An Examination of Flywheel Training Means & Methods by Jenna Burnett
Mike Young and AthleticLab were one of the first kBox3 users in the US. Now, one of their Sports Science interns, Jenna Burnett, published the first article of three in a promising series on the kBox squat. We liked the background to flywheel training and methodology presented in this first part.
Jenna Burnett is currently pursuing an M.Sc. in Kinesiology and has a background in Maths and Physics. We really like the subject she picked for this series at Elitetrack.com, the #kBoxSquat. Her main goal is to look at concentric and eccentric peak power with different squat protocols using the kBox3.
The first part of this series presents a background to how flywheel training works. It’s always interesting to read how others explain this. If you are a coach, trainer or physio using flywheel you should spend some time reading this until you understand it. Your subjects will ask about it and not being able to explain it puts you in a bad position. In short, this is how it works:
The inertia for the kBox3 is determined by the number and size of the flywheels the athlete chooses. The basic idea of the kBox3 is that the harder the athlete pulls the belt, the more the flywheel will accelerate, and the more angular momentum the flywheel will generate, creating a higher resistance for the eccentric part of the movement.
At the end of this introductory post-Jenna shares some of the methodology they used in the test and I’m really looking forward to seeing their data on the iso hold and impulse overload training with the kBox. Eccentric overload using overloaded concentric actions would have been interesting to see too but you can’t have it all.
If you want to read up on methods for eccentric overload on the kBox check this out. Should you miss references to studies showing e.g. the benefits of eccentric overload, you can just check our science page. For further reading on the kBox, see the articles or podcasts discussing flywheel training and the kBox referred on our media page. Also, these themes are discussed in depth in our courses.
Now, go on and read Jenna Burnett’s full article!
Happy DOMS!
/Fredrik Correa, Head of Research & Development
