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Weightlifting Essay

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Evidence of lifting weights can be traced back to the origins of man. As far back as cave painting and scrolls, there exists evidence of weightlifting. Initially as an expression of strength, to competition and functional training, weightlifting has carved its path through the ages. It has taken on a new role in the modern world; athletic training. With an entirely new emphasis in sports on speed, strength, and flexibility; weightlifting is more popular than ever. Unfortunately, young athletes often do more harm than good by injuring themselves lifting. When these uneducated lifters try to jump right into a program, lifting more than they should, an injury is imminent. What is overlooked, is that when weightlifting is done correctly, it …show more content…

In athletic training specifically, the athletes want to gain an athletic advantage by training speed, flexibility, force production, and building muscle memory (Coy).
In today's world, millions of high school students get their first introduction to weight training through sports, often times poorly trained by a coach who has no formal training. The student is almost never taught theory behind the lift (Walker).
Most athletic training lifts are based on the theory of hypertrophy. Stressing the individual muscle fibers to the point of breaking causes them to grow back stronger and bigger. Lifting very heavy weights, few times, will produce more size and less strength, while lifting light weights very many times, will have the opposite effect (Kleiner).
In athletic lifts with an objective of flexibility, the task involves stretching the muscles and joints to provide a larger range of motion. Stretching lengthens the muscles, ligaments, and tendons in order to loosen them. Stretching to promote flexibility or before physical activity can help to prevent injury. Unfortunately, because gains harder to measure in flexibility, athletes and coaches often underemphasize this important part of training (Walker).
Force production is a component used almost exclusively in athletic training because it can simulate actions of the actual sport, giving the athlete an advantage. Coaches use force

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