Keep it Simple

Keep it Simple 

By: Ian Cutting

It seems that more and more so, we are approaching the whole realm of health and fitness backwards. We have spent so much time and money making them complicated, and into more of a perception than a reality. They have become topics muddied by secrets and gurus, detoxes and details, filters and photoshop, marketing, and social media. Keep it simple, and here is how.

I’m going to break a few things down into real, actionable, and simple pieces.  They may seem too simple, perhaps even frustratingly so.

Do you want to have a stronger more functional upper body?

Do a lot of push-ups. (Need some guidance? check out this handy video.)

Do you want to have stronger and more functional lower body?

Do a lot of squats. (Also need some help here? Here is another helpful video.)

Do you want to be a healthier, more durable, capable, longer-lasting, functioning, aesthetic… human being?
Do a lot of both.

Do you want to breathe better?
Walk more.  Take the stairs.  Park further away.  Go for easy and relaxing walks (with your head up, not buried in your phone).

Do you want to move better?
Move more.  Stand up and stretch.  Watch less TV, change seats or exercise during the commercials, or watch from the floor.

Do you want to feel better?
Slouch less.  Sit or stand up straighter.  Go outside.  Read a book.  Turn off whatever screen you’re looking at, and go to bed.

Do you want to look (better)?
Drink more water, and have an apple.  Put down or don’t buy the XL chips and cookie boxes, children’s cereals, processed snacks decorated by cartoon characters, and sugar-liquids of questionable contents and origin.  Say no a little more often, confidently, and a little less guiltily.  Say yes appropriately, not overwhelmingly.

Do you want to make a change, fix a problem, heal a hurt, or get better from an injury?
Take action.  Complaining is ineffective.  Telling yourself you’re broken or settling for sympathy doesn’t help you grow (and usually makes it worse).  Doing nothing rarely helps solve anything.

Do you want to make more progress?
Stop seeking or relying on the validation of others.  Fitness exists without hashtags.  Sweat and struggle a little more, stare and scroll a little less.  Double-taps are fine, but they don’t affect the work you have to do. (I’ve found a small committed fitness group can help with this.)

Do you want to be healthier?
Stop thinking that it only counts if the world sees you trying to be healthier.  Some of the healthiest people in the world don’t have online platforms.  Likes don’t really matter.  Effort all adds up.  Just live.

Keep your exercise simple, and do it more often.  Equipment is unnecessary.  It doesn’t take a perfect plan, schedule, or secret exercises.   There is no perfect plan or schedule, and the best exercises are the simplest ones done consistently.

Keep your food simple.  Counting calories, tracking macros, and different diets are fine, if you can stick to them.  However they often create more stress than is worth the changes they might cause, and raise more questions than they answer.  They can confuse the incredibly simple facts of food.  Eat more of the things you already know you should be eating, eat less of the things you already know you shouldn’t be eating as much of.  Look in the mirror regularly, check the scale occasionally, and adjust the quality and quantity of your intake accordingly over time.

Keep it simple, and repeat all of these for the long-term.  Adjust as needed, and have more patience.  The biggest problems are that you wanted all of these changes to have occurred yesterday, are disproportionately motivated by the world seeing them, and are overly concerned with the reactions of others.

How you treat your body you affects how you’ll feel today, how you’ll look in 6 months, and who you’ll be in 10 years.  It doesn’t matter where others have started or what others are doing.  Start wherever you are; that’s the only place you can, the only place that matters.  Get to it.  Keep getting to it.

We know what we have to do to be healthier.  We know, and yet insist on making it more complicated than it needs to be.  Move more, eat better, work harder, repeat.

Filter the noise.  Dilute the details.  Take action.  Be patient.

Keep it simple.

Are you having "No Progress?"

Think of your journey into a healthier, happier, better moving you much like building a house. If the foundation of your house is cobbled together, has cracks in it, and is deteriorating then you are starting from a place of weakness. Why then would you spend lots of money and time building that beautiful kitchen you always wanted, and that master bedroom that has amazing views when in a few years the whole thing is going to collapse? You wouldn’t right?

We all want to rush to the end of the project. We want everything yesterday. If there was only a magic pill that would do that… The truth is that all levels of health and fitness are a process you have to be patient with. That is how getting healthier, stronger, and leaner works. You have to start with the right building blocks.

Are you having "No Progress?"Stage 1: Groundwork
We start with a lot of personal attention. Which means teaching you how to move correctly. When to fire the right muscles and how so as to keep you safe and move in an effective way. This is done in an individual basis, or in a small group of other people just like you. So you never feel self conscious that you don’t belong, or are holding people back. We want to help you get to that place that you want to be. That takes time, patience, and understanding.Are you having "No Progress?"

Stage 2: Framing
If you can’t squat, hinge, push, pull, or plank why would you try to load up a bar full of weights, or swing a kettlebell the size of your head through the air on your first day? That is just silly. Here at Contemporary Athlete, everything is a process of learning, then applying that knowledge. Making strides forward. Then learning some new things. This can happen in a larger class where you can have the support of others, and develop along side a small group of peers in a similar place that you are.

Are you having "No Progress?"Stage 3: Roofing
The barbell is like a PHD program. It removes a whole lot of ability to move. So until you are an exceptional mover we won’t use a barbell. We have them, we use them, but not until you are ready. If we are being completely honest, some people don’t ever want to or need to use one in order to get to your personal fitness goals. That being said you should always be preparing for that day because it makes you feel, move, and look better.

 

Patience is the answer

Training is a lot like life.  In both, the roads towards progress and success are full of obstacles. Most of the time patience is the answer.

In life this could mean a surprise company move, being laid off, even the death of a pet or a loved one.

In training, there are often weeks filled with injuries and accidents that prevent you from optimal training.  There are often months spent at a plateau, perhaps even in conjunction with those life events that all conspire keep you away from the gym for longer than you’d like.

One thing that will keep you going is understanding and practicing patience.

The dictionary definition of patience is “The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.”

It is important to understand that health is a lifetime commitment and fitness is a lifelong work in progress.

In between mastering new movements or hitting new PRs there will be times when you get discouraged by a perceived lack of progress.  You will get knocked down and scraped up.  You will get caught at or called in to work, but the only way to guarantee you’ll stop making progress is if you stop working.

As long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you will be further along than if you quit and stop moving altogether.  Sometimes you get slowed down, or get thrown off track, or hit bad weather, but you keep going.  The only way to make sure you keep on the right track is to keep going.

Practicing patience means recognizing that you won’t be able to walk in to the gym each day and absolutely crush everything you do.

Practicing patience means accepting that sometimes things will come up, and when they do, you do the best you can until you can resume working the way the way you’d like to.

Practicing patience means seeing the bigger picture.  You will experience ups and downs, you just have to keep going.

Work hard, roll with the speed bumps, treat obstacles as opportunities, and learn from every experience

Patience has power, and learning to use it will help you keep moving forward.

The Holi-daze of Fitness: It is too good to be true

Beware of easy.

I wish there was some magic pill.  I wish there was some miracle product.

I wish there was some neat little package you could receive in the mail that would be the answer to all of your health and fitness “problems”.

I wish there was, because I’d be first in line to buy it, or first in line to sell it.

But there’s not.

This time of year you will be bombarded with all kinds of information for health products.  There will be all kinds of things you suddenly need, or never knew you needed.

There will be all kinds of advertisements for weight loss pills; there will be infomercials with groundbreaking fitness products; there will be a magazine covers with seductively sweet secrets; there will be gurus with their patented solutions, there will be panels of experts discussing the latest supplement; there will be a celebrity with their current endorsement; there will be companies saying that they have finally found “it”.

Everyone is trying to sell you something.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Everyone is trying to make some money, or make a living.  It is possible, and likely, that some of them genuinely care.

The problem is that many of them don’t.  For the most part, they are more interested in their bottom line, not your health and fitness.

 

As Jon Goodman recently stated, is that “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”  Something to keep in mind whenever you encounter any information source that sells fitness equipment, supplements, or preaches one specific dietary or training approach.”  Of course their way is the right way; it’s their only way.

 

They bank on your desperation.  They count on you having tried other fixes.  Their strategy is playing up and playing on your “failures”.  Their punchlines are the false promises and failed results of other similar products.  They push you into picking up your phone or entering your credit card information one more time.

The substance of their advertisements stem from past promises, not miraculous breakthroughs.  Their science is sketchy, their methods unsubstantiated.  Their positions are nebulous, their premise negative.

“Are you sick and tired of… are you fed up… are you done with… are you ready for… have you heard about… then you have to…”

You’ve tried this, you’ve tried that, and they haven’t worked, now here’s mine.

It’s a cycle founded and fueled by failure and misinformation.  It keeps you coming back for more.

How can that fail?

Ultimately, there is a simple solution.  The magic pill does exist.

However the real solution is not a sexy one to market, and the pill is not an easy one to swallow.

 

  • You’re going to have to work.
  • You’re going to have to make some changes.
  • You’re going to have to be uncomfortable.
  • You’re going to have to set some real, timely, actionable, and appropriate goals.
  • You’re going to have to follow a program that aligns itself with that goal(s).
  • You’re going to have to exercise consistently.
  • You’re going to have to improve the quality of what you put in your body.
  • You’re going to have to focus on the quality of your sleep.
  • You’re going to have to ask yourself and answer some tough questions.
  • You’re going to have to take a good look at your lifestyle.
  • You’re going to have to commit to long-term improvement.
  • You’re going to have to be patient.
  • You’re going to have to work harder.

None of those statements are sexy.  None of those are particularly marketable.  None of those look good in a television commercial.

You can’t buy them packaged in a pretty little box.  I wish you could.  I would buy it in bulk, and mark it up heavily.

But, all of those statements are effective, tried and true.  They may not be what you want to hear, but they are what you need to do.

Yes, you can do it.

Yes, it is worth it.

Commit to making small changes that will add up over time.  For example, commit to exercising consistently before worrying about what the best workout plan is.  Put down or don’t buy the bag of snacks before worrying about what your daily optimal protein or fat or carbohydrate intake should be.

Health and fitness is not a final destination.  There are no shortcuts.  There is no short-term, easy path to achieving what you want to achieve or looking how you want to look.

 

If you need help, find a trainer or coach who knows a thing or two and will help hold you accountable.  Reach out to those who’ve been there or are going through it now.

Especially this time of year, beware of the easy way out.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The 5 best reasons NOT to workout!

By Dave Bender

You know that sinking feeling you get when you think “Hey, I really should take some time and get myself healthy (again). January is right around the corner and this year. This year is gonna be different!”

Well stop, stop saying that this is the year. This is NOT the year. This year is just like last year, and the year before that. In my 10 + years in the business of getting people crazy healthy, and wicked strong I have found out the truest reason’s why you shouldn’t start working out this year.

 

 Here are the 5 best reasons NOT to workout!

 

  1. The weather is TERRIBLE today!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Funny thing about the weather is that you aren’t kidding. It’s hot, it’s cold, it’s snowing, it’s raining, there is wind and hail, and lightning, and sleet, and who knows what else. Last time I checked though you probably get up everyday and go to work in a climate controlled office, or at least a place with a roof. Equally ironic, is that almost all gyms are also inside of buildings with heat, lights, and a roof. Some have better playlists than other though, but don’t quote me on that.

 

  1. My kids have…

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Yep they do, they have all of those things and then some. Do you know what they will remember though? Mom and/or dad being there on their graduation, wedding day, first born, second born, seventh born… See where I am going? It is highly possible that your kids don’t have anything going on at 5am. You don’t even have to leave your house. You could take 30 minutes a day to take care of yourself so you are there when they will want you to be down the road. Then again… there is always sleep, right?

  1. Working out takes SO MUCH TIME!!!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Yes, I said it. You can change your long term health in roughly 3 months if you workout for 30 minutes a day, 3 to 4 days a week. That is definitely NOT worth it. I mean seriously, that is like 18 to 48 hours of working out over the course of 12 weeks. I don’t know about you but that is far too much time spent on looking and feeling better, and not on Game of Thrones.

  1. Eating ONLY Broccoli and Broiled Chicken EVERY DAY!!!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

Here are the cold hard facts. You want your body to look like that last super hero movie you just saw. RIGHT? Well you have to change how you eat. Just broccoli and chicken… and bacon, cheese, beer, wine, bourbon, tacos, sushi, eggs, spinach, doughnuts, and I think even cookies… Actually you really can eat all the things you always have eaten. You just you need to make some hard choices, like 1 oreo, or the entire sleeve of oreo’s…. Hmmmmmm.

 

  1. It’s SO EXPENSIVE!!!

    The 5 best reasons NOT to workout

You are absolutely right! It is expensive, really expensive. I mean if you actually hire a professional to help you. (which will save you time.) Like you do when you take your car to a mechanic. Or get your teeth cleaned at the best dentist in town. OR trust your fiscal future with a financial planner.

That being said you can do it on your own, for FREE. There are about 10,000 + workouts posted on Youtube that you can do at home. Or even at the $10 a month purple box fitness place. Hell, our Youtube page is full of FREE advice, and workouts. Although that leads to a different conversation, how much is your time worth? (If you are unsure you should read this article.)

Here is the kicker though, do you know what is more expensive? Diabetes, joint replacement, daily medication, and medical bills… Just something you should consider if you want to start workout or not.

 

In summary:

For those of you who want to start working out this year. DON’T. Save yourself time, money, and some peace of mind in that the owner of one of the best training facilities in the area talked you out of a sweaty, well rested, more active, sexier you.

Now where are the doughnuts?

Women: Love your body!

By: Kyla Scherer

As a coach, the number one request from female clients is to lose weight and look better. The female population comes to me “hating” things about their bodies. A body that has potentially gotten them out of bed each day, climbed endless stairs, given birth, stood them in front of seminars and conferences and courtrooms, walked them down the aisle of their wedding, helped them to impact their local or national or international community, saved lives, taught, and inspired others.

How do you hate that?

They see the extra fat, or the flabby arms, or a number on the scale they think is too large. Why shouldn’t they see this? If you walk down the magazine aisle in stores and take a gander at the front cover of women’s magazines versus men’s magazines you see two very different pictures. In a totally unscientific study I did just that, and here’s what I saw.

 

Magazines geared towards women: fight fat, slim and happy, drop 2 sizes, sexy abs, lose more fat, flat abs, slim sexy body, toned.

Magazines geared towards men: Instant muscle, big arms fast, get big, ripped right now, build muscle, stronger quicker, the big muscle issue.

These are just magazine covers; we are bombarded each day by various types of media that pretty much send the same message. Be small, quiet, and look a very specific way.   We aren’t taught to be grateful about what our bodies can do, but to be ashamed of what they aren’t. We are taught to focus on aesthetics, and not what our bodies can do.   I, personally, chose not to subscribe to this thought process, but it can be difficult to get a female client to turn their backs on the overwhelming majority of messaging.

So how do we go about making women appreciate their bodies more?

As a coach, obviously, I want to know a client’s goals. Whether that goal is to lose 10lbs or have visible abs, or to drop 2 dress sizes. Once I know a client’s goals a program can easily be designed to help them reach their goals. The important part is finding out a client’s why. Why do they want to lose 10lbs, why not 5 or 15? Why 2 dress sizes? Usually in talking to clients the 10lbs and the change in clothing size turns into feeling better. Feeling better in their body and about their body and this is where I like to work.

Most of my clients will start feeling better and more empowered when they start performing better. If during a session I can get them to focus on doing one more rep then last time, trying to move more weight than they did a month ago, or moving faster through a workout suddenly it becomes about what they are capable of and not the 10lbs they were worried about. “I did that one push-up, now I want more.”, “I picked up 100lbs, now I want more.”. If they focus on what they can do in the gym, the aesthetics will come.

Most likely a woman who can bang out 3 pull-ups has a pretty good body composition already. A woman who can pick up over 300lbs probably has a fantastic looking posterior. If you are working hard in the gym for those quad muscles, then you want to show them off in that smaller sized dress. A woman who focuses on getting stronger quickly realizes that she isn’t “getting bulky” as a result, and she’s most likely eating more than she ever has before.

Ultimately, I would like women to stop trying to fix their bodies and start trying to make them stronger. Train because you love your body, not because you hate it. Because our bodies are amazing, and can do so much more then we think. Chances are you are going to see much more positive change if you start from a place of gratitude then one of despair.

 

“You can still love your body while wanting it to look or perform differently than it does right now. There’s no hypocrisy there.” – Molly Galbraith

Bullshit Fitness: What it is, and what you can do about it

Bullshit Fitness:
What it is, and what you can do about it
By: Ian Cutting
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How Can You Tell if it’s Bullshit?

Generally, if…

It sounds too good to be true.
It came out yesterday.
It asks for a few easy payments.
It’s on an infomercial.
It’s based on the latest study.
It promises to remove pounds of toxic sludge from your body.
It promises amazing results with zero effort.
It guarantees amazing changes in a conveniently small amount of time.

It’s new and been improved, since the old version’s completion or expiration date.
It has more ingredients and syllables on the label that you haven’t read anywhere else.
It has more colors on the packaging than there are colors on the rainbow.
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Straight to the Point

Stop chasing bullshit fitness. Stop chasing fake health. Stop chasing magic pills and pipe dreams. Stop chasing shortcuts and quick fixes. Stop chasing the latest fad or gimmick.

Stop feeding promoters pushing one size fits all, short-term programs. Stop buying into products guaranteed to help you, pushed by companies who don’t care about you.
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The Truth

Change is hard. Real, significant, changes are the result of hard work and consistency.

Real changes come from keeping things simple.

They come from building healthier habits. They come from operating out of your comfort zone. They come from training.
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The Process

You don’t always have to “embrace the grind”, but you have to do the work. You won’t always be able to smile, but you will grin when you get it done. You can’t always have fun, but there will be fun along the way.

You don’t have to leave the gym battered and broken every time, but breaking down mental and physical barriers is part of the process. You can’t possibly like all of it, but you will grow to appreciate at least some parts of that process.
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Look in the Mirror

Look at what’s being pushed on you, decide you’re better than that.
Look at what you’ve tried, realize you need better than that.

Think about what a better you can be. Think about what it will take to get there.
____
What Will it Take?

It will depend on what your goals are. What you are trying to get out of life. Why do you want to make these changes and what is the best path to take.

Whichever paths you’re thinking about, don’t take the ones promising overnight transformations. You won’t change, at least not in the way you were hoping for. You won’t learn what it takes. You won’t have any new skills to build off of. You will be left feeling even more discouraged and confused. Your wallet and motivation will be left even emptier, with nothing to show for it.

If you do take that path, you will then seek out the next too good to be true miracle cure, product, or program, and the cycle of disappointment and desperation continues.
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The First Step

The first step is to stop buying into the cycle of fitness marketing.
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Where to Go From There?

If you don’t know where to start, look for those who have. If you don’t know how to start, find those can help.
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How Do You Know What to Look For?

Are you being told you’re too old, young, fat, skinny, tired, ugly, unworthy or unable in some way, or are you empowered to get started, learn, and grow?
Are they professionals, or promoters?

Is it your concerns they care about, or their commission?
It is your progress they care about, or their brand?
Is their way the only way and others are terrible and unhelpful, or is it one that’s practical, been shown to work, and lasting?

Do they listen to you, or talk over you?
Do they ask questions, or answer their own.
Do they have a plan for you, or something to push on you?
____
Ultimately

You can’t undo anything you’ve already done. Just move on having learned from it.

You can move forward and break out of the cycle. You can start making actual progress in your health and fitness. You can keep making positive changes in your life.
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Worth It

It is never too late to make changes. Do not give up on progress, on improvement, on yourself, ever.

It will be hard, especially in the beginning.

It will be worth it, for now, and for the rest of your life.

The 5 best reasons to swing a Kettlebell!

What is it About the Kettlebell?

by Ian Cutting

I was talking to someone recently about fitness and training, and the subject of the kettlebell came up. At one point during this part of our conversation they stopped me and asked, “What is it about kettlebells, how do they work…what makes them so special?”

First of all, I believe in in kettlebells as a training tool, and both I and many clients I train use them frequently to great success. I believe they can help almost anyone improve their health and fitness, and make progress towards and achieve practically any training or lifestyle related goal.

“Well, they…” and I went on to say a little bit about how they are a useful tool and you can do a lot with them. While I’m pretty sure nothing I said was wrong, I realized I hadn’t given them a good answer. It put me off to no be able to talk about them in the way I know I should be able to, and that would actually help someone who didn’t know anything about them. There needed to be a better explanation, especially for those who might have never used kettlebells before and are unsure of their benefits.

So I sat down and thought about a few of the key reasons why kettlebells work and what makes them so effective.

Here are the 5 best reasons to learn to swing a kettlebell:

• They’re adaptable: You can perform many different variations of squats, hinges, pushes and pulls, lunges, loaded carries, and even rotations with kettlebells.
• They’re scalable: With many different weights and all of those movement patterns to choose from, you can more easily adjust the loading and exercises depending on your body and training needs.
• They’re portable: As fitness equipment goes, kettlebells aren’t hard to move around and don’t take up that much space. Keep a bell in your car or basement or garage and there’s no excuses not to get something done.
• They’re versatile: They can be used to build muscular strength, power and endurance, for cardio/conditioning, increasing mobility and improving balance, even more isolation work for rehab/prehab purposes.
• They’re efficient: You don’t need to spend all day training. You can pack a lot of work into a small(er) amount of time.

 

Ultimately, all of those add up to the most important point. Kettlebells are effective because they eliminate many of the most common excuses for why people don’t exercise.

You can perform virtually any movement with kettlebells, and they help keep training simple because there’s always a more or less advanced version of an exercise to work on. You can bring them anywhere because they don’t take up much space in your car. If you’re too busy to make it to the gym, you can exercise at home. If you don’t live near a gym, they’re a great, durable, low cost training tool that last a long time.

Kettlebells give you a way to train for any health and fitness goal, and help you train consistently by eliminating many common excuses. At the end of the day, consistency is most important factor of all in your making the progress and achieving the results you’re looking for.

Without diving deeper into more science-y answers for how kettlebells work (that’s an article for a later date), those are a few of the reasons for what makes them so special. So the next time someone asks you about the benefits of kettlebells, you’ll have some solid answers to give them.

Happy swinging!

If you would really like to learn more about us and how we can really help you achieve the goals, and body you want please click here.

Athletic Development: What Athletes Need…

Athletic Development:What Athletes Need…
By Ian Cutting

Over the past few years we keep hearing about the increasingly competitive nature of youth athletics. More parents are investing time and money on their children’s athletic development in the hopes they’ll be able to play on the all-star travel team, be a varsity starter, earn a college scholarship or professional contract.

The health and fitness industry also continues to grow rapidly. There are more fitness facilities and training certifications available than ever before.

The result of focusing on athletic development is the reason we now see a boom in the fitness industry with more gyms offering programs labeled as “sports performance”. These programs consistently involve high levels of intensity, flashy jumping, and a lot of fancy words and exercises that do a better job of selling the parents on their methods than actually helping the athletes. They’re good at opening your wallet, but not always unlocking the potential of your child. Passing the eye test for intensity doesn’t mean it fits the bill for effectiveness or safety.

How can you tell what’s for show versus what actually has substance?

 

What is training?

Training consists of what an athlete needs, versus what the tricks are and what athletes don’t need. Athletes need a training program which helps them get stronger, and stay healthier. A program that keeps things simple, covers basic movement patterns, improves durability, addresses weaknesses, and is varied based on the sport, season, and individual needs. This is a program, and doesn’t shift focus every day, week, or even the first day of every month.

Athletes, and kids need a well-rounded program that focuses on strength training, and includes appropriate levels of conditioning and mobility. They need guidance on nutrition, hydration, sleep, and recovery and to learn about how those things are just as if not more important than the work they put in in the gym. They need attention to help address the individual needs and concerns that every young and developing body has.

Athletes need a program with a long-term focus that accounts for changes in sport season.They need periodic assessments on variables that translate into improved on field success. This program has varying levels of intensity to allow for recovery and adaptations to take place.

Tired of reading and want to get ahead of the rest?  contact us here!

What athletes don’t need

Daily HIIT workouts with countless jumps and landings. They don’t need exhausting metabolic sessions and to always be leaving the gym battered and broken. They don’t need endless circuits targeting every single body part day after day after day. They don’t need to leave every session wondering how they’re going to make it up the stairs or survive the next practice. They don’t need complicated terminology, and don’t always need more, more, and more training.

Those type of workouts performed day after day, season after season hurts their progress, and their prospects. There is a difference between workouts, and following a training program. A body that doesn’t recover properly cannot grow. If intense training is stacked on top of existing health problems or injuries, things will get worse. If a poor movement pattern is loaded with heavy weight, something (their body) will break.

What athletes DO need – A training program based on goals

These things have to be met in order to improve a skill or perhaps hit a standard. This requires different methods than the series of workouts put together to help a middle aged man get back in shape, the stay at home mom lose 10 pounds, or satisfy the grumbling employee who only has a gym membership because it means a deduction on their insurance, nor will please the exercise enthusiast who loves all activity and will do whatever the workout of the day happens to be.

A strength and conditioning program will improve an athlete’s output and longevity. What they need is strong fundamental movement development. It’s the strength that lets a player stop without their body weight forcing them to fall down, or to tear an ACL or MCL when changing directions. The benefits, and knowledge behind the recovery phase of their programming that keeps them in top form throughout their competitive season.

Unfortunately there are now more trainers out there than ever advertising sports performance without the knowledge and skill to be able to back it up. Most movement is better than no movement, but ever varying, high-intensity workouts, in large groups of constantly exhausted athletes with different needs and pre-dispositions to injury does not constitute an effective training program, and are not safe training environments.

Are they workouts, or is it training? Is it good for the athlete, or does it just look good for the parents? It’s easy to make someone sweat, it’s hard to make an athlete better. There are tricks, and then there is training. One first one leaves kids broken down, the second one builds kids up.

What Contemporary Athlete does differently

For the last 5 years we have been helping athletes become more complete athletes. Through comprehensive programming that is simple to understand, and falls in line with their athletic season. Because we have great communication with our student athletes and their parents its easy for us to adjust for critical events, and rhythmic changes over the course of a competitive season or the off season. The fundamentals are key for progressive development. The squat, hinge, plank, push, and pull all correlate to managing ones potential short comings and leave their strengths to be able to shine. The hardest thing to do is to learn how to recover, and when to do so. If you don’t understand how to stop, then you are just like everybody else that just can go fast. Which down the road leaves you getting passed by, by those that learned fundamental skills. These things are key for those looking to move onto the next stage either into the collegiate ranks or into elite levels of play.

This difference means athletes that will be healthier, happier, stronger, faster, more confident, prepared, and successful. Seriously, don’t take our word for it though check out some of our success stories.

If you are ready to really change how you play, and set yourself up for greatness contact us today.

How important is it to suffer? AKA Embrace the Suck

How important is it to suffer? AKA Embrace the Suck

On the regular here I see same thing happen. New people come into the CA and their mental fortitude is absolute garbage. Yes, a complete wasteland of weakness, and self-defeatist actions: You get these self – limiting statements.

  • It’s too heavy.
  • That is way to much time.
  • I can’t sprint that far.
  • How many rounds?
  • I can’t get all of that done in the time you gave me.
  • I’m sore.
  • I think my hair hurts, is that possible?

I actually hear these things, sometimes daily, or even hourly. So why? Why do you say them? Did you learn to believe them? Is there a reason you are lying to yourself about your abilities?

Here are five ways to destroy that mentality, crush your workouts, and start f$*king winning at life. Let’s go on a little journey… into how to suffer.

Life will reward the valiant: Funny enough if you look at predator vs. prey those that get up and start the day on the hunt because they are “hungry” win. Sometimes that means food, in business, or getting strong and fit AF.

  • Get up at a time that sucks: (I start my day at 4 -4:15 AM everyday. Yes, occasionally I get 1 snooze. Occasionally I just need to lay in bed for 5 minutes and get my head screwed on tight.)

Unbag your sh*t: Yes, we all have  excuses. Never enough time, chores, tasks, yadda, yadda, yadda, so “I’ll do that workout tomorrow.” (Tomorrow never comes, your excuses just replaced it.)

  • Prioritize YOU: that means your training (strong body) your nutrition (fueling) your recovery (sleep). If you do this you win at number 1.

But could you die?: We all set bullsh*t goals. Like “I want to lose 10#, tone up, or look good in that swim suit.” Yeah big f$*king deal. Since working with a class of people that depend on their fitness to bring them home safe to their family; or let them save the person next to me has taught me a lot about intensity. It’s the scary shit that gets you out of bed at 4am. In order to train like a f*%king animal and get the seriously sick results you want.

  • Pick a goal that is intense and makes you uncomfortable. If you think you might actually die trying to get that goal your motivation will multiply exponentially.

I saw it on Youtube: Yeah… it looked really cool, by somebody, 1000x more “fit” than you. Here is the cold hard truth. True training is boring as f*$k. Learning to be mentally engaged during the most boring activity you can think of will help you with win while “suffering”.

  • If you’re still following me… Let me reiterate, if your goals suck, then so will your gimmicky training, and so will your results. If it scares the sh*t out of you, you will always be mentally engaged in the process. Want to challenge your mind? Leave your headphones at home. Lock yourself in a silent room and do 500 burpees while staring at a blank wall. You’ll face all of those voices real quick. Once you do, tell them to f&%k off and keep going till its done.

But they are my friends: One of the greatest tools you can have is a training partner, I don’t mean your friend either. You know the one, the one that wants to get a rainbow unicorn f*#king frappacino after your “intense” treadmill walking session while talking about Kim Kardashians booty gains program. (by the way its called plastic surgery, you don’t get an ass like that without growing hamstrings too..)

  • Find the person that scares the shit out of you at the gym, and tell them you want to be just like them (if that is your goal). Ask them if you can train with them. Whatever they are doing is working. Or hire a coach, or find a gym full of those people you want to be like. You are what you surround yourself with.

 

Let me summarize all of this for you.

  1. Pick a scary goal with enough time to actually prepare for it.
  2. Train with the intensity it takes to achieve that goal.
  3. Do simple things highly effectively, they will bring you the results you want.
  4. Be serious about the time you do them in, or for.
  5. If you aren’t partially miserable while doing that activity, you aren’t growing and getting better.

 

We are the best in the area when it comes to setting seriously challenging goals. If you don’t know how to get the results you want, and need guidance or a peer group that will be supportive but also humble you. We would be happy to talk to you more about what it takes to train here at the CA. If that sounds like what you want, and you are ready to commit to yourself, click here now to get scheduled to talk to one of us.