What Got Trained Today?

Did you train arms? Legs? Core? Nope. That's not what I'm talking about. Training is deeper than that and we need to look deeper when we think about our training and reflect on our sessions.

Train: teach a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction over a period of time. 

We learn all kinds of new behaviors and skills from our training from our coach and from ourselves and the practice over time. We learn discipline, compassion, persistence and much more. We learn very personal and practical lessons, if we pay attention. 

Yesterday, I was at the gym when another client was experiencing a very intense moment with Khris, a high jump box and his own fortitude. From the outside it could have been interpreted many ways. I won't interpret it. I will say that the boy who experienced it has a lot to unpack from his training! 

His lessons could include simply training lessons about getting over his fear and getting over the box. But there's so much more there. The moment he thought might be disappointing to his coach, he found out later was the highlight of his coach's day. Khris posted his pride all over social media. There is a lot to be learned from that. 

Again, I won't presume to learn his lessons for him. But I learned lessons FROM him! And I learned that there's always more to learn from training than it seems. We need to look deeper every time we train at what we can learn from our practice. What did we train in addition to our body? 

Today's Training: The Squat

You may think you've done squats a million times, what could be new? But today's squats revealed yet again why personal training is so important. I've done squats before, too. But today we really broke them down and worked on form to help with dead lift form.

We really worked on getting the butt back without letting the knees come forward, which stretches the hamstrings and puts the weight in the heels and really makes a huge difference in everything that is supposed to happen and work in the squat. And consequently, the dead lift form is better, too.

Then I did a cool thing where I had to sit on the BOSU and pick up a kettle bell on my way to standing up and then push my butt back and sit down slowly without plopping down. That took lots of little hints and breathing tips and bracing my core tips.

When you really focus on the little things like landing softly instead of plopping down and pushing your butt back on the squats and not bending your knees too much and keeping the weight in your heels without tipping over, you can really feel a difference in the muscles that are activated and the intensity of the work.

That's the benefit of having a trainer and really being present in your workout instead of just going through the motions of a bunch of squats or other exercises and moving on. The trainer watches your feet and your elbows and your knees and really makes sure each movement is precise and deliberate.

My trainer makes workouts fun and effective by being creative and by being really attentive and detailed with the most basic exercises so they feel brand new!

#kbuddahtraining

P.S. We did the same thing with the push-up the other day. The knee push-up became really effective and intense when I figured out just where to lower to so that my triceps and chest and upper body were engaged perfectly. I felt my upper body for days!