A Look Behind The Scenes Of The Elite Training At Denver Fire
I braved the snow in Colorado to shoot some new training for the work we’re doing on the Training Zone and also filmed some talented runners and soccer players putting our Hip & Core System to good use.
In the process, I also got to catch up with our friends at Fire House 5 in Denver. They are a remarkable group of guys who look at their training differently. You can see what I mean in the video we threw together:
I got a great workout, which is always a plus while traveling. But it also made me realize that what we call “functional training” probably isn’t all that functional. I think it’s great that we’ve embraced multi-joint movements and using the full kinetic chain because that is how we function.
Although, the problem I see is that we’ve put exercise far too deep in a box of form and technique. We’ve established rigid norms for movement, and when we get outside of that, we believe we’re teetering on a catastrophic injury.
I’m not saying you should throw technique to the wind. Because I think there are sound principles to lifting to optimize mechanics, and usually, when form falls apart, it’s a sign of venturing beyond our strength curve. But in life, no one taught me the correct technique for moving a couch up a flight of stairs or hopping a fence, and that’s what I see as functional.
Our bodies are robust and capable of solving movement problems. You may remember this as a kid as you took a flying leap off the playground or climbed on top of the monkey bars. But when we fit our movement in a box, we begin to lose that freedom of movement.
I believe this exploration should be incorporated into our training a bit. Learn and play new sports to add new challenges. Along with this, an occasional training day that feels more like a cage fight is probably a good thing. Slam, carry, and throw things; do some crawling, rolls, and climbing; don’t worry about getting dirty.
I used to ignore this type of training because there was no progressive overload and no way to gauge performance. But after training with Denver fire, I realized that’s how life is.
