5 reasons why SAPT’s adult training options are for you!
5. Because rather than perpetuate imbalances with your current 60 minute wander around the gym/sit on the recumbent bike, mouth agape routine, you’ll be provided a thorough individualized training program applicable to your specific needs and goals allowing you to hit the gym with vigor and purpose. Dare I say you’ll experience results?
4. Because you won’t be allowed to avoid the things you hate, the things you didn’t know you hated, and learn to embrace these things as the most important parts of your week (well, almost most important). Learn to enjoy movement prep, mobility, and soft tissue drills designed specifically to improve active range of motion around joints and soft tissue quality. Muscular knots and adhesions don’t resolve themselves through quick, unfocused static stretching routines; in actuality, they’ll typically make the knot tighter leading to further discomfort. Knead those knots and adhesions out with our localized soft tissue techniques and experience improved recovery, less inhibited movement patterns, and a general feeling of relief.
3. Though you’ll miss the SAPT coaching staff and community feel of the SAPT training facility during your offsite training sessions, you’ll be able to pacify our SAPT cravings through our thorough and extensive, mobile devise accessible, SAPT Exercise Database. Enjoy the descriptive prose and meticulous demonstrations to ensure you’re executing with perfect form even offsite, on your time. There’s only one way to garner the intended benefit of a training stimulus, and it’s through perfect execution. Going through the motions will elicit blah training effects, plus it’s kind-of unsafe…You exercise to improve your health, right?
2. To stave off type II (fast twitch) muscular atrophy and neural drive impairment. As one ages, without central nervous system activation, and therefore limited type II stimulation, type II fibers will actually disappear (to never return again) and thus significantly lower strength and power output levels. Not only does this present grim performance and overall functionality implications, but structural repercussions as well. Because type II fibers are more hypertrophy inclined, neglecting their recruitment will overtime significantly speed-up muscle mass decline. Consider there is a 10% decrease in total number of muscle fibers per decade after the age of 50, and it’s a wonder the majority of the “well-seasoned” population hasn’t evolved into soft, slithering, amoebas of goo (HA, I had fun writing that!). Our adult programming safely implements compound movements and drills designed to improve power output to elicit the physiological responses necessary to ward off the dreaded “amoeba of goo” condition. Besides, throwing medicine balls is just freakin’ fun.
1. Because you’ll relearn how to take time for…yourself…it’s okay, you’re allowed.
Your first step towards a more pain-free, stronger, youthful you in 2012, starts by clicking here…
You’ll love it…
Chris
Inspiration from Matthias Steiner
So, yesterday I began to type up a post related to Olympic lifting, when I was reminded of a video Chris and I had watched together over a year ago that had literally blown our socks off. We were in the middle of a lift and it swiftly gave us a roundhouse kick to the face and re-centered our perspective on things. Not only did it remind me that there are people out there cleaning, and then pressing overhead, more weight than I can deadlift, but it showed me yet another example of what can be accomplished when your mind is unshakably fixated upon something.
Maybe most of you have already seen this; if not, then I encourage you to watch it below. This is taken from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and features Matthias Steiner, who, at age 25, is competing for the Gold medal. The most moving part about this was not only did he clean and jerk 258 kilograms (that's 568 pounds for us Americans....yep, I'll wait for you to regain consciousness....), but his young wife of only two years had died in a fatal car accident the year before.
While Matthias knelt by her deathbed, he made a promise to her that he would become an Olympic champion.
He was the underdog in the tournament, and cleaned+jerked over 20 pounds more than he had ever lifted before. (For those of you who understand elite-level lifters, you know how incredible this was considering Matthias's training age). I think my favorite part about this is watching his face as he stepped onto the platform and grabbed the bar. Despite the fact that there were millions of people watching him, there was NOTHING on his mind except the fact that he WAS going to rip that bar off the floor and throw it overhead.
Matthias took his body and mind to a level that most of us will never even dream of. He defied logic, and slapped the face of the limits that are often imposed on us by others. He took something tragic that happened to him and made it into something good. Instead of sulking in a corner for the years following his wife's tragic death, he allowed the loss of her to push him and strengthen him to the point of accomplishing a near-impossible promise. The last promise he ever made to her.
An indelible lesson for all of us.
Remember Why You're Here
The other day, one of our baseball guys was deadlifting and, upon finishing his second work set, turns to me and asks if he can put another ten pounds on the bar. Given that his form was less-than-impeccable, I gave him a simple "No." In fact, I wanted him to take it down ten to twenty pounds, as it was his lumbar spine that was buckling (I wouldn't have been as concerned if it was something like failing to keep his neck packed or forgetting to finish the movement with his glutes). He immediately became exceedingly frustrated and started rambling about how he felt like he wasn't as strong as he thought he should be, and that he ought to move UP, not down, for his next deadlift set, how he felt it had been too long since he improved in his squat and deadlift, yadda yadda yadda.
I asked him: "Well, how have you been playing on the baseball field?"
He replies: "I've hit more home runs, my 60-yard dash time improved, and my movement, positioning, and throwing from home plate has become way better as compared to last year." (note: he's a catcher)
I then reminded him that he had averaged only one training session every 7-10 days over the past six months at SAPT (due to in-season baseball and then traveling the country playing on various club/select teams), so he was not only fortunate to have maintained his strength levels in the weight room but also - and more importantly - his markers of sport performance had IMPROVED.
I concluded with: "Don't you think this is a pretty darn good indicator that we have accomplished what you came to SAPT for in the first place?"
Our goal with him was not to put up huge lifting numbers, but to help him become a better baseball player. Does squatting, deadlifting, performing single-leg work, and movement training help us get there? Absolutely, but there's a point where we can't force bad form just for the sake of hitting a weightlifting PR that day. Not to mention, we each get only one spine. Yes, just one. It's not worth destroying it over a 10-lb deadlift personal best.
Now, this athlete is pretty accomplished (committed to a Division 1 program and was one of only two players in the entire Northern Va region to be named to the Nationals roster for the Area Code Games), so I couldn't blame him for wanting to succeed in every endeavor he put himself into. But it reminded me of something I heard from Jim Wendler when he was talking about strength training the football team under him:
"We're chasing wins, not numbers."
So simple and profound. So often we get caught up in the minutia that we forget what our primary goal was in the first place. We can't see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
Don't forget to keep the primary goal, the goal.
- If your goal is sport performance, remember that it's not the end goal to have a gigantic bench press or squat. - If your goal is fat loss, why are you obsessed about your strength levels not being what they used to be? - If your goal is maximal strength development, should you really be performing three to four conditioning sessions a week so that, heaven forbid, your "work capacity" slightly diminishes?
Heck, I remember during the Fall of 2009 I was following a program specifically designed to improve my squat, bench, and deadlift numbers. Yet, I was also performing these insane conditioning sessions multiple days per week (see video below), and wondering why my numbers were stalling!
Note: Yes, if I could go back in time, I'd give myself a quick scissor kick to the face.
My mentality in 2009 reminded me of a football player we're currently working with. He's about 170lbs soaking wet, and has been musing that he can't seem to put on any weight. But when we give him some very practical suggestions on adding some size he responds with, "Well, I also want to keep myself looking good, too."
(Dude, don't worry, your six-pack isn't going to go anywhere if you pack on some size in order to open up a can on the football field).
It's tempting to chase multiple qualities at one time, but I've found that the body responds better to sticking to ONE goal at a time, as opposed to trying tackle everything at once. In other words, it would be better for you attack fat loss, HARD, for one to two months, and then go back to your standard strength-oriented program afterward than it would for you to try and accomplish both (fat loss and setting lifting PRs) at the exact same time.
So, to conclude, remember why you're in the gym in the first place. The big picture, so to speak; and allow that to dictate your choices. Don't miss the forest for the trees.
How Bad Do You Want It?
One of the girls showed this video to me earlier today and I had to pass it along. The imagery is focused on basketball, but the message can (and I think is intended to) stand on its own.
