Skip to main content

Are you ready for SLOBATA???

                                                         SLOBATA Experience

At the end of every session at FLO Fitness we have a finisher. Normally we have a high intensity metabolic circuit that we call a FLOBATA.  It's normally 2 to 4 high intensity exercises that we do at a 20/10 work to rest ratio. It is by no means a true TABATA type of training, and that is why we switched the name up for our own personal fun.  However I recently read a book called "The Little Book of Talent" that my schools soccer coach gave to me.  The book gives quick tips on how many successful coaches have created talent in their athletes.  Two key points jumped out to me and we now use them at FLO to end our sessions and we call these finishers our SLOBATA. 
The first point that jumped out to me was having athletes perform a move with their eyes closed. There has been research done on the benefits of this style of teaching a person new movement but hardly anyone knows how to implement it into their programs. It can also be a really huge issue if you have a ton of athletes running around your facility with their eyes closed.  When doing it however, you really feel every muscle firing and trying to do its job. While doing it today I noticed that my right shoulder tries to shrug while doing a TRX row. It was quite the eye opening experience (no pun intended). 
The second point is one that I have also heard Josh Henkin go over with his DVRT program.  The book spoke about athletes learning and doing moves in a super slow motion style. We all know that time under tension and eccentric loading are important parts of training programs, but I ask how many trainers actually do it? The book spoke about tennis pros practicing their serve super slow in order to find the specific spot in the serve that they deviate.  This was such a powerful point because when exercising many clients have one specific spot in their motion that they may not activate a stabilizer muscle or where they recruit a muscle that should not be doing a specific job.  This small deviations tend to be the reason for injuries or chronic pain in sports and training. 
What we did at FLO was to combine the two points together in our SLOBATA. We take 3 "basic" movements and we make our athletes do them super slow (5 second eccentric and concentric count) while having their eyes closed.  This may sound ridiculous but try it out and see what happens with your athletes. They themselves will notice spots where they are not activating the right muscles. You will also see them self correct the movement, which to me is the most powerful part about it.  To me athletes are the greatest compensators and you never really find their flaws until you slow them down and study their movements. This is a great way to get that done, while they are still getting the benefits of a great workout. Our SLOBATA combined with the fact that none of our athletes wear shoes during training at FLO makes for a serious wake up call to the CNS. Its not just about doing something different to separate yourself from other training facilities; to us its about providing the most effective and innovative training for our clients. And the results speak for themselves. 


 Below is this months SLOBATA, try it out and let us know how it goes with your athletes/clients. 
SLOBATA:  2 sets of 8 reps
Reverse Lunges 
TRX Rows 
Push Ups

Post your feedback in our Facebook Group or Twitter. You can also email us at flofitness@gmail.com
Be sure to follow our Vine and Instagram @flo_fitness 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Are you brave enough for a COLD SHOWER?

Why I Take Cold Showers And You Should Too For the past three years I’ve taken a cold shower almost every single day. You might think I’m crazy and at first; trust me, at first I thought I was too. But hold your judgment, hear me out, give it a try and then you can thank me. What are the benefits of cold showers? 1.     Improve Mood A 2007 study looked at how cold showers affected people with depression. Here is what the authors of the study hypothesized: “Exposure to cold is known to activate the sympathetic nervous system and increase the blood level of beta-endorphin and noradrenaline and to increase synaptic release of noradrenaline in the brain as well. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a cold shower is expected to send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an anti-depressive effect.” The study ended up finding that cold showers of 2-3...
3 comments
Read more

Positive Attracts Positive

Ever hang around some negative people or in a negative environment? How did you feel during and after you had left? Did you feel drained of energy and just not happy about the situation you were currently in? Guess what.. your attitude, drive and passion effects others around you. If you create that positive energy and always surround yourself with positive, upbeat, driven people, you can only find more success in life. Being surrounded by my Flo Family along with everyone else such as Patrick Lerouge (www.revivetm.com) or Paul Newell (www.balancedwellness.org), I started to see my true potential and what I am truly capable of. They bring out the best in me because of their positive energy. They believe I can do it and push me to my limits. Even when I feel so uncomfortable with doing something, such as speaking in front of a group... they pushed me knowing that I could do it. I would have never seen myself get this far into my career without the Flo Family. I have learned so much, m...
5 comments
Read more

The Kettlebell Goblet Squat with Pause

The squat in general is one movement that you will often see in any of our athletes workout programs. We do not only use them, as part of their workouts, but it is also an important component to our assessment at FLO Fitness. Today we are going to go over one our favorite exercises to have most of our develop level or beginner athletes do. The kettlebell goblet squat with pause is one of many variations that can be done, the specific variation selected will depend on what you are trying to achieve with your athlete. We often use the kettlebell squat with pause to not only lock in proper squatting mechanics, but to also add depth into the hips, by slowly increasing the range of motion with each repetition. Before we get more in depth, I think it is only right that we go over proper alignment of the torso, also known as the “Bracing Sequence”. This will not only protect your athletes from injury, but will also indicate when to increase the load for your athlete no matter which e...
Post a Comment
Read more