We could easily have
titled this one, “The Primacy of the Posterior Chain in Combat Conditioning”
but that’s a little less sexy than the chosen one.
Let us breakdown that
opening salvo through the prism of Old School Conditioning, and to be clear,
when I say Old School, I’m talking pre- “I use a little help,” in other
words, all work and no dietary or supplemental juju, not even creatine.
That’s right, one can
reap results on pure ol’ Southern Soul Food, heaps of BBQ, and a dessert each
night even at an age when the loss of muscle mass due to aging is supposed to
rear its head. [Sarcopenia is the technical word for this creeping loss of muscle
mass that sets in after 40—for the record I’m 57-years-old at the time of this
offering, so around 17 years into tissue entropy.]
Side-Bar
for Bra Sizes: A casual
comparison of photos between early physical culturists and the beginning of the
Modern Era of bodybuilding where drug-use begins to rear its head, we see a few
differences in physiques.
Yes, the obvious size
difference due to pharmaceutical consumption but…proportionally, although “smaller”
men and women in days of yore, the aesthetics are Greco-Roman Statuary excellence.
Also, the physical culturists
of yore sport smaller chest sizes proportional to today’s behemoths.
Many of the new
thought cadre assume this is due to lack of use of that go-to tool, the bench,
as in the all mighty bench press.
This is a bit of an
assumption stretch, the Old Schoolers may not have had a designated bench as in
“This is for your bench press” but they did put a great deal of stock
into chest work from myriad floor presses, box presses, and numerous flye
variations.
The “smaller” chest
was more a result of hewing to a Greco-Roman aesthetic, and these were the days
when muscles were also for something—that is, many an old schooler was a
wrestler, an acrobat, a boxer, a hand balancer, show-lifter et cetera. They
were expected to be able to Do just as much as Show.
In other words, it was
not just, “Look good” it was “Be good” at something beyond pick
this up and then put it back down.
The chest musculature
need not balloon to be an excellent performer or to provide Classical aesthetics.
8 Reasons
Why the Old Schoolers Were All About That Back
1. As we just outlined, there is often more back used
than chest in actual athletic and work performance. Pulling, lifting, climbing,
grappling, and on and on bring the back into play—the chest far less so.
2. No Big Push Without a Big Pull. So, just because the bench was not emphasized
nor was a protuberant chest prized, vast pushing power was still on the table.
It’s just that it was recognized that to push well, one needs stabilization.
Old Schoolers knew that any good push needs a commensurate stabilization from
the antagonist side of the effort. Wanna up your bench? Go to work on the stabilizers
of the upper and mid-back.
3. Injury Prevention. This is an adjunct of the prior. Often pain
while pressing, or injuries from a pressing incident are due to the imbalance
of strength between the anterior and posterior chain. Unbalanced strength
is no strength at all.
4. Curling Stabilization. Just as the back plays a role in stabilizing
the chest and pressing movements, it plays a like role in stabilizing the shoulder
during curling motions. Again, if we experience pain while curling, sometimes
this can be tracked down to weak back stabilization where we have tried to develop
the show muscles ahead of the stabilizers. I repeat: Unbalanced strength
is no strength at all.
5. Stronger Back = Stronger Grappler. You show me a grappling movement that does
not call for an essential “clutching to the core” movement, be that a choke,
crank, leg lock, arm scissors, you name it—you show me the movement that does
not involve the back in a big way and I’ll give you a big wet kiss. No worries,
that kiss ain’t gonna happen, I’ve been at this game for 47 years and I’ve seen
zero non-back involved movements that were worth 2-cents.
6. Stronger Back = Harder Puncher. See Rule #2. If a stronger back provides
greater pushing stabilization, “Hmm, what would happen when we apply a
little speed with a balanced back and anterior development?” Yeah, BAM!
7. Time-Saver/Biceps Builder. Each time you bend those arms the biceps come
into play. 90% of back exercises call for the arms to be bent, in other words
you are getting a two-fer, a back exercise and a biceps exercise in one. That is
why Old Schoolers NEVER did any curling isolation before a back exercise—the smaller
movers of the biceps would fatigue the big movers and remove the “strength purity”
of the back movement. These would always be staged in opposite order with a
stagger exercise between for re-fueling. Your biceps poundage may look lower
when trained in this manner but that is only because they have been prefatigued
and stabilized with the far more vital work. [See our Unleaded Conditioning Program for more on exercise staging.]
8. A Leaner Torso. Now how can back work do this? Well, that
back is a large slab of interlocking musculature. This is Metabolism 101 Crew,
the more muscles we engage in energy expenditure, the more calories burned, the
more calories burned the more we can whittle at that belly. Yeah, it’s a little
counter-intuitive, “You mean I work the posterior chain and the anterior chain
improves?” Yep.
There are another Two
Reasons we would go into, but 8 feels enough for now.
Ponder all of the
above factors when designing your own program, or you can use our Unleaded Conditioning Protocol that prescribes only one back exercise per day, it switches
every single day, and only one of them asks us to use a weight.
The proof is in the
pudding. I went 100% Old School Unleaded 4 years ago and it has been mighty
kind to me.
Might it prove so to
you!
For more Unleaded Conditioning
info see our store!
Thinkin’ about
becoming part of the Black Box Brotherhood?
Well, good on you!
Mull these resources,
Warriors!
The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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