A Lifter's Best Friend [PART 2]

This is PART 2 of last week's blog, READ PART 1 HERE.

3. Quality Training Partners

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together" - African Proverb

Lifting and strength sports are as much team-based as they are individual. While training partners can't help you on the platform or in competition , they can be a great asset to your training. The perfect training partners will

Offer additional external motivation  

Admit it, no matter how much internal motivation you have, there are some days where getting up to train is difficult. When you're sore and tired, it feels good to have a training partner pick you up and motivate you (granted they are also probably sore and tired)

I've written more in-depth about this topic in my article Surprising Reasons You're Not Reaching Your Fitness Goals. Specifically, how you can use partner training and other environmental cues to get out of your comfort zone and sustain a healthy exercise habit.
 

Be able to check and critique your form

Even if your training partners are less experienced than you, training together will benefit everyone. You can hone your teaching and instructional skills while they can learn via observation)
 

Keep you on track

Taking too long of a rest? Skipping out on your range of motion on certain exercises? A good training partner will probably let you know
 

Have similar goals and aspirations as you

Work together, succeed together.

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4. Training Tracker/software

This may seem obvious, but are you really tracking the right variables? While a good ol' notebook works for many athletes, utilizing a tracker or some sort of software to analyze your poundages and training data will take your training to the next level (well only if you know what to do with the data!)

Training Metrics

Since most programs are prescribed on the microcyclic level (week to week), tracking variables such as: Average Weekly Volume, Average Weekly Intensity, Peak Volume, Peak Intensity, will give you a better overview on your overall training stress and how progress in the upcoming microcycles. How do you know if you're progressively overloading or if you're peaking for your competition correctly if you don't track these variables?

Graphs and Charts

Written numbers give you a general idea of your training volume, intensity and stress, however, graphs and charts are often a better way to beautifully present and analyze your training data. Many of us are visual learners, and unless you're a tech-savy individual or Excel worksheet genius, creating your own graphs and pie charts may be too time-consuming or out of your scope of practice. Luckily, there are websites/softwares such as MyStrengthBook that do all the work for you. If you're even semi-serious about tracking your training, I recommend you check it out.

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5. Mobility Tools

Dedicated training requires dedicated recovery. The bigger and stronger you get, the more you have to pay attention to recovery modules like sleep and mobility.

Not All Strength Sports Require The Same Degree Of Mobility

While I don't believe that strength athletes should aim to be as mobile as a yogi or gymnast, I believe they should be able to maintain or reach a certain level of flexibility (and stability) in order to effectively and safely perform their sport-specific movements. The degree of flexibility and mobility required by a Powerlifter differs to that of a Strongman or Olympic Weightlifter. 

Tools For A Healthy Body

Foam rollers, lacrosse balls, thera canes, resistance bands. All of these devices and toys have been popularized over the year in the fitness industry to fix all your mobility issues, aches and nagging pains. From anecdotal evidence and personal experience, these tools have helped my clients and I manage pain and increase muscle range of motion among other benefits. However, the underlying mechanisms are still being discovered. The science behind foam rolling, the human fascia and manual therapy are still being researched and developed. For example, foam rolling is technically NOT considered myofascial release, but there are still benefits to foam rolling. I urge you not to neglect flexibility and mobility work, but I'm also not a proponent of spending too much time rolling or stretching, which can take away from your sport-specific training.

Use all these tools effectively and soon you'll be getting bigger, faster, stronger all while reducing your chance of injury. Please like and share if you found this article useful, check out my Facebook page and Instagram below!

Guilt and Shame: Motivation For Exercise and Gym Attendance?

Photo Credit: Psypost.org & U.S Pacific Fleet

Today, I came across this article: http://www.psypost.org/2016/09/mens-hidden-guilt-shame-body-fat-can-fuel-gym-attendance-study-finds-44867

Body image, expectations and attitudes towards exercise is usually a topic for women in mainstream media. However, this article/study examines how feelings of guilt and shame in men affect their exercise habits and gym attendance. These are my thoughts:

"The researchers found that men worried about body fat were more likely than others to undertake spontaneous, unplanned work-outs – and warned that these ‘sporadic’ exercise patterns tend to be difficult to sustain over time."

Sporadic exercise patterns are better than no exercise at all. Some people/trainers may say: there is no harm in feeling a bit guilty for not hitting the gym, whatever gets you up and moving. I generally agree with this. In my experience, many guys need a little kick in the ass to get them started. Whether these exercise patterns can be sustained should be addressed AFTER someone has already started exercising. It is then a matter of habit formation, support systems (friends, family, workout partners) and most importantly whether they're seeing results or not.

"With the recent growth of ‘selfies’ and the return of muscle-bound Hollywood hero icons like Vin Diesel and Hugh Jackman, there’s a real risk that males may be more influenced to attend the gym more regularly and workout to a point where it becomes dangerous or detracts from their wellbeing."

Looking and feeling like Superman is a "real risk" I believe people shouldn't be afraid of taking. How many people do you know where their well-being is being threatened by regular exercise? Please note that many middle-aged celebrities are on some sort of testosterone-replacement-therapy. A guy in their teens, 20s or even early 30s can build a healthy physique and improve their health and well-being naturally. Exercise is also about balance. How can you fit exercise into your life without detracting too much from other areas such as work and family?

For others that have struggled with their body image and their fitness, I urge you not to take the role of the victim. Find a trainer, watch some Youtube videos, ask a friend to go to the gym with you. For the first few weeks, its okay to let the feelings of guilt and shame motivate you to get in the gym, on your bike, in your running shoes; or whatever gets you moving. Those feelings will go away as you start to change your perspective on exercise. A lot of people seem to forget exercise improves mental health as much as it does physically. What starts out as a sporadic exercise schedule will develop into what I hope to be, a healthy habit. 

Thanks for reading!

Link to the study mentioned in the article:  http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2016&issue=09000&article=00024&type=abstract

P.S. One of the best articles I've ever written is on habit formation, and how to take advantage of your environment and support systems to reach your fitness goals. This article has a special place in my life as it combines my experiences with science to demystify the motivations and steps required to form a healthy exercise habit. Its all about stacking the odds in your favor.

Check it at my fitness colleague's website:

 http://www.fitnesspollenator.com/2015/10/surprising-reasons-youre-not-reaching-your-fitness-goals.html