Image by Mirko Blicke
Training an Everyday Athlete begins and ends with Foundation Building. It is a specific training focus to be emphasized at the novice levels, yet requires continual maintenance work as you grow. To do this, we focus on four Foundational SkillsâŚ
Foundational Skills
Your physical Foundation is based upon four main skill sets. Some coaches and trainers like to talk about âprimal movements" or âcore movement patternsâ - this is my version of that idea.
Before diving into each one, I want to take a minute to emphasize the skill part. These are things to be practiced in order to get better at the thing itself. It isn't about muscle groups, or cardiovascular health, or body fat, or any of those things. The Foundation Building stage is about running to get better at running, throwing to get better at throwing, etc.
Hauling
Running, Carrying, Pushing, and Dragging
The hauling skills are about upright movement from place to place - locomotion on two feet. This includes walking, jogging, and running in all directions (forwards, backwards, or sideways).
It is called âhaulingâ because it should usually be practiced with load - by carrying, pushing, or pulling something heavy around. Sprinting or intense agility work can be substituted when necessary, but is not be core focus of this skill.
Vaulting
Jumping, Hopping, and Tumbling
The vaulting skills are about leaving the ground and impacting with it, whether thatâs jumping up, down, over, or across. This also includes somersaults, cartwheels, flips, and dives.
These skills should mostly be performed from a stand still, but occasionally including practice from a run or other dynamic movement can be very beneficial.
Throwing
Tossing, Heaving, and Slamming
The throwing skills are about propelling something away from your body with force. This means single handed throws, heavy two handed throws, or slamming something into the ground.
Training should favor a variety of throws, but should focus on either load or distance more so than accuracy.
Crawling
Hoirizontal and Vertical
The crawling skill involves coordinated effort of the lower and upper body. This mostly involves movement along the ground on all fours, but also includes rope, net, tree, or wall climbing in a vertical plane.
Crawling is harder to load than the other three, so the focus should be mostly on distance. For ground based crawling, try to move slowly and deliberately to ensure youâre not letting speed get you through challenging parts.
Putting it into Practice
Now that we know what Foundation Building involves, how do we actually do it? There's two general waysâŚ
Learn or Play a Sport
The simplest and easiest way to build your Foundation is to play a sport or learn a new activity. Soccer, rock climbing, baseball, parkour, all of these will help get in that base level of work.
If you've never played sports of any kind, now is your chance to experiment. Toy with activities, find local groups, find classes, watch YouTube videos.
Time spent experimenting with new activities is very important as a learning tool. You'll get a handle on your strengths and weaknesses, but also start to figure out what sort of activities you enjoy.
Of course, the downside to this is that some Foundational Skills will be emphasized and others may barely be touched. You can include other sports and activities to cover those bases, or look to the next methodâŚ
Train with Medleys
Iâve spoken of medleys a few times in the past, but to summarize the concept, it really just means doing a series of short distance-based exercises back to back.
Medleys are the absolute best way to train these four foundational skill sets. Below Iâll list three ways to do this, but youâre welcome to be creative here. The goal of Foundation Building is skill practice more than anything else, and the more time you invest, the better you get at the skills.
The Backyard Medley
This is the main way I engage with medleys. It involves a small to medium sized open space where you can leave materials lying about. Some gyms have spaces dedicated to this sort of work as well.
The core of the medley is working through each category and doing the relevant work âthere and backâ for each, before resting and repeating. The distance doesnât particularly matter all that much. Use what is available and do as many rounds as you can in 20-30 minutes.
Hauling: Choose one implement (dumbbells, sandbag, drag sled, wheelbarrow, sack of laundry, a training partner, etc) and move it back and forth in a different way each round. Hold the implement differently, move sideways, backwards, etc.
Vaulting: Like hauling, choose a different jump or tumbling movement each pass. If youâre vertical jumping, take a few steps before you jump each time, so that you still cover distance.
Throwing: As space is smaller in a backyard medley, use a heavy object like a medicine ball, sandbag, large rock, or similar so that each throw is only a few feet. Like the other categories, try to throw it in a different manner with each pass.
Crawling: Move on all fours across the ground in a slow and deliberate manner. Vary the pattern that the hands and feet move in with each pass, as well as the direction you move in (forward, sideways, backward).
Rest: give it a minute or three, but donât rest too long, because the goal is to do as many rounds as you can in the time alotted.
And thatâs basically it. You will likely be fatigued, out of breath, and sweaty, but itâs still helpful to think of it as practice. Youâre not training like this for strength or fat loss or muscle mass, even if all those adaptations will happen anyway. Youâre doing this to get better at a breadth of skills that will serve you in everything else you do.
The Open Field Medley
Like the backyard medley, this one involves a large open space and longer distances. You can, of course, just use the backyard medley here, with lighter loads and variations that arenât as taxing in order to allow you to cover the needed distance.
But thereâs another way that also adds some fun to the mix if you have vast spaces. The only equipment you will need is a highly visible ball of some sort.
Throw the ball as far as you can with your dominant hand.
Sprint to the ball.
Throw the ball with your offhand.
Crawl to the ball.
With two hands between your legs, throw the ball upward in a high arc.
Jump, tumble, or cartwheel to the ball.
Rest a bit and repeat.
This is a fun variation of the backyard medley that illustrates how you can substitute distance (running, throwing, or similar) for load. You can mix these two methods together too!
The Stationary Medley
This last one shows how to make this work in a small space with the right equipment. I definitely donât recommend this if you can get outside and actually cover distance.
Hauling: march in place with load - either a barbell on your back or held in the zercher position, a deadlifted trap bar, or a sandbag on your shoulder.
Vaulting: vertical jumps and box jumps work great; otherwise a hang power clean or hang power snatch is a good alternative.
Throwing: medicine ball slams and throws are great; otherwise stick a barbell in a corner and do pivot presses.
Crawling: this is a weird one, but without enough space to move I think your best options are a bird dog crunch but done in a crawling position, or a thoracic bridge.
Like before, these options can be mixed in with the other medleys if needed. For exercises like this, Iâd focus on not counting reps, but working each until fatigue sets in. Stay fresh in the beginning, and let fatigue build over your alotted time.
Iâd still vastly prefer Foundation Building be done where you can cover ground, but not everyone has that luxury.
In Closing
If youâre new to training, working on the Foundation Skills like this 2-3 times a week will go a long way toward making you fit, even if itâs all you ever do. Even if youâre an experienced trainee, this sort of work can benefit you if you donât do train in a wide variety of modalities. Try it once or twice a week and see.
Like most things in life, a focus on the basics can result in huge progress.
Those with a keen eye might have realized that the vertical aspect of crawling has been sort of ignored in these medleys. Thatâs not on purpose, but the constraints of performing medleys often results in hanging and climbing being left behind.
My next article or two will cover some other ways to train these four skillsets, and climbing work will definitely make a strong showing there.