{"id":6952,"date":"2021-10-27T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogsolutions.co.za\/?post_type=tva_lesson&p=6952"},"modified":"2022-02-23T21:01:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T19:01:42","slug":"what-is-strength-training","status":"publish","type":"tva_lesson","link":"https:\/\/dogsolutions.co.za\/biokinetic-k9\/course\/what-is-strength-training\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Strength Training?"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANY STRENGTH TRAINING IS TO BE DONE BEFORE<\/span><\/em> ANY CARDIO TRAINING <\/strong><\/p>\n

 – while the muscles are still  fresh.  <\/strong><\/p>\n

DO NOT start your strength training exercises on tired muscles such as after sport training, or after cardio training.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In humans, strength training is using resistance or weights to increase muscle size and efficiency.<\/p>\n

We do this by placing more force on a muscle when it is contracted. When a muscle must contract while a heavier force or more resistance is placed on it, the exercises performed are call resistance training.<\/p>\n

With dogs however, it is not a simple matter of giving them a dumbbell and asking them to do some shoulder presses. Here we need to use your dog\u2019s own body weight as the main form of weight or resistance.<\/p>\n

In important point to be aware of is that dogs naturally carry more of their body weight on their front end than on their hind end. Approximately 60% of their body weight is carried on their front legs and only 40% on the back legs.<\/p>\n

Therefore for successful resistance training using only body weight, we need to work on distributing this normal weight bearing in effective ways.<\/p>\n

If we elevate the rear end, we help transfer body weight forward to the front end and vice versa. The higher the elevation the more weight transferred.<\/p>\n

So the height of equipment is important when increasing resistance or difficulty of a movement or exercise for your dog.<\/p>\n

The higher the angles of incline and decline of equipment, the more weight being transferred.<\/p>\n

*IMPORTANT*<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Only height comes into play when we talk about increased resistance of strength training.<\/p>\n

Use of unstable equipment includes balance training. Any strength training which involves unstable surfaces or balancing is called Instability Resistance Training. T<\/em>his is used to strengthen stabilizer muscles and is not used for large, power muscle strengthening.<\/p>\n

Much of resistance training in dogs, as in people, may be accomplished with using stable equipment.<\/p>\n

Strength training in dogs, however, is not just about elevating one end of the dog more than the other. Your dog will still naturally carry more weight on his front end than his back end.<\/p>\n

The magic factor that adds the impact to elevation and is even more important than simply adding height to the incline of the equipment, is the position your dog and the form of his movement. This determines where and how effective the weight is distributed.<\/p>\n

Proper form and technique will help your dog engage muscles required for EFFICIENT movement. Efficient movement in sport is the most desirable of all strength training.<\/p>\n

Effectively targeting of muscle groups, i.e. those in the back legs, it is required that your dog\u2019s weight is shifted backwards and to strengthen the muscles of the front legs and shoulders, your dog\u2019s weight must be shifted forward. BUT PROPER FORM will always be preferred over everything else.<\/p>\n

Equipment incline or height guidelines for our Foundational Strength Program:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. – No higher than Hock height<\/li>\n
  2. – Any height between Hock level and below the Elbow<\/li>\n
  3. – Just below Elbow height<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These are guidelines and are based on an average medium sized dog averaging 45 cm at the withers. Adjust your levels slightly for very tall and very short dogs.<\/p>\n

    Your Foundational Strength program should also include some core strengthening.<\/p>\n

    Core muscles include:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • abdominal muscles<\/li>\n
    • back muscles, which include the little muscles holding the vertebrae in the spine stable<\/li>\n
    • the gluteal (butt) muscles \u2013 although strictly not core muscles, these are activated when core and back muscles are worked and engaged.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      The Core is engaged and somewhat strengthened especially during balance training. But we can add stabilization strength training by teaching your dog to engage their core. Some strength exercises target the core muscles, e.g. crunches, tucks and planking, but effective and efficient core engagement should occur when proper form is achieved.. <\/p>\n

      To start, planking is performed in a natural standing position that starts to become slightly elongated (the hind feet are placed further and further backward) and is included in our Foundational Strength program.<\/p>\n

      A Caution:<\/h4>\n

      Extreme planking occurs where the spine and rear legs are almost horizontal to the ground while the core muscles are stretched and the feet are on an unstable, or stable surface. This is however an Advanced Strengthening<\/strong> position.<\/p>\n

      If your dog is able to do this, it is vitally important that while this shows good flexibility of the core, hip flexors and quadricep muscles, we have to ensure that these muscles remain strong and not JUST<\/em><\/strong> flexible (the dog is hanging in the hips) as this will place much strain on the hamstrings, pelvis and muscles running above, below and along the spine (hypaxial and epaxial muscles). In doing this it is important that the hamstrings and glutes remain subtle and flexible as they may become overly tight in this position, and that the muscles supporting the spine and core have good contractive strength too (iliopsoas, hypaxial and epaxial muscles and don’t forget the latissimus dorsi muscles) .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-6952","tva_lesson","type-tva_lesson","status-publish","hentry","tva_courses-bk-9-foundational-strength-program","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Biokinetic K-9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dogsolutions.co.za\/biokinetic-k9\/course\/what-is-strength-training\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Strength Training? - The Biokinetic K-9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In humans, we know that most strength training involves lifting weight to make that person's body stronger, but it is a little different with our dogs.\u00a0 We cannot simply give them a barbell and ask then to do shoulder presses! 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