what's up guys jeff cavaliere
athleanx.com so today we're going to
talk about strength as we always do here
putting the science back in strength as
a matter of fact in this case dendrology
you know the science of trees I just
looked it up on Google five minutes ago
in fact those guys I'm actually gonna
teach you to become tree experts and
you're gonna start here with by looking
at a couple pictures all right tell me
which of these two trees is stronger is
it the first tree or the second tree I'm
gonna give you a minute here because
this one's a little tough is it tree a
or tree B which tree is stronger all
right guys here's the thing I actually
kind of tricked you because you really
can't give me an answer because you
can't comment on the strength of the
tree unless you know its root system
because the real strength of the tree is
the strength of the root system I could
take that big giant tree and have it
lying on the ground real fast if I cut
all the roots beneath it and the same
thing happens here when we talk about
strength a lot of people will have you
focusing on the size of the tree without
really ever focusing on what really
matters and that is the root system what
is underneath it what is the real pillar
holding everything else up because when
you look at this which is a kind of a
demonstration of what people like to
depict when they talk about training and
strength and that is you look at
strength here at the bottom it's the
biggest most important most critical
area of this pyramid holding everything
else up with everything else built off
of it and now look as a strength coach I
will tell you that strength is a really
important component of all of your
abilities I mean we can argue for all of
these right we know that hypertrophy is
something that could benefit from
strength the stronger you are so one of
the easiest ways to build muscle
especially early on in your training is
to build your strength we know that
strength gains will precede size games
so we know that we actually know a
little bit more now that eccentric
stress and metabolic stress there are
other ways that we can actually do this
without having to necessarily be so
strong but we know that it's one of the
fastest ways to get there progressively
overloading more weight to the bar or
the dumbbells when you lift them we know
power and something that will benefit
from being stronger because it's not
just about the application of
acceleration in
- the movement that you're doing but
it's also dependent upon how much force
you can generate so we know that being
stronger here is going to benefit your
power likewise as we get become more
specialized here speed agility quickness
all of those athletic skills are
improved with strength if I have to cut
to move in a direction quickly or if I
have to accelerate off of the line
quickly a lot of us can be impacted by
my ability to generate force through my
legs into the ground to do so so we know
that the stronger my legs are the better
this is going to be and then again we
get all the way at the top here with
this really specialized skill work like
let's say hitting a baseball we all
can't just hit a baseball but we know
that if we're stronger we can hit one
further or for kicking a football for a
living we know we can kick it further
and harder if we have more strength but
the problem is this this while being so
critical is not the root system because
if I could do something to this to
negatively impact it then I haven't
gotten to the true roots and what we
need to do is I need to get you guys
there to the roots because that's where
your long-term gains are gonna lie your
ability to realize your true strength
and all the things are built off of it
are going to depend upon you uncovering
the real root system that's undercutting
what you're doing right now because it
does often and people are going to say
right off the bat I'm looking at this
list mobility flexibility stability
there goes Jeff again being the PT right
he can't stop me in the PT no I can't
guys because I realize just how
important it is to the full picture I
realized as a strength coach that this
matters and the sooner you realize this
the less likely you are to get hurt
along the way to trying to build your
big tree and grow your tree so everyone
could be impressed with how big your
tree is and the more likely you are to
actually do it without having to have
but maybe even to realize true strength
capacity as we talked about many times
before not built on a crash foundation
so why does this matter more why is this
why is it supporting strength all you
got to do is look at them first of all
mobility and flexibility they kind of go
together but they're slightly different
right for those that don't really know
flexibility is really about
your muscles to lengthen across of a
joint so we know that when muscles are
tight you really can't experience true
range of motion or full range of motion
because of the tightness of those
muscles likewise mobility is really more
talking about the quality of the joint
and how much of the available range of
motion your body can experience or go
through depending upon the integrity of
that joint or even the structures around
it right but they're both going to
impact your range of motion so we know
one of the real easy ways to determine
this is if you have limited range of
motion from a length tension
relationship standpoint you can't even
really experience the full strength
capacity on a lift
like if I'm quarter squatting guys I'm
never actually loading my quads up with
my glutes up at the bottom of the lift
or as I approach parallel I'm not
getting far enough
but it's even more important than that
and I want you guys to actually try this
with me when we know that we can
influence muscle activation capabilities
by impairing one's joint motion via
either flexibility and parameter or
limitations and mobility right so if I
said stand up turn your feet out and
then squeeze your glutes as hard as you
can you should feel your glutes tighten
a lot right now relax take your toes and
just point them in a little bit and now
try that again
what happen you can't tighten your
glutes nearly as much you can't generate
as much force in tension through your
glutes as you did just five seconds ago
now nothing changed the strength and
your glutes didn't change you didn't get
week five seconds later what happened is
the available range of motion at the
joint changed the joint positioning
changed and we know that joint
positioning influences muscle activation
capabilities and force generating
capabilities this is a microcosm of what
happens if you don't focus on maximizing
the available mobility and flexibility
at the joints involved and let's say a
squat now I'm not saying your toes are
pointed in I'm saying that that's a
representation that altered mechanics at
a joint in the hip are going to
influence the output of the glutes it
matters I just took your strength and I
cut it out from underneath you it wasn't
the root system it was the tree but it
wasn't the roots these are the roots but
before you
what I think you might do lava said well
that I know but Jeff that's why I go in
I foam roll and I and I and I put it
lacrosse ball on my ass for 45 minutes
before every workout which I got talked
about before guys to waste the time you
don't need all that a little bit more
specific is good but the fact is that's
not going to actually fix your problem
either because what happens there is you
add more range of motion to a system
that's lacking the most important thing
and that is stability you're probably
thinking well what is what is stability
isn't that strength stability is
different than strength guys stability
is that is its ability is actually
something you can feel if you are let's
keep it going with the example of the
squat if you are at the bottom of the
squat it's how well you can maintain
proper body positioning at the body
that's bottle squat without compensation
it's that unwavering of the knees
because those tendencies of the needs to
sort of cave in or the hip to sort of
give in on one side versus the other or
we talked about before there's D
segmentation and the body as you come up
from the bottom of a squat right the
back comes first
the hips come up it looks ugly it's
actually visible to those that watch you
we can see a lack of stability but you
can feel a lack of stability so what you
need to do is you need to figure out
ways that you can build stability as
your base and one of the best ways to do
it with the squat is with an
incorporation of a pause at the bottom
command your reps get to the bottom of
the squat and command it hold it
establish that you have control at the
bottom of the squat and then when you do
come up as one solid unit if you break
down d-segment eyes if that's a word
those segments start to break down the
hips come first the back lurches fourth
you do not have proper strength I don't
care what you say I don't care how big
your tree is you don't have good
strength you have faulty strength built
on a weak foundation you need to be able
to come up I've used this tip before
guys I call the best squat tip ever I
believe is what we call the video you
need to be able to move as one unit your
chest and your hips your pelvis and your
chest must move up together and if you
want to see an example of that here's a
great video for you to watch do you look
like this guy because if you don't you
should aspire to right this is barb
this bar path is staying directly over
mid-foot another concept we've talked
about here and why it's so important not
necessarily because we're looking to
draw lines on a video but because we're
looking for that stability we're looking
for that command of the body under load
in all circumstances because when you
build your strength upon a stable
foundation now you can start to realize
some real impressive strength and that
strength can be funneled upwards to
improve all of these elements as well
there's just way too many guys now
focused on this and I guess the
demonstration of this at the expense of
this because this is the stuff that
nobody wants to talk about because a lot
of times guys that call themselves
coaches or wannabe coaches want to look
above the surface they refuse to look
down below so this pyramid really should
look more like an iceberg if you want to
do this properly guys the iceberg sits
below the surface but this is the stuff
you need to focus on because these are
the roots
I can cut these roots and that would
impair everything else above it if I go
if I went after any of these and I
impaired them everything above this is
going to be impacted we want to build
strength from the roots up and I hope
you guys are now aware of that and we'll
start corporative that into your
training if you're looking for programs
guys that do it we don't overlook any of
this stuff because it matters as I said
all of our programs and athlean-x are
designed to do just that in the meantime
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soon
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you