This began as a post explaining why we created a space for strength training but Strength Training is such a big topic that it will probably take several posts to touch on all the aspects of why strength training is important.
For the sake of brevity, I will focus this post on how strength training relates to longevity and how it relates to mobility / flexibility (or Strength at Length).
A common question from a lot of new clients: “What are most of your clients' goals?” I’m never sure what answer they are looking for, but there is a pretty common theme among most of my clients' goals: health and pain-free living for as long as possible—commonly referred to as longevity.
While there are some definite outliers who come to me to work on very specific goals: higher position on the CrossFit Open leaderboard, being able to do a Ring Muscle Up, or a very specific bodybuilding goal such as a bigger butt or chest (it's more common than you'd think!).
The demographic of training clients here in the city has always been pretty unique—the conversation on fitness and health is a lot more elevated than you would expect. People have done their research and track their metrics (sleep, calories, steps, and stress) and are way more focused on gaining that slight edge rather than just an intro to exercise in general—and the data backs this up. According to a study done by MindBody, the most popular fitness trend in this post-Covid world is longevity:
“As a result, the motivation for fitness continues to evolve. Pre-pandemic, Americans exercised to control their weight. Last year, it was to reduce stress. Today, longevity is the focus. Nearly one-third of consumers say they exercise to lead long and healthy lives—a significant bump from last year.”[1]
It's no secret that strength training is the key to longevity—there has been lots of research in the past two years alone that promotes strength training as the key to living longer.
So how do I approach programming for the goal of longevity? Longevity is such a broad term that relates to so many things—but as a Strength Coach and Personal Trainer, these are the components of the training program that are essential:
Strength at Length
I prefer the term Strength at Length because it explains more clearly what people need to improve their mobility. For some folks improving their mobility means they need a lot more ROM: picture somebody that can't reach their toes or cannot get their arms behind their ears. This is what you might think of when you hear the word “flexibility”.
For others better mobility actually means training through a reduced ROM to improve stability of their joints. This is usually the case for dancers and yoga practitioners- too much flexibility and not enough strength to stabilize the joints can have negative effects.
Strength at Length covers the bases for both types of mobility requirements - we need strength through all ranges of motion that we have access to.
Strength training will improve your flexibility when programmed with intention and with great attention to detail. All exercises have a “stretch” component (eccentric) followed by a “shortening” phase (concentric). As trainers we can use this to our advantage when programming for flexibility. An example for the lower body would be a Romanian Deadlift, a deadlift with mostly straight legs that targets the entire backside of the body.
Performed well with a neutral spine and legs mostly straight—this will stretch out the hamstrings and glutes to a great degree while also strengthening them through that entire range of motion.
How?
When the pelvis/spine are in neutral, the glutes and hamstrings are in the optimal position to stretch out. When we add load to this, it creates enough of a stimulus that it actually improves range of motion more than just stretching alone! This is not a new concept—it's called training through the full range of motion—the opposite of what we commonly see in globo gyms and gym memes.
So when we ask you to squat deeper - it's because we care.
This same study from 2023 also notes that strength training through a full range of motion actually had NO positive effects on flexibility done with body weight alone. You need to load your muscles and lift the weights! This brings me to my second point.
Motor Control
We know we need to lift weights, but not all resistance training is created equal. Motor control (a fancier way of saying proper form) is critical to gaining the benefits of resistance training. Take my example of the Romanian Deadlift from earlier. As a coach, I am always looking for a neutral spine when teaching someone. Yes, it is for safety first, but a major reason for it is you'll get maybe half the benefits from the exercise if you do it without a neutral spine.
How do you know if you are in a neutral spine?
It is important for clients and members to understand HOW to do the exercise well to get the flexibility benefits. You need to have enough body awareness to get yourself to feel the right positions. When walking around during a group session, people will always ask to check their form—which I am happy to do—but I’ll always try and turn it into a teaching lesson to help them learn what the right position really feels like. . If you can feel the right movement, then you can forever do this on your own and won’t need me anymore, which is always kind of the goal!
Maintaining a neutral spine means being able to use your core to align your ribcage over your pelvis and your shoulder blades over your ribcage.
While I used an example of a Deadlift, this also applies to any type of shoulder exercise. If your neck or traps get sore from doing back exercises (rows), film yourself next time and see if your shoulders are shrugging or rounding forward at the top of the lift.
Sufficient Core Strength
Once you have developed the motor control and awareness to maintain a neutral spine, the next step is building enough strength in your core that you can challenge it in a variety of ways. Planks, Pallof Presses, and Deadbugs are all great core exercises –I use them pretty regularly. But to really enhance life outside the gym and improve your ability to recover from falls, we want something that requires your core to work in a more dynamic way. This is why it’s important to relate all this core stuff into your compound lifts: Deadlifts, Front Squats, Crossbody Carries, Farmer Carries, Overhead Pressing, Box Jumps. All these are great ways to build the kind of core strength that has a more direct impact on daily living. It’s important to work on some of these things periodically, but just because they are a little more functional does not make them better. Motor control comes first—developing the ability to fire your core at will allows you to basically turn anything into a core exercise. The toughest core exercise I’ve done recently was carrying the 280lb treadmill up the stairs with my cousins (I definitely wore a belt).
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Real Life Application
In every single movement or exercise, there is a portion of the movement where the muscle is weak or the muscle is strong. Not being able to express force in a weaker position (say the bottom of a squat) is where injuries (acute or chronic) tend to develop. In real life outside the gym, this presents itself in daily activities such as:
Our goal in the gym is to increase our strength in those weaker positions so we can move comfortably in our daily life - and this really applies to any strength goals. The more weight you want to lift the less room you have for weaker areas.
This should not be confused with trying to mimic daily life in the gym—we are not here to invent crazy new exercises. In the gym we want to practice all the basic movement patterns with the most range of motion available to us and over time increase that range of motion with smart exercise selection.
Mixing up a few of these (5 or so) for a full-body workout 2 times per week is usually enough of a stimulus to train the muscles, joints, positions, and ranges we don’t commonly access through daily living. How to organize a workout and introduce new movements is a post for another day.
The fundamental movement patterns:
Squat - Hinge - Vertical Pulling - Vertical Pressing - Horizontal Pressing - Horizontal Pulling - Unilateral Knee Dominant - Unilateral Hip Dominant - Locomotion - Core - Rotation
