Joint Venture

Like most things in life, two or more people working towards a goal working together to accomplish one or more goals ends up being much more efficient then one person going at it alone. Cooking thanks giving dinner, pushing a car, picking up a box of spilled paper clips, capturing a flag and Slaying a dragon and or Robeast. Multiple minds, multiplied will, multiple hands and a singular goal. People at every level can benefit from forming workout partnerships. I use the term partnership, because this relationship is based on work. Now you may be really good friends with someone, but that doesn't automatically qualify them as a grade a workout partner. just like any business partnership, if your partner isn't pulling their own weight and adding to the overall success of the project then you may be forced to cut ties and either find a new partner or partners, or go into business on your own. You gotta remember what your trying to accomplish. You if your trying to get something done, then your in the business of working out. If your spending time with a friend ie workout date, then by all means enjoy each others company. There are several types of partnerships. Workout Partner, community, and trainer. I can't go into and discus work partners without giving you a little back ground on me. I'll be quick. I've been lifting weights since 95. I had a couple of really good strength coaches before I went to the University of Arizona on a football scholarship. I was fortunate enough to have two great strength coaches there. I was exposed to alot of different philosophies before I became a trainer as a profession and began formulating my own theories on strength training and body shaping. I'm pretty particular about my workouts. Mainly the pace. I keep a pretty high tempo, and chain exercises together. Not all that much time for chit chat. When I train people, I'm pretty particular about the weights they use as well as the form they keep. I chain exercises together, I may chit chat a little more as far as explaining why I do certain things, where they should feel the contraction, and how well my Steelers doing, and such. I stumbled upon the perfect training partner. He allowed me to lead the workouts, he was able to keep up in most exercises, and in some cases I was forced to raise my level to match the his intensity. We didn't even have to take out or head phones to communicate. Every now and then we'd log out and compare notes, Then we'd log back on an commence wrecking shop. Now in this situation, I was the alpha. The advantage of this is that you get to work on all the things that you wish to address with little to no deviation from the blueprint in your mind. Another advantage is that since you in a leadership position, you psychologically want to lead by example. Form and intensity. Now if you are in the apprentice position, that's not a bad place either. Little to no energy is used in creating a sequence, it can all be diverted to working. There is a third tier in the workout partner scenario. The equal partnership. This is when you and your workout partner are on the same level. If you both beginners there can be some lag time between exercises and sets,do to figuring out whats next up and better ways to do the same thing. Not a problem in most cases because you both probably needed the rest anyway. It's good to have a buddy there when you want to go heavier for the first time. Experienced partnerships also have a little lag time due to arguments about what should happen next. I generally solve this but going exercise for exercises. You, me in other words. Or me then you I should say. Each Situation has its advantages, and it's important to maximize them. Now the community partnership is different. With the workout partner, you have direct accountability. Meaning if you don't show up that is a personal foul on you. Penalty will be thrown in your face from now until forever. Now with the community depending on how entrenched you get in it that level of perceived accountability grows. The more you show up, and become a regular participant the more you will be missed if you are absent. Make no mistake, the show will go on with out you, but they'll let you know that your absence was felt when you return. You'll already know, because the feeling would be mutual. Now community can be a overall gym environment or it can be the 6:30am kick boxing class. ally yourself up with other like minded individuals united by their availability. Let your powers combine and vanquish that early rising monster. The last situation is the trainer. Now this is a probably the truest form of a partnership. Two people are united by the same goal, but their responsibilities are different. The person in the role of the client is responsible for funding the project as well as owning the project. Meaning taking it home and doing the homework. The person in the trainer position is responsible for engineering the success. Manipulating the hour so that energy stays high, the check list gets done. Things get accomplished, and that the seeds are planted so that project continues to flourish. A key phrase or word or encouragement on the way out, or simply leading by example and sharing a little bit of yourself by discussing your free time with them. Now you and your trainer may have know each other for many years and be great friends, but you must remember what your there for. This isn't a workout date. It's a timed paid for session. So you better be there on time, and be ready to work. All of these partnerships have some real strong points, but like most things in this arena, reep what you sow. The energy that you put into each hour at your project is what your going to get out of it, and your project is most important to you, so if you are going to partner up with someone to get your goals accomplished make sure to keep those goals at the forefront an choose the situation that fits you best.

Become a barefoot beast in the weight room

So I recently purchased my first pair of....bare..foot..shoes. I guess that's kinda what some people would refer to them as. Functional, minimalist, or five toed shoes I believe could be technical terms for them. Now, I'd like to begin by saying that I was definitely a member of the group that frowned upon the weirdos exercising in the gym with the shoe gloves on. Even though I knew a couple of them. They happened to be friends of mine who were trainers and who were all damned good at there craft. Despite that I still couldn't wrap my head around the idea. I was just too weird for me. Later I ended up training a guy who was an avid runner. He was in preparation for an adventure. He planned to go to Africa and run 37 marathons...... in 37 days....... barefoot. Real talk. At any particular time he could have stopped and I would have been impressed. He could have even switched up the order. I'm going to Africa for 37 days. " Far out!" I'm Running a marathon, x37 or 41, barefoot, consecutively, in Africa. Forgive me, I go on, and on at times...37! Anyway, I began working out barefoot shortly after he went off to etch his name in the guinness book, and I since then the only thing that prevents me from doing so 100% of the time are rules of certain gyms. It' such an enjoyable experience. I was taking a new gym for a spin the other day, and I couldn't stop myself from thinking how much fun it would have been if I didn't have to wear these damned shoes. Now, I'm the type of person that responds well to answers to the whys. Now one of the answers to the whys came to me even before the shoes themselves came to the forefront of fitness. A friend of mine who was a dance instructor told me that she only works out barefoot. "why" I said. Then the beginning of the sale was when she told me " it makes you smarter". Always the skeptic I say " so your saying these things will make me smarter? How?" She goes on to say "shoes dumb your feet down, and with your barefoot your brain is forced to translate thousands if not millions of different motor patterns" Since then I've pondered that statement and I believe it to be correct. Your brain is constantly operating, recording data for analysing and later use. Imagine if you only had the hand of a ninja turtle. Bare with me for a minute. Ok, you got this ninja turtle hand and your typing this blog. One blog of many. Its your job. You get off work and then you take off your turtle typing glove and go on to do things with your normal hand. To spin this back around, even though your doing all or the same exercises and movements you've been doing for years, now your actually feeling the entirety of them minus the sensory dampener known as an athletic sole. Having to make an internal adjustment to minor shifts during squats, dead lifts, overhead presses and even learning how to control your weight distribution during running. Wither your an athlete or a civilian having increased coordination and control is something that we all can benefit from. I haven't even got to the part about the increased strength in your feet. A note about me, I'm about as flat footed as Fred Flinstone...Ok, I don't know if Mr Flinstone was in fact flat footed but for arguments sake let's just go with it. My feet feel awesome. I can now go as heavy on calf raises without being limited by my foot's durability. When I started working out bare foot, people would ask me, " arn't you afraid you'll drop a weight on your foot?" I retort " a shoe isn't gonna help all that much if I drop one of tha weights I lift on it." That's when I'm being a smart ass. But seriously, I'm pretty coordinated, and I normally workout when the room is empty. One of the factors that drove me to purchase the shoes was that I recently began working out at public gyms again, and I'm sure working out bare foot is one of those things that is frowned upon. It also doesn't hurt that these companies are actually hiring designers who want to sell shoes. Now that a couple of companies are making them they know that they can't just throw anything up on the shelves an expect the public to buy into it. Now we as the public can say "Hmmm, naw. That's kinda wack." So in closing, I want to issue a task to you. Go outside and walk up and down your stairs. Now with only a pair of socks or barefoot, perform the same task. Open your mind and pay attention. It you don't have a flight of stairs then perform ten squats with a 2.5 second hold at the bottom, again with a cognitive mind. If you have a flight of stairs in doors, there's no need to go outside. Anyway, I hope this was informative for and or entertaining for you, thank you and congratulations for making it this far. Try out a pair at your local shoe store, I bought one of the pairs I tried, the other one I also tried bare footed....just puttin that out there. I didn't think about it till the tried to sell me some of the five toed socks on the way out. If you got em enjoy and watch out for that dude to your left on the incline with dumbells as big as his torso. Yeah, tha one whose elbows are quivering like the knees of a new born colt. Be mindful of your surroundings.