restore: the legs program

Never underestimate the importance of the

basics and fundamentals:

One of the leading strength and conditioning coaches in the world, Bret Contreras, who is known in some circles as “The Glute Guy” (as he’s written multiple books on the topic of how to train the hip girdle) posted on Instagram recently, expressing his frustrations with the fitness industry in this day and age.

He said, and I quote:

“Lately, I’ve been struggling to come up with good ideas for content.

I recently found myself being envious of my colleagues who post carousel vids of their workouts every day. How easy would that be? No studies to summarize, no infographics to make, no thoughtfulness required. Just post a handful of videos at random, making sure to incorporate a lot of variety. And making sure to film the right angles and look sexy.

The thing is, that shit doesn’t work. Doing random workouts every day probably delivers half the results of a well thought out program.

My workouts are boring as hell because I mostly do the same stuff week in and week out. Setting records and engaging in progressive overload sucks. It’s definitely not sexy.”

What is my point in sharing?

Great training isn’t about sexy new movements, variety, or looking good, it’s about advancing and mastering the basics and going back time after time to progressively load those basics. 

The meat and potatoes of the MOST important training we will ever do is rooted in the “same old movements,” not just “done” to check the box, but done progressively. 

As Bret points out, that kind of training is neither sexy nor easy!    

Advanced training is nothing more than the basics, mastered.  And progressed. 

So….if YOU are going to progress using this program and get the results you want, you better make sure you’ve got a good handle on basic core and hip stability first, before delving into this more advanced program.

To put it simply – any kind of foot and leg training that is going to be productive and beneficial must happen on top of a stable, balanced, base of support.

That base of your support is your hip and pelvic girdle. 

Time and again, I meet with and speak with athletes looking for the secret or the key, to improving or taking the next step in their training. Its what I do. 

In nearly every instance, as we look back on their training and progression over the recent and distant past, to assess why they may not have progressed as they hoped, we very often identify that it is the BASIC stuff – the same things we discussed on the day of their first analysis – the fundamentals, that are STILL lacking and/or that haven’t been addressed.

Please keep this in mind as you move forward and look for the magic bullet.

Whenever you feel it’s getting a little icky, a little complicated, just go back to the basics and fundamentals. Avoid the temptation to be drawn in by some secret recipe or sauce.

Address the basic skills and abilities and look to MASTER those. That, my friends, is your secret recipe and the ultimate key to your success.