Why You Should Exercise for GPP

GPP stands for General Physical Preparedness. It's a way of saying that a person is fit for anything that life throws at them!

GPP Origin

It's a concept that was born in the military and emergency services, where the soldier, police-officer, paramedic or fire-fighter would often have to respond to unexpected circumstances and environments, but it carries over into the daily lives of ordinary people as well.

GPP Examples

GPP requires that we be capable of doing any physical activities that may be required of us in the course of our life. Most people lead very sedentary lives, but nonetheless will at some point have to:

• Run for a bus, plane or similar.

• Get down on the floor and get back up.

• Carry objects.

• Perform physical chores.

• Climb stairs.

• Walk moderate distances.

• Pull luggage around in an airport.

• Play with children/grandchildren.

Some of these activities become challenging for people at an alarmingly young age if their lives a physically inactive. Others creep up over time.

The goal of GPP is to stay physically fit enough to perform everyday physical tasks without discomfort or risk of injury.

Training for GPP

In order to achieve GPP the best strategy is to have an exercise routine that addresses the 4 Functional Fitness Pillars:

1. Leg strength via squatting movements, hip-hinging movements and stepping movements. You legs have to carry you for the rest of your life, so it is imperative to keep them strong and maintain mobility. If you never want to need help going up the stairs or getting on and off the toilet, then train your legs!

2. Upper body strength: using the upper body to push and pull from a variety of angles. The upper body is typically neglected by non-athletes, but we are hand-skilled by nature, so we need to maintain upper body strength and mobility to allow us to perform manual tasks.

3. Core strength: training the core to brace, flex, extend and rotate safely. back-problems are the most common musculoskeletal complaint that serious impacts our quality of life. Too much time spent sitting down and not performing physical activities have resulted in populations with atrophied core strength.

4. Travelling: The ability to move from A to B using a range of methods e.g. walking, jogging, running, sprinting, swimming, cycling etc. We need to be able to keep ourselves moving or we will become prisoners in our own homes, rooms and bodies.

A comprehensive GPP exercise programme will address the above, developing them in balance to best prepare us for the demands of life.

GPP For Grandmothers and Athletes

The good news is that this method not only works for the average person, but also serves to best train even athletes for a wide range of sports and activities.

The old philosophy was that to train for a sport you were best off simply training in that sport, and maybe doing some jogging to "keep fit". But in recent years it has been proven that GPP programmes improve the performance of athletes even if they train areas not obviously relevant to their sport.

CrossFit HQ tell the tory of training the US ski team, and including pull-ups in their programme. Given that there are no obvious requirement for upper-body pulling movements in skiing, this was initially met with scepticism and even concern that it might "imbalance" the skiers, but at the end of the programme, performance had improved across the board.

General Physical Preparedness benefits everyone by making them more capable, resilient and adaptable. So maybe you should structure your training around it too!

For a GPP gym training programme, or personal training, send an enquiry to ollycatfordpt@gmail.com.