The ten commandments of athletic development
The fitness industry is filled with proponents and opponents of every single little thing. Some love an exercise while others hate it, one group trash talk a training method/system while other worship it. In the athletes mind this obviously creates a lot of confusion and frustration especially considering the fact that he/she WILL read a lot of information on the Internet.
I have had the privilege to intern with Eric Cressey and Aaron Brooks and recently also visited Nick Tumminello. I have learned that they all have very unique qualities and specialties and even though a lot of what they do is the same, they definitely differ in a lot of ways as well. Still, they all produce great results.
Why argue when both are right?
Obviously you will praise the training systems and methods that have worked wonders for YOU. Have you followed HIT with great results, that`s what you will recommend. It`s obvious. But you know what. The person beside you that has gotten great results with high volume training will definitely praise the system that has worked for HIM!
So why argue when both are right? As Marty Gallagher states in his brilliant book, The Purposeful Primitive, “contrast is king”, meaning when one thing stops working, the completely opposite is the way to go creating new synthesis in the body structures.
Historically, EVERY training strategy has worked for both bodybuilders and powerlifters. Body part split? Works. Fullbody training? Works. High volume? Works. High intensity? Works. We can go on and on, but you will find great results in each specific “camp” if you look at the right sources. It`s all in the history of the iron game. Call it “the bible” if you will. The stories are there for you to study and explore.
I don`t think what kind of training philosophy, methods, systems or exercises you follow matters much at all. It`s HOW you do what you do that matters. Yes, we have all heard it before, the talk about attitude and training environment, but you know what, it matters. A lot. That aside, here is the ten commandments of athletic development as I see it, independently of which training system you have chosen to follow.
# 1 – You shall honor correct technique
Can we agree that the first and foremost thing to respect is the way your body moves during loaded movements? I hope so, because the golden rule of coaching is “do no harm”. It seems easy enough, but experience tells us otherwise. There are technical standards for every exercise and even though we have to respect different limb lengths due to individual uniqueness, the rules are still the same. Cross this commandment and your training won`t produce the desired results. Injuries and chronic pain are also waiting for you.
# 2 – You shall respect your current level
There won`t be a problem for you to take your favorite athletes training program, because after respecting # 1 you can do the same exercises and methods, but to what benefit? If you still can drive linear progression for a long time, do it. If you still can progress with the basic exercises, do them. You don`t need rack pulls if your deadlift increases each and every session. Chain and bands are cool enough, but you probably don`t need them for every exercise. And if you can`t hold i good plank position, stay away from dragon flags. And why flip tires if you can`t lift a barbell from the floor with correct technique?
Your current level should dictate your training programming. Of course each of us need variety and new inspiration, but to throw in a bunch of new tools in a training program at the same time will defeat the purpose of each and every one of them. You probably won`t see your current level yourself. Few can do that and that`s why we have coaches. Pick one.
# 3 – You shall strive to move enough
Move enough? Yes, move enough to not lose the movement your body is capable of. I have been a big proponent of corrective exercise, but as trainers, who really care what the problem might be if lack of movement is present somewhere? The solution is still the same. Movement. Most people doesn`t move enough. Far from it. I like the functional movement screen, but there is one problem as I see it for trainers. You can`t diagnose, but you can find out what might be a restriction. So let`s say you lack hip internal rotati0n. Great, you have a clue to why you don`t squat perfectly, but the solution?
Is it not a thorough warm-up anyway? Isn’t hip internal rotation stretching a part of a good warm up if you have seen what some of the greatest coaches does with their athletes?
What more can you really do? And everybody need to stretch hip flexors and train their glutes. We need to mobilize thoracic spine. So what difference does it make PRACTICALLY for trainers to know if an asymmetry is present if this shows up during the warm-up exercises anyway? What more can you do than actually DO the exercises you are already doing to correct the problems that were already there? And if asymmetries in a lot of cases is what makes athletes perform the way they do as Eric Cressey and Mike Reinold talks about, why try to correct it and can it always be done anyway? Probably not.
“Use it or lose it”. I think that should be the message, not correction. Strive to move enough.
# 4 – You shall balance your training
You might love the bench press and there is nothing wrong with that as long as that`s not the only thing you do. Specialization is a key to further the progress within a specific skill, but long term wise this will lead you down a path of stagnation and injuries, unless your lucky. But you are not, so let`s do what you should do. Balance your training. It`s obvious that we need to up the workload of the posterior chain to be bigger, stronger, look great and perform better. That being said, balance is not only about movements, it`s also about skills.
Strength and muscles are good and necessary, but what about the abilities to control deceleration of movement, speed, plyometric abilities, flexibility and conditioning? There is so much focus on strength, which is a good thing, but it seems other qualities are not getting the attention they deserve, especially high intensity conditioning. They should.
# 5 – You shall never stop evolving
If your train of thought is “I know it all” you are leading yourself and/or you athletes down into a deep abyss. Please do yourself a favor and get out as soon as possible! Human beings adapt to stimulus. You are a human, I hope, so you say you rather want to keep pushing in the same direction forever when the stimulus you are creating only leads to diminishing returns?
Head in a new direction and do some changes. Nothing works forever and everything works for about 4-6 weeks. When Dan John says something along these lines there has so be some truth to it. It doesn’t mean you should not stick to a training program or diet. You should. It means you should give the body a reason to further adapt in the coming years of training. Likely that is a bunch of years, so make things possible for unlimited adaptation. You don`t want to discover this truth when it`s too late.
# 6 – You shall prioritize strength training
While stated in commandment # 4 that different qualities is important, strength is the first and foremost quality you have to develop and prioritize for athletic development. You will not only be stronger, but you will also prevent injuries. This quality will also undermine the development of speed, agility and plyometric abilities. Your sport and/or goals will obviously determine the proportions of the time used to develop different skills, but there should no longer be any need to argue whether strength should be a great factor in athletic development or not.
# 7 – You shall worship the core
The “core” in this case means abs and lower back and even though you are hardcore or not, you SHOULD have a hard core when you move. Not only will you prevent lower back injuries, but also you will generate more power during athletic movements. The hips won`t produce maximum power if your core is weak or leaks energy by being unstable and this holds true whether we talk about, running, cutting, kicking or punching/throwing. Basically all athletic movements. Since all limbs attach directly or indirectly to the core and create movement from this fundament it`s obvious it has to be strong and able to provide maximum support under powerful movements. You shall train stability and the ability to control movements, both slow and powerful without compromising the integrity of a stable spine.
# 8 – You shall master muscle tension
Is flexibility important? Yes. Is static stretching important? Probably not, especially not the way most people perform static stretching. Like Pavel Tsatsouline talks about in his books the muscles actually already have the potential length needed, but the TENSION we have built up during everyday tasks prevents them from reaching maximum length. This is a protective mechanism we should be thankful for, because if we have lost strength in a specific muscle length, there would be problematic to be there, especially during heavy loading like strength training. A little static stretching wont do much with this tension, but typical “contract-release” techniques plus controlled breathing is the way to go when you want to “trick” your nervous system, control tension and increase flexibility/mobility.
# 9 – You shall condition your body
As previously stated, strength training should be a prioritized quality in most cases, but there is definitely one other component that is hugely critical for most athletes, but sadly a bit overlooked it seems. We`re talking about conditioning. Strength and other qualities doesn’t matter at all if you are exhausted. You can be the most badass mofo in the gym, but totally dominated on the field if you don`t take this seriously. You have to ask yourself what matters the most. Probably both, right? Well, go ahead and do some serious conditioning. Some of the most effective conditioning methods and exercises are hill sprints, burpees and pushing/pulling sleds and the prowler. In other words, you don`t really need more than your own bodyweight, but there are a lot of cool tools you can use, so go ahead. Have some “fun”.
# 10 – You shall believe in yourself
If you don`t believe in yourself you might as well quit already. As Alwyn Cosgrove said: “psychology trumps physiology, every time”. There is some truth to that. We have probably all experienced breaking a new record when we thought there was less weight on the bar or done some “miraculous” feat on a day everything felt wrong. Doesn’t this prove that there is probably a lot more to athletic development and performance than what we have “planned”? History has shown that human psychology can out beat human strength and physiology. Maybe more focus should be placed on this “element”. I`m pretty sure this will unlock many “secrets” for a lot of athletes in the future. Time will prove this right or wrong, but my vote is for the former.
Eirik Sandvik
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