The Second Pillar Of High Performance
Exercise
Exercise is the second step on your wellness journey towards better sleep, more focus, energy, and less stress.
Being physically active is essential if you want to enjoy your life to its fullest.
You Evolved To Move
Mother nature rewards those who exercise often in various ways.
Firstly, those who exercise live longer. Muscle mass and aerobic fitness are the most conclusive predictors of all-cause mortality.
Secondly, those who exercise feel better. Physical activity has been proven to have an antidepressant effect similar to medications without side effects.
Thirdly, those who exercise look better. When you look sharp and your clothes are bulging from the right places, you signal to others that you look after yourself and that others can trust you. When you look your best, you might also get more chances to pass on your genes. However, this is not guaranteed.
Lastly, physical activity is your daily best opportunity to train your mind. With repeated exposure and deliberate practice, you can learn how to overcome self-limiting thoughts and push through self-imposed barriers.
The skill of going past one's self-imposed barriers in training is highly transferable to every other aspect of your life.
Your Time Is Valuable
To maximise your valuable training time, you need :
Plan - Your training must be progressive and adhere to the scientific principles of strength and conditioning
Habits - Training is only half of the battle. No recovery, no results.
Skills
Before it matters what program you follow, you must master the execution of exercises first.
When it comes to mastering your execution, there are three critical points:
1. Exercise Selection
- There are no mandatory exercises.
- Not everyone has to bench press, deadlift from the ground, or squat with a barbell on their back.
- Instead, everyone has to bend their knees, hinge at their hips, push horizontally, pull horizontally, push vertically, pull vertically etc.
- Which specific exercise is the best tool for training these movement patterns varies depending on your goals, movement capabilities and competency.
2. Setup
- Let's say you've decided to do squats. Now, we must decide on the setup of the exercise. Where are we going to hold the load? How will you position your head, ribcage, pelvis, shoulders, hips, arms, hands, ankles and feet? When you choose the correct setup for your goals and movement capabilities, you set yourself up for success. Success means that you recruit the muscles that you are trying to recruit safely. The execution of the movement should feel intuitive, and you should not feel any discomfort other than the target muscles working hard.
3. Intention and initiation
- The muscle that moves first will take on most of the load. With the proper cues on what to focus on while you lift or move your body, you can truly maximise your exercises' effectiveness.
I have done the hard work you and filmed, in high-definition, setup and execution instructions on EVERY exercise I use in my training programs.
The Coach Pyry Exercise library is updated on a frequent basis. When you register, you get access to an exclusive community, in which you can ask questions and request specific technique breakdown videos.
Below is a video from the Exercise Library
