Changing Gears

We have put in some serious work grinding through some absolute strength base building for about 3-4 months, and it definitely paid off!  We logged 242 PRs on the scoreboard last week, and that doesn’t account for people who may have had to pop in and hit some of those maxes outside of classes.  Excellent work!

A lot of factors play into that absolute strength development, and it’s not just about simply getting in the work as some of you might have found out!  Of course you have to put in the work, but how much of what you do OUTSIDE the gym plays into your development as an athlete?  A LOT!

First off, something I touched on briefly last week in a quick note to everyone was the fact that typically people who are active tend to under-fuel.  This is a generalization so I don’t intent to offer any sort of blanket prescription based on this statement alone, but it’s pretty typical—I tend to see plenty of active people not fueling their bodies with what they truly need to recover.  Especially as summer hits, the heat tends to suppress people’s appetites, and there are plenty of opportunities to get de-railed from a good food profile.  You have to make sure you’re getting in the right amount of fuel, and if you aren’t logging and going into each day with a plan, I can virtually guarantee you aren’t hitting the marks you should be hitting.

As it stays lighter out later later into the evenings and there are more things to do during the summer months, people tend to not sleep enough either—this can be a huge detraction from your progress in the gym!  Without going into a bunch of specifics as to what happens when you don’t sleep enough, it’s one of the single most important things you can do to make sure you are recovering.

You don’t build muscle and improve your fitness in the gym; you are actually breaking yourself down and subjecting your body to stressors with the intent of adapting.  The ‘progress’ part of the journey happens primarily in the kitchen and in your bed at night.  You can’t out-train a lack of sleep and you can’t perform well without adequate fuel just like you can’t take a long road trip in a car that has a 1/4 tank of gas and needs a tune-up.  If you need some guidance here, just ask!

Now that we’re through a longer phase of building that absolute strength base as well as building aerobic capacity from short to longer time domains, we are going to switch gears a bit here and start working on developing some explosiveness.  This next month should look and feel quite a bit different from what you’re used to, which not only will continue to develop you as an athlete (we just essentially turned a page in our periodization) but will also help you stay revitalized.  The fun thing about a good program design is that there’s always something new to look forward to!

Onward and upward—keep up the great work everyone!

RLTW <1>

—Coach Phil