It's all about mindset. Everything you do consciously and subconsciously boils down to the way you think. What you think is proceeded by how you think. Growth often times is simply learning another perspective or understanding something simply by erasing preconceived ideas that you realize you never even made. Norms often go unchallenged. Some refer to this concept of unlearning to learn as "flattening the snow"
Self Test- 9 Dot Test
Connect all the dots with five lines. You cannot pick your finger up, you have to use straight lines, and you cannot retrace a line you've already made.
Click HERE when you are tired of trying for the answer.
Simple isn't it?? I spent about 4 years as an intern coordinator. I did some hiring, and lead A LOT of education. A lot of the education was pre determined but I would always take time to include some mindset workshops because mindset is everything. What does all this have to do with training?? Everything, see below.
Factions in Performance
Bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, field athletes, non athletes, crossfitters all include very different cultures and communities. Each faction also comes with a list of accepted exercises, techniques, and even language. Seems like you have to be a bodybuilder to do single joint exercises, or you have to be a crossfitter to use metcons, or powerlifters shouldn't do any unilateral work (because they don't).
"If you are truly going to maximize your full physical potential, you're going to need bodybuilding, you'll need powerlifting, olympic lifting, performance training, maybe even some Crossfit.... So you might as well go ahead and uncategorize yourself." (Click HERE to see the Tweet)
Personally I realized each faction can teach the others something they are lacking. I made a crack at powerlifters and unilateral exercises because in my time working with them, they don't do any. It's the first thing I make them do. A pet peeve of mine with field athletes is the bench press. No one teaches these athletes how to set up on a bench press. Makes no sense, the field athletes could take a page from the powerlifting community on this one and learn how to tie themselves to the ground. Bodybuilders are stuck chasing their tale. They call their tale a pump and I can tell you they are a stubborn group to try to convince to not train like a "bodybuilder" if they want to get bigger. I liked what Zac Goodman shared recently:
"Dante Trudel always says, the reason BBs stop getting bigger is they stop getting stronger. Strength leads to mass." (Click HERE to see the Tweet)
To me the sad part about bodybuilding is that it's propped up on drugs. If drugs didn't exist and someone wanted to actually increase myofibril hypertrophy, they would end up lifting heavy specifically low rep/high sets and they would train a lot more strength movements. Or they would train on Swole Method, shameless plug click HERE to learn more about it.
Olympic lifters are the most mesmerizing to watch. Many out lift powerlifters pound for pound and the do with with an ATG squat and I ask myself HOW? Well they dive under falling bars all day. Think of the elastic properties their body must adapt in to be able to handle that kind of stress. I don't use Olympic Lifts or Olympic variations personally but I do try to mimic the components. I simply take a back squat or front squat, and literally fall with it. I do the same with RDL and Bench. Let it fall and aggressively turn it around. Click HERE to see a set of RDL in this fashion.
Im not an expert in "The C" as Tim Kettenring calls it. Check his page out HERE. But I'm also not stupid and when I see a crossfitter do what they do there's obviously a level of conditioning they have that can't go unnoticed. I think all factions could learn a thing or two from the Crossfit community in this realm.
"Physics is physics" (Check out Kyles Tweet HERE)
If you have opened your mind yet, I think it's time to separate the sport from exercises and look at physics and what qualities the exercise provides. If it can help you, you should use it. Don't let norms blockade your training.
The Big Three and The Bigger Three
I'll leave you with this, powerlifting made squat, bench and deadlift widely popular and accepted for most strength/field athletes. Olympic lifting made the clean and jerk and the snatch widely popular and accepted. The "Bigger Three" are exercises that don't have a daddy. Front Squat, RDL, Overhead Press. No one ever made them special but they are 3 exercises that have massive return on investment (ROI), and the three I believe to be very under used simply because they don't really belong to a faction. Add single arm DB Bench Press to that list as well as single arm DB Overhead. Press Click HERE to see the Tweet on twitter.
Get out of your box
The point of this entry was to create awareness of subconscious decisions you may be making based on norms or "boxes" you didn't even realize you were in. If you enjoyed the read please share it. While you're here check out all our services we offer by clicking HERE.
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