Overwhelmed

“The problem is choice.” – Neo

 

The Matrix has a split crowd when it comes to it’s impact as a movie/film series.

 

Looking further into it and the metaphysical side of things can drive many to tears, yet some of the quotes from it really are quite applicable to life.

 

Take the one from Neo written above.

 

A quote that applies greatly to life because in my experience in working with many people, from varied backgrounds and levels of understanding/experience, the problem really is choice.

 

You can choose utility or euphoria.

 

What you need or what you want.

 

One leads us down a life that to some may not be exciting enough, yet a good one never the less.

 

The other yield endless pleasure at the cost of sustainability.

 

In the modern world people will say you need a mixture of both, or some other such idealist rant/quote and while the intentions are all well and good it still doesn’t help solve the problem, choice.

 

Choice can literally paralyse some people.

 

Too much of it and we shut down.

 

Did you know our brains can only process so much information at once before we become overwhelmed and it literally shuts down to rest it’s cognitive ability.

 

This is why the term of bullshit baffles brains is actually quite accurate.

 

You find sales people and those trying to influence/argue will use this tactic and fire information out left and right because most people just can’t keep up, and there is a tipping point where they shut down and become incredibly susceptible to influence or having ideas be forced onto them.

 

A true feat of skill in my opinion.

 

Is it morally/ethically a good one, well maybe not if used for nefarious deed, however it’s still impressive for people to use it well.

 

Think Darren Brown, and people like him, their mind works in a way I couldn’t even begin to explain, and the speed of which they think, words escape me.

 

Yet this allows them to do what they do with hypnosis/persuasion and all that other impressive mind trick stuff.

 

So yea, just something worth remembering.

 

Too much choice overwhelms you.

 

How can you use this knowledge to your advantage?

 

Offering less choice, that’s how.

 

Be this in the sense of business, training options, nutritions, or life, less is truly more because you will have time to make a conscience choice, maybe even a good choice too.

 

If you’re offering PT to a new client, give them option A or B.

 

Nothing in-between, no hidden agenda, just A or B.

 

Peak Hours or Off Peak Hours, choose wisely.

 

^^ I got that from Charles Poliquin, may he rest in peace.

 

Here is a little process I personally use to help with setting up many aspects of my life (training, business, the lot really).

 

Step 1 – The filter of three (is it true, good & useful)

Step 2 – What two choices will be offered?

Step 3 – Let the people tell you what they want*

 

*If it’s not in your option A or B, then you may choose yourself to have a discussion with the person, for whatever reason it is, or not, that’s your choice to make.

 

Keep things as simple as possible.

 

You should investigate this thoroughly.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

Test Your Might

“If you’re not assessing you’re guessing.” – various strength coaches

 

You may have heard these words before, but now I’m going to show you what they really mean.

 

– Finding gaps/holes in people fitness

 

Beware though, this will leave a fair few in a potential state of dismay because they’ve over estimated their abilities and now feel stupid.

 

Well, men will feel stupid and then justify why and make up 1000 excuses.

 

Ladies on the other hand will hold themselves back, which makes them look equally as stupid as the gents who try to reenact feats from their teens.

 

The funny things with testing is that it’s not mean to upset.

 

It’s merely a set of objective test to help gain an understanding of a persons current level of fitness.

 

***Tests can vary based on the goal or discipline***

 

It’s also worth remembering that a test only gives a piece of the puzzle, this is where we have the need for ongoing assessment.

 

What tests/assessments you choose to do will vary base don the context in which they’re required for.

 

As such there are no ‘perfect’ tests.

 

Yet there are still some that yield some great insight in to what people might be lacking in a vernal strength/ability sense.

 

Here are three of my favourite ones that people can’t hide form.

 

1 – Pull Up 1/2/3/4

 

Grab a bar (any grip, however DOH is my preferred).

 

Hang for 30 seconds, do 1 pull up.

Hang for 30 seconds, do 2 pull ups.

Hang for 30 seconds, do 3 pull ups.

Hang for 30 seconds, do 4 pull ups.

 

Come down safely. The feeing in your hands will return shortly.

 

Completing all 10 reps means a person will have more than enough upper body strength to do pretty much everything, if they can’t hang for the first 30 seconds then the’ve got work to do.

 

*Advanced Variation – there isn’t one, this is tough enough 😂

 

2 – Deadlift Max

 

Perform single deadlifts (any variation with a straight bar is acceptable).

 

Increase weight until speed is lost, this is safer than going until form starts to lose its tightness.

 

Bw on the bar is okay.

1.5xBw is decent.

2xBw is more than enough for people to be awesome.

2.5xBw+ well, that’s just impressive.

 

*Advanced variation – how much can they pick up from the floor and put overhead in a strict press fashion.

 

**BW on the bar is where most men ideally want to be, ladies 3/4bw, if either exceeds this then applaud because it’s well deserved.

 

3 – Squat & Hold

 

Perform a full ROM squat (hip crease below knee line).

 

Sit here while maintaining good posture, this is a mobility test.

 

30seconds is minimum required for health.

60sec is decent.

2min is very impressive.

4min+ guess they’ve got no need for chairs any more.

 

*Advanced variation – Overhead Squat. Being able to perform this movement is a good standard for many people to aim for.

 

The tests above are nothing spectacular, they’re merely three tools I’ve used over the years that have always provided a good baseline understanding of a persons level.

 

If someone maxes out all of them their training will be most enjoyable to program.

 

When we see gaps in one or more of the above that means their training will be set up to address those first.

 

The above is also most optima for the AVERAGE PERSON.

 

Yep, an average Joe or Jane that can do well in all of these will often have solid posture/strength, good body composition and move well.

 

Several things many people desire.

 

If you are training an athlete or someone for a specific goal then you may have specific tests you need to utilise.

 

You should investigate this thoroughly.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

3 forgotten steps for setting good goals.

Chances are you’re aware that setting your sights on the far horizon is a great way at keeping you focused on the path that lay before you.

 

We often find it’s once we’ve achieved the goal that things go wrong.

 

Once the praise has drive up and people are no longer falling over each other to congratulate you and grab a selfie, many begin to fade away.

 

Sadly the heights they’ve reached are now lost.

 

You see once you make a good change you are no longer in the place you were when you started aiming for that goal.

 

This is the biggest mistake you’ll see from people.

 

Achieving a goal, enjoying their time at the top, stagnating and slipping backwards due to a lack of attention/praise, then they attempt to repeat the previous steps and find they don’t quite work in the same way if at all.

 

You see our bodies are clever little organisms.

 

They remember previous stressors, they adapt to them and put in place mechanisms/systems to deal with that specific stress just incase it ever happens again.

 

You may have heard of this called the law of diminishing returns.

 

Put simply what once worked perfectly will often never work that well again.

 

Many people fall in to this trap and get frustrated.

 

“It worked before so why isn’t it working now? – I know, I will just do more of this and that will fix it.”

 

^^ Sometimes, for a short time this works, then you crash and burn.

 

Realistically this adaptive process our bodies have is something to be highly thankful of because without it we’d probably not be here.

 

As such if you want to keep getting praise, admiration and people flocking to you in their murder, then you need to keep your finger on the pulse of fitness.

 

“If you do what you’ll always done you’ll get less than you did before.” – Me 🤗

 

Don’t believe me?

 

Check out the people who try to out-train multiple glasses of wine and other alcoholic beverages by more work, they fail severely and each video/photo that goes up on the gram you can see they’re getting a little bigger each time.

 

Ah, survival and adaptation, we love you.

 

The big question then comes in to play; how do you avoid this?

 

That is where the three forgotten steps of goal setting come in to play.

 

1 – Reassessing your current level.

 

This is because you’ve got a new baseline now and what worked before may not work again, or if it does the results will be drastically lacking when compared to how you did previously.

 

Getting a new set of stats will help you logically plan the steps you NEED (objective truth) going forwards.

 

2 – Being objective in your estimations, not emotive.

 

Setting a positive emotion to your goal is all well and good, however people don’t move towards pleasure, they move away from pain.

 

Emotions can have to going back to the things you like or feel comfortable with, while it may give you the warm and fuzzy feeling you enjoy, this doesn’t mean it will get you to your goal, for that you need to be objective.

 

Example: Squats, Deadlifts & Sprinting will do more to build a solid pair of legs and bountiful booty than crab walks, cable abductor or kins backs ever will. This is an objective truth, not an emotive bias.

 

3 – Start of doing less than you think you should, just do it (less) better.

 

The trap of more ensnares a lot of people (myself included).

 

After a period of detraining you need to take a step back, perhaps starting off easier, lighter of with less volume than you FEEL (emotive response/bias) you need because you can’t progress if you don’t allow yourself to.

 

Hard to hear yet often necessary, well, if you want to make progress anyway.

 

🤗🤗🤗

 

There you have it, three elements of goal setting that people forget.

 

Here is a little something to get you started, it’s an ultra simple strength & conditioning routine.

 

Day 1 –

A1 – Press (any variation) 2×5-7

B1 – RDL 2×8-12

C1 – Sprint 8/22 x10min (8sec work, 22sec rest)

 

Day 2 –

A1 – Squat (any variation) 1×20

B1 – Supinated Row 2×6-8

C1 – Loaded Carry (any variation) x10min max distance

 

Day 3 –

A1 – Clean (full or power) 2×3-5

B1 – Dip 2×8-12

C1 – Rope Climb (no legs) x10min or Row 4-6×400-600m

 

The above are all working sets, they don’t take in to account warm ups leading to the main weight. So 2×5-7 means 2 GOOD sets of 5-7 with a close to all out effort (RPE 9).

 

Oh, one more thing, you’ll need to tidy up your nutrition.

 

The easiest way to strip of excess fat is with optimal nutrition, it’s far easier not to eat the 1000 calorie tub of ice cream than it is to burn it off.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

Why let your body rot?

“Life is to be lived. A nobel saying, yet life is also suffering and endless struggle. To life a full life you must learn to survive, become resilient and above all else, be human.”

 

It’s fair to say some start off with a better hand than others.

 

Same goes for athletic attributes, some people are just better than you from day one due to having a better pay out in the genetic lottery.

 

If that offends you because you feel no one is better than anyone else then you’re just being naive.

 

Talking objectively life just isn’t fair, it is what is it.

 

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t progress and really carve something meaningful out of what stone you have to work with.

 

Just because one master sculpture has marble to work with that doesn’t mean they will create a masterpiece, it just means they’ve got better raw materials.

 

Same goes for you in your life.

 

Relating it to fitness, you have your body, now you can bitch and moan about how it’s not as good as someone else’s and even use that as an excuse to make little to no progress, I personally won’t begrudge you that, however while I will accept that choice I won’t respect it because you can do better.

 

We can all do better, or at least strive to.

 

You don’t need to be a world champion, however you do need to be better than you currently are.

 

Not in thought or feeling but in practice.

 

Are you getting better year to year, or are you letting life grind you into a broken mess of injury, illness and disease?

 

20-30min per day, that’s all you need to become anti-fragile.

 

If you claim not to have that time I will call bullshit it every time because you’re just being lazy due to your own physical wellness not being a priority.

 

Don’t do it to yourself, please.

 

Life is tough enough as it is, the least you can do is look after your body, in fact below is a little something to consider, it’s a example of 20-30min of activity for an entire week (doesn’t mean you need to do all 7 days, I just felt like giving you 7).

 

All of the below will be done for 20-30min.

 

Day 1 – Kettlebell Swings (single or double arm)

Day 2 – Mobility Work (yoga flows etc)

Day 3 – Clean & Press (any object of a decent load)

Day 4 – Skipping, or some conditioning work

Day 5 – Pull Ups or Climbing

Day 6 – Loaded Carries (any object of a decent load)

Day 7 – Mobility Work (yoga flows etc)

 

You’d be amazed at how the above can improve you life.

 

Of course you don’t need to do any of the above, it’s just the wish of a foolish old man who’s seen too many people end up in a shit physical state due to neglect that you’d avoid this unfortunate outcome.

 

The choice in the end is ultimately yours.

 

Remember, “Grow strong, not old.”

 

Enjoy,

Ross

***Why training 2-3 days per week is actually better for you than 5-6***

Across the years of ramblings you’ll find many a message on here.

 

Some align and fit together nicely while others contradict each other.

 

Each post is often written based on its own context, however in fitness you will find that most of the time things don’t really line up, unless you loos specifically for things to make it happen.

 

Take the above, training 5-6 days per week is 100% the best option for some people, especially competitive types or those with specific goals.

 

In fact, hitting up to say 15 sessions or more per week is the way for some, just not all.

 

Would it be great if everyone could train multiple times per day?

 

Yes, if you look at all the information, both imperial and anecdotal, you will find that training for around 45min per session (that is time spent in the working zone, that doesn’t include warm up/cool down) done multiple times per day is literally the best way to train.

 

There is only not problem, it’s not viable for 99% of the people.

 

Okay, maybe 98%.

 

You see while the above is great on paper it doesn’t take in to account that little thing called ‘life’ for most average people.

 

Yes you are an average person, just like me.

 

As such you don’t need to total 800+ training sessions in a year, you just don’t, I mean come on people, yo’ve got to live as fulfilling life that has more than just training in it (unless you’re a super athlete and paid to do a sport/train, in which case you do your job).

 

This is where you find training 2-3 days per week helps.

 

It seems like it’s not enough.

 

Trust me I understand that agonising pang.

 

At one stage in my life even saying those words would freak the shit out of me and I could swear that I’d just instantly gained 3% body fat from uttering such heresy.

 

Obviously that didn’t happen, however it was quite the large clue that the ‘healthy mindset’ of fitness has become poisoned and in fact my addictive personality had taken over.

 

You see my end there is a tendency to replace one addiction with another, that’s a story for a different day though.

 

So what can training 2-3 days per week do for you?

 

Well….

 

– More freedom to have a life & pursue other pleasures

– Require logical training (no fluff, just productivity)

– Ample recovery

– Higher adherence as getting 2-3 days in out of 7 is easy

– Reduced stress

– Progress (due to actually recovering – SAID, GAS, etc)

– Time, you get more time and that is a precious thing

 

With the points about they are all pretty self explanatory.

 

The big three though are having less Stress due to not needing to live in the gym, if you only train twice that’s cool, whereas having set rota of 6sessions and when miss one you freak out it just doesn’t make for progress.

 

Also training less days means that you are more productive and can really give it a good effort and then actually recover enough from said session to legitimately progress your next session. Very hard to do if you train all the time.

 

Lastly is the fact you’ve just got more time.

 

This means you can give more attention to life, perhaps even tidying up your nutrition or just generally being more chilled because training is there to enhance your life not take it over.

 

Now I can’t just let you go without a little something.

 

This is not body body building, it will be for overall strength and conditioning, if you would like a specific example let me know in the comments below.

 

Here is a small template for training 2-3 days per week.

 

Day 1 – Posterior Chain Focus

Day 2 – Full Body Focus

Day 3 – Performance Focus (optional)

 

Some training ideas:

 

Day 1 – Posterior Chain Focus

A1 – Deadlift (any variation): 5-25 total reps

B1 – Pull Up: 50-100 total reps

C1 – Odd Object Clean & Press: 10-100 total reps

 

Day 2 – Full Body Focus

A1 – Squat: 50-100 total reps

A2 – Dip: 50-100 total reps

B1 – Bent Over Row: 50-100 total reps

B2 – Press Overhead: 50-100 total reps

 

Day 3 – Performance Focus (optional)

A1 – Power Clean or Snatch: 5-25 total reps

B2 – Push Jerk: 5-25 total reps

B2 – Sprint: 30-60m

C1 – Loaded Carry (any position/variation): 10-20min

 

Give training less an honest effort, you’ll be amazed at the results you can get from doing less better.

 

Enjoy.

Ross

7 Interesting Intervals.

Sadly we live in a world where the larger majority of people don’t wish to know ‘why’ something works, they just want something that works.

Now, what works will largely depend on these following factors:

– Training age
– Chronological age
– Health status
– Physical status
– Individual difference (genetics)

We can throw in a few more however those are some pretty notable ones people tend to miss along with this one:

– What is the desired outcome/goal

It’s fair to say not everyone wants to know how things work.

This is cool, however that means that said people should do as they’re told because if they don’t wish to know more than they don’t get to sit at the big table.

A fair compromise, wouldn’t you agree?

Well here are the intervals for you, no further detail, just protocols you can use, then reuse time and again.

1 – 30/30/30 –

Pick on lift and do 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off for 30 rounds.

2 – 12/8 x20min –

12 seconds all out sprint, 8 seconds recovery, repeat for 20min. Use a watt bike or erg for the ability to track power output (make sure it stays high/consistent).

3 – 30/60 x30min –

Pick one movement/activity and do 30seconds work, 60 seconds rest, repeat for 30min.

4 – 1/2/3/4/5 –

An accumulation of work. You start off doing an interval of 60 seconds, then rest 60 seconds. Next do 2min of work and rest the same 60 seconds, then 3min of work and so on, all the way up to 5min. Hill sprints are nice here.

5 – 20/20/20 –

Pick two opposing movements/activities.

Perform the first for 20 seconds, rest 20 to change moves, perform the second for 20 seconds, repeat for 10-30min.

This works well with classic lifting movements.

6 – 5/15 x10min –

5 seconds on, 15 seconds off for 10min, best served with power related movements, such as medicine ball slams, rope slams, etc.

7 – 5/2.30 x30min –

5 min on, two and a half off. A classic aerobic interval.

Try this with loaded carries of 30-50% body weight, by the end of 30min (4 rounds) you will know its benefit.

There could be many more options.

In truth the original title of this was 17 Interesting Intervals.

Why did I chop it down to 7?

Put simply it’s because simply copying protocols won’t get you anywhere because you will always lack that deeper understanding of why you are doing what you’re doing.

While I may know the reasons for the above, you still don’t and that won’t help you become better, either as a coach/trainer or a person who enjoys training.

My real advise is as follows:

Learn how to program based on correct work to rest ratios for performance.

This is instead of doing what every other jackass does just to make people tired.

If tired is how you want to feel then go run marathon, do 1000 burpees, or 20 3min rounds on the bags, you will feel nice and dead however you might not get any benefit from it.

Go away an learn about interval programming, what true HIIT actually is, for the love of all that is holy do better because you owe it to yourself.

Enjoy,
Ross

Why inclusivity is destroying fitness.

Controversial, right?

In a world where everyone is now special, needs a cuddle and has to have everything just as they need it otherwise a safe space, blanket and glass of warm milk are required, we’re truly becoming detached from reality.

Don’t get me wrong, or do, it doesn’t really matter.

Being inclusive and trying to appeal to a wide audience isn’t the devil, however it is leading to people putting feelings above what is perhaps needed or practical.

While feelings matter if we don’t ever learn to deal with the uncomfortable ones we can’t grow as a person.

Too much people now and everything spoon fed to them.

The regression to a childlike attitude in the growing population of adults is frightening because as time goes on and the larger majority become mentally softer it leaves the door wide open for nasty things to happen.

Without hardship you can’t develop a level of toughness required to survive.

You can see it in fitness across the modern world.

Pandering, kid gloves, pointless praise and more.

It’s the adult equivalent to pinning up a child’s picture of a macaroni owl on the fridge and saying – “Wow, this is so GOOD” when in truth you know it’s a piece of shit that looks nothing like an owl and that it was made in the dark using their feet, yet you say it does to protect their feelings.

Yet you teach a child that for something else to go on the fridge it needs to be better than this… ‘owl’…. tough as it might be it helps the child grow and start to appreciate the need for standards, effort and ‘good work’.

Praise is only given when deserved, it shouldn’t be on tap.

If it is then it means nothing.

These days though there can’t be any negativity because negativity (constructive criticism) is the devil!

It’s not you know, it’s a necessary and essentially part of life.

Being all inclusive and trying to cater for everyone (in fitness) is the same as leaving the tap of praise running.

We need structure, we need levels of hierarchy (yes, I said it) because this helps uphold a standard and allows for people and the industry to grow.

Why lie to people and tell them they’re doing well when in reality their standard/quality of fitness/result is akin to that of the macaroni owl.

True enough everyone starts somewhere.

This doesn’t mean that we bring down everyone else level/standard to appease the bottom feeders.

Dragging everyone else down to make others feel better is backwards, this is why inclusivity and catering for everyone is destroying fitness and even overall standards across the broad scale of life, in my opinion anyway because that’s all these ramblings are.

While many won’t agree that people need to find a level or as some say ‘their place’ in the world, without such things in place to sort the wheat from the chaff and provide the protectors and people who will do what is needed, the door will be left wide open for some nasty things to come through it without any resistance.

What do you think?

Please do share your thoughts below.

Hello life stress, my old friend

On a scale of 1 to ‘for the love of all that is holy, not again’

 

How stressful is your life?

 

The other day a video found its way from my phone to the mythical place where dreams are born and also go to die; Instagram.

 

A classic satire piece about people who claim stress is the cause of al their problems.

 

Specifically stubborn fat, classically belly fat.

 

While this may indeed be true in some cases, plus there is some info worth delving in to regarding excessively elevated levels of cortisol, insulin resistance and a whole host of other things such as adrenal fatigue, that amount of excessive and sustained stress isn’t not that common.

 

Ah, I can hear it all ready – “Well you don’t know me, blah blah blah.”

 

Okay, I get it, you’re special and your life is far harder than everyone else’s. Now hush and go back to your doughnut.

 

We tend to take our bodies for granted you know.

 

Stress, while a tragic an horrible thing to be under, it’s not quite a simple as people think.

 

I’m sure you’ve heard the terms eustress & distress.

 

If you haven’t then this is a nice play to start and you can delve further from here:

 

https://www.mentalhelp.net/stress/types-of-stressors-eustress-vs-distress/

 

Here is what they mean in short:

 

Eustress – positive stress

Distress – negative stress

 

When people come under fire from life they see it immediately as the negative form, which it might be however it might not, a topic for another day.

 

So you’re under a lot of stress, thus gaining fat is the result.

 

Because the stress is making you overeat, which it kinda is and at the same time you’re making the choice to over eat due to how it makes you feel (habit = trigger, response, reward etc).

 

To combat this you go to the gym and absolutely destroy yourself with all the HIIT (which isn’t really HIIT), multiple classes and 2+ hour sessions as the norm 11 days per week.

 

Yet you still continue to gain fat.

 

Stress clearly is the culprit, or is it?

 

Well yes and no, you see the truth is this; the picture is far bigger than you’re perhaps willing to see and stress is perhaps only one, or maybe three pieces out of a 100 piece puzzle.

 

Yet given how it’s easy to blame and vilify we will do that instead of seeking the root cause/other factors.

 

Fun fact; you need stress to survive 🤗

 

One of the main reasons we are where we are is because of our ability to adapt and overcome multiple stressors.

 

Pretty neat right?

 

Right, I’m rambling so I better get to the point.

 

Stop blaming everything on stress because it’s not the only factor.

 

Here is a simple 5 step guide to help you become better:

 

1 – Keep a diary that is 100% honest & true (food, feelings the lot)

2 – Take a good long look at the diary and see what is going on

3 – Find gaps in your life, such as poor sleep, poor food quality etc

4 – Address the gaps with actions, behaviour change and new habit formation (plus old habit degradation)

5 – Repeat steps 1-4 from this day onwards

 

Above all else you just be willing to help yourself.

 

Stress is a necessary part of life, you can’t get around that, however how you CHOOSE to deal with it makes all the difference.

 

React emotionally or respond intelligently, choose wisely.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

Training vs Testing

Are you training or testing when you’re in the gym?

Hitting the gym is a ‘healthy’ habit of many these days.

While shifting some iron is all good, as is spamming out a 10k, consistently trying to one-up them can soon become problematic.

A common training trap to fall in to is the one of constantly testing your limits rather than building/increasing them.

This happens in part due to the ego we all have.

After all, once you start getting a name for yourself it becomes easy to link your very soul to that thing you do and to drop off some time on a 10k to allow recovery or perhaps run less total distance freaks people out.

Same goes for lifters, they end up using the same weights as they don’t want people looking down on them.

Insecurity really does become exacerbated in the gym.

Taking the time to step back and allow yourself to actually progress can be the hardest lesson to learn.

Cycling training loads, playing with total volume, deliberately programming to allow progress can be the hardest lesson for many to learn.

I’ve spent years trying to reach people in the right way for them.

Some have a lightbulb moment, others dig their heels in.

Most have the attitude of – ‘well a little more won’t hurt’.

Dear friends, when was the last time you made decent progress?

Answer this to yourself honestly.

Cut all the bullshit and excuses that you may dream up and really assess the place you’re in and compare it to say 5 years ago, have you really progressed or not?

If the latter is the answer then that may come from the fact you’ve been testing yourself too much, instead of building.

I speak from experience on this one.

Don’t waste years of your life going nowhere.

You’re not that important, no one cares if you go in and run 5k instead of 10, or press the 30kg dumbbells for sets of 12 instead of the 40’s.

Only your ego cares about such trivial things.

Don’t become a slave to it. Don’t succumb to the allure of constantly testing your body, train it to be better, train it to progress.

By all means plan in a test perhaps once or twice per year, just don’t do it every session.

Any questions please leave them below.

Enjoy,

Ross

No pain, no problem… right?

Just because you’re not in pain that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.

 

Being the intelligent bunch you are I’m sure you understand that pain (more often than not) is the end result of the wheels falling off something.

 

Sadly many wait until this point.

 

If you are to take a look at your overall structure, movement, muscular balance and performance you’ll probably see gaps and potential for an issue of two to arise.

 

This is where pre-hab is important.

 

The whole mantra of ‘prevention is better than cure’ is 100% on point in this context.

 

I personally have three main considerations you may enjoy taking on board.

 

1 – Do you have full/minimum-optimal ROM in every joint?

2 – Is your strength balanced on both left/right sides?

3 – How is your balance?

 

^^ Of course if you compete in a high level of sport then you may have some rather large asymmetries, that is the cost of the sport and eventually your bill will be due, however so long as you’re willing to pay it, then it’s all good.

 

In the context, we’re looking at those three points it refers to the average person who won’t ever win gold at the Worlds or the Olympics.

 

Now, as mentioned above you may be pain-free.

 

This is a good thing, it means your body is either nice and equal or it’s compensating well.

 

The above tests will highlight the following:

 

1 – That you can get into the right positions without compensation and if you can’t it can lead you to understand why eg, injury, muscle imbalance, stiff fascia, etc.

 

2 – Are you producing the same (within reason) levels of force each limb, or do you need to address an imbalance before you get RSI from the strong side picking up the slack of the weaker side.

 

3 – The feet can give you great insight in to where structural issues are coming from, if your balance is off the body will twist, torque, stiffen (in places it shouldn’t be stiff/loosen in places it shouldn’t be loose)and shift as required to stop you from falling over face first, this isn’t a good thing because as you get older it gets worse, so you may wish to look in to it.

 

Consider the above a Health MOT.

 

Giving yourself a check over once a month or so will do you the world of good.

 

Say you do find an issue or two, then you can add mobility work, muscle/fascial release or unilateral work in to address what needs addressing.

 

If this knowledge of what to do is beyond you then hire a professional, there is no shame in asking for help.

 

Give the above some thought.

 

Enjoy,

Ross