I DON’T KNOW BUT I’VE BEEN TOLD
Seriously folks?
Name a lifestyle or training issue that won’t be worked out with a heavy dose of persistent and consistent effort.
waiting, waiting….
A Weightlifter working toward a national qualifier, CrossFit athlete looking to make that jump to regionals, or a Soccer Dad yearning to go from dad bod to hot rod can all accomplish their goals by being persistent and consistent in their approach to both lifestyle and training.
If you are having issues making training gains accessing and sharpening lifestyle habits that will increase health and lead to higher performance. Folks often go about this ass backward opting for more training. Believe me, throwing a 90 minute fire fight into a shitty life style five days a week will only lead to injury and frustration.
Before embarking on any new or improved trainings mission ask yourself some simple questions about how you are living your life.
Are you waking up everyday, yes even the weekends, at the same time?
Are you cooking and eating real food?
Are you avoiding screens and other forms of artificial light as the sun goes down?
Are you moving more than you are sedentary?
Are you feeling frisky?
Then ask yourself…
CAN I DO BETTER?
Until you are living healthy, how you train simply doesn’t matter. Managing the major details in your life will support your training demands and goals. Any athlete who can’t adjust their lifestyle habits has no business blaming a coach, changing their program, or making an excuse as to why they have fallen back in training.
With your lifestyle sorted… seriously thats not meant to be a joke, you can take trainings seriously and work on being awesome. In the case of the Everyday Weightlifter I would place my training eggs in the strength and technique basket.
Hitting the barbell and performing auxiliary movements in the pursuit of a total should be supported by the development of pressing, squatting and pulling patterns. If you are new to Weightlifting, coming off an injury, trying something new and in general haven’t had much structure in your barbell training start building strength with a linear progression.
If you been linear recently and have a solid idea of your current bests tinker with simple periodized percentages paired with open ended sets to increase volume, intensity, and readying your mind for the hard work and competition to come.
Technique wise there are number of places an Everyday Weightlifter can nuance a program to suit their needs. This is the place coaching and trusted eyes are most needed. In general, I attack three movement themes that I have found transferable to each of the major movements in Weightlifting:
1- Supporting the Barbell
2- Breaking the Barbell, and
3- Getting Under the Barbell.
Most of the complexes, skills, drills, and lift variations I prescribe are written with these concepts in mind.
The key regarding training, and this goes for all athletes – not just Weightlifters, is that the more green you are, the more simple your progression should be. I have seen many athletes forgo what is working for something that is perceived as “more fancy” or a quicker route to huge PR’s.
Trust me, the huge PR is a trap.
What you want is to build a total, all types of performance for that matter – one kilo/step at a time.
Development in this fashion, with consistency and persistency fueling progress, will lead to a rising total supported by an equally widening training base. The overlooked characteristic developed by utilizing this approach is resiliency, while overreaching for large PR’s often leads to frustration and injury.
With persistent and consistent life style habits supporting your training demands you can look to training as a place to mold and refine wellness in the direction of a performance goal. I like to tell folks…
“Your LIFESTYLE should make you healthy. Your training should make you AWESOME.”
What never works is being a program jumper, a coach thumper, method medlar or EXCUSE MAKER.
What works has already been written, tested, and proven.
At best, todays innovators in training and performance connect the dots between uncommon modalities.
Great coaches test, refine, and develop a system based on fundamentals and nuance the program for individuals.
Great athletes practice what is preached and learn from their experiences.
Believe me, you are not a diamond in the rough. You don’t need a fancy program, a new coach, or a better barbell to make gains. You need to persistently and consistently hammer away at what you want.
YOU DON’T WANT A FLASH IN THE PAN…
WHAT YOU NEED A PERSISTENT AND CONSISTENT PLAN!
If the programming idea in this post have perked an interest check out this 5 3 1 Weightlift template we put together after recording an Episode of the Everyday Weightlifter. I am also fired up to personally escort any willing soldier into the training battle ground.