skip navigation

What 99% of Athletes are Missing in Their Strength and Conditioning Programs

By Stack MVP, 09/16/19, 7:30PM PDT

Share

Hardly anyone trains the natural human movement of alternation. It's an essential component to life. Walking and running is alternating movement.

Many people live in a constant state of stiffness.

We've all seen stiff people at the gym, and we've all experienced stiffness ourselves. Most often, it's worse after a hard training session. Our joints ache, our backs hurt, and we just feel generally immobile.

A big contributing factor to this is stiffness of the ribcage. In fact, that's where it all usually starts.

How many people do you really see doing single-arm or leg work inside a commercial gym?

Not many. Bench Press, Barbell Rows, Bilateral Squats, Chin-Ups, etc., are not inherently bad movements. In fact, they're quite effective at hitting many muscle groups at once.

However, too much bilateral work is a recipe for stiffness. If we are training our ribcages and bodies to be stiff in training, we can expect that to be the case in life and in sport. Practice makes permanent. This is where we get into the concept of alternation.