Your Training Shouldn't Be Balanced
Today I watched a video discussing whether you need to “balance” pushing and pulling exercises in your program, and whether that affects shoulder health. For example, should you do more rows than bench presses or push-ups? The bro-science answer is “yeah bro, you gotta do more pulling than pushing or you’ll mess up your shoulders and your posture bro.” Makes sense.
Too bad that answer isn’t supported by science. There isn’t any evidence that’s true. If you’ve got any, I’d love to see it.
That got me thinking about “balance” on a larger scale, especially in tactical training programs. Tactical athletes need to be proficient in a variety of physical skills and abilities. They can’t just be strong, or fast, or have endurance for days. So should we strive for balance across all these abilities, or do some need to be emphasized more than others?
The answer is, like always, it depends. Are we talking about a soldier? If so, what’s their current ability level? In what areas are they strong or weak? What’s their training experience? What’s their operational/deployment/training schedule?
What if we’re talking about a firefighter or police officer? Radically different jobs and different needs, yet still lumped in to the “tactical fitness” category. A generic “tactical fitness” program won’t cut it.
Here’s the thing – if you want to be great, not just good, it’s going to take a lot more effort to improve than “balance” will allow.
Training should be focused. Your goal will dictate your programming, or put another way, the situation dictates the tactics. This is so simple and basic, yet many fitness programs I see don’t start at this fundamental level. Too often, people just wander into the gym, do some basic machine work or run on a treadmill, and leave. Or maybe you just take a Crossfit class and think that will make you balanced and fit for your job.
If you have any specific goals, you must program for them alone. You have a finite amount of energy and recovery resources at your disposal. You can’t be equally good at everything or put equal time into everything, so pick and choose your battles.
As you get more fit, this becomes even more important. The fitter you are, the more effort it takes to improve even more. If you’re trying to be great at everything, eventually you won’t be doing enough of any one thing to improve it. You’ll stagnate.
If you’ve hit a wall in some aspect of your fitness that you want to improve, you probably need to be “unbalanced” for a while and hit that area even harder. Maintain other fitness qualities while increasing the work you put in to the area you want to improve the most. After you’ve brought up that quality, maintain it while working on other qualities.
For example, you could push your strength throughout the colder months, while maintaining endurance or even letting it regress a little. Then, you could switch and focus on improving endurance when it’s warmer outside, while maintaining your strength. There are infinite examples. For my police academy prep guys, we work to improve maximal strength and general endurance when we’ve got several months until the academy, then narrow our focus to the specific abilities they’ll need in the academy when it gets closer. You could also plan based on your deployment schedule or competitions.
You can’t be at 100% in all fitness qualities at all times. Pick a goal, attack it, then rotate.
If you’re looking for a fitness trainer in the Mt Juliet/Hermitage/Nashville TN area, online fitness training, or just need some advice to get your fitness program started, contact me