Sometimes You've Got to Move FAST

There was a time when I was scared to move fast. 

I had just finished my college hockey career and I had some serious issues going on in my lower back and my right hip. I did what most 20 somethings who think they’re invincible do and ignored the problem until it was unbearable. 

There are two instances I clearly remember that helped me realize I needed a change.

The first was when I was at a friends house and he was showing me his the new dump truck he got for his business. I climbed up into the dump body to take a closer look and when we were done, I found myself hesitating to jump down. When I took the leap and landed on the pavement I tweaked my back. The familiar feelings of a tight stomach and pain radiating down the back of my leg appeared.

The other time I was in an intense ping pong battle. 

My friend and I were equally matched and having a competitive game. When the ball bounced away from the table I took 3 quick steps and bent over to grab the ball before it rolled underneath a table. This time I strained a groin muscle because I moved too quickly towards the floor while reaching.

A hidden benefit of a well rounded strength and conditioning program is that it gets you more comfortable moving at a high velocity. My training was lacking anything like that at the time because all I did was try to lift really heavy things, which in retrospect was just compounding the problem. 

Since then I make sure to include some jumping, medicine ball throwing, reactive training (think bear crawls and vertical bird dogs) and olympic lifting variations.

We try to include these things in our clients’ programs too. Recently, you may have learned how to do a dumbbell snatch. Historically, we’re saved this movement for athletes. Getting to start fresh on our programming at the end of the lockdown however, allowed us to reevaluate what we were doing and this was something we decided was important to start including.

Movements like that teach you how to move fast. In fact, you can’t snatch a dumbbell or slam a medicine ball without moving with speed. These movements translate in real life when you need to express power, which is a display of strength and speed. Think picking up a heavy bag a mulch, catching yourself slipping on ice or take a few hard steps uphill.

Knowing that intention can make all the different in the gym. Most of the time we want to move under control with a nice tempo, but sometimes, we need to open it up and develop a tolerance to moving quickly.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain