| Wes Kennedy |
09-22-2015 16:18 |
Definitely Not
I would steer clear of that advice IMO. Strength training (true strength training, not circuit training), will allow you to express your energy systems across a variety of modalities effectively. Strength training (especially your legs) will produce growth hormone and testosterone, increase lean muscle mass, strengthen tendons and ligaments, and increase bone density.
Here's an article I recently wrote on this topic: http://loadoutroom.com/17032/sof-tra...-leg-training/
When I prescribe single leg strength movements I start with the basics and only increase the complexity (less balance, front rack carries, etc.) as the athlete is able to adapt:
I may start with unweighted standing lunges, before moving to DB standing lunges, then onto reverse DB lunges, to reverse DB lunges on 2" lift, to unweighted RFESS/Russian Step-Ups, to DB RFESS/Russian Step-Ups to DB walking lunges (notice that locomotion comes in much later). If you see the guys at the gym not touching their back knee to the ground and swinging the DB's to move forward when doing DB walking lunges, that's a perfect example of someone that needs to regress. If the unweighted standing lunges don't look good, I'll regress them even further to some glute activation work and core stability.
At the end of the day, anyone that is telling you not to train your legs because you train them during running and rucking does not have a fundamental understanding of how the human body works. Single leg training, combined with vertical pressing, and static core work are 3 of the most common areas that I see lagging in tactical athletes. I will add one caveat, in that if an individual is nearing selection phase I would place a higher emphasis on running and rucking than on true strength work. The majority of the strength work would be found in tough, grinder, type activities. This is true for any sport, the closer you get to the event, the more sport specific the training should be.
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