Cherry picking and kool-aid drinking

We've all done it. We see a workout on the whiteboard or some amazingly fit person posts on their Instagram page. We high-five and chest bump each other in celebration and can't wait to post to our social media (because it didn't actually happen until it gets posted).

It's fun for a while. But...

What does that get us in the long-term? It's a valid question that people much smarter than me will analyze with data collected from hundreds and thousands of samples. From our experience, we have gathered a lot of useful information from a smaller sample and we see a huge trend in our Omaha and Elkhorn market. People are being asked to train in movements they have zero reason to be doing. They are doing it because it is trendy and the marketing machine pumps resources into it to put it in front of a mass audience.

When does personal accountability to your clients and professional coaching begin to take more of a center stage?

When does the group model stop delivering results that are central to you as an individual? In our experience, that is 12-18 months.

One of our recent success stories is a long-time friend that began training with us in February. He is a physician and the movements we design for him support him on his lifelong fitness journey. That journey involves a highly skilled occupation helping women become mothers. It also includes being active with his 5 kids and maintaining a great relationship with his wife who also trains with us at Elkhorn Valley Fitness. As a bonus, he wants to dunk a basketball when he is 40 years old! Prior to starting with us, he shared that some of the movements that he had done in a group setting had impacted his ability to stay consistent in his training. He would cherry pick the days he would train because it could have an impact on his ability to perform his function as a physician.

His consistency began to drop. His results were stunted. He needed something specific to bring him lasting change.

Through a lot of hard work and consistency with his training, he is now seeing the results that he deserves. He has earned these achievements due to putting in the time to move towards success...his definition of success!

Our philosophy holds true that the assessment leads to exercise selection and program design based on the starting point for the individual client. He presented with the following pulling metrics:

We focused on structural balance. There were zero sessions in his training that involved pullups. There was zero kipping in his training sessions. Look at the total number of pullups he achieved...from 0 to 4 in 3 months.

For his energy system development, our primary focus was aerobic based with some touches of alactic sessions. This accompanied a Functional Bodybuilding bias to bring balance to his performance.

If you started your first session with your coach with a "BASELINE" - 500m row, 40 squats, 30 situps, 20 pushups, and 10 pullups, you (and your coach) need to come visit with us. Come see us if you want an honest and detailed prescription for your training program. We offer FREE CONSULTATIONS to help you specify where you want to go with your training program. Michael Brownfield Owner/Director of Operations Elkhorn Valley Fitness