To Oly or Not To Oly Part 1

The magic is in the movement, the art is in the programming, the science is in the explanation, and the fun is in the community.

Before I dive into olympic lifting itself let's take this first part to help define strength training

In our world strength is king. To heighten ones strength means to heighten ones confidence, abilities and resistance to injury. In short, strength is proportionately correlated with quality of life. In today’s world however true strength is severely misunderstood by the public and thus true strength training is a diluted topic with some of the oldest and most effective methods going untouched. Strength training is essentially the coaching of precise and efficient movement patterns, sensory overload under extreme muscular demands resulting in maximum force production. Although we have our biases, programming is never about the exercises themselves; it’s about the outcome. In order to even begin to dive into programming the clients purpose must be established first, and then the program follows. A program may be a rudimental and uninteresting as it needs to be but must be efficient and effective towards the purpose. Define a purpose for yourself then the program follows.




Dan Russell Tampa, FL owning 321 lbs



As broad a brush as strength methodology may be, the definition of strength is precise and can be quantified. Due to the bad ass nature of the neuromuscular system, the method in which we achieve maximum force production is virtually irrelevant….yes….irrelevant. Nearly any stimulus that provides overload to the NM system will essentially trigger strength adaptations (max power, sensory overload, muscle definition, max force production) but that is where our profession begins. Through the last century traditional strength training has become a panoramic scope of concepts spawning hundreds of experts in individual sectors. Maximum strength can be achieved in a variety of ways. Athletic performance for example is a very popular and fairly new sector of the strength training industry; roughly 30 yrs old. Although athletic performance doesn’t necessarily focus on maximal strength but maximal power in many planes of motion. Although they may seem similar there are clear differences. Movements you would see in traditional strength training such as the squat are crucial to athletic development, however a traditional strength block lacks critical components of sport such as power which is the rate of force produced by an athlete. Force production is important in almost any arena but an athlete’s ability to absorb force and the rate at which the force is returned is what gives the athlete an edge.

Keep this in mind as Part 2 or 3 is coming later this week! Enjoy and please post your comments