Random Friday Thoughts
Filed under: General Health
I haven’t done one of these in a while, and since I am enjoying my day off playing with some new computer sofware, I was in a rather random mood. Here goes.
1. I thought Sam Leahey wrote a great blog on Mike Boyle’s Strength Coach Blog. It should be required reading for all up-and-coming strength coaches and personal trainers. I am all about reading and educating yourself, but as Sam points out, it doesn’t mean a damn thing if you can’t coach it. Alwyn Cosgrove is fond of saying that knowledge isn’t power, applied knowledge is power, and this article proves it.
2. Too many fitness enthusiasts believe that training has to be priority number one all of the time. As much as I love training, there are certainly times when it takes a back seat. We need to remember that much like we shouldn’t live to work, we shouldn’t live to train, but vice versa. When you are working full time, commuting 12+ hours per week, doing online consulting and planning a wedding (though my fiance would argue this one), setting gym PR’s is not the top of the priority list.
On a side note, enjoy time off when you get it. This is a lesson I should heed more often.
3. Tony wrote a great blog about entitlement the other day. It is unfortunately the reality of the situation. I may not be old and wise yet, but I feel like the generation just behind me lost something along the way. You have to pay your dues, especially in this field, and you will be far greater at what you do because of it.
I look back on my internship at CP, and I know it is what made me the coach I am today and the even better coach I will be tomorrow. I thought I knew everything and could coach anybody when I got out of college, even without a formal exercise science background. You were lifting weights, how hard could it be? I knew nothing. Just because you can squat well doesn’t mean you can teach someone to squat well. Read, educate yourself, and learn from people who already excel at what you want to do. And when you get that opportunity, attack it, maximize it, and squeeze everything you can from it.
4. Re-registering your car in a new state is a giant pain in the ass.
5. Turkish Get-Ups are hard. Really hard. Tony and I have been experimenting a lot with them the past few weeks, and we were both blown away at the incredible difficulty and torso control it takes to do them properly. Give them a try and let me know what you think.
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Posted on August 7th, 2009 by Brian St. Pierre
3 Comments
August 8th, 2009 at 10:39 am
BSP – awesome that you and Tony are doing TGU’s.
At the PB Summit, Brett Jones had participants do TGU’s balancing their shoe on top of their fist and said you must be able to do 5 of these before moving on to using weight. This was quite a challenge in learning to control the movement and keep the arm vertical throughout the motion.
September 1st, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Great stuff! I love turkish get-ups too. It was my understanding that one had to be able to do 50 of them sans weight before progressing.
September 2nd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Coco,
See the above comment. If Brett Jones said 5 reps, then I go with Brett Jones. He is a kettlebell master.