3 min read
There are those who are satisfied with the status quo, the conventional view, the path of least resistance. They choose to follow rather than take the lead. Their future is predictable and comfortable.
I'm not one of those people. And Keiser is not, and never will be, one of those companies.
Our only interest in the status quo is to challenge it.
Keiser is a company whose ideas and solutions extend far beyond current practice and technology. A company willing to take the risks necessary to improve human performance at all levels. A company so committed to keeping its jobs and technology at home that it continually hones its manufacturing skills to compete with, rather than succumb to, foreign manufacturing. Never being satisfied and the constant desire to improve everything and everybody have been the heart and soul of Keiser for over 40 years.
To effect change, one must be willing to make the sacrifice to do so. It takes passion and commitment from everyone in a company to stay the course when all around are doubting you. Keiser is a company that believes everything can be improved, even the improvements; which means there is no finish line.
Randy Keiser, Executive Vice President and Head of Manufacturing
Our goals from the beginning have been to:
- Raise the bar on human performance at all levels
- Maximize the efficiency of physical training
- Minimize injuries in the gym, in the game, and in life
To do this, we knew we had to be able to move a resistance at very high speeds, and be able to vary that resistance through the entire range of motion to maximize results and minimize injury. We call this Dynamic Variable Resistance.
Train at any speed
Variable Resistance is the key to safer and more efficient strength training. It's based on the fact that, in every exercise, your ability to produce a force varies through the range of motion. At certain points, you're stronger and at others you're weaker. Ideally, you want your muscles to work at their maximum potential through every point in the range of motion. To do this, we must apply more resistance where you are stronger and less resistance where you are weaker.
While iron could be used to do this, it was highly impractical at the speeds necessary to achieve the level of performance we were shooting for. It's the speed that makes it Dynamic Variable Resistance.
Training at "game speed" enhances neuromuscular function
The real difference between Keiser and everyone else, is that we weren't interested in making a better weight stack machine. We were interested in making a higher performing human being. A difference that required us to develop a new source of resistance; one that didn't rely on mass (weight) and gravity. One that could create very high forces with very little moving mass and still provide an eccentric resistance (the push back) that you get with the iron. And, so we did.
Human Performance is more than just building strength.
The term "Neuromuscular" combines the Central Nervous System and the Muscles into a single word. They act together to create motion. This is where the need to train at speed becomes so important, because it's at speed that the brain really becomes involved in the lift. It's the brain that recruits muscle fiber, and it's the brain that is tasked with shortening the muscles as fast as it possibly can under the load that has been applied to it.
Vince Lombardi said, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." He understood that our movement patterns are recorded and stored in our neuroplastic brain. We perform repetitive movements to improve our golf swing, but we could just as easily record a bad golf swing. This is why good coaching is so important.
When we lift iron through a simple range of motion like a bench press, we have to start the weight moving at the beginning of the lift and we have to stop it at the end. This is an intentional act that is being recorded in the brain with every lift. We are teaching our brain to slow down half way through the range of motion - where we should be getting faster. You wouldn't think of slowing down your golf swing half way through the range of motion, or your pitch, or your tennis swing, nor will you ever with Keiser.
Keiser is best known for its work in elite-level performance. At this level, it takes everything we've talked about to achieve any measurable results. This is where our Dynamic Variable Resistance really pays off.
What you may not know is that Keiser has been the equipment of choice for enhancing older adult performance since 1990. As diverse as these two groups seem, they are very similar in need. Both are focused on "performance," not just getting stronger. Research shows we lose 50% of our strength and 50% of our speed between the ages of 30 and 80 if we don't intervene. It is just as important to maintain our neuromuscular system throughout our life as it is to maintain our teeth, and to do it smart, as we have learned in caring for our teeth.
At the elite level, it's about staying in the game, winning, and breaking records. For the rest of us, it's also about staying in the game, getting the most out of life, and doing the things you love to do. For all of us, it's about a pain-free range of motion, avoiding injury, and performing at the highest level possible with the body you have.
Yes, Keiser is different, in so many ways. And we're proud of it.