Faster. Explosive Strength. Purposeful and systematic.
This post is to help members, who have some experience with the program, develop a more thorough understanding of what we’re doing and why. It’s also for anyone wondering what we do and how we do it. A few months ago I wrote about the Foundation work. Who is it for? How to approach it. This time we tackle Building.
In Foundation we start with simple, strict, slow movement. In Building we start to progress to faster, more complex, higher force movements. It’s a patient, persistent progression.
So. Building is designed (almost exclusively focused on Olympic Lifts) to help you develop the speed and power you might need to enhance performance in sport related activities. In addition to the same strength and conditioning skills developed in Foundation, you will also focus on maintaining stability and mobility in more complex movements and begin to develop explosive strength. Within this portion of the program, we work in a very purposeful manner on building strength in the squat and strength in the shoulder to overhead movement.
Now, don’t get me wrong. With purposeful progression of Foundation work you can get ridiculously strong. You don’t ever have to get under a barbell if that doesn’t suit you. Adding Oly lifts to your routine is not gonna make you look better, or make you leaner or improve your joint health.
So, if you are not an athlete or playing sports that require you to be fast and explosive what is the purpose of adding this work to your routine? Some of us just love fitness and simply enjoy learning new things. Learning new physical skills is a way to stay engaged in your workouts and gives a feeling of accomplishment.
Some of us used to be athletes and enjoy having this type of movement in our daily workouts without having to go out and actually join a team. Some of us also like to do CrossFit. Getting good at Olympic lifts facilitates that and helps us do workouts that are more challenging in their complexity.
But also, at the point at which we are considering adding this to our routine, most of us have decided that our physical health is worth the investment of time and money. Within that process we have probably developed a love for movement and how it makes us feel. And depending on the person, different types of movement make us feel better than others. Maybe you love the drained feeling that comes after some short hard conditioning. Maybe you love lifting really heavy things. Maybe you love the relaxed feeling that comes from sustained longer conditioning. Maybe you actually love the grace and slowness of stretching and yoga. People have favorites. It’s often what they’re good at.
I’ve always loved to sprint and jump. I feel best when I’m trying to challenge myself to move fast and explosively for very short periods of time (no longer than 10-15 seconds). I also like anything where I get to put weight over my head. Whether I’m upside down or right side up. So Olympic lifting feels good to me and I like to train this type of movement. Tapping into the type of movement you love can be really helpful when life get’s busy and you need extra motivation to keep up your routine.
If any of this sounds familiar or appealing to you then you might be interested in giving the Building Program a try. Do you have to do Olympic Lifts to get in shape and be awesome at fitness? Of course not. And if the day was stressful and draining then doing neurologically demanding activities such as this might not be the appropriate thing. The option is there, but it is not a necessary part of being strong and skilled and healthy and fit. There are many different paths to take to get to that place.