I hope every one is ready for the Holiday season, I guess it does not really matter either way, because either way…it is happening. I would challenge everyone to make some small personal goals to help keep yourself stay on track for the next couple months as it is easy to get sidelined with unexpected detours and personal fouls. So maybe you would like keep your food intake inline, or make sure you get to the gym a minimum of 3 times per week. Whatever your goal is, write it down, tell Siri or Alexa, tell someone other then yourself, so when you want to bail, you will have someone or something to help hold you accountable. If you choose to tell the AI, at least you know the government will have it on record as well.

For November, most of our strength work will have a unilateral focus. We have a couple of new movements that we will be trying out as well. One of them is a landmine clean and press. I really like this exercise. It requires good position and tension off the floor, a need for explosive acceleration, and then an aggressive upper body push at the top. It also has a great rotational element to it, because of the nature of the bar path. Also, because one end of the bar is fixed, it takes much of the complexity out of the lift, compared to a traditional olympic lift, allowing for a much faster learning curve. We are working in much more pulling this next cycle, trying to vary the planes as much as possible, working our way through the vertical plane with an isometric pull up hold, the horizontal with the dumbbell bat wing, and an inverted static hold combined with some lower body flexion. The whole body gets worked as the week progresses, fluctuating with lighter weights at challenging tempos, and heavier lifts with quicker tempos. Remember that it does not have to be heavy to be hard, and just because it is heavy, does not mean it is good for you. Heavy weight moved poorly is not worth the risk of injury. Focus on quality in all things, when quality is repeatable, when quality is habit, then and only then increase in weight and intensity.

November conditioning and post wod’s. Aerobic wod is still in play, that leaves four other days in which to challenge everyone who comes through our doors, and yet keep everyone coming through our doors. This may seem silly, but truly this is the difference between being able to do this for the long run, a lifetime of fitness, or burning out in six months. We want you to leave with a smile, occasionally some lower lip spittle, but 90% of the time, with a smile. I am not saying all the other days are suppose to be roses, but there is a reason why we vary loads, duration and intensities. Because it helps you become more durable. Harder to kill. It makes you tougher mentally, physically and emotionally. Less likely to become ill, maintain more lean muscle mass, helps lower stress levels, and makes you more enjoyable to be around (All scientifically researched I am sure). If all we did was go as hard as we could every day, it might work for a little while, but soon your movement quality would suffer, your body would start to get beat up, and you would be stalled in your progress, become discouraged and likely quit. We are here because we believe that fitness is a life long pursuit, and like any long journey, peaks and valley’s will come and go, but the trek must continue.

Our in class Ski fit will be every Monday for the next 3 weeks.

Coach