Tension Is A Choice

As of this writing—early 2021—the ephemeral trends of popular fitness seem to have at least embraced one fundamental truth of training: the body is one piece. Strength coaches and educated trainers have been speaking the language of “movement patterns, not muscle groups” for quite some time, and it has stuck. For now.

Of course, if you’re bodybuilding or training specifically for physique aesthetics, it’s entirely fine to think in terms of muscle groups. Day 1 is chest & back, Day 2 is shoulders & arms, Day 3 is legs and abs (but you skip Day 3 because you “run for legs”). But if you’re training for strength and/or sport, this muscle-based classification system will not serve you as well as movement-pattern-based classifications. Dan John has done the heavy lifting for me on this already, so there’s no need to rehash the thing from top to bottom. Go read Intervention. 

You’ve probably heard of the fundamental movement patterns already: push, pull, hinge, squat, gait, core, everything else. Coaches each have their own little tweaks to that list—is a lunge a squat, or is it it’s own movement pattern? Are bicep curls a pull, or an everything else? I don’t know, and fortunately that’s not the point of this article. That was just my intro.

The point is this: if we agree that a movement-pattern-based system of classification is superior to the Frankenstein approach handed down from bodybuilders of the 1970s, then we can agree on a fundamental truth of training. The body is one piece. If the body is one piece, then training it to function as one piece is important.

We’ve all seen folks in the gym holding planks for minutes on end, their back sagging down like a worn-out mule. No tension in the core at all. Useless. 

Maybe you’re guilty of flailing your legs to eek out one extra pull-up. Do you think that makes your back stronger? It doesn’t.

How about pushups where the body moves like a wave, gently washing up on the beach. This is a display of compromise, not strength.

In every exercise you do, you should ask yourself “how can I bring more tension to the table?” Fortunately, there are some general rules and principles that will help you get tight, and if you obey these rules in your training, you will get stronger.

The Laws Of Torque

Kelly Starret has a helpful model for how to best apply tension through ball-and-socket joints—your shoulders and your hips. The idea is to apply tension by externally rotating inside the joint itself. Applying “corkscrew pressure” through the joint will lock everything down and connect your limbs much more securely to your torso.

Corkscrew your feet into the ground.

For lower-body lifts like squats and deadlifts, “screw your feet into the ground.” Note that the foot will not actually move as you apply this tension—but you will feel your hips lock into place. 

Practice a few bodyweight squats without losing this corkscrew tension. Note how much stronger your hips feel. If you haven’t been using this technique in your training already, it will take some practice to make it automatic. That’s fine—practice until it’s automatic.

The same principle applies to upper-body lifts. Your push-ups, pull-ups and bench press will all benefit if you observe the laws of torque. Screw your hands into the ground (push-ups), or break the bar (bench press, pull-ups, etc) and feel how your shoulder sucks into the socket like a turtle pulling its head into the shell. Practice this technique with push-ups, focusing on keeping the corkscrew tension consistent throughout the entire range of motion. 

Screw your hands into the ground (push-ups) or “break the bar” (bench press, pull-ups).

Just as with lower-body lifts, note that the hands will not actually move when you corkscrew your hands into the ground—instead, the tension will radiate up into your shoulder socket. Strong. Good.

Irradiation

“A muscle working hard recruits the neighboring muscles, and if they are already part of the action, it amplifies their strength. The neural impulses emitted by the contracting muscle reach other muscles and ‘turn them on’ as an electric current starts a motor.”

—Charles Scott Sherrington

Irradiation is another very important tension technique. Like the above quote explains, if you flex a muscle as hard as you can, the nearby muscles will activate and “share the load” to a certain extent. 

For a simple example, make a fist—you feel the tension in your hand. Now make a tighter fist—you feel the tension go up your forearm and bicep. Now make a white-knuckle-psycho fist—the tension floods all the way up your arm and into your shoulder, lat and pec. That is irradiation.

Consider the myriad benefits of this. First, you are engaging more muscle and trying hard, so that’s good. Next, you are getting tight, and probably lifting in a safer manner, so that’s great. Finally, you are bringing the maximum amount of muscle to the task at hand to amplify your strength, so that’s fantastic.

The most straightforward drill I use with clients to practice irradiation is the Hardstyle Plank. This is not one of those enduroplanks that you hold until you pass out. The Hardstyle Plank involves getting as tight as possible for 10-15 seconds. Why only 10-15 seconds? Because if you are as tight as possible, that’s the longest you’ll be able to hold it before you feel some of the tension slipping away.

Get in the plank position, but on your elbows instead of your hands. Now run through this checklist: quads tight, glutes tight, core braced, drive your elbows toward your feet, white-knuckle fist, and hiss—“TSS! TSS! TSS!” As you hiss, feel the tension in your core ratcheting up and up.

The Hardstyle Plank = maniacal tension.

You don’t want to pass out when practicing the Hardstyle Plank, so try to keep the tension out of your face. As you get better at summoning up maniacal levels of tension in the plank position, start practicing bringing that level of tension to the other exercises you do. Watch your performance soar.

Conclusion

If you haven’t been practicing bringing this level of tension to your training, don’t expect it to feel normal at first. In the beginning, you will need to constantly remind yourself to get tight. You will enjoy the feedback from your body that you are lifting like a professional, and that will be your motivation. Before long, applying these tension techniques to all of your lifts will be automatic, unshakeable. Tension is a choice—choose wisely.