10 Things Ive Learned
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Over the past year I’ve had the opportunity to train clients in my “laboratory” at a local warehouse and was able to do pretty much anything I thought would work. It is pretty safe to say, that I’ve made TONS of mistakes. Looking back at programs I would do 8-10 months ago, they look very unimpressive. I am in a constant state of learning, analyzing, and so what I did 1 yr ago may not be what I agree with now. This industry is very progressive and if you are not learning, you will be left behind. There are some concepts or methods that I’ve stuck with and am a firm believer in. Without ado here they are, the introspection of a strength coach…
1) Systems Work
You must be organized and have some sort of plan. There must be a system in place of how to organize the myriad of exercises, tests, methods, etc. Methods are many, but principals are few. Without a system of how to put things together you will have trouble analyzing your methods. There should be a method to the madness. If someone is coming back from a torn ACL, do you have a system in place to return them to a normal fitness level? On the same token, what is the annual plan for your clients? In most gyms, people come in and whatever is on the trainers mind is what they do for that day. There is no rhyme or reason, long term development, longevity, or annual progression. That is okay, sometimes, but you should know where you want your clients to be in a 6 months time frame. Begin with the end in mind.
2) Strength comes in MANY forms
Strength can be displayed in many different forms. I used to think that a squat or deadlift would display your total body strength. However, they just display your ability/efficiency to squat and/or deadlift! A 400 lb squat is impressive at 200 lbs, however a 10.5 sec 100m sprint is also impressive. Or a 25 ft long jump. I will even say a marathon takes a certain strength as well, or a bike up the mountains on the tour de france. Strength comes in many forms, there is absolute strength, reactive strength, speed-strength, explosive strength, strength endurance, power endurance, etc. However, they are ALL developed from a baseline of strength. A big foundation allows you to layer more and more athletic qualities on top of it, like a building. Build up your strength and have a big foundation so you can do lots of things.
3) Something is Better Than Nothing
Growing is about constant adaptation. You must keep progressing to get better and grow. If you don’t practice it you lose it. If all you do is work at desk 60 hrs a week, then a 2 day/week program with general warms may be all you need. Eventually if you want to get stronger, leaner, etc. you might need 3x/week with a day of light warm up/recovery stuff would be good. Eventually you will adapt and need 5x/week, with a day or two of recovery stuff. Then maybe 6x/week, with a day or two of recovery, then maybe 5x/week, 2x/day with 2-3 sessions recovery. The point is, don’t just go lay down and/or sit because doing anything above that baseline will generally be better. You don’t need to go 100% all the time either, just anything above 0% (sitting, laying down).
4) I love warm ups, stretching, and recovery workouts
Oh how I love and hate this stuff. My new consensus is…you should probably be breaking a sweat before you work out. Unfortunately that means warming up for a good 10-20 minutes sometimes. Now, there are exceptions, but if your generally inactive before a workout I would recommend trying to break a sweat, then lift/run/jump, etc. Warming up increases core temperature, lubricates the joints by taking them through big ranges of motion, makes muscle more pliable, increases brain activity, and primes the body’s systems to workout. You wouldn’t take a race car out to the track on a cold day and go full bore on the first lap. You would warm the tires up, rev the engine, take a few laps around the track, get a feel for the car, etc. Same with your body, take care of it. If you don’t believe me, try waking up and doing a vertical jump right out of bed and see how high you get. Probably feels like s*&t, right? Prime your body and prime your brain(CNS) before you workout.
5) Mobile hips = healthy back/knees
If there is one thing that I’m 100% sure of its this. Watch a baby squat….picture perfect. How come you cannot do it that good? Years and years of low amplitude movements, small ranges of motion, sitting, working, life, traveling, etc. Squatting, Rdls, running, jumping, throwing, sprinting, hopping, are what I and many others call primal movement patterns. We used to know how to do them, but after the industrial revolution, the introduction of television, cars, and technology took that ability away. All I try to to do is re-teach your body how to squat. The fundamental pattern that should be re-learned is the ability to bend at your hips and keep your back straight. This is why RDL’s are so important; all it is is a hip movement pattern. If your hips are “locked up,” you will reach for range of motion by any means necessary which ends up being the nearest joints…knees and low back. Michael Boyle and Gray Cook came up with an ingenious approach called the joint by joint approach, which you can check out here. No wonder why so many people have back and knee problems….
6) There is no “right way”
Many roads lead to Rome. Methods are many, principals are few. Systems are great to have in place, however, nothing is 100% correct. Training is an art form, and there is no right or wrong way. Like Dan John says, “Everything works…for about 6 weeks.” Yoga works, pilates works, step aerobics work, kettle bells work, ropes work, deadlifts work. It ALL works. The problem is, people keep trying the same things over and over, and get the same result. If your muscles are tense and tight, then do yoga for a couple months to loosen up, then build your strength with squats, presses, etc. Then take that strength and use it by doing sprints, dance, zumba, etc. Then maybe do a spinning class to develop some endurance. Realize it all works, and the key is to identify what you need.
7). Train movements not muscles…train muscles not movements
Wait what? I know, I know. The truth is…both are true. You ever hear body builders recommendations to do isolation work and do knee extensions, curls, leg press, etc and feel the burn? But then you see Michael Phelps do nothing but practice swimming with no weights and become an Olympic champion with a ripped body? So who is right? Both! Muscles propel your body through space, and work with the skeleton to create leverages to move. When you train movements, muscles are never forgotten, unless you are all out of wack, stiff and tight. However, stronger muscles will always compensate for the weaker ones, which can lead to injury. The key is balance. How do you balance out that weaker muscle, or one that is not “firing” correctly? ISOLATION work. You are only as strong as your weakest link (muscle). Build up the weak link in the chain with isolation type movements and get stronger overall.
8) Set Goals
The business world does this very well with business plans, and mission statements. You should take a page from them! If you have no goals, how to plan to get where you are going? The more specific the better. If you say “Oh, but I do have a goal…to get more fit/leaner.” Well what does that mean? Be more specific. If you say to yourself I want to lose 5 lbs of fat in 10 weeks while maintaining my strength/muscle in the squat and deadlift. Then that tells me ok, I can help this person. Begin with the end in mind. Hold yourself accountable and make a commitment. For a great analogy, if you want to go travel somewhere warm, well do you just get in your car and head south? What if you live south of the equator? Then you would be going somewhere colder! You need a map, but even if you have a map you need to know where your going. Even if you have a GPS it needs a destination to tell you where to go. Fitness is the same way, create a map in your mind by setting goals, and specify exactly what those goals are, and then take action like crazy to try and get closer to them.
9) Beat your Ghost!
There is not much else more satisfying than beating yourself in something. If you always go the same speed, same pace, same intensity, all the time, then it doesn’t matter if you have the best program that is tailed, individualized, and periodized to your needs, you will not succeed. Have you ever played a race car video game where they create a “ghost” of your best time and then tell you to race against your ghost? Well that is what you need to do every workout! Go against your “ghost” from last week and try to beat yourself. If you thought you did good one week, then the next week you will be going against that “ghost” and better beat it! This is why workouts should stay the same for a couple weeks. Now some days will feel out of it, which is fine. Listen to your body and adjust the workout properly. Realize though the body will only adapt to the stress you place on it, and if that “stress” is always the same intensity then you will not adapt.
10) Take your shoes off!
Shoes act like casts on the feet. Feet muscles then get weak which can then leads to problems. You have 20 thousand nerve endings in your feet, which takes up a huge portion of your sensory cortex of your brain. They are there for a reason… to feel the ground you walk on and propel your body in space. Not to mention I think there are 20 something odd bones in the foot. The complexity of the foot tells me that it is important. You wouldn’t have all those bones, sensory nerves, and muscles in the foot for nothing. They are there to sense the ground you move on, and act to transfer force from everything above (your body) into the ground.