Pre-Training Activation Series
As always, getting to the gym 10-15 minutes early is important to your overall success. The chosen movements are familiar and provide a ton of value when learning how your body moves!
GOOD NEWS: You can get a tremendous amount of benefit from just 3-5 minutes of quality practice. We have prepared a video, and updated the whiteboards in the gym with some pointers that you should review carefully to help support you in your success.
Invest in soaking up that information early on & you will be setting yourself up for long-term success!
Here are the most important aspects of performing the Pre-Training movements:
CONNECTION. As mentioned above, your goal is to notice a strong connection from your feet, into your legs, up into your core, and finish with noticeable engagement in your upper back. When you have established this CONNECTION with great confidence, learning movement patterns becomes a much more efficient, and less frustrating process.
COORDINATION. Ah, the struggle is real!! Most of the movements we do require us to learn how to coordinate our body to do multiple movements at once. It’s not easy (and that is why it’s worth learning), but coordination is something that can be easily learned over time, typically by slowing down, connecting to your body, and putting in practice.
Each movement pattern has a SEQUENCE of muscle contractions that should happen in order to create the TIMING. For example: Row with the lat, rotate with the obliques, stride using the legs (hamstrings), and press with the chest. That is the sequence for a step back row. Mastering the COORDINATION reaps so many benefits and is worth the time and effort.
CONFIDENCE. Once you have established quality CONNECTION and mastered the timing and sequencing of COORDINATION, your CONFIDENCE should be sky-high and ready to move with more FLUIDITY and ATHLETICISM. This is the ultimate goal of everything we do at the gym. We want you to feel 100% confident moving like the athlete you are. When you’ve taught yourself how to use your muscles and you’ve taken the time to go through the process of breaking down the coordination of the movement patterns, it’s time to HAVE FUN practicing at a more fluid pace.
Side note: If (and when - cause it happens to all of us) we skip the first two steps, the probability of having confidence and success moving fluidly, like an athlete, is not too high. Skipping fundamental steps when learning anything always sets us back and creates inefficiencies in our progress.
PRIORITIZE THE 3 C’S IN ORDER AND YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF EFFICIENTLY MAKING QUALITY, CONSISTENT PROGRESS TO A HEALTHIER BODY AND A MORE CONFIDENT MOVER!!!
The Movements
1) Side Bend (lateral flexion of the spine)
**This movement is to help us improve upon our BEST STANDING POSTURE while utilizing the lateral parts of our body to improve the lateral flexion of the spine.
2) Switch Step Row
**This movement is to help us improve upon the SEQUENCING AND TIMING OF A WALKING/RUNNING PATTERN
3) Transverse Twist
**This movement is to help us improve upon the SEQUENCING AND TIMING OF THROWING MECHANICS, which has numerous benefits to your overall connection, mobility, flexibility, and health of some of your major joints including your knees, hips, SPINE, and shoulders.
As always, we truly appreciate your participation and focus on the Pre-Training aspect of your training program. It has developed and continues to develop into one of the most important aspects of what you do at the gym, and is designed to set you up for success in all aspects of how you move.
Continue to fight through the process, continue to reach out to your coaches, and continue to do hard things because having the confidence and understanding that you can do hard things creates opportunities in your life, inside and outside of the gym!!!
Happy Training!
GOOD NEWS: You can get a tremendous amount of benefit from just 3-5 minutes of quality practice. We have prepared a video, and updated the whiteboards in the gym with some pointers that you should review carefully to help support you in your success.
Invest in soaking up that information early on & you will be setting yourself up for long-term success!
Here are the most important aspects of performing the Pre-Training movements:
- Focus on CONNECTION. Your ultimate goal is to teach yourself how to feel a connection from your feet/legs to your abdominals/obliques to your upper back (extensors and lats). When these three main areas of your body are highly connected with proper positioning, your body is well prepared to move. When we skip steps and move without this type of connection, our body is not prepared to perform the movement and you’ll notice challenges with balance & coordination. Making solid connections before you begin a movement will set you up for success every time!
- Prioritize the 3 C’s
CONNECTION. As mentioned above, your goal is to notice a strong connection from your feet, into your legs, up into your core, and finish with noticeable engagement in your upper back. When you have established this CONNECTION with great confidence, learning movement patterns becomes a much more efficient, and less frustrating process.
COORDINATION. Ah, the struggle is real!! Most of the movements we do require us to learn how to coordinate our body to do multiple movements at once. It’s not easy (and that is why it’s worth learning), but coordination is something that can be easily learned over time, typically by slowing down, connecting to your body, and putting in practice.
Each movement pattern has a SEQUENCE of muscle contractions that should happen in order to create the TIMING. For example: Row with the lat, rotate with the obliques, stride using the legs (hamstrings), and press with the chest. That is the sequence for a step back row. Mastering the COORDINATION reaps so many benefits and is worth the time and effort.
CONFIDENCE. Once you have established quality CONNECTION and mastered the timing and sequencing of COORDINATION, your CONFIDENCE should be sky-high and ready to move with more FLUIDITY and ATHLETICISM. This is the ultimate goal of everything we do at the gym. We want you to feel 100% confident moving like the athlete you are. When you’ve taught yourself how to use your muscles and you’ve taken the time to go through the process of breaking down the coordination of the movement patterns, it’s time to HAVE FUN practicing at a more fluid pace.
Side note: If (and when - cause it happens to all of us) we skip the first two steps, the probability of having confidence and success moving fluidly, like an athlete, is not too high. Skipping fundamental steps when learning anything always sets us back and creates inefficiencies in our progress.
PRIORITIZE THE 3 C’S IN ORDER AND YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF EFFICIENTLY MAKING QUALITY, CONSISTENT PROGRESS TO A HEALTHIER BODY AND A MORE CONFIDENT MOVER!!!
The Movements
1) Side Bend (lateral flexion of the spine)
**This movement is to help us improve upon our BEST STANDING POSTURE while utilizing the lateral parts of our body to improve the lateral flexion of the spine.
2) Switch Step Row
**This movement is to help us improve upon the SEQUENCING AND TIMING OF A WALKING/RUNNING PATTERN
3) Transverse Twist
**This movement is to help us improve upon the SEQUENCING AND TIMING OF THROWING MECHANICS, which has numerous benefits to your overall connection, mobility, flexibility, and health of some of your major joints including your knees, hips, SPINE, and shoulders.
As always, we truly appreciate your participation and focus on the Pre-Training aspect of your training program. It has developed and continues to develop into one of the most important aspects of what you do at the gym, and is designed to set you up for success in all aspects of how you move.
Continue to fight through the process, continue to reach out to your coaches, and continue to do hard things because having the confidence and understanding that you can do hard things creates opportunities in your life, inside and outside of the gym!!!
Happy Training!