Consider This

Earlier today I met with a recently retired athlete. He is bent out of shape after 30 years of playing a unilateral (one sided) sport.

We looked at his body. Noted a few things in his connective tissues and the long-term focus of his strength training to kick things off.

As often happens, we discussed his training history. This reveals valuable insights especially with his career and the merry-go-round of strength and conditioning coaches that ripped through the teams he played in.

I asked him “how many of your S & C coaches assessed and improved your tissue tension during your career?”

“None”

“How many of your S & C coaches assessed and improved your flexibility during your career?”

“None”

“How many of your S & C coaches assessed and improved your strength during your career?”

“All of them!”

How many of your S & C coaches assessed and improved your posture during your career?”

“None”

It’s not his fault. This is common and in this case we’re talking one of the highest funded, professional sports in Australia.

The tick he got – strength – didn’t reverse the damage his sport did to his body. The strength stimulus he received during his career largely ensured he remained bent out of shape.

What saved him while playing is one, genetics – he’s put together well and two, he stretched a lot on his own. For whatever reason, since he was a child he said he loved to stretch and it showed in parts of his body.

What’s the moral of the story?

Ignoring your tissue tension, in most cases (not all, as some people are simply blessed with optimal tissue tension) you’ll pay later. The later you wait to do something about it the harder it is. Plus the ‘opportunity cost’ of neglecting tissue health when performance is your priority, can be significant.

If you ignore your flexibility the good news is you’ll have a lot more time on your hands because quality flexibility training is time consuming! In today’s world of ‘bio-hacking’ and instant gratification, investing time in lengthening your connective tissues doesn’t fit the ‘give it to me now’ narrative.

There’s an enormous opportunity for anyone with patience. Plus slowing down, being present and reversing the tension producing effects of training is a fantastic investment.

Engaging in inappropriate strength training – which is more common than you’d think – comes with a price. Most people (again some people are gifted in their ability to tolerate load through the entirety of their lives) in their teens, 20’s and 30’s as well as anyone who has never strength trained seriously for more than a decade – yes this is a huge cross segment of the training population I’m about to offend – have no idea of the short and long term ramifications of inappropriate loading.

I’ve waited until my mid 40’s and close to 30 years strength training exposure myself, in addition to coaching hundreds of athletes in all aspects of physical preparation in a broad range of sports to share this observation. I know it won’t make me popular but better a harsh truth than delusional sincerity.

It’s been an incredible education to watch the fates of athletes shape change for the worse, unnecessary injuries created in the gym via no warm up sets, going to failure too often, poor technical models, inappropriate programming and the list goes on. I’m certain none of them had a deliberate plan to end up injured or to under perform their potential, but a surprising number do in fact implement this exact plan, based on results.

Strength training can be viewed as a form of leverage. Programmed and executed appropriately, it will accelerate gains in strength, size, explosiveness, posture, etc. Programmed and executed poorly, it will accelerate unwanted outcomes.

Posture is reflective of a whole bunch of things. Without turning this into War and Peace, posture reflects the stimulus we’ve applied to our body – both physical and psychological – since we could walk, talk and listen. It can, and in most cases will change for the better with appropriate training. 

It doesn’t take Einstein to work out my views on what’s happening in training these days. For all the advances in technology, knowledge and research on the whole, I’m not seeing a lot filter through to athletes’ bodies, outside of natural selection and the skill levels of some sports continuing to evolve, regardless of the physical training they’re doing. 

In short there’s too much trend based compliance and a lack of critical thinking to help individuals improve. Sounds a lot like what’s happening in the broader society today…

Whats the solution?

Outside of individualised training programs, ensure you’re improving your body in a balanced way over time. This sounds overly simple, but it’s rarely achieved. Of course, this won’t be a linear improvement. If you play sport/compete, there are times when you’re required to peak. Outside of these peaks, you have the opportunity to emphasise other qualities that will help you play/compete and help you stay injury free, such as those discussed above.

Give them a go!