The Definition Of Power

Power is not a specific exercise. It's an expression of what the body is capable of doing.

When we think of power in the common expression of modern day strength training, we tend to think of powerful athletes. We think of Olympic Weightlifters, Powerlifters, or strong men. Then we think, well, if I do what they're doing, then my athletes will be more powerful. Right? What we're not understanding is, that is their expression of power as it pertains to their particular sport. As it pertains to running, we need to ask, what is the best way to cultivate the expression of power for an endurance athlete?

We start by loading the connective tissue. Connective tissue should be considered the framework for the body. Think of it as the foundation and framework for a house. A house that you're going to live in indefinitely. And a house that is going to have to endure an enormous amount of abuse for the duration of your stay. The structure that you will be building everything else onto. You'd want that structure to be able to withstand just about everything. 

Muscle comes next. Not just the linear tissues that everyone tends to gravitate towards. But the underlying tissues as well. You don't want just the walls supporting the structure, you need all of the insulation as well. This means that you need to address all of the rotational muscles, as well as the linear tissues. This would be the tissue acquisition phase of training. 

The body is controlled by the nervous system. And what the body is capable of doing is an expression of the nervous system's understanding of the body. The exercises that the traditional strength training systems assign to the body don't mean anything to the nervous system. They only mean something to the strength coach assigning them. The brain doesn't understand squat or deadlift. It only thinks in movement. It only understands acquisition. What's the optimal way for me to pick something up off the ground? When you see children playing with toys, they use the squat as a movement to acquire the toy they want to play with. And more often then not, that's the appropriate resting position to play with the toys because the ground that they have to play on has the most space available in which to act out the scenario they have cultivated in their imagination. And it gives them the most mobility in which that scenario can play out. The deadlift is the best way to bend over and pick something up. It is not the best position in which a child can play. It consumes too much energy.

Your brain lives in the deep dark cave of your skull. The only understanding it has of the body is through the signals coming up from the body. Basically, it has a map of the body based off of how we use it. If there are ranges of motion that we don't use often, those areas of the body will fade and the areas we use more will be highlighted. It only thinks in movement solutions. Therefore, if a muscle fails, it will think of a solution to keep the body in motion. And it will use whatever muscles it has in the brain map to accomplish that task. An example that I use often is, if the glute fails, it will use the low back, or the high hamstring to accomplish the task of hip extension. And if that new compensation isn't corrected through strength training, that compensation will become the new movement solution for hip extension resulting in a dysfunction that will lead to pain and eventually injury. 

The solution that we need to start thinking of is an efficient path to failure rather than an inefficient one. We need to start building strength in a manner that means something to the body, rather than building strength that means something to a specific movement. Endurance athletes will experience muscle failure. Especially as their volume increases. With proper strength training and a clear understanding of what the body is capable of doing as it pertains to the nervous system is key.

All of that being said, the true definition of power is the nervous system's ability to recruit as many tissues as possible in order to accomplish the required task. It is not a 3 rep max back squat, or a 5 rep max deadlift, or a 1 rep max power clean. All of those movements are an expression of power, not the definition of power. The expression of power as it pertains to endurance athletes is the ability of the nervous system to finish the race with little to no damage to the body. Do they have a complete map of the body in the brain to allow them to finish strong and are all of the requisite tissues available to them to do so? That should be the goal of their strength training.