Building A Strong Foundation: Strength

Last week I looked at how to build your aerobic base. Building a strong aerobic base in the beginning will allow you to last longer when it comes to running and sprinting but will also help when it comes to lifting. You can read about how to build your aerobic base here.

When it comes to lifting heavy weights most people like to put the wagon before the horse (was really trying to find a better analogy). Lifting heavy things is cool, but there is a process that needs to take place before we can lift heavy to minimize the risk of injuries.

What you need is the mobility to complete a lift safely and with good form. You need the stability to be able to control yourself through that range of motion (ROM). Only after you have mobility and stability should you really start loading up your movements.

Let’s take a closer look at developing each one.

Mobility

Mobility is the ability to move freely or easily through a ROM. This is our goal with mobility – to be able to move freely.

Too little mobility leads to tight muscles and injures and too much mobility will also lead to loose joints and injures. With almost all things we are looking for that middle ground. It’s like Goldie Locks except without the bears, and you are being told what porridge to eat (not to lax and not to tight but just right).

The first step is finding out where the restriction is. If you find yourself really tight when squatting then you may need to do more mobility and soft tissue work in between sets.

If you fall on the other end of the spectrum and find that stretching comes easy or you can hyper extend you joints. You most likely have a lot of laxity and will not benefit from stretching, but I would still do the soft tissue work.

Gaining Mobility

The best way to gain mobility is to do a combination of static stretching, soft tissue work (deep tissue massage or foam rolling), and mobility drill. I will do foam rolling before and sometimes after the workout. I will place mobility work in the warm up and super set them with the big lifts or the first lifts of the day. I will do most of the static stretching at the end of the workout as a cool down.

Stability

Stability is the ability to control your body through your ROM. I said your ROM because everyone’s ROM is a little different. Not everyone will be able to squat ass to grass, but some can.

I find that most people have stability problems in two major places, either with their shoulders or in their hips/pelvic. They are both ball and socket joints and have a lot of ROM. If you are not stable in your shoulder then it affects the whole arm, same with the hip. If you are not stable in the hip than it will effect the leg and your back as well.

You will see instability in the hip in single leg exercises but you can also see it in bilateral movements as well. What you are looking for is caving knees, wobbling legs, or torso.

With the shoulder it will show up if they have problems controlling weight in presses, but if they already have a lax shoulder girdle then it is safe to guess that they will be instable as well and will benefit from some stability work.

Gaining Stability

Hip:

The best way to gain stability is to strengthen the hip muscles; sounds simple right. But it’s finding what muscles need to be strengthened that is the hard part, and that’s another post in itself. I would focus on the glutes and turning on the glute medius.

Another way to gain stability is to practice the single leg movements in an extreme condition. I am not suggesting doing back squats on a BOSU ball. What I am suggesting is, instead of just doing a regular lunge do an unweighted FMS inline lunge. This will place the body in an unfamiliar situation forcing the body to adapt. You do not want to do the reps fast but slow and under control, and remember to breathe naturally.

You would do this for a month 3 times a week. You will find that your lunge pattern will clean up quite a bit. This will not fix everything but it will help.

Shoulder:

There are many ways to stabilize the shoulder. The one I like the most is perturbation. It is simple and effective. The only drawback is that you need two people most of the time.

What you do is hold your arm straight out and have someone gently hit your arm up down and side to side. All you have to do is resist the force and keep you arm as still as possible.

If you don’t have a partner then waiter’s walks and overhead farmer’s caries will also be a good choice.

Closing

Once you have a good ROM and stability in place you are ready to start adding weight.

You may be like, “Josh, you are suggesting I can’t lift heavy until my ROM and stability is perfect?”

I am not suggesting that at all, thought it would be great if that where the case, but I realize that most don’t have the time or the patience to do this. If you are under 13, then yes you should be focused on movement patterns and stability. If your ROM and your stability is not atrocious then lift heavy but work on making your ROM better and your stability more stable. This is a simple as adding a few mobility and stability drills in your warm up and in your workouts a few times a week.

Don’t skip the little things; they can quickly become a big problem.

Have a great day

Josh Williams