The more complex or explosive the contraction, the more training has to go into learning the sequence in which things have to move.
You have a goal to perform a complex physical skill or demanding physical task. How do you get from here to there?
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Hi, I'm Kevin Don, the Get-Fit Guy, and I'm here to share my accumulated decade of knowledge in the strength and conditioning industry with you to help you become the best version of yourself!
Recently, I’ve been spending a significant portion of my time working with a gymnastics coach. The reason for this is that I have a goal to improve my balance and coordination with things like the gymnastics beam, but also to develop some “cool” tricks like a back somersault. I’m getting close on the somersault, but it didn’t start that way. So how DID it start and how can we work towards complex skills?
If you have been following my episodes, right at the beginning I defined the meaning of a coach, that it’s a safe and efficient journey from a point of origin to a defined end goal. In the case of a back somersault, first of all, I had to demonstrate that I could jump high enough, that I could make the required shape as I jumped and that I could transition from one shape to another in midair. Only once I could do all those things with the safety of giant crash mats was I permitted to progress to flipping into a giant foam-filled pit. I could definitely have started just jumping backwards into the pit, but it's unlikely that I would make meaningful long-term progress because I would be developing some potential bad habits.
Every time we move our body, it’s the result of a signal from our brain travelling to motor units that control muscle contractions, which move our joints. There is no other way to move intentionally. The more complex or explosive the contraction, the more training has to go into learning the sequence in which things have to move. So, as a trainee, we have to be able to look at the task, assess the type of contraction required, and make sure that all the physical steps below that contraction are in place.
This would be a contraction hierarchy. Most time should be spent at the very base of the hierarchy. However, this is typically where most trainees spend the least time. This is because sometimes there is a disconnect with how these steps build to a full physical picture, but also because simple tasks can be boring and people can be impatient!
This base layer is called motor control. It involves training slow or even static contractions, which develop the patterns needed to perform the advanced movement required. So let’s take the back somersault as an example. It starts with a jump. This jump involves a dip (which is a squat pattern), then a triple extension. This is where ankles, knees, and hips fully extend, create a shape called a hollow (which involves a lot of core strength), and finally a tuck (which is where you bring knees to chest—another squat pattern) before landing and being able to absorb that impact with the legs.
Let’s break that movement down into the 6 essential patterns:
From here, you can see where you may be lacking in an essential “ingredient.” Every one of these patterns has a way to develop them with both simple and complex exercises. For example:
Core: Deadbugs, sit ups, hollow holds, and side plank as more simple options and more advanced movements looking like planche and levers.
Squat: Air squat and wall sits can build to more advanced options like overhead squats, sissy squats, and kang squats.
Lunge: We can progress all the way from simple lunges on the spot, step ups onto a box, right up to single leg pistol squats.
Push: Simple variations here might be an assisted push-up and run all the way to things like bench pressing with chains or handstand push-ups.
Pull: Ring rows, bent-over rows, and band face-pulls give way to complex options like muscle-ups.
Bend: More simple options could be a kettlebell Romanian deadlift and trap bar deadlifts and progress to heavy deadlifts or hang power snatches.
We know that developing any skill is essentially the long-term application of ever-increasing external stress. These stresses must always be above a minimum dose to be effective (we have to work on increasing load or complexity week on week) and always have to be below the maximum tolerated dose (not so much we can’t recover and add load or complexity next time out).
So my advice for anyone who has a long-term goal, no matter how far away it seems, is to treat it like any other goal. Split the journey down into smaller steps. Reverse engineer the process to help you figure out where you are now and what component parts of the task you are missing. Then work on the component parts, developing the motor control required. Enjoy the process and don’t be frustrated that you might still be far from the end point. Take enjoyment from the mastery of each step. As I said last week, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. So, the better you become at each piece of the overall puzzle, the better you will be at the final product when the time comes.
What are you working on right now? Do you have any skills you are developing and how are you splitting them up as a plan of attack? I’d love to hear from you! If you have a question for me, leave me a voicemail at 510-353-3104 or send me an email at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com. For more information about the show, visit quickanddirtytips.com, or check out the shownotes in your podcast app.