Avoid Unnecessary Soreness

Being sore is pretty much an unavoidable part of training, but that doesn’t mean we should ‘look’ to be sore or that it is only a good workout if you are really sore!

General muscle soreness the day or two after a workout is usually called “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness” (or DOMS). It is caused by muscle damage that occurs during workouts. This discomfort is one of the signals that tells our bodies to grow more muscle, increase blood capillaries, and more.

Side…

There seems to be two types of coaches that run classes at gyms like ours. There are people who tend to “manage” the class (Librarians), and those that tend to “lead” the class (Professors).

Comparing Librarians and Professors

Librarians do as little talking as possible and prevent others from talking so people can focus on themselves and their work. Professors talk in great detail and encourage discussions.

Librarians care most about order and neatness. Professors care more about content a…

“Why am I not progressing?”

Is it the schedule (can’t make it in when I want)? Is it the coaching? Is it the programming? Is it your jump rope? Your shoes? Your training partners?

I’ve got good news and bad news.

The good news is that it is completely in your control.

The bad news… is that it is completely in your control.

I hate to break it to you, but if you aren’t progressing it probably isn’t something external.

You probably aren’t progressing because of you.

If you aren’t tra…

When it is hot outside, and we are doing an activity that generates a lot of excess body heat, we are at risk of overheating. This is especially true when we are paying more attention to what round we are on, our form, and trying not to get passed by the gal/guy next to us!

Chances are, you’ve probably been somewhere close (if not completely) in heat exhaustion before on a hot day when doing a workout, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t know the signs so we can avoid it in the future.

Side N…

Spring/Summer is the time of year when we start hearing about people wanting longer metcons… more than usual anyway. I suspect that it has to do with those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are starting to see more sunshine, and are starting to think about summer. And bathing suits.

People who are working hard in the gym want something to show for all of their efforts. Generally speaking, just about every person in our gyms would like to ‘look better’, even if they already look amazing! It is …

You have probably noticed that this training, working toward mastery, causes many benefits outside of the gym.

It is because we are deliberately working on our weaknesses. We willingly accept the truth of where we are at, and we put effort to making ourselves better.

We must not look at ‘scaling’ as a sign of inadequacy.

We change the workout to get the best stimulus possible, so we can continue to grow and improve. We learn to put our ego aside and accept that small progress is better tha…

During a re-reading of “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”, I was reminded of the concept researchers call “Keystone Habits”. It is a seeming small isolated habit that affects many other unrelated aspects of their lives. Writing down everything that they ate, subjects saw not only improvements in their diet, they also saw improvements in many other aspects of their lives. Documenting everything that they bought, subjects saw improved use of their time and improved p…

Parkinson’s Law: “Work will always expand to use all of the time and money allocated to it.”

Or as Isaac Asimov put it: “In ten hours a day you have time to fall twice as far behind your commitments as in five hours a day.”

We are going apply this principle to make your life better.

When people used to ask “How are you doing?” the default answer was always “good” or “alright.”

It appears that this has been supplanted with the modern mantra: “BUSY.”

Why is that?

Why is it that we spend l…

Most people operate in general categories. Myers Briggs, The Big 5, The Harry Potter Sorting Hat, DISC Profiles, etc., are all attempts to give people insight into how they see the world and how they prefer to address it. In this article, we are going to talk about why you need to know what your style is, and how to coach people who aren’t the same style as you so that everyone has a great class. This tool can be HUGE for helping your classes, and the whole community, run more smoothly!

Are y…

The ‘Scaling Guide’ is one of the most important tools for getting the most out of your time at the gym. The key is to remember that the goal isn’t to get the fastest time, or the most rounds. The key is to use the ‘best’ progressions to land you right smack dab in the middle of the guide!

Before you start the workout, pick the loads and progressions for each movement that you think you can manage to end up in the middle of the scaling guide. Talk to your coach if you aren’t sure, and make…