Generalizing
I was talking to Frank Forencich of Exuberent Animal awhile ago. He made an interesting point: that we’ve become too professional in our pursuit of fitness. We’re specialists.
It’s not altogether surprising: most of us draw our fitness information from coaches and trainers of athletes, who are, by definition, specialists. Ditto for bodybuilders and fitness models, who train to get their bodies to do one, very specific thing. Now, the best trainers are also thinking long-term–how can I get this person to do more while protecting their health so they don’t blow a gasket in three years, or five, or twenty? Still–the goal is optimal performance of a very specific kind. And optimal athletic performance–as we’ve seen with long-distance runners–doesn’t always equal health, longevity, or durability.
By definition, the more you specialize, the less adaptable you are, the less capable of weathering new stimulus, handling different activities outside of your area of specialization.
The next phase in the evolution of popular fitness lore, I think, is going to be the “generalist” approach. To make a cient into a physical jack of all trades, master of none. One thing that the ever-controversial CrossFit approach has right is that the workouts always change, you never know quite what’s coming on a given day, so eventually you’re prepared for just about anything.
That was also one of the most fun aspects of triathlon training: if you’re bored with swimming, jump on the bike. Bored with that? Go for a run.
Another wise man–Gray Cook– once said to me that if you’re in pain, think first about what you can eliminate from your training program or life rather than what you can add to it. It’s the removal of accruing repetitive stress that’s more likely to fix a problem than adding something corrective.
And guess what? Even the top trainers of pro athletes–like Eric Cressey–make sure to keep their athletes’ bodies guessing. Cressey does a “random” day where he, his athletes and staff, will push the sled, flip some tires, and generally throw all their carefully-planned out training parameters right in the commode in favor of some screwing around with heavy things. So maybe our downfall is not in fact what athletes are doing–but what we assume that they’re doing when we hear about some otherworldly workouts some of these folks put in once in a blue moon.
So–unless you’re shooting for gold–keep things general!
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