Strength is NOT, Non-Essential

 

You may have noticed I didn’t say that gyms are not non-essential – because they aren’t. The vast majority of people are just exercising at the big box gym and without some measurable form of improvement, it’s just a very inefficient use of time. In fact, getting skinny and frail by running on the treadmill, doing endless aerobics or waving around 20lb dumbbells has proven (especially in this current climate) to be downright dangerous. Our health and fitness have never been more at the forefront and while an obese person may need to seriously lose some weight, dieting and sweating their way to frailty will not make them any healthier.  What it will do, is make them less likely to survive a health crisis. Those folks, along with everyone else, need to get strong and the only way to do that, is to Train … (not exercise).

The methodology for training versus exercising is that training involves systematic and continuous improvements over time. Strength trainees do not enter the gym and do whatever they like that day. They have a specific set of exercises with specific weights that are an increase from the last time they entered the gym. This progression each time you train is how you develop incrementally and improve your health in a lasting and meaningful way. Unfortunately, current governmental guidelines for exercise are no better than the original food pyramid (and the new “My Plate” guidelines) which continue to drive record amounts of obesity and heart disease all across the country.

What people need are experienced and educated coaches who understand training and how to apply it, but you will very likely not find that person wearing a polo shirt with the word “Trainer” emblazoned on the back, at the big box gyms. If you want to improve your overall fitness, prevent or maybe even cure Diabetes/Metabolic disease, fix your blood pressure, strengthen your heart, lose fat, not be so frail, etc… then you’re going to have to get off of the treadmill and seek the help of a qualified strength and conditioning coach who will help you get strong.

We can explore that deeper by taking a look at the 10 aspects of physical fitness.  These include: endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.

• The first aspect of fitness is Endurance and while this is a specific aspect of cardiovascular training, I can guarantee you’re going to be breathing awfully hard after several hard sets of squats.
• Next on the list is Stamina. Any activity that you can perform for any length of time is, by definition, sub-maximal. A stronger person can perform the same task with much less effort than a weaker person, so the stronger person will have a great deal more stamina.
• The third aspect is Strength. Obviously training for strength will in fact make you stronger, so this point is given.
• After Strength is Flexibility. A great deal of attention has been given to flexibility over the past several years and while a lack of mobility around a joint can limit someone’s overall mobility, flexibility without context is pointless. The strength trainee will increase flexibility via training through effective ranges of motion. However, the trainee does not stretch outside that range as it's unnecessary and does not contribute to overall mobility.
• Power is a unique aspect and along with Speed demonstrates how very much dependent we are on our genetics. You are born with a certain ability to flex your muscles at a certain speed and that cannot be improved in any meaningful way. One can practice a specific movement and gain more skill, but you are right now, as explosive as you are ever going to be. However, if we look at the formula for Power, there is one variable that we can change. The formula for Power is: (Power = Work/time). If we translate that for the strength trainee, it will look like: Power = Force/time. So, while no coach can improve your genetic gift of explosiveness, they can increase your strength: thereby, increasing your Power output. And if you can increase the power that you produce as force against the ground, then you can; in fact, become faster.
• Coordination comes through practice and any good strength coach will ensure that you perform the same movements with consistent form over a long period of time which will distinctly improve your overall
• Agility is defined as the ability to stop and change direction quickly. As discussed above, your explosiveness cannot be trained but a stronger person can stop their own weight faster than a weaker person and also accelerate in a different direction quicker.
• Balance, the 9th aspect of physical, is tied well to Agility. The vast majority of the population over 60 does not suffer from inner ear problems, have vertigo, or any other condition that causes them to have less balance. What does cause a loss of balance is lack of strength. The difference between a stronger person and a weaker person is that the stronger person is faster, more agile and much more in control of their body. Strong people can generally catch themselves and prevent falls while weaker people cannot. Strength is the key component of balance.
• Lastly, we have Accuracy. While it may not sound terribly important, accuracy allows us to step up or off of a curb and not stub our toe and/or fall (see Balance, above). Accuracy also allows us to perform certain activities without working at our limits and still perform them effectively. Swinging a golf club comes to mind. We all know that if you swing a golf club or a baseball bat with maximum effort that your accuracy goes down quite exponentially. Having more strength not only improves your athletic ability from a speed and agility perspective but it allows you to hit, kick, swing, punch, etc… much more accurately since you do not have to apply as much force to get the same result.

 

Setting aside fitness and performance for a second, what are the overall health benefits of being strong? If you suffer from Diabetes or have Metabolic Disease, then sitting on the exercise bike may help you lose a little weight. However, the overall metabolic improvement only lasts while you are on the bike. Being strong; on the other hand, increases your resting metabolic rate permanently: allowing you to lose fat faster … While increased muscle mass improves your ability to process sugars more effectively (as muscles operate on carbohydrates). Cardiovascular work will help the heart be more endurant but strength training will teach the heart how to operate under adverse conditions and lower your blood pressure as a result. Some strength trainees prefer to get quite big and will sometimes have a little bit of a gut but their overall fat to muscle ratio is significantly better than someone who is frail. Most medical troubles are survivable if you have enough body mass to combat it … Small, weak, frail people, do not. Stronger is always better when it comes to health.

The problem is, how does the average person looking to get stronger find decent information about strength training? The internet is so full of bad information that it’s simply not worth mentioning and the kid in the polo shirt at the big box gym; whether he has a degree in Exercise/Physical Education or not, likely has no idea how to properly train anyone. Setting the pins on the nautilus machine and yelling “ONE MORE” does not suffice as strength training. This is where your small, one-on-one, training facilities come in. These humble houses of steel are staffed not by kids looking to have a job but, by genuinely strong people.  People who have worked hard to understand the process of getting strong, know the benefits it has brought to them, and sincerely want to share it with you.

A qualified strength and conditioning coach should be able to explain to you some basic physiology and understand the Stress/Recovery/Adaptation cycle. They should know a great deal about anatomy and the mechanics/physics behind movement patterns. They should also be able to make you understand how they’re going to help you with your aches and pains and not call it some silly syndrome. A qualified strength coach should also be educated enough about nutrition to help you learn how to eat like an adult who is serious about getting stronger. In the end, however, a good strength coach should ultimately get you results.

Your health, physical capability and capacity to withstand the things that life throws at you are vitally important to your health, well-being, and overall happiness. We are all going to leave this world eventually, and while we can’t change that, we can strive to do so on our own terms. You are in control of your life and you can improve your strength at any age. However, as our governments reaction to the latest health crises has shown, the big box gyms are dead. They can be shut down at the slightest whim and you’ll be left with nowhere to go because the government considers them non-essential. In a lot of ways, that isn’t necessarily wrong as exercise is often a social event and has very little to do with health. On the other hand, small strength and conditioning gyms with the goal of training their clients for strength and better overall wellness, are quite essential. These small gyms are on the forefront of healthcare – helping clients get stronger and healthier. Doctors are there to help you when you get sick, but Strength and Conditioning gyms are there to prevent you from getting sick. That is why we now need your help.

Let your elected representatives know that your health is NOT non-essential. Let them know that your mental well-being is NOT non-essential. Let them know that your local, small training facilities where you train (not exercise) to improve your health are NOT non-essential. Speak up and let your voice be heard – call, email, send a letter, etc.

Strength is NOT, Non-Essential.