Stress vs Strain

Stress your system, don't strain it. But do stress your system. On the one side we have the trainers who fancy themselves as physiotherapists endlessly fixing "muscle imbalances" without ever actually getting anyone strong, on the other we have Crossfit laughing fondly wetting yourself during workouts. 

Some stress on the joints and muscles is not actually a bad thing. Stressing the joints and muscles is the whole fucking point of resistance training. We stress them, they adapt, we get more better faster stronger. Trainers who choose to avoid stressing the systems of their clients had better at least have charming conversation, since they won't be getting their clients results.

Stress, not strain. A stress causes an adaptation, a strain causes an injury. There's a difference. Commonly timid newbies will assume any stress risks serious injury, while macho idiots assume even a strain is good for you.

If we assume that all stressors are strains, we never make our clients more better faster stronger. We peer at our clipboards as we ponder whether anyone ever gets more than a "1" on the overhead squat portion of the Functional Movement Screen, and wonder why our only remaining client is that slightly smelly guy nobody else in the gym talks to. 

If we assume that all strains are stressors, we go the Crossfit way. We end up pumping our fist saying PROGRESS HURTS!, then less than a week later say, I'm injured, how did that happen?

Both approaches, like all extremes, are wrong and stupid. Sensible middle ground, boys and girls. The truth lies in the muddy shell-cratered No-Man's Land between the two warring armies of Gray Cook and Greg Glassman, like some wounded soldier screaming in pain and waiting for any caring person to go pick him up. Let's declare a ceasefire and go rescue him. Or you could stay in your trenches.