Some programs work your muscles and other's work your movements. GSC uses a blend of the two called Chain Training, which I go over in more detail in my book Smart Bodyweight Training. If you haven't caught that book here is the general idea behind it.
Chain training is more of a mental focus toward your training than the actual use of the body. It doesn't focus on working for individual muscle groups like in bodybuilding or physical therapy. It's also not about taking an athletic approach to training where you focus on movements or doing physical activity.
Both muscle and movement training is perfectly valid as they each help your mind focus on how to use muscle tension. In muscle training, you're focusing your mind on placing tension in a select muscle to create an aesthetic balance or to shore up a weak link that may be causing dysfunction. Movement training is best for those looking to perform better and using tension to satisfy a standard of physical performance.
Through a specific tension chain of muscles to improve physical performance in basic movements. Each of these tension chains is the collection of muscles responsible for the activity. You focus on putting tension in the muscles to accomplish the task at hand. In this way, it's a combination of both movement and muscle training at the same time.
This mental focus ensures you gain the benefits of both approaches. You can selectively place tension in the muscles you want to grow while building the coordination that will improve your functional performance.
Through a specific tension chain of muscles to improve physical performance in basic movements. Each of these tension chains is the collection of muscles responsible for the activity. You focus on putting tension in the muscles to accomplish the task at hand. In this way, it's a combination of both movement and muscle training at the same time.
This mental focus ensures you gain the benefits of both approaches. You can selectively place tension in the muscles you want to grow while building the coordination that will improve your functional performance.
This mindset is why GSC workouts are broken down into working your
various tension chains rather than identifying with specific muscles or
movements. Although, you'll probably find each tension chain may classify as a "leg day" or "back and biceps day" depending on your definition. So without further ado, let's take a look at the six tension chains in the body.
First, we'll take a look at your three-movement chains. These are the three tension chains that are responsible for the movement and locomotion you experience daily.
Your foundational movement chain is your squat chain. It’s comprised of every muscle from your waist down including your hips, glutes, quads, Hamstrings, calves and even the muscles in your feet. The functional purpose of your squat chain is to do everything from walking
and running to stepping up and crouching down. Anything that you do with your legs involves your squat chain. Even everyday actions like standing still or getting out of your car require your squat chain.
Your push chain includes your chest, shoulders, triceps, and the extensor muscles in your forearm. The primary function of your push chain is to move your hands away from your torso in any direction. The most common motions include pushing against an object, like when opening a door, punching, and reaching up above you.
Your pull chain is on the opposite end of the functional spectrum from your push chain. It includes all of the muscles in your back, your shoulders, biceps and your forearm muscles that close your hand into a grip. While the push chain is about pushing your hands away from your torso, your pull chain pulls your hands closer to your torso in any direction. This action naturally occurs when you pull something to yourself or pull yourself upward, but it's also involved in all forms of carrying and holding onto something. Your three-movement chains comprise most of the muscles in your body and will cover the majority of physical actions you do in sport and life. Just working these three chains will do a lot, but they still leave a few cracks in
your functional foundation. That’s where the three support chains come in. These three chains are the typical muscle chains often referred to in kinesiology and physiology disciplines. Unlike the movement chains, they use their involved muscles to flow tension along the entire length of your body. Functionally, the support chains are somewhat in opposition to your movement chains. Movement chains are about dynamic movement first and isometric support second. For example, rock climbing may use your squat and pull chain to move yourself up a rock face while you use your flexion and extension chain to hold yourself to the wall. Meanwhile, support chains primarily provide control for your body first and the dynamic movement second.
Consider picking up and moving an object like a box of books. When you
pick up the box, your pull chain is providing support while your extension chain is responsible for most of the motion of picking something up. After that, you use your extension chain to support your body as your squat chain dynamically engages to move you around.
Understanding this helps you optimality condition each of the chains.
Focusing on movement first and support second is the best way to train your movement chains. The best way to train your support chains is with support first and movement second. There are plenty of exceptions, but this is generally how to train these respective chains best. Let's explore your support chains in more detail. Your extension chain runs along your entire backside from the top of your head down to the bottom of your feet and includes your toe flexors, calves, hamstrings, glutes, spine erectors, and the muscles in the back of your neck. Its primary function is to extend your body into an upright position and help you bend backward. Much of the time, it's working to help you maintain an upright posture without bending forward.
Flexion chain. Your flexion chain is the opposite in function and physiology to your extension chain. It's a chain that runs along the front side of your body, including the front of your neck, abdominals, hip flexors, quads, and the muscles in your shins.
Functionally, this is your "abdominal" chain that helps you flex your body forward like when you sit up out of bed or lift your legs. It plays a dominant supportive role by maintaining a straight posture when gravity is pulling your hips down and forward like when doing push-ups or slouching forward.
Lateral chain Your lateral chain comprises several of the muscles in both your flexion and extension chain, but the use of tension is different due to your relationship to the resistance on your body. Some of the most notable muscles include the adductors and abductors in your hips, obliques, spinal erectors, and shoulder muscles. Some of your more prominent back muscles, like your lats, can also play a role in your lateral stability.
From a functional standpoint, your lateral chain does a lot, including twisting and rotational movements. It also helps to provide lateral support during unilateral activities where you use one limb differently than another.
Putting this all together, GSC uses these tension chains to make sure you involve every major muscle group in an efficient functional way. Workouts aren't broken up into muscle groups or movements but rather tension chains, which makes them both streamlined and effective. So, without further ado, let's start to explore each of the tension chains in more detail, and the best progressive exercises you can use to make that chain bigger and stronger.
Grind Style Leg Training We begin the exercise journey with the most functionally fundamental tension chain, your squat chain.
This tension chain includes every muscle in your lower body, but it also uses some tension in your core and upper body for stability. All muscles in this chain play multiple roles, including locomotion, balance, and stability. Also, your squat chain is capable of a wide range of functional speeds. Kicking, sprinting, and jumping all require explosive power while standing and holding a stance to use tension for isometric control.
This is also one of the most potent tension chains for helping you burn
calories and manage your weight. Nearly all high-calorie expenditure
activities use your legs to generate a lot of power for long bouts of time. Just over half of all of your total muscle mass resides in your lower body, and one of the best ways to burn many calories is to work as much muscle as possible at a given time. Therefore, the stronger and healthier your legs are, the easier it's going to be to burn calories. Also, few motions have as much of a positive influence on your functional performance as the squatting movement pattern. It’s the perfect blend of strength, stability, and mobility to enhance your ability to perform any activity you do on your feet. When your legs are stronger, you become stronger overall. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. You can build up your core and upper body all you like, but if your legs are weak then you will be weak as a whole. While this is one of the most powerful tension chains, it's also one of the most dysfunctional due to modern living habits. Most notably, sitting in chairs and cars has caused destructive tension habits to take root in even seasoned athletes. Tight ankles and hips exacerbate knee pain, lethargy and compromise your overall balance. Even poor posture can be traced back to dysfunctional tension habits in the lower body.
All of these reasons and more are why the GSC approach to leg training can be so vital. Tension control and stability are not just about helping you build muscle and strength, but also help rebalance your squat chain. You'll find the holistic approach will loosen up your joints which helps stress evaporates from your lower back and knees. There's a lot at stake here, so let's get right into how to effectively work your squat chain with the four phases of a GSCworkout.