'This' Before 'That'

​In this episode, we explore a trend that seems to be coming back into fashion in the fitness industry (and a trap that you don't want to fall into!).

Episode Chapters:
​
0:11 
Fitness Trends and Overcomplication
1:39 
The Comeback of Sequential Training
3:54 
Why Is This Approach Popular?
8:30 
Practical Training Insights
13:30 
Simplifying Your Fitness Journey

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we're going to be talking about a bit of a recent trend I've been seeing in the fitness world, which is making a little bit of a comeback.

[0:12] And it's something that I definitely want you to keep your eyes open for, because it's one of these things that on the surface, it makes a lot of logical sense. On the surface, it sounds great, but in Onolenski, it's a little bit backwards and it ends up having a lot of people overcomplicate things, waste a lot of time, and really just lose out a lot of benefits from the time and effort they're investing.

[0:37] Now, fitness, like fashion, is cyclical, if that's the right word. In a sense, when it's fashion, things just always come in and out of fashion. If you wait long enough, things come back. A simple example of this is the old low-waisted jeans, which the kids are all wearing at the moment, which were in the high fashion many years ago and they're back in action now. And it's the same thing in the world of fitness. You see things after being in the industry for long enough, which every 10 years or so will just come back around and they'll just be reinvented, repopularized, and people start talking about a lot more. And what I've been seeing recently, and it's kind of making its way into the world of adventure a little bit more in the world of training for hiking, is the whole concept of you have to do this before you do that. Or you have to develop this quality of fitness before you do this, and then you do this. And there's this sequential order of things that you need to follow if you want to stay safe or if you want to see the best results.

[1:39] So a few, well, four really, really common examples that you will see if you keep your eyes open for. Number one, and this one's making a comeback, is the idea of mobility before strength training. So you'll see some coaches out there who are talking about their approach to training, and they will sort of say, okay, but when we first start working together.

[2:02] You will be doing all of this mobility work. You will develop the range of motion through these joints. You'll develop your flexibility, your mobility, your movement patterns. And then once you develop this, then you will start strength training and we'll strengthen everything up. Or a similar concept is the idea of stability before strength, where again, a coach will say, you know what, when we first start training, we're going to do all this stability work. We're going to build up the stabilizing muscles. We're going to build up supporting muscles. So therefore, when we introduce load and do heavy strength work, you're going to stay safer and be more effective.

[2:38] Or, you know, the big one of low intensity before higher intensity. And this is specifically talking about cardio. And you'll see people sort of say, look, as a hiker, as a mountaineer, whatever may be, you need to develop your aerobic energy system. You need to do all of this lower intensity cardio. And only once you're sufficiently developed, then can you introduce higher intensity training.

[3:02] Or the fourth and final one is a whole idea of strength before endurance. And this is looking at the difference between muscular strength and muscular endurance and they'll say look before we do any endurance training you need to build your muscular strength you need to do heavier stuff and there's no point in doing endurance work until you are developed with strength and people may go through this whole sequential cycle where they'll say first we'll do mobility then we'll do stability then we'll do strength then we'll do endurance and that's what a six-month plan will look like or whatever may be. But I will tell you right now, this stuff sounds good. This stuff sounds interesting. This stuff makes logical sense. But you don't need to overcomplicate your training like this.

[3:49] There is no set order of things that you need to develop. Yes, there are priorities. Yes, there are certain things you want to put more time and attention into. Yes, there are certain things that may get more benefits if you have a good baseline of other things but it's not black and white it's not like it's the end of the world and for most people.

[4:10] It's a bit of a waste of time if you're holding back from doing strength work before you develop all this stuff, or if you're holding back from doing something else before you develop this stuff. Now, you might be asking, before I even get into specific examples of this, you might be asking, okay, like, why is this popular? Why do coaches talk about this? Why am I seeing this personally more and more and more online again? And I think, like, I had a real think about it before I did this podcast. And I really do think it's like three different things, three potential things. And one of them I actually used to do, and I was told to do this through specific things in the.

[4:51] Number one, people really, really, really love to hear about specific training systems and specific training methodologies. And essentially what that means is instead of just going and saying, hey, I'm going to develop my muscle strength or I'm going to develop my this and this and this and just get ready, I am following this system. And when someone can talk about a training system, which first we'll do this, then we'll do this, then we'll do this, then we'll do this, it sounds really, really, really good. And it's a really good sales tool. When I was first starting Summit Strength, I used to do this because I was encouraged by a mentor to put together a specific system. And I used to call this the Summit Strength Method. And I still do, but it's a bit more of a broader context these days. And I literally used to do this. And I used to say, in phase one, we'll develop this and this and this. Then phase two, we'll develop this and this and this. And then phase three, we'll do this and this and this. And then phase four, you'll be right before your trip. And step by step by step, it'll kind of get there. So it definitely is a good presentation tool. It's a good sales tool. And I think this is a big reason why a lot of people do it.

[5:56] Number two, and this isn't quite as overt, but it definitely does happen. I think it kind of falls into like the whole salesy thing as well. A lot of people who are skilled in certain areas, they have particular skills which may be a little bit different from the norm in the fitness industry. One way they can highlight the need for their skills is to create a problem and then sell the solution. So you often see this on the mobility or stability side of things, mobility before strength or stability before strength. Every personal trainer, coach, whatever it may be, can present strength training. It's not unique. Obviously, the application of strength training, a little bit different, but it's not very unique. Not all coaches are very good at prescribing mobility and improving range of motion because it can be a tricky thing. So some coaches who are very interested in that, very invested in that area, very good in that area, they will.

[6:55] It's unsafe if you do certain exercises before you have this range of motion. So therefore, you should work with me or follow my ideas and my unique take, and therefore do that. You'll feel really good and then do this. And it's kind of a logical thing there. So we're kind of creating a problem, which sounds good, but is it really a problem? I don't know. And then finally, we also sort of see people chasing the whole idea of optimal training in the sense of like, I'm sure you've seen this online where people are trying to optimize their life and biohack their life and all of that. And optimization in training is a real thing as well. And there are definitely certain things in our training that we will get more benefits from if we have a foundation in other things. So what I mean by that is say, if you have a good foundation in aerobic fitness, and you've spent a long time developing lower intensity fitness, you will probably be able to push harder, recover better, and get more benefits out of interval training, higher intensity training. So if you're chasing the optimal, you'll sort of say, look, I don't want to waste my energy or time on my high intensity stuff until I'm perfect and have everything I want in my lower intensity stuff.

[8:03] And yeah, theoretically, if you're chasing optimal, yeah, cool. But practically, I don't know, it just doesn't make sense. Now, realistically, you know, for whatever reason people are doing this, and you'll see it more and more because it is definitely coming around, I personally don't believe this approach really makes much practical sense. Logically, it makes all the sense in the world. Practically, I think it's a bit backwards. Because realistically, when it comes down to your training, just know you can do anything.

[8:30] You can do any type of training at any stage of the year as long as you're smart about it yes there will be times where you want to emphasize certain things but that doesn't mean you only have to do a certain type of training and you should completely avoid another type of training yes there will be certain things we get more benefits from having a foundation other things that doesn't mean even if you'll get more benefits if you have a foundation that you won't get any benefits if you don't have such a big foundation.

[8:58] You just need to be smart about this type of stuff. It's not like you don't have to gatekeep exercise or gatekeep movements or whatever may be. So the example, let's talk through some specific examples here and things you'll often see. You know, the example of you have to develop mobility before you do strength. This is usually talked about in the context of like, we're trying to promote safety. We're trying to reduce the risk of injury and make sure you're doing exercises safely. And yes, There's no argument. If you have restricted mobility in certain areas, it will make certain exercises uncomfortable. For example, if you're doing squats, if you have really tight ankles and really tight hips, that can make it a little bit more likely for you to get knee pain or back pain. But that doesn't mean you cannot squat until you develop this mobility. You just need to adjust the exercise. If an exercise is uncomfortable for you, you don't have to skip it until you have mobility. You just need to find a variation that works for you. For example, the common problem is the barbell back squat. If you have restricted mobility in your ankles or your hips and you put a barbell on your back and you do a squat, it may well be uncomfortable.

[10:02] But you can still squat. You can adjust it. You can do instead of a barbell back squat, you could do a goblet squat where you hold a weight at your front. That automatically will change the dynamic of the movement, lets a lot of people through. Or you could do a heel elevated squat where you put your heels on something that a bit of a rise and that will make it much more comfortable. Or you can do a reduced range of motion. There's just different ways of adjusting exercises to find right for you. So the whole idea of having to spend four, five, six weeks mobilizing and developing flexibility before you actually start doing strength training. It's just a waste of time, in all honesty, because you could have been spent that time doing modified strength training while you were also doing mobility. It's not very difficult to do both.

[10:43] Or the other idea around stability before strength. This is usually talked about, hey, before we get into heavier strength training, we want to make sure we develop all the stabilizing muscles and this and that. People either frame this in a way of doing lots of really small exercises first, so doing things like clams and minivan walks and all of that before you start doing bigger exercises, or just doing a lot of bodyweight exercises before doing stuff. And yeah, again, if you have some muscles which are a little bit weaker, some of the smaller muscles are maybe a little bit weaker, or if you're just not used to doing certain movements of stability, it may hold you back a little bit with some strength exercises, but it's not the end of the world. Again, if an exercise feels uncomfortable, it's not like case you have to completely skip strength training and focus on stability in all these small exercises. You just want to adjust the exercise. So a common example of this is a lunge. Some people might say, okay, lunge, I do that. I'm wobbling all over the place. I'm really struggling. Maybe I get knee pain or whatever. And some people will phrase it saying, well, we got to step back and we got to work on your glute medias first. We got to work on your vastus medialis first. And only then can you go back to your lunges.

[11:51] But it's perfectly possible to adjust your lunge. You could, instead of doing a lunge where you're stepping, you could just do a split squat where you've got legs stayed in place and just go up and down. If that's a bit too much, you could do a supported split squat where you're holding onto a chair or a set of trekking poles. If that's too much, you could just change that to a step up. Same muscles, less stability.

[12:12] Simple enough. Or the other example, low before high, low intensity before high intensity. You know, it is true, absolutely, when we're talking about our cardio, that as a whole, too many hikers and too many people in the world of fitness just put so much emphasis on high intensity training and not enough emphasis on low intensity training. General population doesn't really matter, but as a hiker, that's pretty important because we want to develop our aerobic energy system, which is best developed through low intensity training. And it is absolutely true. So when you're looking at long-term training, if you're trying to do high-intensity intervals, you will probably get more benefits if you have a nice base of aerobic fitness because you'll recover better in between sets. So you can put more effort into the training. You'll probably recover after the sessions better, and it won't take as much out of you. You'll get more benefits. But does that mean that you cannot do higher-intensity training before weeks or months of lower intensity training? No. You absolutely can. If you're looking at a six-month program, some people will say you can only do high intensity in the last six to eight weeks as a hiker, but it's just not necessary. You can do it anytime you want, as long as you're planning out your week smart. As long as a hiker, you're doing the majority of your lower intensity hours as low intensity work, and a little bit of high intensity, that's fine. It doesn't matter. It's all good.

[13:30] Realistically, when it comes to this type of thing, it makes a lot of logical sense. You can explain it really well. You can package it really well. You can present it really well. But in all honesty, fitness doesn't have to be that complicated. We don't have to gatekeep certain exercises. We don't have to gatekeep certain types of training. We don't have to gatekeep this before that. I don't think it really makes sense. Yes, have a logical progression to your training. Yes, start easy, build up over time, make it harder as everything develops.

[14:00] But don't wait weeks or months before doing strength training. Don't wait weeks or months before doing endurance. Don't wait weeks or months before doing any type of higher intensity because it's just not needed. I guarantee you, you're going to see more and more of this in the next probably year or two. And then it's going to dip off again because fitness just goes around and around and around in circles. It's something I've noticed recently. I'm sure you'll start to notice it as well. So if you do see it, hopefully it gives you a little bit more context and hopefully it'll help you out. So with that being said, I'm going to wrap things up here. Hope that makes sense. I hope it helps a few people. Last thing I will sort of say, as I always say with these episodes, if you are interested in getting a bit of personalized help with your training, if you're interested in getting some training, which will allow you to develop whatever you want, multiple qualities of fitness without gatekeeping certain things or forcing you through months of boring stuff before doing anything fun or whatever it may be, I would love to chat with you. If you want to find out a little bit more about our online personal training for hiking, you can go to summitstrength.com.au online. On that page, there's a big video, talks a lot about our program. And if it sounds like something you want to learn a little bit more about, there's a link on that page. You can book a free call with our team. We can have a chat from there. So with that being said, thank you for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it and we'll talk to you soon. Bye.

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