The Foundational Phase of Training is the space we allow ourselves in the long-term programming journey to focus almost exclusively on developing weak links, neglected muscle groups and creating symmetry between limbs, front and back of the body and between the big, visual muscles and the small stabilizing families.
One of the special classes of exercise we use in this phase is known as 'sling' training, which has been borrowed and adapted from the physical therapy world.
At its essence, we perform a single-arm upper body exercise with a single-limb base of support, which consequently generates high amounts of tension through the core, hip flexors and joint stabilizers. Given that core strength and joint stability is a major goal of the Foundational Phase, 'sling' training becomes one of our preferred special exercises to maintain primary muscle strength and size, while simultaneously increasing core and joint stability strength.
'Sling' exercises can be performed when pushing vertically and horizontally and also in many pulling exercises too. They allow us to effectively train prime movers and stabilizers, especially the core, at the same time, which makes them very time efficient and the perfect candidates for exercise selections during the phase of training where we want to emphasize the stabilizers while not detraining the larger muscles we spend so much time on in all the other phases of training.
Check out my Foundation Happens Collection of Workout Plans if you would like to add a Foundation Phase to your year.
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