You’re all back from your holidays, you’ve shown off your booty gains, drunk your weight in banana Daiquiri and eaten your weight in doughnut. So, it’s time to snap out of holiday mode and into your new Momentum training phase. 

This time we are going to talk about robustness and solidity. Wtf? I hear you say. Over many years of training, when a barbell or a weight lands on us we flinch, jerk, buckle, we lose form, leak energy, when someone walks into us we bounce off them, when we get physically tired we round out, our form begins to fail, our posture weakens and we become more injury prone. 

We are looking for strength for the everyday, for the unknown and the unknowable: moving stuff around the house, lifting stuff and shifting stuff in day to day life (and let’s not forget, looking great whilst doing it). You’ll note I’m trying my utmost not to use the phrase functional fitness, only because I don’t really like it and it conjures up all sorts of over-worded windy discussions about what is and isn’t functional. In our experience at Momentum it just means being fitter and stronger.

In this phase we will be focusing on the basic lifts in a functional strength range (5-7 reps) with a good balance of accessory work, Olympic lifting, shifting, moving and grooving (bring back disco). The breathing will be heavy and hard but all with control. 

A lot of you peeps know your lifting numbers and your current limits pretty well: we want you to push this envelope. That doesn’t mean breaking yourselves, it means getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, getting solid under those bigger numbers and heavier breathing and learning to work and stay tight at higher percentages of your 1rpm.

The overall program will follow a consistent pattern so you can get a rhythm, learn and master the movements and work those lifts with intent. Consistency is key, when we have consistency then and only then do we look for frequency (more often) and intensity (when we talk about intensity in S and C terms we are talking about weight moved – this can be per rep or in a set or a total weight % for the session). I can crack on for hours about building foundations but I’m sure you’re all bored now...

There is a master plan, there is some work to be done, stick with it and trust the program, listen to your coaching team and enjoy the journey.