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how to build to your 1rm
The Basic Principles Make informed decisions, not predictive decisions. Check your recent records and use your current performance to guide your planning. When making decisions during lifting, don't use the perception of effort to determine what will happen in the next ones. Let your movement and technique be the facts on which you base your...
What are you getting out of your training?
I love coaching, I love training. I have spent several years of my life in higher education institutions earning various degrees. However it’s in the gym that I have learned the most. Watching people sweat, talking about food, feelings, and the biomechanics of the squat, is where I have seen the most epic battles, and where I have had the biggest impact. I love it. Nonetheless there is one aspect of training/coaching that I have not yet learned how to address very well and that bothers me constantly. This post is an attempt to start changing that.
Why train?
In the world of fitness it’s common to hear that you should find a “why” for your training. The idea behind this practice is to find an emotional connection to some part of your identity to use as motivation whenever you feel like you want to throw in the towel, or not get out of bed for your morning workout. Although this can be very useful, it is also the source of a plethora of cheesy motivational memes and worse, it comes with the assumption that exercise is inherently good for our health and all we need is more motivation and willpower. This seems like an innocent idea but it is NOT. This way of thinking takes from us the opportunity to question the physiological purpose of our training, and in doing so set us up for failure before we even start, regardless of how many hours of sweat we put in. I believe that this is the kind of “why” we should identify. Let me explain.
Slay your inner troll!
Trolls suck, and even though they are an Internet creation they are pretty much everywhere IRL too. Yes, they might be called douche bags, and they are not constrained by gender, race, or religion. The only thing that unifies them is that they are just a waste of time and energy. But my experience is that when it comes to fitness and nutrition, we all have an inner troll. And to be honest, this is the worst kind of troll there is.
Francy's Rower and Outcome Oriented Mindsets
“How is that working for you?” is a rhetorical tool I use with a lot of my athletes. Whether we are talking about a nutritional habit, a workout strategy, or a marital problem, I have found it to be very productive. This is because it is a grounding experience when one asks it honestly. It prompts the person in front of you to really match what they are trying to get out of their behaviors with reality.
The Value of Zone 2 Training
Man! You know Francine, she gives it to me straight. We know she does not like it when I talk too much. And you probably can guess she hates it when I talk to her about meditation and mindset. Now imagine what happened the other day when I told her: “we are going to use...
