Training Principles You Need to Know - Part 1

A great saying is 'methods are many, principles are few'. Principles are the guiding force behind the methods we choose when designing training programs for our clients. This the first part in my seriesof trianing principles you need to know to get the most out of your training.

Training Principle 1 - Have a warm up strategy

The principle comes rst for one main reason - it is the part of a training session that 99% of people neglect and do not do correctly!Many trainee's have a great training program, sound nutrition, supplementation and recovery strategies but neglect a proper warm up! Some of the benets of a proper warm up include: - reduced risk of injury - better athletic performance - Increased range of motion - better recovery

Our philosophy on warming up is an amalgamation of many different people including Ido Portal, Gray Cook, Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Alwyn Cosgrove, Chad Waterbury and Charles Poliquin. We have integrated all these different perspectives to create a unied appoach to warming up. How much of this we do depends on the time available and needs of the client. For example, if a client has orthopedic concerns and a current injury, more time is dedicated to specic joint mobility and muscle activation drills. However if a clients goal is fat loss, their warm up will be more metabolic in nature.

This is the general order in our warm up system for a otherwise healthy client that has movement restrictions.

1. Foam roller and self myofasical release - this serves the function of removing muscular adhesions and trigger points. This will help with muscular strength and range of motion. It also improves the quality of the soft tissues, not just their extensibility.

2. Functional Movement Screen correctives - these exercises helps bring functional movement patterns back to an acceptable baseline. We do not want to add tness to dysfunction, so we ensure all key movement patterns are of a minimum standard.

3. Joint Preparation - We do specic work for the wrist, shoulder, scapula, spine and hips to make sure they can handle the rigor of training. These exercises all serve as pre-requisites for advanced skills such as hand balancing. An example of this is having adequate ngertip push up strength before handbalancing.

4. Warm up sets: This depends if the exercise is loaded or is a progressive bodyweight exercise. If it is a loaded exercise we will do one warm up set for every 20 kg of load or we will do a few reps of a bodyweight exercise that is less complex and demanding.

Once we have completed this, the body is well and truly primed to get the most out of training. Make sure to check out Principle 2, Progression towards Performance!

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