What is your Philosophy?

     When it comes to fitness, it seems that a large majority of people perform exercises with no real idea on why they do what they do. I fell victim to this problem for a large portion of my life. I just found something that looked cool and gave it a try. When I got bored with it, I found the next idea and repeated the cycle. The problem with that was that I was never able to develop a philosophy, create goals, or assess my progress. Every training program should have a purpose and it is important that you create your own philosophy of training. I am not talking about describing yourself as "a functional trainer" or a "kettlebell guy". A philosophy is ideas, and it is important to develop these ideas regardless of what type of equipment you have available.

     Much of my philosophy is influenced from my own experience and learning from others experiences in the world of training. Instead of focusing on how programs differed, I began looking at what these programs all have in common. After a little bit of research I noticed a trend. Most of the knowledgeable strength coaches in this nation were advocates of performing total-body workouts each training session. I began experimenting with this concept myself and began to see great results. As I continued this plan, I struggled with exercise selection. Over time, I was trying to do too much each week, changing up my exercises each workout and this lead to 60+ minutes of training. That was too long for me. I wanted to reach my goals without having to spend tons of time in the weight room. Enter the book Easy Strength. The premise: get the most out of your workout while doing the least amount of work. I learned about specialization and if you want to get good at something, you have to do that something over and over again until your happy with your progress. So, I decided to cut about two-thirds of the exercises out of my training program and began focusing on large muscle group lifts that challenge your entire body from your feet all the way up to your hands. I am talking about power cleans, front squats, military presses, sled pushes, turkish get-ups, etc. When deciding on which exercises to cut out, ask yourself, "if I only had 15 minutes to train and wanted to get the greatest results, which exercise would I choose?" To steal a line from Alwyn Cosgrove, I decided to "TiVo my workout". TiVo allows you to turn a 60 minute television program to a 40 minute program by fast forwarding through the non-essential stuff. Do the same with your workouts. Cut the exercises that aren't necessary, time your rest periods, and get more out of your workout in less time.

Here are some tips on how to start:

1. Create goals. Write them down, announce them to everyone you know, pick one big one, create a plan with deadlines, celebrate your wins, learn from your losses and enjoy every minute of it.
2. Figure out how much time you have and build off of that. Be honest with yourself. If you can only consistently get to the gym twice a week for 40 minutes, make sure you "TiVo your workout" and get in some serious work in a short period of time. 
3. Assess your progress. Training philosophies are never ending. Something I wrote today may change six months from now. So change your mind, learn new things and allow your philosophy to evolve!

Chris Fluck