This is a question that I’ve been pondering for the past several months. It is common knowledge that strength is a prerequisite for optimal health and human performance. With this there are two questions that constantly arise whenever I take on a new client:
- What type of strength do they need most?
- How much of this strength do they need?
At the root, we must examine both strength quality and strength quantity.
There are three coaches that have really influenced and challenged me this year and they are Gray Cook, Brett Jones, and Michael Boyle.
Gray Cook has made me rethink my exercise focus, Brett Jones has made me rethink my exercise density and Coach Boyle has made me rethink my exercise selection.
So in my quest to develop and improve the strength quality and quantity of my athletes and clientele, I ask myself these questions when designing a program to help them achieve their goal:
- What is the main focus or theme of each exercise?
- What is the minimal number of exercises I can use?
- What exercises do I choose?
Over the years through trial-and-error I’ve become wise enough to learn and accept that my training system is NOT about me. It’s also not about my experience, degrees, certifications or the number of seminars and workshops that I’ve attended. My system of training is geared towards one thing:
Getting my clients the results they both need and want for optimal health and performance.
My goal is to provide my clientele with simple and practical solutions that will help them achieve their goals in both sport and life; and not try to prove how smart I am…even though I’ve been guilty of this in the past. But I will admit that my experience, credentials and continuing education has deeply shaped my training philosophy.
This has inspired me to take a completely holistic approach to health and human performance. As it relates to strength training and exercise, natural movement development and refinement are the primary focus of my training philosophy.
Moving and feeling better is the foundation or our programming while performing and looking better are two great byproducts of the training.
GRAY COOK’S INFLUENCE
Gray really helped for me to understand that the focus of your program determines what type of “map” you will follow in order to guide your clientele along the “trail” to their goals. One of the common trends in training is that “statistical strength” seems to trump everything. I refer to “statistical Strength” as the amount of load moved with no respect to structural health and integrated movement efficiency; where the only concern is “how much weight did you lift”? Let me be clear;
Your ability to move a bar, a dumbbell or kettlebell ugly DOES NOT make you truly strong.
It is imperative that we start to shift our focus to developing what is known as “Kalos Sthenos” or beautiful strength.
The basic definition of strength can be understood as the body’s natural ability to produce internal muscular tension to overcome an external force. The beauty of strength development is made possible in the presence of fluid movement, great postural awareness and body control. Observing an individual who is able to move with explosive fluidity, great posture and body control is like watching an artist create a beautiful masterpiece. The beauty of this type of strength is almost hypnotic to the observer.
Gray emphasizes that one must “take the time to move well…then move often.” This simply means that one must take the time to improve their structural health and integrated movement efficiency in order to develop the capacity to move with explosive fluidity on a frequent and regular basis.
BRETT JONES’ INFLUENCE
Brett really helped for me to understand that more density doesn’t equal more results. If training were arithmetic then subtraction would be the most important function. It is better to choose one or two movements and “own” them with great mastery than to choose eleven or twelve things and do them just “okay.” Mastery of movement and skill acquisition is cultivated with progressive precision.
Progression encompasses continuously challenging one’s unique level of postural awareness and movement capacity to display explosive yet fluid movement. Precision focuses on perfecting natural movement capability in order to enhance skill acquisition in the presence of movement mastery.
Natural movement refers to the type of movement we were required to perform on a daily basis for survival without the advent of technology. It’s by no mistake that most of the natives of poorer and technologically “under developed” countries are a lot healthier, stronger and can move better than some of us here in the United States.
With this I now choose the least amount of exercises that will still produce the necessary training effect to help my clients achieve their goals. I’ve found this to be effective when seeking to both develop and refine natural movement patterns. Training for the most part should have the dual purpose of correcting and conditioning natural movement patterns. But when done poorly, training can also be very counter-productive and this tends to occur when the program is “too dense”.
Training density refers to trying to squeeze a large amount of exercises and/or drills within a small window of time. There is a thin line between challenging an athlete and crippling an athlete by “overloading” them with too many exercises. One of the common trends in both performance and general fitness training is to treat an individual like a hungry person at a buffet. Clients are “fed” as many exercises as possible to satisfy and reassure them that they received a great workout. Just because you leave an individual dripping in sweat and out of breath doesn’t mean that they have been “fed” (trained) properly.
We must always keep in mind that we should choose exercises that have the highest priority in keeping individuals on the “trail” to their goals.
MICHAEL BOYLE’S INFLUENCE
Michael has really helped me to understand that exercise selection should look to enhance natural movement quality while increasing the three primary facets of strength, which are:
- Maximal Strength
- Speed Strength
- Relative Strength
All of these facets on the continuum of strength are very important when it comes to health and human performance. One of the most critical things we need to address when it comes to program design is selecting exercises that will develop these different facets of strength within an individual while continuously challenging one’s unique level of postural awareness and movement capacity. This may even include subtracting some of your clients’ favorite exercises from their program.
When training it is imperative that we keep things in perspective and remember that exercise selection encompasses selecting the best tool, based on one’s unique movement capacity. As a result the concept of functional strength training has really moved to the forefront of popularity with both athletes and the general population. But I believe that a more accurate term that describes our goal of training is “Organic Strength Development” (OSD).
OSD encompasses the concept of developing “beautiful” strength with the least number of exercises to give you maximal results, while simultaneously preserving holistic health and well being. These exercises can be referred to as “Organic Exercises”. Gray cook describes “organic exercises” as those that simultaneously “develop flexibility, coordination, balance, strength, endurance and quickness in every movement.”
Here are a few examples of how to replace “non-organic” exercises with “organic exercises”
- Instead of doing lat pulldowns, do chinups or pullups and if you’re not strong enough to handle your bodyweight yet, then use a band for assistance.
- Instead of doing leg extensions, master split squats then progress to reverse lunges and then forward lunges.
- Instead of doing barbell bench presses, own pushups and then perform them simultaneously with leg lifts or using the TRX or blast straps.
The primary concept of an organic exercise is one that requires you to control your pelvis and your spine (your core) in open space while moving or expressing strength with the arms and legs.
One key thing that Boyle constantly emphasizes is:
“Don’t lose sight of the ability to handle your own bodyweight.”
So when looking to develop organic strength, be sure to “naturally” develop all three facets of strength in order to “guide” your clientele along the “trail” to their goals. And when selecting exercises, choose those that will serve as the best tools to develop organic strength, while preserving durability and fluid movement quality to yield higher performance output as it relates to success in both sport and life.
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