Functional Training E-Book

Ross Young

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Functional Training: Build, Connect, Perform aims to provide a framework that can be used by anyone who wants to develop an athletic physique and perform better in their chosen sporting activity. It provides a varied programme that aims to reduce injuries in competition whilst maximizing all-round athleticism and continued progression. Tried and tested with athletes around Europe, the ideas in this book offer a solid foundation which will keep your performance gains developing for years and help you develop programmes to suit your body type, experience and athletic development needs. This book covers: building a foundation of strength, connecting the strength to be a functional athlete and performing without the risk of over-training. An instructional guide to help you develop an athletic physique and perform better in your chosen sporting activity, it is fully illustrated with 200 colour photographs and 20 diagrams and tables, and contains a Foreword by Richard Attwood.

Leseprobe

FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

BUILD • CONNECT • PERFORM

ROSS YOUNG MSc

First published in 2019 by The Crowood Press Ltd Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2019

© Ross Young 2019

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 580 0

Dedication This book is dedicated to my amazing wife and kids who believe in and inspire me to be better today than yesterday; to Eileen and Pam, incredibly important women in my life, loving and supportive, taken too soon; and finally to anyone who was told ‘you’ll never amount to much’ … prove to yourself, you can.

CONTENTS

1Principles and Foundations

2Human Movement

3Functional Programming Variables

4Knowing your Type

5Programming Considerations – Strength, Size and Power Schemes

6Exercise Programmes

7Functional Exercises

8Post-Workout

9Training Plans

Appendix I Templates

Appendix II Rep Max vs percentage Calculator

Appendix III PPO for Exercises in Power

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

CHAPTER 1

PRINCIPLES AND FOUNDATIONS

What Do we Mean by ‘Functional’?

To be functional is to be useful, to have purpose, to be well designed. How applicable is the solution to the challenge in front? This does not necessarily mean does this replicate, mirror or tick every box of the criteria, so much as does the solution provide enough to make an improvement or performance enhancement to a situation?

An alternative definition of function may be more applicable to human performance and is defined as ‘an activity that is natural to or the purpose of a person or thing’. Therefore being functional could be seen as having a special activity, purpose, or task, i.e. a functional role.

Function could therefore be described in terms of training and movement as the performance of activities to purposefully enhance the natural movement ability of the person in order for their movement expression in competition to be improved.

How is functionality measured? We critique. We identify specific items of the action, process and/or performance, to identify the most important components. In the workplace or business world this may be in the form of targets sometimes referred to as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which again break down the role of the person or team and the performance of that unit. In any case, they are checklists, specific figures or targets that need to be met in order for a performance increase to occur.

In sport and fitness, we will also identify areas key to success within a given challenge. Within team sports we ask questions such as have the athletes added to the overall performance of the team, the competition? Have the athletes been a useful asset? Were their performances purposeful or wasted?

Was their game plan well designed? These types of questions are being asked of the athletes periodically. They are often answered through performance indicators. For example, did the athlete get bigger, faster and/ or stronger? We can quantify these with changes in body weight, specific speed over a set distance comparison, or via endurance or strength testing protocols for comparison of the result pre and post training or competition.

In the field of performance enhancement, the coach must be critical of him or herself in the same way, and especially critical about their chosen methods, or philosophy. The coach’s role is to enhance performance on the field, court or pitch. Therefore the training schedule must be useful to the athletes, it must have a purpose, a reason for performing and not be there to fill time in the daily schedule. This all culminates in is it well designed? Does it do what is required (or more than) for the athlete to perform at the optimal level for the individual?

Often coaches can get sidetracked by new ideas or buzz words and lose themselves. After years of interacting with many sports coaches, trainers and professionals, it is overwhelmingly obvious that the simple basics work fantastically well and will always work. There are no short cuts that last.

These ideas and buzzwords have been used within the fitness world to enhance the appeal of a trainer’s methods and or philosophies. Throughout the past twenty-five years a number of these buzz words have come and gone as the thing to be seen to be advocating at any one time; they include core stability, instability training, tabata intervals, sport-specific, threshold, fartlek and non-specific fitness. The phrase ‘functional training’ seems to have been hovering for a long time, waiting for its chance in the spotlight though not really enjoying as much time spent in understanding it as other methods. This is likely the reason why many athletes, coaches and parents have possibly mislabelled functional training, or been misinformed as to what it really means, and have followed the route of sport-specific training, often too early in an athlete’s career.

Sport-specific training encompasses repetition of the main movements within the sport. Take the sport of rowing, for example. Traditional training views are that the athlete must become more efficient at the movement sequence of rowing, and the way to do that is repetition. I have personally seen hundreds of athletes being ‘educated’ by their coaches post-race that the way to get the first place is by doing more miles than the winners, and that they will be upping their training on the water and on the rowing ergometer. In that view the rower who at the point of competition has performed the most strokes should in theory win. However, this is not necessarily the case. To illustrate this, Helen Glover became a world silver medallist just three years after taking up the sport of rowing following a talent identification programme in the UK.

It is this misguided view that could also be damaging the next generation of athletes. As the information on training is becoming ever more readily available through the internet, parents and coaches are finding increasing numbers of supporters of sport-specific training, who are pushing this idea onto other coaches and athletes in the hope that getting the ‘10,000 hours’ practice required to become a master of a skill or sport will produce the next sporting superstar. This focus on a single sport from a young age, which in the industry is called early specialization, often leads to the early drop out of the sport by those who don’t make the grade quick enough.

Functional training is arguably the reverse of sport-specific training. It generalizes across sports and identifies common themes of movement in relation to orientation, loading and the true muscle action. These components take us a step closer to understanding the term functional training.

Looking at movements and applying what you know about those movements to an athlete in his or her discipline allows you to use a less restrictive training approach. Typical actions you see in land sports involve sprinting, jumping, rotational striking and moving from side to side. So surely we can identify that training movements to enhance these general sport actions can enhance a player’s performance. To improve a rugby centre’s speed over the first 10m will be similar to improving a high jumper’s speed during the approach and similar to a soccer goalkeeper getting off his line to a through ball. The end result may be different but the methods to achieve the desired outcome are comparable.

Functional training therefore looks to enhance primarily the sport’s general skills rather than performing only specific exercises to enhance a specific sporting action. That is not to say sport-specific drills and actions are excluded but a holistic movement approach is taken that should allow sport-specific movements under its umbrella.

The Mechanical Gym Problem

By looking at how we play sports we can identify weaknesses within modern gym technologies and why some training tools are more beneficial to the functional athlete’s training programme.

With a few exceptions, the following statements are true for many sports:

•Sports are played in upright positions on your feet, though the amount of time that both the athlete’s feet are in contact with the ground is low

•Sporting environments are dynamic; there are forces outside of the athlete’s control that will influence performance and movement

•Sporting movements encompass the whole body in motion.

Most modern gyms in our towns and cities are now well equipped with machines for every muscle group; most of these machines allow for simple understanding of the cause and effect nature of training. Look at the pec deck or chest press. This machine will help you build a bigger chest because the muscles used in the action are the pectorals. No doubt the constant pounding of the machine will give you a bigger chest, as performing endless leg extensions will give you bulging quadriceps, and preacher curls provide you with T-shirt-gripping biceps. But answer this, in modern popular sport, where has the biggest bench been the difference in winning and losing a rugby, soccer or hockey match? Or where has having the highest numbers on the leg extension given a tennis player an ability to place a drop shot?

The answer: they haven’t. Where the exercise involves sitting or lying and moving a single joint in isolation there is little function and the exercise is placed low on the functional continuum.

If the exercises we perform are within the remit of a sport’s general action, then we can more effectively train a useful component of the athlete’s game. Therefore, the more functional exercises we can incorporate into our training the better results we will have. Not only that, but the better our time will be spent. Exercises that challenge not only our relative strength, but our coordination and balance will have a greater benefit to the dynamic component of sport.

From the above observations, functional training will consist of exercises performed in an upright position, normally with feet in contact with the ground. They will add external stressors to the athlete to challenge stability and body control and will encompass whole body movements and sub-actions thereof. And they will naturally progress onto single leg variations that will be useful when performing in sports.

There are exceptions to the basic rules and when it is necessary we will address this. All exercises should have a purpose, and those that won’t don’t need to be in your programme and will not be in this book. That said, this is not an exhaustive text on what exercises are functional, but it will help to guide your decision-making as to whether it is useful to include the exercise that the excitable trainer at your gym may have recommended.

Functional training incorporates basic human movement patterns such as squatting, lunging and upper body pushing and pulling, in multiple planes of movement, and also bracing and rotating while in multiple positions. Functional athletes have the ability to control their own bodies; to master this ability is coveted highly by the functional training community and is desirable for continued injury resistance. An intelligent, functional athlete who is significantly better in one movement pattern will take action to balance the other patterns accordingly.

Keep in mind that functional training is the training of movement rather than specific muscle groups. Some hypertrophy may be functional but aesthetic hypertrophy tends not to be. Excessive strength in one area will typically lead to a less balanced movement profile, which may lead to injuries later on.

If having big bench scores is your thing, great! Try powerlifting; those guys show incredible feats of strength. Most people cannot even come close to competing with the numbers powerlifters rack up. On the flip side, how many powerlifters can perform multi-direction sprints for half an hour at a time?

In anatomy lectures around the world, people have been taught the origins, insertions and actions an individual muscle creates when that muscle, in isolation is contracted. Many people are told daily a specific weakness exists within a specific muscle or generalized group, for example weak rotator cuff muscles, and that there is a need to train that specific muscle to provide injury resilience. They are told this by well-respected and educated professionals such as physical therapists who have performed isolation tests to identify which of the rotators are the culprits, with complete disregard of what is happening in the immediate vicinity and further afield to the muscle. It has been seen in many cases that those with rotator cuff injuries strengthen the tested and identified weak muscle yet do not gain the stability they are looking for within their sporting situation. This may be because the strengthening has allowed for a better test result to be achieved in a specific range of motion or against a specific type of force but is not necessarily of benefit to a fully functional sporting action that doesn’t fall within the rotator cuff test procedure.

Physical therapists are extremely knowledgeable about some aspects of the body; however there are those who stick within the rigid framework of their teachings and fail to embrace the knowledge of other areas and professions. Some are extremely well-placed to work within athletic environments and hopefully more crossover of knowledge can occur to show different ways of achieving a goal and move away from the limitation tests that were conceived at the advent of modern physical therapy in the 1920s.

Educators in the strength and conditioning field have started to shift away from thinking in terms of single muscle actions and are now getting to grips with the kinetic chains of movement. A number of perspectives have been given on ‘kinetic chains, slings or Anatomy trains’. They all relate to the concept that you need to look at the whole system rather than the isolated muscle to understand movement further. This understands that groups of joints and muscles work in unison to provide our movements, and that without a coordinated effort movement is always going to be lacking.

Muscles also do not act in only one type of contraction. They work across a spectrum of contraction types, and this is regulated by the need for the action to be accelerated, decelerated, mobilized or stabilized at a given point in time. Take a standard jump from a quarter squat as a starting point. The quadriceps, gluteals and calf musculature work concentrically to accelerate the athlete in a triple extension pattern of the hip, knee and ankle, respectively. This is not really different to what the traditional anatomy lecturers would tell you. However, when the inevitable occurs and the athlete descends to the ground because of gravity, the ankle, knee and hip will flex to absorb the forces.

However, what controls the movement and prevents the athlete collapsing into a heap? It is not the concentric contraction of the hamstring, hip flexors or tibialis anterior, it is the eccentric action of the muscles that caused the action, glutes, quads and calves. In addition, during the acceleration phase of the jump, the hamstring, hip flexors and tibialis anterior are not having a free ride. They are controlling the forces exerted by the quadriceps, gluteals and calf group by also working eccentrically, preventing the concentrically contracting muscles from producing too much force and causing injury to other structures through hyper-extension of the hips, knee or ankle.

By contracting in this way they provide stability, control and proprioceptive depth perception. Although a simple idea, by understanding that this is the case in most movements the body can make, we can start to understand that the musculature of the legs has a more important role than to contract and produce an agonistic movement and affects movement control further along the chain. By understanding this concept functional movement science becomes easily applicable in training a whole host of athletic disciplines.

By improving the function of the muscles when the athlete is in a standing position the muscular patterns and nervous stimulation become ingrained and the patterns improve; by isolating the muscles in machines the proprioceptive stimulus and the coordination of the multiple muscles involved in the action are lost. Thus the activity is not functional and therefore is not purposeful, so the benefits to performance are limited. They are limited because there will still be a performance stimulus; however the holistic approach of a functional programme gives you much more out for the effort you put in.

The aim of the programme outlined within this text is to create a strong, dynamic athlete that can perform in his or her sporting arena. In order to do that the programme must build strength where required that is specific enough to the sporting arena you are competing within but generalized enough to be useful in multiple scenarios. It must build the connection between the strength gained, the application of force and the movements we should be able to perform within the boundaries of human movement. These components are required in order to build the performance we are looking to achieve. At each step of building your individualized programme you should be able to identify which area you are looking to improve in order to affect your performance by the way in which the exercise is loaded, performed or the nature of the exercise (e.g. a mobility drill is designed to help your body achieve a better functioning range which maintains stability, therefore connecting the strength with the performance).

The book aims to arm you with the tools to identify your weaknesses, and address them, through building strength, functional hypertrophy, or corrective exercise using many different components including using both free weight- and body weight-orientated work, developing into sporting positions that will compromise the athlete’s stability and cause a need for a reactive component of controlling the position, including single leg exercises. It is written to educate those who want to train in a way that has purpose to sport, whether new to the training game or having a little experience, but see so much conflicting advice. The advice produced here is the same advice athletes will receive throughout their training with me. There are no secret movements or protocols in functional training, just applying the ideas of what it means to produce functional movement within the training plans.

We always aim to move our athletes towards a level of strength and size that is useful to their sport but also to them as functioning humans. We aim to develop the ability to transfer this strength and produce powerful movements that when performed on the field of play allows athletes to perform to the best of their abilities. We use a slightly different approach to the traditionalists, but are not deviating just to be out there in our programming. It just makes sense to us to work in the way we do; it works for us and our athletes and can work for you.

CHAPTER 2

HUMAN MOVEMENT

The Human Structures

The body is made up of areas that are flexible and others that add stability. This is seen in the traditional teachings of the muscles with mover and stabilizer musculature. This idea is often missed within the joint structures of the body. There are some joints that are designed to provide a large range of movement and some to provide limited movement. Without the mobile joints such as the ball and sockets seen at the shoulder and hip, many human movements wouldn’t be possible. Yet these structures need to be stable in their relationship to the body in order to perform in the way in which they are asked.

These areas of mobility and stability are alternating throughout the major areas of the body, as shown in Fig. 2.1.

Fig. 2.1 The human skeletal system. Areas in red are areas of mobility, while areas in blue provide stability, with less joint movement range. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

As a general rule these sites alternate between the role of mobility and stability.

As you can see, the ankle starts as a mobility site. It is necessary for human function as an upright mammal. It allows us to move and adjust across uneven terrain, adds to extension activities such as walking and jumping, and provides a strong attachment for the lower limb musculature.

The ankle allows for around 50 degrees of plantar flexion, where the anterior angle of the foot is increased such as when tiptoeing; 15–20 degrees of dorsiflexion, where the anterior angle of the foot is reduced; 20–30 degrees of inversion, where the ankle and foot is turned inwards so that weight bearing moves to the outside of the foot, such as in a common ankle sprain; and 5–15 degrees of eversion, where the weight is moved towards the inside edge of the foot.

Fig. 2.2 The ankle and foot. (Photo: Nino Liverani/ Unsplash)

This brief outline of the movements at the ankle highlight its ability to be a very mobile joint and thus an important one. Without its versatility it would not be as useful in its role of balancing and righting the body. This joint comes under the mobility category of joints.

Fig. 2.3 The knee. (Image: Shutterstock)

The knee is interwoven with connective tissues; ligaments, the patella tendon and associated structures, masses of musculature origins and insertion points. It is built and designed to work in primarily one plane: the sagittal. This provides a stable structure above the mobile ankle structure and can be a scapegoat for the hip and ankle if there are issues at those points.

Fig. 2.4 The hip joint. (Image: Adobe Stock)

Moving upwards into the hip joint, this is classified as a ball and socket joint. With appropriately balanced training this joint can provide a great deal of movement and be strong in those movements; however a lax joint without the strength to keep it in check will provide problems at some stage.

An overview of the possible range of motion at the hip demonstrates its versatility and primary role as a mobility zone; <130 degree hip flexion, <30 degree hip extension, <35 degree hip abduction, <30 degrees of hip adduction and <45 and <50 degrees of internal and external rotation respectively. This highly mobile joint is categorized as a mobility joint despite its large bony architecture, strong ligament and the connection of the largest muscles in the body.

The next area of interest is the spine. The lumbar region is an area in which many people suffer with pain at some point in their lives. For some reason, many people sit and move from their lumbar spine, causing the lumbar region to be in a curved under position opposite to its standard position more often than it should. The L spine is one of the most frequently injured areas in sporting and non-sporting populations alike. Part of the issue is that people believe that their L spine can move more freely or be released by stretching past the extension and rotation that feels hindered. This is potentially dangerous, and I will show you why. What many do not realize is that this constant pressure on the lumbar spine overstretches the muscles that are trying to keep the spine straight and neutral. Allowing this curvature to occur places the cartilage discs under considerable pressure and often results in the disc ‘slipping’ or bulging, putting unwanted pressure on the spinal cord.

Fig. 2.5 The spine. (Image: Pixabay)

This is not the only negligence we show towards this structure. The spinal column also works within the three axes of movement. Slipping discs can occur in excessive forwards OR backward rotation of a vertebrae; however the second common movement issue is rotating around the longitudinal axis. The individual vertebrae in the lumbar region are designed to make less than or equal to a 2 degree rotation away from neutral spine, either way. Compare this to its neighbouring region, the thoracic spine, which is considerably more mobile with up to 9 degrees of rotation available at each joint. These figures combined with the number of vertebrae give the total possible rotation available in each region as follows:

•Lumbar spine: five vertebrae, 2 degrees rotation at each, totalling 10 degrees of rotation available for the whole lumbar region.

•Thoracic spine: twelve vertebrae, each with 9 degrees of rotation, total rotation movement possible, 108 degrees.

Table 2.1 The language used in defining movement.

LanguageActivity

•Knee-dominant activities – squatting

•Squat

•Hip-dominant activities such as

•Lunge

Romanian Deadlift (RDLs) – hip hinge

•Hip hinge

•(Horizontal) pushing and pulling

•Push-pull

•Vertical pressing

•Rotate

•Torso rotation

•Brace

•Braced core

•May also include static stand and gait (run/walk)

Fig. 2.6 The shoulder girdle. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

The next zone of interest is the scapula, which structurally is an irregular bone. Some bony structures are designed specifically for mechanical advantage; the kneecap is one and the scapula or shoulder blade is another. The scapula provides a large connective area onto which muscles attach. It has muscles whose purpose is to maintain its orientation and relationship with the ribs, thus providing stability; however, the mechanical advantage of the scapula comes when it is required to be in an elevated and rotated position to allow for the stability of movements involving the arms above shoulder height or orientation. Thus it is also a zone of mobility, depending on the needs of the movement.

The importance and complicated nature of the scapula’s role is highlighted by the fact that it is unusual to have humeral movement (upper arm) without scapula involvement. During shoulder flexion, where the humerus is flexed above shoulder level, the scapula is in an elevated, abducted and upwardly rotated position. With gleno-humeral abduction above shoulder level the scapula is elevated with upward rotation. Adduction (retraction) of the humerus results in downward rotation, and a depression of the scapula; the same is included in humeral extension but also includes scapula adduction.

Horizontal adduction and internal rotation lead to the abduction of the scapula and also during external rotation and horizontal abduction. These roles will be important to consider when thinking about the basic human movement patterns and the preparation of movements.

With all this movement it would be easy to group the scapula into the mobility group; however the number of insertions of many muscles as mentioned previously shows it plays a role in the stability of this zone as well. This means it has a joint classification of mobility/stability.

As discussed above, the scapula works closely with the movements of the humerus. The humerus connects to the scapula at the glenoid fossa and completes the shoulder girdle with the clavicle. The junction for the humerus and scapular interaction is known as the gleno-humeral joint. This again is a ball and socket-type joint, which, as with the hip, is designed for a large range of movement (mobility joint). Again, with this large movement capacity there is a trade off with being prone to injury and impingements of tissues in and around the shoulder capsule. This joint is highly mobile due to the bone structures; it is also highly susceptible to injury due to the stability of the joint primarily coming from connective tissues.

The Basic Human Movements

An increasing number of respected leaders in human movement have opened up the fitness world to the idea of basic human movements, a series of actions the body can and should be able to produce without limitations of age or gender. These actions in today’s world can be lost as we are not the organisms we once were. Different authors and leaders in movement have labelled the movements in different ways but group the actions similarly.

Differences in Approaches to Grouping Exercises

Different people describe the same action in different ways. Their experiences lead them to develop their own vocabulary to explain to their athletes in a way in which they are comfortable. By using different words and definitions, movements can fall under different categories depending on how the grouping word is used and is defined.

In some venues they may use squatting, lunging and hip hinging, in another, kneedominant and hip-dominant patterns. Squats, lunges and hip hinges such as deadlift all fall under the knee- or hip-dominant labels but may mean the programme designed will look very different.

The basic differences between squatting and lunging are the stationary stance in squatting moves versus lunges involving a directional component. The squatting movement is quad-dominant, the lunges can vary as to which muscle receives the most stimuli according to the direction of the lunge. The hip hinge action requires the force to be produced by using the musculature around the hip to cause an extension of the hip from a hip-flexed position.

The difference between knee- and hipdominant exercises can be seen by the angles of the main sections of the body, and Mike Robertson, a prominent practitioner in functional training in the USA, uses the following grouping method:

A vertical torso with an angled tibia defines a quad- (knee-) dominant pattern; this includes exercises within the squatting pattern.

Whereas an angled torso with a vertical tibia defines the hip-dominant pattern including the hip hinging patterns such as deadlifts and kettlebell swings.

Unfortunately this causes some confusion as to where a lunge should be placed, as a lunge has a vertical torso and a vertical tibia. This leads to a lunge variation grouping or the breaking of one of the rules to allow the lunge exercise to be included in either.

Hence you must choose one definition or the other; I group the exercise depending on whether the knee- or hip-dominant muscle group dictates the lunging movement. Lunges cross many boundaries and the purpose of that action will determine which group it is included in at any point in time. Thus, if we are looking to gain leg strength and load a lunge heavily, the quadriceps would be loaded and this would allow for the lunge to be placed under the knee-dominant group. However, we may use a split jump in which the torso is allowed to angle forwards to add in a stretch reflex of the posterior chain, yet the rearmost tibia is vertical and thus the application would allow this into the hip-dominant group.

Push and Pulls

Some grouping of push and pull movements also have differences between them. Some include both the vertical and horizontal axes of both pushing and pulling, others will separate and not complete a vertical push and horizontal push in the same workout. Others deem it suitable to do so, the same with vertical pulls and horizontal pulls.

Within the functional training system we allow for inclusion of both vertical and horizontal axes because of the way in which we combine them within the phases of the programme to reduce the likelihood of overloading the pushing and pulling actions to the detriment of the athlete’s abilities. More on this later.

The Torso

A fully functioning torso requires it to be able to overcome a host of different challenges. It all starts with the ability to be strong within the neutral spine position.

The neutral spine is a position of strength that lies between a fully arched lumbar spine with an anteriorly rotated pelvis to a flattened arch and posteriorly rotated pelvis. By being in the middle there is always room for movement to buffer the forces should it be required, but also in this position the torso can produce and absorb forces in all three planes.

From the understanding of the neutral spine position we can then load the torso with problems to be repelled or overcome. Stuart McGill, the world famous ‘back expert’, stipulates that in order to train you should be able to achieve the following as minimum requirements.

•2min full plank hold

•2min back extension hold

•90sec side planks, each side

Initially look to get the athletes to be able to endure 120sec (2min) of a plank, and when they reach this level, focus on the intensity over a shorter period of time and the ability to create force rapidly.

If you cannot achieve this level, we suggest you add in the plank circuit to each warm-up session, aiming to beat the last time by five seconds with perfect technique. Once you have achieved these levels and can meet them whenever required, as mentioned previously we look at working on the intensity of the holds. We reduce the time to multiple ten-second holds with emphasis on generating as strong a contraction as possible, adding an extra repetition of the squeeze up to ten repetitions before dropping back to four with longer durations and building up again. This works really well with our athletes and allows steady progress in the athlete’s ability to produce a maximal contraction and more enduring efforts.

The next phase in building the torso is maintaining the neutral spine, creating a strong contraction and adding an upright posture to add a force coupling of the surrounding hip musculature. This means pairing up muscles diagonally opposite the joint, in this case the quads and the erector spinae couple to secure the hips and prevent posterior tilt while the hip flexors (psoas group) couple with the hamstrings to secure the hip and prevent anterior tilt.

Exercises to develop this phase include rollouts, glute raises and tall kneeling cable lifts.

The next focus is looking at the development of the ability to neutralize forces exerted on the torso, particularly with regards to preventing rotation distractions within the lumbar region. This is where the torso work becomes much more functional in that the strength gained here translates into useable force during performance.

Exercises to develop this phase are more functional in that they alter the stability of the torso. They are the one-arm military press, one-arm cable press, Pallof press and variations and BB rotation (overcoming the rotation).

The final piece of the functional torso jigsaw comes in how we now apply the force through the torso in sporting performance. Many sporting actions require the rotation of the torso in order to perform the technique; tennis, golf, hockey, lacrosse, and combat sports such as boxing, ju-jitsu or wrestling all have actions requiring force production in a rotation action. This is where we look at introducing our power-based movements for rotation such as medicine ball wall slams or throws.

By looking at the torso we have produced a sequence that follows the progressions of the functional training system. Firstly, we look to build strength and make this strength connected to the performance of an action, before excelling this action into a power-orientated movement useful in a performance. The torso is the only area in which we aim constantly to develop or maintain the highest part of the continuum. We do revisit the lower level strength skills to ensure basic technical proficiency, but we would combine these skills with power moves to keep up the performance ability and reduce likelihood of injury.

Bilateral or Unilateral, Two Sides or One – Which is Better?

Double leg exercises are characterized by solid foundations, large force production potential and even loading between each limb. They are great for increasing strength in specific movements; however they don’t connect this strength with improved performance in the field of play. Single leg exercises allow for greater gluteus medius activity as well as increasing the contribution from the stabilizer muscles around the hip. However, some bilateral exercises are seen as better at replicating some sport-specific performances, such as a two-footed take-off when spiking a ball in volleyball or a jump shot in basketball. Bilateral exercises reduce the loading of each limb but also single leg variations tend to be unable to perform 50 per cent loading of the double leg exercises. They also stress the proprioceptive mechanisms, which is a possible reasoning behind the less than 50 per cent loading figure.

COACHING BOX

•Try it for yourself. Stand up and change how your feet are in contact with the ground!

•Push your arches to collapse to the floor and see how the hips react. Now open up the arch.

So Why the Need to Move into Single Leg Stance Exercises?

It has been shown that by increasing the stability within the hip, the force production in knee and hip dominant activities can be increased without structured training. This is because the bilateral stable activity (which is low on the functional continuum) has a larger proportion of contribution by the prime mover of the exercise. At the other end of the spectrum, the lower stability in the single leg work reduces the contribution of the prime mover in favour of the stabilizers. In an example of leg press versus the (Bulgarian) split squat with the rear foot raised, the prime mover in the leg press is the quadriceps, and very little stability is required as the athlete is seated. With the split squat, however, the athlete is in a narrow base of support, which kicks in the stabilizers, yet the load that can be lifted is significantly less. This load, however, may be closer to that which can be experienced in competition.