I'm going to use nearly the same title as this article (10 Strength and Conditioning Practices That Are Overhyped) except mine has a question mark.
As much as I don't want you to read the article, you'll have to so you can understand what follows.
The author says that the 10 practices he highlights are “good to know but, not worth your time to worry about”.
I'm just going to discuss four of these supposedly "over-hyped" practices.
1- Core Training
Really?
Core training is not worth worrying about? I beg to differ.
The progression over the last twenty years from crunches to ideas like anti-extension and anti-rotation certainly is worth worrying about. What we are talking about is an understanding of functional anatomy!
In fact, every detail that might effect the health and success of the real athletes many of us train every day is worth worrying about.
They say, “the devil is in the details”.
Is the word core overused? Yes.
However, because the lay person overuses a word doesn't decrease the value of the concept.
If someone asked me the biggest change in training in the last twenty years, I might be tempted to say core training.
I don't know about you but it's certainly worth my time to worry about?
2- Corrective Exercise
How about corrective exercise? Another waste of time?
In this case the author states “most of the (corrective) exercises simply wasted time and turned rugged athletes that were fine into mentally frail patients.”
Funny, I've studied lots of info from the rehabilitation community and used lots of simple corrective exercises to help lots of injured athletes. None receded into "mentally frail patients."
Many instead improved and went on to win Olympic Gold Medals. ( PS- when anyone tells you they work with Olympic athletes, it makes sense to at least ask “ what country and what sport?”)
3- Mobility
Another idea not to worry about is mobility. Really?
So mobility doesn't matter either?
How about immobility? Does that matter?
Remember, the first line of the article says these are ideas "are not worth the time to worry about."
In the case of mobility, the author says:
“From what I have experienced, we are now seeing a rise in “Mobility Gone Wild,” with joints that are inflamed and permanently damaged due to excessive joint manipulation and aggressive self-treatment.”
Again, just my 36 years of experience speaking but we do daily mobility work as part of our warm-up and, we have not seen any chronic inflammation or damage.
Are some groups overdoing mobility? Yes, for sure but, the premise of the article is that these ideas are not worth our time.
4- Last but not least on the list of overhyped ideas is foam rolling.
Again, more hyperbole?
“the sheer amount of time lost looking like beached whales belly surfing on round cylinders was just an embarrassment to the profession.”
I might go with exactly the opposite thought. Foam rolling and foam rollers might be one of the biggest and best changes of the last twenty years. The ability to perform self massage with large groups has brought soft tissue work to the masses. Entire teams can now benefit from concepts that might have been available only to a select few with deep pockets.
I would agree that all of the above can be over done but to say that these ideas are not worth your time to worry about is nothing more than internet blather. The really sad part is that these types of pieces are regressive and fuel those suffering from the Dunning Kruger effect who believe all we need to do are more squats and deadlifts.
As a practitioner with 36 years of experience with the world's best athletes, you can place me in the category of those who strongly disagree with the concepts presented in the original article.
For our members here at StrengthCoach, what do you think?
All quotes are taken directly from: "10 Strength and Conditioning Practices That Are Overhyped"