THE EXERCISE PYRAMID
The exercise pyramid is a simple guide that I have learned from Tommy John iii (@tommyjohniii on instagram). It is divided up into three layers. The bottom is the most basic form of movement and exercise, the middle is the most commonly seen workouts, and the top is extreme/specific movements such as sports. Something to keep in mind before reading is that the body doesn’t know what any certain movement is. It’s all just certain inputs of stress the body receives. Something else to keep in mind is that the entire body either levels up together or fails together.
Allow me to explain. Let’s take your current body. Today, you will perform enough stimulus in your right calf muscle that it causes a decent amount of strength and hypertrophy adaptations to occur. Not only did your calf muscle get stronger, but the entire body leveled up because of this.
The reason I am saying this is because it relates to the exercise pyramid. The bottom most level of the pyramid is the most basic moves. On my Instagram video I say crawling, any form of isometric, and any movement of a joint is the basic level. Literally moving your wrist and foot around in circles hundreds of times in a day (example), holding a plank (example), and crawling.
My explanation of these comes from the nature of a baby. The only things babies do to get to the next level of movement-walking- is moving joints, holding positions (isometrics) and crawling. It needs to master those before walking. Therefore any and all humans who are future clients of mine, must master the basics before continuing onto the more interesting things. No baby walks without crawling (f*ck the cdc for saying otherwise), jumps before walking, or jumps before landing. It’s the circle of life, and it applies to exercise as well.
One of many reasons we see an epidemic of kids injuries is because so much focus is placed on sports specificity. Kids are getting better and better at their sport, but worse at the basic human fundamental movements.
This brings me to the middle pyramid block. This is what I see as the majority of movements performed in the gym. All these exercises rely on mastery of the previous block. Meaning in order to perform these movements, one must be proficient at moving any and all joints numerous times, crawling, and holding isometrics in a proficient manner. Tib raises, Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Pull ups, Landing and Walking. These are all basic movements that rely on some prior mastery of “baby” moves.
Lastly, we have sports, sport specific movements, running and jumping. This should be the least performed (in most cases) because it is the most specific. And the idea is to prevent the body from adapting to something very specific, because it leaves out many other movements and strength gaining opportunities. For example, I was a runner for 4 years. I was pretty damn fast, however I was only good at running. I was weak, fragile, and my aerobic system was only good for running. It did not translate to biking or swimming. As health facilitators and coaches, we need to keep this in mind when dealing with athletes, especially young ones. We want to take a couple steps back, examine them as if they’re human (because they are!) and have them master the basics, so that in the future, their pyramid becomes wider in the bottom, and sharper at the top. Meaning by mastering the fundamental movements of a human, they are then allowed to express more potential in their sport.
No human walks before crawling. No human runs before walking. This is my understanding of the exercise pyramid. I hope this finds you well, and that you learned something.