The Quiet Workout

If you have ever been to a gym it can get very noisy, especially the old school gyms where there are a lot of serious lifters.  The slamming of weights, grunting, yelling, and screaming can be very distracting, but does have its place.  Many studies have shown that a large controlled exhale or scream can produce more power, but it can also produce a lot of carelessness and wasted energy and workout.  Think of times when you had to be super quiet for some reason, such as sneaking into a house late after curfew, or not waking the baby.  When you have to really focus on staying completely silent it’s amazing how many muscles you have to use to slow your entire body down. 
Now, let’s take that into exercise or weight lifting.  Let’s look at the clean for instance, a great explosive power lifting move.  The lifter will explode from the floor with the barbell and try to rest it on top of biceps or front of shoulders.  If a press is involved then immediately following the press, the weight is usually dropped to the floor, making a loud crash.  I know most of us have seen the Olympics when this happens, that is why they have inches of padding underneath them.  Now, instead of dropping the weight, you try and control the descent back to your arms then as quiet to the floor without a sound.  In order to do that you have to have total concentration combined with utilizing all the muscles in your body to softly set it down, creating an intense eccentric lift.

Exercises-
Bench-try not to bounce on chest to rattle plates.
Curls-fully controlled through entire motion no rattling.
Squats- deep form, try not to rattle the plates.
Clean and Jerk- fully controlled do not slam to the ground.
Deadlift- true form do not to let them slam to the ground.
High Pulls- slow and controlled no rattle or slam to the ground.

       …For more information and tips, check my website, www.chadamartin.com.