Functional |

While guys like Pavel will claim that “strength is a skill” – it’s true only to a point, and I think that the point is largely misunderstood or misinterpreted nowadays.

Doing strength-building movements – especially and particularly the classic lifts: deadlift, squat, overhead press, clean, chins (weighted), dips (weighted), bench, maybe row – require some “skill,” but I wouldn’t classify them as “motor skills” in the typical sense.

Those are “strength skills.” They are practiced in a certain way (with ever increasing load/intensity) in order to disrupt homeostasis and create adaptations in the body.

That is, simply repeating the movements involved in strength exercises will not get you stronger. Practice the movement all you want, but if you don’t add weight (progressively over time), you won’t get any stronger. You might, however, get more skilled.

The first example that comes to mind that allows for a nice comparison of these two types of “skill” development is the sport of Olympic weightlifting.

In the Soviet Union, and I think in many Eastern Bloc countries with state-funded Olympic training programs, children would be chosen to begin training for their sport at a very young age…perhaps around 5 years old.

For the first three to five years of the child’s training career, they would never touch a real barbell, let alone a weighted barbell. Instead, they’d practice with a towel, or a wooden dowel.

They’d practice the motor skill of the Olympic lifts – which is a very very specific motor skill (hence those lifts being a sport unto themselves).

Around the age of 10, the child might be allowed to begin practicing with a lightweight barbell, and from there, ever so gradually, progressively add weight – always making sure that they maintained the highest level of motor skill in the execution of the movement.

While a lot of this has to do with children simply being ill-suited for progressive weight training, because they’re still growing at a rapid rate, much of it also has to do with getting a person at a young enough age that they can accumulate 10,000 hours of practice at the skill before they achieve full developmental maturity.

This hearkens back to my old blog posts on skill and skill development. Skill is problem solving. It’s the ability to creatively solve problems given the resources available. “Talent” is what we call “inborn skill.” And, it seems, that it doesn’t really exist.

While some people may be more uniquely suited for expertise at certain skills (say, because of limb/torso ratios, etc.), the expression of that “talent” is all that really matters.

So, it’s impossible for us to know how real, frequent, or infrequent “inborn” talent is or is not – that is, until every child is given equal access to every musical instrument, athletic sport, computer program, or whatever other skill you want to measure, from the age of 2 on. Not only that, but they need also be given the freedom, time, money, and emotional support to continue. Got that? Great, now tell me how “talented” someone is.

But this post isn’t about talent. It’s about STRENGTH and SKILL.

The truth is, we all need both.

It’s just that I see so little focus on the real training of EITHER these days.

Most folks in the gym go in and pump some iron to look good. They don’t try to lift heavy poundages. They don’t do the classic lifts at all.

They also do bizarre skill-based workouts…things you might do for fun if you were a little kid, but that are treated with unsettling seriousness in an “adult” gym. Things like balancing on a stability ball on your knees while you move the medicine balls you’re holding in each hand in strange patterns, or while catching and throwing a medicine ball. Not a lot of laughter…a lot of grimacing.

But what’s the point of that? I mean what’s the point both of the seriousness with which it’s undertaken, and of the “exercise” itself. It doesn’t build strength. There’s no progressing it. There’s no overload to it. The body is in too unstable a position to overload. And it only builds the strangest type of “skill” possible…one divorced from anything you might encounter in life at all.

If you’re going to be performing that trick on a stage, or a streetcorner, for your paycheck, it’s important to practice that.

But if not – what the hell are you doing?

The saddest thing of all is that the trainers aren’t even laughing. I mean, not the ones who are making the people do it.

Take a look at your programming, ye trainers and trainees. Return to the basics.

Train STRENGTH with heavy stuff, progressively made heavier, and predominantly with “traditional” (bilateral, barbell) movements.

Train SKILL outside, or wherever you exercise that skill, and try to make it as absolutely perfect as possible…

Today’s entry was instigated by a comment Pete Egoscue makes in his book “Pain Free“:

“Do we unconsciously associate dysfunctional and functional physical characteristics with certain social groups? Indeed we do, and ironically it is many of the dysfunctions that are regarded as cool and stylish. Every spring- and fall-fashion season, I’m again struck by the ‘look’ that designers create using models who grow ever more stoop-shouldered, whose heads hang, and whose torsos tip forward. They slouch down the runways in Paris, New York, and London with their feet everted and their hips rolled back into flexion.” (pg. 168)

Just prior to that passage, Pete talks about the gag from old TV shows, where the country bumpkin somehow gets invited for tea with the high-society folk. He slurps it up, his elbow straight out, while they gingerly tip their cups from the wrist, elbows down, staring at the rube in distaste.

I’ve often wondered about this facet of human behavior. It’s ubiquitous – everywhere at once – and present in every “civilized” culture that’s ever existed. It’s the tendency for what is “high class,” or “most civilized,” to be furthest from what is natural (and, in that regard, also furthest from being healthy).

Here are some examples:

The Western Chair - this device is okay if used in strict moderation. But these days, it is used more than a person uses their legs! Its constant use results in a chain of dysfunction that creates more health problems than I want to list here.
“Refined” Foods - white rice, flour, etc. Any refined food was originally prized because it basically got you high. All of the nutrients that would ordinarily buffer the effect of the carbohydrates in the food were stripped away in the refining process, leaving, essentially, sugar. ALL HAIL WHITE FOODS! screamed the jittery upper-crust (who were the only ones who could afford them). When the lower class aspired to be upper class, they did so by eating what the “smart” upper crust ate. Sugar.
Fashionable Clothing - Egoscue is right. Dr. Victor Barker writes about the deleterious effects of high heels on women in his book “Posture Makes Perfect.” Among them, posterior pelvic tilt, which results in decreased sensation during intercourse, increased chance of premature birth, and eventual dowager’s hump in the upper thoracic spine. But fashionable clothing doesn’t stop with shoes. What about “skinny jeans?” They certainly restrict blood flow to the legs and feet. But they also limit movement, or capacity for movement. What about the business suit? Have you ever tried to work out in a business suit? I haven’t yet (though the day is coming soon ; ) ), but I have a good idea of what it will be like – that suit is going to be shredded by the end.
Movement Mores – the teacup example Egoscue lists isn’t alone. Every culture has its own rules of etiquette, that are typically linked to old necessities versus any real physical benefits. You wouldn’t put your elbows on the table because otherwise you’d tip it over! You don’t wear your hat when dining because it’s filthy dirty! Some of them,though, are simply, again, “posturing.” Sitting up straight at the dinner table might make you look “proper,” but it’s bad for your back! You need to shift positions frequently, especially if you’re locked into a chair all day! Further, many “civilized” people have admonitions about adults getting down on the floor or behaving in “childish” ways at all.

One of the things that amazes me about all of these rules is that they’re so energy/time consuming compared to their alternatives. If you didn’t have to sit in a chair, for instance, you wouldn’t have to buy one! And then no one would have to make one! There are plenty of cultures (even now) that don’t use chairs. More time for other things.

Food is no different. Refining foods takes a huge amount of energy and time, compared with preparing them in their natural state, or eating them raw. Fashionable (read “uncomfortable”) clothing also takes a lot of time to make compared with more comfortable and movement-friendly clothing. If you’ve read my blog, you already know how I feel about shoes! And, finally, restrictive movement mores actually require more energy in the long run than being free to move as needed. Does it take less energy to “sit up straight” at the dinner table for an hour, or to slouch a bit now and then?

But more than anything I’m surprised by how much our “civilized” ways act as detriments to our natural healthy state. It’s almost like civilization is an anti-health drug in some ways. Don’t get me wrong. I love the USA, I like going to the movies, I sit in chairs and eat in restaurants. But I also sit on the floor a lot, crawl on all fours, put my elbows on the table, and wear Vibram Fivefingers as much as possible.

Try something different this week – sit on the floor, roll around on your back and make “snow angels” in your carpet, put your elbows on the table at dinner, lift your elbow when you drink, eat unrefined/unprocessed foods, and wear something a little more comfortable. See how you feel.

Tag Archives: functional

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High Society = Dysfunction?