Chair Traverse

Superb  (thanks to Keith Lee from Twitter)

Should you use weightlifting for sports conditioning?

Carrying on with the discussion of "functional" training I suppose, I came across an absolutely superb post from James Fisher, who has a blog that you really should be following.   James picks apart all of the arguments that are usually presented in favour of using the Olympic lifts  -  power development, skill, safety - and concludes that for the the science does not really support the use of the O lifts for conditioning.  If you are an Olympic lifter - fine - if you are not.....don't bother.  Anyway - go and read this, it is excellent

Weightlifting for Strength and Conditioning - A Critical Analysis

The idea of simplicity and safety are key to what I recommend in Hillfit too - you need safe exercises to get stronger and then learn how to apply that strength to your sport.

Functional training...still a myth

I've had lots of stuff on here over the years calling into question the idea of functional training.  There is no skill transfer from one movement to another.  Movement skills are very specific and when you change the movement you need to develop new skills.  For example in tennis using a heavier racquet would not make you able to hit harder when you switch to a ligher one  -  it is a different skill.  You would have to learn all over again how to move with the different implement.  We covered some of this in the interviews with Luke Carlson, Drew Baye and Doug McGuff.

Anyway, James Steele today pointed to a new paper that addresses all this stuff



Influence of dynamic versus static core exercises on performance in field based fitness tests.



It is worth reading the abstract that James copies.  He concludes:

As always, separate physical conditioning from skill conditioning.