Dissected Fitness

Monday- Chest day, Tuesday-Back and Biceps, Wednesday- Legs, Thursday -Triceps and shoulders, Friday- Leg day part 2. Maybe that's not the split you use, maybe your a simple upper lower split or some other workout split there are lots of them. All of these splits have the same inadequacy it comes from a dissected understanding or view of the body. To simplify the idea at its roots treats individual muscles as independent only linked together by function. For example chest it supposes that chests function is to press or fly and that the job of the triceps and deltoids is to assist in that. How does that training method work with our understanding of the body as one highly integrated system? Is it possible to train individual muscles and expect them to work together in a system?

Well the short answer is NO! Look at any team sport if the offense doesn't practice against a defense then a offense can't function properly. In fact take it a bit farther football for example, what good would it do wide receivers to practice without a quarterback? Wide receivers could run the whole route tree but without experience adjusting to a ball or a defender on them they wouldn't make for good receivers. Same with connected muscles in the body. Working the glutes and hamstrings without the lats for the functional line won't produce better functionality. See as many professionals will tell you the body is a truly marvelous piece of bio-mechanics and unlike regular machinery if one part breaks down the machine breaks. With the body if one part breaks or is weak the body finds a way to keeps going. Because that is the design of the body one part is weak so the body compensates. When you simply strengthen a muscle it makes the muscle stronger yes but doesn't help the muscle work with the rest of the body. Just like only working a wide receiver without a quarterback. Until next time keep it RAW!