Reviving the Grecian Ideal
Stop pursuing hypertrophy to the detriment of healthy function
Anthony R. Manuele is crushing it with his podcast, The Art of Move. Subscribe now, and start listening whenever you’re out driving, walking, working out, or doing the dishes.
Episode 13 — How should you Train, Or- How should LIVE lays out a central paradox in the philosophy of strength. Anthony traces the logic behind progressive overload, motivated by a desire for aesthetic hypertrophy, i.e., “big guns”, versus more functional athletic training like GOATA (Greatest of All Time Actions), motivated by a desire for better performance with a lower risk of injury. He notes that his own training habits have changed – fewer repetitions to fail, less weight lifting, and more exercises that strengthen key muscle chains strategically, albeit without leading to the “failure” required for pure muscle tissue strength and size.
As a recent convert to GOATA principles myself, I am similarly torn by the seeming trade-off between more traditional workouts and the more functional practice of drop-ins, spiral vortex mechanics, etc. The latter movements undoubtedly feel better, and leave me feeling more springy and energetic, while the former are more depleting and can lead me to bad habits like overeating.
I’ve ultimately found, however, that there is no genuine trade-off between aesthetics and function. The problem is that we’ve let the ideal “form” be defined for way too long by a bloated and excessive version of hypertrophy popularized by muscle rags and superhero comics, emphasizing six-pack abs and bulging pecs/biceps as the apex of physical health and beauty.
Up to a point, these features may be attractive and even functional, but if we go further back to the Ancient Greeks, we see a different aesthetic, embodied in the sculptures of demigods and warriors. The Greeks trained, and even had dedicated areas called “gymnasiums,” but they weren’t doing bicep curls, barbell squats or bench presses. They were engaged in a full range of natural human movement, including grappling, swimming, barefoot running on varied terrain (including sand), throwing and carrying heavy objects, etc.
The result was a beauty that surpasses any of the models or actors sporting a temporarily dehydrated bod for the cameras – a well-proportioned physique that was literally sculpted by nature itself. The older, more “natural” modes of training lead to harmonious proportions between body parts, including those neglected smaller muscles, tendons, and ligaments that assist in non-linear motions required by real-world challenges. The GOATA coaches have seized on the non-linearity of natural movement, and devised clever exercises to selectively train patterns that mirror spiraling energy waves, allowing their athletes to generate more explosive and fluid forces on the field.
This, in turn, makes it safer to go all out in compound movements like sprints, tackles, and flying leaps — actions that strengthen through sheer intensity, even if not pursued to “failure” via progressive overload.
Louis Sullivan, the architect who mentored Frank Lloyd Wright, is known as the originator of the slogan “Form follows function.” The aphorism is taken from a longer quote, in which Sullivan wrote:
“Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. Where function does not change, form does not change…It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.”
Wright believed that the ordering of form following function had been misconstrued to imply a one-way direction of causality, when in fact they are, as Wright put it, “joined in a spiritual union.”
Does the Grecian Ideal refer to the form of a beautiful physique, or the function of a warrior diplomat, as capable in the Forum as he is on the battlefield? Is the human body beautiful because it evolved to do so many different tasks well, or does it do many different tasks well because of the proportions and even the mathematics embedded in all things enduring?
Modalities like GOATA movement, MovNat, and Knees Over Toes, all in some ways attempt to reverse engineer the process of natural movement because we have become alienated from the world in which humans originally adapted. In prior times, efficient movement was engrained into us by necessity as early as inefficient and dysfunctional movement patterns are programmed into kids today. If you had the wrong proportions or couldn’t move efficiently, you died. You don’t ever see a tiger in the gym, because he develops his “workout” and immense power through play, at first, and later the daily act of hunting and survival. The only reason we need the modalities, the equipment, and the isolation exercises, is to recover the lost strength and skills that used to be innately learned from our environment.
All of this brings us back to the practical question Manuele asks of whether there is still a role for training specific muscle tissues through exercises like the “Big 5” identified in Doug McGuff’s still-excellent Body by Science. These include a horizontal push & pull, vertical push and pull, and a leg press — all using slow movements under stress to the point of temporary muscle failure. The recommended “minimum effective dose” works out to about 20 minutes (5 x 90 seconds) per WEEK – not per day. I still think this is a sensible program, especially for older people who have more advanced atrophy and are more vulnerable to things like broken bones due to the lack of compressive stress.
With that said, there is also virtue in training strength through the movement patterns devised by the gurus of GOATA, KOT, etc., such as sled pushes and pulls and weighted drop-ins, which may not lead to failure of maximum strength gains, but which strengthen the right muscles that are most likely to protect against injury.
The exercises and modalities that come out looking worst in this analysis are those that detach form from function: most kinds of powerlifting,
Finally, it’s important to note that there is a wide range of functions for the human body in the modern age. We are no longer hunter-gatherers, and we have the luxury of choosing not only our vocation but also ample avocations and hobby sports. Knees Over Toes guy, a basketball fanatic, talks about the gratuitousness of his love of the game. It’s not essential that he be able to slam dunk and land effortlessly, without injury or strain. But it’s fun. Likewise, it’s not essential for me — a grown man — to run back and forth across a tennis court chasing after a fuzzy yellow ball. But I like it. I’ve noticed that I can also push myself harder, for longer, and come away feeling more mentally energized than when I started playing. I can’t say the same for a lot of workouts. The end result is that I’ve achieved a higher level of fitness, and even a stronger, leaner, more toned physique that displays that inherent linkage between form and function.
Charlie Deist is a Master Level MovNat certified trainer, a USCG licensed captain, and father of two. He sometimes writes at ANaturalMethod.com, where he also gives away a lot of cool stuff for free. His first book, published in 2020, was Hormetics: Physical Fitness for Free People. Follow him on Twitter @Notiontrainer.
