Hello and welcome to another edition of Body Mechanics. A few weeks ago we talked about finding something that you are passionate about that will make your fitness journey easier to adhere to. Surrounding yourself with the right people is equally as important because in this industry and on this journey, motivation is critical.
In the past couple of weeks I have extended invitations to many of my friends to workout and in the process I have participated in their methods and ideologies. Everyone has their own way of doing things and that’s perfectly acceptable. You can’t go your whole life thinking one way, only to realize that there were so many other things you could have tried. You must be open to suggestion and be willing to suck up your pride, exhibit humility and be empathetic. It’s important to understand where and what people are experiencing and what is driving them to workout in that matter. Everyone has their own goals and as long as they are moving towards them, it’s perfectly fine. Is there a better way? Perhaps, but as long as they are committed then it’s okay.
Part of the reason I wanted to discuss this is the fact that we all different goals. Furthermore, some people are training specifically for competition whatever that may be. My friend is a strong man competitor, let’s call him Glen. Anyways, Glen has been through the ropes time and time again. He has been training for over 15 years and is in remarkable shape by anyone’s standards. In his sport he has created his own routine and has gone to great lengths to even fabricate his own equipment. You see he is an old school weight lifter, who talked about functional training before it became a trend and has built a solid foundation of strength.
Functional training is something I have become extremely familiar with and in my opinion is essential for optimal performance. The human body is designed to work as a unit and if we train the body as one it will eventually lead to improved performance as a whole. It is applicable to sport or for day-to-day function. Whatever our hobbies are, we can tailor the exercise program to suit the needs of the client.
So back to training with Glen, we spent a couple of hours literally just playing with the equipment. I say play because that’s exactly what we did, because he had an extensive amount of lifts we could perform as part of our workout. He went to great lengths to explain many of the lifts he has in the past read up on, that by todays standards would be mocked. As I mentioned earlier some of the equipment is homemade which made the exercises extremely unusual to me but specific to his sport. He knows what he needs to do to prepare for his sport and trains in a manner that emulates just that (Functional).
In the relatively short amount of time we spent training I managed to learn a lot about him, weight lifting, his sport and his methods. A lot of what he said made sense and is applicable to the way he wants his body to perform on game day. People will always criticize what they don’t understand. That’s just the nature of the beast. The most important thing to remember is working with other people might help you push past a plateau or may help you understand new concepts. Whatever it is that you take from your time, the idea is to continue to add to the knowledge bank. You cannot hope to know everything but you must hope to continue to grow.
Happy Lifting!
