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1% Better

   While reading "Linchpin" by Seth Godin, I stumbled upon a paragraph he had about perfection. In the book he talks about it being a asymptote, in the sense that you can come close to perfect but never really reach it. This is the same concept as that of the road to Mastery. It is a journey not a destination. You continue to strive for it knowing that it will always be out of reach. So why is this blog titled 1%? I have often heard fitness professionals talking about getting 1% better every day. And while this sounds attainable and catchy, is it REALLY possible? I believe it is, but only up to a certain point. I will give you an example by using my personal journey in the world of Movement by learning Animal Flow.  When I first started learning the Animal Flow program I was super excited. It was fun to learn the moves and put them together in a flow of constant movement. I was motivated and saw quick results. You can say I was getting 1% better everyday I pract

REASON, SEASON, LIFETIME

It’s said that people are in your life for a Reason, Season or Lifetime. I do believe that, but I would like to expand that saying. I also believe there is a Reason for the Season in your Lifetime. If you look at life as a cycle of seasons, there are times when you are up and enjoying the fruits of your labor. There are also times when you are low and have to plant seed, nurture and wait for your growth. All of these seasons serve a purpose or lesson for you to learn. When hard times come don’t think of them as a curse. Think of it as a passing season and search for the reason within it. Les Brown always says,” Hard times do not come to stay, they come to pass.” We often lose sight of all that we have overcome when we face difficulty. We must always remember what we have already gone through to make it where we are now. We have experienced this season before. Maybe not in the same circumstance but we have had the same feeling about the task ahead. Think of it as being on a rol

Mental Mobility : Final Post

Hey hey hey. We are finally at the Final Part of our Mental Mobility blog. Once again, thank you all for the feedback, comments and shares. If you have not read  Part 1 and Part 2 please go back and check them out. Here are our final two definitions for the term Mental Mobility. The ability to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated fields of study . Too often we look at a problem in math, science, life, fitness, etc. and we never connect the dots between one problem and the other. I have notice through my studies of self-help, consciousness, mindfulness, fitness, movement, NLP and much more that there are very clear similarities if you’re willing to pay attention.  To the untrained eye these fields may seem like they have nothing to do with each other but those that possess Mental Mobility can relate the fields together and use them as an analogy to help create understanding. For example I have a client who is a financial planner.  I will use his understanding of savin

Mental Mobility Part 2

I'd like to begin by thanking everyone for the comments, shares, likes, and questions from Part 1 of Mental Mobility. I believe we are onto something with this concept. I encourage you all to be part of our creative process with this. Here are our next two definitions of  "Mental Mobility" The ability to change your mind or belief with new information. WOW! Talk about timing with this one. I am not a political person by any stretch of the imagination, however, just watching this election shows who among us posses or lack mental mobility. I once heard Eric Thomas say, "Information changes situations." This rings true with our current election as well as the situation with fitness. There is always a new study, research, science, etc that negates or changes what we thought we knew. We must be able to accept this new information and adopt it into our current training system or thought process. We can not be at the forefront of an industry with an ignorant or fi

Mental Mobility Part 1

    I have been kicking around this idea of "Mental Mobility" for awhile in my head. I decided to blog about it to see what the feedback would be. In this blog I will share two of the six concepts of  "Mental Mobility". Please comment and share so we can create a more solid definition. -Mental Mobility is the ability to forward think without loss of enthusiasm.     People are so fast to knock any idea that is new or unfamiliar to them. They tend to bash ideas before the person can get to nurture it to help it grow. It's my belief that a person who possess mental mobility will be able to continue to pursue their idea even after having it crushed or bashed by someone else. They must understand that the idea/dream was given to them to have, and that is why other people can not understand. Our visions are for our eyes only. Once we build them up and make them tangible, that is when others will begin to understand. -Mental Mobility is the ability to adapt and t

Mind-Muscle Connection

In order to move, we need to voluntarily tell our muscles to contract, choosing how, when, and what we move. In simple terms, our brains send messages to our muscles via nerves. Thanks to our consciousness, we have the ability to voluntarily control which muscles we use and in what proportions we use them. A study conducted by Bret Contreras showed that experienced weightlifters could significantly alter muscle recruitment without significantly altering form 1 . In other words, experienced lifters could actually change what muscles they used in any given exercise simply by using their minds! This may not come as a surprise to some of you but the mind-muscle connection has serious implications for trainers and coaches. The take home point is that just because a client’s form may “look good,” doesn’t mean that the client is actually using the muscles that the exercise is intended to target. Don’t get me wrong, proper form is very important when it comes to training, however

Using The TRX for Rehab

As Chris Flo discussed in a recent 15 minutes of FLO, since 2009 Flo Fitness has incorporated the TRX into both training and rehab protocol. In his video, Chris talks about how he uses the TRX for shoulder rehab; however, in this article we will discuss the wide-ranging benefits the TRX in both training and rehab settings. What is the TRX? According to their website, the TRX was created a NAVY Seal and is “ a highly portable performance training tool that leverages gravity and the user's body weight to complete 100s of exercises.” Here is a link to the website if you would like to check it out: https://www.trxtraining.com/ . Benefits of using the TRX in a training setting -        It is lightweight and highly portable o    It can be used indoors or outdoors for training -        It can be used to perform and/or modify almost any exercise you can think of o    Body position and strap length can be adjusted to increase or decrease the difficulty of any moveme

Why Video Assessments Are Important

As Chris Flores mentioned in a recent 15 minutes of FLO, video assessments are a great tool for coaches/trainers.   Video assessments are not only important in creating an athlete-specific training program, but, if used correctly, they can serve as a significant selling point to bring on new clients. Below I will briefly break down the benefits of using video assessments as they relate to assessing/training and as they relate to   a business model. Video assessments help a coach/trainer to assess and create customized training plans for their clients. By using a video assessment, a coach/trainer can: -        watch an assessment multiple times -        watch an assessment in slow motion -        pause an assessment at a particular moment in time -        compare assessments side by side -        draw on top of a picture/video if using an application such as the “coaches eye” application Video assessments help a coach/trainer sell their product.             By