As humans we have a unique, sometimes almost obsessive need to catalog, categorize, and label things. Exercise is no different.
In the midst of a tough workout session, almost invariably someone will suddenly stop and ask the pressing question – “by the way, what muscles is this working?”
Why do our brains do this?
In my opinion, it’s part curiosity, part obsessive need to categorize, but also part delaying tactic. Just like the little kid who suddenly has a million and one questions about anything under the sun in order to delay having to go to bed, we ask a seemingly pertinent question to delay having to do the exercise a little longer. Because we associate some type of pain with the workout, be it the physical pain of muscle ache, or the psychological pain of having to push through our limits, we do the logical thing (to us) and stall the inevitable. The question allows us to push that pause button in the movement and stop for a few moments while we regroup ourselves for the effort ahead.
But What Muscles Does It Work?
Within the Warrior Fitness Training System, the answer to the question of which muscles are working in a particular exercise requires a little more explanation. In conventional fitness training the answer is usually confined to something like, “well, this exercise works your biceps, that next exercise works your chest, and this last one is working your lats.”
The exercises we do in Warrior Fitness tend to have a much broader, system-wide effect. Our exercises are always multi-planar, multi-joint, and 3 dimensional. So the short answer to the question of which muscles does this work is usually – All of them!
How can this be?
Instead of viewing the body as made up of individual muscles, Warrior Fitness teaches that the body is one interconnected system where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts, so that when one thing moves everything moves. Why do I teach it this way? Well, because that’s how the body is actually built. More on this later…
What this idea does is allow us to express power in a much more functional way for combat, sport, and life. Real power is expressed in only 2 ways – from the ground up and from the center out, oftentimes as a combination of both. Never is power expressed by an individual muscle group alone. It’s way too weak and ineffective.
The choice is yours. How do you want to train? Whole body integrated power is my method of choice.
My latest program, Ninja Missions Program 1 is a fantastic example of how to train for this whole body power. Make sure you do yourself and your training a favor and check it out!!
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