Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

SLD are perhaps the most overrated exercises that continue to annoy me as kinetics and kinematics are clear.  Enough with the thoracolumbar fascia rehashing as that system is mainly structural.  My first experience with the exercise was in the early 90s watching glide style shot athletes use it for their balance work. SLD is not a strength exercise as single leg contact decreases the balance point

 
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I repectfully disagree with the message you are sending in your blog post here. Single leg DL’s and single arm snatches are a staple of my program and i have seen drastic improvements in my training.(I am a runner) I have never been this fit, strong, fast or mobile.  I think my trainer who works predominately with kettlebels has been spot on with development of this program. I am sure the results i achieved may not work for everyone but those two exercises in particular have done wonders for me.

TR400 - 02 October 2008 11:10 AM

I repectfully disagree with the message you are sending in your blog post here. Single leg DL’s and single arm snatches are a staple of my program and i have seen drastic improvements in my training.(I am a runner) I have never been this fit, strong, fast or mobile.  I think my trainer who works predominately with kettlebels has been spot on with development of this program. I am sure the results i achieved may not work for everyone but those two exercises in particular have done wonders for me.

The fact that your Kettlebell Koach works predominately with one piece of equipment is enough for me not to waste my time getting into a personal use story as I don’t drink Kettlebell Kool aid-

Working wonders? Leave that for the book of genesis. If it’s not effective for many but only your running with your coach is smells like scooby doo do.

Everyone hear read the stone soup story for the big picture:

Once upon a time, somewhere in post-war Eastern Europe, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

“There’s not a bite to eat in the whole province,” he was told. “Better keep moving on.”

“Oh, I have everything I need,” he said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.” He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

“Ahh,” the soldier said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage—that’s hard to beat.”

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he’d retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. “Capital!” cried the soldier. “You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king.”

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day.

I don’t think Carl is asserting that they’re evil exercises.  I took his post as an observation of suboptimal use and an often limited understanding of the adaptive response by those implementing them.

I still use the two exercises in my programs, but not as strength or power builders.  SLRDLs are more of a warmup or auxillary exercise tool that when loaded is done so sub-maximally for the given training construct (bbcircuit/prehab/coordination supplement like setups). 

While everyone lauds the benefit of involving the lateral subsystem/medial glute, as the weights get individually challenging, certain elements of that lateral subsystem start developing adaptations not intended.  I saw athletes with visually good form scaring up QL tightness/dysfunction with individually substantial loads.  I see this same problem with all single leg unsupported exercise under load (sure a guy can do a single leg unsupported squat with 150 additional pounds, but it’s not just his glute med that’s keeping him upright).

One arm snatches can be a useful tool for teaching certain elements and concepts of the olympic lifts.  They’re also useful for athletes that have an injured wrist or shoulder that makes barbell work impossible.

You may not be drinking the Kettlebell Kool Aid, but it seems as if you had to much Eastern European Stew.

Stay Tuned…...

Beware the one-exercise guru with their claims of kettleball magic and single-leg sensationalism. Show me long-term progression with mixed ingredients in a comprehensive plan.

Never heard the comment from an elite track guy claiming one exercise to be the reason he won the race. Usually, they thank their coach whom has provided them with sentence #2 from above. 

Training is like your multi-vitamin, the body needs to have all the ingredients but will take more of what it needs and less of what it doesn’t. 

Mmmm stone soup makes me hungry.

SLDL’s are also something we use in our training and like them alot. It develops much more than just hamstring strength and i see no reason why training programs shouldn’t include them. I personally have an issue with regular Straight leg deadlifts as when i do them, no matter if i just use the bar, the next day i always have a hundred small bubbles in my hamstrings and they hurt for a week. I don’t get this with single leg ones and can still see a progression with the weight and my balance and core strength etc.

I don’t how or when this happened, but Carl’s point of view is more in line with mine with his most recent blogs.  Is there a place for SLD’s?  Yes, hey they have a part in most of my dynamic flexibility routines although they aren’t weighted and done while walking.  Are they the be all or end all, I don’t think so.  This is much like Dr. Deadlift’s for using regular old deadlifts, but instead of setting them down you drop them.  While certainly focusing on certain areas may shore up deficiencies an over focus or long term approach without balance will lead to long term failure. 

The other difference here is relation of dumbbell weights to the COM as compared to a barbell.  The dumbbells are effective counterweights and actually require less balancing skill in the lower limbs to complete a task.  The reason you cannot use dumbbell to lift as much weight with the legs using dumbbells is they are supported at the shoulder while a barbell uses the whole structural support of the spinal column but the weight is so far from the original center of mass it raises the COM of the system while using barbells lowers the COM towards the supporting feet.  What one perceives from using dumbbell for bench press doesn’t hold true for using dumbbell in a squat, deadlift, or lunge.

ok ... what should we replace them with?

hscoach - 02 October 2008 02:29 PM

ok ... what should we replace them with?

It’s not about replacing it’s about using it effectively and purposefully.

I don’t really understand why he picked SL Deadlifts because personally I think the same can be said for any exercise, including the SQUAT. Yes, the SQUAT!! Training isn’t about specific exercises. Usually there are more than one exercises capable of dealing with a task. The idea is to pick the exercises you need for your current training objectives and then follow the appropriate progression to achieve results.

certain very famous coaches claim SLDL to be the secret, now.

[EDIT- Removed inflammatory content]

I love you guys.

I use SLDL’s much in the way Matt Gardener speaks of as auxiliary or more often as warm up work. There are much better lifts that hit more tissue that I use for primary lifts.

beau_zo_brehm - 02 October 2008 05:55 PM

I don’t really understand why he picked SL Deadlifts because personally I think the same can be said for any exercise, including the SQUAT. Yes, the SQUAT!! Training isn’t about specific exercises. Usually there are more than one exercises capable of dealing with a task. The idea is to pick the exercises you need for your current training objectives and then follow the appropriate progression to achieve results.

While your post has some validity, I question you on this. How would you get faster without sprinting? How would you triple jumper farther without triple jumping? You don’t. Training is about picking specific exercises that will provide the most benefit. There are certain exercises or training components that must be included in order to get better. Certainly, one should have a bag of tricks to prevent constant repetitiveness, but not at the expense of specificity.

maybe he meant there is no 1 secret magical excercise

premium - 02 October 2008 09:51 PM

maybe he meant there is no 1 secret magical excercise

My Gramma saw 94 birthdays and was still driving when she had her 90th.

Lady had a balanced life as viewed in both diet and exercise.
Hard to knock the results.  Truely a great lady, best I’ve ever known.