THE WHY'S BEHIND THE WHAT'S - Blog

[Guest Prosoft Admin]

 

You search the internet.   Maybe YouTube. “There it is…a new drill.  Haven’t seen that one before.  Maybe I’ll add that one in to my workouts.  It looks hard.  Boy, that guy (or girl) really looks in shape.  They’re talking about feeling a burn in exactly that same muscle group my coach said we use for my sport.”

Ever thought before as an athlete?  Many of you have.  Coaches and parents too.  Great hearts.  Great intentions.  Just looking intently for that missing link or that key ingredient to success.

Here’s one of the truths that I’ve found hugely helpful in my career as a PT and as a Sports Training Coach.  It comes from my background in Applied Functional Science and it teaches us a progression or system that leads I think to a much higher percent success rate.  PRINCIPLES – STRATEGIES – TECHNIQUES.

You see, so often out there we see the TECHNIQUES, the exercises themselves, coming first.  You see a cool drill and you add it.  You try something that’s hard and you include it.  But real success comes from taking a few steps back and beginning with some CORE PRINCIPLES or truths that serve as a foundation for us.  A starting point to gain perspective from . 

Here’s an example.  The body wants to LOAD TO EXPLODE.  That means that your bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles all need to move in a way that puts a stretch into whatever muscles are going to perform a task, to build some tension up, before expecting it to “explode” and produce force.  Take jumping as an example.  You “load” into a squat by moving downward, so that you can best prepare to move upward.  Your body knows that in sports it most often will get to crouch or bend down just even a bit before having to jump upwards. 

Let’s take a golf swing takeaway for example.  The takeaway has to be far enough and in the right planes of motion or paths, and occur at all the right places, in order for the system to “load” and prepare to produce a successful and powerful downswing.  An exercise might produce tons of fatigue and lactic acid or might be really hard to do, but if it doesn’t satisfy the principle of Load to Explode then we better step back and understand exactly why this truth of human movement is being ignored or slighted during a particular exercise or drill. 

At PEAK PERFORMANCE Physical Therapy & Sports Training we are grounded in the Principles of Human Function and they are the glasses we see through when we assess and exercise the people who come seeking our help.    To be good you’ve got to get beyond the allure of cool new exercises and find someone who can come up with PRINCIPLES behind the TECHNIQUES.  You’ve got to know the Why’s if you want the What’s to work for you!