The first person I ever saw use the phrase “strength is a skill,” was Pavel Tsatsouline.  His method of “greasing the groove” – repeating a movement pattern (like a pullup, for instance) very frequently throughout the day, but with very low duration/repetitions – summarizes this idea, and has helped a lot of people achieve levels of strength they thought were impossible.

It struck me today, after my workout, that this is really true, but in a different way than I had understood before.

It seems like the type of strength you practice is a skill.  I mean, like a skill, strength is highly specific.

I’ve long been an admirer of Digby and Sale’s SAID Principle – Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand.  But I guess I never really felt it in my own training till today.

I started a weightlifting program about a month ago.  Specifically, DeFranco’s “Built Like a Badass” program (more on that later).  It had been a while since I’d done any regular, scheduled weightlifting.  My workouts for the past six months or so have been bodyweight stuff.

Today I was doing some heavy one-arm rows, and realized how different I felt versus the first week of the program.  It wasn’t just strength-gain/adaptation.  I felt accustomed to the whole thing – the movement pattern, the intensity, the stance, etc.  It was something I haven’t felt for a few years…since the last time I did one-arm rows on a regular basis.

I realized that that type of strength was a skill I had stopped practicing.

And I know that when I go back to bodyweight movements, there will be a (re-)learning curve there as well.

Seems like Pavel, Digby, Sales, and everyone else who said it was right…strength is a highly specific skill.