force. Of course this model "breaks" when the contact area can no longer increase. As I add more and more mass onto the friction box, there is less and less available contact area to expand into. In a sense, the contact area becomes saturated. I suppose that if I kept piling on the weight, the friction force would eventually level out and stop increasing.

It's Just a Model ------

This really isn't a big deal. The Amontons' Law isn't a law at all (ok - it depends on your definition of Law). It's just a model. A model is not THE TRUTH, it's just something that works some of the time. Let me give an example.

Gravitational Model. Near the surface of the Earth, we can calculate the gravitational force on an object using the following model.

The g vector is the local gravitational field. On Earth, it points "down" and has a magnitude around 9.8 N/kg. We often call this gravitational force the weight and it's a very useful model.

Even though this model is useful, we still know it's wrong. The above gravitational model says that it doesn't matter how high above the surface of the Earth you are, the weight is the same. Of course that's not true, but it's approximately true when close to the surface.

Here is a better gravitational model.

This says that the gravitational force decreases as the two interacting objects get further away from each other. If you put in the mass of the Earth and the radius of the Earth you get a weight that looks just like the mg version. So, at some point the two versions of gravity agree.

The same is true for friction. The introductory physics version of friction works for some stuff and a more complicated version of friction works for other cases. Of course you could still use the complicated version of friction for simple cases - but why make your life difficult?

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Friction Isn't Always What You Think It Is

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It's perhaps the second week of your introductory physics course. Your instructor starts talking about friction and writes the following two formulas on the board. Then there is probably some sort of lecture like this: Friction is a contact force when two surfaces interact.

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A principle or standard by which something may be judged or decided.

Cyndi Le

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Project Criteria Performance | Clipart Panda - Free Clipart Images

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1. Newton's second law of motion pertains to the behavior of objects for which all existing forces are not balanced. The second law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object.

Leiya Sturtze