When possibly the most well respected scientist in regards to spinal health and performance speaks, you probably want to listen. That is the pleasure I had this past weekend listening to Dr. Stuart McGill speak at the Perform Better Summit in Rhode Island. Dr. McGill has presented around the world, worked with top athletes, and has some of the most well respected books in the industry. So, why am I telling you the obvious?
Largely due to the fact I was completely floored by some of his remarks from his presentations this weekend. I always believed we were teaching some innovative training techniques, but Dr. McGill really confirmed many of the ideas that we have been sharing with all of you. So, I thought I would try to sum up some of the biggest hits so you can get the same awesome insights.
- “Get Away from the Barbell”-Yes, I have been pushing this for some time and caught a lot of heat for it. Having someone of Dr. McGill’s status reaffirm this was some powerful stuff! Why did he say it? A few reasons…
- Asymmetrical loading: In essence, Dr. McGill points out that asymmetrical loading (having load on one side of the body) is necessary to produce a strong and health core. With barbell emphasized programs the load is too balanced and the impact isn’t as great in teaching proper core integration. Some would take this as “well, do some one arm dumbbell lifts”. The problem is that most people on perform low levels of such training.
With the load by the side of the body, this is easiest position to balance and stabilize. That is why shouldering in Ultimate Sandbag™ Training is a more advanced stability based drill. The difference in holding the Ultimate Sandbag™ on the shoulder versus a dumbbell or kettlebell in the clean rack position is the load being applied directly on the spine. This causes the surrounding muscles work harder to maintain posture especially as we add motion to the segments of the body. Using other combinations of shouldering we can add a number of progressions and challenges. Additional to shouldering this really emphasizes the power of shoulder to shoulder pressing from a number of our progressional positions.
*Sport doesn’t happen this way! I had this “ah-ha” moment some time ago, but I think more had it when McGill was speaking about how overrated many of the barbell lifts become in developing “functional” strength for athletes. In referencing the Olympic lifts, he was speaking about how rare it is to find an athlete producing power from that position. You could quickly realize the need to stop becoming so dependent upon lifts that were never meant to to be used a predominant part of non-lifting sports.
The problem for many coaches that had this same thought some time ago was they didn’t have the RIGHT tools to accomplish the same problem. Dumbbells and even medicine balls can be limiting in creating progressions and patterns that these implements just could not. That is why a “tool is not a tool”.
I am reposting Strength Coach, Troy Anderson’s, Ultimate Fitness challenge because you will find how he created a full program that was very true to these sentiments by Dr. McGill. It was simply amazing how afterwards a number of attendees came up and commented how they connected the dots and really began to understand why our program is so powerful.
While others are having you believe that adding weight to the bar is the only or the BEST way to get strong and perform well, you have to question if they are stuck in outdated ideas!
Save Your Low Back & Have Real Core Strength is a post from: Sandbag Training
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