No matter how far you walk along the path of mastery in your chosen sport/fitness endeavour (or anything you choose to do), you should always return to the basics. The bigger and deeper your foundation is, the taller your peak will be.
The base layer to fitness and health is nutrition. If you can do only one thing to improve your health, then watching and understanding what goes into your mouth will yield the greatest results. If you want to improve your fitness then you need to start training.
Notice I used the word training instead of exercising. Training gives the idea of a teach and learn type scenario. Exercising is more about engaging in a physical activity. There’s nothing wrong with exercising and doing something that gets your heart rate up and makes you sweat is certainly better than nothing.
But training is different…
When you train, you learn what your body is capable of. You understand how different muscles should aid you in certain movements. You track your progress and look to improve on past performances. If you’re not doing this then you probably have no idea if you’re getting better or worse.
Good training will always take you back to the basics. You can’t simply keep loading up the squat if you have an imbalance in the hip. If your strict pull ups aren’t really controlled then you have no business trying to kip them. Both of these scenarios will eventually lead to injury.
What are the basics?
There aren’t a set list of movements that would be classed as “The Basics” but the good thing about these movements is that they will help you develop a variety of more advanced movements in the long run.
Lunges are a great “basic” lower body, single leg, movement. They will help to improve strength imbalances in your legs, increase stability from the ankle up and start to work on your range of motion for squats.
The hollow body position will help to develop your core and understanding of a “tight” body position. All gymnastics movements will require you to control your core and keep your body in a rigid position. Coming back to the hollow position on a regular basis and improving it (the base) will help you progress in other more advanced movements (the peak).
A lot of the time the basics aren’t cool. They require discipline and a certain mindset to be consistent with them. That’s why you see lots of commercial/franchise gyms with flashing lights or someone pulling a sled with their leg whilst trying to do a clap push up with the “coach”.
We try at Defy Functional Fitness, to show the benefits of the basic movements or accessory work as we often call it so our members don’t get injured and build a large base to be able to climb up to their peak.