Investigating "A Consensus of Uninformed Dogma": C.H. McCloy and Strength Training Research at the University of Iowa in the Mid-Twentieth Century

• Autores: Jason P. Shurley
• Localización: Journal of strength and conditioning research: the research journal of the NSCA, ISSN 1064-8011, Vol. 33, Nº. 12, 2019, págs. 3201-3212
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Into the 1960s, many coaches advised their athletes to avoid weight training, fearing that lifting weights would result in their becoming stiff, slow, and "muscle-bound." By the early 1970s, however, some teams had begun hiring specialists to devise and supervise strength and conditioning programs for their athletes. This paradigm shift in the understanding of the relationship between strength training and athletic performance was precipitated by numerous factors, including the exposure of many soldiers to barbells during World War II, Cold War-era concerns about soft living, athletes who trained despite their coaches' advice, and scientists who investigated the effects of strength training. C.H. McCloy, a Research Professor of Anthropometry and Physical Education at the University of Iowa from 1930 to 1954, was one of the first in the field of physical education to encourage and promote research on strength training. Although an advocate of various forms of training throughout his career, McCloy began to encourage investigations of the relationship between strength and performance by Iowa graduate students in the late 1940s. When those studies indicated that barbell training actually enhanced jump height, swimming speed, and more, McCloy publicized those results in the classroom, at conference talks, and in both professional and popular press magazines. Some of those investigations became part of the foundation on which later strength research was based. Owing to his backing and promotion of scientific investigations of strength training, C.H. McCloy was a key figure in making strength training an integral element of sport preparation.