Elite Fitness Solutions

Sustainable resources are a hot topic today. From fuel and housing materials to water sources, this decade has seen an almost unprecedented awareness about the need to seek sustainability in our lifestyles. In a nutshell, we are starting to realize that if the scales are tipped to far in one direction then we will lack the balance to sustain our resources in the future.

This train of thought is just as applicable to an area that few think about – your training. You have to realize that not all gains made in training are equal. Just like we need to keep a balance with our natural resources we have to keep a balance with our body or else we will break down.

Gains in strength or skill that come at the expense of being able to maintain functional movements are what I call “unsustainable gains”. This means that because of the imbalances that are caused by losing functional movement you have set yourself up for a series of injuries down the road, hardly a fair trade off in my opinion.

Let me give you an example – let’s say that a high school athlete can properly maintain functional movement throughout the entire range of motion of a 135 pound squat. As a quick refresher, functional movement for a squat consists of keeping strong foot contact with the ground, keeping their knees over their feet, being able to keep their lumbar spine straight and strong and able to keep their chest puffed out.

Now, let’s say that they add another 10 pounds to the bar. They are able to squat pretty good but this time they let their heels come off the ground slightly as they lower themselves down. This break in functional movement means that they are shifting a lot of shearing force to their knees and that they are dominating the movement with their quads instead of using the hips to help. These two things will lead to knee issues as the stress on the knees mounts and the dysfunction of having overly dominant quads adds to the injury potential at the knees.

In my opinion, unless that athlete is made aware of and can correct that small break in their functional movement they have not really gained anything except an increase in their injury potential. And in no way should they be allowed to add even more weight. Sure, they could probably add another 20-50 pounds before their form got so bad that even they realize they should stop but allowing an athlete to continue to add weight at the expense of form should be avoided like the plague considering the long term ramifications.

The above scenario is a simple example from the weight room, but this principle applies to every facet of training for your sport. For example, a golfer I work with had been suffering through a lot of neck and lower back pain. After assessing him I realized that he was very dominant with his left leg and this imbalance was knocking everything out of whack, leading to his pain.

He explained to me that during putting he puts about 70% of his weight on his lead leg, in this case his left one. This is a skill he picked up while learning how to putt and it made a dramatic impact on his ability to sink them. But, because the learning of and application of that skill was causing an imbalance between his two legs, it was ultimately an unsustainable gain.

Because he had not been using strength training and stretching to fight the imbalances caused by his sport skill he ended up with a rather severe injury. This injury forced him to take weeks away from the golf course and affected him daily for several weeks. This injury took many, many years to get to that point and could have been completely avoided if he had been exposed to the idea of sustainable gains earlier in his career.

This is a tough one to internalize because we are such a “right now” society. Gaining 50 pounds on your squat or being able to sink more putts is considered a great thing by most athletes, but without thinking about the ultimate cost of those gains you will set yourself up for a lot of pain in the future. Sometimes it can take decades for the pain to get really bad but trust me, it will catch up with you.

To wrap up, training for your sport can cause imbalances that will lead to injuries. In fact, most sport related injuries are completely avoidable if the principle of seeking sustainable gains is applied. In most cases strength and mobility training is the only way to efficiently and effectively maintain the balance our body needs to sustain its performance levels. All it will take is applying a little bit of our appreciation for sustainable resources to our most precious natural resource of all – our own bodies.

James Wilson

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I would have to say that 90% of the youth athletes that I have met would be defined as “over skilled”. I know it sounds absurd since most feel that some aspect of their game needs work, however, when you really understand how the human body functions and best adapts you will see what I mean. First, though, I need to explain the OPP.

The Optimum Performance Pyramid (OPP) was first introduced to me by Gray Cook, a well known California based Physical Therapist and strength coach.  It is probably the best explanation that I have come across describing how sport training should be viewed. Gray uses the OPP to explain the 3 distinct levels of performance training, their prioritization and how to best integrate them.

The first, and broadest, level is Functional Movement. Contrary to the current fitness trends, this does not mean standing on a wobbly doo-hicky, looking like you are trying out for the circus. Functional Movement simply refers to developing adequate mobility, body control and movement awareness in order to safely handle higher level movements.

Examples of exercises in this level would include single leg box squats, pistol squats, Bulgarian split squats, single leg deadlift, push ups and their variations, inverted rows and alternating DB shoulder press. Bodyweight and unilateral exercises make up the bulk of this type of training. However, bodyweight exercises are extremely humbling when challenging variations are used. Do not underestimate the power of this type of training.

The Functional Movement level should also address any imbalances in the body, both mobility and strength wise, as they are a huge red flag for a potential injury. An athlete without a strong base built in this level of training will be far more prone to injuries, have a harder time mastering new skills and techniques and generally find that their training efforts yield few and inconsistent results.

The second level of the pyramid is Functional Strength. This level focuses on improving your raw strength and power. In effect, increasing these areas will add to your raw potential. Athletes without adequate time spent on this level will also find that they have a hard time implementing new skills in a strong and powerful way and will probably feel as if they have hit a plateau with their progression.

Examples of exercises in this level would include deadlift, front squat, bench press, military press, weighted pull ups/ chin ups, and DB rows. Compound, core exercises for the main movement patterns make up the bulk of this level.

The last, and smallest, level is Functional Skill. Unfortunately, this is where most training that youth athletes undertake would fall. This includes practicing their sport, sport camps and high level training methods such as speed and agility drills, plyometrics and Olympic Lifts. These methods will only yield the biggest “sport specific” gains if they are used by someone who has spent time developing the base levels of the performance training pyramid. Believe it or not, over use of training methods in this level can actually slow down and stagnate skill development and fitness progression.

So, as you can see, from this point of view most youth athletes spend far too much time and focus on the Functional Skill level of the OPP. A lot of them may not have spent any time working on Functional Movement and/ or Functional Strength. This makes them over skilled, as their sport specific skill and fitness progression is maxed out compared to the base that they have built. This means that a long term approach with an eye on safely progressing through the 3 levels of the OPP is needed for sustainable results. Without it, you are simply leaving a youth athlete’s long term development to chance.

Note: do not confuse “over skilled” from a performance training point of view with having “adequate skill” from a pure performance point of view. Most will never be satisfied with their skill and fitness levels in every aspect of their sport so they will always be looking to get a little better in some aspect of their sport. What I am saying is that at a certain point youth athletes must re-solidify the base of their OPP in order to continue to realize the gains offered by the higher level strategies.

James Wilson

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