The Chain Gang or a complete idiot explaining the lower muscle groups.

Alright, I've been getting a ton of screaming from Angry about using the terms "posterior chain" if I had no idea what it is/why it's important. So I will give the evolution of what I thought it was/ what it actually is.

Angry uses it in post.

What I thought it meant: Fancy word for ass.

Scolded, maybe there is more to it than the gluteus maximus (ok spelled wrong, but I haven't read in Latin in over 6 months, bare with me.)

Lift with Angry, see him do dead lifts, squats mentions that I should work the chain.

What I assume it to mean: Lower back, hips, glutes, hamstrings, essential the muscle groupings from the lower lumbar sections to the upper legs, essentially mostly covered by my tri suit.

Why I felt it was important: Well, after a series of long hilly rides constantly left my lower back in pain, my hips occasionally felt thrashed and like always my legs were rubberized, I figured working the lower back, hams, and glutes might help reduce injury risk and increase power out put and therefore speed, also working on it would prevent me from having to stand to throw on my running shoes in transition after mountainous bike routes. Granted I've been in the weight room the grand total of 5 times this season, this month and next I'm having Alex show me strength work outs to work the chain so I can become an unstoppable force...( Howard Dean yell here.)

Use it in post, find out I spelt posterior wrong and in my assumption forgot to include one major leg muscle group, the calves. Was again smacked by angry.

After a frantic email to my friend a personal trainer, searching the web for a strength site that could tell me more of the anatomy, I found that the calves are part of the posterior chain and therefore the importance of strenthening it for sport became clear: The posterior chain is the source of all lower limb locomotion and power, in essence it is speed, it is power, it is hobbling down the Queen K after 9+ hours of abuse, or down the 100m straightaway in 10 sec. or less. Work the chain and you will be able to run/ cycle/ swim/ lift/ longer, harder, faster. Work it and the core ( the muscles of the chest and trunk, pectorials, abdominals, obliques not really positive if the arms count in this one...will research and edit appropriately) and overall fitness greatly improves.

Ok so it wasn't a technical post with diagrams, pie charts and rudimentary Latin,but I proved that I get the concept of the importance of" the chain".

I'm putting on my crash helmet for the major beatdown I'm going to get for posting this one.
R.D.