Thought I’d give everybody a break this week and not talk about the perils of bad eating habits, so you have a week of not feeling guilty. At the very least I hope my e-mails, if not make you change your eating habits, make you think a little and maybe even guilt you.
But not this week. I am going to talk about the many variances of training. This too will not win me any friends in certain circles. But maybe it will open the eyes of some coaches and professionals and help them look outside the purview of their little training worlds. I have been training for at least three decades and have been exposed to many concepts and ideas of training including but not limited to Olympic lifting, powerlifting, core training, functional training, bodybuilding, assessment training periodization training, kettlebell training to name a few. Here’s the big question: If all these experts in their field think that their training is the best then who is right and who is wrong???
Well I think even the layman knows the answer because we look at things not as skewed as the professional that is so caught up in his one dimensional world. They are all good together but they are impossibly weak standing alone.
Assessment based training needs to be done but not overdone. A good trainer needs to notice any imbalances with the antagonistic muscle groups and try to correct these imbalances before any injuries occur. But you don’t need to make a hundred assessments. ( I have actually seen this!)
The Olympic community swears by the Olympic lifts and the power generated by these lifts, and the latter is true but the time spent on perfecting these lifts is just unconceivable. These lifts are the most dangerous lifts in the fact if not done correctly can lead to severe injury. It takes months using a broomstick handle just to learn the correct technique. To me that’s a waste of time.
Power lifting is concerned with just three lifts: Squat, Chest press, Deadlift. These lifts may “hit” many areas of the body but lack the athleticism and explosion of the Olympic lifts. And if not done with proper assistance puts the posterior muscle chain in a massive imbalance.
Bodybuilding, with which I am associated, has its foibles too. We are possibly too obsessed with our nutrition and physiques that we forget about any kind of athleticism.
Core training, functional training are great! But alas they are not the answer either. They lack strength! To get strength you need to be stabilized not on a bosu.
And on it goes. So the answer is to combine these modalities of training together and my trainers strive to do that. We challenge you with strength feats, we challenge you with core and functional exercises, we incorporate some power lifting moves, talk about the nutrition from a bodybuilding slant, we use kettlebells in our workouts. So I do believe that my coaching staff does expose all of our clients to the best of all possible venues of training. My staff rocks! Keep up the great work… R