General Organism Strength

The concept of General Organism Strength was a key tenet of Charlie Francis’ training model. In essence, strengthening the body in any area will increase strength all over. The point of such a concept is that general force outputs affect the body in such a way as to increase force production everywhere. Obviously the musculature being used during the activity will receive the greatest stimulus – this is without question. However, depending on the movement and the forces being produced, the impact on the rest of the body can be quite great. Charlie often pointed to Ben Johnson’s 365 pound bench press as a perfect example of General Organism Strength in action. If one were to only look at the lifting portion of Ben’s training, there is no way he would have been capable of such a feat of strength. However, when one considers the great volume and intensity of sprint work, medicine ball throws, and jumps that Ben was performing, in addition to a low volume of weight work, the mechanisms become a bit clearer.

I personally experienced this phenomenon while in college. I was never particularly strong growing up (and still am not). During this particular point in time, the bulk of my training was spent doing Olympic lifts and squatting, with some effort being put into accessory lifts such as bench pressing, rows, pulldowns, etc. I also had never been capable of doing pullups up to that point. However, I remember one day when the program called for pullups or lat pulldowns, and I decided I wanted to give chin-ups a try, just to see if I could get one. Much to my surprise, I banged out 4 with probably a couple to spare. Now, I had been performing lat pulldowns in my training, but this was nothing new, as I had done them before. I was doing rows, but again, this was nothing new. What had changed was an emphasis on larger loads and compound, high force lifts which increased the stress on my body greatly. The result was an increase in overall systemic strength.

That was a concept that our strength coach discussed often, although not using that nomenclature. I’m also pretty certain he was unfamiliar with Charlie’s work, so it’s a concept that has been around for some time. The biggest take away from it is that one does not need to necessarily concern themselves with high loads and volume for every possible aspect of the training. Realize the impact that one piece has on the other pieces of the puzzle. A few quick examples from my athletes – a 300 squat despite nothing over 210 for 3x3. A female basketball player recently hit a 20 pound squat PR despite squatting 1 time per week, with low volume, and nothing over 85% of previous max (equivalent to 74% of new max). The totality of the stress imparted to the athlete, as well as the fact that the maturing body will naturally get stronger, should prompt the coach to be conservative in their weight room loading for non-iron athletes.

As an easy example, think of planning out your day. You wouldn’t simply make plans without considering what other obligations you have already would you? And you wouldn’t schedule a meeting to end at 1 o’clock, with another meeting at 1 in a completely different part of town? Because you know that it will take some time to get to the next destination and be prepared. Use the same concepts in your own training. Note the impact that any given session has on you, and plan accordingly.