What is strength? What is being strong? What make a person runs for hours? I am not talking about elite level or the like. This is about my normal life. Those questions, and more likely concepts to me, have been struggled in my mind for a while.
I have practiced kettlebell, "strength training", running. Jumped from one method to another. Tried different approach. And I still felt like I was not strong enough. My muscle hurts. Wanted to stop after 30 minutes of running. Obviously, I needed a coach or followed a proper training program. I have seen my friends joining running classes, clubs. They made good progress and then stagged or worse they started to show slowing down, signs of injuries. They do not seem to "move" well.
Why? I am not a big fan of putting more effort, training and building more "muscles" or making your system used to the soreness. I read somewhere and I agreed and "understood" the reason.
Did I?
No. I had not understood it. Having a strong muscle helps being a strong human. But, it is not all. It is a major part, not that major as well.
It is about.
How we move through space effectively; cover more distance with less energy and damage to the body.
How we lift heavy things without a "body builder" body look. And with less effort and can do it over and over again.
How we slide through the water when we swim effortlessly.
And so on ...
Now I understand StrongFirst's message: Strength is a skill. The skill of coordinating different parts of the moving. The skill of generating and channeling energy throughout the body to generate forces. The skill of stacking up body in alignment, correct by structure instead of depending on muscle, asking it to work too hard to keep body structure. Depending on the sport, the movement we are playing, different skills are required.
Spending 20% of time to train for skills will generate and improve 80% performance. Just keep hammering the road with milage will not help that much.
I have started to understand when I have practiced rope flow, "happy hip hack", back walking, and Skipping. My movement has improved tremendously both in Running, Swimming, even in Kettlebell swing. I am better at timing and rhyme my swing.
I started to believe what I have learned and put it to work. I have been reading those things for years, collecting dots. Finally, I started to connect some.
Interesting. I finally put my mind at peace when practicing them. I still remember a quite voice in the past "What the hell is this? it will lead nowhere." The voice is void.
I have practiced kettlebell, "strength training", running. Jumped from one method to another. Tried different approach. And I still felt like I was not strong enough. My muscle hurts. Wanted to stop after 30 minutes of running. Obviously, I needed a coach or followed a proper training program. I have seen my friends joining running classes, clubs. They made good progress and then stagged or worse they started to show slowing down, signs of injuries. They do not seem to "move" well.
Why? I am not a big fan of putting more effort, training and building more "muscles" or making your system used to the soreness. I read somewhere and I agreed and "understood" the reason.
Did I?
No. I had not understood it. Having a strong muscle helps being a strong human. But, it is not all. It is a major part, not that major as well.
It is about.
How we move through space effectively; cover more distance with less energy and damage to the body.
How we lift heavy things without a "body builder" body look. And with less effort and can do it over and over again.
How we slide through the water when we swim effortlessly.
And so on ...
Now I understand StrongFirst's message: Strength is a skill. The skill of coordinating different parts of the moving. The skill of generating and channeling energy throughout the body to generate forces. The skill of stacking up body in alignment, correct by structure instead of depending on muscle, asking it to work too hard to keep body structure. Depending on the sport, the movement we are playing, different skills are required.
Spending 20% of time to train for skills will generate and improve 80% performance. Just keep hammering the road with milage will not help that much.
I have started to understand when I have practiced rope flow, "happy hip hack", back walking, and Skipping. My movement has improved tremendously both in Running, Swimming, even in Kettlebell swing. I am better at timing and rhyme my swing.
I started to believe what I have learned and put it to work. I have been reading those things for years, collecting dots. Finally, I started to connect some.
Interesting. I finally put my mind at peace when practicing them. I still remember a quite voice in the past "What the hell is this? it will lead nowhere." The voice is void.