Big Rocks First

We live in a golden age of information. I read once that there is more information contained one Wall Street Journal than the average person encountered in their entire life a few centuries back. Most of us have used this additional access to information to better certain aspects of our lives, but unfortunately that is not always the case in the world of strength and conditioning.

I have noticed that all of this additional information available to your average coach or athlete has not resulted in better training program designed but worse program design. Bill Starr wrote his groundbreaking book “Only the Strong Shall Survive” 30 some odd years ago and his program outlined in that book is still far better than what most people follow today in their quest to increase their performance. I think that the term “paralysis by analysis” sums up why this is.

There has been a lot of research and articles written in the past 10 years on subjects such as core training, swiss balls, functional training, wobble boards and various other training methods. In an attempt to create “cutting edge” programs and stay current with the latest trends and research a lot of well meaning individuals have designed or followed programs that try to incorporate as many of these concepts as they can. However, all of these additional training techniques come at the expense of what I call the Big Rocks.

Here is a quick analogy for you. Let’s say that you have a jar to fill as full as you can. You have big rocks, gravel, sand and water to pour into the jar. In order to fit as much of each into the jar as possible you would want to start by putting as many big rocks into the jar as you could and then pour gravel in to fill in the spaces between the rocks. Follow that with sand to fill in the spaces between the gravel and finally water to fill in whatever space is left and you have a truly full jar.

If you had tried to fill the jar in the reverse order would you would not have been able to fit as many big rocks into the jar at the end. That was the heart of program design-you have to prioritize things by start with the Big Rocks first or else you won’t have room for them in the end.

The Big Rocks are your staple lifts. These are exercises that work major movement patterns and work a lot of muscle groups at one time. Things like push ups, deadlifts, military press, chin ups and rows fall into this category. The gravel are things like single limb exercises such as single leg squats and unilateral dumbbell bench press. The sand are things like special core training exercises and advanced techniques like plyometrics while the water are fancy little moves like standing on a BOSU ball while shaking a BodyBlade in one hand and curling some rubber tubing with the other arm.

Problems occur when people start program design with the “water” and “sand” exercises and forget to include the Big Rocks. I have seen countless people who have worked out for years who do not know how to do a proper deadlift yet know how to stand on a BOSU ball. I have seen young athletes who are being subjected to plyometrics and sprint training yet can not perform 5 clean push ups, bodyweight squats or chin ups. All of these people would be far better served following the program out of Bill Starr’s book despite the fact that their current programs use “modern” training techniques and Bill Starr’s program uses a 30 year old program based on classic training techniques.

Now, this is not to say that there is no place for these modern exercises and techniques (except perhaps for standing on a BOSU ball with a BodyBlade). Quite the opposite, actually, as we can use this new training knowledge to create better programs than those used 30 years ago. The trick is in understanding how to prioritize and incorporate these new things. Remember that unless you plan on working out longer and longer you can not add more exercises without having to subtract some exercises.

When considering whether to incorporate a new exercise or technique ask yourself what you will have to leave out to do so and if the new exercise or technique will deliver better results than what you are leaving out. As with most things in life the answer lies in finding a balance that works best for you while remembering that you must start with the Big Rocks while trying to find that balance. This way you will get the biggest return on your training efforts which should be the goal of any program.

-James Wilson-