4 random musings from a hectic week…

Why we do what we do…

Earlier this week we had a company day with all the staff in the business present to discuss amongst other things the critical concept of why we do what we do.

Amongst the day to day madness, the rapid rate of change in todays world, and our specific business targets and objectives it’s actually easy to lose sight of the purpose of what we do.

There was a good sense of alignment amongst the team in our mission to raise standards in the industry and provide genuine opportunities for people to make an impact with their work. Our drive is that if we help the coaches and trainers out there they will be able to help their clients more effectively. This is an exponential impact that goes right to the core of the health and wellness of the nation. Help 10 coaches means we impact 1000 people. Help 1000 coaches….well thats a lot of impact!

Lofty expectations you might think? What else gets us out of bed everyday? Why settle for mediocre.

What is strength and conditioning (S&C) ?

In a recent post in UKPT’s I was tagged into a nice thread talking about the benefits of S&C for people who train at home. More specifically, why would a PT choose to do our Level 4 course if their client base was predominantly home based and had no aspirations to ‘be an athlete’ of any kind.

This is a common question and one that frustrates me slightly, perhaps down to certain organisations out there deliberately operating in an elitist manner.

Let me clarify something. Strength and Conditioning is not for athletes and it’s not for people who want to be athletes. It is for everyone and anyone looking to improve their health, movement quality and performance in life.

A good S&C coach has a higher level of coaching skill and a deeper understanding of movement, combined with an impactful coaching ability that allows you to build stronger, more meaningful relationships with your clients. Your clients could be elite athletes, children, OAP’s, and anyone and everyone in between. Our students are adaptable to any environment because we teach them in this way.

It’s always been important to me that our programmes are non elitist. Anyone at any level can work with us as a company, and anyone at any level can benefit from the programmes that our students put together. In my gym in Leeds Olympic athletes train alongside the general population, children and everything in between. This is a healthy training environment.

In short, if you want a longer, more productive relationship with your clients that comes from a deeper understanding of their challenges and how to overcome them, then look at our Level 4 and/or fundamentals programmes to start this process. Check them out here.

If you want to learn 101 variations of an abdominal crunch we are not the company for you.

Productive Training and managing overtraining

Firstly you may know that I prefer the term productive training over functional training. Functional leads to the dreaded ‘is this exercise functional’ question. (The answer to that is always it depends on the goal).

Productive leads to a more meaningful ‘has this session/programme/phase of training been productive.’ Eg has it led you towards your goals? We need to think less about specific movements and more about the combination of movements within a programme that lead to a global development.

Anyway back to the point of this.

You may know that I am training for the Leeds half marathon at the moment with a goal to complete in under 1 hour 40 minutes.

Clearly running is a big part of the training for this, but as an S&C coach my natural inclination is to incorporate strength training into the programme.

So far I’ve been doing weekly squats, rear foot elevated squats, good mornings and reverse lunges on a weekly basis.

However recently I’ve also been doing hill running. Within one session there will be around 3-4k of hill running on around a 3-8 degree incline.

I’ve seen big results with this on my strength. But I’m also struggling a lot with fatigue and over reaching.

What to do?

Well for this final block of training (5 weeks) the traditional strength work is coming out and the hills will predominate the strength training component of the training.

Why?

More specific? Absolutely.

Greater transfer? Yes.

The main reason? Confidence on the hills, psychological conditioning for the tough elements of the marathon.

Ultimately the goal is to set a good time and the balance of stress versus recovery is a fine one.

You have to select bang for your buck training modalities that will be the most productive over a period of weeks and months. For me the time has come to drop strength training in it’s traditional form.

Paying it forward

Later this month I’m giving a talk to the Leeds rotary club on my story as an entrepreneur and fighting against depression.

Later today I’m meeting with a young man that I used to coach who is now exploring university and career options. He is doing his A Levels currently and is looking for some guidance with a career in sport.

Why?

Well sure it’s time out of my day when I could be driving the business or doing something else but what is this really about? Life is a journey and to help other people with theirs is one of the most rewarding elements.

Tony Robbins talks about growth and contribution as the two highest order human needs. I personally get a ton of value out of helping other people find their purpose so I’m always keen to get involved things that allow me to do so. In fact my new business (stay tuned) is pretty much focussed on this very concept.

If you haven’t done anything like this for a while or you’re a little stuck at the moment try getting out there and offering your support or help with something or someone. It could be the start of something special for you and them.

Yes I know this is a random blog this week but truthfully I don’t care. It’s my blog and you’re still reading it haha!

I’ll be back next week with some more.

To your strength and success,

Brendan