Imagine a work out that allows you to move more than just up and down or forward and backwards. Well, you already do that in your own daily lives, even if you don’t have a fitness routine.
This picture represents various activities people do throughout their lives that deal with moving their bodies.
In our own lives, the activities go from professional sports to rec sports like pickleball to climbing to… moving furniture.
We’ve understood that strength training can help these activities, but we didn’t always understand that. Is it possible there is still more to understand? Let’s take a look at these activities and tell me if you notice anything different in what it takes to accomplish those sports or activities, and what you do on a day to day basis in your work out, and if they align.
Like, doing these activities, and watching the bodies shapes and positions, is there probably MORE to strength training benefits than:
Deadlifts- with a bar
Cleans- with a bar
Jerks- with a bar
Snatches- with a bar
Bench- with a bar
Squats- with a bar
???
I look at those lifts in particular, and they do NOT represent human movement in any capacity other than “LIMITED”. They all use the same exact tool, of which REALLY subtracts a lot of variability in what you can do with your work out. It’s either on your back, on your shoulders, in front of you, or over your head. That is a decent start, but if there are more ways to train, and you are going to need more ways to move, then why would we only focus on that particular tool?
Why are we ok with that being the solution? Is it because we don’t KNOW more? Is it because we are fine with NOT knowing more? Is it because that’s the EASY solution? I don’t want to get DEEP into this, but there is so much more we could do for not only athletes, but for the general population, if only we allowed ourselves to listen to more opportunity for movement, and to connect the dots of human biomechanics. I won’t get too crazy, but the opportunity is there, we just have to start asking for it.
What if there was more education out there that HOW you work out will directly affect your performance in WHATEVER that activity may be, that you do outside the gym? Most people aren’t “athletes” per se, but most people get in and out of their cars, they clean around their house, some garden, some play rec league sports, some bowl, most walk, some run, most go up stairs, etc.
You know what else your training translates to? “Extra curricular activities” what does that mean to you? Functioning in life, love, sex, play, adventure.
Training in ways that benefit YOU are advantageous in MANY ways, not just to improve a sport. They help you live better, longer. They help you stay capable of doing ANY activity it may be that you are interested in. It’s not just about bigger muscles, or a nicer butt, but HOW you can use those newly formed muscles…I won’t mention that other part here.
Try just a little bit harder to make your training just a little bit better for YOU. The easy way out or JUST doing those lifts probably isn’t going to benefit you the way diving deeper would. If you give your body the opportunity to move better, by being better educated, and by allowing yourself the chance to gain more knowledge about what the body wants and how it reacts to stimulus, gravity, ground reaction forces and chain reaction biomechanics, you could become a super human WHILE you get older.
