On page 42 of The SuperSlow Technical Manual, I briefly mention the role
of skill acquisition in research results. There is a great tendency in exercise testing
for exercise physiologists to emulate the detachment of formal scientists to an extent
that espouses the attitude with any test readout that "what it says is what it
is." This pretense at objectivity may be appropriate with some measurements in a
chemistry laboratory, but such measurements rarely exist in exercise physiology. What
usually goes for measurements are more correctly termed estimates, if not guesses.
Furthermore, many of these estimates are performance based, possessing a tremendous
dynamism that is largely - perhaps mostly - skill dependent. Take the subject of power
testing, for instance.
Maximum power in any physical event is a simultaneous interaction of skill and strength.
For an athlete to maximize his performance at the 100-yard dash, he must maximize both his
muscular strength and his sprinting skill. His maximum performance will not be maximized
if either factor is not optimal.
Muscular strength can be maximized (not merely improved, which sprinting might initially
do) only by strength training, which strength training will do absolutely nothing to
directly enhance skill. But performing a specific ballistic activity in the gym with a
barbell - or with any other device - to effect maximum power develops a skill specific to
that activity exclusively. The athlete may improve this power performance but this
performance has no bearing on the power performance of the sprint. The strength developed
through the strength training is transferable to the sprint performance; however, the
skill component of the gym activity is not transferable.
And while it is true that ultimate sprinting performance does indeed reflect maximum power
generation, training for maximum power generation is obtained by applying the general
physical improvements of a strength training regimen to the skill practice of an all-out
sprint.
It is obvious to me that exercise physiology research reflects a blatant lack of
appreciation for test results grossly skewed due to skill improvements. Questioning
several exercise physiologists over the years, they often replied that skill is accounted
for in their data. I learned later that the same exercise physiologists consistently
failed to understand the substantial impact of skill on test results.