I always like to look at all questions like an onion.
What are the underpinning truths about strength training?
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Welcome back to Get-Fit Guy, Coach Kevin Don here with episode 642. This week I wanted to take some time to objectively clarify what strength training is. Well, as much as possible, because I have recently been reflecting upon Descartes and the notion that we cannot be sure anything exists outside our own mind. So, therefore, objectivity may be impossible and subjectivity inevitable, since my mind is everything.
Existential crises aside, it becomes apparent quite quickly when one takes a stroll down Google Avenue browsing for strength programs that strength could be anything from a 500 lb deadlift to lifting a pint glass to your lips for reps. So, let’s make sure we are all on the same page so I stop getting emails saying you play golf for strength training.
I always like to look at all questions like an onion. Not that I have any great passion for onion-based imagery, but everything has layers. You have to peel them ALL away to get to the “first principle.” That is a piece of information that cannot be broken down any further. We have to be reductionist. At one point in time, elements were “elemental,” but now we know that elements like gold, hydrogen, and adamantium (oh wait, that’s a fictional one) are made up of atoms and that atoms are made up of protons and neutrons, which in turn are made up of quarks. Maybe at some further point out in the far far away, quarks and gluons will be further reduced.
Everything we do in the gym can be reduced down to a first principle and this includes strength. There are different types of strength, like isometric strength and speed strength and maximal strength, and they all have something in common. This is that they create force against a resistor. In some cases, the floor or wall may be the resistor, other times a kettlebell or barbell. But you’re always creating force.
So it should follow on from this that for strength to increase over time, force must increase over time. This is why I have been saying the barbell (followed by dumbbells and kettlebells) is king. This isn't because I personally love cold steel crushing me top down into the floor, but because the barbell is incrementally loadable. It will also be incrementally loadable out into the future way beyond my capacity to continue incrementally loading it.
This incremental loading we can call “training with intent.” This is because it was an intentional training effect. If you go to Zumba and start to find it easier to pick up your grandchildren, this was ACCIDENTAL. A bit like some waves washing over your feet as you walk along the beach. You might enjoy the feeling, but it wasn’t what you set out to do. Strength training is the opposite. It has intent.
This “accidental” outcome is also called the novice effect or the picking of low-hanging fruit. This novice effect, where detrained or untrained people make improvements at metrics not being directly trained, is why so many programs are able to claim to be strength-building. I looked at the UK National Health Service recommendations on strength training for older people and number one on the list was “carry your grocery bags.” Ok, so then what do we do when a novice adapts to this? How far out in the future can we incrementally load the grocery bags and how big would the bags need to become to facilitate continued strength gains? Carrying groceries is NOT a strength training program. But it IS harder than sitting on your butt watching Maury Povich. So it DOES create adaptive stress.
Adaptive stress is how we all get stronger. An external stressor occurs, the body doesn't like said stress, and it adapts to ensure that it isn't stressed in the future by the same event. A bit like how the immune system works against a virus. The problem is that anything that isn't an actual strength training program soon reaches the point in time where it stops being a stress and adaptation stops. It is at this point that stress must increase to drive further adaptation. Since strength is an adaptation to force production, then the force required to overcome the external stress must increase.
This ongoing accumulation of exposure to ever-increasing stress means something else has to happen for things to be intentional and not accidental. That is quantification. You absolutely must know how much force was produced last time so you can increase the force production this time. If the last time was the Zumba Latin dance mix, what do you do this week? Dance the Latin mix a bit faster? Upgrade to the Ibiza classics Zumba mix?
Basically, anything that doesn't have intentional, quantifiable increases in force production over time isn't a strength training program. And that, my friends, is the first principle.
So now, on to a listener email! I love these. Please send more.
Hey Kevin
Long time first time.
Can you please suggest workouts, drills, or routines on how to improve basketball fitness?
I'm in my early 30s playing against guys in their early 20s and I want to keep up.
I have no problem going for a 10+km run but when it comes to the stop-start of basketball I get drained really fast.
I know I would build fitness by playing pickup games and going to training but basketball isn't as popular here where I live in Australia and that isn't available.
Thanks
Travis
Hi Travis,
Thank you for the email. I’m curious about what “basketball fitness” means. But I will do my best to give a useful answer here!
As I mentioned earlier in this episode, adaptations are intentional, and therefore, it's no surprise that running 10km doesn't carry over to basketball, since one is very much a steady state and the other, as you mentioned, is stop and start. Basketball also involves explosive contractions, like jumping and rapid directional changes, so we could call that agility. These are both aspects of strength. Jumping is creating maximal force against the ground and agility is absorbing sudden force and redirecting it.
Therefore, my first answer here will be that strength training, broadly speaking, will improve basketball because the key elements outside of skill development are aspects of strength. We know they aren’t aspects of aerobic fitness because your 10km running hasn’t helped you.
So, my advice would be to add in a week-round strength program with accessory work tailored towards basketball. That accessory work would involve things like sprints, jumping, and directional changes. Moving forwards, backwards, and laterally.
Generally speaking, I do agree that you can gain fitness for a sport by doing the sport, but if we look at how sportspeople train, we find this isn't how they develop. Soccer players don't play 90-minute soccer matches in midweek training, and strongman athletes don't max out doing events every week. Pick-up games aren't training, they are performing because you are still trying to win.