From:
http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywor ... ength.html
Michol Dalcourt, a longtime professional hockey trainer in Canada, witnessed this dynamic firsthand when he compared the performance of seasoned pros, placed on machine-dependent workouts, with rookie skaters just off the farm. "Ask a farm kid what they do and it's 'Chores,' " says Dalcourt. "Moving stuff. Shoveling. The body is stronger as a whole than the sum of its parts. They never set foot in the gym, but they were stronger."
A 2008 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research validates that anecdotal evidence. In the study, one group of participants worked out for 16 weeks on machines with fixed ranges of motion, while the other group used free-form weighted cables. The result? The fixed-machine group increased strength by 57 percent, while the free-form group increased by 115 percent. But even more telling, the free-form group's balance improved a staggering 245 percent, compared with 49 percent for the fixed group.
Which brings us to the state of the art in strength training. Mobile strength means training the body to produce power in an endless range of real-world movements to build supple and flexible muscles in sync with the kinetic chain (i.e., your entire body). It's the natural evolution of the functional-strength movement, and some refer to it as "usable" strength training. Whether you brand it farm-boy strength or mobile strength, it's based on the notion that the only strength that matters is the strength you use.
